Some of Big Tech’s biggest success stories came from people who abandoned college. Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 in his Harvard University bedroom (and then abandoned college). Bill Gates also left Harvard and co -fired Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975.
But Jeff Bezos, founder of the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, said that Zuckerberg and Gates are the “exception” to the idea that all major technology companies were founded by college students who have abandoned their studies and that a diploma doesn’t matter so much today.
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Although it is “possible” to be 18, 19 or 20 years old and drop the college to become a great entrepreneur, Bezos said these technology leaders are an “exception.”
“I always advise young people: They’ll work in a best practice company wherever they can learn many basic key things, such as hiring very well, doing interviews, etc.,” said Bezos during a conversation at Italian Tech Week earlier this month.
“There are many things you will learn in a large company that will help you, and there is still a long time to start a business after you have absorbed it.”
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Working in a company instead of trying to start one immediately, “increases your chances” of being successful, he added.
Bezos, now the fifth person richest in the world with a $ 234 billion net equity (R $ 1.25 trillion), founded Amazon when he was 30 years old after about a decade of professional experience. Gates and Zuckerberg, on the other hand, were only 19 when they launched Microsoft and Facebook respectively.
Zuckerberg is the fourth richest person in the world with a $ 250 billion equity of net worth, and Gates is the 15th richest with a $ 121 billion net equity.
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But Bezos says this “extra decade of experience really improved the chances of Amazon’s success.” And she was actually successful: today, the online retailer has an impressive market value of $ 2.33 trillion ($ 12.4 trillion).
Bezos not only had professional experience, but also finished college. He graduated with the highest praise (with the highest honor) at Princeton University in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi societies, and also served as President of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space section.
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This academic focus was later materialized in 2000 with the Bezos Aerospace Technology company, Blue Origin, which he described as the “most important work” he does. Blue Origin is a closed capital company, so its value has never been released, but Bezos said he believed it will eventually become larger than Amazon.
“This would always be my advice: I finished college and liked college,” said Bezos. “I think it’s been useful for me.”
The debate on the value of a diploma
Even so, younger generations continue to question the value of a university diploma. As the cost of college continues to grow and jobs available to newly graduated decrease, many are beginning to question the real return on an investment of a diploma.
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Even Ford’s CEO Jim Farley said during a company meeting last week that going to college “should be a debate.”
“Nothing in the history of Western civilization has become more expensive, faster,” added Mike Rowe, an former defender of vocational education. “Neither energy, nor food, no real estate, no health, [nada foi mais inflacionado] than the cost of a four -year diploma. ”
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