Some of the self-made billionaires on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans List have something in common: they either did not go to college, or they dropped out of college. Some would say that this helps spur the debate that continues among the next generation of entrepreneurs: is formal education necessary?
You either create a university that focuses on entrepreneurship, or you forget about forcing entrepreneurs into the traditional mode of academia; is the point made by a few. Others argue that education is vital, that albeit the lack of entrepreneur-focused training in some institutions, entrepreneurs can still use the formal training.
Still there are some who stress this kind of training for entrepreneurs: something you could call entrepreneurial street smarts—a willingness to succeed, the desire to learn the trade, and the tenacity to keep learning as you go along.
A few self-made billionaires from the list tell their own story.
Billionaire College Drop-Outs
David Geffen sits at $5.5 billion on the list; with his fortune coming from movies and music. His company, Dream Works SKG, develops and produces films, video games and television programming. Geffen, a University of Texas at Austin drop-out, was able to sell his previous company for $550 million.
If you’ve heard of Carnival Cruises, you are familiar with how Micky Arisonmade his billions. Arison also owns the NBA’s Miami Heat. This entrepreneur and leader of the world’s largest cruise operator, somehow is worth $4.2 billion; despite him dropping out of The University of Miami.
Les Wexner. The self-made retail billionaire started his empire with a $5000 loan. Although he’s now on the list, with a cool $3.8 billion to prove it, he too dropped out of The Ohio State University Law School.
Billionaire College Dropouts Who Learned A Thing or Two From College
Arguably, a college degree doesn’t provide a stamp for entrepreneurial success. But what about the startup founders who gained a thing or two from having some form of university training?
Steve Jobs The popular Apple entrepreneur and inventor whose aim has always been to create products that are both functional and elegant, dropped out of Reed College. Yet despite his $7 Billion, Jobs stated this in a 2005Stanford Report, “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”
Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was launched out of a Harvard University dormitory room on February 4, 2004. Zuckerberg, now worth $17.5 billion, would not have launched this social network game changer had he not enrolled at Harvard University. While Zuckerberg did drop out later, Facebook’s business model and target audience, its initial interface and usefulness, were all tested during his stint at Harvard.
Billionaires Who Did Not Attend College
While there are some billionaires who attended and dropped out of college, there are others who didn’t even bother to attend.
Haim Saban. $2.9 billion. The Egyptian born billionaire and war survivor, made his billions in television and media. Yet, he never attended college.
John Paul DeJoria is the high school graduate who was once told by his teacher that he “would never succeed at anything.” Today, the founder of Paul Mitchell products and the popular Patrón drink, is worth $4 billion. He too did not attend college.
David Green. Now worth $4 billion, the founder of Hobby Lobby, admits to feeling uncomfortable in high school. In his memoir, More Than A Hobby, Green calls himself the “kid off to the side.” His work study program in high school is what led him to retail, he says.
Understandably, this is a controversial subject. Which brings us back to the question, is college necessary for entrepreneurs? What do you think?
Find Cheryl on Twitter: @startupbiztalk or via her personal site: Making Business Personal Reposted from Forbes.com
