When he was at Harvard, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh started a pizza business in his dorm. One of the residents would buy nightly pizzas from Tony and secretly resell them by the slice to people on his floor. Today, that resident—Alfred—is the COO of Zappos.
The “Leibo Award,” given annually to the College of William & Mary men’s soccer player with the most positive influence on the team’s attitude, is named after former player Jon Stewart (then Jon Leibowitz).
Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, played football at Stanford. He also made the All-Pac Ten Academic Team, was elected senior class president, ran a crisis hotline for teens, and was named a Rhodes Scholar.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was so interested in business that he enrolled in graduate level business courses—as a freshman—at Indiana University until the school stopped him from doing so.
When she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in art history, fashion designer Vera Wang got her start as a writer for Vogue magazine. She was promoted to senior fashion editor less than one year later. How does an art history major get a job writing for Vogue? It probably didn’t hurt that Sarah Lawrence emphasizes writing over testing for all majors. As the school’s website says,
“As you investigate topics that excite you, you’ll gain a tremendous amount of writing experience, which will not only bring deeper understanding but will also improve your ability to formulate and communicate ideas.”
If you trace successful people back to their college roots, you’ll inevitably notice a theme. Even for those who attended prestigious schools, none of them were made successful simply by attending college and getting a degree. What made them successful was their work ethic, interest in learning, and willingness to take advantage of the four years of opportunity their colleges gave them.
There’s no reason you can’t do the same thing, no matter where you go to college.