If you’ve previously had any doubt that the MBA is not impactful enough in real-life business, you better think again. You’ve probably heard of the college dropout stories of successful entrepreneurs who are now rolling in millions. While those stories are true, that by no means suggests that an education does not add value to business sense and success. Perhaps you were not aware that some of the very prominent and successful contemporary businessmen of the world have MBA degrees.
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Here we give you a brief glimpse into the lives of the top 5 entrepreneurs with MBA degrees.
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa and later moved to the United States by himself. Once there, his entrepreneurial career has literally skyrocketed. The young entrepreneur is recognised as a business magnate, engineer, inventor, and investor. Popularly known as the Founder and CEO of space exploration company SpaceX, Musk is also the Founder and product architect of premium electric cars manufacturer Tesla Motors, and chairman of Solar City.
Previously in his career, Musk co-founded Zip2 and PayPal, and as if that’s not enough, he is now eyeing some very futuristic ideas, such as the colonisation and terraforming of Mars! At the moment, the African-born genius is testing his inventive skills at creating a high-speed transportation system by the name of Hyperloop, and has also proposed an electric VTOL supersonic jet aircraft. He currently resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles and is worth over $11.2 billion. He got his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Of Business.
Read: 5 Reasons Why Networking Matters
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is no strange name in the business world. Born in the United States, Bloomberg is a business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 108th mayor of New York City and is the Founder and owner of Blomberg L.P., which is the global financial data and media company providing investment professionals around the world with valuable financial data. You want to know what else is interesting about him? He is the 7th richest person in the United States and supposedly the 13th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $41 billion.
How did he do all that? Perhaps with the knowledge he acquired during his MBA at the prestigious Harvard Business School.
Phil Knight
Just do it! We're sure you know where you have heard that before. Well, Phil Knight definitely "did" it in his career by co-founding and chairing the world-renowned Nike Inc. An Oregon native, Phil Knight has been named the 15th richest person in the world with a net worth staggering at $28.1 billion.
Phil Knight took Nike quite far and successfully turned it into a very prestigious company. While he surely had natural business skill, we cannot disregard the fact that Knight obtained an MBA from the Stanford Business School and this is where he discovered that he was nothing less than a true entrepreneur.
Read: Boundless Business. MBA and Entrepreneurship Go Hand in Hand
Scott McNealy
An American businessman, Scott McNealy was born in Columbus, Indiana in the USA. He is the Co-founder of the technology company Sun Microsystems. He was also the CEO of the company until 2006, serving a tenure of over 20 years. Using his inventive and business skills to his advantage, McNealy has progressed through the business world and was also chosen as the "dream" candidate to head Nokia in 2010.
A recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, McNealy was no doubt schooled well at Stanford Business School.
Frank Batten
You want to know what the weather's like? Ask Frank Batten! Born in Norfolk Virgina, USA, Batten was the Co-founder of the first nationwide, 24-hour cable weather channel. What was it called? The Weather Channel, of course! Although he passed away in 2009, his legacy lives on through the progress of newspapers and television stations all around the nation.
He received his MBA from Harvard back in 1952 and used it to his full advantage while acquiring media companies and eventually becoming the Co-founder of The Weather Channel. Batten was also a very generous philanthropist, who understood and cared for the struggles of others after facing immense hardship in his childhood. He is undoubtedly remembered by many!
Bonus: ”Just Google it” was all part of their initial philosophy. While we don’t know what they were thinking and how they did it, Larry Page and Sergey Brin sure have made life a lot easier by founding Google Inc. One of the largest organisations in the world, their business brilliance simply had to be rewarded. They both have received an MBA Honouris Causa for their entrepreneurial spirit in founding Google by Instituto de Empressa in 2003.
Inspired yet? If your goal is to found a meaningful company that will make you as wealthy and influential as these MBA graduates, then maybe you should get an MBA degree yourself. Watch our video and see exactly how the MBA can help you:
