One of the most successful and innovative people in the world fail to complete their higher education. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, for example, leave Harvard University before graduating. They terminate their higher education to create Microsoft and Facebook, respectively. Like them, Steve Jobs, who is no longer with us, left before he graduated from Reed College, to begin to build the empire Apple.
Leaving the university the way to greatness?
Conventional wisdom tells us that we must graduate in order to succeed in this world. These men, however, manage to make billions chasing dreams instead of following the herd. Not only that, but also create companies that completely change the way we live. Simply put, they have a tangible and positive impact on the world. Perhaps this is the reason why billionaire Peter Thiel encourages young people to forgo higher education and pursue their passion. Most recently, a woman who also left the university, joined billionaires innovative and she is only 30.
This is Elizabeth Holmes. When in 2003 Elizabeth Holmes 19-year sophomore at Stanford University, she decided to discontinue her education and establish her own company named Theranos.
She feels strongly that the money for her education could be used for a greater purpose and generous – revolutionizing healthcare. When shares before her teacher in Chemical Engineering Channing Robertson planning what to do, he expressed concern about the potential impact of that Holmes will not finish her education.
He asked her why she wanted to risk everything to pursue this plan, and she replied: I want to create an entirely new technology that aims to help humanity on all levels, regardless of geography, ethnicity, age or gender. The flame in the eyes of Holmes convinced her teacher that she will succeed and received his blessing.
Holmes wanted to create technology that will facilitate blood tests. She hates needles and wanted to do blood tests simpler, cheaper and more accessible for all people.
For a decade, without much noise, she worked on the technology, which subsequently became a blood test in a painless finger prick. Holmes creates hardware and software that allow blood tests to be made by finger prick and storage of human blood in a miniature bottle named nanotainer. Some people are afraid of so many needles and blood, they would prefer to avoid blood tests instead receive potentially life-saving medical information.
Statistics show that nearly half of Americans refuse when they ask their doctors for blood tests. Holmes technology eliminates this fear facilitates on the blood test and increases the likelihood of more people to do the necessary research. Traditional blood tests usually involve the distribution of blood in different containers and sending them to different laboratories. It sometimes takes weeks and creates a lot of room for error.
With a single finger prick Holmes created by technology can provide all sorts of information with the utmost efficiency. New tests can be made at the pharmacy without going to the doctor or laboratory blood and the results are ready in just about four hours.
Moreover, the same drop of blood can be used for multiple tests, this new test technology is also much cheaper than traditional blood tests, which has always been one of the objectives of Holmes when creating Theranos. Painless is more accurate, cheaper and faster.
Simply put, this technology is revolutionary and will save lives.
Holmes Theranos company currently estimated 9 billion. Dollars. She owns 50% of it, but her condition is estimated at 4.5 billion.
Dollars, making her the youngest woman billionaire and the third youngest billionaire recently published by Forbes ranking of the 400 richest Americans. She is also the youngest woman billionaire that not inherited money. Holmes did not set up the company in order to get rich. She really wanted to change the world, and says that her company is successful, if a change in the life of the individual is made. “Our goal is to provide people access to one of their fundamental rights to receive blood tests when they need or want to do. If we can do this, then we changed something. “
Elizabeth Holmes is proof that greatness is achieved by combining the passion, innovation and the desire to improve the lives of people around you .
