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The most ambitious high school students, as early as age 14, are crafting ways to build companies and create their own projects simply to get into college. Is much of it performative and ingenuine? Yes. But consider the possibility that even if students are performatively building, the embracement of entrepreneurialism is the bigger story.
The problem is clear. High school students recognize the incentive to create, but are not incentivized to make their projects last long term. Instead, they check a box. But the point is not whether students’ initial projects become successful: rather, entrepreneurialism becomes a learned, conditioned behavior. This will undoubtedly have long term spillover effects as students graduate and move into the workforce. I believe this will usher in a period of renewed American exceptionalism.
Entrepreneurialism is crucial to encouraging long run economic growth, development, and job creation. A Kauffman Foundation analysis of U.S. Census data from 1977–2005 found that newly founded companies created an average of about 3 million jobs per year. In an era when AI threatens to wipe out entire industries, we need creators.
Today’s college process actively incentivizes entrepreneurialism at the most foundational stage of youth. Colleges are now telling students to show them something extraordinary. The competition is too fierce to simply be the leader of a club or a journalist for the school paper. Students must achieve beyond that. They must build and lead.
The culture of building, creating, and leading (even if it is performative) has become embedded within every ambitious young student: it is now the natural response to the challenge of standing out. The majority of students I meet here at Stanford have created a new project in some way. In the first week of school, fellow Stanford students came up to me and asked: “So what was your thing?” By this they meant “what project did you spearhead throughout high school?” This was a cultural norm.
Some will argue that these projects are just for show. I don’t deny that. Many determined young students may be box-checkers. But they checked hard boxes. Starting an organization, especially at such a young age, is no easy feat. These projects may or may not last, but the students themselves become empowered to continue to build, innovate, and eventually create the next generation of America’s great companies. I recently learned that one of my good friends founded a startup after being accepted to college. The incentive was gone, but the instinct became entrenched.
I would never design this system intentionally. There are all kinds of drawbacks to the modern college process. There are unnecessary levels of anxiety and sleep deprivation. And far worse: the loss of childhood. Teenagers are spending their time starting non-profits instead of hanging out with friends. Is this healthy? No. I am simply arguing that an accidental byproduct of this broken system may be the key to unlocking America’s future - through a culture of entrepreneurship.
