Overeducated

The Decoded | November 2025 | By Lisanne

21.11

Is there something like overly educated?

The Uber founder Travis Kalanick grew up in a suburb outside Los Angeles, dreaming of becoming a spy.

He sold knives door-to-door. Started his first business at 18. Went to UCLA for computer engineering, then dropped out.

He worked full-time on a peer-to-peer search engine while collecting unemployment. Got sued for $250 billion. Went bankrupt.

Then he started another company, fought with his cofounder, navigated post-9/11 chaos, skirted legal boundaries. Almost lost it all.

Then, in 2007, he sold it for $23 million. Bought a house he called the “jam pad,” where ideas and failures became experiments, and traveling the world taught him even more.

Those awkward stumbles, the dead ends, the lawsuits, the fights—they were the waiting room for something bigger.