Plenty of people will tell you that if you want to earn a lot of money and attain a good job, you’re going to have to go to college. For the most part, this is definitely true as a college education and degree provides you a variety of skills that you can use later in life. However this is not always the case. You don’t have to go to or graduate college to make a lot of money, as you’ll soon find out. There’s nothing inherently wrong with going to college, but for some, college was a hindrance for their careers that would soon blow up. Now these individuals are definitely outliers, however it is still interesting to see how some extremely successful people that never attended or completed college. We are going to take a look at a list of a few self-made billionaires who never completed college. I guess sometimes it pays to be a dropout.
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10. Sheldon Adelson
The first person on our list is a man by the name of Sheldon Adelson. At a young age Sheldon was extremely entrepreneurial and would sell toiletries to earn some money. He would go on to attend the City College of New York, however he didn’t feel that it was a good fit. He dropped out only after two years to join the army. After the army he worked as a mortgage broker for some time. He would go on to create a trade show for the computer industry which earned him even more fame. In the late 1980’s Sheldon and some of his partners would go on to buy Sands Casino. He would build a few malls, a convention center, the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, and the Sands Expo. Now he’s worth around $29.9 billion.
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9. Evan Williams
Evan Williams was just your average guy living in Nebraska. He would go on to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, however after less than a year and a half he decided to drop out. Williams then would go to work for a variety of startups and then co-founded a podcasting company known as Odeo. After riding the success of that company, he went to help co-found a little social media company known as Twitter. Now he’s worth around $2.9 billion.
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8. Ralph Lauren
Prominent fashion mogul Ralph Lauren is yet another billionaire who never graduated from college. In 1973 he attended Baruch College for a little under two years, but would later drop out to join the army. Following his service, he started desiging mens ties for Beau Brummel, and then a year later he launched Polo. Now the man is not only worth some $7 billion dollars, but has created one of the most prominent fashion labels in the world.
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7. Gabe Newell
Getting into Harvard University is quite the accomplishment for anyone, but only a small accomplishment for Gabe Newell (pictured on the right). He would eventually drop out of Harvard and head over to Microsoft where he worked on the first three releases of the Windows operating system. Newell would then leave Microsoft to create his own company known as the Valve Corporation. Today they are a leading video game development company responsible for the likes of the Counter Strike, Half Life, and Portal series in addition to establishing the largest virtual distributor of video games known as Steam. He’s also worth a cool $1.3 billion.
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6. Sean Parker
Sean Parker actually never attended college at all, yet he is still one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs of all time. His claim-to-fame was being one of the co-founders of Napster that would forever change the music industry. After that he would head on over to Facebook and serve as their first president, in addition to being involved with creating the companies known as Plaxo and Airtime. Today he’s worth around $2.6 billion.
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5. Jan Koum
Jan Koum is yet another individual that never completed college and went on to become extremely successful. He attended San Jose State University for a little bit studying computer science and math, however he would drop out to go work for Yahoo. Following a nine year stint at Yahoo, he would go on to create WhatsApp which is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. Facebook would eventually buy the company for $19 billion, and Koum is now worth some $7.6 billion.
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4. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison dropped out of a few colleges actually. He initially attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign until his sophmore year before dropping out due to the death of his adoptive mother. He would then attend the University of Chicago but only ended up staying for one semester before dropping out. Then in 1977 he helped co-found a company known as Software Development Labs, which would eventually become Oracle. Now he’s worth around $54 billion and Orcale is arguably one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world.
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3. Mark Zuckerberg
The man behind the largest and most successful social media website of all-time is also a college dropout. Zuckerberg would make in into Harvard University, but after the initial success of Facebook, he would drop out to focus on the company full time. Now Facebook has over 1.4 billion users and Mr. Zuckerberg has around $35.1 billion dollars to his name.
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2. Steve Jobs
One of the most important figures in the tech industry and the co-founder of Apple also never got the opportunity to walk down the aisle to grab his college diploma. The late Steve Jobs would spend some time at Reed College back in the day, a college that his parents could hardly afford. After some six months he dropped out and spent his time finding himself. Then in 1974 he would create Apple in his garage with Steve Wozniak. We all know how successful Apple would become, and at the time of his death he was worth around $8 billion.
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1. Bill Gates
The richest man on the entire planet also never completed college. Bill Gates would be administered entry into Harvard University in 1973, however that did not last. After just two years in college, Gates would drop out to co-found Microsoft with Paul Allen. Microsoft would revolutionize the world of personal computers and software, and today Bill Gates is worth around $80.3 billion dollars.
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