Why You Should Drop Out Of School

December 1, 2008

There are a thousand stories of startup founders dropping out of school. Some of these stories end with giant successes, and some of them end with failure. I dropped out of school in 1999 to join an Internet startup, and my story is a happy one. Even if one were to change the outcome, I would still have dropped out. Here’s why you should think about it.

School will always be an option, at least in most circumstances. Perhaps your situation is special, and you have some specific financial reason to be locked into school. In my case, I was on a full scholarship to a private university I could not otherwise afford. It certainly wasn’t a decision I made lightly, but it was still a good one. Years later, it wasn’t very difficult to go back and finish up. If I had not gotten excited about new projects, I would probably have started a graduate degree. It’s alright that I didn’t; I can go back and do that in a few years.

Opportunity will not always be an option. While you may have many opportunities available in your lifetime, you must make a decision whether to act on them. You can always go back to school, but you can’t always be a founder of some company or help invent some new gadget. You may have a lifetime of regret if you miss some interesting opportunity, but with school, you can always resume where you left off.

It is much easier to take risks when you are young. This is not because older people are not as clever, but because they have formed families and collected obligations. It’s certainly possible for them to take risks, but the amount of responsibility wrangling they have to do is often considerably greater. Why should you spend the easiest years of your life in terms of taking on risk, doing the safest possible thing?

I think that everyone gets a lot of chances in life to do wonderful things, but too few people recognize them or fail to act. If you see one of these chances, I urge you to take it; you can always resume your safer life if it doesn’t work out.

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