Is College Necessary for Entrepreneurs?

Posted by Ben Jones on May 7, 2007

I am posing this question because I continue to meet self-made people who claim to have had no formal education. Actually, most of the successful entrepreneurs that I know did not possess a college degree when they started their respective businesses. Although, some of them have gone back and attained degrees after their business was established, the fact remains that they did not need them in order to get their business moving.

Now I, for one, grew a lot as a person during my undergraduate course work(Maybe that was worth $60,000….probably not). However, I cannot say that I learned a lot about my field that I could not have learned through self-induced reading. Therefore, I am under the impression that I would have been better served by actually doing an independent study of entrepreneurship instead of spending 5(ok, maybe six if you count that year long party.lol) years studying Business Administration.

I would have probably been sittin on the beach somewhere right now, handing down instructions over the phone. I know that that day is still coming but it still leaves one to ponder whether I wasted my time and money in college. I mean, how much can an entrepreneur really learn from college anyway? Most of the things that I learned about entrepreneurship, were learned the hard way: through trial and error.

So, I am posing this question to you:

Is college really necessary for entrepreneurs?

I want to hear from you all on this. So Leave your comments. Thanks!

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Miscellaneous

D said,

I do not believe it is necessary to have a college degree these days. Having a BA is like having a high school diploma doesn’t mean as much anymore.

There is nothing wrong with being educated, but in the end we all want our education to benefit us financially and in this day and age it doesn’t.

This is why it is very important to education our children, nieces, nephews, cousins, younger brothers and sisters because the things they really need to know is not taught in the classroom.
Shawn Knight said,

I also agree that a college degree is highly overrated these days. I just spent four years in college, only to realize I screwed myself early and it would take me yet another year to finish. No thanks; I dropped out in February.

I have been running a computer hardware review website for six years now and didn’t learn much of anything about how to run it in college. For me, it was a complete waste of time and money.
Benjamin Jones- Entrepreneur Guide said,

I agree with you both. Shawn I’ve had a similar story except I went ahead and finished. It has not helped me to do what I’m doing now though so I feel I wasted my money too. Maybe we should start the “College of Entrepreneurship”. I’m going to look into that.:)
Chris Brown said,

Ben:
My vote is yes. It may not seem like it a first, but now after being out 30 years, I’ve found that I draw from a lot of the things I learned in college. It depends how you treat it while you’re in college. Lots of partying and just getting thru the classes doesn’t really help you prepare much.

Working on group projects, taking advantage of extracurricular speakers, being involved and a leader in clubs/associations where you grow past the classroom, developing networking contacts — this is where college can be especially helpful.

I have also found that the business people who didn’t finish the degree have a bit of the haunting doubt and feel they have to prove something. Hey, we all have to prove something.

Having a degree doesn’t entitle anyone to a job or success, but it does provide more advantages.

Just my thoughts,
Chris Brown
Branding & Marketing blog
Benjamin Jones- Entrepreneur Guide said,

Chris definitely makes some valid points. I agree that some people can gain more from the experience than others because of their approach. I also think that the particular school that one attends will have a significant effect on how much you learn about entrepreneursahip.