I generally agree. There is something to be said for academic knowledge of business related topics, especially marketing. It could make the learning curve shorter. Good to hear the perspective of angel investors on this topic.

"There's no money in poetry, but then again, there's no poetry in money either."

I liked that.

Great insight! Thanks.

digging it.

I have no degree. (But a variety of attempts, both under-grad and post-grad oddly, but that's another story.)

An interesting side-effect for me of not coming through the academy is feeling slightly like I just make things up all the time. But, that's not so bad if they stick, I s'pose.

Hey George! Funny, I was going to write another post about "imposter syndrome" and why women tend to feel like imposters more than men. This article poses the question, but doesn't answer it. I have some theories!

I dropped out of college because I just ran out of time in the day all for classes. Startup work *pulled* me out of college.

For most students I would recommend starting up a company and easing out of college as the work envelopes your life and leaves no time for school. If you wouldn't have any work to do the day after dropping out then you should probably stay in.

Also: There are way more college dropouts than successful startup founders. Don't drop out just because Jobs and Zuck did.

If nothing else, a bachelor's degree is a great hedge. I recently struck out on my own knowing with certainty that I can get a job if I absolutely need one.

The apprenticeship model makes total sense but I have to dispute the factory model theory. Most examples of successful dropouts, including yours above, were exceptional students when they left the system. They excelled within the factory model, not just in college but in high school and probably pre-school as well. They became successful entrepreneurs after they dropped out but that doesn't imply causation. In fact, they left because the system was so good. Being nurtured by great teachers and environments is what helped make them great. Larry and Sergey would never have built Google if it weren't for Stanford. Zuckerberg wouldn't have been able to have the freedom and facilities to build Facebook v1.0 if he skipped Harvard. Why do so many of these entrepreneurs endow their schools with such generous gifts and continue to be so active within academic circles? Because they know how much they owe to the opportunity they got.

Even leaving aside the fact that this ignores the many things people get from school besides very directly useful skills, this seems to take a somewhat narrow view of the kinds of ideas that entrepreneurs should pursue -- more or less limiting them to ideas that a high school graduate with some limited training in design and coding can understand or come up with. What about companies based on more sophisticated technical ideas?

If nothing else, there are plenty of examples of famous founders with more education too: Gordon Moore (Intel; PhD); Amar Bose (Bose; MIT professor); Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google; PhD dropouts); Tom Leighton (Akamai; MIT professor); Jerry Yang (Yahoo; MS); Bill Hewlett & David Packard (HP; MS); Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems and others; PhD dropout); Vinod Khosla (Sun and others; MS and MBA); Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner (Cisco; MS); Chuck Geschke & John Warnock (Adobe; PhDs); one could go on.

There are good people from all over the educational map, from high school dropout to MIT professor. The education level doesn't seem to have a lot to do with it. It's also not far-fetched to suggest that there's a reason why Google, Bose, Akamai, and many other important companies were not founded by college dropouts.

You can only impose for so long before someone fixes you a drink or kicks you out.

I picked a deliberately provocative title, and I think we're all in violent agreement here. Education is good for some, many and even most. Not all college drop-outs will succeed. Correlation is not causation.

I also think there's a good follow up post to be written about people like me who were non-drop-outs (suggested by a reader-professor) those who were total misfits in school but also managed to graduate.

@jonathangrubb Hiya!!

@glo 'fake it til you make it' is a tried and true method for geting shit done.

Not to go to bring things up to too high an altitude, but I think that this post (along with the subsequent comment about the other side of the argument via 'Anonymous Coward') illustrates the most important thing that is staring us all in the eye: Everything is up for grabs.

You wanna drop outta college, and create - no problem. Barriers to entry in tech are about zero dollars - and there is money out there so you can at least live off ramen while you build and get to $/proof of concept.

You wanna go all point-dexter, get a PhD and create new methods of energy generation.... that path is open too.

About the only thing that you cannot (okay you can, but at your own peril) do, is nothing...

So, drop out of college - or don't .... but get after something, cause it's all up for grabs - and quite frankly I'm thrilled about that.

Nice post Caterina.

