For a homeschooling-parent such as me, this article is very inspiring.  However, don't be misled into thinking that quitting school is the formula for success.  I think the reason these people succeeded is that they educated themselves passionately in what they wanted.  Lots of hard work went into their success.  Yes, being out of the traditional school system helps you think "out of the box" - but what you do when you get out of that box is what is essential.

Probably it's just me but I think the environment helped a lot in encouraging these people to succeed. In Philippine context, if you ain't got a degree you're getting nowhere. Other way of saying it is education is the only inheritance a (Filipino) parent can give to their children. Nonetheless, this "education" refered to is the "diploma". I guess we are very muched nurtured in that idea which really belittles entrepreneurs. I have not come across a list of Filipino names without diplopma being recognized as achievers. It must be time to do so?

I think industries like IT and BPO, brought about by both lack of enough manpower and the recognition that it's not absolutely necessary, are starting to accept non-diploma holders into their stables. My current employer has had several good software developers who were non-diploma, and this only confirmed that their policy is sound.

Our society is too enamored with people who hold all sorts of certificates and papers that sometimes it loses sight of the fact that evaluating talent objectively is more important. Many local HR managers are trained to ignore non-diploma holders -- in fact many of them are trained to ignore non-Big Four university diploma holders. Ever wonder why Recto is thriving?

My point is that our culture confuses paper certificates with achievement and skill, whilst they are not prerequisite for anyone with passion for their field of interest to learn, thrive, and succeed.

Did Michael Jackson go to Julliard?

No what your status is in life, you were born with a bag of lemons. And, yes, even those born with a silver spoon stuck to their mouths were born with a bag of lemons.

What defines a person is what he does with those lemons.

It's never too late to start squeezing. :)

The way I see it, lady luck has a penchant for lemonades.

no = no matter

For every 100 successful entrepreneurs out there, I can name 1000 without a college degree who have not succeeded .  Yes, attaining a college degree does not always equate to success in business but having the background of the college education can not certainly hurt. 

Most of us attend because it is the right thing to do and is the expectation in our culture.  However, a lot don't necessarily follow through with what they started.  

One thing that college teaches you though is the art of solving problems.  Yes, a lot of the successful entrepreneurs on this list were college dropouts but it was because they discovered better opportunities in college like Bill Gates (who surprisingly did not make the list), Michael Dell, and Ted Waitt, and not because they couldn't cut it.  I seriously doubt they would have encountered these opportunities had they chosen not to attend college.

I do agree with Jacinto that objective evaluation of talent rather than looking at the list of diplomas is a far better measuring stick nonetheless that talent can further be harvested through college.  Note that I never mentioned a college degree, but just going through the rigors of college will propel you further than not.

Further education will always give you a leg up in any circumstance, and I am not just talking about high school versus college here.  I can also say the same about a bachelors versus a masters or doctors degree, and as usual, the invaluable education we get in everyday life.

Don't want to beat this dead horse especially since every parent will want an education for their kids.

Yet..again, I have to agree with MOST of the respondents above  that college or any formal training (even in tennis or music) - for that matter - is just an accelarated way of learning what can be learned in other ways or even self-taught. But, people started schools, training centers and now even home-schooling in order to accomplish the same goal: to learn. Everyone has a different aptitude for learning and there are many ways to learn. And each person responds differently to the varied ways of learning.

The fact is that to succeed one has to first be a hard-worker. BUT ALSO, one has to know what he or she is doing - whether learned in the school of hard knocks or in an Ivy League school. Finally, as my mentors say, you have to also be a recepient from lady luck.

NOW, I would like to encourage everyone who has the chance to exploit every learning opportunity given to them.  Learning on the streets and in life is much harder than learning from a mentor. Especially if one wants to be in the engineering side of high-technology, there are very, very few naturals like Steve Jobs (and his talent is not as deep in engineering/physics as it is in product marketing).  I personally recommend at least an MS in an engineering degree and if possible with a problem-solved thesis ... or even a PhD if you can stomach the time and pain, because the many of us who went through it felt like THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON LEARNED WAS THAT MOST TECHNICAL PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD CAN BE SOLVED WITH A LOT OF HARD WORK AND INGENUITY.

Many high-tech companies are built around such innovation.

Now, if you are not in high-tech but in industries like music or even tourism then the needed skills might be different. Yet, I believe that school is good for a fast development of  the analytical and communications skills. In sports, one has to go to camps to develop quickly enough before one passes their physical peak.

In the end, I would like to suggest that PROBABILITY AFFECTS what happens in life, and by taking certain steps to learn faster and better like educating oneself everyday (in the areas one is passionate about) is a good way to increase the odds that you will be successful. No guarantees either way, but education helps. Do the math. :-)

Two things they have in common. 1. They study on their own and 2. They chosoed their mentors very well.  These people are graduate of University of Hard Knocks.

In contrast with formal eduction, we forced our student to study and they can't chose their professors.

(What I am really worried about formal professional education in the Philippine is the ecosystem of college, review centers and board exam. The industry is excluded.The new career of board topnotchers is review center reviewer.  How long are we going to waste the time and talent of our youths?)

If there is an opportunity to reengineer our educational system, I think it should be a matter of formation of self-motivated study habit and the capabiltiy to create specialized and flexible academic track customized to sustain invidual taste of innovation and motivation.

In other words access to individual mentorship.  Some mechanism in cyberhighway may be constructed for innovative individual training, learning and competency on opportunity-oriented problem solving.

The 100 degreeless successful enterpreneurs are PhD in their own rights. The root word of Doctor is doctrine. In effect a doctor is a creator of doctrine, the dissertation.  The doctrines of success were created and articulated by these enterpreneurs. I'll try to articulate their dissertations. They look the same in all of them. The problem statement is that "you can succeeed by not giving up even if the system rots". The alternative hypotheis is that " you will never succeed whatever you can do and continue to do because the system rots". The proofs of their successes are the economic chains and networks that they forged and established and they employed a substantial number of people.

I indeed salute them as heroes.