In the town of West Hartford, we are guided and pushed to further our education and get a degree. During our entire 13 year primary and secondary education, we strive for A’s in order to be accepted into some of America’s premier universities. For most, this is the ideal option, and in an affluent town like West Hartford the enormous cost of a post secondary education is feasible. For some, however; the ideal path lies not with university, but with entering the workforce directly; particularly to start one’s own business.

Starting a business comes with a lot of risk out of high school according to Carlie Dailey, a former business major in college and current Hall High Business teacher. Ms.Dailey stated “taking out a loan is the last thing a young adult wants to worry about, but the possibilities for success are endless with what you do with the money.” She also made sure to mention that “Most startups fail to rise to a place where they can sustain a healthy profit, and support all expenses involved with running a business”. There were many other opinions gathered on this topic, all of them carried different ups and downs.

While starting a business directly out of high school carries great risk, some have the dedication to start a business while enrolled. Ryan Druckenmiller, Hall High Senior, local entrepreneur, and coincidentally an author to this article, has experience balancing his business and schoolwork. When he is not completing school work, or working as a waiter at a retirement home, Ryan makes some extra money buying, refurbishing, and selling vintage clothing on various sites. While describing keys to success he’s acquired knowledge of over time, Ryan stresses the importance of being well connected with veterans of the trade.

Current Hall High School Senior, Hugh Wells, believes the most intelligent decision our researchers have concluded is, “I would go to community college and start my business at the same time, making cost efficient decisions to influence my future in a positive direction” Hugh stated. Other insight included by Hugh Wells was to stick to your goals and persevere even if you don’t hit off in the primary stages of the business.

After a detailed survey, most current seniors agree that it would be a good idea to start a business after college. Some seniors disagree with this idea. Nikki Herz, senior at Hall, believes it would not be a good idea and stated “Don’t do it, you will go bankrupt, join a big company”. Nikki does bring up a valid point that you could go bankrupt, but many other seniors disagree with her. Brendan Maloney, Senior at Hall, disagrees with Nikki Herz. When asked “do you think it’s smart to start a business after college”, Brendan said “Yes because it can be a lifelong investment that can make you millions.” From what can be concluded, starting a business is a gamble, a risk if you would, but if you are passionate in your business you should start one.

With that in mind, some of the biggest companies and entrepreneurial movements in this country have been made by people that took that risk of going straight into their business and missing out on the college experience. Former CEO and founder of Apple, Steve Jobs dropped out of college his first year in pursuit of his startup business right in his parents garage. Apple Inc. is now the biggest company in the world holding a market value of 926.9 billion dollars. In addition to Jobs, Paul Allen, Co-Founder of Microsoft dropped out of his University Freshman year and convinced Bill Gates to dropout of Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg, Chief of Facebook did the same, leaving Harvard to become the youngest billionaire the following years.

The list goes on and on, but even with these highly successful individuals, most of them, especially Bill Gates will still advice you to follow through with your college diploma. Gates stated, “Although I dropped out of college and got lucky pursuing a career in software, getting a degree is a much surer path to success.” He goes in to detail saying how college graduates will always have a higher rate of rewarding jobs and higher income, an overall easier life after school. In fact, all of them except Steve Jobs ended up going back to their schools to get their diplomas. Zuckerberg once quoted “My number one piece of advice is you should learn how to program.” He might of had the crazy skills of learning how to program on a high level before college, but even Mark knows that before seriously entering the computer science field, you need to properly learn how to code from professionals at a university. Every one of these business pioneers would advise to at least earn the degree, because in the long run, they only assist you further.

All in all, when you ask whether or not you should pursue your business interests entirely instead of a degree, the answer is that you should follow through with school while continuing to manage that pursuit, because at least you will be furthering your education. If that business takes off and requires undivided attention just as it did for many of the entrepreneurs listed previously, then you can always take that route and finish earning your diploma when the time’s right. For almost all people though, taking the chance at enhancing your understanding of what you’re doing can never set you back any more than not doing it at all.