Interesting the contrast in this context between faking it and being entrepreneurial. What business builders need is to have people trust them. Hard to teach that.

Often those things are not different -- Most of the time what entrepreneurs are selling is "blue sky" -- they're selling the dream. Investors, team members, etc. have to believe in the dream in order to sign on. Team members and investors need to sign on in order to make the dream come true. So they feed each other.

The analogy of entrepreneurship to a journeyman profession is quite apt. The skills to be a captain often come from interacting with others who are already exceptional at the job. A CEO needs to be able to intuit how to proceed; this comes with experience and exposure. A good captain can quickly synthesize information and make informed snap decisions. But to run a ship (or a company) also requires knowledge from more disciplined realms. On a ship, it's navigation et al; in a computer/web company, it's knowledge of data structures, algorithms, etc.

Personally speaking, as a college grad from a decent EECS program I'd be more than happy to meet a bright and enthusiastic college dropout with a good idea and help to develop the implementation plan. Doesn't bother me to not be a college dropout-CEO-prodigy. I just like working on interesting stuff and building out the engineering aspects. There is a place for both.

While it is an interesting and provocative point to make, it doesn't really hold when you look at it more closely.

As has been pointed out in the comments, there are just as many large tech companies that have founders with degrees, and in the case of Google I believe it was downright necessary for their development.

It all depends on when the opportunity arose in their lives, and whether or not they recognized the opportunity. Having the courage to either drop out of (or stay in) college is central here.

How many people have dropped out and failed miserably?

Richard Branson of Virgin Blue was another one that dropped out of school, just finished reading his book.

Since everyone is talkin here about entrepreneurship, i would recommend "Billions of Entrepreneurs" on India & China by Tarun Khanna, a harvard Professor...pretty enlightning...

i think its an inspiration reading your post. although i am a college graduate, i agree that getting a degree doesnt guarantee for a successful career. i believe success depends on how you make the most of the tools that you have. awesome read!

"Entrepreneurship works on the apprenticeship model."

I'd submit that much more than entrepreneurship works on the apprentice model and that, indeed, much of life works best on this model too.

I have to make a slight emphasis on the title of the post; *Drop out* of college.

Go to college, you'll learn all of your peripheral life skills in the first year or so, and you might also have some student loan saved up, you'll have independence, a net connection, access to a variety of contacts and various other benefits.

Unless you have an absolute vision and the skill to make it post high-school/college (we call it college in the UK for 16-18, and university post 18...), then at least turn up for a degree.

The minute you have that "a-ha" moment, then you know what you have to do.

Good Post Caternia, should we agree to disagree here? :-) I liked the provocative title, gets a discussion going.

In many cases experience in our tech industry is all that counts. However the people you mentioned had the drive and opportunity along with circumstances (time) propelling them to success.

They are responsible for creating the DEMAND, and that's the first rule of business. Not everyone has that skill and drive.

+1 @Stephen and @Henrick.

There's no money in poetry, but then again, there's no poetry in money either.

How true!

@David Whiteman. I like your perspective.

I graduated from MIT/Sloan w a Masters in Management and I am thankful for the opportunity I had and what I learned there. It helps a lot--but to your point, knowledge and information alone is not enough.
For the most part, our school system is not prepared to teach skills and behaviors to help them succeed. As a society, we created a formula.
Finish high school, go to college. And then what? A lot of us apply the formula as it is the easy way. Some of us don't apply the formula and are stuck with minimum wage type jobs. So is the key really to go to college? Taking example from the success stories, it is not necessarily key--but it is key as you mention to have the experience. Not any experience, but an experience that makes a difference. That is why I helped found the Academy of Mastery--the Academy is found on the principle that the entrepreneurial experience is key--learning what builds successful businesses, how to run a business, the risk required, the faith required to persevere particularly when you start. Learn that solving problems is an inherent part of being in business.
Yesterday we had a Youth Business Fair. In 9 weeks, students in the program launched their business from scratch. But most importantly, they created a vision for their lives--instead of going through college because of the "formula"... they can still choose to go to college but will go with a vision in mind, starting to live that vision now. @academymastery is our twitter for more.

