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You’re likely to earn significantly more if you go to college and get your bachelor’s degree, or make it even further, according to government statistics. But for the richest of the rich, the normal rules don’t seem to apply.
Whether through innate ambition and skill or sheer luck, a number of extremely wealthy leaders like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Richard Branson made it to where they are without the traditional educational credentials. In fact, research firm Wealth-X found in 2016 that nearly a third of the world’s billionaires didn’t have a bachelor’s degree.
Here’s 15 insanely successful people that you may not realize never went to college, or abandoned higher education once they got there.
Ellen DeGeneres
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Net worth: $ 400 million
DeGeneres is one of the most successful comedians and hosts in Hollywood history, but she had to work her way there over time. She enrolled in the University of New Orleans, but dropped out after only one semester. She worked odd jobs from house painter to vacuum salesperson to oyster shucker (yes, really). In the ’80s, she was doing standup at comedy clubs and finally got a national spotlight on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. By the ’90s, she had her own sitcom, and of course, now she’s the queen of daytime TV with her talk show Ellen.
Ted Turner
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Net worth: $ 2.2 billion
Turner didn’t actually drop out of college. Instead, he was kicked out of Brown University for having a woman in his dorm room. Luckily, he was able to work for his father’s successful advertising company, which he later turned into the Turner Broadcasting Company, launching the first 24-hour cable news network, CNN.
Anna Wintour
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Net worth: $ 35 million
Fashion designers the world over seek the capricious approval of Anna Wintour, who has been editor in chief of American Vogue since 1988. The Brit attended the all-girls school North London Collegiate School, but never pursued higher education. The daughter of a newspaper editor, she quickly rose through the ranks of fashion publications. “I think my father really decided for me that I should work in fashion,” she said in the documentary The September Issue.
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