Fred Wilson has a great post
One Thing You Don't Deed to Be an Entrepreneur: A College Degree
I have learned that where someone went to college (or even if they
didn't go to college) has absolutely no correlation to whether they
will be a good entrepreneur or not. I don't pay attention to that part
of a resume. I focus on what they've done in the work world, what
they've shown they can do, and most importantly what they've done to
date on that specific startup.
That is exactly what I found in my many years of running this company. This was such a strong observation that first we stopped caring about where someone went to college, then we stopped caring about whether someone even got a degree, and finally, we took the ultimate step, and started hiring kids right of high school, and train them ourselves. Each step seemed risky, even a bit radical, but in hindsight, it should have all been obvious.
Fred goes on to add:
Entrepreneurs don't need degrees like lawyers and doctors do. They are
credentialed by virtue of their track record. The first startup is hard
but if they make that one work, they end up with something much better
than a college degree. They have a notch in their belt. They've got a
track record of success.
I don't believe it is only entrepreneurs who don't need degrees. In fact, I don't believe the lawyers and doctors need formal credentials either. This is not a very original assertion: Milton Friedman, in his book Capitalism and Freedom, has proposed how the market system would solve the quack problem far better than formal credentials do. To summarize the argument, the way it would work is basically extended apprenticeship under experienced people. That is essentially how our internal training system works.
I would propose a version of the "release early" principle as regards to education: enter the real world early! There is no better teacher than real world experience. This works in software, it works in entrepreneurship, and it surely would work in law or medicine.
I have been fortunate to have known a "quack" or two in India (i.e., non-credentialed people practicing medicine). In their respective towns people knew they had no credentials to practice medicine, and there were other credentialed doctors available, still they had roaring practices because patients simply loved the care they provided. In fact, I know one case where the practice grew so popular, the "quack" hired "real" doctors to work for him, but the patients would trust the "quack" more than the real doctors.
Fred concludes:
We've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about, talking about,
learning about, and looking at the whole education sector. Education is
critically important. But you don't have to go to school to be educated
and if being an entrepreneur is your goal in life, that's even more
true.
I would add that the way the cost of college education has inflated, thinking about alternatives is critically important. Simply saying, "Let the government allocate more money for education" is not the best option - in fact, that would merely perpetuate the inflation and give academia no incentives to rein in costs.
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