founder of naked leader
Most of us dropped out of school…some of us never dropped in…
Time to Read: Don’t ‘Read’ – be Inspired to make your dream come true (or help someone else to)
Most of us dropped out of school…some of us never dropped in…
A very few examples that Experience can count more than Education
Adele – Someone Like You
Ben Affleck – Actor
Andre Agassi – Tennis (His dad pretended to drive him to school and actually took him to tennis lessons)
Christina Aguilera – Singer
Muhammad Ali
Paul Allen – Co-founder Microsoft
Woody Allen – One time friend of Mia Farrow
Hans Christian Andersen – Once Upon a Time…
Mario Andretti – Raced Cars (and won, quite often)
Julie Andrews
Jennifer Aniston – Friends
Joan Armatrading – Singer
Louis Armstrong – Played the Trumpet
Mary Kay Ash – Entrepreneur
Julian Assange – Resident of Ecuador – near London
John Jacob Astor – Multimillionaire businessman
Jane Austen – Wrote some novels
Dan Aykroyd – Ghostbusters (plus)
Kevin Bacon – Actor (“Dating older women was the closest thing I had to a college education. I will always be grateful.”)
Lucille Ball – We all Loved Lucy
Steve Ballesteros – Played some Golf
Azealia Banks – Singer, YouTube sensation
Roseanne Barr – actor
Shirley Bassey – Sang theme to THREE James Bond Films
Heinz-Georg Baus – billionaire founder of Bauhaus AG
Boris Becker -Tennis again
Kate Beckinsale – Actor
Natasha Bedingfield
Anne Beiler – Co-founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels restaurants
Irving Berlin – Composer
Carl Bernstein – Watergate reporter
Halle Berry
Luc Besson – French Film director
Joey Bishop – Comedian
Humphrey Bogart
Cher
Bjorn Borg – Did ANY tennis players go to school?
David Bowie – Educated on Mars
Marlon Brando – The highest paid actor of his time
Richard Branson
Pierce Brosnan – James Bond
Margaret “Molly” Brown – Socialite, philanthropist, star of the film ‘Titanic’
Warren Buffett – Investor
Michael Caine – You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off (improvised line)
James Cameron – Film Maker
Naomi Campbell – Supermodel and Entrepreneur
Asa Candler – Founder of Coca Cola
Andrew Carnegie – The first mega-billionaire in the U.S.
Jim Carrey – Actor
Champion, the Wonder Horse – Actor…
Jackie Chan – Actor and Karate black belt by age of 8
Coco Chanel
Ray Charles – Singer, pianist.
Winston Churchill – Voted the most influential UK leader of the 20th century
Paulo Coelho – Novelist
Jackie Collins – Actor
Phil Collins – Genesis.
Christopher Columbus – Discovered America
Sean Connery – James Bond
Simon Cowell – “TV mega star” (quoted from his own web-site)
Daniel Craig – Present James Bond
Cindy Crawford – Various
Joan Crawford – Actor
Tom Cruise – Actor
Miley Cyrus – Singer, actor
Michael Dell – Founder of Dell Computers
Robert De Niro – Taxi Driver
Richard Desmond – Newspaper publisher (and soft porn – or so I am told)
Cameron Diaz – “It’s hair gel”…
Maria Diaz – CEO and founder of Pursuit of Excellence
Leonardo DiCaprio – “Life is my college now.”
Charles Dickens
Walt Disney
Snoop Dogg, rapper and actor – “Common sense rules over everything. That’s what I learned from selling crack.”
Eliza Doolittle – Singer – and star of My Fair Lady
Jack Dorsey – Founding CEO of Twitter (37 characters entered)
Robert Downey Junior – Actor.
Bob Dylan – Singer – (Honorary degrees don’t count)
George Eastman – Founder of Kodak (ask your parents)
Clint Eastwood – Do you feel lucky?
Thomas Edison – #nevergiveup
Daniel Ek – Co-founder of Spotify
Duke Ellington – Bandleader, composer
Larry Ellison – Billionaire co-founder of Oracle
Sally Field – Actor
Debbi Fields – Founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
David Filo – Co-founder of Yahoo!
