"The main aim of an academic is to achieve tenure; getting the same job for life. This is not the mindset one needs to start a business."<p>Is that true? I'm not sure that's representative of most of my professors. For example, rtm's one of my professors at school, and he's certainly not the <i>only</i> one to be involved in other ventures. Professors are involved in cutting edge research - they need to make risky decisions, based on little information, of what to invest their time in, knowing full well that most of their research won't be overly influential. Sounds a lot like starting a company to me.<p>Also, I'd argue that dropping out of school is no different than quitting your day job. If you're starting your own company, you certainly don't need to prove your credentials to anyone by having a degree - if you know enough to start the company, more time in school would just be wasted time.