A Group of MBA Students are Dining with a Retired Celebrity CEO.

One asks him, “What distinguishes a successful executive?”
The CEO ponders the question for 10 seconds and answers, “Two words: Good decisions.”
The student isn’t satisfied and says, “But what does it take to make good decisions?”
The CEO furrows his brow and 20 seconds later replies, “One word: Experience.”
The student is exasperated at this point and blurts out, “Okay, but what’s it take to get experience?”
The CEO frowns and thinks for 30 excruciating seconds. Finally, he replies, “Two words: Bad decisions.”

… But here’s a thought: Maybe failure is really interesting to explore only after success has been achieved. Looking back on a successful life, or doing a post-mortem on an endeavor that ended well, incremental failures add texture and nuance to a winning story. But if you’re still not on top of the mountain, maybe it’s best to figure out what you’re really good at, then focus like a laser beam on creating a success you can call your own.

~ Why Learning From Mistakes Is Overrated By Stephen J. Meyer, Forbes

Many argue the value of a college education for aspiring entrepreneurs. The fact that some of history’s most successful startups – IBM, Apple, [Microsoft,] Facebook – were all founded by college dropouts is enough to spark that debate.

But a new list from PitchBook shows that a college education isn’t always a hindrance to launching a high-growth company, especially if you attend Stanford University. The California-based private college has once again topped PitchBook’s Top Universities for VC-backed Entrepreneurs. The research firm reviewed its venture-capital database of more than 13,000 founders and ranked each school by the number of graduates who went on to launch venture-backed companies over five years ending August 2014. It also calculated the total number of startups founded by a college’s alumni and total capital raised from each institution:

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236912

See also: Student Loan Debt: Scale of Problem and its Main Sources