What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common?

Well, lots of things. The three are some of history’s greatest innovators and they’re super-rich, super-successful entrepreneurs. But perhaps most intriguing is the absence of a university degree on their impressive resumes.

All three enrolled in college (Jobs at Reed, Zuckerberg and Gates at Harvard) but ultimately chose business over books. Add Michael Dell, Paul Allen and the Twitter cofounders to the list, and it almost looks like entrepreneurial success is the norm for college dropouts.

These unconventional career paths have led many, such as Flickr founder Caterina Fake, to speculate that dropping out belies an entrepreneurial streak. Plus, it makes sense that being young and debt-free can lead to creative risk-taking.

Of course, mega successful dropouts are one in a million. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 57% of first-time students complete a degree within six years. It goes without saying, not all of these former students make it big. However, given this uncanny trend, we took a look at the reasons creative types ditch the classroom for entrepreneurship. We spoke with three young entrepreneurs who have left school in the past six months to learn what it takes to innovate without a degree.

The Thiel Fellowship

In May, Facebook investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel launched the “20 under 20 Fellowship.” It awards $100,000 to students to pursue entrepreneurship. The motley crew of 24 fellows (20 total teams) will substitute traditional academics for two years of tutelage under Thiel’s oversight. While the benefactor has two degrees from Stanford, he’s infamously outspoken on the overhyped status of higher education. Thiel believes his fellowship will help solve the bubble of underemployed American degree holders and nourish the creative spirit in the America’s business environment.

All of the fellows are positioned to innovate in trendy topics. Three delved into biotech, two in career development, two in economics, three in education, four in energy, three in information technology, one in mobility, one in robotics and one in space.

Business Is Calling

Andrew Sutherland says leaving M.I.T. after three years of studying computer science was one of the hardest decisions he ever had to make. He has been working on his company, Quizlet, since his sophomore year of high school when he developed the program to study for a French test. Quizlet is an online study tool allowing students to create and share flash cards.

This summer, Sutherland realized he had to either choose his business or his schooling. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both well,” he says. “I saw how big Quizlet was getting, how many people were using it and how big an impact it could have for millions of students.”

Wesley Zhao similarly withdrew from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania two weeks ago when he decided to devote his energies to AvantCard, a site reinventing gift card giving. AvantCard’s co-creators, Ajay Mehta, Jesse Beyroutey and Dan Shipper, are not leaving school to pursue the startup.

“I think you just get different things from being in class and going into business,” says Zhao. “I definitely think you learn things in class but you learn more practical skills by doing it yourself.”

For 19-year-old Zhao, the decision isn’t risky because he knows he can always return to school. He plans to go back someday to pursue a degree, however, he no longer intends to major in entrepreneurship.

Sutherland also hopes to return to college, noting that he had a great time meeting friends and studying computer science. He believes M.I.T. does a great job of fostering entrepreneurship, easily allowing students to take leaves of absence and subsequently return to campus.

The Classroom Is Lacking

Dale Stephens left Hendrix College in March to pursue his blog-turned-social movement UnCollege. Halfway through his freshman year, Stephens started writing about his frustrations with higher education.

“I found smart people writing term papers, not changing the world,” he says. “I was working on theoretical homework rather than seeing the direct application of my work in the real world.”

Stephens was awarded a Thiel Fellowship to pursue his work as an educational futurist. He initially applied with a proposal for a budget transatlantic airline. Although his proposal was rejected, the committee approached him after he left college to work on UnCollege. Stephens, now based in Silicon Valley for Thiel’s mentorship, is using his seed money to publish his first book, “Hacking Your Education,” which he describes as a practical guide for gaining the skills schools aren’t teaching. The release is scheduled for early 2013.

While his book is in the works, Stephens says universities around the country have reached out to him as a consultant. “Tech is changing faster than they can. It’s really inspiring to see individuals working within the system, genuinely interested in building a better university of the future,” Stephens says.

To Each His Own

A college education, like most things in life, depends on the individual. Just because Zuckerberg, Jobs and Gates created empires without degrees does not make a college education worthless. Even Stephens, founder of UnCollege, admits traditional schooling is the right fit for some.

“I’m not advocating that everyone drop out of school,” he says. “That would be as ludicrous [as saying] that everyone should go to college.”

Did your university degree help you get to where you are today professionally? If you could go back, would you forgo the diploma? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, bo1982

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We were about to scrape the title off but didn’t. It’s much of a claim on our end, but after a year of blogging about business cards, we’ve decided to try writing such article. Anyway, we trust that you’ll help us make this post more comprehensive by commenting below.

So much has changed in the years since business cards have first been used and it is amazing how people have shifted from one particular style to another. Designers for one, always have an excuse to have a new batch of cards printed out. Business cards, after all, are indispensable tools in finding new clients or expanding one’s network. Professionals from all fields of interest think so, too.

