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Something that really surprised me when I began to study business is the lack of connection between business success and formal education. Over time, I've come to look at entrepreneurial thinking as almost a type of learning style.

There were times when I was a teenager and college student where I almost thought something was wrong with me because working a job for 40+ years didn't have me excited compared to my classmates. I did go to college and graduated with a bachelor's degree, but from a learning standpoint I honestly never felt satisfied until I found different sources of "real-world" education that worked better for me.

My husband dropped out of college shortly after I graduated, and he is extremely talented as a video editor, web designer, and business owner. Fortunately he has no shortage of inspiration. Did you know these famous business owners were also college drop-outs?

1) Bill Gates-founder of Microsoft; billionaire
2) Michael Dell-founder of Dell Computers; billionaire
3) Steve Jobs-co-founder of Apple Computers; billionaire
4) Steve Wozniak-co-founder of Apple Computers
5) David Geffen-co-founder of Dreamworks, SKG
6) Larry Ellison-founder of the database company Oracle; billionaire
7) William Hanna-of the cartoon producers Hanna-Barbera
8) Sheldon Adelson-real estate and casino owner; billionaire
9) Jack Taylor-Enterprise Rent-A-Car; billionaire

The more I've continued to look into this, it's nearly the same story with most industrialized nations around the world. There are a lot of billionaires that dropped out of high school and college for various reasons, from Li Ka-Shing in Asia (net worth of nearly $12 billion) to Roman Abramovich (richest man in Russia at $18.2 billion) to Amancio Ortega (Spain's richest man at $14.8 billion). There is a pattern to all of this, and it's interesting to me. For all the famous people out there, there are thousands of successful people that aren't as well known but have similar circumstances.

I think the message you can take away from all these businessmen is that you have your success in your hands. The lack of a formal education does not have to be an excuse not to succeed in life unless you want it to be. In my case, I better not let my college degree be an excuse not to succeed!

Learn more about this author, Patricia Gilliam.
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