First, let me dispel a commonly believed myth of entrepreneurship. No one needs a college degree or MBA to succeed. Everyone talks about education as a foundation to become an entrepreneur, but it is by far the least important factor as proven by so many billionaire college dropouts like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. I have heard it claimed as many as forty percent of highly successful entrepreneurs and billionaires have never graduated from any college. These are the out-of-the-box thinkers, risk-takers and people who are driven to learn for life and get better every day, not just for a few years.
Read more: 10 Necessary Traits to be a Successful Entrepreneur and Scale Any Business
In the last week, some corporate directors have written checks out of their personal accounts to settle suits against the companies on whose boards they served. Earlier this week, 10 former WorldCom directors paid a total of $54 million -- $18 million from their own pockets, representing 20% of their net worth. Today announced that 18 Enron directors agreed to pay $168 million, 10 of them paid $13 million from their own pockets, to settle their portions of securities class action suits. These events probably mark the beginning of a trend that will cost directors of other bankrupt companies more money.