There's some exaggeration there, but many people have succeeded without a college degree. Bill Gates skipped out of Harvard in 1976, after all.

King had been working in a computer store since high school and figured he could at least get a job doing desktop support. He did just that at the food company with headquarters in Houston. King was hired away nine months later by Read Montague, a neuroscience professor who was starting up a software company called Quaadros.

The company failed, but King followed Montague to Baylor College in 2001. By 2003, Montague had opened his Human Neuroimaging Laboratory, and King's role has only expanded with each passing year.

Montague, despite being a professor, didn't seem to mind King's lack of a college degree.

"I just sort of work like a maniac,"King says. "That's right up Read's alley. He just puts everyone to shame. He works all the time."