![](https://web.archive.org/web/20110421185118im_/http://smallbusiness.aol.com/media/aoloriginal.gif)
We Don't Need No Education: Meet the Millionaire Dropouts
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson are self-made entrepreneurs who earned millions (and later billions) without earning college degrees. So who are the next great college dropouts to watch?
Text Size:
A A A![Head of the class: Richard Branson is among the many entrepreneurial dropouts who have gone on to make millions.](https://web.archive.org/web/20110421185118im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/smallbusiness.aol.com/media/2011/02/millionaire-dropouts-430rk020911.jpg)
And he's not alone. Apple's Steve Jobs, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Virgin's Sir Richard Branson (a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors) all have billions of their own to boast of. But there's one thing they don't have: College diplomas. They didn't need syllabi or textbooks to learn business, and like many successful entrepreneurs, they learned that just getting "out there" was the best way to launch their startups, which became some of the best-known companies on the planet.
"I suppose I was born an entrepreneur," Branson says. "I've always loved creating things I could be proud of."
At the tender age of 16, the future knight launched his first successful venture -- a magazine called Student. A few years later, he launched Virgin as a mail-order record retailer, and later opened a record store in London. Today, he oversees an empire of hundreds of companies, in industries ranging from air travel, telecommunications and entertainment, and is worth an estimated $4 billion. He never even made it to college.
Dell, Jobs, Gates and Branson are already household names, but what about the next generation of millionaire dropouts? Meet a few of the diploma-less entrepreneurs who also may be destined to climb the world's richest rankings one day -- even without a degree to their names.
Serial Success
When Cameron Johnson was nine years old, he made invitations for a party his parents were throwing. He put his name and logo on the back of the invitations -- yes, he "branded" himself -- and soon new orders were streaming in from neighbors who wanted his services. But looking back, Johnson says that was just "a small thing" in his career. At 11, he acquired his sister's Beanie Baby collection for $100 and sold it on eBay, raking in $1,000 in four days. He soon became the second-largest Beanie Baby retailer on the Internet, making $50,000 a year before becoming a teenager. He went on to launch myEZmail.com, an e-mail forwarding company (hey, it was a novel concept in the '90s), and Surfing Prizes, a company that provided scrolling advertisements on Web browsers. Johnson, 25, is now unaffiliated with the 15 websites he started in his earlier early years, but he has transitioned into a speaking career, focusing on entrepreneurship, technology and the economy -- and is reportedly worth more than $3 million.
Johnson had always looked up to Dell, Gates and Branson, and he recognized the one thing they had in common: They all dropped out of school. Would he need a degree to be successful? His gut said no -- college would remove him from the business world for four years, and he was already making more than many of his professors. But Johnson's parents disagreed, so he enrolled at Virginia Tech and decided to use his undergraduate years as a way to meet other smart people and potential business partners. But college didn't last long. Johnson dropped out after seeing his own name and photo in an entrepreneurship chapter of a business textbook.
"An education is something that can never be taken away from you -- I believe that," Johnson says. "But the traditional path of education wasn't for me."
Johnson credits his business skills to his parents -- his mom took over her dad's distribution company (what is now U.S. Food), and his dad owns a Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership. "They taught me the value of a dollar," he says.
And while Johnson remains lukewarm toward entrepreneurship programs, he thinks entrepreneurship boils down to whether or not somebody is willing to take that first risk.
"I don't think it's necessarily a 'taught or made' thing," Johnson says. "It's about courage."
Networks, Not Homework
Courage is something Portland, Ore.-based chip designer Jeri Ellsworth knows about. Bored of sitting in class repeating the same exercises 50 times and being chided for exploring the backside of her electronics, Ellsworth decided to drop out of high school. She went on to get her GED, then dropped out of Walla Walla College -- she was only there to get access to chipmaking equipment anyway. Once microchips became cheap enough, Ellsworth indulged her curiosity at home with $500 microchip kits and a stack of books. She taught herself how to design chips without any formal computer-science training.
"Schools can only target 80 to 90 percent of average folks," leaving outliers to fend for themselves, says Ellsworth, 36. "I knew if I wanted to get into this field, I had to show people I could do it." Which wasn't easy -- she was rejected by many a Silicon Valley HR department simply for being diploma-less, until she stepped up her game and became a schmoozer.
