Some of the most successful and innovative people in the world never finished college. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both dropouts of Harvard University for example. 
 
 They both quit early to create Microsoft and Facebook, respectively. Likewise, although he’s no longer with us, Steve Jobs was also a dropout, leaving Reed College prematurely to build the Apple empire. Is dropping out of college the pathway to greatness? 
 
 Traditional thinking tells us that we need to finish college in order to get anywhere in this world. Yet, these men made billions by pursuing their dreams instead of following the pack. 
 
 Not only that, they have created companies that have completely changed the way we live. Simply put, they have had a palpable and positive impact on the world. 
 
 Perhaps this is precisely why billionaire Peter Thiel now encourages young people to forgo college and follow their passions. Recently, another college dropout joined the ranks of innovative billionaires, and she’s barely 30. 
 
 Meet Elizabeth Holmes 
 
 When Elizabeth Holmes was a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford University in 2003, she decided to drop out and start her own company, Theranos. She felt strongly that her tuition money could be used for a greater and more benevolent purpose: revolutionizing healthcare. 
 
 When she first told Channing Robertson, her chemical engineering professor, what she planned to do, he was concerned about the implications of Holmes leaving her degree unfinished. He asked her why she wanted to risk everything in order to pursue this plan. Holmes replied: 
 
 I want to create a whole new technology, and one that is aimed at helping humanity at all levels regardless of geography or ethnicity or age or gender. 
 
 The fire in Holmes’ eyes convinced her professor that she would succeed, and she received his blessing. 
 
 Making Medical History 
 
 Holmes wanted to create a technology that would make blood tests easier. She hates needles, and wanted to make blood tests simpler, cheaper and more accessible for all people. For a decade, she quietly worked on a technology that would make blood tests nothing more than a painless finger prick. 
 
 Holmes has created hardware and software that allow for blood tests to be done by pricking someone’s finger and storing the blood in a tiny vial called a nanotainer. 
 
 Some people are so afraid of needles and blood, they would rather avoid getting blood tests than obtaining potentially life-saving medical information. Surprisingly, about half of all Americans do not comply when their doctors ask them to get blood work done. Holmes’ technology eliminates that fear, and makes it easier and more likely that people will get necessary blood tests. 
 
 Not to mention, traditional blood tests typically involve sending multiple vials of blood to separate labs for evaluation. This takes weeks for the results to come through, and also leaves a lot of room for error. 
 
 With the single prick of a finger, the technology Holmes has created can provide a wealth of information with exceptional efficiency. The new tests can be done at a pharmacy without going to a doctor or lab, and the results only take about four hours. Furthermore, the same drop of blood can be used for multiple tests with this technology. 
 
 Blood work can also be very expensive, depending on your insurance coverage. This new test, however, is much cheaper, which was always one of Holmes’ goals when she started Theranos. 
 
 It’s painless, more accurate, cheaper and quicker. Simply put, this technology is revolutionary, and it will save lives. 
 
 Blood Money 
 
 Holmes’ company, Theranos, is now worth $9 billion. She owns 50 percent of it and is worth $4.5 billion, making her the youngest female and third-youngest billionaire on the recently released list of the 400 richest Americans from Forbes. She is the youngest woman to become a self-made billionaire. 
 
 Her company has also partnered with Walgreens, and it seems that it will only continue to grow. Yet, Holmes did not create her company to get rich, she sincerely wanted to make a change in the world. As she puts it: 
 
 We’re successful if person by person we help make a difference in their lives. Our purpose is to give people access to the basic right of being (blood) tested when they need to or want to. If we can do that, then we will have made a difference. 
 
 She believes that affordable and efficient healthcare is a human and civil right. Elizabeth Holmes is proof that greatness is achieved by combining passion, innovation and the desire to better the lives of those around you. 
 
 Photo Courtesy: Facebook 
 
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 Some tests, such as 
 
 At 19-years-old, Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of her chemical engineering degree at Stanford University and used her tuition money to pursue a business idea she hoped would change the landscape of healthcare. 
 
