Millionaire Dropouts

[MJ DeMarco]

A list of educational dropouts who went on to make millions ... and some, billions.

The Millionaire Dropout List...Are you on it? :: Millionaire Dropouts

 

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[dnuge3]

Seems like a pretty hefty list. All you have to do is have a dream and pursue it with everything and work very hard, everything works out in the end.

 

[bflbob]

I'm thinking of going back to school, just so I can drop out.

I could REALLY use the money!

 

[TaxGuy]

That's an amazing list, on the plus side there was one on Forbes where some of the "dropouts" were grad school dropouts which gives me faith that I can get into and drop out of grad school to get on that list :coolgleamA:

In all seriousness though, it does have to do with not having that "I got my diploma/degree to have something to fall back on" attitude and while these exceptional cases are just that the exception, not the rule, what we can gather is that their motivation and will to succeed at all costs far outweighed their lack of formal education.

With that in mind, as far as I see it, a formal education is like RK says, good to get you to a high "E" or "S", but is not a pre-req to make it to the right side as a "B" or "I".

 

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[G_Alexander]

That's an amazing list, on the plus side there was one on Forbes where some of the "dropouts" were grad school dropouts which gives me faith that I can get into and drop out of grad school to get on that list :coolgleamA:

In all seriousness though, it does have to do with not having that "I got my diploma/degree to have something to fall back on" attitude and while these exceptional cases are just that the exception, not the rule, what we can gather is that their motivation and will to succeed at all costs far outweighed their lack of formal education.

With that in mind, as far as I see it, a formal education is like RK says, good to get you to a high "E" or "S", but is not a pre-req to make it to the right side as a "B" or "I".

Right on Clint.

While these guys definitely had the spark in them, the highest percentage of millionaires in the world DID in fact graduate college. 86.7% of them.

When the fire is ignited underneath you, and the opportunity presents itself, sometimes you must act in the moment. Many of these special cases were just like that.

Another thing to add is that many of the partnerships formed (Microsoft, Facebook, etc.) were all made possible because the individuals who started them met their partners in college and decided to drop out because they NEEDED to act quickly. College is all about connections! Meeting the right bright minds to help fuel your thinking, and fund your ventures later on.

The list of dropouts are not just average your Joe though. We are talking some VERY bright minds who attended prestigious Universities before dropping out.

Bill Gates - "MicroSoft" - Harvard: "After scoring a near-perfect 1590 on his SATs, Gates enrolled at Harvard but left"

Josh Zuckerberg - "Facebook" - Harvard

Larry Ellison - "Oracle" - UofI and UofC: Ellison briefly attended the University of Illinois as well as the University of Chicago, but received a degree from neither.

The list goes on, but the point is these guys are very intelligent.

Of the 469 Americans on Forbes' most recent list of the world's billionaires, 50 received at least one degree from Harvard.

30 Billionaires were graduates of Stanford.

And the list goes on: http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/105175/The-Billionaire-Universities

COLLEGE IS THE WAY TO GO!

Still cool to see that you should follow your heart when the time is right though.

-Alex

 

[hatterasguy]

Cool site.

 

[djs13]

I think it's all relative and at the end of the day I'm not sure if I would change something about myself just so I have better odds. For example, the state with most Forbes 400 participants is California, but I don't plan on moving there.

Richard Branson is my favorite entrepreneur but he didn't graduate high school. If I was still in high school this fact alone wouldn't persuade me enough to drop out. But I think both sides, from Harvard grads to elementary school drop outs all were success driven. And I think who they were compared to what they studied is the major factor.

 

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[juntao65]

Damn... elementary school dropout. It makes me feel like a shrink for being a college dropout. It's all good, dropouts a dropout. =D

 

[LaughedAt]

Did you guys watch the movie? Talk about dropouts ruling the world haha!
Cool website MJ. Not the right time for me to read this though, I've performed very badly in my finals, failing 4 out of 6 exams because either I was reading a book or surfing TheFastlane instead of studying, I feel really stupid, I was given an ultimatum, if I fail 2 tests out of 7 in the next semester I'm out :smxE:, I had no motivation whatsoever to study, still don't have any, I really don't know what to do...

