The Most Successful College Dropouts In History

Nov. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- A college degree can be an important gateway to employment, a career and a better standard of living. But a college degree does not equate to someone’s level of intelligence or talent. For those seeking the best workers or leaders, there is a plethora of intelligent, inventive people without degrees who should not be overlooked.

This list of college dropout billionaires is based on an annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest people compiled and published by Forbes magazine on March 11, 2009. The listed net worth represents the estimated value of assets less debt as of February 13, 2009.  College dropout refers to a person who has dropped out from a college or university before completing his/her degree. Some of the world’s most famous and richest billionaires (including the second richest man in the world, Bill Gates) are college dropouts. The combined net worth of these dropouts is USD 246 billion. This list is not exhaustive.

The average net worth of billionaires who dropped out of college, $9.4 billion, is approximately triple that of billionaires with Ph.D.s, $3.2 billion. Even if you remove the world’s second richest man, Bill Gates, who left Harvard University and is now worth $59.0 billion, college dropouts are worth $5.3 billion on average, compared to those who finished only bachelor’s degrees, who are worth $2.9 billion. According to a recent report from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, 20% of America’s millionaires never attended college.  Read more about this company http://www.thenextseo.co.in

Rank
Name
Image
Business
Dropped Out At
Age
Net worth

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
77
$26 Billion

5
Larry Page

Google
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

Facebook
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
Jaed 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