To start off, here is an infographic we did:

Business Card Designs

The design on your business card can either make or break you, and sometimes proving your skills to a prospective client starts with your introduction…and your business card.

Its design should be well thought of and executed. From the text and font to the colors and logo, you should be able to communicate your brand straight on. You should also consider the type of card that you’d like to use. Here are some samples:

Standard Size

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Rounded Corner

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Circles and Squares

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Other Die Cut Shapes

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Usability: Adding Features to Your Business Card

Designing your business card well is important and you must make certain that your design in itself drives a point. It should also help your prospective clients get the best from your card, this way, they’ll remember you more easily and hopefully even hire you when the need for your service arise.

You must consider what to do with your content. Should you put all your details or should you include only a few? Should you use the back panel of your card or should you leave it blank for note taking?

Or maybe you should shy away from the conventional card.

First off, consider what your industry is and how you want to be identified. The back panel of the business card can be printed with a copy of your recent work. You could add a mini calendar or perhaps a QR code of your details.

So maybe you’ll ask, “what’s the difference between a standard card to other kinds of business cards? Which is best for me?” Here’s a short overview:

Here are some stuff you should consider:

QR Codes

QR codes are a form ofłD bar codes that make it easier to save contact numbers from business cards to phone and PC.

Add a valuable feature on your card by adding a QR code or two. Generating these codes are also easy and many sites online offer it for free. Check Kerem Erkan’s QR Code Generator, SPARQCode  and Jeff Korhan’s site; they’re really helpful. Also visit SquareCode and 2DCode for reviews and lists of QR Code Generators respectively.

Here are 3 samples of business cards that have made use of QR codes:

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Out of the Box

If you want to be unique, you might have considered using an altogether different material for your card. Here are 3 samples:

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Printing Business Cards

There is so much to printing that designers (and everybody else who wishes to design their own cards) ought to know. However, printing is such a vast topic that a whole book is necessary to be able to discuss it properly. But here are the basic things you should take note of:

Color

The colors you see on the monitor and a final print is not exactly the same. It’s because the colors are created by 2 different processes. For computer monitors, colors are created through RGB, when colors are created by mixing light together. On the other hand, color on print are produced by adding inks and pigments. Usually through CMYK, inks of different color: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are printed on top of one another to create the final print.

To be able to adjust to this discrepancy, you need to ask what color model your printer use. You can convert your file to their color model of choice, but it’ll save time if you design your business card using that model from the start.

Make sure to select the correct color mode upon creating a new document.

Size

Likewise, size between computer screens and actual print are different. Prior to designing, you must create your file in the right size. 72 pixel per inch is appropriate for the web; however, that will be too small for print. Thus, you must use at least 300 ppi to make sure that the images will not be pixelated upon printing.

Bleed

Printing can be complicated at times. In fact, printing can be considered an inexact science. For one, your business cards can be cut a few millimeters sideways. To make sure that there are no unwanted white space around your final print, you should make an allowance of at least 1/8 of an inch from each corner. We call this bleed.

Below is a sample template:

The above areas around the main design helps you position the most important details away from being cut; it also gives you an idea how much space you have from the border.

Learn More About Designing for Print:

Bleed from Prepressure

RGB vs CMYK from Print International

PPI and Print Size from Digicam Guides

Display, Printing, DPI and PPI by Bob Atkins

The Truth on Offset Printing–Read Before You Print by Arthur

Create Print Ready Business Card Design in Illustrator by Chris Spooner

What’s the Catch with Free Business Cards by Taylor Thomas

Business Cards: Beyond the Aesthetics

Business cards are, indeed, very important. In some areas around the globe, its significance is emphasized more by the ‘rituals’ people observe. It is then a must to know what these unspoken rules are, especially if you’re doing business outside of your country.

Here are a few interesting facts:

We hope that you guys have enjoyed this article. If there is anything that you wish to add to the information we have listed here, feel free to leave a quick message on the comments below.

For Inspiration You Can Also Check:

Design Inspirations from the History of Business Cards

Rounded Corner Business Cards Designs

Sophisticated and Stylish UV Coated Business Cards

11 Round Die Cut Business Card Designs

5 Business Card Photography Tips

It is not a foregone conclusion, but the rise of Web app stores is a likely future. Facebook’s so-called “Project Spartan” may be driving the shift but other outlets such as news companies may be looking for a way to skirt the strict rules of the Apple App Store or the chaos of the Android Market and create their own centralized hubs for magazine-like Web apps as digital newsstands. Looking ahead, will Web app stores become the dominant model? That is the question for this week’s ReadWriteMobile poll.

Sponsor

As we noted earlier this week, game developers are starting to work on HTML5 Web app games, ostensibly because of Project Spartan. Amazon released its Kindle Cloud Reader a couple weeks ago and Firefox has been working to create a better mobile browser for Android that will allow developers to use data for applications offline.

