Would you want your kid to finish college or start as an entrepreneur?

I recommend the option to choose Entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur or taking that path towards it, builds an incredible repertoire of vast skills. With being self-employed there are so many outstanding advantages one experiences that one could not while being employed by someone else. One experiencing true freedom to do what you want when you want without being told what you can do and when... and what you are to be paid for it.

A person grows in so many ways on the road to being self-employed. There's humility in being broke on that road and appreciativeness when things are going well. It's the character building and person one becomes on that road to success. The success is not so much making it to your destination, but what became of you in your growth on the way there. Education doesn't have to come within 4 walls from a lecture from a professor who never had their own business to begin with. There are many mentors one can have in all areas of expertise.

The problem with high failure rates in the entrepreneur world is that it costs nothing to join. However, a person who has experienced success and can replicate it, has spent a lot of time, sweat equity and investment in one's self to get to that point. Success has a price to pay... a ticket that has to be paid at the door to get in. That price involves self-improvement within one's self to such a level one may never experience had they chose to be a 9 to Fiver punching someone else's clock ...building someone else's dream.

LastWarrior

Isn't that the parents job?

Maybe i am off but I think that falls into "life preparedness".
I know parental guidance can only go so far ...

btw I vote for college ... then entrepreneur.

Couldn't agree more.
No matter what life-path you chose you need to be able think.
And, you can never have too much knowledge.

I agree. College develops social skills that will be useful later on. And you are around brighter people. A well rounded education makes it easier to form friendships, and you will tend to have smarter friends.

I never went to college, but I see the benefits in people I know that did get a degree.

I only have one reservation about college. Some people go to college because they don't want to leave school. It's a way to extend their "school days".

Some people become teachers for the same reason...they don't want to leave the school environment. As a parent, I don't know what I could do about that...but I've seen it close up.

But on average? College is a huge plus, I think.
Some kids have a strong entrepreneurial drive. To them, I would say that college is training. It makes for better leaders. And kids in college also tended to be more involved in activities in high school. All good training.

An entrepreneurship can always be learned side by side if one takes the road through traditional higher education. I for one had way more money and a better lifestyle, so to speak, than my peers in the last few years of high school and the years in college I attended. Why? They only knew one way to make money and that was to go and fill out job applications and give their resume in hopes of getting hired. While I had many options on collecting a check and many of it was reacting on some crazy idea or implementing an old one.

The commonality I like between the two is the preparedness, commitment, hard work and persistence it takes to succeed. Except I believe if one were to collect all those hard earned hours of education, the Entrepreneur will have learned to fish to feed him/her self for a lifetime.

LastWarrior

I'd rather see the kids get an education first, then tackle whatever--a job or starting their own biz. If the biz doesn't work out, they are still prepared via graduating from higher learning.

In any event, it all boils down to just how savvy the child is in the first place. I've seen high school grads go on to be millionaires. The question remains whether or not those people would have achieved their fat wallets much faster and with less stress if they had been prepared for the problems and perils of the business world via higher ed.

You're an enigma, Derek. How do you even find time to do IM, working as a medical doctor in fast-paced Hong Kong and having a family to take care of?

You have to be prepared - as a parent - to support your child whether they become entrepreneurs or go to college and get a job. And as a parent you have to know the difference between a hand out and a leg up. I'd help any of my kids get on their feet, but not support them indefinitely.

Also, I assumed that "being an entrepreneur" did not only include I.M. I made good money in I.M. for a couple of years but like you said - things changed. Now I make 90% of my income in my consulting business

Thank God! It'd be weird if you wanted them to be comfortable in somebody else's skin.