College Dropouts

Are More Successful

AJIT SINGH
ENGLISH TRAINER
 BILL GATES
William Henry Gates III (1955-), along
with Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft
Corporation, the world’s largest software
maker. Bill Gates, the wealthiest person in
the world with an estimated net worth of
$480 crores (Rs 211,200 crore!), is
probably the best-known college dropout.
 BILL GATES
Gates attended an exclusive prep school
in Seattle, went on to study at Harvard
University, then dropped out to pursue
software development. As students in the
mid-70s, he and Paul Allen wrote the
original Altair BASIC interpreter for the
Altair 8800, the first commercially
successful PC.
 BILL GATES
In 1975, Micro-Soft - later Microsoft
Corporation - was born. Three decades on,
Gates has been Number One on the Forbes
400 for over a dozen years. And here’s
something you probably didn’t know: The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation currently
provides 90 percent of the world budget for
the attempted eradication of polio.
 LARRY
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (1944-), co-

ELLISON
founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation,
founded his company in 1977 with a sum of
$2,000. Once a school dropout, he is now,
according to Forbes , one of the richest
people in America with a net worth of
around $184 crores.
 LARRY
The figure also makes him the ninth

ELLISON
richest in the world.
As a young man, Ellison worked for the
Ampex Corporation, where one of his
projects was a database for the CIA. He
called it Oracle, a name he was to reuse
years later for the company that made him
famous.
 LARRY
Interestingly, the organisation’ s initial

ELLISON
release was Oracle 2. The number
supposedly implied that all bugs had been
eliminated from an earlier version.
Ellison is quite a colourful man, and has
long dabbled in all kinds of things. Want to
learn more? Try his biography, The
Difference Between God and Larry Ellison.
 DHIRUBHAI
AMBANI
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (1932-2002)
was born into the family of a schoolteacher.
It was a family of modest means. When he
turned 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden,
working first as a gas-station attendant,
then as a clerk in an oil company.
 DHIRUBHAI
AMBANI
He returned to India at 26, starting a
business with a meager capital of $375. By
the time of his demise, his company -
Reliance Industries Ltd - had grown to
become an empire, with an estimated
annual turnover of $120 crores!
 DHIRUBHAI
AMBANI
Dhirubhai was, in his lifetime, conferred
the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th
Century Award by the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A
Times of India poll in the year 2000 also
voted him one of the biggest creators of
wealth in this century.
 DHIRUBHAI
riches story.AMBANI
Dhirubhai’s is not just the usual rags-to-
He will be remembered as the
one who rewrote Indian corporate history
and built a truly global corporate group. He
is also credited with having single-handedly
breathed life into the Indian stock markets
and bringing in thousands of investors to
the bourses.
 STEVE JOBS
Steven Paul Jobs (1955-) and Apple
Computer are names that have long gone
together.
Born in the United States to an unknown
Egyptian-Arab father, Jobs was adopted
soon after birth. After graduating high
school, he enrolled in Reed College,
dropping out after one semester.
 STEVE JOBS
In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year old
Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer
Co. in the family garage. Jobs
revolutionised the industry by popularising
the concept of home computers.
By 1984, the Macintosh was introduced. He
had an influential role in the building of the
World-Wide Web, and also happens to be
Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation
Studios.
 STEVE JOBS
Today, with the iPod, Apple is bigger than
ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked for several
years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a
listing in the Guinness Book as `Lowest
Paid Chief Executive Officer.’ He was once
gifted a $9 crores jet by the company
though. And his net worth? More than $3
billion.
 MICHAEL DELL
Michael Saul Dell (1965- ) joined the
University of Texas at Austin with the
intention of becoming a physician. While
studying there, he started a computer
company in his dormitory, calling it PC’s
Limited. By the time he turned 19, it had
notched up enough success to prompt Dell
to dropout.
 MICHAEL DELL
In 1987, PC’s Limited changed its name
to Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003,
Dell, Inc. was the world’s most profitable
PC manufacturer.
Dell has won more than his fair share of
accolades, including Man of the Year from
PC Magazine and EM>CEO of the Year from
Financial World . Forbes , in 2005, lists him
as the 18th richest in the world with a net
worth of around $1600 Crores. Not bad for
just another dropout.
 SUBHASH CHANDRA
GOEL
Here’s something not many people know about
Subhash Chandra Goel : The Zee chairman
dropped out after standard 12.
Subhash Chandra started his own vegetable oils
unit at 19. It was, in a manner of speaking, his
first job. Years later, a casual visit to a friend at
Doordarshan gave him the idea of starting his
own broadcasting company. We all know how that
story ran.
SUBHASH CHANDRA
Chandra knewGOEL
nothing about
programming, distribution or film rights.
What he did understand quite well was the
Indian sensibility though. Funded by UK
businessmen, Zee came into being as
India’s first satellite TV network.
Today, it reaches 320 lakhs homes,
connecting with 20 crores people in South
Asia alone.