Student entrepreneurship seems rigged…

I sympathize, in that heard a similar issue come up when I heard about the policies being put in place at an Ivy incubator. The decision, regarding whether to give free office space or other services like legal to entrepreneurs in the program, was to not give it because, "they're already here and should have some wherewithal."

But you're at or graduated from Stanford? Things could be a lot worse.

This is going to sound tough, but welcome to the real world. I am an entrepreneur with a business that is now 6 years old and doing very well. The first 3 years were very tough and the first year exceptionally tough.

Not many entrepreneurs have the luxury of being supported by others while they get on their business on their feet and in reality - I think this is actually more of a curse than a blessing. It makes you slower, lazier and less acutely focused on making everything you do count. It also makes it ok to fail, or ok to make it work in 12 months as opposed to 2 months.

I started working on my business while full time employed, 20 hour days, 6/7 days a week and built momentum so that I could solely stop relying on a salary and move onto my business.

Starting a business is tough, it is meant to be, because running a business successfully and sustainably is even tougher. Don't let this be an excuse not to chase doing your own thing and following your passion, because if you do, then your desire and drive is not strong enough to keep you going long-term.

I have to echo the prior commenter. Most entrepreneurs scrape by on a meagre sum. The initial founder of our business used his entire life-savings up at age 40 in an effort to get to break-even. To join him I also burnt out all my savings age 30. Both of us have young families. The business has thrived since, so our equity is now worth a lot more in theory than the cash invested, but the early years will always be very uncertain and we still have limited money in the bank, although bigger pay cheques. The key in the early years is to figure out how to earn money from your business, or other activities like employment. Jealousy will never get you any where.

Question for the OP: Do you regret going to a college that required you to take out loans to attend? Presumably if you got into Stanford then you could have attended a lot of other great universities on a full scholarship.

Not trying to give you a hard time at all; just curious.