I am back now to get my degree after being in the workforce and running my own companies for a few years (I'm 26) but I live by the Mark Twain school of thought:
"I've never let my schooling get in the way of my education". While I'm going through my second run at university I'm spending every other waking minute learning, working on startup ideas and hustling. I think you can do both without hedging your bets.

I graduate at the end of the year in Melbourne and will be straight on a plane to San Francisco. It's time to level up.

Ned

While I don't encourage dropping out because I think that leads to regret in majority of cases, I certainly agree with many of the things you say.

It's awesome there is so much to read and learn about startups before you start, but you really learn by rolling up your sleeves and doing.

It does move fast. I took a few years off to answer whether I wanted to be an artist (a painter - answer was no), and I definitely felt very "out of it" when it was time to plug back in.

As an entrepreneur that finished college, I found this to be a very interesting read. I must admit I had no idea I'd end up in this position, but I've been able to actually transfer a lot of techniques and good habits from my undergraduate studies into a positive business learning experience.

I think back and wonder how much bigger my business could be if I'd started sooner, but I also realize I wouldn't have matured (while attaining something to fall back on), and probably wouldn't be as successful, long-term.

Also, one can ALWAYS learn from positive and negative experiences working for others...It helps you shape your own model- "I'd like to try what X Inc. did, and definitely not what Y Co. did." I've observed others succeed and fail in the time I was finishing college- started to figure out how to navigate. Had I dropped out, I wouldn't have had the chance to engage in different business systems and work roles..

College more than anything can be seen as a social vehicle for you to build your business..you shouldn't necessarily shut out an entire network of hundreds or thousands that could be your instant audience..

In the end, education really is vital..to everyone. You can learn a completely different set of skills along each path, however it's probably best to acquire as much knowledge as you can, given your situation.

Someone else will always be smarter, faster, more efficient- don't handicap yourself. You don't want to have to catch up just to keep up.

Thinking out of the box, require a certain attitude. Entrepreneur's have it. following your dreams and building your own castle is time consuming. You need to start early.

Remember though that Zuckerberg and Gates did not drop out to start their companies; they dropped out to continue them. There is a big difference!

Between nights, weekends and summers, school affords a lot of time to flesh out ideas and build prototypes. I'd say stay in school while you bootstrap, and if you make good progress and have a sense that your project could be the next big thing, then consider dropping out to pursue it.

--Robby

I have always stated an MBA is where people go to school to learn about how college drop-outs changed the world. A degree is one thing and MBA is 10X worse!

I think college and grad school are much like anything else. They can be tools in an entrepreneur's tool belt if you approach them the right way. If you know what you need out of them and you get it. However, like everything else, if you need to walk away from it, do it.

I love the poetry quote.

This is incredibly irresponsible. This is akin to encouraging young people to skip college and be a professional athlete, or a musician. The fact is, there are far more aspiring entrepreneurs than successful ones. This post validates the irresponsible temptation of skipping a critical period in a young persons development. You are (probably uninentionally) encouraging 18 year olds to skip college by implying that they don't need it. If 100,000 18 year old aspiring entreprenurs skip college because you validated the notion, we'll have 500 successful entrepreneurs, and 99,500 24 year old high school graduates regretting their decision. Your endorsing this idea does a huge disservice to young people, it's really really irresponsible.

yes, the brightest, the kindest and the most creative tend to drop out. my experience is that angels tend to be enthusiasts and encouragers, the kind who drop in. i have missed your wise and thoughtful posts, caterina! thanks for writing :)

I dropped out of an Ivy-league school to work on my startup full-time right before we got angel funding and started to take off.

It's interesting that no one seems to be suggesting NOT to go to college. I wonder almost if anyone has not gone to college and founded a successful company. David Karp stands out as the closest possible candidate.

I would agree that a college degree is not necessary to be a successful entrepreneur, but at the same time, a college experience provide people with so much more -- social development, credibility, connections, and a unique time to be sharing ideas in an area densely populate with creative thinkers.

