Photographs: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
There are some who did not complete college, but went on to become successful businessmen and in the process became billionaires.
Let's take a look at some of them.
Bill Gates
He is an American business magnate, computer programmer and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive officer and current chairman of Microsoft, the world's largest personal-computer software company he co-founded with Paul Allen.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of four co-founders of the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chairman and chief executive.
Zuckerberg was born and raised in a Jewish household in New York state. While still in middle school in his early teens, he took up writing software programs as a hobby, beginning with BASIC, with help from his father.
His father then hired a tutor to help his son develop his programming skills further. Zuckerberg's enjoyment in writing programs led him to developing computer games, writing a music player, and setting up a primitive home network he called "ZuckNet".
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters
Larry Ellison
He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, one of the world's leading enterprise software companies.
As of 2012, he is the third wealthiest American citizen, with an estimated worth of $36.5 billion. The bulk of Ellison's fortune comes from his 22.5 percent stake in Oracle.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Eike Batista
He is a Brazilian business magnate who made a fortune in mining and oil and gas exploration. Presently, he is the chairman of Brazilian conglomerate EBX Group.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Anthony Bolante/Reuters
Michael Dell
He is an American business magnate and author. He is known as the founder and CEO of Dell, Inc., one of the world's leading sellers of personal computers.
He is ranked as the 41st richest person in the world on 2012 Forbes Billionaires list, with a net worth of $15.9 billion as of March 2012.
In 2011, his 243.35 million shares of Dell stock were worth $3.5 billion, giving him 12 per cent ownership of the company.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters
Marc Rich
He is an international commodities trader and entrepreneur. He is best known for founding the commodities company Glencore.
He was indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion and illegally making oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.
He was in Switzerland at the time of the indictment and has never returned to the US. He received a presidential pardon from US President Bill Clinton on 20 January 2001, Clinton's last day in office.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Courtesy, tycollector.com
H Ty Warner
He is an American toy manufacturer and businessman. He is chairman, CEO, sole owner and founder of Ty Inc., which manufactures and distributes Beanie Babies, Beanie Baby 2.0s, Ty Girlz, Pluffies, LI'L Ones, Beanie Boos and other plush items.
In 2005, Forbes estimated his net worth at about $4.4 billion - down from a peak of $6 billion - still making him one of the wealthiest people in the world.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Amit Dave/Reuters
Gautam Adani
He is the Chairman of Adani Group. The Adani Group is a globally integrated infrastructure player with businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil and gas exploration, ports, multi-modal logistics, power generation and transmission and gas distribution.
With a business experience of more than 33 years, Gautam Adani is a first generation entrepreneur who has led the Adani group from a modest background to create a $8 billion professionally-managed empire in a relatively short period of time.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Micky Jagtiani
Micky Jagtiani is an Indian businessman who owns the Dubai-based Landmark retail-stores group, with over 600 stores in the Gulf, India, Pakistan, China and Spain.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Jagadeesh NV/Reuters
Azim Premji
He is an Indian business tycoon and philanthropist who is the chairman of Wipro Limited, guiding the company through four decades of diversification and growth to emerge as one of the Indian leader in the software industry.
According to Forbes, he is currently the third wealthiest Indian, and the 41st richest in the world, with a personal wealth of $15.9 billion in 2012.
In 2000, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Shahid Balwa
In 2010, Shahid Balwa, was the youngest Indian to feature on the Forbes List and was amongst the 10 youngest billionaires in the world. He was ranked by Forbes as India's 50th richest man in 2010.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Arko Datta/Reuters
Subhash Chandra
He is a onetime rice exporter-turned media baron and Chairman of Essel Group, that launched India's satellite television revolution. The Zee chairman dropped out after standard 12.
His channel Zee TV competes with, among others, Sony Entertainment Television and STAR Plus. Other interests include packaging, theme parks, lotteries and cinema multiplexes.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Vinod Goenka
His net worth is estimated at $1.18 billion by Forbes magazine. Vinod Goenka has been in the real estate business for the last 25 years and is a mentor to the Dynamix Balwa Group.
He started off by joining his father's construction firm in Mumbai and helped expand it to form the Dynamix Group.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
PNC Menon
He is a non-resident Indian Oman-based businessman hailing from Thrissur in Kerala. He is the founder and chairman of Bangalore-based construction company Sobha Developers Limited.
