Nearly every high school graduate in this country has it drilled into his head: You have to go to college to lead a succesful life. Not to discredit higher education, of course, but several entrepreneurs can attest to the fact that a good idea and a savvy business plan can take you farther than a college diploma. Here are just a few businessmen—ranked in order of fame—who took their education into their own hands rather than leaving it to professors.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
At the age of 26, Zuckerberg is first on Vanity Fair’s list of Top 100 “most influential people of the Information Age,” has a net worth of $6.9 billion, and is the center of the film The Social Network, out this month. Zuckerberg launched Facebook, the front-running social media network, in 2004 while a sophomore at Harvard University studying computer science. Soon after, he and his friends/business partners moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles and opened up offices in mid-2004. They turned down several offers from companies to buy out Facebook, and by July 2010 the company reached 500 million users. Before starting at Harvard, he had designed several computer programs from games to systems used at his father’s office.
2. Bill Gates
The richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007 and then again in 2009, Bill Gates enrolled in Harvard University in the fall of 1973. He never declared a focus of study and left the university two years later to help start “Micro-Soft” with a high school friend with whom he had collaborated previously on computer program projects. Up until leaving the company in 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for Microsoft’s product strategy. He actively developed software in the early years of the company, but soon moved into an executive role.
3. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College after only one semester, although he continued to audit classes. He gives the calligraphy class he audited quite a lot of credit, claiming that had he not attended it, “the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.” He started working in computer programming and video games to earn money for a spiritual trip to India. Thirty-four years later, he is the CEO of Apple Inc and Disney’s largest individual share holder. Most of his wealth is seated in “executive gifts,” which are taxed at a lower rate than salary income.
4. Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren studied business at Baruch College for two years, but dropped out and joined the army in 1962. His world-famous fashion company got its start in 1967 when Lauren started designing and selling neckties, similar to his earlier business venture of selling ties to his high school classmates. Now most famous for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing line, Lauren now oversees over 35 boutiques in the United States and was decorated Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur by French President Sarkozy in 2010.
5. Sir Richard Branson
Since he left school at the age of 16, Sir Richard Branson does not technically qualify as a college dropout. However, his incredible business success built on little formal schooling makes him worthy of addition to this list. After starting Virgin Records in 1970, Branson’s Virgin empire today includes Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Comics, and over 300 other companies. Branson used brilliant marketing strategies to combine his business ventures and insure their success, such as playing music produced by Virgin Records on all Virgin Atlantic Airways flights. Part of his success is said to be due to Virgin being bottom-heavy and informal, rather than oppressed by management.
Margaux Cameron is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on the subject of earning your High School Diploma at Home for the Guide to Career Education.
