Successful Celebrities Who Failed At School But Won At Life

Whether it's the silent car ride to school or the shaking hand opening the envelope, we all know the excruciating nerves you feel when opening exam results.

Today, thousands of teenagers across the country will have found out their A Level results.

For some, this will be proof their hard work paid off. For others, it will decide where and how they will spend the next three years of their life. 

But for many, the results might not be what they had hoped for. 

At the time, this feels like the end of the world, but in reality it could open the door to a million possibilities you hadn't even planned for.

Just think how boring it would be if life went exactly how you planned?

As a result, we've rounded up a list of celebrities who dropped out of school, failed their exams and lived on their friends' floors but are now winning at life.

Vera Wang

The fashion designer failed to make the 1968 US Olympic figure-skating team. But it seems to have worked out okay for the millionaire who became an A-list wedding dress designer with a business worth over £30.4 million. 

Mark Wahlberg

By the age of 13 the actor has already stolen two cars, was caught up with drugs and was on the path to prison. He subsequently dropped out of school but is now worth an estimated £150 million.

Lady Gaga

With 200 music awards – yes, 200 – it seems dropping out of college in her sophomore year at the age of 19 to focus on her music really helped.

Eminem

The rapper dropped at of school at the age of 17 to get a job to help his mother pay the house bills. The star is now worth an estimated £144 million. 

Bill Gates

In 1975, the tech genius dropped out of Harvard to start his own company – that little old company called Microsoft – and is now worth an estimated £60.3 billion. He also hopes to eradicate polio.

Chris Pratt

After dropping out of his local community college and ending up homeless, the actor worked as a coupon salesman and a daytime stripper. He's now worth £23 Million.

Cindy Crawford

Despite graduating high school as valedictorian and winning an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering, she attended Northwestern University for just one term before dropping out to become a model. It looks like it worked out alright in the end. 

Mark Zuckerberg

The co-founder of Facebook created the well-known social media network in his dorm room before dropping out of Harvard to become Chairman and Chief Executive of Facebook Inc.

With a net worth over £40.8 billion, we think he made the right choice. 

Brad Pitt

The actor dropped out of his college degree in journalism two weeks before earning his diploma. 

Explaining his decision, he said: 'It just came to the time of graduation and all my friends were committing to jobs. I just realised I was not ready for that yet so I packed up my car and moved out to L.A.'

Carey Mulligan 

The Suffragette actress was rejected from every single drama school she applied to. She was repeatedly told to give up her dreams, become a 'children's TV show presenter'  and to get more experience. She then went onto star in An Education, The Great Gatsby and earned an academy award nomination at the age of 25. 

Steve Jobs

The co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc dropped out of college in 1972 and ended up sleeping on a college friend's dorm floor. He then took a calligraphy class that later inspired him to use a wide range of fonts in some of the first Macs.

Russell Brand

Armed with a varied vernacular and knowledge of politics, the comedian failed to achieve any A levels. He once tweeted: 'A-level students, good luck today- I didn't get any and still ended up with a job as a psychedelic bus driver'. 

Kate Moss

The supermodel was signed to a modeling agency at the age of 14 so didn't even have the chance to sit her exams. 

Richard Branson

The millionaire dropped out of school at the age of 16 to set up a student magazine which subsequently led to the creation of Virgin Records. The rest is history. 

So if you didn't get the results you hoped for in your G.C.S.E's, A Levels of University exams, remember that success isn't quantified by a number of letters on a piece of paper.

Besides, if Jeremy Clarkson can make a success of himself, there's hope for us all. 

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