Bootstrapper.com - Confessions of Serial Entrepreneurs

Well so those who know me well, know I have a framed letter from Harvard - my rejection letter. I also don’t have degree framed, just my Harvard rejection letter.

And I’ll be honest, I wanted to go to Yale. Yale rejected me twice, once as a high school kid and once as a transfer from a good school with a 4.0. And I wrote a poem about wanting to go to Yale! And i was running a company! And they still didn’t want me.

To be honest, my HS grades weren’t good enough. I had a 93 average and 1370.

I did some quick number crunching and I’m pretty sure the average Ivy is looking for a member of Mensa - the top 2% … here’s why: they are looking for 97 / 1450 which is approx. top 2%.

I am not in the top 2% in terms of raw brain power. I think its the law of averages. If you have enough people with above average brainpower - then they you are destined to on average get a lot of very big donations eventually from some of them.

However, there is one flaw here - it discounts intelligence. There is a very big difference between smarts and even raw brain power and intelligence.

There are a lot of smart people in one field of another but much less intelligent people. The most intelligent people don’t need to be smart, they don’t even need a memory - they are the executors - they know how to apply things.

Rarely you have a Bill Gates that is both Smart & Intelligent. More likely, it’s one or the other.

Intelligent people don’t have the highest IQ’s but they are extremely productive people. I like to say I’m intelligent and stupid. I have a 9th grade writing level, an 8th grade level, a 7th grade science level, i don’t speak any Spanish and while I was a history buff and smart in it once upon a time, i have no memory, I couldn’t tell you who our fourth President was anymore. I really have no memory, I don’t remember who i introduce to who or what I talk to people about. I really don’t.

And yet despite my low test levels and low grades, I feel the ivies should have accepted me. Now, I went to UMD College Park for a year and then Binghamton and took a bunch of classes in a bunch of other places too. I would not change a thing but i wanted to go to an Ivy. Though if i went to an ivy i would likely not have accomplished all i accomplished. But still…i would have liked to have gotten in…

Let’s look at my application:
93 average
1370 SAT’s
Tennis team
Model UN
Mock Trial
Started a student test review service
Wrote a 100 page World History Review Book
Started a company
Duel curriculum (12 subjects total)
Published Poet
Self - taught myself 4 AP subjects (just read the review book and took the tests blind and aced them all)

I didn’t get in because either my grades weren’t good enough or they thought I was lying about my extra- curicular’s

I didn’t get in because i wasn’t smart but i was probably above average intelligence. They choose to play it safe and admit the normally smart people. But wouldn’t take a ‘chance’ on someone who is crazy (i’m not differentiating between genius and insanity so i just call it crazy)

Sure, it’s the crazy people like me that will blow up the chemical lab but it’s also the crazy people like me that have the balls the change the world. Now, i hope i’m not going off as arrogant - i just figured I’d look into the topic and am open to any views.

That is why I do not value Ivy Educations more than anyone else. I know they don’t take chances. I know that in truth they don’t want to help people live the dream. They just want students to perpetuate their dream.

I’d rather have a crappy little school that will give a scholarship to a true hard working hustling crazy person than a brainiac at Harvard. When it comes to my hiring decisions, an Ivy doesn’t mean anything.

Richie

PS. I’d be happy to speak at any commencement, hehe