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 "dropout" - 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; Became a billionaire by dropping out of college; Go out 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. Recalling the heyday of Microsoft, Bill Gates' life story was often heavily exploited by the press, with the detail that he dropped out of Harvard University twice. Similarly, Facebook's 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 were strongly inspired, that there was something that urged 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 very good, 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 National United Way Executive Committee, a university administrator, and a director of a 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 first came into contact with a computer 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 for him to learn to code and freely disassemble the computer to learn about hardware. Sam enjoyed a high-quality private education in America throughout his childhood. After that, he was 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 that they don't need to go to college for 4 years to build their own businesses.

Now you know what I want to say? I think that most Vietnamese youth 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 buy their first computer when they are in university; most Vietnamese students do not know that there is a language called programming language; and even, the fact that their children sit at the computer for more than 2 hours/day is considered by many parents to be playing around... Vietnamese youth 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 a name for yourself 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 lunches, lemon tea, nut milk…? Starting a business with those things can also achieve certain results, such as a large sum 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 choosing to drop out of school to start a business, consider whether you can ensure the financial factors, creative ideas, passion, determination, not afraid of failure and support from your family or not? If not, then you know the answer!

Phuoc Anh