Quick question: Why on earth do colleges let dropouts give the commencement addresses? It makes no sense. The whole principle of college is that by working hard you can get a degree that will, in turn, help you get a job so you can be successful. But these people have found themselves to be successful without going through that system. I have a feeling that more than a few students at Harvard University while sitting and listening to Mark Zuckerberg explain how "important" graduating is, couldn't help but think about what a waste of time, energy, and money they had just undergone.
I think Bill Gates summed it up best, saying: "I'm a bad influence. That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today." Bill Gates, being a reasonably smart man, is right. A college drop out like him is, in theory, the worst spokesperson for the virtues any college, especially, you know, the specific college they dropped out of.
At least that would be the logical assumption if, like I said, the principle of college is that by working hard you can get a degree that will, in turn, help you get a job so you can be successful. But, I don't think that is the point of college and I don't think that is what most successful people think the point of college is either.
I like to think that there are three types of people who got to college.
1. People with a herd mentality
Do you understand why you're in college? NO? Then let me guess you're doing it because literally, every fiber of American life has been teaching you, since the womb, that the point of your existence is to get good grades and go to college where you will continue to get good grades. Grades are life, grades are death, grades are all!
2. People with no marketable skills
Oh crap, you have come to the realization that you have nothing to offer in exchange for money! No goods or services! So what is your master plan? Get a degree, of course. Sure it will put you back a lot of money, but the guy who is conducting your job interview also has the same degree, and he thinks that's pretty cool.
3. People who want to be smarter
I like to think this person is becoming a little more common, but who knows! You, noble traveler, have made a life altering discovery: you could be smarter than you already are!
(Sorry had to add a Gif there. I know it's an old meme just let it slide)
Anyway. You think you could be smarter than you are and you think you would be willing to pay a significant amount of time and money to make it happen. So you looked for colleges that have professors who are smarter than you and now you are learning, becoming a better person and being mentored by brilliant people!
Steve Jobs, for example, even after dropping out of Reed College's graduate program, continued attending classes, studying and talking with professors.
This is why I think that dropouts who find success so often give commencement addresses at the sight of what, for most of their lives, would have been seen as the greatest failure of their lives. The net value of their college experience wasn't the piece of paper they walked out with (or didn't walk with I guess), it was the collective knowledge and experience they accumulated while they were there.
