4 icons who dropped out of school
There is a lesson to the stories of successful drop-outs, writes MIA MOORCROFT
WE cannot all be straight-A pupils.
Some teens would much rather ‘dis’count maths and take geography off the map, opting to draw cartoon characters or debate higher education transformation around the dinner table.
They certainly would not be the first kids on the block to ever complain that ‘algebra will be useless after school!’.
And perhaps they are right, potentially being the next Zapiro or Leanne Manas.
Now, I am not saying education is not important, but there is a sporting chance that even the most conservative Zululander’s favourite icon could have made you look like Einstein at school.
Speaking of which, the ‘Man of the Century’ himself dropped out of high school at age 15 to enter the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Albert Einstein failed the entrance exam, so returned to high school, got his diploma and then passed the university’s entrance exam on his second attempt.
Lady Diana failed all her O-levels (the lower of two main levels of standardised examinations) twice, and finally dropped out at age 16.
Fine, it helps in life to be born into British nobility and marry the Prince of Wales, but I like to believe her compassion and courage outshone any type of certificate when she ‘dared’ to touch people with HIV to dispel the wrongful stigmatisation of people infected at the time, or walking through a minefield in support of banning landmines.
The Virgin man
Richard Branson struggled with dyslexia and decided to leave school at the age of 16.
Forty-nine years later the man owns Virgin Group encompassing hundreds of companies including Virgin Airways, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Hotels, and last but not least, Virgin Galactic – a commercial space flight company just in case you one day pick Mars over Mauritius for your family holiday.
In 1918, Walt Disney also packed up his schoolbag (or satchel) at 16 wanting to join the army, but was too young, so he joined the Red Cross with a forged birth certificate.
He drove an ambulance in France that was covered from top to bottom with cartoons that eventually became his film characters.
In no way does it mean matric or tertiary education is meaningless.
Each of these individuals faced their fair share of adversity (Nazi threats, public humiliation, debt shackles and company closures, respectively), but remained extremely driven to accomplish their goals.
What is important to take from this, is that the world’s young Dianas never get pushed to become Richard Bransons, and Walt Disneys never pressed to become Albert Einsteins.
But whatever the gift or passion, if the aim is to become President, please at least be educated enough to count above 1 000.
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