FBC – 134 – Is College Just A Huge Waste Of Time & Money?

Is College Just A Huge Waste Of Time & Money?

Today we are touching base on a burning topic. Should you or should you not go to college? Is it worth investing money in a college education OR you should jump straight to entrepreneurship or drop out today? Answers inside.

Something that I hear young people say is “oh, man, you know what? College is for suckers. I am not going to College or university? I want to be an entrepreneur.

Does college suck? Does university suck? It's a question. So right after you graduate from high school, should you just go and start your business or something? It's a tough question, right? Because, I mean, first thing I have to say is some people have the wrong idea about being an entrepreneur. They think it's all, unicorns and rainbows and stuff.

And you make a lot of money and you have a lot of fun because you've seen some dudes on Instagram or something, spending cash but maybe they take the money from the bank. They flash it at you and then put it back in the bank where they borrowed the money. Or maybe it's the fake bills or whatever. I don't know. So the image that people have of entrepreneurship, I think is wrong.

Because it's really not like that. Most entrepreneurs and when I say most, it’s like the great majority are struggling and very stressed man. It's a lot of work and it's not a walk in a park.

Is College Just A Huge Waste Of Time & Money?

A lot of entrepreneurs, before they actually take a holiday, they will have to wait years. And even before they actually pay themselves, they have to wait years. But we have examples of some entrepreneurs who made it and who dropped out of college. Bill Gates, for example, and Mark Zuckerberg.

They dropped out.  But they were in Harvard. And maybe if they had stayed in the Harvard, you know, maybe they would have done the same thing. Maybe just dropping out allowed them to have more time to work on their craft, which is what the dropout thing will do for you if you take advantage of that time. But if you drop out just to not to go to college and stuff, it's not going to do anything for you. Right.

So if you drop out because you're like, dude, instead of being in the classroom, I want to spend twenty four hours working on my business, which is what these guys were doing, then that's the reason why they get those results right.

If you look at other CEOs. Do you think all CEOs dropped out of college? No. Most of them still went to college. You have to look at the whole spectrum. OK. Some people made it big as a CEO while going to college and some people made it big as a CEO without going to college. That’s my thinking.

So to the question of is college good or bad? It depends on what you want to do right now. And it depends on who you are. The college system has been working for centuries. OK. So if it was that bad, it would have stopped. OK. Now, people have I mean, we have the digital word and knowledge stuff.

So it's easier for you to do stuff and globalization and everything and more and more people are starting to realize that, you know, there is another system and they want to thrive in this system. But it doesn't mean that the college university system is all bad. You know, I don't think so. You know, there are some conspiracies about, man, you know what? The college system is designed to just create employees

What do you mean by “designed to get employees?” It's not designed to create only employees. It's depending on how much effort you're going to put in and who you are and stuff. So you can actually achieve great things by going to college and you can achieve great things by not going to college.

There are a lot of things that I've missed out on when I was growing, because you think you have to take the stance. You have to draw a line in the sand when you're younger. Because I don't know that for whatever reason, you need to pick sides, which is ridiculous.

And once you get into the circles of entrepreneurs, I mean, Jesus Christ, there's so many lines drawn in the sand for nothing, you know, and a lot of bitterness and stuff.

So, you know, try not to be like this. Try to meet people halfway, I guess. There is a positive and the negative aspect to everything, OK? Not everything about entrepreneurship is absolutely awesome.

There are things that are really awesome and rewarding, and there are things that suck, right? It's the same thing for a university and for corporate.

About the Author

Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches, from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms, while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is college a waste of time for future entrepreneurs?

Sometimes. For founders pursuing professional credentials like medicine or law, no. For founders pursuing internet businesses, mostly yes if the cost exceeds 30,000 dollars total. The four years cost more than tuition. They cost the lost compounding of starting four years earlier with no debt and a real customer.

What does college teach an entrepreneur that the internet does not?

Structured peer relationships, access to specific networks, and social proof for risk-averse buyers. Those are real but narrow advantages. Marketing, sales, product, finance, and operations are all taught better, faster, and cheaper online. The honest college argument is networks and credentials, not knowledge transfer.

How do you decide if college is worth it for your business goals?

Calculate total cost including four years of forgone income, then compare to the same four years invested in a small business or apprenticeship. For most online business paths, the alternative path produces more revenue, more skills, and more network within three years. For regulated paths, the answer flips entirely.

What is the right move for someone already in college who wants to build a business?

Use college time to ship a real project. A 100-customer side business by graduation outperforms a 4.0 GPA for entrepreneurial outcomes. The point is not to drop out. The point is to refuse to treat college as the main event when the actual training happens in the side project.

Further reading

• Martin's story page: the full origin story on Martin's story page.
• LinkedIn Newsletter (Diary of a Virtual CEO): operational tactics covered weekly in the LinkedIn Newsletter (Diary of a Virtual CEO).
• HubSpot Blog: sales and marketing benchmarks on the HubSpot Blog.
• Harvard Business Review: research on solo and founder-led operations from Harvard Business Review.