Bobby Fisher – The greatest chess player of all time?…
Ella Fitzgerald – Singer
Danielle Fong – Co-founder Lightsail Energy. “One day, at school, I realized that the doors were unlocked and I could just walk away. So I did.”
Henry Ford – Founder of Ford Motor Company
Megan Fox – Actor
Dick Francis – Novelist, jockey – “a day show jumping is more valuable than school”
Aretha Franklin – Singer
Benjamin Franklin – President – signed U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Lady Gaga (aka Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta)
Bill Gates – Billionaire co-founder of Microsoft
David Geffen – Co-founder DreamWorks – got his first job by faking a degree from UCLA
J. Paul Getty – Billionaire oilman, once the richest man in the world
Rosetta Millington – Getty, model, fashion designer
John Glenn – Astronaut
Whoopi Goldberg – “Ditto, what’s ditto”…
Lew Grade – Producer
Steffi Graf – Tennis star.
Philip Green – Billionaire retail mogul, Topshop.
Skylar Grey – Singer, songwriter.
Carla Gugino – Actor, model.
Larry Hagman – Actor
Jerry Hall – Supermodel, singer, entrepreneur
Joyce C. Hall – Founder of Hallmark
Dorothy Hamill – Olympic ice skater
Chelsea Handler – TV host, producer, comedienne, bestselling author.
Tom Hanks – (aka Forest Gump)
Matt Harding – YouTube dancing viral star.
Elizabeth Hardwick – Literary critic and co-founder of The New York Review of Books.
Mariska Hargitay – Actor
Martha Matilda Harper – Business entrepreneur, founder of the Harper Hair Salons.
Ciara Princess Harris – Songwriter, and actor.
Lorenz Hart – Lyricist
Anne Hathaway – Actor
Rutger Hauer – Actor
Susan Jeffers – Author – Feel the Fear…
Diane Hendricks – Billionaire co-founder of ABC Supply
Jimi Hendrix – Rock ‘n roll guitarist
Garry Hill – Woking FC
Paris Hilton – Model, reality show star, singer
Stanley Ho – Billionaire casino operator, King of Gaming.
Lillian Hochberg – Founder of Lillian Vernon catalogue.
Dustin Hoffman – (Did “The Graduate” for no pay…)
Elizabeth Holmes – Billionaire founder and CEO of Theranos
Katie Holmes – Actor.
Odetta Holmes – The queen of American folk music.
Jay Catherwood Hormel – Inventor of…Spam
Bob Hoskins – Actor.
Whitney Houston – Grammy-winning singer and actor.
John Hughes – Director, producer, and screenwriter.
John Huston – Oscar-winning director, actor.
Lauren Hutton – First supermodel, actor.
Steve Jobs
Billy Joel – Singer and songwriter.
Ingvar Kamprad – Billionaire founder of IKEA.
Keira Knightley – Actor
Ray Kroc – Founder of McDonalds
Stanley Kubrick – movie director
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Lindbergh – Aviator, first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Andie MacDowell – Actor
Madonna – Recently fell over, and got back up again
Jo Malone – Entrepreneur
Leslie Mann – Comedienne
Shirley Manson – Singer
Steve Martin – Comedian, actor.
Martina McBride – Country music megastar
Liza Minnelli – Actor
Helen Mirren – Actor
Steve McQueen
Michael Moore – Documentary filmmaker, author
Claude Monet – Painted some pictures
Marilyn Monroe
Kate Moss – Multi-millionaire model
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Bill Murray – Actor
Olivia Newton-John – Singer
Florence Nightingale
Sinead O’Connor – Singer
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – U.S. first lady
Yoko Ono – Artist, singer.
George Orwell
Larry Page – Co-founder of…Google
Sean Parker – Billionaire co-creator of Napster
Rosa Parks – Civil rights pioneer.
Danica Patrick – Race car driver.
Aaron Paul – Actor, Breaking Bad – “YOH”
Brad Pitt – Actor.
Rihanna
Julia Roberts – Actor
Chris Rock – Comedian, actor.
John D. Rockefeller – History’s first recorded billionaire.
Dorothy Rodham – Mother of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Next President of USA
Michelle Rodriguez – Actor
Rebecca Romijn – Actor, model.
Theodore Roosevelt – U.S. president.
