College: Not For Nothing

In May, Peter Thiel- the venture capitalist known for his home runs with Paypal and Facebook- proposed a novel idea to the young entrepreneurs of the world. Instead of taking their talents to Wharton, Harvard, Stanford etc., Thiel is offering twenty (?lucky?) college students the opportunity to bypass college by giving them each $100,000 to start their own businesses. Thiel, himself a Stanford grad, thinks that the conventional idea of attending a university is unnecessary for those who have the talents to establish themselves in the world. He's speaking up against the rising costs of colleges and the debt that accumulates as a result of these steep tuitions.

In a world where it seems like the only people who can afford college tuition have already made their millions on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, Thiel's idea seems like a lifesaver for those types who don't have the $200,000 or so necessary to enroll in a top tier entrepreneurial program. His announcement is relatively timely since the general consensus is that the next big business of the future is in venture capitalism and start-up firms. Media such as "The Social Network" have only reinforced the passion to move out to Cali, come up with a "revolutionary, never before seen" idea, and make big bucks ala EBay, Facebook, Amazon, and the like.

If you really think about what Thiel is proposing, it sounds a little like a scheme of "get rich or go home." Sure, it's pretty cool if you make the next Facebook or Zynga, but that's like winning the lottery (against a bunch of Stanford/Harvard MBA/engineering types) Good luck. It's nice to help kids start up their own companies and all, but when you get to Palo Alto or San Jose and realize that starting up a company doesn't just revolve around partying and rope swinging into a pool, it's quite a reality check. When your first or second (or third) business goes belly up and you find out that people might not necessarily want to buy Frisbees over the Internet, what now? What happens when you decide you don't exactly want to be a big shot tech entrepreneur anymore, Mr. Thiel? What happens when you're 22 and the only things you have to your name are a Vespa and a bunch of unsold Frisbees in your garage? From that vantage point, maybe college might be a nice safety net in case that whole billion-in3-years thing doesn't work out too well. Maybe having a degree will at least give you a start. College gives you guaranteed connections, something that can't be said for those in the Silicon Valley frontier. For those of us who want to have a cushion to lean back on that doesn't involve working at Wendy's for the next 35 years, maybe an education might be a decent idea. Just some food for thought.