Famous Failures

Today's Lessons

Famous Failures

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For some, a BA is simply BS. Many of the world’s most recognizable celebrities never earned a college degree. And it didn’t hurt their odds of success one bit. From billionaire CEOs to A-list movie stars to legendary directors, these 10 people dropped out—and cashed in.

George Clooney

George Clooney seems to have it all: An A-List movie career, heaps of money, smoking-hot models and former wrestling vixens around his arm, and a private Italian villa. One thing he doesn’t have? A degree. Clooney attended both Northern Kentucky University and University of Cincinnati, but didn’t graduate from either one. Something tells us he’s in no hurry to re-enroll.

  

Woody Allen

"Ninety percent of life is just showing up," Woody Allen once observed. But when it came to college, the future screenwriter-director-actor-comedian-author-playwright didn’t heed his own advice. In fact, he was kicked out of both New York University and City College of New York, choosing instead to launch his career as a joke writer for the likes of Sid Caesar, Art Carney, and Pat Boone.

 

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks traded textbooks for scripts when he left Sacramento State to intern at a theater in Cleveland, Ohio. In the three decades since, the A-Lister has earned five Oscar nominations, along with wins for Forrest Gump and Philadelphia. Of course we can’t help but wonder: Did Hanks ever second-guess his decision not to pursue higher ed when he went drag in Bosom Buddies?

Sandra Bullock

Just three credits shy of graduating, Sandra Bullock dropped out of East Carolina University to pursue an acting career. Her decision paid off. In 2011, Bullock became Hollywood’s highest-earning actress, taking home a sweet, $56 million payday. (Years later, it’s worth adding, Bullock completed those credits and earned her drama degree.

Russell Simmons

You could argue the hip-hop revolution started with Russell Simmons. After a brief stint at City College of New York, Simmons left school to promote local artists and, in 1984, co-founded Def Jam Recordings, where he signed musicians such as the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Public Enemy, and LL Cool J. Def Jam is now just a piece of Simmon’s hip-hop empire—he now has a clothing line, advertising company, and movie production house. He’s also the founder of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation—a charity that supports black artists.

 

James Cameron

King of the World? How about King of the Road? Before he was the most successful director of all-time (his movies have grossed more than $2 billion), James Cameron was a truck driver. He took the job after dropping out of Fullerton College, where he was studying physics. Thankfully, his stint behind the wheel didn’t last long. After watching Star Wars in the late ’70s, Cameron felt inspired to direct, finishing his first short film, Xenogenesis, in 1978 for a budget of $20,000.

 

John Mackey

Whole Foods got its start with a horny hippie. In the late ’70s, John Mackey, the founder of the hugely successful supermarket chain, dropped out of the University of Texas after 7 years and moved into a vegetarian co-op to meet women in Austin. He scored a job at a local natural-foods store, and soon opened his own organic grocery with his then-girlfriend. His business grew into amultibillion-dollar business, the world’s leading retailer of natural and organic foods.

Mark Zuckerberg

The average U.S. Facebook user spends almost 6.5 hours a month on the site, according to the Nielsen Company. And you can thank this Harvard dropout, who dual-majored in computer science and psychology—which, come to think of it, makes a lot of sense. The Zuck can't put that he’s a college alum on his Facebook profile—but he doesn't seem too broken up about it. As his character recently put it on The Simpsons, "I'll get the best kind of degree—honorary, baby."

 

Bill Gates

This year, Bill Gates topped Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans for the 18th straight time. Not bad for someone who never finished college. Gates, who now has a net worth of $59 billion, was an unemployed Harvard dropout when he founded Microsoft in the mid-'70s. Thirty years after he left school, Gates received his honorary Bachelor's when he spoke at Harvard’s Class of 2007 Commencement. "If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today," Gates joked.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs may have dropped out of Reed College, but as he put it in his 2005 Stanford Commencement address, he continued to drop back in on whatever class happened to capture his attention. "Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country," he said. “I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.” Years later, Jobs found a use for his training when he designed the Macintosh, the first personal computer with multiple typefaces