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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 had the privilege of ministering at the chapel of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital on sunday.

It was a wonderful experience, I must confess. It was nice seeing a few folks I hadn’t seen in a while.

I enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of everyone I came in contact with but what gladdens my heart the most is the fact that God counted a little boy like me worthy of being a  blessing to so many people including professors, doctors, specialists, future leaders and other VIPs.

I started by announcing that one of our greatest needs as a nation is the fear of God.

I talked about the importance of fearing God and highlighted some qualities of a God-fearing person.

I gave an acronym…G.I.F.T.

That simply stands for Godliness, Insight, Faithfulness, Truthfulness

I want to add two more attributes of a God-fearing person.

Endurance

Discipline

So you understand what I mean when I say “Are you G.I.F.T.E.D?“

You would agree that these are virtues and values that we must all cultivate and exhibit consciously.

I’m not perfect, neither are you .

I’m a project in progress, so are you…and everyday is an opportunity for us to grow in God’s grace.

Today is a good day to start making a conscious effort to grow in godliness, insight, faithfulness, truthfulness, endurance and discipline.

Commit yourself and when next you are tempted to act out of character, remind yourself that you are G.I.F.T.E.D.

You are a gift to our generation.

I promised to share more secrets with you.I’m really sorry this post is coming a little later than you anticipated.

So here you go.

Change your belief system.

The level of thinking that has brought you this far may not be good enough for your next level.

Your expectations for 2009 should be higher than those of 2008.You may say “but I was disappointed last year because my expectations were too high.” You might even be tempted to conclude like some others have that “blessed are they who have low expectations for they shall not be disappointed.”

Don’t fall into that trap.

Be Nice.

Someone once said “kindness is a fruit of the spirit not niceness.”Your guess is as good as mine-that statement is often used as an excuse for self-centredness.Don’t make it one of your favorite quotes this year.Go out of your way to do stuff for people.Now, I don’t mean you should that all the time(I don’t do that all the time but I try), but do it often till it becomes natural so that when next someone says “thanks a lot” you’d  say “it’s a pleasure” and not “it’s a pressure!”

Read at least one book every month.

Readers are Leaders.To be successful in life, you must have a deep thirst for kowledge.To be effective this  year you must read.You must read people, situations and books.A book gives you an opportunity to learn what the author knows without necessarily going through the pain and heartache he/she went through to learn those things.

Browse the internet regularly.

This is 2009 not 1999 and if you are far from the internet, you’d be stuck with some really old ways of thinking and obsolete strategies.There’s so much informaton on the internet.There are great sites that provide information on a pluralty of subjects-from personal and professional development to internet marketing and wealth creation. Take advantage of such sites.Most of them are free.Don’t watch the world pass you by.

Work like you’ll only live once on this earth.

This year, work like you’ll only live once because you’ll only live once on this earth.

You have so much in you but the only way you’d ever realise your true potential is to work on and with your gifts.Work is an opportunity to express your worth.Don’t despise work this year, embrace it.Enjoy it.

watch out for some more.