"I knew I had to keep networking, shaking hands and sharing my story at trade shows," she says. Eventually one person took a risk on her. The client was happy with her work and referred Ellsworth to a colleague, who referred her to someone else -- and so on. It seemed she didn't need a degree after all, and when Ellsworth's Commodore 64 landed her some press in The New York Times in 2004, no one cared about her B.S., or lack thereof. Now she has the luxury to take on numerous projects at a time, developing intricate and elegant machines out of circuit boards and LEDs. Some freelance projects are more research-based, others are artsy, and the breadth allows her frenetic personality to run wild.
"In tech, it's like the Wild Wild West, where if you're good at something, they don't really care if you have a degree," she says. Plus, fresh graduates might not have the experience to make it in the big leagues. "You gotta get your teeth kicked in a few times and make some really bad mistakes and know what not to do."
While Ellsworth doesn't regret forgoing her degree, she has words of caution for entrepreneurs like herself. "You have to have passion if you want to bypass school," she says, "because you have to work twice as hard to get where you want to be."
Big Blog Off Campus
Matt Mullenweg, 26, knows about passion -- he's passionate about blogging, and he left the University of Houston in 2004 after two years to start Automattic, the site behind the blog platform WordPress and survey site PollDaddy. He's certainly done well for himself -- he's worth an estimated $40 million -- and while he didn't need a college education to be successful, Mullenweg laments the days when his only job was learning about political movements and philosophy, with a few hours of hobby-blogging here and there.
"The idea of having no responsibilities except general edification seems like such a luxury now," he has blogged. "When I had it, all I wanted to do was hack around on the Web. Now the vast majority of my hours are hacking around on the Web."
Waste Not
Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of Home Depot and Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year, TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never.
"I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave."
The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and carpe diem.
"I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."
Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Again, college does not make you smart. It only shows (by the diploma) that you are capable of finishing what you started. Not all peple need a degree to be succesful, but a degree opens a lot of doors for people that wont open for just a high school diploma.
These billionaires are fakes. Bill Gates doesn't have fifty billion dollars, he has $50 billion of Microsoft shares. If he tried to sell all of it, it would lose most of its value. Branson lives in an old river boat, Warren Buffet lives in a $38,000.00 house in Nebraska & drives a used Lincoln, etc.
But, if you are actually lucky enough to become successful, you are limited by what people have to sell. Finding this, I had to build a workshop & laboratory. I wanted a certain "thick" bench for removing shoes before entry, but nobody sells it, so I had to manufacture it. Nobody sells the HD Digital TV antenna I wanted, so I manufactured that, etc.
It has no price, you can't buy it anywhere.
I live more comfortably & better than any billionaire because I have things they can't buy...Alfred-
And you honestly don't think these people can hire someone to make what they want???
They could hire me, but I'm too busy making things nobody can buy, sorry...Alfie
I worked with a friend in a warehouse. The company had a policy that you had to have a college degree to be a supervisor, period. He wanted to be a supervisor, but could not. I guess he just didn't want to go online or to school to jump through that hoop.
Tzooch- If he really was that good, he should have gone to a bank, took out a loan, and started his own warehouse. He'd probably be a millionaire now...Alfie-
when every one has a government alloted college education, it will prove valueless
In all your starts and stops threw your dream projects or dream jobs there is one common element, it's always people who evaluate your abilities to pre form the tasks needed done. Some people are stiff and will go for the book learned/schooled individual every time. However, there are those People out there who will take a Chance on a self taught individual because that person has the "spark" to think inside and outside of the box because that person has the rare desire to win/get the job done. No matter what, it still takes people to give people a chance to flourish and prosper threw there (in some cases) hidden gifts/talents.
I am one of those undiscovered people who is now trying to learn how to self promote, yea, not going well.
