From Mukesh Ambani to Azim Premji — Indian billionaires who dropped out of college or did not go to school at all
Preeti Soni
- Only a few people in the world who dropped out of college or never attended one are still running a successful business.
- Interestingly, these include some of the wealthiest people in the world like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Mukesh Ambani.
- Check latest news and updates Business Insider India.
The art of making money cannot be taught in a school.
A college degree means stability, the norm that paves the way for a strong career. A rise through the ranks to get a fat paycheck or the corner office; however, there are some exceptions. Only a few people in the world who dropped out of college or never attended one are still running a successful business. Interestingly, these include some of the richest people in the world like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Mukesh Ambani.
Let’s look at some of the Indian billionaires who dropped out of college or did not go to school at all
Mukesh Ambani
Networth: $88 billion
In the 1980s, Mukesh Ambani dropped out of an Ivy League school to join his father’s growing business, Reliance Industries. While Ambani cut his MBA program short, he cannot be called a ‘dropout’ afterall. Before going to Stanford, he studied chemical engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology.
Gautam Adani
Networth: $25.2 billion
Gautam Adani, India’s second richest man, quit college at the age of 18, took a train to Mumbai with a few hundred rupees in his pocket to start his own business. He now oversees a business empire that, amongst others, owns and operates India’s largest private port at Mundra.Azim Premji
Networth: $8.1 billion
India’s most generous billionaire, Azim Premji, dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 21 to handle the business after his father's death. He transformed a small hydrogenated cooking fat firm into an $8.5 billion global IT powerhouse called Wipro. But he did return to Stanford 34 years later to complete his graduation in electrical engineering
Savitri Jindal
Networth: $7 billion
Savitri Jindal is the richest woman in India and the matriarch of Jindal Group. Though she heads the conglomerate with interests ranging from steel to infrastructure, her company is divided and run by her four sons — Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan, and Naveen. As a matter of fact, she didn’t step out of the house much. She never even attended school. In fact, until OP Jindal’s death, she never even knew how much her billionaire husband made.Subhash Chandra
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Subhash Chandra launched the first private television channel in India, and he paved the way for the rise of Hindi television content.
Chandra had to drop out of school in class 12 when his family could not afford his education. In 1965, he joined a small-scale business to reduce the family debt.
Known for his meteoric rise, Subhash Chandra added 59 channels in 25 years as he built his media empire. However, his ambition to aggressively expand into various sectors got him into debt troubles.
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