5 billionaires who dropped out of school, from Russian Roman Abramovich and Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, to WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Cirque du Soleil legend Guy Laliberté

Mar 1 , 2022

Would you be surprised to find out that these billionaires are actually dropouts? Photos: SCMP, @oprah/Instagram, AP, @morning.mastery.challenge/Instagram, @hobrobert/Instagram

WhatsApp’s Ukrainian founder Jan Koum left his home country for the US at 16 and swept floors to make ends meet before dropping out of college for a job at Yahoo!

Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, dropped out of school at 14 after his father’s death while Roman Abramovich quit university to join Russia’s army

“Stay in school” is advice that is often handed out, but some of the richest people in the world actually dropped out of education – often also overcoming childhood poverty and personal tragedy – ahead of amassing their fortunes.

Here are five billionaires who quit their studies before earning more money than they could have ever dreamed of.

1. Li Ka-shing – US$35.4 billion

Tycoon Li Ka-shing with his son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi at the annual dinner of CK Asset Holdings Ltd in 2020. Photo: Dickson Lee

The richest person in Hong Kong fled China with his family when he was only 12 years old, per Forbes. His father died two years later, and he dropped out of high school at age 16 to work in a plastics factory – now he’s the world’s 42nd wealthiest billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

His diverse portfolio includes real estate, but one of the best decisions Ka-shing made was to invest in Facebook in 2007 – and, according to Forbes, he says the decision only took five minutes. He also invested in Siri and Spotify.

“The burden of poverty and this bitter taste of helplessness and isolation sort of branded on my heart forever the questions that still drive me,” the senior adviser of CK Hutchison Holdings revealed, per Forbes.

2. Roman Abramovich – US$13.3 billion

Roman Abramovich watching English Premier League football club Chelsea. Photo: @_roman_abramovich__/Instagram

Abramovich, 55, was orphaned as a three-year-old child when his mother died from blood poisoning and his dad passed away after an accident on a construction site. He dropped out of university and served in the Russian army – where he sold stolen oil, according to Bleacher Report – before getting into politics and becoming the governor of a poverty-stricken region.

An earlier investment in perfume – an illegal item at the time – earned him his initial money, according to Gentleman’s Journal, but when he acquired privatised Russian oil assets after the fall of the Soviet Union, according to The Washington Post, Abramovich really got wealthy.

Roman Abramovich applauds after Chelsea is presented with the English Premier League trophy in May 2015. Photo: AP

Now the Russian-born businessman is the 142nd richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$13.3 billion, according to Forbes. He owns homes in the US, the Caribbean, France, the UK and Russia. He gained Israeli citizenship after UK visa issues in part because of alleged links to Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to The Guardian.

In February 2022, Abramovich put the care of Chelsea Football Club in the hands of the team’s charitable foundation as Nato countries began to enforce sanctions against Russia, according to a statement on the club’s website.