World’s youngest self-made billionaire ‘absolutely’ recommends dropping out of college
Topics: Business, School, Technology, Money
Danni King
Featured Image Credit: Amanda Stronza/Getty Images for SXSW/ Youtube / Luminar
Topics: Business, School, Technology, Money
The world's youngest self-made billionaire has said he 'absolutely' recommends dropping out of college as it 'is not for everyone'.
Austin Russell, 28, left Stanford University in 2012 to start his own business, Luminar Technologies, after being awarded a $100,000 grant from the Peter Thiel Fellowship.
Luminar Technologies, which is a tech startup that develops hardware and software designed mainly for self-driving cars, is now worth an impressive $2.6 billion.
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Austin's decision to drop out of university proved to be the correct one, with him going on to become the world's youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 25.
He's now opened up about his decision to stop studying, revealing he would have left college regardless of the grant he was given.
“If you’re wondering if I would have dropped out [without the grant], yeah. Absolutely. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind,” Austin stated. “It was going to happen anyway.”
When asked if he would recommend dropping out of college to other students, the 28 year old entrepreneur stated: "Absolutely."
Speaking to CNBC Make It, Austin continued: “College is not for everyone.It’s just sort of the traditional approach around what you do and what you’re supposed to do.”
Many choose not to study for a degree for a variety of reasons, ranging from debt to career opportunities.
Austin highlighted how resources, which were once only available via university, are now easily accessible for all thanks to technology and the internet.
"All this information is available at our fingertips now online," the Luminar Technologies founder said. "This is not something that was true 50 years ago, [but] it totally is true now."
Austin told how he was able to watch 'entire lecture sets' online in his early teens, which was extremely time efficient.
He also added: “You can do all these kinds of things that were never possible. You can get through entire curriculums and annual courses in weeks if you watch it back to back. There are so many ways to get knowledge imparted upon oneself."
Austin isn't the only tech billionaire to have dropped out of college, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates both leaving their studies to focus on their business ventures.
Steve, who passed away in October 2011, left Reed College when he was just 19-years-old, while Bill, 67, studied at Harvard for two years before quitting to build Microsoft.