While it’s true that education is a very important part of one’s success in life, there are remarkable people who were able to make it big even when they haven’t even graduated from college.
This video features five examples of teenagers who founded some of the biggest names in the business:
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Video credit: Rumble
1 – Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook at 19
Who doesn’t know about Facebook? Zuckerberg was just a freshman at Harvard University in 2003 when he started Facemash. While it was eventually taken down, Zuckerberg and his friends Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes created The Facebook to connect Harvard students online.
Now, Facebook has 1.59 billion daily active users and Zuckerberg himself is worth $69 billion.
2 – Michael Dell started Dell, Inc. at 19 in his dorm
Just like Zuckerberg, Dell started Dell, Inc. in his dorm when he was a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984. He was upgrading computers for a profit and soon dropped out of college after he made $80,000 in order to focus full-time on his business which was called PCs Limited at that time.
Today, Dell is a household name when it comes to laptops and personal computers and worth $45.2 billion.
3 – Fred DeLuca started Subway at 17
In 1965, a desperate 17-year-old Fred DeLuca needed money for college so he opened a business. He asked for a $1,000 loan from Peter Buck, a family friend. They then started Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The company was renamed Subay a few years later and went on to become the largest fastfood company in the world with 24,008 stores in the US alone. DeLuca stayed with Subway until his death in 2015 at age 67.
4 – Matt Mullenweg began WordPress at 19
WordPress started out of Mullenweg’s frustration at a content management system called b2/cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi in 2001. Mullenweg was encountering technical issues with hosting his personal blog in the system so he made a new version of the system which eventually became WordPress.
WordPress now has more than 20 billion webpages with more than 409 million people visiting them each month.
5 – Mike Kittredge started a candle-making business at 16 that went on to become Yankee Candle
In 1969, at 16-year-old Mike Kittredge began selling candles to his neighbors. When business improved, he worked out of his parent’s garage and basement to turn it into a side business.
By 1973, Yankee Candle had moved to an old paper mill in Massachusetts and eventually, Kittredge sold the company for $500 million.
Yankee Candle now has 500 stores with 19,000 retailers selling its products.
In July 2019, Kittredge passed away at the age of 67.
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