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  • Well, often times

  • Business Education today, and I see it all the time

  • Kids come out of college, the best colleges

  • Wharton and Harvard and Stanford and some of the great business schools and

  • they'll come out and they won't have practical experience.

  • There's too many case studies that aren't practical.

  • You know, we ask kids that are 16 to 18 years old to make

  • $100,000 debt decisions when they go off to

  • University, and they are not prepared for that. They don't know

  • what they're getting themselves into, they just assume 'Okay, I'm gonna pay four years of education at twenty-five thousand a pop and

  • when I come out the other side somehow I'll be able to pay it back'.

  • Reporter: Right.

  • That's not how life works anymore.

  • There's no need even to have a college degree.

  • At all. We're in high school-

  • I mean, if somebody graduated from a great university, that may be an

  • indication that they will be capable of great things, but it's not necessarily the case

  • you know, if you look at

  • say, people like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs

  • these guys didn't graduate from college but

  • if you had a chance to hire them, of course that would be... a good idea. [laughs]

  • I think having the flexibility

  • to explore a lot of different things

  • which you can do when you're in college

  • which is one of the amazing things about being in college is

  • you can work on all these hobbies

  • and encode a lot of stuff and try a lot of different things. It's this amazing

  • flexibility that I think most people take for granted

  • and once you decide

  • 'Okay, I'm gonna start a company and I'm gonna do it with someone else',

  • you immediately now need to convince someone else if you want to change your mind on something, and

  • I think people really undervalue the option value and flexibility.

  • I think explore what you want to do before committing is really like, the key thing and

  • keep yourself flexible.

  • Interviewer: [chuckles]

  • No, I think that that's...

  • Interviewer: Yeah, I agree.

  • I mean, it's actually kind of funny like-

  • you know, if you think like 'what is education',

  • like you're basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain

  • and

  • it's actually

  • amazingly bad in conventional education

  • 'cause like it shouldn't be like this huge tour

  • If someone is standing up there kind of lecturing at people

  • and They've done the same lecture Twenty Years in a Row and They're not Very Excited about It and

  • In fact i think a Lot of Thing People Learn It probably There's no point in learning them Because

  • It that They never use them in the future because the like Kids Just in school Kinda Puzzled as to why they're there i think

  • The People Who are doing the work that we care about are

  • Figuring Out What to do next not following the person who told them what to do next and the problem with most

  • Colleges Is They are high school But with more binge Drinking

  • The entire purpose of a Good University Is to give you a Foundation to fail

  • Not a foundation to get an a and if You graduate from college with straight A's you have to do some serious soul-Searching?

  • As to why you chose to spend your time doing that a student's Work for the b students

  • The C students Run The Businesses and that These students dedicate The Buildings it's like The Newspaper Industry

  • Write more printing presses more Big Buildings write Makes this look

  • Grander We Have Brains That we're putting them Out there there's There's a Point of diminishing

  • returns in Terms of

  • What it's worth for a college Education and

  • How much Debt you're Willing to sell Yourself with a Lot of People file a Lot of People are following

  • if Not we'd have problems we Have too many Entrepreneurs we have too Many Successful people look how many People Go through Business Classes iF

  • Everything You Needed Was in that Actual Business class in that book

  • it'd be too Many Successful Business People Right How many People graduate

  • Matter of Fact the professor

  • Wouldn't have The time to sit there and teach you

  • He knows this book Damn near Broke a them page by page he knows all right cuz he be entrepreneur he too busy i'm

  • Too i'm doing Way

  • Too Much Right Now cuz i got the palm trees and

  • We do It we Sell It so much Right Stuff that I'm doing that i ain't quite got time to teach

  • and so when You walk into a Boardroom

  • With a Bunch of Guys in suits who all went to college you're fine

  • Yeah i Mean Because They Read a bunch of Words I've Lived a Bunch of life

  • That Self-Esteem From Seriously I Mean Most My mom first and Foremost

  • Just live in Life like you know being in real situations and Happen to be a person of High integrity and Honesty

  • you Know you never embarrassed Yourself of Course not You never walked in and Said how Everybody Thinks I'm ignorant Here i'm stupid i

  • Never i don't i don't Feel ignorant right you know i don't ryan felt like i came up in this Situation

  • or time you know where i wasn't afforded Certain opportunities and if afforded Opportunities

  • I could Be Oprah could be

  • Bill Gates i could Be Warren Buffett in My Experience in

  • Business

  • There is Very little difference

  • if Any

  • Between a Very High-Priced Business Education and

  • What's available a Lot for a Lot less Money i went to the university of nebraska-Lincoln

  • My last Year in college i went to Wharton for a Couple Years Before That

  • I learned Just as Much At University of Braska As I did at Wharton

  • you Need to be prodded in the right Direction but an Awful lot of It Is

  • Self As Self taught It Isn't Necessary to pay Thirty or Thirty-five Thousand Dollars a Year to go to some

  • big-name School

  • to get the Education at all i mean if you're gonna Learn accounting if you're going

  • Is the probably the most important of Course You'd take in Business iF you're gonna Learn to count you learn in accounting

  • Absolutely as Well and My view going to you and Always going to harvard i mean i see i

  • Would i bet on that and

  • so i

  • Wouldn't run Up

  • Huge Bills and

  • Education Is Very Good at

  • Training People to do the same Things that we've done over and Over again?

