Why The Best Grads Come From The Worst Schools

Twice in recent years, I have been honored to give the commencement address at a local college. On each occasion, I was exhilarated beyond all expectations.

But why? I did not speak at elite universities to the students of affluent families or famed alumni. No, these were the grads of community college, the kids whose parents work in supermarkets and on landfill jobs, who have to drive themselves to near exhaustion to get their children a college education.

The students, members of the honor society at Westchester Community College in the suburbs of New York City, didn't not view college as a birth right. They did not see it as an opportunity to rush for fraternities or to learn how to drink beer.

No, the honor grads -- the ones who chose to distinguish themselves precisely because they were the first in their families to have the privilege to benefit from a higher education -- they were there to grow, learn, achieve and, in the process, to make their families beam.

As an entrepreneur I have employed many of these grads over the years. They don't have the fancy pedigrees, they don't expect the seas to part for them, they turned the learnings and yearnings of a hardscrabble upbringing and turned it into a kind of determination and drive that is exceptional in the workplace.

I am not knocking the Harvard's, the Princeton's and the like. They are exceptional institutions that graduate leaders and innovators in every aspect of life. I have spoken at them. I have employed Yale, Dartmouth and Columbia grads. My sons went to prestige, even Ivy schools. I know the value.

But from all of my experience, the scrappy, street smart and hungry grads from the "no name" schools make the best team members.

I have one now who I wouldn't trade for MIT's valedictorian. Her first day on the job, she recognized that a decision I made had a major flaw. That a message sent from a client to his customers needed to be encrypted.

Not a single other person -- including myself and others with years and years of experience -- caught this. What's more, she had the guts to take me on on this, even after I shrugged her off at first.

The world has it all wrong. Currently, a relatively tiny number of elite school grads get all of the best jobs. I say, turn this equation on its back. The next time you start a search, look for the schools Time magazine never even ranks.

These grads are often diamonds in the rough.