Zuckerberg and Gates certainly have paved the way for people to consider young people as serious entrepreneurs, but it isn't as easy people would think. I sometimes wonder if there is even a "young, college-dropout founder" risk premium you have to pay to investors or even partners since they assume there will be more problems you've never dealt with people and you probably are less likely to know what's "market"

We're all on different time-lines for when we're ready to fly out of the nest. Maturity, experience, education, opportunity can all be our friends or huge obstacles.

It's true that my current role (which was self-taught) has nothing to do with what I studied in college, or what I even thought about back then. But I needed the time and life experience to get there.

so many of us went to college because we were told/taught that we HAD to go to college to get a good job. as if it was the ONLY way to make something of our lives.
if anything never let a lack of a degree hold you back. it's not the piece of paper, it's you.

It's important to keep in mind that some of the highest profile entrepreneurs have been college dropouts, but that does not mean that all entrepreneurs should drop out, a drop out makes a good entrepreneur or that there is any correlation between the two at all. As Robby said, most of the young men mentioned dropped out to continue their businesses.

As someone graduating in a week (yippee!), I dont have many regrets staying in school. The temptation to drop out was a recurring happening.

On the whole though, I don't feel like I'm too far behind. People live a while and many of us have second starts. Why not enjoy the time in school?

And make sure you start adding Mike Hudack from blip.tv to the list. He dropped out of _high school_. (Disclaimer: blip.tv will be my full-time employer after graduation.)

I agree with your thoughts and have thought this for a while now.

Most people still have in their head that going to college is the best way to become a great business owner as you get taught the rules by a "teacher"

I've always found by actually doing or watching those doing it a lot more useful. I've also found out that most teachers that speak on the subject of business, entrepreneurship and many other subjects haven't actually experienced it in the real world, or in other words just ready from a set of pre planned topics.

Gates - Harvard
Zuckerberg - Harvard
Jobs - Reed
Dorsey - NYU

These guys got accepted into elite school. Acceptance has been shown to correlate better to future success than whether or not you actually graduated (or, for that matter, whether you even ended up going to the school in question). I think if you start looking at where most of your dropouts actually dropped out of, you'll see a trend.

Some good entrepreneurs will finish college and take the skills learnt there into the world of the entrepreneur.

Think a lot of the time people drop out to become an entrepreneur because college has taught them all it can and they just want to follow their idea.

Re: no poetry in money - Wallace Stevens would have disagreed with that. "Money is a kind of poetry", he quipped.

I think the point about entrepreneurs is that most don't make it - but those that do, and especially those that overcome lots of barriers (both in their personal life and also professional) do extremely well.

So, on this logic, you'd make life as hard as possible for yourself and then try to overcome it.

The difficulty is that whilst this is logical based on the stats - it doesn't make sense for the individual.

I would take the view that you can be both a student AND an entrepreneur at the same time. Why should they be mutually exclusive? You just have to work harder.

"There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either." is quote by poet Robert Graves. That's where the Ph.D. in poetry comes in.

I think some of the readers are grossly misinterpreting this article. In no way is Caterina saying college is a waste of time, or that you should avoid it entirely. Her entire point is that once you've discovered your passion, if you are ready, you should take the plunge. I say get the groundwork of a few classes in your field until you feel comfortable with it, then take a semester off to focus on entrepreneurship. By the end of that semester you'll know whether or not you're ready. You can always go back, your life will not be irreparable. I had plans for 6 years of college and dropped out after a year and a half because schoolwork was eating so badly into the time I needed for my projects. It took me a few years to realize it, but it was the best decision I ever made in my life. If I hadn't been decisive, all I'd have to look forward to right now is another 3 years of school, tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and the task of finding a job in a tough economy only to work for someone else starting from the bottom. I have absolutely no debt and get up every morning loving life so much I can't even express such a feeling.

I'm sure Caterina wakes up every day thinking the same thing. I've met a lot of entrepreneurs the last few years, and most have one thing in common: they want to share the message with everyone. Why? Because we want people to know there is an alternative if you're not happy with your present life. Shit, it's hard hearing about others or seeing my friends working for years at jobs they hate, or graduating from college but not advancing at their company after years of service. I genuinely feel bad for them. That's why I started an entrepreneurship blog, why I meet with people and stress this possibility with those who are disheartened. Now, whether you're a college graduate or not, if you're working for someone else and you love what you do, by all means, keep your job. What's important is that you're following your passion. But if you're not, just know that becoming an entrepreneur gives anyone an opportunity to do exactly what they love, something to live for.

