When we were kids, our parents and the
adults around us always said, “Go to school”, “Stay in school” and so on. They
said school is essential for little kids to grow into successful adults. And
whenever some would question this system (I never dared to…lol), they would
question them back, asking “How do you expect to become somebody if you don’t
go to school?”
It may be true that a lot of kids who drop
out of school early end up steering their adult lives right into the gutter,
and more importantly that our Nigerian system does not favour this kind of move.
But parents should realise that when they discover someone has a passion for a thing, and
their passion is combined with an unshakable will, formal education, if not
skipped, should best be steered towards nurturing and growing the passion and
hence living the dream…*just saying*
The schools, from pre-nursery to the
highest level, should really pay attention to art and crafts and encourage more
of practicals and creativity than theories. The world is moving at a fast,
innovative pace, and only the smartest would survive. We should not be left
behind.
The following are 7 cultural titans who
broke free of their educational shackles and learned their craft through
tangible experience in the real world. Their great drive and instinct allowed
them to climb up the economic ladder and become some of the richest people on
the planet. And they did it all without a fancy degree.
1. Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is a philanthropist,
fashion designer, and founder of the Ralph Lauren Corporation clothing company.
Lauren is world-renowned for his rare automobile collection, and was declared
Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. He’s
worth about $6.3 billion.
Lauren had a two year stint in New York
City’s Baruch College, but dropped out to join the army before earning his
degree. Upon completing his military service, Lauren began designing neckties
in 1976. The rest is history.
2. Richard Branson
Richard Branson is an England-born
investor and business tycoon known for founding the Virgin Group, an umbrella
conglomerate with over 400 companies under it. His current net worth is
estimated to be around $5 billion, which includes a lovely island in Australia
called Makepeace Island.
While most of the billionaires on this list
called their formal education quits in college, Branson didn’t even make it out
of high school, dropping out when he was just 16. On his last day of school,
his headmaster told him he would either end up in prison or become a
millionaire. He was off by one letter.
3. Ingvar Kamprad
Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of IKEA,
the largest furniture retailer in the world. Forbes currently lists Kamprad’s net
worth as being $3.4 billion.
Kamprad never made it to college, dropping
out of high school at the age of 17 to start IKEA. His business savvy began
developing way before then; as a young boy, he bought matches in bulk and sold
them on his bicycle. That little boy selling those matches started a chain of
events that (likely) lead to your chair, or desk.
4. Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion
designer known for forming the high quality menswear brand Armani. Aside from
making a killer suit, Armani is credited with spearheading red carpet fashion.
He is currently worth $8.2 billion.
Armani famously said, “Remain true to
yourself and your philosophy.” Apparently his personal philosophy doesn’t
revolve around formal education — Armani dropped out of medical school at the University
of Bologna, reportedly because he could not stand the sight of blood.
5. Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes is the founder and CEO of
Theranos, a privately-owned medical-laboratory-services company that
specializes in blood testing. Today, she is worth $4.5 billion dollars, making
her the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.
Holmes’ current standing is an astronomical
leap from her humble roots; she started her company when she was only 19,
working out of a group college house basement. She used the money her parents
had set aside for her education to kick-start what would later become Theranos.
She dropped out of Stanford a semester later to tend to her work full-time.
6. Hiroshi Yamauchi
Hiroshi Yamauchi was the third
president of Nintendo. When Yamauchi took the company’s reigns from its
predecessors, he transformed it from a humble card-making company to a
multi-billion dollar empire. In 2013, Forbes put his worth at $2.1 billion. He
tragically passed away that same year of pneumonia.
Yamauchi’s edge in business was not the
source of any formal degree — he dropped out of Waseda University in Japan so
that he could run Nintendo and turn it into the company it is today.
7. Li Ka-Shing
Li Ka-Shing is an investor,
philanthropist, and business tycoon. It’s appropriate that Li’s last name is
the sound of money being cashed in — In April 2014 he was considered the
richest person in Asia, with a net worth of $31.9 billion. Fortune magazine
once wrote that Li “combines the instincts of a gambler with the calculations
of an actuary.” Hong Kong locals sometimes refer to him as “Superman” because
of what he can accomplish in business.
Turns
out “Superman” didn’t need a college degree to become filthy rich. Ka-Shing
dropped out of school when he was 15 so that he can focus on selling watch
bands to support his family. It was evidently a good call.Stay motivated!!!
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