Self Taught Achievers

When you engage in self learning at Marco Polo, you will strengthen your critical reasoning skills and creative abilities. In the alternative, when you primarily memorize facts for tests, you walk away from your education with virtually nothing except a huge debt and, maybe, if you are one of 15% or less, a diploma.

Abigail Adams never attended school. She was the wife of the second president of the United States, mother of the sixth president, one of the most literate Americans of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and an unambiguous testimony to the power and development of intellect that can be achieved by desire, self study, and determination.

Ansel Adams was one of America's most famous naturalist and landscape photographers. Taken out of school at an early age because he despised the boring routine, Ansel Adams made photography into a fine art and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Louisa May Alcott was educated at home. She wrote her first novel at age 17, and was most well know for her classic novel, Little Women.

Paul Allen was a college drop out turned billionaire who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates.

Woody Allen dropped out of college before completing his first year and went on to become one of America’s most celebrated movie producers.

Wally Amos, armed with a GED and personality plus, became the most successful chocolate chip cookie entrepreneur in America.

Hans Christian Anderson, one of Denmark’s most famous authors, was self-educated, as was his father. His stories, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid's fascinate each new generation all over again.

Tadao Ando was self-taught and a Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.

Maya Angelou was a poet, an actress, a historian, a playwright, a producer-director and a civil-rights activist. She wrote ten best-selling books including, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Although she didn’t finish college, she has a long list of honorary doctorates, too numerous to list.

Hubert Howe Bancroft dropped out of school at the age of 16 to become a historian. He published of a 39-volume History of the Pacific States, and became the biggest bookseller in the American West. In 1905 the University of California at Berkeley acquired his personal library which consisted of over 60,000 volumes.

Benjamin Banneker was a self taught astronomer, inventor, scientist,
and writer. He is often referred to as the first African-American intellectual.

Alexander Graham Bell was a self-taught inventor of the telegraph and telephone. His college experience consisted only of attending a few lectures.

David Ben-Gurion was a tireless reader, studying philosophy and ancient Greek in order to read philosophy texts in their original form. He was the chief architect of the then newly forming State of Israel and became its first prime minister in 1948.

William Blake, the English poet and artist, was largely self taught. William Blake brought a profound sense of originality to the arts in the late eighteenth century. Many examples of his work can be found on the Internet.

Ray Bradbury, one of the world’s most prolific science fiction writers, graduated from high school but was self taught to an advanced education equivalent through reading. He has written more than thirty books and has published more than 500 works. He is the author of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451.

Richard Branson, a flamboyant British billionaire, chose business instead of college. He is the owner of Virgin Records and Atlantic Airways, among others.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning the celebrated English poet, was a precocious reader who educated herself by reading classic literature and studying Shakespearian plays.

John Moses Browning became one of the most accomplished firearms inventors in American history. Browning had only a grade-school education and made his first gun at age 13.

Robert Burns, often referred to as Scotland’s National Bard, poet and songwriter, educated himself primarily through reading.

Andrew Carnegie was at one time the richest man in the world. Andrew Carnegie said, “no man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” He received his education through work, not school, and became one of the world’s greatest philanthropists.

Agatha Christie, the master of suspense and mystery novels, created of some of our most memorable detectives in the genre (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple). Agatha Christie was self educated at home.

Arthur C. Clarke is one of America’s most celebrated science fiction writers. Too poor to go to college, he educated himself by reading magazines. He has written more than 60 books, with 50 million in print. These include 2001: A Space Odyssey, and 2010: Odyssey Two.

Henry Clay, self educated, became Speaker the U.S. House of Representatives in 1811 and is still regarded as one of the most colorful and persuasive individuals to have ever filled the post.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) left school at the age of 13 on a life long self taught learning journey. He became one of the most famous writers in American history. His books, Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, are American classics.

Grover Cleveland, teacher, sheriff, mayor of Buffalo, New York, and governor of New York, became the 22^nd and 24^th president of the United States. He was self taught at home until the age of 11 when he began to attend school in a one-room schoolhouse. Circumstances prevented college education.

Ezra Cornell, a self-taught engineer and entrepreneur was founder of Cornell University.

Walter Chronkite, one of America’s most celebrated journalists and longtime CBS news anchor, dropped out of college to work for the Houston Post in 1935.

Humphrey Davy was a self-educated chemist who discovered potassium and sodium in 1807.

Michael Dell dropped out of college after one semester to sell computers and became one of the richest men in Texas. He founded and built one of the most dynamic computer companies in America, Dell Computers. Would you hire this dropout at your high tech company, or would you require an MBA?

Charles Dickens is thought by many scholars to be the greatest English novelist of all times. His formal education ended at the age of 15. Some of his classics are David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleakhouse, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and Little Dorrit.

Frederick Douglass, born into slavery and forbidden an education by law was taught to read by an abolitionist sympathizer. He furthered his education at every opportunity reading what he could and talking to people more knowledgeable than himself. He escaped slavery in 1838 and became a great writer, orator, and leader in the abolitionist movement.

Thomas Alva Edison was thought by his teachers to be too stupid for school. This self-taught scientist held more than 1000 patents and pioneered such technology as the electric light and the phonograph.

Lawrence Ellison, chairman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle, the second largest software company in the world, attended college but did not graduate.

Michael Faraday was a self-taught scientist whose work paved the way for electro-technology.

Howard Fast, self taught in the public library has written more than 40 books including Spartacus, Citizen Tom Paine, Freedom Road, April Morning, and The Last Frontier.

William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. Not a bad accomplishment for a high school drop out who would later attend three semesters of college where he received a D in English.

The above names are but a few examples of why Marco Polo International University believes self learning, or autodidactic learning, is so important and one of the valuable experiences you will have at Marco Polo. Self learning pays...just look at the self taught achievers in the list below.