While degrees can certainly offer a helping hand in the professional world – Google’s new CEO Sundar Pichai has three – many of the world’s technology pioneers have no degrees to their name.
These five figures certainly didn’t need an MA or a BSc to become tech pioneers.
5. Steve Jobs
One of the most important figures in the technology world, Steve Jobs was responsible for the success of Apple, and its instrumental role in the development of the PC.
After briefly studying physics, literature, and poetry at Reed College in 1972, Steve Jobs went on to found Apple Computer Inc four years later, and launched the Apple Lisa in 1983.
Forced out of his own company in 1985, Jobs spent the next few years establishing the high-end NeXT computer company, as well as founding the Pixar movie studio. In 1997 he returned to Apple, and guided the company to its most successful period yet.
Worth at time of death: US$11 billion
4. Paul Allen
Currently worth US$17.5 billion, Paul Allen is most famously known for co-founding Microsoft along with Bill Gates.
As well as owning the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, Allen also set up Vulcan, a forward-thinking company created to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
Although he did study at Washington State University for two years, Allen famously convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard before both of them founded Microsoft.
Now worth: US$17.5 billion
Next: the top three uni dropouts
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