The Richest Business People Without A Degree

3 years ago

1. Ingvar Kamprad - Ikea

Image source: The Times

How would we ever have furnished our homes without Ingvar Kamprad? Ingvar sold matches, pens and even fish to his local village from a very early age. In his first year at college, desperate to be an entrepreneur, he worked out how to sell furniture cheaply which was making it at the factory in flat pack form... and Ikea was born. He is reported to be worth over $45 billion.

2. Walt Disney - Disney

Image Source: Encyclopaedia Britannia

Walt Disney never went to college and he was rejected as a cartoonist. Ever the optimist and determined to follow his dreams, he never gave up and 'Mickey Mouse' was the start of Disney as well as the golden age of animation. Walt passed away in 1966 and his empire is said to be worth $1 billion.

3. Roman Abramovich - Chelsea F C Owner

Image source: Sporting News

Roman Abramovich only lasted a year at the Moscow State Auto Transport Institute before he decided to drop out and try and make his fortune. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Roman bought State owned assets at a knock down price and that was the start of his journey. His bank balance is around $15 billion.

4. Michael Dell - Dell Technology

Image source: The Software Report

Michael Dell was always fascinated in understanding how computers worked and at a very young age took apart an 'Apple II' to see how it was created. He dropped out of college and went on to become the founder of Dell, one of the world's largest technology companies and is worth $50.4 billion.

5. Michele Ferrero- Ferrero Rocher Chocolates

Image source: The Mirror

We all love a Ferrero Rocher and the man who was behind the chocolates was Michele Ferrero. His first bout of success, at 19 years old, was adding vegetable oil to a chocolate mixture to make 'Nutella'. He then went on to develop the famous silver and gold foiled praline beauties! The company is now valued at over $26 billion.

6. Richard Branson - Entrepreneur

Image source: The Times

Richard Branson is well known for leaving school with no qualifications but he is living proof that you can still make it big. He opened record stores in the '60s, bought an airline and treated himself to a Caribbean Island. Concentrating on his Virgin Galactic project, Mr Branson is worth a cool $4.2 billion.

7. Liliane Bettencourt - L'Oreal

World's richest woman Liliane Bettencourt dies aged 94 | France | The Guardian

Image source: Hiru News

When Liliane Bettencourt joined her father's company when she left school, she became his apprentice, mixing cosmetics and labelling bottles of shampoo. She helped expand the business which was gaining popularity at an alarming rate, what with beauty products and potions at reasonable prices. When she passed away at 94, she was worth $33.5 billion.

8. Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook Co-Founder

Image source: TheNextWeb

Mark Zuckerberg could be described as a genius who is awkward in his own skin and behaves very oddly. This did not stop the Facebook co-founder having a ruthless streak. He dropped out of Harvard to pursue Facebook full time. To date he is worth a mere $122 billion.

9. Pete Cashmore - Mashable

Image source: Hollywood Reporter

At only 19 years of age, not wanting to enrol at college, Pete Cashmore founded the popular blog Mashable. A lack of further education did not stop this Scottish businessman from succeeding and he sold out to Ziff Davis for $50 million. Pete is now said to be worth around $90 million.

10. Sir Philip Green - Arcadia Group

Image source: Sky News

When Philip Green left boarding school at 15 (with no O-Levels), he worked for a shoe importer in East London before travelling to Europe, the States and the Far East. When he returned, aged 21, he set up his own business, importing jeans from overseas to sell on to London retailers. His family had loaned him £20,000 to get it off the ground. He went on to purchase some high street giants including the Arcadia Group. He is estimated to be worth $190 million.

11. Bernie Ecclestone - Formula One Owner

Image source: SnapLab

Bernie Ecclestone studied chemistry at Woolwich Polytechnic but he left before he had finished the course. His hobby of motorcycles turned into a business where he traded in spare parts for the cycles. He opened a dealership and everything , from then, turned to gold. Formula One has earned him roughly $3.2 billion.

