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Scottish Highers, A-Levels and GCSEs – they can be the cause of extreme stress and anxiety, especially on results day .
That ominous envelope containing your grades may feel like the most important thing in the world at the time, and the ticket towards your eventual successes or failures. But believe us when we tell you -this is certainly not the case!
If you don’t get the grades you wanted, don’t despair. There are plenty of options in and out of school and university , regardless of your interests and abilities.
Besides, some of the most successful (and richest) people in the world made their way to the top of their game without a single qualification in hand - and no, they weren’t all born with money.
Don’t believe us? From writers to actors and critics, here are just some of the examples of people who demonstrate you don’t need good grades to be the best.
10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successfulShow all 10 1 /1010 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful 10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Clare Balding Clare Balding OBE is one of the country’s most prolific broadcasters, turning out for BBC Sport and Channel 4 amongst others. She recalled her wayward youth for The Independent, where she was at one point suspended for shoplifting, and was initially spurned in her Oxbridge ambitions following mixed A-level results. After two years out, Balding retook exams and spruced up her interview technique to gain entrance to study English at Cambridge.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Benedict Cumberbatch The Harrow educated actor admits he had a pretty good start in life, but claims “pot, girls and all sorts of other things” contributed to less-than-stellar GCSE and A-Level results, however. It was not until university that he pulled himself up by his brogue-straps and took his academics seriously.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful J.K. Rowling The author was by no means a bad student — she was Head Girl and left school with two As and a B before going on to study at the University of Exeter. However, her rejection from Oxford University nevertheless goes to show how slim the margins of success can be in higher education.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Jeremy Clarkson A figure of fun and derision he may now be for many, the defunct Top Gear presenter began his career in journalism and entertainment with very little formal education to his name. Expelled from Repton School for “drinking, smoking generally making a nuisance of himself”, he began writing for local publications such as the Rochdale Observer and Shropshire Star before eventually becoming one of most recognisable faces in UK show business.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Simon Cowell The X-factor villain left school with only one O level to his name, before re-enrolling at Windsor Technical College where he gained another. This background did not naturally lead to the heights of the entertainment industry he would eventually reach and at EMI Music, where he began his career in music, Cowell started off with a job in the mail room.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Alan Johnson MP The former Education, Health and Home Secretary and current Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle is living proof that those disenfranchised at a young age and denied the educational pedigree that usually accompanies a career in politics can succeed in this field nevertheless. In his memoirs, Johnson describes a bereft childhood, made an orphan at 12 before leaving school with scant qualifications, drifting between jobs as a Tesco shelf-stacker and postman. He went on to become a leading union figure before ascending the ranks of the Labour party.
Press Association
10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Sarah Millican Now one of the country’s most successful comedians, Sarah Millican admitted she got two Ds and an E at A-Level. "To A-level students getting their results today: much luck to you," she once tweeted, “but if you don’t get what you need, it isn’t the end of the world: You can always resit.”
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Bill Gates Probably the epitome of the college-dropouts-done-good crowd, Gates took his leave of Harvard College to pursue his aspirations in computer software. Admittedly his aptitude for computers had singled him out from a young age, and not every young entrepreneur is a software genius, Gates still shows the path to success need to be as rigid as it may seem.
AFP
10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Steve Jobs Without a doubt one of the great innovators of our time, college became an expensive luxury for the adoptive son of a mechanic and he dropped out long before graduating. Instead he drew his inspiration from other places and aspired to do something that stood “at the intersection of humanities and sciences”, also crediting the 7-months spent in India after leaving Reed College as an important formative experience for him.
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10 people who prove you don't need good grades to be successful Mark Zuckerberg The Social Network made many of us familiar with both Zuckerberg’s innovative genius as well as his ruthless business dealings. Although Facebook at its inception was meant to be just a “Harvard thing”, it soon grew beyond this and Zuckerberg dropped out from college to continue expanding it.
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