Success, as they say, is not linear. For some of the world’s most influential billionaires, the journey to the top began with a bold decision to step away from academia and build their reputable careers from scratch.
From tech giants to media moguls, these paragons tore up the rulebook and chose their ambition over formal education–and they are all the richer for it.
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Here, we spotlight 14 extraordinary individuals and billionaires on Forbes list who dropped out of school to pursue their dreams–and caught it.
Ralph Lauren
As the billionaire’s bio reads, the lifestyle brand founder and designer Ralph Lauren was enrolled in Baruch College, where he studied business, but dropped out to enlist in the U.S. Army. After two years of service, Lauren noted the passion he was able to express through clothes and began designing men’s ties out of a drawer in the Empire State Building, “and he’s never looked back.” He is currently worth $9.3b according to Forbes.
Oprah Winfrey
In 1975, Oprah Winfrey received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution, where she studied communication. However, she dropped out to pursue a job in TV. It wasn’t until a decade later, after launching her talk show and earning an Oscar nomination, that Winfrey returned to complete her studies, and eventually graduated in 1986. Forbes totals her Net Worth to $3b.
Michael Dell
If you have ever seen or used a DELL product, this is the man behind the idea. “If you don’t know, I should confess,” businessman Michael Dell said while addressing the University of Texas at Austin’s 2019 spring commencement. “I dropped out of UT after two semesters.” Dell committed his life to his company Dell Technologies which grew to be a global success. The tech mogul is currently worth $98.3b by Forbes and is the 15th richest man in the world.
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Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the man who was to become a dominant figure in big tech, like some in the industry, dropped out of Harvard after the end of his second year to run Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975. He returned briefly but eventually dropped out for good after completing his junior year to build his company full-time. Gates diversified his fortune into dozens of holdings, including an investment in a garbage collection firm. He is currently worth $136.9b, according to Forbes.
Paul Allen
Paul Allen dropped out of Washington State University after two years to take a job in Boston — where, Bill Gates had enrolled at Harvard. Together, they founded Microsoft. Allen went on to become a billionaire NFL owning the Seattle Seahawks from 1997 until his death in 2018. As of his passing, Allen was worth $20.3b, as per Forbes.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, the charismatically-renowned Apple co-founder left Reed College, a liberal arts school in Oregon in 1972 after just one semester. When he returned to give a commencement speech 25 years later at the school, he said, “I ran out of money.” Till today, the college acknowledges him as “one of the most famous dropouts in history.” The billionaire was worth $7b according to Forbes before his passing in 2011.
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Mark Zuckerberg
In 2005, Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Ivy League Harvard University to focus on his then-young but growing social media platform Facebook, now Meta, founded with four fellow students. Zuckerberg would return to the University in 2017 to receive an honorary doctorate. The tech entrepreneur is currently worth $180.6b and is the fourth richest person in the world, as per Forbes.
Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and Square, dropped out of college twice. Dorsey left Missouri University of Science and Technology in his junior year for a job in New York, and then exited New York University just before graduation for a short-lived West Coast venture, according to a New Yorker profile. “I felt like a failure,” Dorsey would recall. In 2022, Dorsey sold Twitter, now X, to billionaire Elon Musk for $44b. The tech founder is now worth $4.2b according to Forbes.
Dustin Moskovitz
Dustin Moskovitz was one of the four who helped launch Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 from their Harvard dorm. The co-founder of the social media giant had previously told media it was not their intent to “permanently” leave the campus. “[But] it would be impossible to run the company while we were also going to school,” Moskovitz said. After leaving the social network in 2008, he cofounded Asana, a workflow software company. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $14.3b.
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Daniel Ek
If you’re a big fan of music, chances are you are using this man’s product and paying him for it. Daniel Ek is the CEO and founder of Spotify. According to a Forbes profiling, Ek dropped out of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology after just eight weeks. Ek “When I was growing up, I never really had educational pressure, all that mattered to my mom when it came to school was that I showed effort. She of course thought education mattered,” Ek wrote on LinkedIn. The streaming giant founder is currently worth $5.3bn, Forbes says.
Steven Spielberg
Successful movie director, Steven Spielberg dropped out of Cal State Long Beach in the late 1960s to direct for TV, In 1994, he cofounded DreamWorks studios with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. His films, which include Jaws and Jurassic Park have grossed more than $10 billion worldwide. After winning three Oscars, the blockbuster filmmaker resumed his studies and earned his bachelor’s degree at Long Beach in 2002.
Tiger Woods
World-renowned golfer, Tiger Woods left Stanford after his second year to pursue his love for gold professionally. “The only regret I have in life is not spending another year at Stanford,” Woods said in 2016. The 48-year-old has earned roughly $1.8 billion in his pro golf career.
H. Wayne Huizenga
H. Wayne Huizenga, the man who built Blockbuster into America’s No. 1 video chain was a once-upon-a-time dropout of Michigan’s Calvin College. After taking Waste Management public in 1971, he bought and expanded Blockbuster Video before selling it to Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994. The mogul also owned three pro sports franchises, including the NFL‘s Miami Dolphins. He was reported to be worth $2.8b before his passing in 2018.
Travis Kalanick
Travis Kalanick co-founded ride-hailing firm Uber in 2009. Before then, Kalanick dropped out of UCLA in 1998 to build Scour, a multimedia search engine with other mates. When Travis Kalanick dropped out of UCLA, his disappointed parents held their tongue because, as his dad once explained to the HuffPost, they “knew something was going to work out for [him].” It paid off. In 2019, Kalanick, who had owned about 4 per cent of Uber, sold all his shares for more than $2.5 billion. He is currently valued at $3.6b.
