Should You Drop Out Of College?

One question plaguing the mind of every aspiring entrepreneur in college is whether a college education is useful in the long run or whether dropping out of college is the better route to choose. While dropping out of college did help out famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, it might not be the best route forward for all.

The appeal to drop out of college in the past couple of years has increased partly due to the rise in college fees and expenses. At the same time, the sensationalization of dropping out of college has created the appearance of an easy, fast route to wealth, or a requisite to entrepreneurial success. While some people believe college experience makes people better, smarter, and more interesting people, some believe college is not the only way to further learning.

Starting a company takes every ounce of drive in your body and spending every waking second building and growing that dream. Although many such entrepreneurs have witnessed successful startups, is it necessary for every successful startup founder to skip college? What is important to remember is that before Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, Facebook was already garnering immense attention from youngsters and investors. When Michael Dell left college to establish Dell, he was already shipping computer kits with back orders. Both Zuckerberg and Dell had one thing in common, the desire to continue something great that had already picked up a lot of steam. But the idea behind the successful startups came in college.

At the same time, for every successful college drop out, there is a successful entrepreneur who stayed in school, completed their degree and then went on to develop some of the biggest companies in the world today. The world’s richest man today and the founder of the ecommerce giant Jeff Bezos has a degree in engineering from Princeton University. The co founder of the worlds most used search engine and technology giant Larry Page attended the University of Michigan, Stanford University where he received his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and master’s degree in computer science.

It takes stamina to persevere, strength to innovate, stomach for well timed risk to create and operate a successful company. Although the best learning and the best personal and professional growth happens outside of the classroom, college is also a great backup plan. The end result of this debate is that there are some people who absolutely need that formal education while some don’t need that structure or lifestyle. However, if you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug let us know if you decided to stay in school or it was just not meant for you.