

The Zuckerg Effect: Thiel Fellows and College Dropout Entrepreneurs - besvinick
http://ventureminded.me/post/7003246527/the-zuck-effect

======
matmann2001
This effect is very real. I'm an engineering student at U of I, and there are
a lot of engineers (especially Computer Scientists) here who are just itching
to drop out the second one of their ideas catch on. What I think they fail to
realize is that you need much more than an idea. You need to have resources
and solid foundation, or at least some proof of concept, before you can make
such a drastic life decision. In the majority of cases, finishing your time at
college is the best way to prepare yourself to make your ideas successful.

In my opinion, this effect stems from a misunderstanding in this now popular
hacker-startup culture. Students are getting the idea that forming a startup
is the end goal, when in fact it's just the beginning of a long road to being
successful.

The Zuck/Thiel effect is not a trend, it's an extraordinary exception. Stay in
school, kids.

~~~
besvinick
I definitely agree it's an exception but the more blogs like TechCrunch
publicize people dropping out (Thiel Fellows, Penn students from a post
yesterday), the more prominent (and viable) it appears. The best option is to
run the business at school, leverage the vast array of (usually free)
resources on campus, and graduate with a startup AND a degree.

~~~
matmann2001
Precisely my thinking, U of I actually has a lot of services and resources for
student entrepreneurship, all of which are essentially free or cheap. Plus the
untapped knowledge from a community of like-minded peers. Not to mention the
available support from professors, many of whom have walked this path many
times before.

------
besvinick
Clearly there are numerous successful entrepreneurs without college degrees,
but would they have been even better served with 4 years of college under
their belt?

~~~
Troll_Whisperer
No. Had billg gotten 4 years under his belt, he'd have worked for apple. Had
Mark Z. done that, he'd probably have been a Google employee.

In both cases the result would have been okay, but nowhere near as good as
becoming a world-changing billionaire.

