[Crito]

Interesting example, both math and entrepreneurship are abound in examples of people making a big splash after going off on their own. From mathematics, people like Srinivasa Ramanujan and Gottfried Leibniz made an impact despite lacking formal mathematics educations. Their results spoke for them, not their credentials.

Edit: Nash apparently did study mathematics, not sure what I was remembering...

[eliteraspberrie]

Better examples of autodidact mathematicians are Galois and George Green.

[Crito]

Those are indeed better examples, though I had to look them up. The history of mathematics is really something I should read more about.