Peter Thiel made a fortune co-founding PayPal shortly after graduating from Stanford Law School. He later invested $500,000 in Facebook, a stake now worth billions.
This past fall, he set up an interesting contest called 20 under 20: if you were finishing up high school and had a great idea for a technological innovation that could benefit society in a major way, you could apply for a chance to win $100,000. Those who won would have to commit not to attend college. Twenty winners were selected, and each will receive $100,000 to be used over the next two years in the pursuit of their entrepreneurial dreams.
Information about applications for the next round of fellows will be available at 20under20.org in late October. If you have co-inventors, it appears the prize money can also be shared.
Thiel’s contest is a great Do-Hard-Things idea, and aside from the bummer of losing twenty readers of Thriving at College (every year!), I wish them all well.