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Why have a list of famous dropouts? It isn't meant to discourage anyone from getting a formal education. There are many advantages to going to school and getting degrees, particularly if one wants employment in certain fields. But there are three reasons I think it is important to publish a list like the following.
1. It reminds us that there are many ways to educate oneself besides the formal route.
2. It reminds us that success - however it's measured - is not always a matter of "following the rules."
3. It can encourage those without much formal education to pursue their goals.
With those reasons in mind, here is a list of famous high school dropouts.
Richard Branson - Billionaire British businessman. Founder of virgin music and dozens of other successful companies. I love the stories of his creative and bold approaches to business.
Thomas Sowell - Economist, author and political commentator. One of my favorite writers on political and economic philosophy.
Albert Einstein - Mathematician. He had much more than just a high IQ. He also had a great sense of humor and playful creative mind.
George Carlin - Comedian. One of my favorite comedians, especially because of his word play.
Billy Joel - Singer. You can tell that he puts some real thought into the music he writes.
If you check Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, you'll find that at least 18 of them dropped out of high school. So have 10 Nobel prize winners, dozens of best-selling authors and 8 U.S. presidents. Mensa, the high-IQ group, has high school dropouts among its ranks as well. Of course, this is just a list of those who quit high school. A list of famous and successful college dropouts (which would include Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world as I write this), couldn't fit on one page.
Encourage education - even formal education - is good idea, but this over-valuing of formal documents may lead us to think less about what intelligence and success really mean. After perusing the list above the list above, you can easily imagine there are many well-papered people in this world that are a rung or two below some high school dropouts in terms of useful education and true success.