Professor Gary Jason, PhD | Philosophy Major Resource Center – Part 6
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Philosophy Major Resource Center – Part 6

Becoming an entrepreneur:

Philosophy students shouldn’t overlook the idea of starting their own businesses. I encourage students in my business ethics classes—many if not most of whom are business majors—to try their hand at starting a business. I point out to them that despite the high failure rate—half of all new businesses fail in the first five years, and two-thirds fail in the first decade—the rewards, both financial and personal, can be very high indeed. (These rewards are part of the reason there are roughly 27 million small businesses in America today).

I feel the same way about philosophy majors: if you have the reading and critical thinking skills to make it through a philosophy program, you can run a business. In fact, there are quite a few very successful business owners who majored in philosophy as undergrads or grads. They include:

      • Carl Icahn—activist investor, multi-billionaire.
      • Larry Sanger—co-founder of Wikipedia.
      • George Soros—investor, multi-billionaire.
      • Peter Thiel—founder of PayPay, angel investor in tech industry, multi-billionaire.
      • Patrick M. Byrne–founder of Overstock.com, school reform advocate.

I have a separate resource center for supporting start-up enterprises: the Entrepreneurship Resource Center.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7