 With a major fear of needles, she decided the current system for testing blood - implemented in the 1960s - was archaic, expensive, painful and slow. 
 
 Holmes, 30, endeavored to change that method and develop a way that would eradicate the need for vials of blood to be taken and for blood tests to have to take place at the doctors or a lab. 
 
 Working mostly in secret for the last 11 years, her company, Theranos, is now valued at $9 billion and, according to Holmes, is changing people's lives. 
 
 Scroll down for video 
 
 Revolutionary: The CEO of diagnostic center Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, 30, is the brains behind a $9 billion company that has changed the medical landscape by developing a new method to run blood tests 
 
 Theranos' technology requires only a finger prick of blood to be drawn from a patient in order to get fast, effective results. 
 
 One drop can run 30 lab tests, the company claims. 
 
 Holmes told Wired they can get results in less than four hours. 
 
 She said that her fear of needles allowed her to realize that people avoid blood tests for that reason. 
 
 Partnered with Walgreens, the flagship Theranos Wellness Center is based in Palo Alto, California. 
 
 There are also 20 others that have opened inside Walgreens around Phoenix. 
 
 Patients are able to walk into the stores, have their finger pricked, and get blood results within hours. 
 
 The cost, depending on the extent of the tests, averages around $30. 
 
 Holmes' goal is to launch Theranos in all 8,200 Walgreens across the country. 
 
 'Our work is enabling everyone, no matter how much money they have, or where they live, or what kind of insurance they have, to be able to have access to the kind of testing information that could change their lives,' she told USA Today. 
 
 'Theranos is a company dedicated to the belief that access to actionable health information at the time it matters most is a basic human right.' 
 
 Leader: Theranos Chairman, CEO and Founder Elizabeth Holmes and TechCrunch Writer and Moderator Jonathan Shieber speak onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt at Pier 48 on September 8, 2014 in San Francisco 
 
 'Archaic': Holmes decided the current method for testing blood, requiring one or multiple vials of blood and first introduced in the 1960s, was out-of-date and needed to be streamlined 
 
 New system: Theranos developed software that allowed blood tests to be performed using a 'micro-sample', needing just a drop of blood taken from a person with a finger prick 
 
 Menu: Now in 21 locations - a flagship in California and 20 smaller clinics in Phoenix - Theranos charges different amounts for their blood tests, depending on what is being tested 
 
 Now 30, Holmes was the youngest self-made woman on this years Forbes 400 rich list. 
 
 Shes owns 50 percent of Theranos, and has a net worth of about $4.5 billion. 
 
 'She could totally overturn an entire industry if Theranos is as successful as it seems to be,' Abram Brown, associate editor at Forbes, told Yahoo. 
 
 Holmes has a team of influential backers behind her company. 
 
 The Theranos board of directors includes former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist. 
 
 Holmes is getting great responses from patients using the Theranos diagnostic centers. 
 
 Dropout: Holmes left her chemical engineering degree at Stanford to develop a way to take the pain and cost out of getting blood tested. She is now worth $4.5 billion 
 
 She told USA Today of a diabetic woman who wrote to her that had three fingers picks for a wide-range of blood tests. 
 
 She paid $34. 
 
 The woman said she had undergone the same tests earlier this year and that it cost her insurance $876. 
 
 'When I realized this is what I wanted to do with my life, things got easy,' Holmes told USA Today. ||||| Better blood tests, stronger soybeans, zippier energy drinks. As the backgrounds and businesses of this year's newcomers to The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans once again show, there are many routes to minting a huge fortune. Altogether there are 27 newcomers to The Forbes 400 , compared to 20 last year. The richest newcomer is Jan Koum ($7.6 billion), the founder of mobile messaging service WhatsApp. Only three of the newcomers are women: Elizabeth Holmes, Karen Johnson Boyd and Josephine Louis. 
 
 Elizabeth Holmes 
 
 Net worth: $4.5 billion. Age: 30. 
 