12. Steve Jobs - Apple Co-Founder

Image source: Wikipedia

Steve Jobs attended Reed College and left the same year. The late Apple founder was amazing at product branding. He was a difficult character to deal with and lost many friends as he was solely focussed on succeeding. By the age of 25 he was worth $250 million.

13. Bill Gates - Microsoft

Image source: The Times

At only 13 years old, Bill Gates wrote his first software programme and the school decided to purchase a block of computer time on a General Electric school computer so he could be excused from Maths lessons to pursue his interest. He did enrol at Harvard but dropped out and that was probably the best decision he ever made. He is worth a whopping $138 billion.

14. Larry Ellison - Oracle

Image source: The Guardian

Larry Ellison enrolled at the University of Illinois and was named Science student of the year. He left before taking his final exams and became influenced by Edgar F Codd's research on a database for IBM. That led him to the formation of the company which later became Oracle. Recent figures show his worth at $91 billion.

15. Matt Mullenweg - Wordpress

Image source: Pinterest

Matt Mullenweg was the man behind Wordpress, which powers over a third of the web. He dropped out of the University of Houston and 2 years later he founded 'Automattic', the business behind WordPress.com and Tumblr to name but two. His net worth is $400 million.

16. Henry Ford - Car Manufacturer

Image source: Pinterest

Henry Ford made history when he introduced the assembly line in his factory operations and became one of the richest men in America. He had come from a very poor background and left school at just 15. His revolutionary ideas are still taught in schools today and if he were still alive, his earnings would be equal to $200 billion.

17. Mike Ashley - Retail Entrepreneur

Image source: The Mag

Mike Ashley left school at 16 and played squash at county level. An injury forced him to re-think his future and he opened a sport shop in Maidenhead. He opened a further 50 retail units over the years and changed the name of them from 'Sports Soccer' to 'Sports Direct'. He has since acquired a number of struggling high street stores and Newcastle Utd. Football Club. He is worth nearly $2 billion.

18. David Karp - Tumblr

Image source: Vox

David Karp didn't graduate from high school. He dropped out to be home schooled which meant he had time to work his way up the various tech firms until launching Tumblr in 2007. It gained 500 million monthly users and was sold to Yahoo! for $800,000. Karp is worth $200 million.

19. Daniel Ek - Spotify

Image source: Variety

At only 21, Daniel Ek gave up his degree in engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He had only lasted 8 weeks but he knew it was a decision he would never regret. He co-founded Spotify which has 217 million users at the last count.

20. Evan Williams - Twitter

Image source: TED

Evan Williams went to the University of Nebraska for only 18 months before leaving to pursue a career in information systems. In 2006 he co-founded Twitter, later publishing platforms 'Medium' and 'Blogger'. Set up for life, he is worth a mind-blowing $2.2 billion.

21. Milton Hershey - Confectionery

Image source: The Epoch Times

Trained in the confectionery business, Milton Hershey was the first person to manufacture caramel using fresh milk. He sold out so he could start a new company, making milk chocolate on a huge scale (it was seen as a luxury item until then). Hershey's has become one of the world's largest confectionery manufacturers. At his death in 1857 he was worth $12 million.

22. S. Daniel Abraham - Slim-Fast

Image source: The Mirror

S. Daniel Abraham was part of the Thompson Medical Company who had already released a controversial weight loss supplement called 'Dexatrim'. Looking to release a new product to the masses, they produced 'Slim-Fast' which went huge all over the world and is still going strong to this day. 'Slim-Fast' was acquired by Unilever in 2000, adding to the wealth of Abraham which stands at $2.1 billion.

23. Karl Albrecht - Aldi

Image source: The Mirror

Karl Albrecht's mother originally owned a grocery store and Karl and his brother Theo took it over. They disagreed at what to sell so split the shop in two. They decided to go their own ways after looking to expand so Karl opened the discount store which we all now recognise as Aldi, his brother opening a store called Lidl! Karl's wealth totalled $26 billion.

