Ritesh Agarwal was selected by Thiel Foundation in 2013 for its fellowship program. Under this program, Ritesh was provided with a financial assistance of USD 100,000 which helped him to launch his company Oyo Rooms in 2013 which is an Indian hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes and living spaces. In 2020, Ritesh at the age of 26 was listed as world’s second youngest self-made billionaire, only next to Kylie Jenner (American model and entrepreneur).
So what were those outstanding educational achievements of Ritesh, that Thiel Foundation selected him for its fellowship program?!
The outstanding educational achievement of Ritesh was that he dropped out of college.
Surprised?!
Yes, you must have been taken aback. The most important achievement of Ritesh was not because of his academic skills but because of his entrepreneurial skills. He started a budget accommodation portal, Oravel Stays, for booking budget hotels which was one of the winners of the 2013 Thiel Fellowship program.
Peter Thiel who was ranked no.391 in Forbes 400 (400 Richest Americans) in 2020 with net worth of more than $2 billion, founded Thiel Foundation in 2010. Peter Thiel himself a graduate from Stanford University felt that, for many young people, college is the path to take when they have no idea what to do with their lives.
Thiel Foundation’s fellowship program annually awards $100,000 to 20 people under the age of 23 in order to encourage them to drop out of college and create their own ventures.
You might like to debate that how an organization like Thiel Foundation can encourage students to drop out of the prevalent educational system, as it might lead students to take some anti-social path, as it is the common belief that the prevalent educational system makes young people disciplined and more focused towards their future.
Though you are talking about one part of the story, you also need to think about the other part of the story. Can you tell me with all certainty that the students who graduate from the recognized universities, are very clear about what they want to do in life? For example, in case of Peter Thiel who graduated as a law student felt that, he took up law at the Stanford University because he didn’t know what he wanted to do in his life, so he got into the educational system just like other students.
Peter Thiel’s views about the prevalent educational system can be disputed because you cannot ask your children to stop studying and drop out of the school or college but what you can take away from Peter’s views is that you need not judge a child or a teen-ager by his academic skills. A student who does not score well in studies might have interest in some field which is not taught in the schools and colleges. People forget the great examples of Nikola Tesla who is known for his significant contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply, had never graduated. And Albert Einstein who developed the theory of relativity which became the pillar of modern physics, had persuaded his school to expel him as he felt the spirit of learning and creative thinking was lost in the strict curriculum of the school.
There are many examples like Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein who have lived alongside you. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple had also dropped out of their colleges but though we admire these individuals for their significant contribution to the human society, we have somehow not been able to understand that why these extremely successful people did not rely on the prevalent educational system to pursue their passion.
You must have come across many educational institutions which provide courses in several fields but tell me that one educational institute which teaches you how to be a successful businessman. Ask yourself that the school and the college that you studied in, did they teach you anything about how to handle rejections, how to handle failures, which are the key milestones in the journey of entrepreneurship? ‘Failure is the pillar of success’ is a proverb that you must have heard thousand times when you were a student but did the people around you like your parents and teachers encourage you whenever you failed at something? This proverb is also like a part of the school curriculum, which you need to memorize for the exams without having to implement in your life.
People like Peter Thiel can encourage only a few to pursue their passion by funding them. But more than the financial assistance, what one needs is a pat on the back. Students who are judged as worthy of nothing just because they scored less marks in comparison to their class toppers, need guidance and encouragement to find out their area of interest or passion, which they can later turn it into their livelihood. Many of us do not become aware of our area of interest or passion until we meet someone in real or on internet whom we find to be having the same thought process. I can give you my own example. Sales and Marketing was my area of interest and I was doing pretty well in that field but it was only at the age of 34 that I was able to find out what was my passion, when I met a Soft Skills trainer in my previous employer organization, who was training us to improve our leadership skills. Only after meeting this trainer I could realize that my passion was to make a difference to people’s life by making them believe in themselves through coaching and mentoring.
Like Peter Thiel you can also make a great difference to those people’s life, who for some reasons do not show any interest in the prevalent educational system by encouraging them to find out their area of interest or passion. Your encouragement does not necessarily need to be in terms of the financial assistance but could be in way of simple words because after all, words do make a difference.
You also need to keep on mind that everyone might not be able to run profitable organizations like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Nikola Tesla was under great debts and was not even able to pay his hotel bills but his financial failure cannot undermine his great contribution to science and to the human society. Though many of us do not know or thank Nikola Tesla for the electric supply that we have at our homes and offices but one great person of our times surely does remember him and sincerely thanks him from the bottom of his heart, and that person is none other than Elon Musk, the world’s richest person in 2021 and the founder of the electric car manufacturing company called Tesla. So now you must have understood that what kind of impact, the life of Nikola Tesla has on Elon Musk’s life that he named his electric car manufacturing company after Nikola Tesla and not after his own name.
Whether a person will be able to make great amount of wealth by following his area of interest and passion or not, does not matter because though people earn well out of their jobs, they don’t feel fulfilled when they are in a field only to earn their livelihood and are not sure whether that field is as per their area of interest.
People after working for years, feel unfulfilled because they could never dare to explore that what was their field of interest which they could have turned into a livelihood. Even if they had dared to find out what was their field of interest, they did not dare to explore further, that whether their field of interest was their passion. When a person follows his passion, he is certainly going to contribute significantly to his field of work and also becomes an inspiration for others, thereby making a great contribution to the human society and feels fulfilled by not working just for the sake of living.
If you have liked this article, then feel free to share it and motivate others.
Please visit our website www.frommindtolife.com and subscribe free of cost to receive notification for such life changing articles in your mailbox, as soon as they get published.
For free video consultation, please click the below link:
https://calendly.com/partharay/consultation