Startuper vs College Graduate: Make a Smart Choice

Today many young people believe that a higher education is not very important to have if you want to build a career and become a successful businessman. They prefer building a startup, citing Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs as examples of cool entrepreneurs who dropped the college to start a business and did not need a diploma to become those world-famous personalities we all know them today. Many grants,such as Thiel Fellowship for example, encourage young people not to put their business ideas off and help them bring the most ambitious projects to life.

If we take a look at some tweets of them, it seems they do not consider the idea of getting a higher education and diploma an integral part of becoming clever and more successful in the future:

 

 

But is a higher education so unimportant indeed? Debates on this issue are ongoing, and both graduates and startupers have quite strong arguments to support their positions and points of view. Is it still difficult for you to make a choice and decide whether you should get a diploma or better concentrate on your startup? Take a look at this startuper vs. graduate battle, and maybe it will help you prioritize.

 

Let's the battle begin!

 

A thing in a startuper's favor:

 

“My startup provides me a dose of happiness every day because I do what I like, I know what I do this for, and all my energy and ideas go for making my business better. Even if some people do not understand what I actually do and WHY I do this, it does not prevent them from respecting me and my zeal to build something I strongly believe in”.

 

Score: 1-0

 

A thing in a graduate's favor:

 

“Yes, if you live in a perfect world where parents or wealthy friends can help you with a business, the idea of building a startup without having a higher education diploma would be great probably. Startupers think they do not need a job because they are going to start a business, but many of us have to start working first to make ends meet. A college degree will help you get a good and well-paid job to save money and use it to start your own business afterward”.

 

Score: 1-1

 

A thing in a startuper's favor:

 

“I do not have any distractions, like lectures or exams, to absorb my time and prevent me from being very productive. It may seem first that I do not have free time at all, but the more duties I have on my business – the more productive I become. I am a master of my time, and I do not depend on anything and anyone when I try to organize it. I am highly concentrated on my startup only, and it helps me make it more successful quickly”.

 

Score: 2-1

 

A thing in a graduate's favor:

 

“Yes, we spend much time in colleges and learn various subjects that aren't probably related to our business goals. But who said we would not need all these knowledge and skills and they would not help us anyway? When you are a startuper, you should be like a jack-of-all-trades: numbers, computers, administration, communication – your education helps you get knowledge in multiple fields and save both time and money on hiring specialists for your startup in the future”.

 

Score: 2-2

 

A thing in a startuper's favor:

 

“I do not want to say that it is easy to be a startuper. No homework or finals distract us, but it does not mean we do not have any problems with our business. We are emotionally stable, and we will never show you that something goes wrong with our “baby”; but the day comes when we suddenly get 2-3 investors, have meetings with people whose business theories we've been studying, find information about our new releases in press... And this is a moment of pure ecstasy! You understand that you've chosen the right path and you are at the right place!”

 

Score: 3-2

 

A thing in a graduate's favor:

 

“I believe, that graduates have bigger chances to find mentors and investors for their business than startupers without a diploma, because their colleges help them network in a more efficient way and build relations with alumni who are successful entrepreneurs themselves. It usually takes a long time for a startuper to build relations with useful people when a student can find a mentor just because he studied at the same college with him”.

 

Score: 3-3

 

A thing in a startuper's favor:

 

“I am experiencing a level of career satisfaction most graduates wait years for (if they ever achieve it actually). A traditional education can't give it, and many qualified entrepreneurs I know started and developed their companies without having a diploma in their pockets. Our startups are not about power, wealth or success; they are our mission in life, and this journey is really worth it. Why to spend years on getting a diploma if you feel it's your time and your moment to bring ambitions to life?”

 

Score: 4-3

 

A thing in a graduate's favor:

 

“My college degree is not about a diploma and better position in the marketplace only. And I do not want to say that a person with no diploma is doomed to failure. My education is learning about the world, myself and others; it is structured in a way to make my intellectual discovery easier; and it is a good starting point for me, as a young entrepreneur, to become successful. I develop work ethic and discipline through studying which, I believe, are very important and necessary for a good businessman to have.

 

Score: 4-4

 

As we can see, above mentioned points are good enough to support both positions. Whatever you choose, make sure your choice is justified and worth risking.

 

And what about combining them?

 

But why to choose one side only? Being a student, you can build your startup and develop it to have benefits from it by the time of your graduation. As a result, you will be a certified specialist and successful businessman. Yes, it is not easy to combine business management and college life; but impossible is nothing, and young people might succeed here if they approached to this issue wisely.

 

For those who decide to combine college and startup, here are some useful resources to pay attention too:

 

1. Organize your time right – Check http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/nellen_a/time_management.htm.

2. Get your degree online – Check http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses. 

3. Outsource your college papers writing – Check https://bid4papers.com/write-my-essay.html.

4. Use tools to ease college life – Check http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/25-apps-college-students-shouldnt-live-without.html.

5. Use tools to ease startup management – Check https://www.inc.com/ss/10-free-or-cheap-tools-start-ups.

 

One can use them, as well as many other informative resources and functional tools, to ease the process of study and get energy and time for building a startup. It is not obligatory to give up a dream for getting a diploma or sacrifice a higher education diploma to ambitions of having a successful startup.

 

Check this infographic from Degree Library that proves the fact college is the best time to start up and gives tips on how to get started: