Countless famous and successful entrepreneurs have dropped out from college. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and the list goes on and on, are all dropouts.
Do you think that College limits our creativity and success?
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Top comments (17)
College just educates you in some of the knowledge that has come before. So that hopefully you can skip some of the trial and error of learning done by your ancestors. It doesn’t make you smarter, just educated.
The mentioned people already had their plans for success. And college wasn’t necessary to accomplish their goals. But a handful of people out of trillions doesn’t make a repeatable pattern.
I second your opinion in the first part.
They are special because they dream big.
But the issue resides in spending 5 or 6 years at Uni just to graduate as an engineer. Shouldn't be shorten to 2 or 3 years?
Not everyone will pickup in 2/3 years, shortening duration will make students never understand importance about consistency and trying till you succeed. Their greed of faster success will make them give up sooner and that will harm them in long run.
Right from childhood, journey of 15-20 years of education makes person more responsible.
I doubt it. Survivor bias is a thing and for every super rich entrepreneur that dropped out of university there is a myriad of university drop out entrepreneurs who didn't get that rich.
I do think that most current school systems numb people's creativity and divergent thinking with their evaluating students by how good they are at writing down the answers that the teachers want to read. However, that issue begins already in the first years of schooling. And I suspect that "successful" entrepreneurs (successful is such a relative term I have issues categorizing people as successful and not successful) somehow survive the damage from the schooling system better than others, but I doubt a few extra years in university make a difference in this regard.
I agree. I believe that everyone has his/her own definition of success.
For me, I am successful when I have my own company, married and happy.
Nope.
If they were dropouts and they were successful, doesn't mean everyone who drops out will be successful. They didn't dropout due to bad behavior or being lazy or being dope. They dropped out because they learned quickly and they were probably very good at what they were learning. They didn't want to follow somebody (Leaders don't follow), they wanted to create their own identity, well most college students don't want to create anything, they just want job in reputable company with good salary, they are followers. (Followers can't lead).
Education is not useless, it is necessary but it does not and cannot guarantee success. Education is like Gym, you go and they teach you how to be healthy, they cannot guarantee health, you have to work hard to stay fit, exactly same way what they teach you in college must be used wisely to become successful.
I have one more thought, it is very insulting, but it is true, people who can't succeed usually wants to blame on something else, education/university/government/parents etc.. unfortunately, even changing college system or anything will not improve them, they will still fail and they will find something else to blame !!
I second every single word you've said Akash👍
In some ways, I think so. I went to college and had a great time, but for the career I have now, I didn't need the skills. So now, since I have so many student loans, I'm much less risk-averse than I would be otherwise.
I'm not saying I'd be some super successful, rich philanthropist if I had dropped out didn't have these loans, but I do feel there are some situations in the past where I might have opted for a different route instead.
I see your point of view. Yes if course you would choose another path if you get back in time, because Desi in 2019 is much more mature and goal oriented than Desi in 2010 let's say.
You can be super successful if you aim high and dream big :)
2010 Desi was truly a mess 😂
Hahahaahahahah
Not exactly. It is what you make of it, your circumstances, etc
College is very, "I need to learn X to pass the test" but not much of a deep dive, even within classes related to your major. At least, that's how I feel looking back on my experience as a design major. I learned a lot, technically, but also felt very unprepared entering the job world. I never quite got hired as a designer, which is why I learned to code.
Not attending college can be due to a variety of reasons, cost being one of them. Personally, I could not really afford college, but also did not feel like I could afford not to go to college.
If I had to do it over, would I still go to college? I wish the idea wasn't so force-fed to college-aged kids (what does a 17-year-old know about what they want to do with the rest of their life). Now, I feel like I a must better student, more focused on what I want to learn and maybe would be in a different place.
Hindsight is 50/50.
Really interesting Shannon.
I have felt that my own way too.
Within 5 months at Ericsson as a telecom engineer, are worth like 8 years of experience because I was working closely and learning everything that I can from a 10 year engineer.
The engineer had 10 years of exp in 2G. Withing 5 months, he delivered to me almost 80% of his knowledge.
Your last part about going back to college. I agree with you, but I wish if my family told me to pursue a computer science major instead of electrical engineering.
Back then, I didn't know about programming. Do I regret it? Of course not.
Not at all.
I believe there are many paths and you just have to choose yours.
True, it's all about commitment and perseverance.
"Anyone can reach success"-for free- (that's what I would've added). As you said, they are always learning, and they have thousands of free videos where one can learn from their mistakes and avoid them.
I agree with your comment. Laziness is killing us. Each generation is lazier, less productive and less ambitious than the previous one.
However, each generation is exposed to more online Free/paid content that helps us achieve success.
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