Should I skip college or go?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

Hello College Confidential,

I am currently a sophomore in highschool, with very high ambitions when it comes to my career goals. Before I delve into the respective ambitions, I want to just say a few things about myself.

I love to lead, and am terrible in following instruction. I for some reason simply have the ability to dislike nearly everything that a superior does, either there is a flaw in the order or the tone of the command get’s to me, however I am terrible at following orders. I know that a regular career will be next to impossible, not only will I hate listening to the manager or person above me, however I will not have the enthusiasm of working when I know that the guys up top make millions, and I get whatever scrap falls off.

I am very intelligent when it comes to organizing and leading people. I am great at history, I am great at strategy, and I am a excellent innovator. I am terrible in mathematics, and I always am terrible in school. Now I talk about terrible in terms of getting into a Ivy, the only kind of college that I want to attend. I can perfectly survive in a college environment, however that is likely not going to happen.

The career goals are quite large. I wish to be a CEO, followed by a life of politics after I have a huge nest in my late 40’s-50’s. The kind of people that I want to be are synonymous with the names of Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, Gates, Jobs, Vanderbilt, and Morgan. Now after doing research, it is clear that this is a career goal that requires much more than a piece of paper.

Number one, I realize that this is entirely up to me. I will not have a boss, infact I will be the boss, however no one in turn can hire me for this, therefore I must build it through will. I have a huge argument nearly daily with my teachers, who tell me that I will be wasting my intellect and gifts and will end up homeless in someplace. I can see their concern, however they can’t really give me advice on my goals, so I don’t blame them when they get angry.

So, I am currently working to attend Harvard College as a sophomore. I am trying to become a great athlete to achieve a hook in this crazy competition, and I have my ethnic background (Hispanic), and the fact that no one in my family has ever gone to college. I am likely only going to apply to Harvard, and maybe a few top tier Ivies depending on what I learn about them over the course of this year.

The great news is that I could care less if I get rejected from all of my schools, if that happens, I simply skip college and follow the footsteps of all of my favorite businessmen. I am going to work to raise capital, open a startup, and proceed to change the world and get absolutely wealthy doing so. I therefore am wondering if my plan is solid.

Before people say there is a .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance of this happening, I say that those people above did it, therefore why can’t I?

So what does the forum think, and any advice that you can give to me to help me along my journey.

2

I’m not sure if this is a joke

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If you want to skip college and get a job that otherwise would require a college degree, then obviously you would need to know MORE than the college grads who are applying for said position.

If you can do that, and you are a risktaker- then sure, you don’t need to go to college.

4

No you’re not. I’m 100% convinced that you thrive on arguing (here on CC and with your teachers.) Your threads on this site are a complete spectacle.

Just try to get something beyond Cs and Ds and actually become a Junior.

5

What is your bajillion dollar startup idea?

6

If he skips college, where is he going “skip” to, again?

7

Responders might want to look at his last thread for add’l background before responding.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1729568-january-update-plans-for-harvard-aplication.html#latest

8

Well I read some of that. OP, did you know President Obama went to Occidental College, Warren Buffet went to the University of Nebraska, and Oprah Winfrey went to Tennessee State University. I’m not sure why you believe it’s Harvard or nothing. It seems to me you time will be better spent developing your natural talents than trying to become a last minute football God or thinking day in day out about Harvard. You’d probably hate it.

9

This is incredibly pretentious even for this site.

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You like leading but you can’t follow orders? That’s not leading, that dictating and manipulating. Where do you claim your experience with leadership from? Good luck with your dreams, but you ego could do with a little downsizing.

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^ Thank you everyone for responding. For the person who thinks that I am getting C’s and D’s, the have been switched around, and they are getting higher as the weeks roll by. I thank the posters, and wish to extend a few questions.

Firstly, to redpoodles, by working on my natural talents, are you recommending that I ignore the college aspect, and focus on skills needed for my career goals? For I like that you did not get hostile, even after you read some of my previous posts.

And to albert: I wish to know more about your point. I’m intrigued to what makes you think that.

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“The career goals are quite large. I wish to be a CEO, followed by a life of politics after I have a huge nest in my late 40’s-50’s. The kind of people that I want to be are synonymous with the names of Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, Gates, Jobs, Vanderbilt, and Morgan. Now after doing research, it is clear that this is a career goal that requires much more than a piece of paper.”

This jumps out quite a bit. These people with whom you want to be synonymous all gained their success in a number of ways. However, the driving force behind their success was the fact that they had BIG and revolutionary ideas. Some of them were college dropouts…but they had an equal amount of education in all practical respects. What’s your big and revolutionary idea?

