{"id":3292,"date":"2025-12-13T12:06:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3292"},"modified":"2025-12-13T12:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:06:43","slug":"this-ceo-went-back-to-college-at-52-but-says-successful-gen-zers-forge-their-own-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3292","title":{"rendered":"This CEO went back to college at 52, but says successful Gen Zers \u2018forge their own path\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Being a successful college dropout is worn like a badge of honor for many in the business world. After all, some of the wealthiest leaders\u2014Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison\u2014never finished their degrees, and they\u2019re proud of it.<\/p>\n

\n

Lauren Antonoff once wore that badge, too. After her apartment burned down as a student at University of California, Berkeley, and she missed finishing her diploma, she still managed to break into tech, spending nearly two decades at Microsoft and later serving as a senior executive at GoDaddy. After building a career without the credential she was supposed<\/em> to have, Antonoff took pride in proving she didn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n

But after 25 years in the industry, Antonoff became burdened by what she felt was \u201cunfinished business.\u201d So in 2022, during a rare career break, she was back in a UC Berkeley lecture hall\u2014this time as a 52-year-old peer among classmates half her age. Antonoff\u2019s schedule was filled with courses in rhetoric, political science, and even biotech.<\/p>\n

Going back to school wasn\u2019t ultimately revolutionary for her career, she admitted to Fortune<\/em>, but it did sharpen her perspective on adaptivity and staying focused on long-term goals\u2014even when life takes unexpected turns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are probably some people who approach college from like, \u2018I\u2019m going to do the assignment and do what I\u2019m told,\u2019\u201d she told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cBut the students I think that really thrive are the ones who forge their own path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as CEO of Life360\u2014the family location app worth more than $5 billion\u2014she sees clear parallels between navigating a classroom and navigating the C-suite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of what CEOs do is look at the range of possibilities, figure out what the options are, and pick a path,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd pick a path knowing that you can\u2019t know the future, knowing that you don\u2019t get to know if you\u2019re right until after and being the ones to shoulder that responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forging your own path can sometimes be somewhat of a privilege and can take time, Antonoff admitted. But, she said, small steps can create momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in finding your way in the world,\u201d Antonoff said. \u201cThat\u2019s not just about getting a job; if you don\u2019t have a job, start something. If you don\u2019t have a job, go volunteer someplace. In my experience, being active and working on problems that you\u2019re interested in\u2014one thing leads to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secret to reach the \u2018highest levels of success\u2019<\/h2>\n

Growing up, Antonoff thought she knew exactly where her career was heading: civil rights law. At UC Berkeley, she planned to study rhetoric and political science and then make the jump to law school.<\/p>\n

But after buying her first MacBook to write papers, she found an unexpected fascination in technology\u2014and began asking questions. That curiosity led her to the Berkeley Mac User group, where she realized tech might be more than just a hobby.<\/p>\n

Her advice for Gen Z echoes that early pivot.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what you love,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s very hard to reach the highest levels of success if you don\u2019t have the energy and the passion. I think when you are excited about something, it sort of fuels those creative juices and those insights that allow you to chart the future and bring people along with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December 2022, Antonoff finally walked across the stage and added one long-awaited line to her r\u00e9sum\u00e9: B.A., UC Berkeley. By the following May, she had been named COO of Life360\u2014and within two years, CEO.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#CEO #college #successful #Gen #Zers #forge #path<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a successful college dro… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2005,542,529,624,3341,924,372,3343,304,300,3344,2224,1981,3342],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}