SUPER RICH SCHOOL DROPOUTS

                                        SUPER RICH SCHOOL DROPOUTS
Great men aren’t born great, they grow great………….”The Godfather by Mario Puzzo.

True, many a time the actual value of greatness lies not in the inheritance of expansive estates but in the ability of people break rules , disregard and dismount bars of  limitations.

Formal education, as you must have heard people say is one of the most enduring legacies of all time. This is no doubt the case as educated people are regarded around the world. But alas! Let me say this, Greatness in the world today does not consist in the multiple university degrees an individual may possess.

This article is about men and women who either dropped out of school at some point or did not attend any school at all. This article does not intend to discourage people (especially the younger generation) from acquiring formal education and attaining academic excellence. This article simply refuses to agree with those who believe that without formal education one cannot amount to anything good in one’s sojourn on earth. EDUCATION IS GOOD BUT IDEAS RULE THE WORLD. Lets now take a look at some uneducated world changers.

SUPER RICH SCHOOL DROPOUTS (DEAD AND ALIVE)

      BILL GATES (Microsoft, Alive).$70bn

 

Aged 57 and valued at over $70bn by Forbes in 2012, father of three is the richest man in America and the world. Gates who is the 5^th most powerful man in the world, dropped out of Harvard as a second year student to found Microsoft, together with Paul Allen, his close friend. Today Microsoft is the world’s largest software company. He was the richest man in the world for 13 years consecutively; he then lost ground to Mexico’s Carlos Slim a telecoms magnate. He regained the no 1 spot this year and looks set to keep it that way for another year.

STEVE JOBS (Apple INC. Dead).$4bn

 

Jobs was the ultimate ideas man who was designed to be rich.  Shy and bashful, Jobs was never the attention seeking type, he dropped out of college to found Apple inc. The most fascinating part of his story is that he dropped out of Reeds University in his first semester. His vision to take the information world to the next level has out lived him as inventions have no doubt changed information and communication in the world today. Before his death, he was comfortably in the league of billionaires.

ASA CANDLER (Coca cola, Dead).$37m

 

Grab a coke and stand up for founder of the billionaire company and the world’s most popular brand Coca-Cola. Asa Candler dropped out of school at the age of 10.His formal education began shortly before his fifth birthday and came to an end when he was 10. Asa could have attended Emory College for a year but instead he allowed his brother, Warren attend because “warren’s choice of career (ministry) was a noble one. He saw his wealth as a divine trust to be used for the benefit of humanity. Today, coca-cola is a universal brand and still he no 1 beverage in most homes. So when next you grab a coke, know that its founder (the franchise was actually bought from John Pemberton, the inventor) did not have as much as a high school certificate.

MARK ZUCKERBERG (Facebook, Alive) Worth $13.3bn.

 

In 2004, while at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg founded facebook with the help of his computer science friend and roommate, Andrew McCollum. Zuckerberg dropped out or his studies to run the company and the rest is history. Facebook  is now a multibillion dollar company and Zuckerberg has even had a movie made about his life. So when next you are on facebook, just bear in mind that its chief founder is a school dropout who trusted his capacity more than he could ever trust paper qualifications. Currently worth an estimated $13bn and aged 29,he left Harvard in his sophomore year to concentrate on the site.

GIORGIO ARMANI (Armani Wears, Alive) Worth $7bn.

 

Billionaire founder of the brand Giorgio Armani S.P.A. dropped out of medical school at the University of Bologna because he could not stand the sight of blood. Armani started out in fashion as a window dresser at La Rinascente, a departmental store in Milan, and has gone to become Italy’s most successful designer. He has taken his billion dollar enterprise from fabrics to interior designs and decoration including designing the 200sq metre VIP of Chelsea football club at Stamford Bridge. With an annual turnover of $i.6bn and a personal income of $7bn, he formed his company in 1975 and by 2001, was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy.

COCO CHANEL (Coco Chanel Brand, Dead) Worth $4bn.

 

Fashion magnate and founder of Coco Chanel Brand; never saw the four walls of a school. Chanel was raised in an orphanage and was taught to sew. She had a brief career as a singer before opening her first clothes shop in 1910. In the 1920s she launched her first perfume and introduced the Chanel suit and the little blackdress. She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in France and lost at age 12. Grinding poverty forced her father to send her and her sister to a convent. Though she died in 1971, January 10, at age 87, her legacy lives on.

MARY KAY ASH (Mary Kay Ash Cosmetics Inc. Dead) Worth over $10bn.

 

Mary Kay, a well known American business woman trades under the company name Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. After high school, her family couldn’t afford to send her to college, so instead she got married and started a family. Then she got a career is direct sales, selling books. When she was 27, she had saved enough money and wanted to go to college. She went to the University of Houston with a view to becoming a doctor. But her husband came back from the military and wanted a divorce. Mary Kay didn’t want college anymore and got a job selling Stanley Home Products. She said to people magazine “I worked under a branch manager who promoted at his own discretion and I began to see my whole world hemmed by a man who did not me to succeed”, eventually success was hers. With help from her 20-yr old son and $5000 of her life savings to buy products, Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., started operation on Friday, September 13, 1963. The company manufactures over 200 products in a total of eight categories: body care, skin care, mens skin care, facial skin care, colour cosmetics, sun protection, nail care and nutritional supplements. The company provides employment for over 300,000 people who are predominantly women.

            The list is endless, Russ Whitney (W.I.N), Ralph Lauren (fashion designer), Michael Dell (dell computers), Ted Turner (C.N.N.), Henry Ford (ford motors), Cosmas Maduka (Coscharis Group) and their likes  did not as much as have a university certificate but they have shaken the world around us today.

  So the next time you hear someone place all their trust on their certificate tell them “YOUR BRAIN CAN TAKE YOU HIGHER THAN THE HIGHEST POINT THAT PIECE OF PAPER COULD”.