In an April blog post, "Want
to be an entrepreneur? Drop out of college," Caterina Fake identified a
number of successful tech founders who had quit school. The co-founder
of Flickr (YHOO)
and Hunch
then argued that aspiring entrepreneurs should drop out of college and
apprentice.
While Fake's headline is provocative, the data don't support her assertion. Statistically speaking, entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful if they graduate college than if they don't.
Education Increases Entrepreneurs' Performance
A 2008 study by Vivek Wadhwa, Richard Freeman, and Ben Rissing that surveyed chief executive officers and product development heads at more than 500 high-tech companies showed that "education provides an advantage in tech entrepreneurship." Specifically, the companies founded by college graduates had twice the sales and employment of the companies founded by people who didn't go to college, on average. These numbers are consistent with many other studies that show that founder education reduces business failure rates and increases profits, sales, and employment.
To read the full, original article click on this link: The College Dropout Turned Billionaire Entrepreneur - BusinessWeek
Author: Scott Shane
