Entrepreneurship and College – Is Dropping Out the Right Choice?

Just recently, I was invited to the White House to speak with college students and aspiring entrepreneurs on the importance of mentoring.

The event was hosted by MTV, the Obama Administration and the Young Entrepreneur Council (which I am apart of.)

At the event there were a few students who were debating about dropping out of college to start their own business.

Regardless of how “sexy” dropping out sounds I couldn’t definitively recommend that it was a good fit.

After the event I talked with one of the students and shared my story.

By the end of our 5 minute chat you could see his his view had shifted.

I didn’t tell him to drop out or stay in school.

I simply told him my story with these 5 points:

• Surround yourself with rockstars and people who support you whether you are in school or out of school.
• Find a mentor (preferably a fellow rockstar) and take them to lunch or coffee at least once a month.
• Your first idea is never as awesome as you think it is. Share your idea with others and watch it transform.
• Anytime you think you know it all. You don’t.
• You don’t need funding: stop talking and build something.

Here is my story along with all the gory details:

My Story: How to Get the Best College Education (as an Entrepreneur)

It was the last week in August 2006. The start of my sophomore year and I had just moved into a fraternity house with 32 other guys when I started my first (successful) business.

Needless to say, a fraternity house isn’t the ideal place to build a business but, I had just landed an email marketing contract with a luxury real estate firm in Sarasota, Florida.

After a 3 months of going to class full time (15 credit hours), building my business, and living in a fraternity house… I was beat and my body torn to pieces.

By early November, I was sick. Really sick.

I had developed a serious case of pneumonia which would take me more than 9 months to fully recover from.

During this time, I received a medical incomplete for all my courses (I could finish them later) and the doctor gave me a note reading  something like:

“Medically necessary to move out of the fraternity house, conditions are deemed to be could be life threatening”

Apparently 4am parties and the continuous smell of stale beer, aren’t ideal for sleeping.

To top it off there was a nasty case of black mold in my room at the fraternity house.

Sick as a dog, I retreated home with my tail between my legs to recover.

After more than a month of being in bed the semester had ended and it was time for winter break.

Upon returning to college I moved into a new apartment with a few fraternity brothers – I didn’t learn my lesson the first time – to start the spring semester.

This time I promised myself, I would balance work and school better.

Dropping Out of College the Obvious Choice

During the spring semester, my email marketing business was booming and I was poised to quadruple my client base by the end of the year.

I was ready for some serious growth.

My health still wasn’t 100% but I was getting it back in order.

By April, my business was making about $25,000 a year and I had just started negotiating a contract that would take my business to more than $100,000 in just a few months.

With the sound of cash registrars ringing the choice was obvious.

I was going to drop out of school and build my business…

…  I just had to convince my friends and family.

There have been few times in my life where I have been so incredibly certain about a decision.

I had the resolve of a kitten trying to catch a laser pointer, I was determined but I wasn’t looking at the whole picture.

After a couple weeks filled with arguing with my mentors and shouting matches with my family the negotiations on the “big” contract still hadn’t closed.

My mentors urged me to wait until the contract was in hand and I was paid.

I reluctantly agreed.

After more than 4 weeks of negotiations the deal ultimately fell through with just 2 weeks left in the semester.

Needless to say I was bummed but glad I waited it out.

I put my head down and finished the semester promising myself I would build my business over the summer.

I thought I had it all figured out, but little did I know that the real estate bubble my business was built on was about to burst.

Getting Clarity and Blazing Your Own Trail

As summer rolled on my business turned out to be much less stable than I had original projected. (I’d learn later in my life that projections are often like that. lol.)

Over the following years, my business continued to grow but the boom it had started in was definitely over.

The heated discussions and arguments with my friends and family had really given me clarity on one thing: I really liked business but I still had a lot to learn.

To that point, I had found business school to be a lot of theory and case studies.

This made for a easy workload but there is nothing like building something from scratch with no roadmap. (I loved that feeling of being a pioneer and blazing your own trail.)

I was really facinated with this “internet marketing” thing, so I decided to set aside a couple thousand dollars to test some ideas.

After a couple months of research I jumped in and my real education began.

During my time at  UCF — I launched 6 businesses all with under $1000 initial investment.

The projects ranged from my email marketing company, to a complex ad-driven proxy network, to a network of simple affiliate sites.

I started each of these “brilliant” projects while I was attending classes and managing over 200 clients in my email marketing business.

Well maybe only a couple of the ideas were smart let alone brilliant…

Out of the 6 projects 4 failed and 2 would go on to be profitable with 1 still being profitable today.

Looking back — this was the best education I could have asked for:

• I learned first hand which ideas worked and which didn’t.
• I learned HTML/CSS/PHP and WordPress.
• I learned how to hold myself accountable.
• I learned a ton about SEO and building a digital marketing campaign.
• I learned how to pick up the pieces of a failed project.

During this time I wasn’t afraid of failing. (Something I wish I had today, lol.)

I knew that if worst came to worst, I could always go work in Finance or Marketing when I graduated.

But, to be honest I think the idea of  a “typical” marketing or finance job scared me more than failing.

This created a unique environment where I could get my hands dirty and test the things we were learning in class along with a bunch of stuff we weren’t.

In short I had a safety net – I had options and I was allowed fail.

If I had dropped out when I though I knew all the answers, I would have been in a tight situation.

Looking back it is obvious that I would have been sacrificing short term money for long term personal growth… but I realize first hand that it is hard to see that when you are in the moment.

Sure, sometimes I play devils advocate about what would have happened if I dropped out, but that is just an exercise in projections… and as we know, projections don’t always match up to where you think they should.

So Now to Answer the Question: Should I Drop out?

Well, there still is no right answer to this question.

My gut instinct is to tell you to create a similar environment to what I did and watch your ideas flourish… but we all have access to different opportunities.

In reality it comes down to this:

If you are going to start a business you’ve got a lot of learning ahead of you and it is your job to create your own learning “curriculum.”

My best advice is to learn to use Google… really well, but you’ll have to do that whether you are in college or not.

Sure there are a ton of things colleges could do to foster entrepreneurship but some are getting it right, check out University of Central Florida, University of Wisconsin, and University of Maryland just to name a few.

But, even if they have a great entrepreneurship program,  don’t expect college to give you all the answers, but also don’t expect that living at home with your parents will give you all the answers either.

When it comes down to it, you really can’t recreate the awesome learning environment you find on a college campus. Plus when else in life are you surrounded by really smart CS kids to do your programming dirty work?

All in all, if you think dropping out of college will give you more free time to focus on your business idea, then I’d say build your business while you are in college.

Sure your friends might think you are insane for not going out and doing beer bongs with them but, those will be the same people asking you for a job if your business takes off. (don’t hire them.)

Updated: December 2nd, 2011 — Added the actual text of the doctors note.

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