Why Mark Zuckerberg Is a Bad Role Model For Aspiring Tech Execs 326
coondoggie writes "Want to run a successful high-tech company? Don't drop out of college. The myth of the brilliant Ivy League student who starts a business in his dorm room, drops out of school, and goes on to run a successful high-tech start-up for many decades to come is essentially just that: a myth. Despite a few high-profile exceptions — such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates — the vast majority of CEOs running successful U.S. high-tech firms have college degrees, and more than half have at least one graduate degree."
Confirmed (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not a myth if it happened on multiple occasions...
seriously? (Score:0, Interesting)
Could this post be any more pointless? So in other words, stay in school kids, stop all your creativity and innovation because you have no chance in the world to actually change the world around you. Just get a degree, get some office job, settle down, retire, and die. Don't actually use your brain to expand your life. Go figure. Also, if it was a myth, why do you have clear proof of it happening twice in your post? You say it's a myth, yet you cite examples of it clearly not being a myth. What? Seriously, man.
Which came first, jobs or college degrees? I'm pretty sure humanity would be fine without the existence of colleges. It is will power that needs to be instilled in people, not random bullshit facts about Socrates, Plato, and macroeconomic principles. I'm sorry, but taking a class in 'Social History' does not do anything for my life whatsoever.
Re:many decades? (Score:2, Interesting)
Question is, do you want to START a company, or RUN a company. If you want to START a company, you need to have a drive that doesn't mesh well with sitting at the knee of an authority figure and have him dump his views into your brain. RUNNING someone elses company, on the other hand... any retard can do that. When you get right down to it, the best would be to just go play golf and not screw up what was working before you arrived in an effort to leave your mark.
Like other jobs... (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember the woman who played the young John Connor's step/foster mother in T2? Yeah, I don't know her name either, and that's my point. She's one of those actors/actresses whose face you remember, but whose name you don't. But as a result of having small parts in so many movies, she's pulling in somewhere at the low seven figures from royalties. She's not Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham-Carter or any other famous professional from the acting world, but she embodies a more likely form of success to anyone who would choose acting as a career. But alas, the center of the bell curve is never all that interesting...and nobody wants to be at the lower side of what falls off the slope. So everyone focuses on the exceptional and strange (in a good way) examples.
Completely Disagree (Score:2, Interesting)
What is not mentioned here is that the methods by which those great tech startups got big.
" behind every great fortune is a great crime"
Apple
Microsoft
Facebook
Oracle
are all great heists
And thus it's good to study those crimes if you wish to become rich. The MBA is really good training for finding your mark to exploit and understanding risks..but anyone can steal.
Re:And... (Score:1, Interesting)
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuck: Just ask. Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks.
He was all right about this. Everybody that give away their lives to complete strangers are all dumb fucks. He became rich because the world is filled with dumb fucks.
Re:And... (Score:4, Interesting)
So, you discriminate against people upon how they dress?
It's great to be comfortable or a rebel and all, but the way humans (and computers) interact seamlessly is through standards. Clothing may seem trivial to you, but dressing for business is a statement that you are there *for* business. You can still be there for business if you wear a hoodie, but it becomes open to interpretation, just as Zuck's choice of apparel was.
That lack of clarity can ruffle feathers and be enough to make a difficult negotiation impossible. Sometimes, that sort of clash is a statement, and as such, may be a good idea, but it comes with a risk.
One way or the other, anyone who expects their bits to arrive in an expected manner, but rails against people who arrive dressed in an expected manner isn't considering the value of convention to efficient and clear communication.