The Most Successful College Dropouts In History
by Michael Posted in Young MoneySuccessful Entrepreneurs Who Were High School or College Dropouts
To celebrate us college dropouts I thought I would compile a list some of the top entrepreneurs who dropped out of college and then went on to make it big in the business world!
Top 30 College Drop Outs Who Made It Big In Business
|
Rank
|
Name
|
Business
|
Dropped Out At
|
Age
|
Networth
|
|
1
|
Henry Ford
|
Ford Motor Company |
16
|
Dead
|
$188 Billion (in 2009 dollars) |
|
2
|
Bill Gates
|
Microsoft |
19
|
53
|
$59 Billion |
|
3
|
Larry Ellison
|
Oracle |
20
|
64
|
$27 Billion |
|
4
|
Sheldon Adelson
|
Las Vegas Sands Corp. |
19
|
$26 Billion | |
|
5
|
Larry Page
|
Graduated University of Michigan
|
35
|
$18.5 Billion | |
|
6
|
Kirk Kerkorian
|
Tracinda |
12
|
91
|
$18 Billion |
|
7
|
Michael Dell
|
Dell |
19
|
43
|
$17.3 Billion |
|
8
|
Paul Allen
|
Microsoft |
20
|
56
|
$16.0 Billion |
|
9
|
David Geffen
|
Geffen Records |
21
|
65
|
$6.5 Billion |
|
10
|
Steve Jobs
|
Apple |
18
|
53
|
$5.4 Billion |
|
11
|
Richard Branson
|
Virgin |
16
|
58
|
$4.4 Billion |
|
12
|
Takafumi Horie |
Livedoor |
22
|
35
|
$3.6 Billion |
|
13
|
Ralph Lauren |
Ralph Lauren |
20
|
69
|
$3.6 Billion |
|
14
|
Subhash Chandra Goel
|
Zee TV |
12
|
58
|
$2.3 Billion |
|
15
|
Jerry Yang |
Yahoo |
Graduated Stanford
|
40
|
$1.9 Billion |
|
16
|
Mark Zuckerberg |
19
|
23
|
$700 Million | |
|
17
|
Russell Simmons |
DefJam |
19
|
52
|
$340 Million |
|
18
|
Matt Mullenweg
|
WordPress |
18
|
25
|
$200 Million |
|
19
|
Mahesh Murthy |
Pinstorm & SeedFund |
19
|
43
|
$200 Million |
|
20
|
Jawed Karim |
YouTube |
21
|
30
|
$64 Million |
|
21
|
Kevin Rose |
Digg |
21
|
31
|
$60 Million |
|
22
|
Jared Isaacman
|
United Bank Card |
17
|
26
|
$50 Million |
|
23
|
Kevin Sproles |
Volusion |
18
|
26
|
$17 Million |
|
24
|
Shawn Fanning |
Napster |
19
|
28
|
$7.5 Million |
|
25
|
Scott Wainner
|
ResellerRatings |
20
|
26
|
$7 Million |
|
26
|
Rob Benwell
|
Blogging To The Bank |
18
|
23
|
$5 Million |
|
27
|
Graham Langdon |
Entrecard |
19
|
21
|
$3.2 Million |
|
28
|
Kristopher Tate |
Zooomr |
17
|
20
|
$3 Million |
|
29
|
Aaron Levie |
Box.Net |
20
|
23
|
$3 Million |
|
30
|
Reed Caldwell |
ServInt |
19
|
32
|
$2.5 Million |
An Inspiring List Of Entrepreneurs
Interesting and inspiring selection I think you will agree. Not all are complete dropouts – some actually have pretty impressive academic achievements to their name but alas the call of their Entrepreneurial Ventures took them to leave those studies and instead go on to create considerable wealth plus businesses that in some case have touched Billions of people.
Take for example Jerry Yang of Yahoo, who created Yahoo as a graduate student at Stanford University to monitor his personal interests in the early days of the Web. Yang’s official biography even contains the standing joke that he is “currently on a leave of absence from Stanford’s electrical engineering Ph.D. program,” 
And there is of course Larry Page of Google – another Stanford doctoral program dropout.
One entrepreneur who in particular impressed me was Michael Dell – who started a computer company called PCs Limited while attending the University of Texas in Austin. It became so successful 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.
One remarkable fact I noted when compiling this list, was the number of businesses that started of in a garage. Take for example the HP corporation which started life in a tiny 12×18 foot garage. And then there is also Google and Apple who started life in a garage.
 |
 |
And the Most Notable Young Entrepreneurs Of Recent Times?
Well it is Mark Zuckerberg of course.
Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion and believed by some to be the wealthiest man younger than 25 in the USA. Mark Zuckerberg, like Bill Gates, is a Harvard dropout.
After launching Facebook school-wide from his dorm room at Harvard in February 2004, Zuckerberg began devoting more and more time to his program, gradually spreading it to other schools. By that summer, Zuckerberg and his roommate Dustin Moskovitz had released Facebook to nearly 30 schools, and the website was growing too popular to be run part-time.
Where to go from here
Retireat21 is packed with helpful information and advice from some of the leading entrepreneurs in the world. For inspiration I would suggest you read some of our high profile interviews and check out our young entrepreneur rich list!
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Very interesting post Michael, love your site!
Thanks Rachna! Means a lot coming from you.
