8 Successful People Who Dropped Out of School

For many of the most accomplished actors, singers and technology innovators, a college degree (or even a high school degree) wasn’t meant to be. In some cases they dropped out to pursue their dream in entertainment. In other situations, they struck upon a brilliant idea that required all of their attention, making it impractical to continue with their education. Here are 8 people who rose to the top even without a degree.

Bill Gates

Gates was a brainy guy from an early age, writing his first computer software program at just 13 years old. He — along with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and a few other friends — were even banned from using the computers of a technology company for the summer after getting caught exploiting bugs in their operating system to acquire free computer time. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SATs and got accepted into Harvard. However, he left after his sophomore year to concentrate on starting the company that became Microsoft. Oh, and for the longest time he was the world’s wealthiest individual.

Jay-Z

Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, had a pretty rough upbringing. He grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn and claims that at the age of 12 he shot his older brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. He attended high school with fellow future rappers the Notorious B.I.G and Busta Rhymes, selling crack cocaine as a teenager. Jay-Z dropped out of school to focus on becoming a rapper, but it wasn’t easy. When no record company was interested in signing him, he sold his CDs himself. Eventually he did make it big and today he’s worth 1.4 billion and, of course, married to Beyoncé.

Steve Jobs

Jobs, who was adopted as an infant, learned to read at an early age. Not feeling challenged enough at school, he got into all sorts of trouble and would frequently pull pranks on his classmates. But his 4th grade teacher sparked his interest in learning. At 13 he landed a summer job working for Bill Hewlett, who eventually co-founded Hewlett-Packard, and at 16 he and friend/future business partner Steve Wozniak began making devices that allowed people to illegally call long-distance for free. This is when Jobs discovered that making computers was not merely a side hobby, but something that can be very lucrative. The future founder of Apple Computers attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon for a semester before deciding a formal college education was a waste of his time.