Thursday, March 17, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School
Instead of another boring lecture, last week my students at UC-Berkeley got quite a treat: a lively discussion with TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington. I once described Mike as a cross between Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern; so I was ready for a little controversy. But he ended up lighting such a big fire, that I’ve been bombarded with questions from students about their education and careers. The questions aren’t just coming from Berkeley; after the discussion was posted on TechCrunch, students at Duke asked me to discuss this at a keynote I am giving at their entrepreneurship symposium on Wednesday; and students at other schools, from as far as India and Singapore, have asked for advice. So I’ll just respond here in the hope of quenching this fire.
At the UC-Berkeley Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series, last week, Mike and I discussed a variety of topics. We agreed on most subjects—except on the importance of education (and dearth of women in tech—which is a battle I’ll fight another day). When I brought up my TechCrunch post on the importance of MBA degrees, Arrington questioned why students needed to get any degree or go to college at all. He talked up the success of tech CEOs who had dropped out of college—Zuckerberg, Gates, and “countless high-profile entrepreneurs including Larry and Sergey” (Mike: Larry and Sergey both have undergraduate degrees and were completing PhD’s). Despite being interrupted by Berkeley professor Ikhlaq Sidhu (who I was afraid would come on stage and strangle Mike before he could finish his sentence), Arrington said that he didn’t learn much from college; gaining admittance to a Berkeley or Harvard is the only certification a student needs; dropping out from college doesn’t carry a stigma anymore; so “the best thing in the world is to go to Harvard for a year and drop out because everyone knows you were smart enough to get in”.
Arrington told students that the kind of person who wants to increase his chances of success by getting a masters degree isn’t an entrepreneur; older entrepreneurs have no chance of raising money (so they’re a lost cause); success means building a billion dollar business and making a lot of money—it’s not good enough to build a good lifestyle business that pays the bills and brings you happiness. So they should “ready-fire-aim” and go for the big prize rather than thinking small.
Here is the problem with Arrington’s logic: students may come up with great ideas and start a company, but they aren’t going to be able make it big unless they have the educational foundation. Maybe Zuckerberg lucked out by being at the right place at the right time, but he wasn’t born with the knowledge of how to grow a business. To build a business, you need to understand subjects like finance, marketing, intellectual property and corporate law. Until you have been in the business world for a while, you don’t know how to negotiate contracts, deal with people, manage and nurture employees, and sell to customers. Most importantly, if students don’t learn the importance of finishing what they start, they will never achieve success—this requires perseverance and determination. And by dropping out of college, they won’t have the alumni networks that they need to help them later in their careers and in business.
The harsh reality is that for every Zuckerberg, there are a thousand who drop out of college and fail. Many get discouraged after their failures and move to other professions which require less skill and education. Some universities do readmit students who dropped out for a short period of time, but most students end up burning through their savings and loans from friends and relatives, and can no longer afford their education. Some give up and look for jobs in big companies, but big companies don’t generally hire people without degrees—because they want employees who have the discipline to finish what they start; who won’t jump ship and chase every rainbow.
Plus, if you look at the backgrounds of the people who actually built Facebook—the executives and employees of the company—you’ll find that they aren’t college dropouts; they are highly educated. Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple—all started by college dropouts are the most selective in hiring; they are the most fussy about degrees.
My advice to students is to get all the education they can, while they can. Complete at least a bachelors and get a masters degree if you can. The degree doesn’t have to be from an elite college like Harvard or Stanford; any education will carry you far. As this chart shows (based on an analysis of the backgrounds of the founders of 652 successful technology companies), there is a huge difference in the size and revenue of companies founded by people with college degrees. But there is only a small difference between those with ivy-league degrees and the average (which includes all startups).
After you graduate, you should gain some practical work experience and learn the realities of the business world before making the plunge into entrepreneurship. Work for a big company for a few years; learn about how the corporate world works; get good at people management, project planning, and teamwork. Then join a startup—which will probably fail as most startups do. But you get to fail on someone else’s dime and learn all the valuable lessons.
