I have nothing against college degrees.

I am privileged to have one in Chemical Engineering.

However, it is necessary for us to constantly remind ourselves that what we achieve in life has a lot more to do with education than it has to do with degrees.

It is important that we observe that the people who become the most successful (at least by natural definition are those who follow their passion and not necessarily highly esteemed professions or careers.

The most successful people are those who make their calling their careers

and their purpose their profession.

What you have been given by God has tremendous power to produce significant results inspite of anything you do not currently possess.

I am pleased to present to you a list of globally respected CEO’s who never got college degrees yet went on to build businesses that are changing the world.

Some of them dropped out for some reason.Others never stepped on the soil of a college campus but they all made it against all odds.Today, some of these CEO’s employ PhD holders….hmmmm….food for thought.

Read on and be inspired.

1. Dennis Albaugh

Chairman, Albaugh
Type of Business: Pesticides
Education: Associate’s degree from Des Moines Area Community College
Fun fact: He has a collection of more than 100 classic Chevrolets

2. Paul Allen

Founder and chairman, Vulcan
Type of Business: Media, telecommunications
Education: Dropped out of Washington State College after two years
Fun fact: He persuaded Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard. They later founded Microsoft (MSFT) together.

3. Richard Branson

CEO, Virgin Group
Type of Business: Travel, radio, TV, music, venture capital
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He became an entrepreneur at age 16 with the creation of Student magazine.

4. Maverick Carter

CEO, LRMR Innovative Marketing & Branding
Type of Business: Marketing
Education: 3.5 years of college at Western Michigan University and University of Akron combined
Quote: “Don’t be afraid if you see an opportunity to go and give it shot. You can finish school later; it’s always there.”

5. John Paul DeJoria

CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems
Type of Business: Hair-care products
Education: No college
Fun fact: He started out selling greeting cards at age 9.

6. Michael Dell

Founder, chairman, and CEO Dell (DELL)
Type of Business: Computers
Education: Attended University of Texas, Austin; did not finish.
Quote: “When I started our company, it was very much an idea outside of the conventional wisdom, and if there were people telling me that it wasn’t going to work, I wasn’t really listening to them.”

7. Felix Dennis

Founder and chairman, Alpha Media Group, formerly Dennis Publishing
Type of Business: Publishing (Maxim, The Week)
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He wrote a biography and published a magazine about Bruce Lee; sales surged when the martial arts star died suddenly in 1973.

8. Barry Diller

Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)
Type of Business: Media
Education: Dropped out of UCLA after three weeks
Fun fact: He started his career working in the mail room of the William Morris Agency.

9. Bill Gates

Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman, Microsoft (MSFT)
Type of Business: Philanthropy. Software.
Education: Dropped out of Harvard
Fun fact: As a schoolboy, he created a program that allowed people to play tic-tac-toe on the computer.

I’m sure you know why.

You sure can tell from the title of this post.

My first book is ready to be released to the public.

It’s been a long time coming and it’s a dream come true.

As a child, I nursed the dream of being an author.

I have always desired to empower people through books.I love books.I read books because I believe that readers are leaders.I have learnt a great deal through books.A part of my money is invested in books.Reading is a great way of learning from other people’s experiences and benefitting from their knowledge and ideas.

Through books we discover better ways of getting results and developing people.I also realise that people read because some people write.There will be no material to read if there is no one to write.

This, apart from my flair for writing informed my decision to be an author.

I remember that I wrote my first book before I became a teenager.It was a book of short stories and I remember it had some graphical illustrations (I had time to draw and paint back then.)Unfortunately, i lost that manuscript, i believe someone stole it.

Well, that was over a decade ago.

I’m in my twenties now.I have learnt a lot more and gained more wisdom.I have a lot more to offer than I did a decade ago and I thank God for the opportunity to empower my generation through this medium.

I look forward to January 29, 2009.That’s the day “JUST DO IT!” will be released to the public and the good news is that you can be a part of it.All you have to do is stay tuned for more information.

Did I hear you say “congrats, Dami!”?

Thanks, my friend.