Turning away from the standards

BY ADAM GIULIANO

Bill Gates is the richest man in the America. He founded the largest software company in the world. He's on the cutting edge of the information revolution. He has a terrible time getting a decent haircut. He is an Ivy League dropout.

For good or ill, Gates is one of the most prominent in a new class of entrepreneurs. While not monolithic, our society is increasingly led by companies and individuals whose accomplishments arose when they turned away from the standard career track. Two graduate students created the internet search engine, Yahoo!, over pizza and in the process made the world wide web more useful while earning a fortune. Millions of Americans from all walks of life are increasingly abandoning the office and telecommuting or founding their own home based businesses, allowing them to maintain closer ties to family and a greater control over their own financial destiny in an era of corporate determinism, if not dictatorship.

These entrepreneurial leaders are often associated with overnight prosperity, but the reality is that they work as hard as anyone else. What truly distinguishes them as a group is their ability to take advantage of opportunities by ignoring the conventions of the business world. While not everyone needs to be, or should be, Bill Gates, we can all take a cue from the revolution in work he helped create.

Gates gained prominence by shunning the traditional career tracks laid down for him by his university. While it may have been too much to expect Harvard to predict the information revolution, it could have offered more resources for students interested in pursuing entrepreneurial interests. That might have allowed Gates to stay at Harvard while still pursuing his dreams. Harvard's career services strategy notwithstanding, we must remedy today's still inadequate support systems for rising business leaders.

Yale's career services, though not perfect, are a valuable resource for many students seeking work outside Yale. But the fact is, no matter what the field, the career services at Yale promote employment for an entity of some sort. Be it an internship or a paying position, most of the available resources are directed towards an immediate future of working for others. For those students who do not want to take this path, there are few alternatives.

Self-employment and start-up ventures, while not a product of our times, are a hallmark of our era. As a University that seeks to prepare its students for the world at large, Yale must come to better recognize the importance of these new economic endeavors and act accordingly in devising its career planning services. Such ventures are not for everyone, and they are certainly not inherently better than more "traditional" forms of employment. For some, though, their path in life will lead them into new and less traveled career territory. Yale should do what it can to help them get started, so that unlike Bill Gates, they will not have to choose between their education and their dreams.

Adam Giuliano is a sophomore in Pierson College.

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