Several well-known entrepreneurs have defied the common perception that one requires degrees to be successful in life. Here is a list of pioneers who dropped out of school or college and made it big.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
Founder of world’s one of most popular social networking site, the tech genius dropped out of Harvard University in 2004 and moved to Silicon Valley to dedicatedly work on Facebook.
2. Mukesh Ambani
After completing his Chemical Engineering from Mumbai, Mukesh Ambani went to Stanford University but dropped out.
His father, Dhirubhai Ambani, got a license to set up a polyester plant, which was very crucial to the business. He asked his elder son to drop out and help him set up the manufacturing site.
3. Steve Jobs
Leaving Reed College in Portland, Oregon, six months after joining in 1972, the late Apple co-founder went on to transform one industry after another, from computers to smartphones to music.
4. Lawrence Ellison – Oracle Corporation
He left the University of Illinois after his second year and is now ranked among one of the wealthiest people in the world. In 1966, aged 22, he moved to northern California to give shape to his hugely successful venture dealing in computer technologies, hardware systems, and software products.
5. Michael Dell – Dell
The billionaire is a University of Texas, Austin, dropout. Starting his business from a residential building close to his college in 1980s, he went on to become one of the world’s leading sellers of personal computers.
6. Henry Ford – Ford Motor Company
Billionaire founder of one of the world’s leading car manufacturing companies, the late Henry Ford did not attend college during his formative years in the late 1880s.
7. Richard Branson – Virgin Group
The business tycoon struggled in school and dropped out at the age of 16 in 1966—a decision that ultimately led to the creation of Virgin Group.
8. Ralph Lauren – Ralph Lauren
The boss of a multi-billion dollar clothing company dropped out after two years from Baruch College, USA, during the 1960’s. In 1967, Lauren began designing men’s neckties, branding them under the name ‘Polo’ and later expanding his designs to a full menswear line.
9. Subhash Chandra – Zee
Media mogul, who is the chairman of Essel Group, dropped out after standard 12. He revolutionized the Indian television industry by launching the country’s first satellite television channel Zee TV in 1992.
10. Sheldon Adelson – Las Vegas Sands Corps
He attended City College of New York in around 1950’s, but soon decided to drop out. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created over 50 of his own businesses in fields like hotels (The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino) and media (Israeli daily newspaper Israel HaYom).
11. Evan Williams – Blogger
Also credited as the co-founder of Twitter, he created the popular blogging platform Blogger. He attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the mid-1990s but eventually left to pursue his passion.
12. Richard Li – Pacific Century Cyber Works
Hong Kong’s leading businessman joined Stanford University to study computer engineering but did not finish the course. However, his interest in media and technology industries, in 1990, led to the creation of STAR TV, Asia’s first satellite-delivered cable-TV service which he later sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
13. Pete Cashmore – Mashable
He never attended college but launched the popular blog at the age of 19. Time magazine described Pete’s venture as the “one-stop shop” for social media.
14. David Karp – Tumblr
The founder of the United States 9th most visited website dropped out of Bronx Science High School in 2001. With dreams to hit it big, he started to give shape to a hugely successful short-form blogging platform called Tumblr.