I have learned how to use water as a fuel, cool right? OK, how about a motor that does not need to be refueled, SiFi right? no. I have spelled it out so many times how to use sea water as a fuel to energy and clean pure drinking water. I can't get a reply from anyone. Not even a: Go for it! or get off the pipe. or how can I help? The last one is what I need right now. Yes, investors... I have here from my Senator information on how to get a government grant. I am truly grateful. I have ask myself one question, is America broke? I answered, yes. I don't want to be part of the problem, I want to help. Stage one investors will be founders of a new future with a lifetime of discount future products. Stage two investors will get the same. As for Stage three, my industry will be self supportive and kept private. Each new product will have a production line that will need people to run it. The new motor is key that can turn a generator to make electricity, turn a wheel, a propeller, and if it moves the new motor will move it. The garage door it open and I know this is going to be bigger then apple, so, if you can, ask, "how can I help?"
Our education system as we've known it over the last century is obsolete, and a degree will NEVER guarantee financial freedom or independence. This system was designed to make people good little employees to make someone else rich. Successful people learn and hone their skills in the real world. Only in skilled professionals (i.s. medical, law, scientist, etc.) is a formal education a necessity. The expense of education is now one of the worst investments ever. Spend $500K to make $50K a year as someone else's slave, while paying half your money in taxes. There is no freedom as an employee - again, upon which the entire eduicational system has been based for decades.
These brilliant men are the exception, not the rule. There is no case to be made about the value of education, or lack thereof, because few great minds are massively successful. I've been in Executive Search for 32 years. If you want a career, you MUST have a college degree. There are but a few Gates & Jobs; they will stand out. This discussion about the value of education is absurd. The only people I've ever heard denigrating edcuation are people that don't have one.
This poster is correct as today, colleges have become a major US undustry which most of the online study program universities/colleges are all public traded companies on the stock exchanges.
The President and others going on about needing education is a misnomer in many ways, as all it does is feed more monies into the largest entitlement society in this country, while adding tremendous debts on people who can hardly pay those off in this day and age.
ALL of the most amazing projects and events that have occurred in this nation were from people who DID NOT go to college or graduate from one, from Ray Croc to Bill Gates to Sam Walton. But they, like myself and many others, were brought up in a time when the public education system had solid quality in teaching and also families existed with strong moral backgrounds and We learned to work harder and ask questions and never take "no" for an answer and certainly DID NOT have political correctness to dumb us all down.
My high school education was so in-depth and expansive where I went to school in the Northeast, that the quality of what I learned from instructors and gained was far more than any 4 year college level program out there today!
And as far as other posts saying without a degree you will not get a job today- BS! I am educated but I am a skileld tradesman with a small busines soepration here. It is my 3rd time in my life I started my own business on my own with no loans or help starting from scratch and taking a chance everytime. My wife, however, well she ahs bene without a job now 15 months after losing her finance related job when CIT Group filed that prepackaged BK over a year ago and she was one of many cut from compnaies who depended on CIT to provide them funding sources for factoring, etc.. My wife has a Bachelors degree in Business, Bachelors degree in Finance, and an Exucutive MBA degree even and boy, do we have school loans to pay out years ahead of us and still, I AM THE ONLY income coming inot our household as the only interview she received was from a staffing agency for a call center job willing to pay ONLY $9.00/hour. Disgustiing!
Needing a Degree is More BRAINWASHING by the people who Make their $, selling them..and they are? THE COLLEGES! just think about it.. Less students = less teachers needed and less $ to pay them.. less demand.. Less sucker kids paying College Football tickets = less profits..!
the College /Eduacation industry is getting almost as Big as the Fortune 500 Companies! Some Universities are big enough to Belong On the Fortune 1,000 if not the 500 list!
Teachers Supporting their Own Industry thru High school level on up! They've made going to College an ENTITLEMENT now! Telling the kids YOUR PARENTS HAVE TO PAY FOR YOU TO GO TO COLLEGE! eventhough they Know that less than 33% Will ever Graduate aND OVER 90% OF THE GIRLS? Will Never use their Degrees! We send our Daughters to College to find Better Husbands, not get an Education..!
To get into a White collar Compoany job to meet better guys and a husband..just keep their figures nice and look pretty and at least look smart and sexy honey! then you can have your nice Big Wedding , Nice Big House and 3-4 kids and go play Soccer Mom and Live a Nice Easy Life..