 

[hatterasguy]

Going on what Jscott said, according to the book, The Millonaire Mind, which is fairly comprehensive:

90% of millionaires are college grads.
52% hold advanced degrees


However in a list of 30 success factors, "graduating at the top of my class" was dead last at number 30. "Going to a top ranked school" wasn't much higher at 23.

Treating people fairly, working harder than other people, being honest, having a competative nature, etc were all ranked near the top.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Assuming we want to be entrepreneurs of some sort (not doctors/lawyers) I think the lesson to learn here, regardless of statistics, is that don't let dropping out of school be your success or entrepreneurial "deathwish" ... don't let it be a confirmation that you can't be successful.

 

[djs13]

Just to clarify, I wasn't talking about going to college to get better odds. I was talking about choosing a particular college over another or moving to a different state just because more millionaires have come from there.

 

[PC60756]

Personally I'm glad I went to college and did well. I went in with mindset that I wasn't there for a degree, I was there to mature. I pretty much knew I wouldn't use my degree after school but that I would use the life skills that I learned.

 

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[Udt123]

I have always thought of it differently. Maybe it isn't the fact that these people were super smart (SAT's can be learned by studying materials over and over) but learned early on in life that hard work pays off whereas laziness does not? I am sure all these rich harvard kids learned to not procrastinate whereas somebody like me procrastinated like hell. At my highschool, there were atleast 15 kids who went to harvard every year and these were the kids who were enrolled in multiple clubs, had awesome GPA ( because they didn't care about partying with girls but instead cared about school) etc.

 

[Icy]

I feel regardless of college if you're willing to put in the hard work necessary than you'll be successful. Why do you think the majority of college people become millionaires, or fit the imagine for successful? They were the hard working ones.

This isn't to say that those who don't go to college aren't hard working though. As demonstrated by that list there are those who don't need to go to college to either prove they can work are, or learn how to work hard. I say how to learn to work hard because that is what some have to do, like learning to study.

How often do you see those people in high school who just didn't work hard, ever, become successful? I'm not talking about those who didn't do homework, honestly that is the worst ever if it is too easy, why waste the time? I'm talking about those who truely just didn't put any effort into anything they did. They may do what they needed to but would never go out of their way to do anymore.

The people that are willing to go the extra step are those that will become successful. The reason it seems as though those in college are more frequently more successful is because those are a portion of the world that works hard. This doesn't mean they are the only ones though. There are those hard working people that don't feel like college is a necessary step to learn how to work even harder. They want to jump into the knowledge they need to learn, instead of learn about it and then test the waters.

Perhaps people won't view this as correct but just from my expriences this is the truth. People like my dad, who dropped out of college, went on to start a successful business. Did going to college and dropping out help him in his pursuits? Perhaps. Maybe the 2 years he went is what he needed to realize was hard work was, and also learn his passion. But, throughout his life he wasn't one of those people who would do only what was required he went beyond that to learn on his on.

Summary: You can know early on who has the potential to be successful if they are willing to put in work beyond what is required. Most everyone else will end up working for someone else "just making it".

And, sorry if my rant is kind of unorganized. Taking a quick break from an assignment and just had to get it out of my head quick.

 

[CarrieW]

Going on what Jscott said, according to the book, The Millonaire Mind, which is fairly comprehensive:

90% of millionaires are college grads.
52% hold advanced degrees


However in a list of 30 success factors, "graduating at the top of my class" was dead last at number 30. "Going to a top ranked school" wasn't much higher at 23.

