College is a breeding ground for entrepreneurs and ideas. Some of the most famous entrepreneurs of our lifetime started their companies in college—Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, and Steve Jobs just to name a few.
Below is my just-released TED Talk on how you can use college or your career to develop “The Other 4.0 That Really Matters” in business and life. There is another 4.0 that will determine your success as an entrepreneur or as an employee and it has to do with your capital.
In short, the other 4.0 that really matters in college, business, and life includes:
1. Your personal capital: How well you know yourself. Think strengths, talents, gifts, and unique characteristics. Think less about biographical information and personality tests.
2. Your intellectual capital: What you know. Think skills and subject mastery. This less about majors or minors.
3. Your social capital: Who you know and who knows you. Think personal board of directors, mentors, adult friends, and decision makers. Think less about Facebook friends.
4. Your financial capital: Who know that you know what you know. Think access to capital, investors. Think less about salary and wages.
Even if they end up becoming employees, entrepreneurial students are the one’s who will become the real value creators and capturers in the new economy. We need more people like Steve Jobs, not jobs for Steve.
For those of us who are serious about entrepreneurship, oftentimes college moves too slow for our fast minds. We want to learn by doing. Entrepreneurship is our curriculum, our customers are teachers and graders, and our business is the test. The difference between employment minded students and entrepreneurial students is clear.
- Entrepreneurial students focus on solving real problems in the world, not just finishing problem.
- Entrepreneurial students focus on the degree of difficulty, not bachelor degrees.
- Entrepreneurial students focus on mastering their industry, not masters programs.
- Entrepreneurial students want to create job for themselves and other, not look for jobs.
- Entrepreneurial students see college as an investment, not the guarantee of a middle-class life.
We know that our G.PA. won’t matter that much. In fact, the higher your grade point average, usually the more average you end up being in life. I don’t know many CEOs with 4.0 GPAs. A 4.0 GPA oftentime means that you are great at following someone else’s directions.
But now we are navigating the most uncertain economy ever, meaning that there aren’t any directions. The map is out of date. The cartographers and college can’t keep up. In the midst of this chaos, your 4 capitals, not your college degree, will be what set the successful people apart from the average ones
Jullien “Purpose Finder” Gordon is a 4 time author, and career expert that has been featured in Forbes and Black Enterprise. Currently the founder and CEO of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, and co- founder of the professional development organization New Higher, Jullien has spoken at 60+ colleges and universities nationwide, TEDx 3 times, and is a career coach/consultant to several corporate organizations, small businesses and entrepreneurs.