24. Amancio Ortega - Zara

Image source: The Olive Press

Amancio Ortega began his career making shirts and learned how to make clothes by hand. In the early '70s he started selling quilted bathrobes and 3 years later, along with his wife, opened the very first Zara store. This motivated them to open more outlets in Spain before they expanded and opened in many European countries. He is worth $66 billion.

25. Giorgio Armani - Designer

Image source: The Guardian

Giorgio Armani wasn't interested in further education - he was too creative! He formed his company in 1975 and diversified into sport, music and luxury hotels. He has been credited as being the most successful Italian designer in history and is worth $9.5 billion.

26. Steve Wozniak - Apple Co-Founder

Image source: PYMNTS

Steve Wozniak was fascinated by electronics from a very early age. Not particularly academically minded he studied and had an aptitude for building working electronics from scratch. It's well known that Wozniak met Steve Jobs at high school and the two of them joined forces in 1976 to form Apple Computers. Steve W has a personal fortune of $120 million.

27. Ray Kroc - MacDonald's

Image source: Eater

After he left school, Ray Kroc spent a long time selling milkshake machines and paper cups! After discovering a popular hamburger joint owned by Dick and Mac MacDonald, he went into business with the two guys and they launched the MacDonald's franchise. Ray bought them out to take sole control and amassed a fortune of $600 million.

28. Coco Chanel - Fashion Designer

Image source: The Times

As a 20 year old French designer, Coco Chanel popularized 'casual chic', wanting to move away from the severe, uncomfortable corseted styles. They were cheaper to make and became incredibly popular. Besides clothing, we know her for Chanel perfume, handbags and jewellery. Her worth has been valued at $100 million.

29. Akshay Ruparelia - Doorstep Estate Agency

Image source: Lovemoney

Aged 19, Akshay Ruparelia ditched sixth form college and set up an online estate agency, Doorstep, which sells houses for as little as £99. Using a loan of £7,000 from his parents he now employs 25 people, has over 2000 properties on his books and is worth around $16 million - not bad when you're still in your teens!

30. Sir Alan Sugar (Baron Sugar) - Entrepreneur

Image source: Yahoo News

After a brief spell working for the Civil Service at age 16, Alan Sugar used his £100 savings to invest in electrical goods and radio aerials for cars which he sold from an old van. This progressed, after 5 years, to manufacturing amplifiers and tuners. The big break came when he started manufacturing Amstrad computers and his empire started taking shape. Baron Sugar is estimated to be worth over a $1 billion.

31. Thomas Edison

Image Source / ThoughtCoNot only did Thomas Edison, one of the world's greatest inventors and founder of General Electric, not graduate from school, but his teachers even said he was 'dumb' and too much of a scatterbrain. Boy were they wrong.

32. Orji Uzor Kalu

Image Source / Channels TelevisionKalu is one of the richest business men in Africa. A billionaire at a young age, he was actually suspended from college after he took part in a protest. Instead of spending the time doing nothing, he started in the palm oil trade and grew his own business. He later refused to go back to school after they lifted the suspension.

33. Li Ka Shing

Image Source / ForbesHutchinson Whampoa is one of the biggest conglomerates in Hong Kong, and Shing is the degree-less billionaire who owns it. It operates over 50 countries, led by the man who dropped out of school when he was 15 years old and began a business life by selling watch bands.

34. Debbi Fields

Image Source / Women's Business DailyDebbi Fields was a young housewife with no education. She didn't even have any business experience when she started the company Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chippery. She then became the found of the most successful cookie company. Her success led to a franchise.

35. Cosmos Maduka

Image Source / NewsWireNGRThe Coscharis Group, which excels in different areas of business, was founded by Cosmos Maduka, now a billionaire with humble beginnings as a school drop out who never formally graduated from his education in Nigeria.

