Not one credits the classroom for his success

Consider three of today's great entrepreneurs: Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Not one credits the classroom for his success. All are famously and unapologetically dropouts from college.

Explaining his reason for quitting Reed College after only six months, Jobs once said, "I couldn't see the value in it." (Jobs did find some value in education later, when he dropped in on a calligraphy class that turned out to be of help, he says, in designing typefaces and fonts for the Mac.)

Although JetBlue founder David Neeleman, 46, argues that entrepreneurship education can help guide those with the right spirit, the University of Utah dropout believes that his greatest lessons came from founding a previous airline, Morris Air (later sold to Southwest).

"I never would have started JetBlue unless I had the experience of starting another airline," he says. "And I guarantee that I never would have started JetBlue at J.F.K. airport if I had listened to the experts, who said that you can't put a low-fare, customer-centric airline in New York. But I knew we could do it, and I had a wealth of experience behind me that I trusted to make JetBlue a reality."