Entrepreneurship may not appeal to everyone, but it's my goal to show others that it is always a viable option. In our current age of incredible technology and invaluable tools, many of which are completely free, the rate of success is at an all time high. I wish you all the best whichever route you choose.

Benjamin M. Lopez
Author, From Dimes To Dollars

Nice list of great people those who left college in the middle. Now I'm gonna share this post on twitter and facebook.

I think majority of peoples stuck with initial stage in Entrepreneurship. Because if suppose we fail in our work, we really have trouble to get a job in a company without any degree certificate.Also the companies doesn't be so good with those people's. So its all depends on Ourselves. Bcoz our life is in our hands. All the best :)

Add another dropout to your list - I dropped out to start my first company @ 18 (it lasted 3 months) - so far our of 7 startups I have a sale and two IPO's so I figure I'm doing ok :-)

Part of making a startup work is finding a problem that nobody else has solved yet. However I find schools teach people how to re-solve existing problems (at least at undergrad). In other words an undergrad degree isn't worth that much no matter where it's from.

When I'm hiring I pay attention to postgrad work but being able to think outside the box and having really good references are much bigger factors than what undergrad degree you have (or don't have).

John Pettitt
CEO clp.ly

I think it is opportunity matter for entrepreneurs to be successful, it is very evident from successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc.

Great article. Glad you had the courage to write it because you have probably ticked off 90% of the college and university professors. I learned more in my first two years in business and didn't have to spend $75,000 on an MBA.

Keep em coming. The truth in today's politically correct world is very refreshing.

Thanks

Couldn't agree more. When I was in college I felt I was being form for academy, for serious research and I was bored to death! I was always thinking, this doesn't help in anything on the things I want to do NOW! Obviously the advice is always finish school, but I think that is not for everyone.. I am always learning new stuff that helps me in the NOW! That helps me for the next 6 to 8 months in my business.

Like Chris Guillebeau said in a recent post, for entrepreneurs there is no plan B! there is no career to fall back on, this is it! the vision is everything. But be aware, the entrepreneurs that are quoted or mentioned here are the exceptional not the norm, i am talking about the gates, jobs, williams, stones, etc.

A great amount of hard work, great relationships, vision, patience, accelerated learning, are required to succeed eventually.

Poor dreamy advice if you ask me. While there may be some college drop-outs that go on to be successful business owners, it is far from the norm. Your chances of succeeding are far greater getting the degree. And the statistics on average salaries provided by the BLS prove it.

That's true. And your words are full of energy and inspirate. But sad a little bit about academic education.. Still thinking that its not wasted time

I just dropped out of my job (2 weeks left). It was a really scary and hard decision. But now that I've decided, I feel like the passion for doing my own thing is just beginning. Already it has made me feel my side work has just about "enveloped my life leaving no time for work" (to paraphrase one of the commenters above) We'll see.

"In this economy" a lot of people think I'm crazy to leave a job (even with a masters in engineering), but it feels right to me.

I think this is a fantastic article that, in my humble opinion, is simply stating that the traditional route to success (via various degrees in higher education)is not the only route. I do not believe that Caterina is advocating that students dropout of college if they want to be successful entrepreneurs; nor is she stating that higher education is somehow irrelevant. She is simply stating that there is more than one route to success and provides some concrete examples to back up her claim.

Definitely a tweetable article!

I completed college (B.S. degree), and made a couple good frieds, but overall I felt it was a waste of my time. Almost none of my classes applied to what I really wanted to learn about, and the ones that did covered the topics so superficially that I felt extremely jipped.

Fortunately, since college, I've been able to create an on-line business that provides for my family, allows me to work less than 8 hours per work, and live anywhere I want. We're currently enjoying life in Costa Rica! I couldn't be happier!

If I were to do it again, I honestly probably would have skipped college, although maybe I would have gone to a trade school. I learned SO much more on my own through reading on line and DOING than I did sitting in a classroom learning at a snail's pace.