 Route to Riches: Chemical engineering sophomore drops out of Stanford to work on better, cheaper, faster blood tests. Labors in secrecy for a decade. Surfaces with big partnerships, including drugstore chain Walgreens. Her company, Theranos, was valued at $9 billion in latest venture capital fundraising round; she owns 50%. Needlephobe: Afraid of needles, Holmes’ technology can do many blood tests with one tiny finger prick. Rich List Records: Youngest woman on Forbes 400; Youngest woman self-made billionaire. Board Bigwigs: Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Bill Frist, George Schultz. 
 
 “What we’re about is the belief that access to affordable and real-time health information is a basic human right, and it’s a civil right.” 
 
 Harry Stine 
 
 Net worth: $2.6 billion. Age: 72. 
 
 Route to Riches: Dyslexic farm boy tinkers with soybeans. Big Break: Licenses genetics to Monsanto in 1997. Company name: Stine Seed. Sales: Est. $1 billion. Up next: Breeding super corn seeds. Hobby: Hunting wild morel mushrooms. Wheels: Ford F-150 Truck. 
 
 “We can all claim ‘I would’ve done great if I didn’t have this problem or that problem.’ Well, baloney. We make excuses for what we haven’t done well.” 
 
 David Walentas 
 
 Net worth: $1.7 billion. Age: 75. 
 
 Route to Riches: Grew up poor in upstate New York, father paralyzed, forced to milk cows on local farm. Wins scholarship to U. Va., earns M.B.A., then consulting gig. Starts investing in NYC real estate in late 1960s. Dirty Job: After college cleaned military septic tanks in Greenland. First Purchase: Rent-controlled Harlem building at corner of 104th and Manhattan Ave. Big Score: Paid $12 million for 2 million square feet of old industrial buildings in Brooklyn in late 1970s; Dumbo is now one of city’s hippest neighborhoods, and his outer borough holdings are worth over $1 billion. 
 
 “Well, I got rich, and I was never called dumb, but I’m not a genius. The secret is picking the good spots and staying 
 
 with it. I’m not a digital wonder like the guys that created Facebook, but we build real stuff where people can live.” 
 
 Russell Weiner 
 
 Net worth: $2.5 billion. Age: 44. 
 
 Route to Riches: Son of lightening-rod conservative talk show host Michael Savage mounts unsuccessful campaign for California State Assembly 1998. Lands on feet working for Skyy Vodka founder Maurice Kanbar. Maurice’s Mistake: Kanbar refuses to fund his lieutenant's energy drink; Weiner quits, founds Rockstar, eventually gets distribution deal with Pepsi, makes billions. Partner-Parent: CFO mother owns 15% of business. Extreme blends: Exotic flavors include creamy horchata, supersours bubbleberry and mango orange passion fruit. 
 
 “I thought of the name Rockstar because we’d go to Vegas on trips, and on all the trips we used to party like rock stars. Who has more energy than a rock star?” 
 
 And the other 23 fresh additions to The Forbes 400: 
 
 1. Jan Koum ($7.6 billion): Cofounded messaging service WhatsApp and sold it to Facebook for $19 billion. 
 
 2. Carl Cook ($6 billion): Inherited medical-device fortune from his parents. 
 
 3. Mark Shoen ($4 billion): Turned around U-Haul amid ugly family drama. 
 
 4. Brian Acton ($3.4 billion): Cofounded WhatsApp with Jan Koum. 
 
 5. Evan Williams ($3.2 billion): Started Blogger and cofounded Twitter. 
 
 6. George Bishop ($3 billion): Runs energy company GeoSouthern. 
 
 7. Travis Kalanick ($3 billion): Cofounder of ride-sharing firm Uber. 
 
 8. and 9. Gary Rollins, Randall Rollins ($3 billion): Feuding brothers behind Orkin pest control fortune. 
 
 10. Joseph Grendys ($2.4 billion): Rules the roost at chicken processor Koch Foods. 
 
 11. John Kapoor ($2.4 billion): Develops pharmaceuticals. 
 
 12. Karen Boyd ($2.2 billion): Heir to the S.C. Johnson fortune. ||||| CLOSE Elizabeth Holmes, Founder and CEO of Theranos, says their mission is to revolutionize the medical industry by taking the pain out of blood tests and lab costs. VPC 
 
 Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes holds a nanotainer of blood at Theranos headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. (Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY) 
 
 
 
 
 
 PALO ALTO, Calif. – Elizabeth Holmes is tall, smart and single. Well, maybe not truly single. "I guess you should say I'm married to Theranos," Holmes says with a laugh. Only she's not kidding. 
 
