For the mega-success in life it needs a degree, parents usually say. But that’s not true, as there are billionaires with no qualification.

A British study concludes that a third of the world’s top billionaires have no academic degree at all.

It was men’s business that we looked around among the Donald Ducks of the world for early school leavers – even in Europe we found what we were looking for.

Top 3 Billionaires with no Degree

Here you can find out how three men without school or university certificates have built up their billions in empires.

These three men have no school-leaving qualifications, and yet they’re billionaires.

#3: Richard Branson: The Music Empire

Today Richard Branson is a self-made billionaire, bon vivant and entrepreneur. He lives on a Caribbean island, crossed the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon and was knighted.

But that wasn’t always the case: Born in London in 1950, the Briton left school prematurely because of dyslexia. The school director predicted: “You will either end up in prison or as a millionaire,” the autobiography says. Richard Branson was 16 years old at the time and founded his first company: a record mail order company. This became Virgin Records, an empire that employs 50,000 people worldwide.

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#2: Amancio Ortega: The Richest Man in Europe

Thanks to Zara, Amancio Ortega is the tsar of fashion chains. He is regarded as the second richest man on the planet (according to Forbes) and yet began his meteoric rise as an errand boy.

Born in Spain in 1936, Ortega dropped out of school at the age of 14 and earned his living as an errand boy in a shirt shop. In the 60s he started as a textile entrepreneur. Whereby Ortega first manufactured bathrobes. 1975 then the coup: The first branch of the fashion chain Zara opened. Today there are 1,700 stores worldwide.

#1: Henry Ford: The Car Pioneer

Today his fortune is estimated at $199 billion, but Henry Ford’s career began on a farm where he screwed on his first engines.

At the age of 16, Ford left his parents’ farm and moved to the industrial city of Detroit. As an apprentice he worked in a machine shop. Without extensive schooling, as he had only attended the village school, he was promoted to chief engineer in a few years, integrating assembly line work into the production processes. From then on Ford had enough money and time for experiments. In 1896 he completed his first self-propelled vehicle. The foundation stone was the Ford Motor Company, which he then founded. His vision: cars for everyone.

With his pioneering spirit, Henry Ford was perhaps even more important than Bill Gates or Steve Jobs ever could have been.