School Dropouts Worth Millions Today
Believe it or not, a large number of the world’s wealthiest people didn’t finish school. Some didn’t even finish high school, while others may have started college but dropped out.
This is proof that education might only be one of the many roads to success.
Here are 16 of the world's wealthiest people who dropped out of school to follow their dreams—and undoubtably made a good choice.
David Karp
Karp dropped out of Bronx Science High School at the age of 15. He had originally planned on continuing his education through homeschooling while he did side projects.
Marco Arment, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
David Karp: Success
He didn’t end up homeschooling at all, and instead he built the blogging and social networking platform Tumblr from his bedroom in his mother’s apartment.
He has since sold Tumblr to Yahoo! for $1.1 billion.
Stefan Schäfer, Lich, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino dropped out of high school at 15 to work at an adult film theater. He had no plans of ever returning to school, assuming he would make it in the acting world.
Jeff Balke, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Quentin Tarantino: Success
Tarantino was right. He took a job in a video game rental store while he was taking acting classes, and wrote several movie scripts in his spare time.
This led him down the very successful path as a screenwriter with a current net worth of over $120 million.
pinguino k, USA, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore dropped out of high school as she was already an acting sensation. However, acting isn’t her only success.
Drew Barrymore: Success
Aside from acting, Barrymore is the founder of the production company Flower Films. She also launched a range of cosmetics, wines, housewares and clothing.
Her current net worth is $130 million.
Sir Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson dropped out of high school at age 16 to start a magazine called Student. Although this was how he started, the magazine eventually started losing money and he had to change directions.
Gulltaggen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Sir Richard Branson: Success
In 1971, Branson launched the first British discount record store. Over time, his company expanded to become Virgin Records.
Branson’s net worth in 2023 was $2.1 billion.
Land Rover MENA, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Carl Lindner Jr.
Carl Lindner Jr. dropped out of school at the young age of 14 to deliver milk for his family’s dairy farm. He borrowed some money to start an ice cream shop with his siblings.
Carl Lindner Jr.: Success
Lindner Jr. expanded his family’s dairy business into United Dairy Farmers, a large chain of convenience stores. He then went on to control 42% of American Financial Group—an insurance and investment firm.
Today his net worth is an estimated $1.7 billion.
pasa47, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Jay-Z
Jay-Z grew up in one of the roughest housing projects in Brooklyn. He dropped out of school at a young age, and began performing in the streets.
Joella Marano, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Jay-Z: Success
Later, Jay-Z and his friends founded their own company, Roc-A-Fella Records, and things just went up from there.
With multiple business ventures now, Jay-Z’s current net worth is $2.5 billion.
Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman left high school at 15 to pursue an acting career. She started as a model before being spotted by talent scouts at a drama school she performed at—quickly becoming Hollywood’s leading female actress.
Gorupdebesanez, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Uma Thurman: Success
Thurman has since starred in well over 60 films, and has added producer and screenwriter to her list of professions.
In 2023, her net worth was $45 million.
Jiyang Chen, Wikimedia Commons
George Foreman
George Foreman dropped out of school at 15 to pursue a career in boxing—which proved to be a good choice. He went on to become a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist.
Bert Verhoeff, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Wikimedia Commons
George Foreman: Success
When he retired, he changed directions into the business world and became the spokesperson for the George Foreman Grill—which earned him about $138 million just from that.
Foreman’s current net worth is $300 million.
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro dropped out of school at 16 to study acting. After working in a few off-Broadway plays, he appeared in his first film, The Wedding Party, and had been successful ever since.
Bernardo Bertolucci, Wikimedia Commons
Robert De Niro: Success
De Niro has starred in more than 90 films and has also become a successful businessman with a chain of eateries across New York, as well as his own film studio and various real estate endeavors.
De Niro’s net worth in 2023 was $500 million.
John Mathew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Katy Perry
Katy Perry dropped out of high school at 15 to pursue a career as a musical artist. She started by singing gospel music but then reinvented herself emerging as one of the world’s most successful female pop artists.
Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Katy Perry: Success
Perry then went on to start various projects, including two businesses—a shoe brand called Katy Perry Collections and a non-alcoholic beverage brand called De Soi.
Her net worth in 2023 was $340 million.
Liam Mendes, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Bill Gates
Bill Gates became interested in computer programming at age 13. He made his first $20,000 at age 15 when he developed a program to monitor Seattle traffic patterns.
Bill Gates
Although he did go on to take classes at Harvard University, he dropped out not long after to start a multinational software company, Microsoft, with co-founder and friend Paul Allen.
His net worth in 2023 was $115 billion.
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren made it to college, but dropped out now long after to join the Army. He didn’t stick that out either and dropped out to get married and start a job at a tie manufacturing company.
Edgar de Evia, CC BY-SA 2.5 ,Wikimedia Commons
Ralph Lauren: Success
Lauren challenged the typical design and made his mark by designing wide ties (in an era of thin ties) and decided to start his own business, selling $500,000 worth of ties in the first year.
Lauren’s net worth in 2023 was $11 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school when he caught the attention of AOL and Microsoft by co-creating a Winamp plug-in that built customized playlists.
JD Lasica, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Mark Zuckerberg: College
Rather than drop out of school, Zuckerberg actually turned down jobs so that he could attend college. He went on to study at Harvard University, where he launched Facebook from his dorm room.
AndersFrick, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Mark Zuckerberg: Success
The social media platform became an instant success and that’s when Zuckerberg made the choice to drop out of school and run the platform full time.
His net worth as of 2023 was $139 billion.
Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images
Rachael Ray
Rachael Ray isn’t a high school dropout, in fact she even attended university for two years. She quit school simply to work and save some more money.
The Heart Truth, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Rachael Ray: Cooking
Growing up with an array of cooking style, Ray decided to use these skills to make some extra cash. She developed “30 Minute Meals” while working at a gourmet food store, which unexpectedly were picked up by a local TV newscast.
Rachael Ray: Success
The cooking segments then led to Ray’s first book deal and then a contract with the Food Network. Her net worth in 2023 was $107 million.
Douglaspowers1, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell dropped out of school at the age of 16, after being kicked out of numerous schools for bad behavior. He knew he wanted in the music industry, so he started at the bottom, and got a job in the mailroom at EMI Music Publishing.
Simon Cowell: Success
Cowell worked his way up the ladder eventually becoming a producer and A&R professional, and later a TV personality on various entertainment talent shows.
His net worth in 2023 was $600 million.
Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak had a knack for building electronics from scratch at a very early age. While he did finish high school, he only briefly attended University before being expelled in his first year for hacking the school’s computer system.
Tony Wills, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Steve Wozniak: First Success
Wozniak re-enrolled in a different school the following year and designed and built his first computer—which got blown up after a newspaper reported stepped on the cord.
Steve Wozniak: Apple
Shortly after that, Wozniak worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he designed calculators. But that didn’t last long—he then dropped out of school and quit his job to pursue Apple with friend, Steve Jobs.
Steve Wozniak: Success
With little money, the pair spend many nights perfecting their invention in the garages of their family’s homes. Eventually their inventions caught attention and they were given funding, which helped launch their massive success.
Wozniak’s net worth in 2023 was a modest $10 million—due to his extraordinary philanthropic devotion.
Other Self-Made Millionaires
The list of self-made millionaires who didn’t finish school is quite long and it goes on to include: Steve Madden, James Cameron, Steve Jobs, Coco Chanel, Sean Combs, Larry Ellison, Wolfgang Puck, and Ted Turner, to name a few.
Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Education and Success
While there are plenty of success stories where regular people dropped out of school and became millionaires, it is worth noting that 81% of Forbes 400 Wealthiest People list hold post-secondary degrees.
LightField Studios, Shutterstock
Final Thoughts
What holds true is that, education aside, most successful business people have a strong ambition and work toward achieving a specific goal.
The one thing all of the people on this list have in common is that they never gave up on their dream.
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