Treating people fairly, working harder than other people, being honest, having a competative nature, etc were all ranked near the top.

their answers are a matter of perspective though. if all their competators were top of the class and went to top ranked schools then it wouldnt be a deciding factor in their success.(it would be just lowly prioritized just as it appears in the list) the reasons they succeeded would be the things that made them stand out not blend in.

their degrees and schools awarded them the placement to treat people fairly and be honest where as those qualitys alone would have not gotten them to their starts... the degrees did. if you took those degrees and the ops and knowledge that came with them I doubt they would have had the same success. or staying in line with the thread that they may have had more success had they not recieved the degrees.

just my 2cents.

 

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[hatterasguy]

their answers are a matter of perspective though. if all their competators were top of the class and went to top ranked schools then it wouldnt be a deciding factor in their success.(it would be just lowly prioritized just as it appears in the list) the reasons they succeeded would be the things that made them stand out not blend in.

their degrees and schools awarded them the placement to treat people fairly and be honest where as those qualitys alone would have not gotten them to their starts... the degrees did. if you took those degrees and the ops and knowledge that came with them I doubt they would have had the same success. or staying in line with the thread that they may have had more success had they not recieved the degrees.

just my 2cents.

I'm guessing you havn't read the book, you really should its quite good.

 

[neverfastenough]

An interesting perspective from a VC that I came across today..... a definite worthwhile read

One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree
We were in a board meeting today and the founder/CEO made a comment about a deal he's working on and I said "well you learned that well in school." He smiled and said, "we didn't go to school" (meaning college). I didn't actually know that, but it did not surprise me. I have learned that where someone went to college (or even if they didn't go to college) has absolutely no correlation to whether they will be a good entrepreneur or not. I don't pay attention to that part of a resume. I focus on what they've done in the work world, what they've shown they can do, and most importantly what they've done to date on that specific startup.

We chuckled about that exchange and the other VC on the board said "I think twenty percent or more of our portfolio companies are led by entrepreneurs who didn't graduate from college."

That got me thinking about our portfolio. This is a guess because as I said, I don't really know for sure, but I think about seven or eight of the twenty-one portfolio companies listed on our website have founders who did not graduate from college. It's not half, but it's a large percentage.

There are some reasons for this. Several of the founders of our portfolio companies grew up in other parts of the world where college attendance is less common. Some of the founders didn't have the patience to sit through four years of education they didn't feel was relevant to them. And some of the founders were too busy starting companies to finish college.

Entrepreneurs don't need degrees like lawyers and doctors do. They are credentialed by virtue of their track record. The first startup is hard but if they make that one work, they end up with something much better than a college degree. They have a notch in their belt. They've got a track record of success. Even if the first one is a failure, I'd say that they've got something more than a degree. They've shown they can start something from nothing, build a team, a product, and maybe even a business.

We've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about, talking about, learning about, and looking at the whole education sector. Education is critically important. But you don't have to go to school to be educated and if being an entrepreneur is your goal in life, that's even more true.

One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

 

[SuccessInMind]

A college degree is definitely not needed to be a successful entrepreneur. What is needed is EDUCATION. You don't necessarily need to go to a college/university to get an education. Education can come through books, mentors, and online articles. I used to steal books from Barnes and Noble. Over 20 books in my bookshelf on business/wealth building were stolen and that's were I got most of my education needed to start a business. In reality, at least for me, college slowed me down.

 

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[rxcknrxll]

There is an essential distinction between brilliance and intelligence. Successful entrepreneurs are invariably brilliant. Schools are great at identifying a very specific type of intelligence. Academia is a good tool for cultivating the mind, but it's just one tool of many.

 

[FDJustin]

I'm a highschool drop out, so I'm destined for billions!

Anyway, on a more serious note part of the wealth I intend to build will be put towards an education- formal or otherwise. Just towards things I'd be interested in learning. Like, playing around with genetic engineering. I don't have the patience or pre-requisites to all the schooling on that. I don't even tend to make a career out of it.

But with bribes in the right hands, I'm sure it's possible to get some experience and understanding without having to go through all that.

The way you look at getting the knowledge changes when you aren't looking for a certificate out of it.