  • And i think there's Always a question What the nature of The Educational Good is

  • You Know you can Say It's a it's an investment Good we're investing in the future you can Say It'S a Consumption Good like

  • college Is a Four-Year Party

  • you Know i think most of the parents and students think of It Actually as an insurance Policy Where you're Buying This Really

  • Ever more Expensive insurance

  • So that The students don't fall through The really Big cracks in our society and We Should Be Asking some big questions why the insurance

  • Costs are Going Up and Up like That and if you were the president of Harvard or stanford if You wanted to get a

  • Lynch Mob of students alumni Faculty to come after you and try to lynch you What you Should Say Is

  • something Like This you know we we live in this much larger more Global World We Offer a Great

  • Education to everybody and so we're gonna double or triple our Enrollment over the next 15 to 20 Years

  • and People Would They'd All Be Furious because the value of The degrees comes from This Massive

  • Exclusion and and What you're Really running is something Like a

  • studio 54 Nightclub i hate It i Hated School i Really Hated School i Really all i hated School

  • Generally Right

  • Because It Was this

  • Instruction Following Thing Now i bet you it's probably also Because i wasn't good at It and some People

  • Like I've Got a Great Conceptual rep Memory and a Terrible rote Memory so if i have a Story i could tell you

  • Year By Year Kind of What Happened

  • Within a Story Within a Context but if i was to go into

  • You Know like a Memory Based Learning it's terrible i have a Terrible Road Memory?

  • Ego Barrier Is the worst Thing and if we Were raised differently

  • Just imagine in the schools that all Along The People will always Say Everybody Makes Mistakes

  • Everybody has Weaknesses

  • the Key is really to

  • Understand What Your Mistakes and Weaknesses are so that You can Learn from them

  • right i think in Punishment is it'S a terrible Concept

  • punishment means that You made a mistake and you're being Punished i think Instead of punishment Every time somebody Makes a Mistake

  • you Should Say The Only Thing that you need to do

  • To get out of your punishment his first think What Kind of mistake Was that so if i'm in this Situation

  • That's like That Again

  • How would i do deal with It differently not to make that Mistake

  • so that Learning

  • Should Come from The mistake not punishment because you're teaching People not to make Mistakes

  • Where's Where the learning comes from Not the appreciation the if you keep Doing this over and Over again

  • you're gonna Keep encountering The Same outcomes

  • you Know it's an Extremely

  • Corrupt System We Have at This point There's we have an Education bubble in the u.s

  • We have a Trillion Dollars of student debt

  • To first approximation this has gone to pay for a trillion Dollars Worth of lies about the value of The education People Have Received

  • And

  • and i it's not at all obvious

  • Yet Though What's going to What's going to replace This or how it's going to change

  • My Um you know the the you know the

  • and I'm somewhat Skeptical That It Will Be replaced By Any Sort Of single Unitary System and i have This fellowship for

  • Young People to start Companies

  • and You know it's not my claim is not That

  • Everybody Should Do This i don't think everyone Should become an Entrepreneur and i think i think there is no one-size-Fits-All

  • so i think the future will be much more heterogeneous Much more diverse in terms of What People do

  • And

  • What's What's Really Anomalous is the sort of

  • Unitary tracking Where you have to go to an elite college You go to yale or you go to jail

  • There's nothing Else You can Do you know

  • and so the The i think the universities are Perhaps in

  • Perhaps in the same Place as the catholic Church Was in

  • 1514 if we Go back 500 Years Where you have sort of This is monolithic Way newton's universal

  • Way of

  • Body of Knowledge of teaching Things the difference Between the yale and the Harvard political science Faculties are probably

  • No greater Than the differences between the dominicans and the franciscans we have all Kinds of small Debates Within This context?

  • We are we Have a System of Indulgences

  • That's costing more and more to support this priestly or professorial Class of People

  • We are told That it's the only Way to Salvation

  • You Must get a diploma to be Saved if you do not get a diploma then You Will go to hell

  • And i think and i think the i think the the message that i have That's like?

  • The 16th Century Reformers That's a Somewhat Troubling Message

  • Is that you have to work out?

  • Your Salvation on Your own you have to save Yourself and and