 For the past 11 years, Holmes, 30, has been laboring incessantly to build a company whose mission is to overhaul the nation's $60 billion blood taking and analysis business, literally one drop at a time. 
 
 The diagnostic-lab industry has long been dominated by names such as Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, whose satellites many of us visit when our doctors want to run standard tests that typically require three or four vials of blood. But Theranos – a blend of "therapy" and "diagnosis" – has developed hardware and software that allows for many such tests to be completed with just a pinprick's worth of blood stored in a minute vial called a nanotainer. 
 
 The benefits of this breakthrough to Theranos could be riches; Holmes, who owns more than 50% of the stock in her company, has raised $400 million for a current valuation of $9 billion. But while Holmes is a billionaire on paper, nothing seems to interest her less. 
 
 "We're successful if person by person we help make a difference in their lives," says Holmes, who dresses exclusively in black and has a soft yet commanding voice that makes a listener lean in as if waiting for marching orders. "Our purpose is to give people access to the basic right of being (blood) tested when they need to or want to. If we can do that, then we will have made a difference." 
 
 “Elizabeth may make a lot of money, but that is not her motivation.” Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and Theranos board member 
 
 Theranos broke out of its decade of development with a quiet announcement last fall that it would open up its Wellness Centers in a Walgreens store here in Palo Alto as well as 20 other store locations in Phoenix. Eventually, the goal is to be in all 8,200 Walgreens nationwide, sending blood samples to dozens of regional lab hubs. 
 
 The company's promise to consumers boils down to comfort, cost and control. 
 
 For patients who dread blood work – children, the elderly or anyone fearful of needles, including Holmes – the prospect of a mere pin prick could increase the likelihood of following through on a doctor's request for blood work (Holmes says 40% to 60% of Americans "are non-compliant with requisitions for blood work"). 
 
 If fear doesn't factor in, cost may. Depending on insurance coverage, blood work can significantly affect a pocketbook. Holmes reads an e-mail from a diabetic woman who wrote the company to say her recent visit to a Theranos Wellness Center cost $34, "for (a wide variety of) tests that back in February cost my insurance company $876." 
 
 The woman, who calls phlebotomists "vampires," goes on to write: "I had three finger pokes and three adorable little nanotainers full of blood. It was awesome, amazing, pain-free, stress-free and a downright fun experience. I never imagined in my lifetime I'd say those words about having labs done." 
 
 Holmes is glowing as she reads the e-mail. 
 
 "That she opted to pay for her own lab and felt this way about it, that's not a paradigm people are used to," she says. 
 
 Which leads to the point about people having control over their health. 
 
 “Our purpose is to give people access to the basic right of being (blood) tested when they need to or want to.” Elizabeth Holmes, founder Theranos 
 
 Holmes can wax philosophical and technical – this is a woman who taught herself Mandarin as a high school student in Houston and was an electrical and chemical engineering major at Stanford before dropping out in 2003 at 19 to start Theranos. 
 
 But on this point she couldn't speak more plainly. Holmes is adamant that having easier and cheaper access to blood testing, thereby more easily tracking your own health, "is a civil right," she says. 
 
 "My father did a lot of disaster relief work, and he was always in places where there was a lot of pain," she adds. "When I thought about having the greatest impact with my life, I thought about all the times people lose loved ones because diseases weren't detected early enough. I thought, 'I can play a role there.' " 
 
 Given that Theranos' current valuation slightly exceeds that of entrenched players Quest and LabCorp, "one wonders if there is some over-exuberance" about the company, says Eric Lakin, analyst with DeciBio Consulting. 
 