The real key to Web app stores will be the evolution of the mobile browser. The consensus is that webOS has very good browser capability while iOS Safari has the best overall browser. Mobile Internet Explorer for Windows Phone is probably next followed by Firefox for Android and then the Android browser itself (feel free to disagree with those rankings in the comments).

There are many sides to look at the topic from. One of the developer side where HTML5 may be preferable from a creation and monetization standpoint. Another are the cellular carriers which might prefer to funnel their own content through native application stores specific to their brands and devices. Will Apple, Google and Microsoft ever let the native app ecosystem out of their clutches? The primary drivers are consumers, as always. The mass of consumers are still just getting used to the idea of a native application store. Would they actually see a Web-based app store any differently? How hard it is to change their habits?

What other sides to the conversation are there? Polls are a simple way to start a conversation, but the real conversation should be had with the community of developers and consumers that frequent ReadWriteMobile. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Discuss

The much-anticipated Martin Luther King, Jr National Memorial dedication ceremony that was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to D.C. this Sunday has been cancelled as Hurricane Irene makes her angry way up America’s east coast. The very first memorial near the National Mall dedicated to a black man, the mammoth MLK statue would also be only the fourth to commemorate a non-President. Following the earthquake earlier this week, which cracked the Washington Memorial, 90mph winds are expected to wreak even further havoc on the capital, much to the disappointment of local business and residents who were preparing for the adoring throng of visitors that were expected to pay their respects to one of America’s most beloved icons.

Read the rest of Hurricane Irene Puts a Damper on Highly Anticipated MLK Memorial Dedication in D.C.

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Post tags: Bill McKibben, china, D.C., eco design, first black man, granite, green design, hurricane irene, Jr., Keystone XL Pipeline, Martin Luther King, memorial, National Mall, sustainable design

Sponsor

The first is from Automation Consultants Ltd. They announced the launch of TestWave, a full-service, cloud-based test management tool. Priced at $150 per user per month, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. TestWave manages the testing of an IT system by enabling teams of testers to store test scripts, analyze results, and record and track defects.

Next up is Ixia, a company who has been around the testing space for more than a decade and offers a wide variety of tools to examine the most complex of data center infrastructures. They have a new product called IxLoad-VM, which measures the quality and capacity of cloud data center components, applications, and networks to deliver effective cloud-based services.

IxLoad-VM works with IxNetwork-VM, which assesses layer 2/3 network performance in virtual environments. IxLoad-VM uses “virtual test ports,” which are virtualized software implementations to measure true quality of experience and capacity loads. No pricing information is available, but typically these tools are five-figure purchases or can be rented for a ũ,000 minimum 90-day period.

Discuss

Jeremy will be sitting on the “Blog & News Optimization: How Publishers Can Dominate Google & Beyond” Panel with Brian Clark of Copyblogger and discussing killer techniques for bloggers & publishers to build traffic, links and BUSINESS via their content strategies.

Image via TopRank's Flick Account

I really cannot think of two people who I would rather have on this panel, and am entirely stoked about this. With BlueGlass Conferences our mission it to stack sessions & panels with Keynote Worthy speakers — and this lineup equals MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (SEJ will be covering the show too because we are a BlueGlass TPA Partner!)

In addition to ShoeMoney & Copyblogger, our BlueGlass TPA lineup also includes :

• Greg Boser, President of Search & Products, BlueGlass Interactive
• William Sears, Sr. Manager, Search Marketing, Disney Interactive
• Tim Mayer, Chief Strategy Officer, Trada (formerly of Yahoo Search)
• Jon Henshaw, Co-Founder, Raven Tools
• Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO of Sugarrae Consulting
• Simon Heseltine, Director of SEO, AOL
• Dennis Goedegebuure, Vice President of Internet Marketing at Geeknet
• And MANY MORE!!!

BlueGlass TPA is September 26th & 27th in Tampa, FL — and there are a limited amount of seats left. REGISTER TODAY!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

ShoeMoney Added to the BlueGlass TPA Lineup

See if you can understand these famous characters bio-pictograms, from Darth Vader to Bruce Lee to Jesus, the Bible character. Like our friends at Data Visualization say: don’t take them too seriously. More »

This is pretty amazing: Utah-based building company Bangerter Homes has faithfully duplicated the Victorian two-story from Pixar’s Up, using frames from the movie to create a 2,800-square-foot house that matches both inside and out.

Disney/Pixar was contacted and gave Bangerter Homes unprecedented permission to construct the replica….

Staying true to the timeline in the movie, this turn of the century period home will be decorated to reflect the񎦞′s era…. From the interior finishes, kitchen design to the furniture and accessories, great care has been exercised to achieve a fun and fresh nostalgic atmosphere. “If you have seen it in the movie, You”ll see it in real life in the home,” said Adam Bangerter.

(more…)