A few of the greatest names in tech dropped out and made billions, however that doesn’t imply it’s best to
What do Mark Zuckerberg and Invoice Gates have in frequent? Each dropped out of school, and each went on to turn into a few of the greatest names in tech.
Zuckerberg began Meta in 2004 from his Harvard dorm room earlier than ultimately dropping out, whereas Gates left Harvard in 1975 to co-found Microsoft. At present, their corporations are valued at US$1.8 trillion and US$3.8 trillion, respectively.
Tales like these have fueled one of the crucial pervasive myths in startup tradition: the concept that you should drop out of school in your early twenties to turn into a tech billionaire.
Nonetheless, Jeff Bezos warns that these circumstances are exceptions, not the rule. Talking at Italian Tech Week 2025, Bezos urged aspiring founders to take a unique method: earn a school diploma and acquire work expertise first earlier than launching your individual startup.
10 years of labor expertise contributed to Amazon’s success
In response to Bezos, a school diploma nonetheless holds worth, and gaining work expertise on high of that may make a significant distinction for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“I at all times advise younger individuals: Go work at a best-practices firm someplace the place you may be taught plenty of fundamental elementary issues [like] methods to rent rather well, methods to interview, and so forth,” stated Bezos.
“There’s plenty of stuff you’ll be taught in an awesome firm that can aid you, after which there’s nonetheless a lot of time to start out an organization after you may have absorbed it.”
Bezos himself began Amazon at 30, after garnering a decade value of labor expertise. He graduated from Princeton College in 1986 with a level in electrical engineering and pc science, and went on to work at corporations such because the telecommunications startup Fitel, Bankers Belief (now a part of Deutsche Financial institution), and the hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co.
The billionaire stated he “discovered an amazing quantity” throughout his time at D. E. Shaw. That function proved pivotal in his choice to launch Amazon—Bezos had been tasked with figuring out new enterprise alternatives within the rising web area, the place he found a statistic displaying internet utilization rising by 2,300% a 12 months. The discovering sparked his thought for a web-based retail enterprise.
He shared that the information and expertise he gained at his earlier corporations additionally proved invaluable, giving him a significantly better shot at success with Amazon than if he had dropped out of school to start out a enterprise a decade earlier.
“I feel that additional 10 years of expertise really improved the percentages that Amazon would succeed,” stated Bezos, including that he has no regrets about incomes his school diploma. “I loved school and I feel it’s been useful to me.”
Solely a handful of school dropouts obtain main entrepreneurial success
Bezos’ recommendation isn’t with out benefit.
Positive, it’s potential for a 20-year-old to drop out of school and turn into an entrepreneur, however the statistics present that such success is extraordinarily uncommon. A Harvard Business Review article even notes that solely about 4% of school dropouts go on to realize main entrepreneurial success.
Furthermore, in accordance with a 2019 study from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, the imply age of founders of high-growth startups, outlined as the highest 0.1% of the fastest-growing new companies in the US, is much from that of these of their 20s. On common, the age of those founders is 45.
The takeaway? Not every part must be achieved in your twenties—and also you’ll most probably profit from gaining expertise, abilities, and perspective earlier than launching your individual enterprise.
- Watch Jeff Bezos’ full speak at Italian Tech Week 2025 here.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Italian Tech Week 2025