 "(Quest and LabCorp) rely on an extensive network of employees, lab facilities and transport systems to coordinate the fast, reliable and accurate results they offer to patients," says Lakin. "One of the largest hurdles Theranos will have to address is the massive infrastructure requirement necessary for a national expansion." 
 
 Holmes smiles when she reads the list of next-step hurdles. 
 
 "We are patient and we're building this company for the very long term," she says, sounding a bit like her far more volatile hero, Steve Jobs. "We're looking to reshape the system." 
 
 If Holmes is on a vision quest, she has gotten some impressive names to glimpse the same health care future that she's seeing. Besides a deep medical advisory group, her board of directors includes former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist. On point for legal matters is legendary trial lawyer David Boies. 
 
 "Elizabeth's iron determination and great intellectual ability turned me from a mild skeptic to an enthusiast," says Kissinger, adding that he was introduced to Holmes by his friend Shultz. 
 
 "We aren't exactly a group of people who give away our time lightly," Kissinger says with a laugh. "But we are impressed with her commitment to lowering health costs and bring this advance to developing nations. Elizabeth may make a lot of money, but that is not her motivation." 
 
 Kissinger adds that board meetings often last all day, with conversations continuing into cocktail hours afterward. 
 
 Far from being intimidated by such an accomplished board, Holmes "invites argument and debate, though it's always absolutely clear she knows where she wants to go. She's a leader who doesn't act like a dominant charismatic personality. And those are often the strongest leaders." 
 
 Holmes brushes off such compliments. For her, Theranos isn't just a business idea or a cash machine or even her chance to make history. Rather, it's simply the only thing she wants consuming her every waking moment. 
 
 "When I realized this is what I wanted to do with my life, things got easy," she says softly. "Because when you reach that moment when you've found what you're born to do, well then you just go do it." 
 
 Elizabeth Holmes was an electrical and chemical engineering major at Stanford before dropping out in 2003 at 19 to start Theranos. (Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY) 
 
 ABOUT ELIZABETH HOLMES, 30 
 
 What: Founder and CEO, Theranos, which aims to reinvent the way blood tests are taken and processed 
 
 Where: Palo Alto, Calif. 
 
 Are you afraid of needles? "Yes, I have a big fear of needles. As do a lot of people. It's right up there with spiders and snakes." 
 
 Why did it take a decade from idea to execution? "We needed to make the chemistry such so that it would only require small volumes of blood. We had to redevelop that analytical system to handle small volumes. We had to build the infrastructure around it all through software and automation to minimize the involvement of humans, where manual error could be great. It's software, hardware and chemistry. There's no shortcut." 
 
 Why is this your passion? "Too often you see someone fall, break a rib, go in to the doctor and discover a tumor. Today, blood work and science are able to provide more of a movie of your health, identifying trends before they become an issue. You can start to answer the questions, 'Where am I headed?' " 
 
 USA TODAY's Change Agents series highlights innovators and entrepreneurs looking to change business and culture with their vision. E-mail Marco della Cava at mdellacava@usatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter:@marcodellacava. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1maBbxw
– Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of college when she was 19; now, she's just 30. She's also the founder of a $9 billion company that's making medical treatment more accessible, and she's the youngest female billionaire in the US, reports Forbes. (She's the third-youngest billionaire overall.) Her company, Theranos, got its start when she dropped out of college in the belief that her tuition money could be used to make the world a better place, Elite Daily reports. Holmes focused on blood tests: "I have a big fear of needles. As do a lot of people. It's right up there with spiders and snakes," she told USA Today earlier this year. Many people are so repulsed by the testing process that they risk not receiving essential health information, Elite Daily notes; Holmes offers an alternative. She developed a testing system that requires only a single finger prick rather than the collection of multiple vials of blood. Not only is it painless, it's cheaper than the typical test: the Daily Mail reports a $30 cost. One drop of blood is enough for 30 different tests, Theranos says, and the procedure can be conducted at a pharmacy, with results arriving within four hours. The company is now partnering with Walgreens, and Holmes is hoping to get Theranos tests available in every store in the US—all 8,200 of them. (Another young female billionaire is in charge of In-N-Out Burger.)