Top 10 Richest Dropouts Who Didn't Need a College Degree
Most people believe having a college degree is the only way to succeed. But, the truth is that degree is not just the only getaway to success.
Yes-succeeding without college is really possible based on these 10 billionaires entrepreneurs bellow that turns out never finished or even attended college.
Click next to find out more about their hard work, determination, and entrepreneurial spirit of these 10 billionaires that have led them to where they are today!
#10 Rachel Ray
American television audiences have been familiar with Rachel Ray since 2005 as a bubbly TV chef personality. Based on celebritynetworth source, Ray has a net worth of $100 million. But how does she have such huge success with no formal culinary degree?
The secret of her huge success lies in her early experience in the culinary world. As a kid, young Rachel Ray grew up in New York and was surrounded by families that were running various restaurant businesses. At some point, she was working at a gourmet food shop, and that's where she started to develop her signature style-dish "30-minute meals" like the one we know today.
Ray's huge success is another example of how our college degree doesn't determine our success. Ray has shown us that all it takes to be successful is a strong desire and a lot of hard work.
#9 Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel, as she is more popularly known as "Coco", was an ordinary girl born to a couple of peasants and street vendors in a poor neighborhood in Paris. But how come a daughter of a peasant and a street vendor became one of the world's richest people with a net worth of $100 million with no formal degree?
Her success in the fashion industry started in the early 1900s when she began designing hats for women. This passion was backed up by one of her male admirers as she was able to open her first shop in Paris in 1913. Once her business selling designer hats was a success, she began offering a wider range of clothing options to her customers. One of her most popular clothing inventions is the black little dress. Black little dress is now known as a timeless fashion choice that is worn by people around the world.
Even with a lack of formal education, Chanel still had the power and intellect to rule the world of Parisian haute couture for several decades.
#8 Simon Cowell
Simon was an ordinary British kid who was born into a middle-class upbringing and dropped out of school at 16 years old. But how does a high school dropout who is unable to sing or play an instrument become one of the most well-known names in the music industry?
Simon Cowell's success, as we all know it today, didn't come easy. After his decision to drop off as early as 16 years old, Cowell went to work as a mailman for a British record label, EMI. He didn't like the job, so he decided to leave. Through his father's connection, he was re-hired and started working as an assistant for scouting new talents and artist development. This is where he started to develop his critical eye.
But yet, he was able to make the music industry the biggest source that made him a fortune.
"My talent is for creating things that the public likes," he said.
Sean Combs was your typical American boy raised in Mt. Vermont, New York, by a single mother from a middle-class background. In spite of the fact that Sean's family is not wealthy, he was able to become a successful music producer in his twenties and accumulate nearly $885 million in wealth.
Before he was known as a rapper and musician like we know today, Sean was a typical university student and majored in business at Howard University. Sean was well-liked by his peers. Besides his friendly demeanor, Sean was also known as a talented marketer, and his friends also referred to him as a master party planner. But before he finished with a bachelor's degree in business, he decided to drop out and pursue an internship at the Uptown Record Label. It only took several years for him to work there until he decided to drop his job in 1993. Later on, he founded his own record label, Bad Boy Entertainment.
To his surprise, his new record label is thriving. Bad Boy Entertainment was able to work with various upcoming artists like Mariah Carey and Biggie Small. It's believed his natural great marketing skills played a major role in making his record label as big as it is today.
#6 Steve Madden
Steve Madden was only 20 years old when he dropped out of the University of Florida. Following his surprising decision, he started a shoe brand company with a $1,100 initial investment. But who thought the $1,100 he invested in the first place would grow to be a $3.66 billion company as we know it today?
In the 1990s, after dropping off from his college, Madden landed his first job as a traveling salesman at his friend's company. Unfortunately, he was fired after violating the company's rules for driving under the influence (DUI). With only a $1,100 initial investment, he was able to start his own business by selling our shoes out of the trunk of his car. To his surprise, his shoe business took off, and he was able to open up his first store.
His plan is pretty simple. He is targeting Generation X girls who can't afford high-end shoes but still want to look fashionable. Steven Madden has proven that being a successful businessman is not just about having a high degree but also having a creative mind to see the opportunity to integrate your business into what society needs.
#5 Ralph Lauren
Growing up, Ralph Lauren was an unhappy middle-class kid with four siblings. During his childhood, he often took a part-time job at an early age so he could penchant for designer clothes. Until years later he could establish his own company with a net worth of $6 billion. But how does Ralph do this?
From such a young age, Lauren was known for his enterprising nature by his classmate. When he finished high school, he continued his education at Baruch College university to take the business course but it only took Lauren for two years before he decided to drop off. After dropping off from college Lauren joined the military but didn't consider it a lifetime career so he decided to leave the job after only two years of serving. Several years later he landed a job at a tie manufacturer which he later started to grow interested in the tie production business.
