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Jan 19, 2023 · Here is a list of 33 successful people who never went to or finished college: 1. Bill Gates. As the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. He dropped out of Harvard after two years to start Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. 2.
- Ross Alex. Alex dropped out of college to become a real estate entrepreneur who’s now created two six-figure real estate businesses.
- Yashar Ali. Ali is a journalist responsible for breaking some of the biggest news stories in recent years from the Fox News sexual harassment scandal to Harvey Weinstein, to the Russia investigation, but he never went to college.
- Paul Allen. When you think of Microsoft, you probably don’t think of Paul Allen. But like Gates, Allen dropped out of college after two years to pursue computer programming.
- Mary Kay Ash. Ash was the founder of Mary Kay, the multi-level cosmetics marketing company, which today has over $3.6 billion in revenue per year. Ash didn’t go to college because her family couldn’t afford to send her.
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- Mark Zuckerberg. - Company: Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg started creating what would eventually become Facebook while still a student at Harvard, then dropped out to put all his attention on the site—a story dramatized in the 2010 film The Social Network.
- Richard Branson. - Company: Virgin Group. Richard Branson is a high school dropout, quitting his formal education at 16 years. He was just 20 when he founded Virgin Group as a mail-order retailer.
- Bill Gates. - Company: Microsoft (former) Bill Gates implemented the programming language BASIC, first designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz and released at Dartmouth College in 1964, as a first-year student at Harvard.
- Russell Simmons. - Company: Rush Communications (former) Music mogul Russell Simmons until recently was best known as the cofounder of Def Jam Recordings and chair and CEO of his company Rush Communications, which oversaw his many businesses.
- Thomas Smale
- Steve Jobs. There probably aren't too many people out there that aren't familiar with the story of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Although he did graduate from Homestead High School in 1972, he ended up dropping out of Reed College, an education his parents could barely afford.
- Richard Branson. Richard Branson's net worth is said to be roughly $4.9 billion. Founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile and other Virgin brands, Branson never completed high school, and dropped out at 16 years of age.
- Dave Thomas. Dave Thomas, founder and CEO of fast-food empire Wendy's, dropped out of high school to work full time at the Hobby House Restaurant in Fort Wayne, Ind.
- David Green. David Green, whose net worth is nearly $6 billion, never went to college. This founder of Hobby Lobby -- a chain of arts and crafts stores -- has a high school diploma, but passed on higher education to start his own home-based business in 1970 on a $600 loan.
The short answer is “yes.”. It is possible to succeed without college. But the longer answer is that succeeding without college—especially to the level that Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs did—is the exception, not the rule. To have a truly successful career, earning a college degree gives you a clear advantage.
Mar 18, 2021 · David Geffen. Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images. David Geffen dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin after less than a year, according to a PBS timeline of the agent turned media mogul ...
Nov 9, 2017 · Ted Turner speaks at UNICEF's Evening for Children First to Honor Ted Turner on March 30, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. Ben Rose—Getty Images for UNICEF. Net worth: $2.2 billion. Turner didn’t actually drop out of college. Instead, he was kicked out of Brown University for having a woman in his dorm room.