In his talk, Mike Arrington said that he got little from his education. He also said that he wished he had gotten an MBA instead of a law degree. But what Mike didn’t seem to acknowledge was that he needed the law degree to become a lawyer; when he was a lawyer, he gained an in-depth knowledge about the tech world and its problems —which led to his startups; and this education gave him the knowledge to take on unethical companies and question unethical practices—all of which have helped make TechCrunch the world’s leading tech blog. Does anyone think that Mike would have been able to build TechCrunch if he was a college dropout?
In our discussion, Mike joked that instead of doing the law degree, he wishes he had learned to play the guitar in junior high—“maybe he would have become a rock star”. I have no idea if Mike has any musical talent, but a smaller proportion of guitarists become rock stars than techies who become CEOs.
At the UC-Berkeley Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series, last week, Mike and I discussed a variety of topics. We agreed on most subjects—except on the importance of education (and dearth of women in tech—which is a battle I’ll fight another day). When I brought up my TechCrunch post on the importance of MBA degrees, Arrington questioned why students needed to get any degree or go to college at all. He talked up the success of tech CEOs who had dropped out of college—Zuckerberg, Gates, and “countless high-profile entrepreneurs including Larry and Sergey” (Mike: Larry and Sergey both have undergraduate degrees and were completing PhD’s). Despite being interrupted by Berkeley professor Ikhlaq Sidhu (who I was afraid would come on stage and strangle Mike before he could finish his sentence), Arrington said that he didn’t learn much from college; gaining admittance to a Berkeley or Harvard is the only certification a student needs; dropping out from college doesn’t carry a stigma anymore; so “the best thing in the world is to go to Harvard for a year and drop out because everyone knows you were smart enough to get in”.
Arrington told students that the kind of person who wants to increase his chances of success by getting a masters degree isn’t an entrepreneur; older entrepreneurs have no chance of raising money (so they’re a lost cause); success means building a billion dollar business and making a lot of money—it’s not good enough to build a good lifestyle business that pays the bills and brings you happiness. So they should “ready-fire-aim” and go for the big prize rather than thinking small.
Here is the problem with Arrington’s logic: students may come up with great ideas and start a company, but they aren’t going to be able make it big unless they have the educational foundation. Maybe Zuckerberg lucked out by being at the right place at the right time, but he wasn’t born with the knowledge of how to grow a business. To build a business, you need to understand subjects like finance, marketing, intellectual property and corporate law. Until you have been in the business world for a while, you don’t know how to negotiate contracts, deal with people, manage and nurture employees, and sell to customers. Most importantly, if students don’t learn the importance of finishing what they start, they will never achieve success—this requires perseverance and determination. And by dropping out of college, they won’t have the alumni networks that they need to help them later in their careers and in business.
The harsh reality is that for every Zuckerberg, there are a thousand who drop out of college and fail. Many get discouraged after their failures and move to other professions which require less skill and education. Some universities do readmit students who dropped out for a short period of time, but most students end up burning through their savings and loans from friends and relatives, and can no longer afford their education. Some give up and look for jobs in big companies, but big companies don’t generally hire people without degrees—because they want employees who have the discipline to finish what they start; who won’t jump ship and chase every rainbow.
Plus, if you look at the backgrounds of the people who actually built Facebook—the executives and employees of the company—you’ll find that they aren’t college dropouts; they are highly educated. Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple—all started by college dropouts are the most selective in hiring; they are the most fussy about degrees.
My advice to students is to get all the education they can, while they can. Complete at least a bachelors and get a masters degree if you can. The degree doesn’t have to be from an elite college like Harvard or Stanford; any education will carry you far. As this chart shows (based on an analysis of the backgrounds of the founders of 652 successful technology companies), there is a huge difference in the size and revenue of companies founded by people with college degrees. But there is only a small difference between those with ivy-league degrees and the average (which includes all startups).
After you graduate, you should gain some practical work experience and learn the realities of the business world before making the plunge into entrepreneurship. Work for a big company for a few years; learn about how the corporate world works; get good at people management, project planning, and teamwork. Then join a startup—which will probably fail as most startups do. But you get to fail on someone else’s dime and learn all the valuable lessons.
