ChatGPT boss and the 'inspiration' to drop out of school to start a business

Along with ChatGPT, the name Sam Altman - co-founder of OpenAI (with Elon Musk) is "making waves" on social networks in many countries, including Vietnam. At the same time, the keywords "unemployment" - due to the threat from the usefulness and convenience of ChatGPT - and "drop out" - from the life story of Sam Altman - a young man who dropped out of the prestigious Stanford University to start a business - have become popular. Scrolling through Facebook, it is not difficult to see short videos quoting famous people's speeches, such as:Even though I don't have a college degree, I still lead thousands of employees; Becoming a billionaire by dropping out of college; Jump into the world as soon as possible; The secret to successful startups for people without degrees...

Sam Altman - co-founder of OpenAI.

In fact, such sensational media content is not new. Looking back at the heyday of Microsoft, the life story of Bill Gates was often heavily exploited by the press, with the detail that he dropped out of Harvard University twice. Similarly, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, with a fortune of tens of billions of dollars, was also a young man who dropped out of university, attracting the attention of the community. Now it's Sam Altman and ChatGPT.

Many social media users expressed that they felt strongly inspired, that there was something urging them to stand up and rush out into the world to realize their dreams, instead of sitting boredly in the classroom. Some young people even took the issue seriously enough to create a survey on their social network friends about whether they should drop out of college to start a business or not. Having a dream is good, having the desire to start a business is great, but read and understand more about Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman before deciding to do the same as them.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

Few people know that Bill Gates comes from a very prestigious family in Seattle. His great-grandfather was the founder of the Seattle National Bank. His mother, Mary Gates, was the President of the United Way National Executive Committee, a university administrator, and a director of the West Coast Bank. Bill's father, William H. Gates, was the president of a famous law firm. When Bill Gates was 13, at a time when computers were not yet widely available, thanks to his mother's connections, he had his own computer for research and study.

Mark Zuckerberg was also born into an intellectual family. He was first exposed to computers when he was 6 years old. His father even invested in hiring the most famous software engineer of the time to tutor his son. Mark started programming computers at the age of 12. He attended one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the US and was accepted into Harvard - a university with extremely strict admission criteria.

Sam Altman was born into an upper-class American family in the 1980s. When he was 8 years old, when personal computers were considered a luxury, his family bought him one just so he could learn to code and freely disassemble the computer to learn about hardware. Sam enjoyed a high-quality private education in America throughout his childhood. He was then accepted into Stanford and joined a group of peers from the super-rich.

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman... are good enough and financially stable enough to not need to pursue 4 years of college to build their own careers.

Now you know what I mean? I think that most Vietnamese teenagers can hardly grow up in such a superior family environment, without proper investment, supporting resources, long-term vision and invisible protection from such upper-class families. There is a truth that needs to be faced, in 12 years of general education, we only have a few years to study Information Technology with a design program that is considered boring and outdated; many people only get their first computer when they are in university; most Vietnamese students do not know that there is a language called programming language; and even, many parents consider their children sitting at the computer for more than 2 hours a day as playing around... Vietnamese teenagers are also considered passive, lacking life skills when traditional culture somewhat controls creativity and internal breakthroughs.

With such a starting point, if you drop out of school, what business do you intend to start to make your name in the world like those famous people? Push a sandwich cart on the sidewalk? Join your friends to open a coffee shop? Or sell boxed rice, lemon tea, nut milk…? Starting a business with those things can also achieve certain results, such as a large amount of money compared to your age, or bring temporary excitement of being the master of your own life… But believe me, at some point, you will clearly realize your own shortcomings. The path to starting a business is not paved with roses, every time you encounter difficulties and stumbles, you will remember the feeling of leisurely studying days with your parents providing for you; every time you are stuck in a business strategy, you will discover that you do not have enough knowledge. Only by learning can you practice, if you have not learned enough, why are you in a hurry to practice? No matter what society you are in, the importance of knowledge cultivation should not be underestimated.

Before deciding to drop out of school to start a business, consider whether you have the financial resources, creative ideas, passion, determination, and support from your family. If not, then you know the answer!

Phuoc Anh