But what about been an entrepeneur in Education?? You need credits there. I�m one (http://www.vosbuenosaires.com/en/), and I�m always dropping out from university because my project and investigations take me a lot of time (and are much fun!).
If I was a millionaire right now I wouldn�t need university credit at all, so... to dropout is ok if you have great success. If you are trying hard, learning, making great progress but no so much money (lots of poetry though), credits are important.
I�ve been thinking on that lately: university helps if we are not so good, at least you have credit.

Great post and even better comments:-) thank you all. Once again, great getting your angel investors point of view, thanks for the share look forward to the various follow ups that could come from this post!

(I saw this on SAI and felt the need to repost my comment here too -- a number of commenters on SAI made the excellent point that many of the successful entrepreneurs Caterina mentions in her article come from upper-middle-class or wealthy backgrounds.)

I had the privilege of attending the same liberal arts college that Caterina did (Vassar College). I founded a company out of a dorm room there in 1999-2000 that's still going strong with 10 employees and a terrific group of brand name clients. But we did it by bootstrapping the company with very little money and 10 years of hard work.

I think the point made in some comments about the role of socioeconomic background is an important one -- having more resources and a safety net puts you at an enormous advantage. But if you're creative you can still make things happen even without wealthy parents. Case in point: in the summer of '99 I did an independent study in philosophy so I could remain on campus -- both for the experience, and for the high speed internet (then still something of a luxury). Our office was a dorm room, complete with bunk beds and computer screens everywhere. It was a startup environment within academia (and it was a blast).

Bottom line -- if you're creative and willing to put in the effort (and even if you don't have a trust fund), you can finish school and still be an entrepreneur -- these two things are not mutually exclusive. A creative environment like a college or university, and the social relationships you build there can be immensely helpful when building a startup.

As another commenter above points out, finishing an undergrad degree is a great hedge.

If someone were frozen in the XVIII century and woken up today school would be the only place familiar to him.

To school or not to school is of no relevance. It is absolutely what is inside you. There are ton-0-examples of wild success stories on the side of education and also for no education, the same examples for silver spoon start up and poverty start up. If you do not have your path figured out, by all means GO TO SCHOOL because that is a great place for connections and to find whatever you are looking for. If you feel (and you'll know it when you feel it) that you have what you need to get busy, then you are ready no matter what stage of school you are in. Someone who quits school and misses an important lesson can always pick up whatever is needed from a myriad of sources other than school. If you are doing what you are passionate about, you are not WORKING hard. You are putting in long hours and the money will follow. If I won the lottery, I would still put in the same long hours! When you are doing what you love, if you had to eat Ramen to get through it would not be such a bad thing because it would be temporary! The key is that you cannot quit when you get knocked on your arse. To accomplish that, you need to believe in what you are doing. It is silly to say this way or that way is the only correct way. It will be different for each individual. If you are not sure, STAY IN SCHOOL!

Thought-provoking post, Caterina, and excellent responses. There is just one thing I didn't see here that I think is important. Traditional education can also be fleshed out by a co-op program that helps students gain real-world experience to better prepare them for being an entrepreneur. Only a handful of colleges and universities offer a program that is integrated into the curriculum. The National Commission for Cooperative Education has a partial list @ http://www.co-op.edu/bocsponsors.html and Northeastern in Boston has a great program. Entrepreneurs at all stages of the game might be well-served by participating in a program and supporting a shift in higher education that does provide work experience to hone practical business skills that flesh out all the theory.

I always enjoy your writing, and this post has resulted in the best comments yet!

When I look back at the reasons I'm glad I went to college, not one of them is practical, such as I learned XYZ that I still use today. I'm glad for the friends, the experiences, the ridiculous nothing-ness that passed for problems back then, and the way it opened my mind up to some new curiosities. That's about it. :-)

From one BA English holder/entrepreneur to another, PhD students can read lots and lots of Shakespeare but I wonder how many have the ability to travel the world and see Shakespeare performed by the best actors in the world. As an entrepreneur I love that I have access to so many incredible opportunities!