100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded without a College Degree
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Add Website to Free SEO In an earlier post, we posed the question, “Is College Necessary for Entrepreneurs?” While there are certainly good arguments for both sides, it’s a fact that a college degree does not guarantee success. And there are countless determined entrepreneurs who have proven that success can be achieved despite a lack of higher education.
Free check your website WORTH We have compiled a list of 100 amazing “degreeless” entrepreneurs who have risen to the top. Some high-profile entrepreneurs you will recognize immediately, while others you may be discovering for the first time. Many of them didn’t complete elementary school, and still more are considered high school dropouts. Their backgrounds and industries run the gamut; however, they all have at least two things in common. Incredible success and no college degree.
My brother, Matthew, and I aren’t on this list (didn’t want to toot our own horns… well, at least not too loudly); however we count ourselves among the golden many who achieved success without attending college. Entrepreneurs at an early age, Matthew and I had already started six (toot toot) businesses by the time we graduated high school. We were both offered college scholarships, but turned them down – it was clear to us that college was not in our future. Within a week of graduating high school, we bought a bar/café/billiards location, which we overhauled, re-branded and turned into a hot spot; and on the 12-month we sold it for a great profit. Of course, we have gone on to start several more businesses, both offline and online, and we have never once looked back.
While we’ve listed our Top 100, we know there are hundreds (if not thousands) more entrepreneurs who have achieved success without a college a degree. Are you one of them? Let us know who we forgot by posting your comments below.
The List
Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, U.S. president. Finished one year of formal schooling, self-taught himself trigonometry, and read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer.
Amadeo Peter Giannini, multimillionaire founder of Bank of America. Dropped out of high school.
Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist, and one of the first mega-billionaires in the US. Elementary school dropout.
Andrew Jackson, U.S. president, general, attorney, judge, congressman. Home-schooled. Became a practicing attorney by the age of 35 – without a formal education. Read more…