In his talk, Mike Arrington said that he got little from his education. He also said that he wished he had gotten an MBA instead of a law degree. But what Mike didn’t seem to acknowledge was that he needed the law degree to become a lawyer; when he was a lawyer, he gained an in-depth knowledge about the tech world and its problems —which led to his startups; and this education gave him the knowledge to take on unethical companies and question unethical practices—all of which have helped make TechCrunch the world’s leading tech blog. Does anyone think that Mike would have been able to build TechCrunch if he was a college dropout?
In our discussion, Mike joked that instead of doing the law degree, he wishes he had learned to play the guitar in junior high—“maybe he would have become a rock star”. I have no idea if Mike has any musical talent, but a smaller proportion of guitarists become rock stars than techies who become CEOs.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Three Money Lessons From Teenagers
The Forbes magazine has got excellent articles on money matters.Laura F.Dogu goes into details about how she teaches her children on managing money.According to Laura wasting money is important when it comes to learning on money use.Personally I have never mate a rich person who has never lost a dime,but there are so many poor people who are yet to loose a coin.This may well be allu8ded to fer.One of the items that Robert Kiyosaki celebrates as the chief arc between the rich and the financially successful,on e difference is that those that are financially successful go on to be happy in life while those that are simply rich have a hard to track to even put together a marriage.Besides all this advice parents can afford,teenagers have their say:
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Investors Begin Early
While you are yet 30,it is OK to go broke4.Ad viced a renown financial guru.Tbis must only be limited within the new rules of money.Since 1971,when president Richard Nixon changed the rules of money,the old advice though much in existence wont take you too far.it was after this that it became clear that one can reach financial goals better before 30.
However,you can still go it safe by beginning early.You only need to educate yourself financial because you are in the world that is full of gurus of different things.In this case one needs to be operating by the new rules to make a possible living.
what do you think?
However,you can still go it safe by beginning early.You only need to educate yourself financial because you are in the world that is full of gurus of different things.In this case one needs to be operating by the new rules to make a possible living.
what do you think?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Savings:Why the pressure is important.
by Timothy Gorman Wafula on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 6:46am
While savers remain loosers,those going it safe to financial success by playing it safe will and can still practise saving,especially when one is before 30. THE GOOD PRESSURE At times the easiest thing to do is dig into the savings when financial hitches surface.Peharps a would recommend one holds on till the pressure builds up enough to awaken ones financial genious,ways of creating money. Conted with the pressure to arouse your financial genious,will you?
While savers remain loosers,those going it safe to financial success by playing it safe will and can still practise saving,especially when one is before 30. THE GOOD PRESSURE At times the easiest thing to do is dig into the savings when financial hitches surface.Peharps a would recommend one holds on till the pressure builds up enough to awaken ones financial genious,ways of creating money. Conted with the pressure to arouse your financial genious,will you?
ts Ok to be broke before 30.
by Timothy Gorman Wafula on Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 7:03am
When I was I8,I began understanding how one begins making choices that affect the4r lives.I began choosing my path.Often I spend time learning solitude.I also took time in cashpoints voluntarily learning cashflow and money.
It was at this point that I began understanding why some people choose to be rich earlier and others later in their lives.
It became clear that the period between 20 and 29 are critical.The cards of financial success are better played between these ages.
This is a field for those going it safe and those playing the game of the rich.
If you go broke between this ages,go big because you can still recover.
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When I was I8,I began understanding how one begins making choices that affect the4r lives.I began choosing my path.Often I spend time learning solitude.I also took time in cashpoints voluntarily learning cashflow and money.
It was at this point that I began understanding why some people choose to be rich earlier and others later in their lives.
It became clear that the period between 20 and 29 are critical.The cards of financial success are better played between these ages.
This is a field for those going it safe and those playing the game of the rich.
If you go broke between this ages,go big because you can still recover.
Comment · LikeUnlike · Share
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M'c Ocholla Sam and Jackton Omusi like this.
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* Write a comment...
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