30-year-old billionaire college dropout recommends at least one year in higher education

Several billionaires and palmy entrepreneurs ne'er went to college, from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg — and 30-year-old Lucy Guo precocious joined their ranks.

The California-based laminitis became Forbes' youngest self-made billionaire in June, boasting a nett worthy of $1.25 billion, aft her first business, Scale AI, was acquired by tech elephantine Meta successful a woody that valued the AI information labelling institution astatine $29 billion.

Currently the laminitis of contented creator monetization level Passes, launched successful 2022, Guo told CNBC Make It that she didn't travel the accepted way of completing higher education.

She studied machine subject and quality machine interactions astatine Carnegie Mellon University successful Pennsylvania, but dropped retired aft 2 years. At the time, she lone had 1 twelvemonth and 8 classes to spell earlier she graduated. This came arsenic a daze to her Chinese migrant parents.

"They [parents] sacrificed everything to immigrate from China to America to springiness their kids a amended future, and due to the fact that acquisition gave them everything that they person successful life, for their kids to abruptly fto spell of their acquisition erstwhile they were astir done was similar a slap successful the face," she said.

Guo alternatively decided to prosecute the Thiel Fellowship, a programme launched by the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, which offers young radical $200,000 to physique innovative companies.

"I deliberation they [parents] viewed that arsenic a motion that I didn't emotion them, and they weren't precise blessed with it, erstwhile it was conscionable maine making a stake connected myself and choosing to optimize for what I thought would beryllium a amended aboriginal for myself."

But adjacent the billionaire assemblage dropout sees immoderate benefits to higher education.

 Guo said that going to assemblage introduced her to a web that became adjacent much invaluable to her arsenic a founder.

"My proposal for radical is that 1 to 2 years successful assemblage is really conscionable incredibly great, due to the fact that you're going to marque the champion friends successful college, and you're going to conscionable the smartest radical successful college," Guo said. "Everyone's going to assemblage due to the fact that they privation to conscionable people."

She explained there's nary different script wherever there's specified a precocious attraction of astute radical who are besides looking to marque friends.

"When you spell to enactment astatine a caller company, not everyone you're moving with is looking for a caller person due to the fact that they already person friends. If you ne'er went to college, and you conscionable dive into a city, you tin spell to these events and effort to conscionable people, and it does enactment out. But, again, not everyone is hopeless to marque friends," she added.

A company's top assets is the radical it hires, and Guo says the champion hiring excavation is your assemblage peers.

"Make definite to get to cognize your smartest peers and really beryllium friends with them. The champion spot to bash this, I deliberation personally, is really successful college," she said.

"I can't adjacent deliberation of 1 spot wherever it's specified a precocious density of radical that are intelligent and that's the astir apt spot [college] wherever you're going to conscionable your aboriginal hires."

She says this web of intelligent friends volition stay handy, due to the fact that you'll already person a talented excavation of radical to hire.  

Guo said her peers connected the two-year Thiel Fellowship programme motivated her beryllium palmy arsenic an entrepreneur.

"You go portion of a assemblage wherever it's truthful mean to physique a unicorn company, due to the fact that successful bid to physique a company, you person to beryllium a small crazy. You person to beryllium truthful arrogant to judge that you person a changeable astatine gathering a institution that could beryllium a unicorn. And it's easier to judge that, and to delude yourself, erstwhile you are surrounded by truthful galore radical that have, and that is, I think, the quality of San Francisco and the Thiel Fellowship."

Other alumni of the program, similar Guo, person gone connected to nutrient unicorns — startups valued astatine implicit $1 cardinal — from Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum to Dylan Field's Figma and Ritesh Agarwal's Oyo Rooms.

This nonfiction is portion of a bid connected billionaire Lucy Guo. Read much below: