There's a saying in Silicon Valley: In a rapidly changing world, the biggest risk is not taking any risks. The most classic example: At 24, Elon Musk was admitted to Stanford's PhD program in Applied Physics, but he dropped out after just two days to start a business in Silicon Valley. This is almost unimaginable in the Eastern world. A PhD title is like a "badge of honor"—prestigious, respectable, and a source of pride for the family. Musk later explained: I originally planned to research energy storage technology for electric vehicles at Stanford. But in 1994-1995, the internet was booming. I was worried that my PhD research might be academically valuable but would take a long time to have practical applications for EVs, with uncertain results. And if I stayed in the PhD program while watching the internet being built by others, it would be incredibly frustrating. I wanted to do something that could have a real impact. After dropping out, Musk immediately teamed up with his brother Kimbal to start their first company, Zip2 (an online city guide/yellow pages software providing local search services for newspapers). In 1999, they sold it to Compaq for over $300 million, earning their first fortune.