When I see a stereotypical graduation ceremony photo, I think to myself: "I hope the 6 years and $100,000 of debt was worth it."
I don't mean to disgrace the college tradition, and by no means am I against education. However, if you're a high school student considering which university to apply to, but are hoping to achieve your own success one day, realize that college is more often than not a terrible option.
In the words of Gary Vaynerchuck, school is failing entrepreneurs every single day.
College teaches you how to attend classes ("meetings") on time. College teaches you how to work from 9-5. College teaches you how to work according to a rubric, how to fit in, and how to please others.
Basically, college teaches you to be another brick in the wall - which is fine for most people. There are 7 billion people, so we need a lot of bricks.
However, if you're an entrepreneur, you're looking for the value others are aren't seeing. Your goal is to create surplus value. You're looking for missed opportunity. Notice a trend?
Entrepreneurs are the very opposite of what colleges are designed to output. As an entrepreneur, you should be like a wild cat, hunting for prey and figuring things out, not a domesticated house pet.
If not college, then what?
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, hopefully you're starting to see how ridiculous college is (and I didn't even get into the entitlement colleges create), and you're asking what a better alternative is.
I went to a private school in the US, that was roughly $50,000 USD per year, which is typical for private schools. That means $25,000 USD per semester, which is usually about 4 months. You know how much you can do with $25,000 and/or 4 months?
I'll list some things. You can get low-cost Facebook Ads at 1 cent Cost-Per-Click (CPC). Let's say you spend $1,000 on ads, you could get 100,000 clicks to whatever you want. You can get a blockchain developer in Nigeria or India or another developing country for about $1,000 per month. You can get the front-end for a page for about $600. You can get a design for about $300.
See where I'm going with this? To spend $25,000 resourcefully and intelligently requires serious effort. I don't mean finding a nice apartment, I mean that spending $25,000 on high-return items is a lot to spend.
Now do that over 8 semesters, on 8 different business ideas. Who do you think wins, the 21-year-old with experience across 8 startups, or the 21-year-old college graduate?