I met someone at a Labor Day barbeque over the weekend who
had spent the last couple years trying to launch a consulting start-up, but had
recently thrown in the towel and taken a job doing search engine optimization for a small company. He said
it’s far from his dream job, but that he’s just happy to be gainfully
employed. Further chatting led to him
revealing that he’d majored in computer science. At Stanford.
Computer science is a brutally tough program at Stanford (he
said all he did for four years was work like crazy to keep up). And there’s no doubt this guy must have been
pretty bright to get into—and out of—that program.
But graduates of prestigious colleges are ultimately just
regular people. Smart and driven, yes,
but not immune to failed start-up ideas, rough job markets, leaky roofs, bad
backs, colicky kids, or anything else that the rest of us face in our lives.
It’s important to remember that life doesn’t begin or end
with an admission to one particular school.
What matters over the long haul are your work ethic, character, and
interest in learning. Work hard now to
develop those traits, then make the most of your time wherever you go to
college. You’ll be more prepared to
succeed, to handle whatever life throws at you, and to keep up with the rest of
us regular people.