http://healthandenergy.com/no_degree.htm
A Driven Bunch Says: No Degree, No Problem
By Julia Lawlor
New York Times, Jobs Market
Published: September 28, 2003
Joseph Grano, a former Green Beret and aspiring math teacher is known as a
natural-born leader with formidable speaking skills.
While most of his peers were going to fraternity parties and studying in
their dorm rooms, Joseph Grano was deep in the jungles of South Vietnam,
leading his Army division against the Vietcong. He never got a college
degree, but Mr. Grano, now chairman and chief executive of UBS Wealth
Management, said in a recent interview that if he had to do it all over
again, he wouldn't change a thing.
"I don't regret it," said Mr. Grano, who described being wounded during the
war. "I found out that as long as I could perform as well, if not better,
than someone with a degree, it wasn't a barrier."
As the fall semester goes into full swing at universities across the
country, students are working under the assumption that the better their
grades, and the more prestigious their college, the better they will fare
in their careers. Yet a surprising number of business executives offer
potent counterexamples.
In the world of finance, those without degrees include David Herron, the
chief executive of the Chicago Stock Exchange, who said he skipped so many
classes at the University of California at Berkeley that he dropped out,
after reaching "mutual agreement" with college officials. David H.
Komansky, who retired earlier this year as chairman of Merrill Lynch, and
Richard A. Grasso, who resigned last month as head of the New York Stock
Exchange amid a furor over a $140 million compensation package, also do not
have college degrees. (That package could cover the cost of 921 Harvard
degrees, room and board included.)
In the technology field, it sometimes seems that lacking a degree is a
requirement for future success. According to the relevant corporate press
officers, Bill Gates of Microsoft dropped out of Harvard in his junior
year; Michael Dell, founder of the Dell computer company, dropped out of
the University of Texas at Austin; Lawrence J. Ellison, chief executive of
Oracle, attended both the University of Chicago and the University of
Illinois but never graduated; and Ted Waitt, the founder of Gateway, left
the University of Iowa after his sophomore year.
In the free-wheeling entertainment world, Barry Diller and David Geffen
both dropped out of college - Mr. Diller, the chief executive of
InterActiveCorp, from U.C.L.A.; and Mr. Geffen, a co-founder of Dreamworks
SKG, from Brooklyn College and the University of Texas after less than one
semester each, according to a spokeswoman.
Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting, was asked to leave Brown
University, a spokeswoman confirmed. But in 1989 Brown gave him a special
degree, a Bachelor of Philosophy, for his "sustained service to the
university."
Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment, dropped out of the University
of California at Berkeley. She declined to discuss her decision but said
through a spokesman that she left college "because I wanted to start life."
William Simon, managing director of the global entertainment and media
practice at the executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, cautioned
that skipping college was not a good idea for most people, particularly in
a fiercely competitive job market. Even the entertainment industry is now
overrun with M.B.A.'s, he said.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Company.
Still, a degree matters more for younger workers than for those with
experience, he said.
"It's valuable during the first 7 to 10, or 10 to 12 years, and after that
you're being hired or promoted based on what you've actually accomplished
in business," he said. "Nobody at a senior level has ever been asked what
his G.P.A. was."
A college degree can also be less relevant to success if you end up as your
own boss. David Neeleman, chief executive of JetBlue Airways, said he hated
every minute of his three years at the University of Utah in Salt Lake
City.
He says he knows now that the difficulty stemmed from his attention deficit
disorder, which remained undiagnosed until he was in his 30's. "I couldn't
focus," he said.
Mr. Neeleman got the idea to start a tour company, and when his business
took off, he dropped out. "I'm not ashamed that I don't have a degree," he
said.
Indeed, Mr. Herron, who became a runner on the floor of the Pacific Stock
Exchange after leaving Berkeley, volunteered that he lacked a degree before
accepting the Chicago Stock Exchange job last year. "I didn't want to hide
anything," he said. "They said it wasn't an issue."
Inevitably, once an executive without a degree reaches a certain lofty
level, there are invitations to speak at college commencements, serve on
college advisory boards or accept honorary degrees. For example, Mr. Dell
and Mr. Grano each have two, and Mr. Neeleman has one.
When it comes to the art of leadership, it may be the military - not the
Ivy League - that can offer the best training. After one semester at
Central Connecticut State College, Mr. Grano enlisted in the Army, became a
captain in Vietnam and was badly wounded in combat, he said, almost losing
his left arm and leg.
"There isn't anything more stressful or more shaping than being responsible
for peoples' lives," he said. "Being an officer made me realize I had a
management ego."
When Mr. Grano returned to the United States, intending to enroll in
college, he happened to read about a training program at Merrill Lynch. The
next day, he said, he hobbled into the Hartford office with casts on both
legs and applied.
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