I looked at some of your other threads. You do not have a chance of getting accepted into Harvard, and I think you’re fully aware of that. Are you aware that there are hundreds of other wonderful universities in the US?

The main theme of your threads seems to be an unjustifiably high opinion of yourself, and a serious problem with authority. I can relate to the dislike for authority…but there’s a difference between questioning and evaluating the sources and validity of a perceived authority figure, and an outright obstinate and defiant approach to anything and everything resembling an authority figure. It is important to respect authority. I don’t mean this in the sense of always respecting the law for the simple reason that it’s the law. I mean respecting the authority of people that have far more experience and expertise than you do in a given subject. You could take any one of those people on your list - I bet they all had mentors and teachers that they respected due to their authority of a given topic.

Your career goals do require much more than a piece of paper…the key part of this being ‘much more than.’ This suggests that the piece of paper is typically a requirement. Sure, not all of those people had that piece of paper. That’s a fair point.

“Before people say there is a .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance of this happening, I say that those people above did it, therefore why can’t I?”

This is because those people were all part of the .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%. The majority of the people that spend their lives working as billionaire CEOs and retire from business to spend the rest of their career in politics are the type of people that are known as “the upper-upper class.” One cannot simply “become” part of the upper-upper class. This class is defined by the power, prestige, and name recognition. This is often derived from family names. The Kennedy’s, Bush’s, Rockefeller’s, Morgans, etc. When one is born into wealth, one has a far greater chance of success. I don’t mean wealth in terms of a dollar amount. I mean wealth in terms of real wealth - power, prestige, name recognition, political clout, and also financial wealth.

These people are all great leaders…but one of the primary characteristics of good leadership is also a respect for authority and an ability to follow orders. You claim to be a great leader…why? What leadership experience do you have that makes you think that CEO of a company is the ideal place for you? For what groups have you been a leader? You’re great at history? What does that have to do anything? You’re great at innovating? Tell us about some of your innovations.

13

I can’t imagine anyone will follow the OP, honestly. So I do think the OP’s chances of the kind of success he dreams of is .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%.

14

^ not going to listen to intparent, although that is a great guinea pig picture.

As for comfortablycurt, thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. You say that the people that you see had revolutionary ideas, that is most true, but I want to argue that point. The top 3 tycoons that I admire, the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan, both made their mark in industries that already existed, or at least were already known. Morgan was a banker, and bankers were already quite common at the time. Even Rockefeller had a oil business that did not really go places until some funding by Vanderbilt.

The most revolutionary of the bunch, Carnegie who took steel and made it cheap enough to use for construction, already had a rough understanding, and was not really that revolutionary.

You bring the point of my extreme dislike for upper authority, that is from my realization that I will never be great if I’m not at the summit at the mountain. Honestly when I was young I was a great student, aced with 98-99’s in all my classes and got hundreds of stickers and praise from my teachers. Heck if I stayed on that path, I would easily be a 4.0+ GPA student, likely valedictorian, and having everyone help me pick an ivy :). A lot has changed since then, and I realized that I am going to be a normal person no matter how high the grades got, for I was surrounded by well teachers. I know that to be great, I must be the absolute highest, with no ‘boss’ or manager above me.

I want to be clear that I am not hating on teachers, in-fact I believe that they have one of the most noble responsibilities of this nation. It is the system, and the disgrace of a ‘education’ that children receive that is really my problem. My ideas are well planned, have multiple fronts that I am going to smack into, and have spent years upon years doing meticulous research and planning. I can assure you my ideas are sound.

I will finish with a question regarding your final point about the upper elite class.

With the exception of Morgan (father was already a powerful banker), and a few others. Every family, including the Rockefellers and the Carnegies, started from humble beginnings (immigrant etc), and then rose. So if the entire prestigious family group really had a founder who came from the bottom, why does everyone say that only those born into the class can get in?

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^ Bump

16

Delusional. :-@

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Guys, please don’t engage the OP. Read his previous threads- he is delusional and has zero interest in listening to posters who are trying to give him realistic advice.

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^ Who says I’m not listening? Its people who keep saying that I am not listening, I must stress to everyone that this is not the case. I may not agree with what you said, and will ask why you recommend it, but do not think that I am simply ignoring the post, I only do that if there is an insult thrown at me, which I get a lot.

Instead of saying this person is delusional, or that he is crazy, try to understand what the OP is trying to do, and give advice to SUPPORT, not destroy, the OP’s aspirations. I know that my aspirations are not the average that you may see, and I understand the anger that many people feel, but please just sip a cold beverage, relax, and help OP with his plans.

19

Bump

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^ Final Bump for this post, if ignored please lock it.