College Or Not?

"There are few debates in the startup world more polarizing than whether aspiring entrepreneurs should pursue higher education like a college degree or MBA.


Peter Thiel, the first investor in Facebook, offers $100,000 each to 20 students every year to drop out of college, or skip it all together. On the other hand Paul Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator, believes trying to start a company before graduating college is generally an awful idea with lifelong ramifications.


And while Elon Musk has famously expressed his disdain for MBAs, stating, "As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don't teach people how to create companies," plenty of business leaders in the startup world tout their MBAs as instrumental to their success.


Representing both ends of the higher-ed spectrum are two cofounders of TheTake app—CTO Jared Browarnik left Columbia University before completing his undergraduate studies to cofound TheTake, while CEO Tyler Cooper believes there is no way he would have founded TheTake or raised $2 million without his MBA."


I think the whole problem centers around the problems of helping a child find their passions and learning all they can before they are even ready for college.  The hardest thing I did as a parent, educator, or school board member was develop a way to help a child find their passion.


I was groomed for mine but I still kind of stumbled into it.  I declared my major in Agricultural Education at the last possible moment because there was an ag teacher shortage.  I wanted out and I wanted a good job to support my farming habit!


Over half my class at Ohio State never graduated.  The parents had bigger dreams than their child.  Yet I've seen good businessmen stuck in the wrong job because no one ever taught them how to be an entrepreneur.


College is over rated and highly under rated because the wrong people go and don't go.  Over half the people I've met in my life should have never been in the job they were currently in.  We don't do a good job helping a child discover what they should do for the rest of their life.


Can you think of a person who is wasting their college degree or needed that education and never got it?


Ed Winkle