Because what you need to be a successful entrepaneur, is the ability to understand every side of a business (from producing the product to selling the product to managing your people, because you can’t do it all yourself and expect to be able to compete with the big boys). And most of all, you need the balls to take some risks, you need the balls to “bet the farm” if you will, if you truly believe in your product. But that belief needs to be founded with a pessimistic outlook, ie: worst case scenario can it still be viable?

You need to pick your product apart from every side before you take it to market. The reason most of these web upstarts & small businesses fail is because they do everything in the wrong order, they don’t have a good judgemental centre to found their business on, they work on “best case scenario i’ll be rich” rather than “worst case scenario i won’t be viable”, they don’t know how to market or how to manage people effectively, and then when it eventually goes to shit once the loan they used to fund their business or their own savings run out, they go and blame their competitors. Fact is people with that attitude, that outlook, simply aren’t cut out to be entrepaneurs, and so they fail when they go into business.

I mean, even in our economy, where if you talk to any accountant they’ll tell you small business is fucked, we still have companies (the googles, the yahoo’s, the myspaces & the youtubes, and a whole swag of businesses in every industry) starting up, being successful, and raping their competition, because they’re founded by people who are cut out to be entrepaneurs. People who rip their product apart harder than any customer will before they go to market, people who look at the industry they’re going into and create strategies to slice out a big part of it for themselves. People who can see holes in any industry where they can go in, create a “new” product, have a short term monopoly, and then get bought out by some mass hoss company.

Simply, If you want to be an entrepaneur, you’re not going to simply have a skill, you’re going to be a leader, you’re going to be intelligent, you’re going to be capable to do every side of your business to an excellent level, and most importantly you have the right attitude. You have the attitude of if someone doesn’t buy my product, it’s my fault. It’s not their fault because they’re an idiot, it’s my fault because i didnt make the product have enough value, or i didn’t sell it right, or i left them unsatisfied. Thing you find with all these mega-sucessful entrepaneurs is they are very personal responsibilty minded, because if they weren’t they’d blame their competitors or the government or the media or whatever everytime they failed somewhere in their business. Successful entrepaneurs instead blame themselves, and are their own harshest critics, which in turn makes their business ventures more successful because when they do finally take their product to market, having worked out the production, the organization, the distribution, the marketing, the sales, and the management of their customers, they meet success, because they have products that are harder to shut down.

People that don’t have that attitude, that drive and motivation, and that ability to lead others, and motivate others towards a common goal, just aren’t cut out. Some people can become this, some can’t because they’re too afraid to ever take risks.

Myself, well, I Dropped out of High School, didn’t really know where i was going to go, worked at a supermarket for a couple of years, until about a year ago when i quit. Had enough money saved up to cover my living expenses for 3 months, With the idea to start an advertising company, Creating My own Yellow Pages kind of gig. I live in an Area Of Australia Called Torquay, Kind of Yuppie upper class gig with surfies. Myself and a friend of mine, decided to make a slick, full gloss phonebook, pocket sized, with maps, etc. It was hard, seeing as we both had very little experience with photoshop & Indesign, etc. However we’d stay up late every night, work every day of the week, putting it together, and go door to door with businesses selling it. In the first week, selling each day 9-5, I’d sold 3 ad’s. And i think they bought them more out of pity rather than anything. So, i sought out a friend of my father’s who runs a sales business, had lunch and picked his brain on everything, i studied what i’d learnt from him and worked it into my routines. The next day, I sold advertising to 8 of the 10 people i saw. Reason? Not I went to a sales school or i’d been trained, but because i realized that what i was doing wasn’t working, so i sought out a solution to try to make it more effective. Little things like appearance, a namebadge, maintaining eye contact, controlling the flow of the conversation, selling the value, the benefit, rather than the cost, all made huge differences. Now, i manage 8 sales staff & 3 graphic designers, and we produce 4 phonebooks in our region, each with about 250k worth of advertising in them. Funny thing is if i never took the risk to get into it, i’d still be working at a supermarket, stacking shelves.

This applies only to entrepreneurs, prospective doctors, please stay in school.

I think it really too situational to generalize, it’s like asking “should I get divorced”. Sometimes you have a good reason to, sometimes you don’t.

I think if you have a clear vision of what you want to do, and you don’t think you can benefit from college, then just quit.

However, if you have the vague idea of “starting a business” and aren’t willing to work 80+ hours weeks or you are “just bored”, then stay back in school.

You aren’t going to (well at least I didn’t) learn anything that you can use for starting your business. In terms of networks, I guess it depends on your school. I most certainly didn’t encounter a business partner in school.

Of the most popular reasons to stay in school, I offer the following opinions:

Job- you can always take some money from your business out “just in case”. You will not be rich in the next 5 years (probably) working for someone else, “not much money” will always be a problem until you’re 30 (or so). So use your brain.

Credibility- only an issue in some industries. But usually, you need an advanced where that would matter (e.g. life sciences)

Learn something useful- get a library card and borrow library books. Ask the authors if there is something you don’t understand, a lot will reply.

“Everyone has a degree”- everyone is not a successful business mogul. Everyone is an average Joe by definition.

Just my guess, but I think a lot of stories about businesses taking off then dropping out of school are made up by the media. I’m not sure where people got the time to even start, I was behind precisely because of school.

If you have the money to go to college, why not just start a couple of cheap businesses?

If you can find money to support yourself in school, why can’t you just support yourself while running business?

Thanks for the responses guys!

So, I would say stick with school. It NEVER hurts to have a degree, but can seriously hurt not to have one. If you are really driven and passionate, you can do just about anything. It wasn’t always easy doing all the above, but now I graduated, quit the hosting job because my small business and startup can support me, and I am getting married. If anything, go part time. But Dan is right, most small businesses fail and it is very hard to keep one going. In my business, technology consulting, I only have succeeded thanks to knowing the right people. Some of those people you meet in college 

great article, i enjoyed reading it. I have a question, however. How high would you rate a university/college education for starting your own business in this field? Right now I’m finishing my 3rd year of university for a Computer Science degree, and I personally can’t stand it. I don’t do poorly in school, I’m just bored out of my mind and really feel like I could be doing better things with my time. I’ve been seriously considering dropping out and starting my own business, I’m just not sure what kind of success I can expect, or if it’s a smart move. Is it really worth it to tough it out if all I’m planning to do is do my own business anyway?

When I graduated college with my Computer Science/Business degree, I hit the interview trail and got a job – a good one. I loved the company, but I HATED the job. I hated having a boss, hated having to go to work in the morning, hated not being able to do what I wanted to do, generally hated not having control over my own actions – and not having the responsibilities of my own actions, as well. But most of all, I hated having to wait months for a raise.

So, I quit my job and went out on my own. Now, two years later (I’m 25 now) I’m making more than I did at my job, and I have an incredible foundation for my business – I expect to hit the 7 figure per year mark in the next 2 years and I’m the only employee.

I’m a testiment to the fact that not everyone needs to get a “job” – you just have to do what you enjoy. If you enjoy having a job, working for someone else, having that predictibility and stability (yes, the income and benefits are much more stable than starting your own business – at first) then get a job and work your way up the ladder.

But if you’re not that kind of person, what’s the big deal about living with understanding family or friends while you start your business? Just know that it’s harder than “If you build it, they will come” but it’s much more rewarding, too

You definitely have the right attitude in my opinion. But, I may be biased as you seem to echo a lot of my opinions.