Top 15 Most Successful People Who Dropped Out Of School
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| Most Successful People Without A Full School - Photo: KnowInsiders.com |
From well-known businessman to singers, actors and actresses, those people listed below who are idols of millions of people around the world have never graduated from college.
1. Steve Jobs
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Steven Paul Jobs was an American business entrepreneur, industrial designer, media owner, and investor who did not need an introduction. In addition, he founded Apple Inc. and Pixar. Apple's genius was a renegade in many ways, including education. Steve Jobs is the co-founder of Apple and one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. He left Reed College after only one semester.
| The Apple co-founder "may ... be one of the most famous dropouts in history," per Reed College, the liberal arts school in Oregon which Steve Jobs left after just one semester. ("I ran out of money," Jobs explained in a 1991 commencement speech at the school.) |
2. Mark Zuckerberg
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Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American media mogul, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is best known for co-founding Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder. Zuckerberg left Harvard in 2005 to focus on establishing Facebook, which at the time was not known as Facebook.
He founded the social media network while attending the prestigious institution. At a young age, Zuckerberg began developing web apps for his friends and family. Around the age of 12, Zuckerberg developed the communications application 'Zucknet' in Atari BASIC.
In 2017, the Facebook CEO delivered the commencement address at Harvard University. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Ivy League school in 2005 to focus on his business.
3. Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III is an American business entrepreneur, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. The billionaire is famous for dropping out of Harvard to found Microsoft.
Today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is assisting students in making more informed college decisions. When Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to found Microsoft in 1975, he effectively invented the college-dropout millionaire stereotype.
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4. Tiger Woods
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Tiger Woods, like many other elite athletes, dropped out of college to pursue his sport professionally. In his case, he dropped out after his sophomore year at Stanford. "[T]he only regret I have in life is not spending another year at Stanford," Woods stated in 2016.
5. Michael Bloomberg
Bloomberg LP's founder, CEO, and owner is Michael Bloomberg. He founded the company while attending Johns Hopkins University. He dropped out of school to devote his full attention to his business.
6. Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise did not attend college. He dropped out of high school at the age of 18 to pursue a career as an actor. He never took acting classes and got his first role six months after moving to New York City. He is now making his own films.
7. Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American businessman, business leader, and the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He was also the primary inventor of the assembly line method of mass production. Ford revolutionized manufacturing and transportation with his vehicle company's breakthrough, the assembly line.
But he did it without a fancy engineering or business background: he left his family's farm at the age of 16 and moved to Detroit to work as an apprentice in a machine shop. He built his first automobile in 1896.
8. Brad Pitt
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Brad Pitt, the Oscar-winning actor and producer, is the college dropout who almost wasn't. He explained to "Fresh Air" that he left the University of Missouri for Los Angeles just two weeks before graduating. "I just felt like I was done," explained the former journalism major. "I was finished with it. "I knew exactly where I wanted to go."
The life school! Many celebrities did not complete high school, but they became extremely successful — and made a lot of money in the process.
9. Simon Cowell
Cowell dropped out of school when he was 16, and he's confident enough in his decision that he says his son could do the same if he wanted to. "Leave at 16 if you want to work, 100 percent I would encourage him," the X Factor judge said on BBC Radio 2 in 2016. "I don't understand why you would torture someone to force them to be somewhere they don't want to be but who actually want to go out into the real world and make a living."
10. Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence is one of Hollywood's most famous dropouts, having dropped out while still in middle school. "It's difficult to explain. It's just an overwhelming sense of "I get it." "This is what I was meant to do," she said of acting in a February 2018 60 Minutes interview. "And to try to get people to understand what it's like when you're 14 years old, wanting to drop out of school and do this, and your parents are like, 'You're insane.'"
11. Johnny Depp
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The Edward Scissorhands actor dropped out of school at the age of 15, but not to become an actor. He instead intended to pursue a career as a rock musician. Johnny Depp was best known for his work in films, but he also released two albums with his band, Hollywood Vampires.
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12. Kate Winslet
"I left school at 16 and I went to work in a delicatessen to save money to get the train to London to go on auditions," the Oscar winner said during a December 2017 appearance on the The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, adding that her accent often makes people think she's far more educated than she is.
13. Kristen Stewart
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Kristen Stewart dropped out of school at the age of 13 after her film career took off, opting to finish her education at home. She did eventually finish high school on her own, and she even held a mock graduation ceremony on the set of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
“I had just finished high school myself the week before, so I told the crew, ‘Hey, just so you know, I’m actually graduating right now, and I’m not going to have another ceremony,'” she told Interview magazine in September 2009. “So I took a mock picture with an extra. I literally asked the actor to come back and shake my hand and hand me the diploma while I was dressed in a cap and gown.”
14. Rihanna
After landing a record deal at the age of 16, the Grammy winner dropped out of school. In addition to eight number-one albums, the Barbados native has acted in films and established a beauty company, lingerie line, and fashion house. Forbes declared her officially a billionaire in August 2021.
15. Katy Perry
Perry obtained her GED, but she is dissatisfied with the level of education she received before dropping out at the age of 15. "I'm kind of bummed at this point that I didn't have a great education," she told Yahoo in 2014. … I was pulled out of school, even in the middle of the day, and was sometimes homeschooled. We were sometimes sent to these half-Christian, half-education, I'm not sure what they were schools." The pop star went on to say that she has "learned to educate myself at this stage."
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