36. Carl Lindner

Image Source / Cincinnati EnquirerUnited Dairy Farmers was founded by Carl Lindner, now a billionaire and investor, who began his business education by - yep, you guessed it - dropping out of high school! At 14 years old, he decided instead to deliver milk for his family's dairy.

37. Simon Cowell

Image Source / WikipediaTV personality and record executive Simon Cowell is known for being the painfully-truthful judge on shows such as American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. Cowell's success didn't come from a school education, though. He dropped out of school at 16, and by the age of 23, was creating his own record label.

38. Mary Kay Ash

Image Source / Texas MonthlyThe huge marketing company Mary Kay Inc was named after its namesake founder, who was also known as the most outstanding business woman of the 20th century. And she never even went to school. She attributed her success to simply persevering and not throwing in the towel, rather than a formal education,

39. Wayne Huizenga

Image Source / ForbesNot only has Huizenga built one Fortune 1000 company, but he's built a whopping three - and all almost from scratch. His companies, Waste Management Inc, Blockbuster Entertainment and AutoNation, come from a man who dropped out of college and began a garbage collection business with a friend.

40. Barry Diller

Image Source / WikipediaDiller decided to drop out of college when he wanted to start his own business - and luckily he did. He started Fox Broadcasting Company, became the chairman of Expedia and has also been the CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp. And he achieved all of this without a degree.

41. Andrew Carnegie

Image Source / Encyclopedia BritannicaCarnegie was born into poverty, which isn't a great way to start in life when you want to be rich. But he achieved it regardless, and even without a degree - or going to school at all. He went on to found the Carnegie Steel Company.

42. Madame C. J. Walker

Image Source / bio. Biography.comWalker began life in a family of ex-slaves and farmers, and was a widow by the age of 20. Education was the last thing she was focused on when she overcame a difficult life to start her own cosmetics business and even became the first self made female millionaire in America.

43. Ted Turner

Image Source / Nuclear Threat InitiativeTed Turner is the founder of CNN and a billionaire. He also pledged a whopping billion dollars to the United Nation. And he did all of that after dropping out of school to become a media mogul and successful businessman.

44. Cornelius Vanderbilt

Image Source / WikipediaVanderbilt was an American business magnate who built his fortune in shipping and railroads. He had his own boat at the age of 16 after dropping out of school at the young age of 11. He went on to become one of the richest men in history, and has even said his education would have stopped him from learning anything else!

45. Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Image Source / WikipediaRothschild never went to school, but went on to build his own business fortune regardless. He started life born into a ghetto, and then his first business venture was as a money lender. He then built the biggest largest private fortune company in history.

46. Ty Warner

Image Source / Daily MailIf you're a fan of Beanie Babies, then the 'Ty' in this man's name may be familiar to you - Ty Warner is a billionaire investor who made $700 million in just one year from his Beanie Babies. He expanded his line, as well as being a hotel owner.

47. Howard Hughes

Image Source / Encyclopedia BritannicaHoward Hughes always intended to be the richest man in the world, and he eventually became a billionaire - after dropping out of school, of course. He left California's Institute of Technology and Rice University to go on to found Hughes Aircrafts and Co.

48. Asa Candler

Image Source / Wikimedia CommonsDid you ever know who was actually behind founding Coca Cola? It's probably a brand you just never assigned a named to (or assumed it was Mr Cola). But Asa Candler is the man who dropped out of school at the tender age of 10 in order to become a billionaire with one of the world's most well-known brands.

49. Jenny Craig

Image Source / WikipediaJenny Craig Inc was begun by scratch by this business woman who was lacking a college degree. Jenny Craig grew her weight management company to become one of the biggest, and most recognised, in the industry.

50. Rachael Ray

Image Source / Eonline.comRachael Ray has made herself in the TV and cooking world, dominating the food industry and even having her own shows on the Food Network. She's released cookbooks and appeared in plenty of magazines. She had no formal education or degrees in the art of cooking, though!