Parents will have all kinds of complicated and frustrating conversations with their children throughout their parenting journey, but one of the most frustrating ones might center around education, career choices, and the workforce.
While a college education may not be the right track for everyone, a teen wanting to skip out on a college education so they can be the next Steve Jobs could certainly be a difficult conversation to navigate.
Redditor unitedfan6191 asked:
"Parents of Reddit, if when discussing colleges with your kid, they said to you, 'But Steve Jobs was a college dropout!,' how would you respond?"
A Business Plan
"Steve Jobs had a business plan, a team, and investors before he dropped out."
" Mark Zuckerberg dropped out from Harvard with a working product and investors."
"If my kid has a business plan and investors already, sure, go ahead and drop out."
- Gbrusse
Such A Real Response
"My brother said this to my mom, and her response was, 'but he’s dead now.'"
- JRtheBuilder
"My favorite thing to say to Jobs fans is, 'if he was so smart then why is he dead.' It's valid because he only died because he chose not to get an operation to protect his stock price."
- CharlieTitor
Not The Same Person
"'You're not Steve Jobs, Brendan.'"
- The-SpoonyBard
"'The guy who died of cancer because he chose acupuncture, dietary supplements, and juices over actual medical treatment? That’s your go-to, Brendan?'"
- Mango_Tango_725
"Even Steve Jobs wasn't really Steve Jobs. He had multiple failures, didn't create much himself (attached himself to Wozniak, for example), and ultimately died out of stupidity. Maybe don't try to be Steve Jobs."
- boxsterguy
"I had to say this once. But not to my child. To my grown-a** roommate who was about to drop out of college for a third time in as many years."
"Dude had a rich dad and thought that he’d be able to coast on his contacts. Kept saying s**t like, 'Steve Jobs dropped out of college!' And eventually, I hit him with, 'Bro. You’re not Steve Jobs.'"
"He dropped out anyway. Worked for a week on a half-a**ed presentation on AR Advertising for his dad’s rich friends. Got laughed out of the room by them. He has spent the last decade working at unpaid internships that look cool on paper, when in reality, he’s just burning through his trust fund trying to make it look like he’s working at cool tech companies."
- interprime
What's The Plan?
"I would say, 'Steve Jobs had an alternative plan already in motion when he dropped out. Show me what you got, and we'll discuss it. You might just convince me.'"
- ericthefred
Unique Preparation
"Also, Steve Jobs went to classes."
"People keep missing this. Steve Jobs dropped out to save his parents the money, but he remained on campus and audited classes. He was basically a college student even if the college wouldn't recognize him. Kids using him as an example to not learn are completely missing the point."
- dilqncho
"He also got a job at Atari. So, he didn’t graduate but he went to classes to learn specific skills that he thought would help him with his goals. And, he had goals and access to the people that could help him."
"If you don’t have the skills, plans, or connections… then yeah, you ain’t going to be anywhere near Steve Jobs."
"He’s also an exception, for every Steve that dropped out, there are 1000 Joes that dropped out and didn’t 'make it.'"
- CreatiScope
Education Is Education
"Teach your kids that education is important, it doesn't matter whether it's college or not."
"Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both dropped out, but they didn't stop learning. That's what you need to emphasize. They dropped out because they were busy building the foundation of corporate empires, chasing their ideas and creating businesses."
"College isn't necessary for most people, especially not for those highly motivated entrepreneurs."
- SharkOnGames
Little Likelihood
"For every Steve Jobs, there are 500,000 people working at McDonald's or pumping gas for a living."
- Future-Turtle
"Not only that but many people better than him who didn't have the luck he did. People who succeed like Steve jobs also don't let their kids repeat their own life choices usually."
- monsantobreath
Moral Check-In
"'Is your best friend an autistic super genius who builds computers in his free time from scratch? No? College it is, then.'"
- R67H
"And will you take advantage of him despite that friendship?"
- yangyangR
Future Career
"I would ask what their career aspirations are and what their actionable steps are to achieve that goal. College isn’t for everyone, but they need to have a plan for what they’re doing otherwise."
"Are they an artist, do they want to go into the trades, are there relevant certifications outside of a college degree they want to work on? They need to at least be working."
"Forcing teens to go to college and commit to all of that debt without a plan is so damaging, so I don’t understand dragging them off to college just because."
- p**s-judgman
Questions Of Preparation
"What business idea or skill are you working on now that will not require college and offer you financial stability?"
"Steve jobs was an anomaly and in a very specific spot at the exact right moment with the right team which is rare."
"He also made the ultimate worse decision possible when it came to his own life so, a grain of salt on all prior ones."
- FoggyDollars
A Unique Mindset
"Steve Jobs dropped out of college and continued to take classes there. He just didn't like the requirements for which classes he had to take."
"Reed College tolerated this, whether they would have done that for anyone else who did that back then or who tried doing something like that today (though I'm sure at many larger colleges, you could drop into large lecture hall classes when no one takes attendance and no one would even notice)."
"Most college dropouts are not wired like that."
- YWAK98alum
An Important Distinction
"Not my kids, but I've said to students and a sibling:"
"I've said (referencing Mark Zuckerberg) He dropped out of HARVARD! Not just 'college.' Jobs, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc. didn't drop out because it was too hard or so they could slack... they dropped out to form (now) billion-dollar companies!"
- _forum_mod
"I think it's important to emphasize they didn't just 'drop out to form billion dollar companies'. They already had an incredibly successful operation going already to where dropping out was actually warranted to manage and keep up with the success of their operation."
- ProjectPlugTTV
The Coursework Needed
"So are Gas Station attendants, landscapers, and Infantrymen in the Army. The only reason the big billionaires who talk a lot about 'dropping out of college' did so was because they personally didn't need what it was teaching them."
"Can you honestly say that for whatever your plan in life is, you understand your desired field enough to just disregard six months to six years worth of courses and still be successful?'"
- WholesomeArmsDealer
Supportive No Matter What
"My kids are too young to make these arguments, but hypothetically my answer would be around probabilities."
"You can be successful without a college degree and you can be a failure with one (and I am not going into definitions of success and failure here). But the probability of success goes up with a degree, etc."
"If it is the right choice for my kids, I'd also support them in not going to college."
- jwink3101
Just Start The Conversation
"I'd ask why they don't want to go to college."
- catty_blur
"This is the right way to do it. Have the conversation."
"Steve Jobs wasn't the only successful person to drop out of college. There were others, like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. And, in fact, the CEO at the first company I worked at also dropped out of college to start that company. He sold that company, and continued to be successful after that. A quick Google search claims his net worth is about $400 million now. Wow."
"Here's the thing, about both him, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg (and maybe Steve Jobs too, I'm not really sure): they went to college. But then they had a brilliant and innovative idea and thought it was worth pursuing instead of college. College is about finding your way to a career, but not everyone needs that."
"If my kid is saying they don't want to go to college, they're not arguing for dropping out. They're saying they don't want to go. Well, we need to have a conversation about how they're going to 'make it.' They don't need to become some multimillionaire, but they do need to find their path through life."
"So let's talk, let's figure out that path and why they think college is not a good way to get there right now. Going to college doesn't mean they necessarily have to *finish* college. But it's usually a good place to go after high school."
- vlatheimpalerish
It's reasonable to have questions about what the future holds, especially since work and finances look really different between Boomers, Millennials, and Gen-Zs.
Each of these responses was a great way to have a productive conversation about a monumental decision.