It’s important to note that most of these people didn’t quit school until they were already successful. The truth is that the vast majority of college students (i.e. 99.999%) will never reach this level of success. Finishing college gives you something to fall back on later in life if things don’t go your way.
It’s also worth noting that many of these people are Harvard or Stanford dropouts… and their families were worth considerable amounts of money before they ever went into business.
It almost sounds like this post is encouraging college students to drop out by showing all the successful entrepreneurs who have “made it,” when the vast majority of new businesses fail.
Great post, by the way Graham is 23, not 21!
Wow. Bill Gates is a dropout?!
@Brandon,
Well said. And if I may add, you sometimes hear of remarkable stories of people who quit whatever they were doing to pursue something like music, acting or sports careers. And entrepreneurship is the same but different. Yes, you should fully pursue your passion, but I think Seth Godin says it best when he says that ‘You don’t know what people will take to.’ So just because Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook doesn’t mean if you decide to go out and build a better, cooler version that people will jump to that. You just never know what will excite people.
Also, most people who tend to want to support you in your endeavors (financial or otherwise) focus more on what you have done vs. what you will do. So it helps to have some track record of your success. What you think is cool is relative. People basically will take you more seriously if they see that you have produced something and are showing slow and steady sales growth.
And lastly, the people who are most successful also realize that everything around them is a tool to their success, not an obstacle. Your school is a resource. Your community is a resource. Your parents and your friends parents are resources. Remember how Facebook got started—within the university with the primary target audience being college students. So in some respects Mark Zueckerberg was still managing the resources that he had alloted to him at that time. So folks, bottom line, choose to run to something not from something in your entrepreneurial pursuit.
And best wishes to all of you emerging entrepreneurs regardless of your personal or professional endeavors.
@teenbizcoach
What a powerful list, Michael! You’ve set the bar higher for Retire@21.
It’s definitely worthy of Digg or Stumble.
Yan
PS: Coincidentally, I dropped out of college too so hopefully I could get into the list soon.
Shonika, great point! A lot of people do dropout and work really hard and never make it! You have to have a plan b… just in case.
Yan, Thanks very much mate! Hopefully we will see both of us on the list soon.
Good post, $59 billion for Bill Gates :O
I like the fact that all these people have been so successful and did not complete college. I like that the majority still make money online today with their big venture or side shifted slightly to another area. It shows that it is possible for anyone to make money and progress to something exceptional
Do you think that Larry Page and Jerry Yang where drop outs when they found their company ? I don’t think so, They must be Graduates then.
Actualy Ben they had to drop out of College to work on their business, when they became a success they completed their courses.
Thanks Katie and Charlie!
@Yan: Just give it time, it’ll come. Keep up the good work as you’ve been doing and it’s bound to happen.
Best of luck to everyone. Nice post.
[...] To celebrate us college dropouts I thought I would compile a list some of the top entrepreneurs who dropped out of college and then went on to make it big in the business world! [Retire At 21] [...]
always looking for something interesting subject
and always think.
thanks and great job
acompanhantes
Wow, impressive list.
Although dropouts, they certainly didn’t lack in the brainpower category. Or, the work ethic….
i like it keep it up but where is the info the black entrepreneurs like myself i need more info on like how and where to get funding.
Outstanding posting, keep your great work Michael.
great post mic.
Great post! Really interesting and inspiring selection.
Yea, to reiterate what Brandon said, don’t take this has motivation TO drop out of school. I believe a statistic said that 90% of small business owner creators had a college degree. If you’re able to find success, then run with it, but don’t believe the road to success is dropping out.
It’s a nice list but how do people who graduated qualify for a college dropout list?
Nice post. But how could you miss out the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani?
James, I was thinking that they probably got their degrees AFTER their business became hugely successful from dropping out.
This list just reinforces the power of the technology industry. So many big tech companies were created by people who just had a dream and a desire to pursue it.
The thing is with some of these guys is that they had money in the background of their life already, so none of this success really mattered to them.
-Mike
It’s worth noting that Hotmail.com co-founder Jack Smith didn’t just drop out of college, he flunked out. 12 years later he sold Hotmail to Microsoft for $400,000,000.
[...] Most of the inspirational writings are posted there, and even more list posts. Awesome lists like The Most Successful College Dropouts in History, and others are posted there a lot. Like I said before, RetireAt21 is huge on motivating you to [...]
[...] THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COLLEGE DROPOUTS IN HISTORY [...]
There is hope for non-conformists, it seems! My favourites amongst these are Matt Mullenweg (I really love WordPress and its success is only but a taste of things to come!) and Jawed Karim.
With a bit of luck, some of these guys will become professors at a University of Real Life.
This is very much impressive! It’s very surprising that those people behind the most successful names in I.T. are college dropouts back then.
For Brandon Eley above: Brandon…as Scott Wainner’s Father, I can promise you, that Scott did not come from a WEALTHY FAMILY…Scott
is a total self-made man. Got his 1st computer at the young age of 6 and he was hooked! He developed 2 successful websites while he was in High School. You might also be interested to learn that Scott earned his pilot’s license in a Cessna aircraft at the age of 15…he’s just a very bright young man. But, I think the thing that makes my Son so successful is that he is very “grounded” and keeps his success in “perspective”. He is now 31 and has 4 very successful websites…along with a very successful book he
co-authored about “over-clocking computers”…can you tell his Father is very proud of his Son?! *smile*
How about the women?
Very good post. I hope to see my face up there someday.