Four Forbes Billionaires You Didn't Know Were School Dropouts

Four Forbes Billionaires You Didn't Know Were School Dropouts

  • The world richest list is constantly embracing more school dropout billionaires, mostly from the United States and Britain
  • Many school dropout billionaires left their school between the ages of 16 to 22 years old in order to focus on their dream of being businessmen
  • The youngest drop out was 16 and a Briton, and that was because he was having poor academic performance, so he decided to test his knowledge elsewhere

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If you were thinking without a school degree, you can't achieve billionaire status, there are several prominent businessmen that have broken this jinx.

Gone are the days when school degree was a determinant to achieving success, but with the advent of technology, the number of dropouts on Forbes list are increasing.

Below are three billionaires who you didn't know were school dropouts, while the last one is a bonus to further inspire you that the same school you leave will come back to hand you that degree you abandoned - if you succeed.

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Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and two other billionaires who were dropouts
Richard Branson, Travis Kalanick, Michael Dell and Zuckerberg. Photo: Richard Branson (R)/Facebook, Drew Angerer (B-M), Theo Wargo/WireImage (T-M) and Mark Zuckerberg (L)/Facebook
Source: UGC

Richard Branson

Unlike his peers, the British dropped out of school at the age of 16 years to chase his entrepreneurship life after poor academic performance. Branson went on to sell both Christmas trees and budgerigars.

He stopped the business due to low sales to start publishing a magazine called "Student" which led him into establishing Virgin Records which became world's largest independent record label around 1970s, and was later sold for $500 million.

Today, Branson is worth $5.9 billion thanks to businesses like Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic. He also operated in telecoms and railway.

Michael Dell

Born to a Jewish family, the American businessman and philanthropist dropped out of University of Texas at the age of 19 to focus on his newspaper subscription business.

His love for computer began at a tender age after he dismantled an Apple II system just to see how its works. Dell started his business life by investing part-time earnings as a teen worker in stocks and precious metals.

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He went from being a dishwasher to selling newspaper subscription which made him a profit of $200,000 in his first year and also creating and selling upgrade kits for personal computers

The billionaire incorporated the famous Dell Computer in 1984, and by age 27, he became the youngest CEO on Fortune magazine's top 500 corporations list - today he is worth $50.5 billion.

Travis Kalanick

Kalanick is one of those that revolutionise transportation business globally. He co-founded Uber, one of the world's famous car-hailing firm.

He dropped out of University of California at the age of 22 while studying computer engineering and business economics. Kalanick left to work full with Scour, an online file-exchange service.

After Scour filed for bankruptcy in 2000 due to avoid a $250 billion lawsuit o er copyright, Kalanick founded Red Swoosh with another school dropout, Michael Todd.

Swoosh was later acquired by Akamai Technologies for $19 million in 2007. He went on to establish Uber with Garrett Camp, who is credited for the Uber idea.

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At the age of 44, Kalanick is worth $2.8 billion. He has sold all his Uber shares, and his now the CEO of Real Estate firm, City Storage Systems.

Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg's rise in the billionaire community led to the famous believe that one can be a dropout and still become a billionaire.

He dropped out of Harvard at the age of 21, but before Zuckerberg did, he was already a programming wizard, creating games out of cartoons drawn by his friends.

As his story goes, Zuckerberg created Facebook in his room at Harvard. Today, he is the fifth richest man on earth at the age of 37, with a networth of $124.8 billion - his success earned him an honorary degree at Harvard.

World richest man is leaving earth to chill in space

In related news, the world richest man, Jeff Bezos, want to go spend sometime in space and leave everyone here on earth. The man is planning to make the journey on July 20, 2021.

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In preparation for his travel, Bezos has retired as Amazon Chief Executive Officer in order to focus on his new ambition with one of his company Blue Origin.

The ecommerce business mogul will be going with his brother, younger brother, Mark Bezos, and another secret passenger who bought a seat on the spacecraft.

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
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Khadijah Thabit (Copyeditor) Khadijah Thabit is an editor with over 3 years of experience editing and managing contents such as articles, blogs, newsletters and social leads. She has a BA in English and Literary Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Khadijah joined Legit.ng in September 2020 as a copyeditor and proofreader for the Human Interest, Current Affairs, Business, Sports and PR desks. As a grammar police, she develops her skills by reading novels and dictionaries. Email: khadeeejathabit@gmail.com