9 Billionaires Who Were College Dropouts

You will recognize the men below as some of the richest in the world. But did you also know that none of them completed college? Some of them didn’t even graduate from high school, yet they went on to amass enormous fortunes and create humanity-changing companies. So what does this say about the of utility college education? Perhaps nothing – college is a reasonable way for most people to launch their careers. On the other hand, these examples prove that for the truly intelligent, motivated, and brave, there may be better ways to spend several youthful years than sitting in a classroom. But note; these are the very few. Finish college and then go out there and make your hustle.

Sir Richard Branson

Estimated net worth: 8.6 billion USD
Sir Branson left school when he was only 16. Ironically, his first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student. Today, Branson is known for his brand Virgin, which includes Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and over 300 other companies. Also adding to his grandeur, Sir Branson bought his own 79-acre Caribbean island when he was just 24 and he was knighted in 1999.

Dean Kamen

Estimated net worth: Unclear, but thought to be in the billions USD
Dean Kamen, a prolific and ingenious inventor, dropped out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute before graduating. Although best known for the Segway PT, Kamen holds more than 80 US patents and has created many products such as the AutoSyringe and iBOT robotic wheelchair. When Kamen travels to work, he has to decide which of his two helicopters to take. For longer trips, he pilots his own private jet. He also owns a small island near Connecticut that generates its own electricity from wind.

Bill Gates

Estimated net worth: 58 billion USD
Bill Gates has topped the Forbes list of “The World’s Richest People” continually since 1995. Gates took an interest in programming while attending preparatory school in Seattle. To earn time on early shared computers, Gates and his classmates offered to debug corporate software. When he was 14, Gates earned $20,000 from his first programming venture. After scoring a near-perfect 1590 on his SATs, Gates enrolled at Harvard but left, without a degree, to co-found “Micro-Soft”. Today, one of Gates’ homes in Washington has an annual property tax of about $1 million. In 2006, Gates claimed that he wished he wasn’t the world’s richest man, because he disliked the attention it brought.

Paul Allen

Estimated net worth: 18.0 billion USD
Paul Allen befriended Bill Gates while they were both attending a private school in Seattle. Allen went on to attend Washington State University, but dropped out after two years. He was also the one who convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to start Microsoft. The two co-founded the company in 1975, but Allen has distanced himself from the company since then. In addition to more than 100 million shares of Microsoft, Allen owns 12 professional sports teams, plenty of real estate, and has stakes in dozens of technology and media companies such as Dreamworks Studios.

Ralph Lauren

Estimated net worth: 3.6 billion USD
In high school, Ralph Lauren was known to sell neckties to his fellow students. In his yearbook, he stated that he wanted to be a millionaire. He studied business for two years at Baruch College but never graduated. Nonetheless, he has far surpassed his goal of becoming a millionaire. In 2006, Polo Ralph Lauren had a net income of $300 million.

Steve Jobs

Estimated net worth: 5.7 billion USD
In addition to being the CEO of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs became the largest individual shareholder of the Walt Disney Company after selling Pixar Animation Studios in 2006. In 2007, he was chosen as Fortune Magazine’s most powerful businessman. That’s quite an honor for someone who dropped out of college after just one semester. Although his yearly salary is officially just $1, Jobs has received “executive gifts” including a $46 million jet and nearly 30 million shares of restricted stock. Because capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than salary income, this is also a tax minimization strategy.

Larry Ellison

Estimated net worth: 18.4 billion USD
In 1977, Larry Ellison put up $2,000 to start what would become Oracle Corporation, the world’s second-largest software company. Ellison briefly attended the University of Illinois as well as the University of Chicago, but received a degree from neither. Today he is known for his extravagant lifestyle. He owns a 450 ft, $200 million yacht, exotic cars including a McLaren F1, over a dozen multi-million dollar estates in California, and several jets, which he is licensed to pilot himself.

Michael Dell

Estimated net worth: 17.2 billion USD
Michael Dell started a computer company called PCs Limited while attending the University of Texas at Austin. It became successful enough that Dell dropped out of school to operate it, and the company eventually became Dell, Inc, with revenues of $57.4 billion in 2007. In 2006, Dell and his wife gave a $50 million grant to the University which he attended but never graduated from.

Kirk Kerkorian

Estimated net worth: 18.0 billion USD
Kirk Kerkorian dropped out of school in the 8th grade. His first venture was an airline that flew from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. In 1962, he bought 80 acres of land along the Las Vegas strip for just under $1 million, and he continued making his fortune from buying and developing properties in Las Vegas. Currently, Kerkorian has a large stake in all of the following hotels: Bellagio, Excaliber, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, New York-New York, Circus Circus, The Mirage, and more.