Agree with SnerpGoodWord, btw. ucqwerty, apart from Branson also Bill Gates and Steve Jobs from your list are college dropouts
Maybe someone else too, I didn't check, I just know about those two.
I would say that in general, for most of the population, college increases chances for success.
For those few "weirdos" though, who have who knows why problems with authority, or who knows why have a strong need to start "projects" (like I had) and feel like school is in their way/doesn't correspond to what they need, I think they will be better off taking an alternative route.
People are just not bricks, and there is a minority of people who like to go a more unique way, and it's also better for them to do so. I think it's very important to self-identify to which group you belong and then decide based on that. I'd say, that many(if not most) people from this forum are in that minority, that's why you sometimes see lots of people agreeing with leaving college is cool etc.
I think that it should be communicated to young people that there is a choice and it doesn't have to lead to being homeless(and for that matter, I know a very succesfull lady who was homeless for a while when she was 16). Maybe more people than we think (including me when I was teenager) are in the "minority" but simply are unaware that there is such an option, that it might be for them, and that it might actually be better for them than "go to college, get a job->success".
If instead of high school->college->job everyone would know that there is another, alternative, and also fine road of school->your own thing(business or whatever) they would save themselves year or two of frustration before realizing it's not for them and not feeling like crazy when leaving college( the "only" way to success ). And as a result later coming to these forums and asking other people if they are crazy or not by thinking like that