William Shakespeare – Wrote some plays
Shakira (ask any teenager)
George Bernard Shaw – Playwright, author.
Patti Smith – Poet
Will Smith – Actor
Li Ka Shing – Billionaire owner of Hutchinson Whampoa
Britney Spears
Biz Stone – Co-founder of Twitter.
Tom Stoppard – Tony-winning playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter.
Taylor Swift – Singer and songwriter.
Quentin Tarantino – Movie director, producer, and screenwriter.
Dave Thomas – Billionaire founder of Wendy’s.
Uma Thurman – Actor
Lynsi Torres – Entrepreneur (In-N-Out Burger)
John Travolta – Actor
Harry Truman – U.S. president.
Ted Turner – Billionaire founder of CNN
Mark Twain
Madame C. J. Walker – 1st American self made female millionaire.
George Washington – U.S. president
Keith Waterhouse – Novelist
Naomi Watts – Actor. At 17 “I told my mum I’m done with my education.”
John Wayne – Cowboy
H.G. Wells – Science fiction author
Marianne Williamson – Spiritual author, politician.
Bruce Willis – Actor
Gretchen Wilson – Country singer
Kemmons Wilson – Multimillionaire founder of Holiday Inns.
Frank Lloyd Wright – Overcame odds to become the most influential architect of the 20th century.
Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook
With my love and best wishes
David
X
Please share your examples of others in the comments below
Thanks David, I am reassured and relieved reading this list. I left school at 15 (I was in the last term in 1972 which allowed you to do this) to join the Army as a boy soldier which was a great education. One of the best decisions I have made in life.
I work on the principle that it is not good to peak to soon, at 58 I believe my best days are still ahead of me.
Steve (A Managing Director with Thera Group http://www.thera.co.uk)
My Dad, David, always said, “Never let your academics get in the way of your education.” He dropped out of college (dropped back in later) and became one of the most successful innovators in violin making. He’s absolutely allergic to thinking inside the box. One of his signature instruments was added to the US National Music Museum collection in 2005.
Gary Grant. Managing Director and Co Founder of the Entertainer.
Here he is interviewed on Friday’s Radio 4 ‘Today’ about the Why, How and What of the business (22:36 to 27:30) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055jtwh.
In addition here is a young entrepreneurial photogragher,Emma Hollings, blog re the recent opening of his 100th store at Aylesbury! http://www.emmahollings.co.uk/blog/2015/3/the-entertainer-100th-store-opening
Here are photos of his submission: http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/Violas/Rivinus/10830/RivinusViola.html
Amazing the amount of people who didn’t even drop in to drop out.
Ed Sheeran always said he was not especially cool at school and god’s way of helping him was to hand him a guitar. Now? Genius.
We are not all academics and my experiences of schools for both myself and my children, have left non academics feeling like they are not as intelligent or going to have a successful future.
More needs to be done to ensure that all children have their unique non-academic talents discovered and are nurtured so that the leave school feeling confident and worthwhile.
An example of this is my son did not find school easy and to achieve 4 grade a-c’s was an amazing achievement of hard work and a very unhappy stressful time! but the only group that got a mention at the leavers assembly for doing well was those that got 5 or more! He was made to feel by the school that his best hadn’t been good enough!
I am of the belief that despite what others say, you can achieve whatever you want to – if you really want to!… and have always told that to my sons.
But my attitude for fighting back and proving people wrong, is very difficult if that isn’t the way you are, and instead you are left to feel 2nd rate and therefore not confident in yourself.
Teaching style needs to be more varied and the little things that mean a lot noticed.
It’s a difficult one I know as the school strives for its reputation, and to be successful is judged on grades achieved.
I think it is a great challenge for many young people today when so much seems dependant on grades. I worry that many have so much to offer and are overlooked.
If you have a dream go for it, and help others to achieve theirs, don’t let other people decide what you are capable of!
I think academics and business can work in tendem.
Why not?
We all went to school, all learned and all then put those plans into action in business.
the two are married, surely.
This is an NL Week that made me sit up and take notice, if only for the fact it must have taken David a good two to three hours to put article online.
Or copy and paste? Amazing David. Thank you.
Amazing!
Larry Page, founder of Google, amazing story.