Many famous and highly successful individuals achieved massive success without a college degree, often dropping out to pursue ventures or starting work early. Key examples include tech founders Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell, as well as industry icons like Richard Branson, Henry Ford, and entertainers such as Quentin Tarantino and Tom Hanks.
Actors that didn't go to college
Walt Disney didn't even make it to college! He left school at 16—and we all know he lived happily ever after.
Billionaires Without College Degrees
No, Leonardo DiCaprio did not go to college; he dropped out of high school to pursue acting, although he later earned his GED, and he did attend some specialized schools and took acting classes, eventually becoming a world-renowned actor known for films like Titanic and The Revenant.
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Stone attended Xavier College Preparatory—an all-girl Catholic high school—as a freshman, but dropped out after one semester to become an actress.
If you're not keen on climbing the corporate ladder, you can get rich without going to college ─ all it takes is some hard work, determination and leveraging your out-of-the-box mindset. Apple's Steve Jobs, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Facebook's (Meta's) Mark Zuckerberg became highly successful without college degrees.
Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in his second year in order to complete the project. Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and the other co-founders moved to Palo Alto, California, where they leased a small house that served as an office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel, who invested in his company.
Ritesh Agarwal – Founder & CEO, OYO
Ritesh Agarwal dropped out of college at a very young age to pursue entrepreneurship. With a strong interest in technology and hospitality, he started experimenting with business ideas early. He founded OYO, which went on to become one of the world's largest hospitality chains.
No, Taylor Swift did not go to a traditional four-year college; she focused on her music career after starting high school, completing her education through homeschooling to accommodate touring and graduated early, but she did receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University (NYU) in 2022.
The short answer is “yes.” It is possible to succeed without college. But the longer answer is that succeeding without college—especially to the level that Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs did—is the exception, not the rule. To have a truly successful career, earning a college degree gives you a clear advantage.
There are many examples of geniuses who failed school or did not attend at all. For instance, Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific inventors to walk this earth, only had a few months of formal schooling. Similarly, Albert Einstein immersed himself in self-study, reading extensively about mathematics and physics.
Johnny Depp left high school to pursue a music career before finding his true calling in acting. Although he started studying acting, he never completed his degree.
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Beyoncé, who shot to fame as a teenager as a member of Destiny's Child, got a high school diploma after intermittently attending two Houston schools and getting tutored on the road. And The-Dream's “Schoolin' Life” lyric playfully riffs on the fact that Beyoncé never went to college.
In 1973, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he took classes including Math 55 and graduate- level computer science courses, but he dropped out in 1975 to co-found and lead Microsoft.
The university's focus on academic excellence and real-world skills, especially through its prestigious Wharton School of Business, has attracted ambitious individuals looking to make a global impact. Harvard University ranks second with 30 billionaire alumni, while Stanford comes third with 28.
Googlers call Zuckerberg's approach the 80 percent rule
She calls this idea the 80 percent rule. It states you should schedule only about 80 percent of your days. Leave 20 percent open to absorb whatever craziness comes up.
At the time, the 21-year-old Chalamet was about release Call Me By Your Name, the film that would skyrocket him into Hollywood's A-List, but the young actor and college dropout still had a lot to learn. As he told McConaughey, “I'm in the watching stage.”
While Mary Pickford was the first to sign a million-dollar contract (around 1916), Marlon Brando is credited as the first actor paid $1 million for a single movie role in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), though Elizabeth Taylor also earned a million for Cleopatra (1963) and more with profit shares, setting the trend for massive star salaries.