'Self-made' billionaire who is the youngest in the world Austin Russell, 28, says he 'definitely' advises dropping out of college to make money since school is not for everyone.

Russell, who dropped out of Stanford University to found Luminar Technologies, thinks that conventional educational methods might not be the ideal choice for everyone.


He underlines that people can independently gain the knowledge and skills they need for success thanks to the availability of internet resources and technology, but doing so requires effort and motivation.

After obtaining a $100,000 award from the Peter Thiel Fellowship, Russell dropped out of college in 2012 and founded a digital company that would make him a billionaire by the year 2020.

The entrepreneur argues that if he hadn't obtained the funding for his tech start-up, he would still have dropped out of college.

He was only 26 when Forbes dubbed him the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2021, and to mark his new position, he soon purchased an opulent home.


Due to the success of his Orlando, Florida-based tech business Luminar Technologies, which has a current market cap of $2.4B, he currently has an estimated net worth of $1.6B.