Colleges ought to be taxed.. they are Not a Not-for-Profit anymore.. they are Big Business! Just ck out their Endowments that aren't taxed either..! Combined? There is over $1 Trillion Dollars in Endowments alone! and Not paying Anykind of Taxes on the profits they make..!
men? Buy a Franchise business! $50k and you will make $75-$150k /yr the rest of your Life and Have people working for you.. That's what I and my Army Buddies did when we got out in the 60's and early 70's.. others Got a Union Job in the Trades and then started their own Contracting business.. and have done just about as well..
College degrees? You don't need no Stinking College Degress.. That's for Loosers and Suckers that want some kind of Meanial salary and settle for some company to take care of them.. or Socialisum at it's finest..Then they Fire your Butt when you least expect it..or need it the most.Their is No Job security working for someone else!
Dear Average Joe ... If for no othere reason, I wish you have completed your degree so that you would have learned to spell. You might have leaned to construct a complete sentance also. Education is not only for your pocket book, it's also for your mind. I wish you would open your mind, as well as a book.
Well, when I got out of the ARMY in 1971, My Dad offered my $20k togo to college or do with it what I wanted..
1. I got into the IBEW -Elec. Union and in 5 yrs, became a Electriction- Journeyman
2. I bought a nice 57' Chevy Convertible
3. and I put the rest into buying a home and fixed it up..
Since then? I own 5 houses and rent them out
My 57' Chevy is worth over $100k
and I am Retired from branching out into running my own Electrical Contracting Business with 10 Employees and sold it for over $2 million..
Need a College Degree? Sure, That's what I hired to take care of my Books and Taxes and to run my Computers.. Geeks we called them.. more like NERDS.. that spend their whole day sitting at a desk and accomplishing very little in their own lives..
If that is What you want? Go spend $50-$100k on getting a Degree and become a Boring Nerd.. and working for guys like us.. Girls? They have to go to college.. but not for a eduacation.. But to Find a Decent Guy.. to support them and kids.. especially if they are Big Fat Girls.. that can marry some Nerd..and dominate them...like their mommy did.. Colleges are full of those kinds of Guys.. Go get em' girls..
;-)
I find that it takes ambition not a degree to get ahead in life. I personally don't have a college degree. I am one of the top leaders in my industry. Today,I own a business. It's possible to get ahead without the degree. Saying that, I have sent my children to college get their degrees. I think it helps them get started and learn to finish a project. We must instill in our children the desire to get ahead. The ambition to help them fulfill their dreams. This is the real key to success.
Greetings:
How can AOL say that these accomplished men "didn't need no education?" Their practical experience is the best education that anyone can ever have! You can add Ray Krock the "Founder" of the McDonald's Franchise system to that list or David Wexler Founder of Victoria Secret the Limited and six other stores in every mall in the United States. Ray Krock didn't even finish high school! College has been long over-rated. If college really knew how to teach business, then all of the poor professors would be rich. Only a fool would pay a college $250,000 over a four year period of time so that they could earn a meager $45,000 a year in salary. I was in a major department store last weekend. The lady working gift wrapping has a CPA and her Master's in accounting. She should go back to college and earn a refund!!!! God Help Us!!!
Lamar C. Chapman III
Solo Fides (Only by Faith)
Crown of Life Recipient - October 24, 2004
Sacredotal Ordination - June 11, 1991
Engaged - Orthodox Republican
Dropping out of college is a stupid decision. The example you cite are one in a billion-a number it is difficult to get your hands around. Equating money with success or smarts is nonsensical. On the other hand, I am sure the billionares you cited are very smart. However, the trade-off for most if not all is ignorance. The writer of this article undoutedly has a college degree and that is why he or she is employed. I would exchange my education for a few billion. but have no game changing ideas as yet. Stay in school. Your education is worth a billion. Even the billionares you cite know that. I can beat them at Jeopardy and pool.
common sense is more important than any education. want to know more about why i say this, just ask and ye shal recieve. not trying to be a smart a--. but would realy enjoy answering that question. please give all humans a chance befor you judge them in any way. thanks.
www.kickstarter.com
I have the billion dollar idea but I don't have the money to back it up. The future of fuel economy for all moving vehicles would change.