Of course, I could have given Sam the commonly reported differential between the lifetime earnings of those with college degrees versus those without (often given as about $1.1 million), but it’s hard to know whether this gap can be attributed to the college degree or to the ability of the graduate to manage his or her career well. (Back in 2010, David French wrote a great piece about this: “The College Cost/Benefit Analysis.”) Naturally, some careers don’t require a college degree for you to be successful or advance in your career, for example, firefighters, dancers, actors, electricians, or—dare I say it—entrepreneurs! (The usual suspects come to mind – Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and David Oreck – the vacuum cleaner entrepreneur—to name a few). If this is so, then the real question becomes, will you be better at what you do if you go through the discipline of a college degree, and that question I would answer with a resounding yes! Actually, a qualified yes! The reason I say qualified is that my evidence for this conclusion is purely anecdotal and wouldn’t pass the peer-review test. You see, the Gates, Waltons, and Orecks of the world are not the norm – they probably would have been successful out of grammar school. So, I can’t make a convincing argument that you will be more successful with a college degree, but I can make a strong argument for going to the “right” college and coming out with the “right” skills to increase your chances of success. By that I mean,

 

 

You can find all of these things in the “right” public or private university. The real investment in college is in three parts: tuition and student fees; living expenses; and books and lab fees. Top private universities charge about $4,500 a class or well over $100,000 for four years (today a lot of students don’t make it out in 4 years). Living expenses can run up to $50,000 over 4 years; and books and lab fees at least another $10,000. You do the math. A college degree today is a big investment.

 

The real benefit of college, however, is less about the degree and more about what you gain from the experience. If you graduate with the ability to think both creatively and critically, you know how to innovate and create value, you’ve had some leadership experience, and you’ve built a network of people who will be part of your career for the rest of your life, then you can’t put a price on that. Well, you can, and you should shop around to get the best value for your dollar. But you understand what I mean—learning fundamental skills that are not necessarily domain specific (for example, negotiating skills, research skills, networking skills) are priceless.

 

Now back to the issue of whether Sam needs to go to college to be an entrepreneur. I agree with Palm founder Jeff Hawkins when he said that entrepreneurship is not a career because once you’ve launched your business, you have to manage it, so now you’re a manager not an entrepreneur. The point is that in your lifetime you will have many occupations and during some of your career you will be self employed, either because you chose to be or because someone else made that decision for you. So, you need to develop skills and connections that will help you deal with change when it happens—and change definitely will happen. College is one way to get those skills and make those connections. Successful entrepreneurs depend on their networks, their opportunity seeking skills, their resource gathering skills, their critical thinking skills, and their risk-taking skills.

 

So, Sam, if you approach college with a plan to really acquire the skills you need to be successful in anything you choose to do, then you will definitely come away feeling that this investment was truly worth it.