“After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out… So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.”
– Steve Jobs, 2005
You don’t need a degree to change the lives of millions.
In the case of Steve Jobs you don’t need to have much of a plan either:
While his parents lacked any higher education they were adamant that Steve attend college. After initially resisting the idea he enrolled at Reed College before promptly dropping out after one semester. Jobs later admitted that while the required classes were a waste, a calligraphy class he dropped in on was vital to the typography seen with the Mac.
After a few year of travel Jobs officially co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne on April 1, 1976. While Wayne soon left the company (just eleven day’s later) Apple continues to change the way people use computers in their day to day lives. Jobs left in 1985 to found NeXT but was bought by Apple in 1997. Jobs continued his work there until his death in 2011.
During his whirlwind, 35-year career Steve Jobs changed the way millions of people interact with technology by combining the seemingly cold technology with a recognizably human touch, built a universally known brand and did it all without a degree granting him permission.