The first year or so things went well but then those visions of the future began to diverge and eventually they had a falling out. When they did, they Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of your entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. He dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before he really quit. So why did he drop out? When he 17 years later he did go to college. But he naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of your working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, he couldn't see the value in it. He had no idea what he wanted to do with your life and no idea how college was going to help him figure it out. And here he was spending all of the money your parents had saved their entire life. So he decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions he ever made. The minute he dropped out he could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest them, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.