Comments on: Reading up on business…

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:58:12 +0000

I am in the opposite situation. My sophomore year in college I accepted a part time job to pay the bills with a start up front end credit card processor similar to PayPal. Little did I know that the people who founded the company were pioneers in the industry and the company would go on to create some of the technologies that we now use. After about three months, I was offered a full time position with the company after they learned I had certain skills. After much thought I decided to put college on hold and pursue the experience. I went on to learn the credit card and several specialized industries from the ground up.

Now that times and company attitudes have changed, most companies would rather have someone who has a college degree and no experience then someone with experience and no college degree. A sign of this is Google. Google requires everyone including secretaries to have Bachelors. This leaves me in the position that I am in now. I have certain transferrable skills such as department and office management, business operations, and accounting skills. Because of these skills and past salary I request a certain salary for my experience. Without a degree, I cannot get that rate.
Yes, I can set up QuickBooks with no problem.

By: Femi og Michael » Start a company while studying

Femi og Michael » Start a company while studying — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:51:05 +0000

[...] it. But you shouldn’t go to college just to get a degree. Mike Glanz wrote a post about how all he learned in college was how to ‘work the system’. “If I had taken Guy’s advice and learned how to make money instead of being an employee. [...]

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 04 May 2007 18:57:20 +0000

I stumbled upon your website through Guy’s blog. I am currently a college student, and I completely agree with your statements about survival. I picked the easiest major because I knew I could get an A, and since my freshmen year, I’ve been doing the least amount of work possible (as I write this I should be working on my papers that are due Monday haha).

Finally, about a month ago, I met up with a wedding photography who started his own business and loves it. It sparked something in me. The last month or so I’ve come to the conclusion that 1) I will continue to do the least amount of work possible for my education degree and 2) I will put all my energy into educating myself in something I really want to do.

I think it’s unfortunate not many people are telling freshmen the dangers of relying solely on an “education.”

Good post.

By: Kyle M. Brown

Kyle M. Brown — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:27:27 +0000

Mike,
I always wondered when the day would come when I would be reading and hearing these types of feelings from other people.

I wont drag out my comment too much but I will say, I pondered this samething as many others do. School versus Expereince. I think an education is something you will always have but I believe society places too much emphasis on education and not enough on real life experience.

I heard the same rap growing up that you did but I choose not go to school becuase I always felt like I could accomplish what I wanted with the right motivation and persistence.

Today I an am executive at a Fortune 10 ISP and own my own IT consultation company all because I worked hard and stayed one step ahead of everyone I worked with.

I dipped back into school after my career got started but the pace was painfully slow and filled with theories and unproven techniques that I saw destroyed in the workplace every single day.

Futhermore, I found myself outperforming co-workers with B.S and Masters degrees and I mean on a regular basis across the company.

I plan to finish on day but not because I have too but because I want too. Good Luck and by the way QuickBooks is a snap to learn just use it everyday.