So you’ve just failed the Leaving Cert, sucks to be you. Never fear, however, as JOE points the way towards future fortune with five successes who didn’t bother with college.
So you’re after failing the Leaving Cert – what next?
A life assigned to wearing a name-tag until you’re fifty years old, serving food to obese children or cleaning up after an OAP who has soiled himself in your gigantic business park hardware store? Or gyrating for the pleasure of Hong Kong businessmen before crying yourself to sleep in your squalid one-bedroom apartment? Eating from bins?
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way, as there is clear evidence of many successful businessmen and entertainers who never even bothered going to university. So even if you didn’t receive the news you were looking for this morning, take solace from the sterling example of JOE’s five mavericks who made something of themselves without the need for a fancy-pants Masters degree.
I want you to pay YOU way too much money to sell cars
Bill Cullen – Before he became best known for marrying The Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt and hosting the Irish version of The Apprentice, former owner of Renault Ireland Bill Cullen began his business career as a street seller at the age of five.
Today, Cullen is best known as a successful businessman, best-selling author, philantrophist and reality TV star, having been convinced by TV3 to present egomaniacal gobshites with €100,000 12-month contracts to sell cars in an ailing market. More importantly, Cullen did it all without stepping foot in college – there’s hope for us all yet.
Quentin Tarantino – One of the most interesting aspects of Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino’s career is that eccentric filmmaker and screenwriter is entirely self-taught.
Tarantino dropped out of school at age 15 before attending acting school at the James Best Theatre Company. At age 22, Quentin took a job at the Video Archive rental store in California, where he and fellow employees watched and discussed classic and contemporary movies at length.
After being convinced to write a screenplay at a party, Tarantino wrote and starred in his 1987 creation My Best Friend’s Birthday. Five years later, he wrote, starred in and directed his Hollywood breakthrough Reservoir Dogs in 1992. Since then the director’s combined body of work has grossed nearly $450m in the US alone.
Googling ‘Young Simon Cowell’ is always worth it
Simon Cowell – Everyone’s favourite high-trousered insult merchant Simon Cowell is today renowned the world over for his talents as a music executive and caustic reality TV talent judge. Things weren’t always so rosy for the entrepreneur, however, as he started out in the mail room of a record company before working his way up. On the other hand, his dad Eric Phillip Cowell was a successful record executive at EMI Music Publishing, so perhaps he had a pretty big advantage no matter how his career may have panned out. Is your dad a hugely successful record executive with tons of contacts in the music business? If not, maybe consider re-sitting the exams.
Sir Richard Branson – When he’s not hopping into hot air balloons or trying to create the first commercial space flight, Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson spends his days trying to manage the 360 brands under the Virgin umbrella. Or seeing how quickly he rise through the ranks of Forbes Magazine list of billionaires (he’s currently the 261st richest person in the world, with a fortune estimated at €3.1bn).
Branson first business venture was a publication named Student, a magazine for students by students, created when the mogul was just 16. Once it became successful, Branson subsequently dropped out and never went to college. Don’t feel too bad for Sir Richard though – he bought an island to pass the time.
Look at his happy face
Andy Gray – Former Aston Villa and Wolves striker Andy Gray is today renowned as one of the iconic faces of Sky Sports, having brought his unique brand of useless technological gimmicks to the world of punditry since the 1992/1993 Premier League season. Whether he’s drawing colourful arrows on players or shouting ‘tek a boo (take a bow) son’ after a particularly good strike, Gray is proof that you don’t need four years in college to become a famous pundit (or in Alan Shearer’s case, an engaging personality or ounce of charisma). You may need raw football talent, however, but even Eamonn Dunphy has managed to avoid that obstacle.
