6 Successful People That DIDN'T Drop Out of College

There seems to be a collective hive mind across internet and the media these days, about university drop-outs achieving mad success in life. I mean Steve Jobs dropped out of university and look at wher he ended up. Mark Zuckerberg?

We've hear it all before right? And by this logic, the sure-fire way to success is to drop-out, right? I believe it's all a fallacy. Maybe university is not for everyone, however I think this sort of thinking s pure confirmation bias, and often harmful. 

This is due to the fact that every circumstance is different. The media will never show you the guys who dropped out and ended up in working in a generic office roles. Why would they? It's so uninspiring. So of cause, as usual, content creators will 'cherry pick' and only show you the extreme situations. 

In this article I'd like to flip the whole thing on it's head and highlight some of the people who DID finish university and still achieved crazy success in life. Let's get an objective look at things, shall we.

Rowan Atkinson

Before becoming one of the most well known British comic creations (That's Mr Bean by the way), Atkinson was a hard-working engineering student at Newcastle university. He achieved the highest marks in his whole class, and understandably thought it was his calling. 

It wasn't until he began studying his masters, that fate played a hand in things. While studying at Oxford for an MSc, he met Richard Curtis, the famous screenwriter who thought up Four Wedding and a funeral, which Atkinson went on to have a cameo in.

His acting career kicked off from there, when the character Mr Bean was created. A homage to his socially awkward and self-conscious youth, when he was bullied in school. He later went on to win over 16 awards in his showbiz career now spanning over 45 years.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Get to tha campus! 

Okay, that was a really bad joke. 

But in all seriousness, Arnie invaded the university of Wisconsin at aged 31, to pursue a degree in international business and international economics.

A little bit of weight to add to his CV before campaigning to become the governor of California's governor back in 2003. Proof that you can do anything if you really put your mind to it.

Jeff Bezos

You wont have seen him on the big screen, however you probably use something he's created on a regular basis. From a young age Jeff Bezos had an interest in computers and how things worked, so he pursued his passion and graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After a pretty successful career around wall street, he took a risky plunge and packed his bags to Seattle after quitting his job. He then started an e-commerce site for books, that we all know now as... Drum Roll please... Amazon.

Jim Morrison

Legendary front man of critically acclaimed band 'The Doors', was once a budding cinematography student at the university of California.

He escaped to Venice shortly after graduation and had his diploma mailed to his mother, as he refused to attend the ceremony.

It was in Venice when he started writing the lyrics to many legendary hits of the band, that he started with one of his former university friends.

Dennis Jakobs another former UCLA student, that he used to live near him, said that Morrision used to live for months at a time, purely of a diet of LSD and tinned baked beans.

Ray Romano

It's pretty crazy thinking that one of the highest-paid comedy actors out there, could have just as easily ended up crunching number in an office building somewhere. 

Multi-Award winning actor, mostly know from hit show 'Everybody Loves Raymond', graduated with a degree in accounting. 

Whilst working his day job at a bank afterwards, he pursued comedy on the side, by performing at open mics after work. He later quit his job as a cashier when his acting career started to kick off.

Lionel Richie

One of the hugest singers in show business holds a commendable two degrees. 

Before topping the charts with hits such as 'Dancing On the Ceiling' the famous musician studied economics. 

He later went on to complete his music degree this year from the prestigious Berklee college of Music in Boston.

So There You Go...

Your degree doesn't have to define were you end up in life. If you scratch beneath the surface there's tonnes of success stories similar to this. 

This isn't saying that a degree is imperative to success. However, it more shows it's down to the person and the titles they receive on a diploma.