Billionaire Dropouts. Is school necessary for success?

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Billionaire Dropouts.

"Is school necessary for success? These self-made billionaires listed below seem to suggest that talent, attitude, hard work, and lots of luck seem to be the vital ingredients of success - not college (or even high school) degrees.
Here are some very, very rich people (all billionaires, actually) who dropped out of school:"

Certainly it's not necessary, as evidenced by this list...

That said, of the 400 billionaires on the "Forbes 400" list, somewhere between 80-88% (some didn't report the info) have college degrees.

40% have at least a Masters Degree.

Oh, and 48% are Jewish, so if you're not Jewish, you may want to convert...

As a recent college grad with a business degree;

I don't think I necessarily learned much in technical business skills (I believe it comes natural; some people are born with it), but I grew up and matured by about 250%. The life skills I learned outside of the classes through extra-curricular activities, fraternity, clubs, etc. is priceless. The setting and being surrounded by people who just want to learn and learn is well worth the price of college. Professors are professional learners, they get paid to research and write; that's all they do for a living.

I didn't even think about fastlane'ness or being a full-fledged entrepreneur until my last year of school.

But to answer the question; no, it's not a requirement for success, but it makes a nice backup plan. BTW, if I had started a company during college and raking in 50K with a bright outlook in growth; I would drop out too and focus 100%. Which is what alot of those dropouts did. Ex. Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, etc.

Honestly, the classes have little to do with success in my opinion. There are many people with degrees that are successful because they continue to learn after college; They enjoy learning.

Now, outside of classes, like JamesF said, there is so much that one will learn. I think the one year I was in college before I dropped out (for what I believe is a better opportunity) my people skills and everything in that realm increased dramatically.

Throughout high school I was the type of kid that would rarely talk unless I had something "intelligent" to say. I didn't enjoy just talking about peoples lives\drama; I viewed it as unimportant because it didn't effect my life at all. Needless to say I was hardly the most popular in school. Well, since college socializing comes much easy to me now, even if I have a lot to learn about it.

(IMO) The true value of college doesn't come from the classes. If you finish college and get a degree it shows pretty well if you will follow through with a goal. With this mentality you would have be hard pressed not to be successful if you pursue something for the greater good of people. That is not to say college is pointless though, because there are MANY skills and people you meet outside of classes that are priceless.

This topic has been beat to death but the consensus it that it's not necessary but going to college (if you apply yourself) will give you a big advantage over those who don't attend and that for each dropout you can find there will be ten who completed college.

Also after reading the article it seems not many of these people chose not to attend college, they attended and stumbled upon a great idea during college, worked on it in their spare time and dropped out once they were generating a nice sum from their idea, Bill Gates and Paul Allen are the best example of this, Carl Icahan was heading for a medical career in college, if he didn't try this and realise medicine wasn't for him he may not have got into finance.


College could get you into a high paying job which gives you the money to become involved in real estate (like LagunaLauren of this board), or it could introduce you to new people who may prove invaluable to your business career.

Paul Allen is a good example, if he never went to college and met Bill Gates he'd still be working 9-5 for a company, if the Russian Oligarchs never went to college and got jobs in a government department they would have never made the contacts which made them rich from the privatisation lead by Boris Yeltsin in the 1990's.

I doubt any of the software billionaires if they were making their start today would get anywhere without a Computer Science degree because software now is more complex than 20 years ago, most of the construction and manufacturing billionaires today would have had a background which includes an engineering degree and some time working within the industry, most of the finance billionaire would have completed college and spent at least a few years working and developing a track record before starting their own firm.


In short go to college because:
a) It will be a highly enjoyable social experience
b) It gives you something to fall back on if you don't make it into the fastlane within four years.
c) It will greatly improve your chances of making contacts and give you the knowledge needed to become wealthy and accelerate your plan

Whilst you're at college:
a) Pick a useful major, put in the effort to pass and thoroughly understand the material
b) Assosciate and develop relationships with the right kind of people, don't spend all your time drinking with the frat boys.
c) If you have an idea or dream work on it in the spare time you have and if it takes of go with it.
d) Have a good time and don't let yourself get too caught up in the little things that don't mean much.

Good advice @michael!

Thanks, it's tempting to look at those kind of articles and think "hey if these people have made a collective ~$250bn then why would I need college?" but if you look beyond the headlines most of these people who dropped out would still another Mr Joe Average if it wasn't for an experience or relationship from college.

I honestly can't wait to start myself, there is a beverage product I am creating the recipe for and testing at the moment, if I can perfect it it will be something I will work hard to market in my downtime and I see going to university not as disadvantage but as a huge advantage... what better market for a new drink could one have access to than 18-24 year olds?

If I do end up running with my idea studying alongside other business and marketing students will also be helpful if I ever need some help with the business model or marketing.

Its going to be great for me next year!

Bill and Paul Allen didn't go to college together but were childhood friends. The real lesson there is that instead of beating up the geek in elementary school, you should become his friend...just in case...

Doing despite fear is a much better success factor. Being educated is a big plus, but not the deciding factor behind becoming very rich.

I couldn't agree with you more...

There are many people out there who have degrees that earn just as much as a person without one. It's what you do with your degree and life that counts. But its a fact, in general people who don't have any qualifications tend to earn less than people that have.

A chairman I know who has a 2 degree's, runs a company that makes 50m+ gross yearly and owns dozens of commercial properties. I asked if a degree was necessary, his response was "not really, but I did learn a lot of important stuff that got me to where I am today".

If you want to be a business owner get the degree; it won't hurt you. You never know maybe you will learn something.

You can go to a state school and pay for most of it yourself to avoid having large student loans.