In his early year running a tie business, Lauren often delivered his ties personally to stores. This hard work and the humble beginning were pretty much things that shaped Lauren into one of the biggest businessmen on earth today.
#4 Steve Job
Steve Job has always been an energetic and inquisitive toddler. He was the type of kid who was eager to try challenging things to feed his curiosity. As a student, Job was a troublesome kid throwing pranks at his friends and teacher. How did a school prankster end up as one of the world's most famous tech-moguls?
Since a kid, Steve had always known he was adopted. Even tho he was an adopted kid, that didn't stop Paul and Clara to love him any less. Growing up in Silicon Valley, Steve had many neighbors work as engineers. Lary long is one of them. Larry then became a great mentor for him and he learned a lot from his expertise in electronics.
In 1971, Job worked as a summer intern in Hewlett Packard company. That's where he met Steve Wozniak, his future business partner through another employee named Bill Fernandez. Five years later when they were 21, both Wozniak and Job dropped off from college to start Apple Computer company in the Job's family garage. At only 25 years old, both were able to made 250 million dollars.
#3 Harold Hamm
Born in 1945, Harold Hamm was only a child when he started to pick up cotton with his bare feet. Harold was not fortunate enough to be born into a rich family, so the young Harold began working at the gas station at sixteen to help support his family. But it only takes a few years for young and ambitious Harold to finally be able to create a company with a net worth of $10.7 billion.
Several years after working at the gas station, Hamm, then 23, founded a trucking company that transported water to and from oilfields. Years later, he finally decided to take a loan and drill his very first well.
In 1990, Hamm had the vision to use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracture in North Dakota's Bakken region. Surprisingly, this idea by 45-year-old Hamm has transformed the US oil industry. As we write this article, the Continental oil company is able to produce 160,000 barrels per day.
#2 Mark Zuckenberg
While Mark Zuckerberg's successful Facebook story has been widely known to people (yes, he created and ran Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard), but not many people know exactly how he started to fall in love with programming and built this social media giant Facebook (Meta).
Born into a well-educated family of a dentist and psychiatrist couple, Zuckenberg had been living in a comfortable household since he was a kid. But a nice, comfortable life didn't spoil him. Since young, he was a deeply curious kid and had a specific interest in coding. At only 12 years old, Zuckenberg has successfully created a messaging platform called Zucknet to help operate his father's dental office. Zucknet was also programmed to help with communication within the house.
In high school, he never lost interest in developing software. When he was a teenager, he was able to create the first version of Pandora, the music software. Microsoft was intrigued by Zuckenberg's invention and offered him a job. However, Mark turned it down and chose to go to college.
In 2002, Zuckerberg went to Harvard and created a number of messaging platforms for students to use in order to connect with one another. One of these platforms was Facebook. Right after a year, Facebook was created, Facebook had already surpassed 1 million users, and Zuckerberg later dropped out of college to devote himself to Facebook.
#1 Bill Gates
His obsession with computers started when he was only 13 years old. Bill was a really excellent student at school. He went to Harvard, but later on, he chose to drop out to follow his passion and ended up creating a billion-dollar company through his passion. So how did the young Bill do this?
Bill Gates has always been an inquisitive and bright child. His first exposure to high-tech was at a lakeside school in Seattle through a teletype computer. His passion to learn more about computers grew every day, and he mostly spent his lunchtime break at the school computer lab. That's where he met Paul Allen, a high school senior who later on would become his future business partner.
While they were still in high school, both Paul and Bill successfully created Traff-O-Data, a traffic measurement program to help create reports for traffic engineers. Both of these high schoolers have already made $20,000 at such a young age.
Despite his passion and aptitude for computers, under his father's influence, Bill enrolled at Harvard right after finishing high school. Unfortunately, his mind wasn't there throughout the study. After reconnecting with Paul Allen, his long-lost high school friend, they both dropped out of college and started a computer software company together, as we know it today.
When was the last time you shopped online and said, hmm, this is not what I expected? Turned out you are not the only one who has experienced shopping online fails.
Shopping online has become so popular throughout the years due to its convenience. Where else can you comfortably shop at midnight on your bed?
Like this guy above, one day he was scrolling through his phone and found this cute baby Yoda doll. Then, he clicked order. But, who would have thought he just ordered a long-necked baby Yoda instead of the normal-looking one?
Not just this sad-looking long-neck baby Yoda, click next to see a list of hilarious online items people bought online.
The following most dangerous countries can be your reference to exclude the countries from your next destination.
Holiday destinations are essential because it can determine the comfort, harmony of vacation styles, budgets, and security.
Furthermore, not all countries can be visited as a tourist destination because of their safety considerations.
So let's check out the 10-most dangerous countries in the world on the next pages.