Menon is ranked as the 897th in Forbes world billionaire list and fifth richest Indian in Gulf Cooperation Council countries with personal assets worth $1.25 billion.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Dustin Moskovitz
He is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur who co-founded the social networking website Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes.
In 2008, he left Facebook to co-found Asana with Justin Rosenstein.
In March 2011 Forbes ranked Moskovitz as the world's youngest self-made billionaire on the basis of his 7.6 per cent share in Facebook. He is eight days younger than Zuckerberg.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Bobby Yip/Reuters
Sheldon Adelson
He is an American business magnate. He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
Adelson vastly increased his net worth upon the initial public offering of Las Vegas Sands in December 2004. He is listed in the Forbes 400 as the eighth wealthiest American. His personal wealth is estimated to be $24.9 billion as of March 2012.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Miguel Vidal/Reuters
Amancio Ortega
He is a Spanish fashion executive and founding chairman of the Spanish clothing merchandiser Inditex. He is ranked by Forbes as Spain's richest man; Europe's second-richest man; and the fifth-richest man in the world in 2011.
He currently lives with his second wife in a discreet apartment building in Spain.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Stephane Mahe/Reuters
Kirk Kerkorian
He is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California.
Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr, the "father of the mega-resort".
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Handout/Reuters
Donald Newhouse
He is one of the owners of Advance Publications. He is the son of Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr, founder of Advance Publications.
With an estimated current net worth of around $4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 132nd richest person in America.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Tami Chappell/Reuters
Francois Pinault
Francois Pinault is a French businessman who runs the retail company PPR. He is a friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.
His holding company Artemis SA, owns (or owned), among others, Converse shoes, Samsonite luggage, Chateau Latour, the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado, and Christie's auction house.
Artemis also owns Executive Life (now Aurora Life) in California, which was sued by policy holders when the company failed.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Jack Taylor
Jack Crawford Taylor is an American businessman and the founder of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company.
With an estimated current net worth of around $7.4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 18th-richest American and the 40th-richest person in the world.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Siu Chiu/Reuters
Li Ka-shing
He is a Hong Kong business magnate and philanthropist, widely considered one of the most influential businessmen in Asia.
His companies were involved in real estate, ports, and infrastructure, among other ventures. He is the richest person of Asian descent in the world and the ninth richest person in the world with an estimated wealth of $25.5 billion as of 2012.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
David Geffen
He is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990.
Geffen was also one of the three founders of DreamWorks SKG in 1994.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Fred Prouser/Reuters
David H Murdock
He is an American businessman. Forbes ranks him as the 130th-richest person in the "Forbes 400" list and 376th in the "World's Billionaires" list, with a net worth of $3 billion as of March 2011.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Fred Prouser/Reuters
Ted Turner
He is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Micky Arison
He is an Israeli-American businessman. He is Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator, and owner of the NBA's Miami Heat.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Photographs: Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Stanley Ho
He is an entrepreneur in Hong Kong and Macau. Ho is sometimes nicknamed "The King of Gambling", reflecting the government-granted monopoly he held of the Macau gambling industry for 40 years.
In 2011 he was the 13th richest man in Hong Kong with a net worth of $2 billion.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Steve Jobs
He was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.
Through Apple, he was widely recognised as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields.
John D Rockefeller
He was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great US business trust.
Rockefeller revolutionised the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.
Howard Hughes
He was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained prominence from the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big-budget and often controversial films.
Hughes was one of the most influential aviators in history; he set multiple world air-speed records, built the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 "Hercules" (better known to history as the "Spruce Goose" aircraft), and acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines which would later on merge with American Airlines.
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Billionaires who did not complete college
Pablo Escobar
He was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and a rich and successful criminal.
In 1986, he had a short-lived career in Colombian politics.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes
He was a Mexican drug lord who seized control of the Juarez Cartel after assassinating his boss Rafael Aguilar Guajardo.
Amado Carrillo became known as "El Senor de Los Cielos" (Lord of the Skies) because of the large fleet of jets he used to transport drugs. He was also known for laundering over $20 million via Colombia to finance his huge fleet of planes.
Dhirubhai Ambani
He was an Indian industrialist who founded Reliance Industries, a petrochemicals, communications, power, and textiles conglomerate and one of the three privately owned Indian companies in the Fortune 500.
Ambani took his company public in 1977.
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