Let’s take a peek into the lives of those who make billions look easy, and guess what? Not all of them sat in lecture halls at prestigious academies to hit jackpot!
Take Elon Musk, the space-and-electric-car maestro with a cool $197.4 billion to his name. Born in Pretoria, he skipped the fancy schools for some down-to-earth public education at Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Bryanston High School, then capped it off at Pretoria Boys High School. Did a brief stint at the University of Pretoria before jetting off to Queen’s University and then the University of Pennsylvania—yup, a bit of Ivy League action there! But Stanford? He said, “Thanks, but no thanks!” just two days in.
And then there’s Jeff Bezos, just a notch up with $199.6 billion. His educational journey began at River Oaks Elementary in Houston, moved on to Miami Palmetto High School, and then—boom—Princeton! Physics first, then a switch to electrical engineering and computer science. From his garage, he launched Amazon and rocketed to the top.
Don’t forget about Mark Zuckerberg, sitting pretty with $151 billion. The Harvard dropout turned Facebook from a dorm room project to a global empire—all without a degree to hang on the wall. Before Harvard, he was learning the ropes at Ardsley Public High School and Phillips Exeter Academy.
So, whether it’s a public school or the Ivy League, these billionaires show us that the path to success is as varied as their bank accounts. Who needs a roadmap when you’ve got ambition, right?
