Most successful Founders who drop’d College
and Reasons you should drop out of College and start a Business to be successful. [Part 1]
Founders: Zuck, Jobs, Gates, Dell + 5 more. Reasons to Drop-out: Passion, Creativity, Internet, Finding Yourself.
Why College? Is getting buried in Student Loan Debt really a necessity, when there are hundreds of work-from-home jobs that don’t require a degree or as one of Founders of a company? That depends. For some people, attending college is about networking, meeting new people, getting out of your shell & even earning degrees that can actually make you a valuable profession.
On the other hand, we also live in a world where you can start a business at any age and at any education level — just ask these some Kid-preneurs. While there are definitely pros & cons to this argument, one thing is for certain, the following Entrepreneurs struck gold after they dropped out of college to pursue their dreams.
1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook. In the fall of 2005, Zuck told the Harvard University,Magazine: “I’m not coming back. Zuck left school in order to be one of primary Founders on his startup. Today, the Harvard dropout is worth approximately $34 Billion and the startup that he founded is worth more than $200B.
2. Steve Jobs, Apple + Pixar. After just one semester at Reed College in Oregon, Jobs dropped out of school. After a brief job at Atari (games), Jobsback-packed thru India and experimented with psychedelic drugs – both which he claims “expanded his mind and helped breed Apple’s counter-culture, ‘think different’ spirit.” In 1976, Jobs, and fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak, were Founders of the Apple in his parents garage. When Jobs passed away in 2011 his net worth was $11 billion. Again, not just lucky – brilliant !!!
3. Bill Gates, Microsoft – who is worth $80 billion, is the most successful college dropout in the world. Gates left Harvard in 1975 to be one of Founders of MicroSoft with Paul Allen. He received an honorary degree from Harvard in 2007 and has since publicly said, “Although I dropped out of college and got lucky pursuing a career in software, getting a degree is a much surer path to success.” Bill Gates isn’t “just” lucky, he’s brilliant.
4. Michael Dell, Computer – attended the University of Texas in 1983, but spent his time upgrading & selling computers in his dorm room. At the age of 19, Dell was Founder of his first company, which would become Dell Computer Corp. in 1987. By 1992, Dell became the youngest CEO on the Fortune 500 list at 27. His net worth is around $20 billion today.
5. Rachael Ray, TV Shows. After graduating high school in 1986 Rachael attended Pace University, which is located just north outside of New York City. After two years of studying literature & communications, she left to re-consider her career goals. Since then, Ray has become an Author, TV host of Cooking & Lifestyle shows + other Businesses who has a net worth of $60M.
6. Jack Dorsey, Twitter. One of the Founders and now CEO of two of the most buzzed startups in recent history, [Twitter &Square] dropped out of New York University in 1999. After brief stints as a masseur & fashion designer, Dorsey founded Twitter in 2006 with 3 others. Dorsey is now worth $1.4 Billion. He’s also the founder of Square and gave me personally – the idea for my Mobile Wallet company.
7. Larry Ellison, Oracle. Larry has one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in history. He also dropped out of two colleges, the University of Illinois at, then the University of Chicago, before relocating to California. In 1977 he was the Founder of Software Development Laboratories (SDL) which would later become Oracle. It’s estimated that Ellison’s net worth is a cool $54B.
8. Jan Koum WhatsApp – founder previously worked for Yahoo for 9 years. And, that’s why Koum dropped out of San Jose State Univ. where she was studying Math & Computer Science. Koum told Forbes, “I hated school anyway.” After Facebook acquired WhatsApp, it’s been said that Koum walked away with a comfortable $6.8B.
9. John Mackey, SaferWay. In 1978 John was a Philosophy & Religion student at Texas University. He joined a university Vegetarian Co-op where he met Renee Lawson Hardy. The couple dropped out of school and were Founders of SaferWay (not Safeway, LoL), which would become the first vegetarian supermarket in Austin, Tex. SaferWay would pave the way for Whole Foods, which was the 30th largest retailer in the U.S. based on 2014 revenue.
Comments #1: Do you know of any other $M or $B you are impressed with?
from Mashable.com 24 Sept 16 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz