EVERYTHING you needed to know in life you might have learned in kindergarten, but who says you need to have a college degree to make it big?

Certainly not Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates, Oracle Corp.?s Larry Ellison, Michael Dell of Dell Computers and Henry Sy Sr. of SM Malls, four of the richest men in the world.

As far as these famous dropouts are concerned, there?s life even without that framed diploma. Which begs the question: With such compelling examples, should Filipinos even bother with a bachelor?s degree?

?Yes!? Alfredo Yao, chief executive of juice manufacturer Zest-O and airline company Zest Air, says emphatically. Which is why he is proud that all his three children got their college diplomas from the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University, with high honors at that.

Yao, who only managed to reach second year college at the Mapua Institute of Technology where he was taking up Chemical Engineering, said that with a diploma, ?the learning curve is much shorter.?

It took him a while longer to learn what he had to, he adds. ?Of course, I was streetsmart and very observant and I read books. But I learned mostly from other people ? both the good and the bad side of doing business.?

Yao, the eldest of six siblings who first earned money as a sidewalk vendor in Blumentritt, Manila, was forced to quit school because of economic constraints.

In sharp contrast, Felix Ang, founder and head of CATS Motors, Inc., the sole distributor of Mercedes Benz in the Philippines, quit school because he was already earning enough working on his own.

He was just 15 when his mother brought him to a friend?s car supply shop in Blumentritt because he refused to spend his afternoons learning Chinese characters.

He earned about P60 a month from helping around the shop, sorting screws and counting nuts and bolts and spare parts used in passenger jeepneys.

Excited about his salary and the prospect of earning even more, he quit school altogether and put himself on the path that would lead him to the top of the automotive supply business.

He says he was able to convince his mother to let him leave school, saying that if he fails at his venture, he could always go back. He never did.

Ang, however, adds that luck had a lot to do with his business success, considering that he did not even get to high school.

?That was a different time,? says the 49-year-old Ang. ?It would be hard to do the same now because the times are different and the competition is much more stiff.?

Like Ang, 30-year-old movie and television celebrity Rufa Mae Quinto quit school after one semester at the University of the East where she attempted to get a degree in Business Administration. Even back then, she already knew what she wanted to be ? a celebrity.

?I started as a print ad model in 1993 for Duty Free. I was one of the girls in the model family,? Quinto says in Filipino.

?And I was only 16 when I started modeling the petite line of Liz Claiborne. I already had the body for the clothes.? The money she was earning made her choose between a burgeoning career and her studies.

The second of nine siblings eventually decided to get on with her modeling stint, reasoning out that she could always go back to school and reclaim her spot on the honor roll.

Quinto says that getting a diploma is still on her horizon, with a degree in business an unclaimed dream.

In the meantime, she says she finds vicarious satisfaction in being able to send her siblings and some nephews and nieces to some of the best schools in the Philippines. Two have just graduated from UP and another finished at St. Paul?s College.

?Personally, I?d encourage people to go to college and get a degree, but only if they are really focused on it. Education needs focus,? Quinto says, ?I believe it would be hard to study and have a career at the same time.?

But for one intent on going into business or learning a trade without a college degree, be prepared for a lot of hard work, Yao cautions. Among the factors working against them is the lack of a resumé or capital.

?Out there, you will have to work doubly hard and you will have to really protect your name. You have to be able to earn other people?s trust and keep that trust as you grow your business,? says Yao. That means treating suppliers well, meeting delivery commitments on time all the time, and faithfully paying loans as they fall due.

Ang, on the other hand, says that it pays to be an expert in the field since experience and knowledge are the advantages that a dropout has over the new graduate.

?In my case, I really had to learn as much of the trade as I can because nobody else would hire me. So I had to make a success out of my business,? says Ang. ?