A lot of people realize their potential at early age and know what they can do but they're too afraid to do anything about it. They're afraid they might end up a failure or they might succeed but not able to handle it. Fortunately these risk takers didn't think so:

1. Amadeo Giannini (Founder of Bank of America) - Giannini attended Heald College and, at the age of 13, realized he could do better in business than at school. He dropped out and took a full-time position as a produce broker for L. Scatena & Co.

He started in business as a produce broker, commission merchant and produce dealer for farms in the Santa Clara Valley. He was extremely successful in that business. He married Clorinda Cuneo, daughter of a North Beach real estate magnate, in 1892 and eventually sold his interest to his employees and retired at the age of 31 to administer his father-in-law's estate.

He later became a director of the Columbus Savings & Loan, in which his father-in-law owned an interest. At the time, banks were run for the benefit of the wealthy and the well-connected. Giannini observed an opportunity to service the increasing immigrant population that were without a bank. At loggerheads with the other directors who did not share his sentiment, he quit the board in frustration and started his own bank.

He founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco on October 17, 1904. It grew by a branch banking strategy to become the Bank of America, the world's largest commercial bank, with 493 branches in California and assets of $5 Billion in 1945. He offered those ignored customers savings accounts and loans, judging them not by their wealth, but by their character, as other banks would not immigrants.

Giannini is credited as the inventor of many modern banking practices. Most notably, Giannini was one of the first bankers to offer banking services to middle-class Americans, rather than the upper class. He also pioneered the holding company structure and established one of the first modern trans-national institutions.

2. Andrew Carnegie (Industrialist & Philanthropist) - Carnegie was with little formal education and dropped out of elementary school. His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory. His starting wage was $1.20 per week. Andrew's father, William Carnegie, started off working in a cotton mill but then would earn money weaving and peddling linens. His mother, Margaret Morrison Carnegie, earned money by binding shoes. 

In 1850, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week, following the recommendation of his uncle. He was a very hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men. He made many connections this way. He also paid close attention to his work, and quickly learned to distinguish the differing sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced. He developed the ability to translate signals by ear, without using the paper slip, and within a year was promoted as an operator. Carnegie's education and passion for reading was given a great boost by Colonel James Anderson, who opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys each Saturday night.

Carnegie was a consistent borrower and a "self-made man" in both his economic development and his intellectual and cultural development. He was so grateful to Colonel Anderson for the use of his library that he "resolved, if ever wealth came to me, [to see to it] that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to the noble man." 

His capacity, his willingness for hard work, his perseverance, and his alertness soon brought forth opportunities.

Starting in 1853, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) employed Carnegie as a secretary/telegraph operator at a salary of $4.00 per week. At age 18, the precocious youth began a rapid advance through the company, becoming the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. His employment there would soon become essential to his later success. In 1855, Thomas A. Scott, his employer, made it possible for Carnegie to invest $500 in the Adams Express, which contracted with the PRR to carry its messengers. The money was secured by his mother's placing a $600 mortgage on the family's $700 home, but the opportunity was available only because of Carnegie's close relationship with Scott. A few years later, he received a few shares in Theodore Tuttle Woodruff's sleeping car company, as a reward for holding shares that Woodruff had given to Scott and John Edgar Thomson (President of PRR), as a payoff. Reinvesting his returns in such inside investments in railroad-related industries: (iron, bridges, and rails), Carnegie slowly accumulated capital, the basis for his later success. Throughout his later career, he made use of his close connections to Thomson and Scott, as he established businesses that supplied rails and bridges to the railroad, offering the two men a stake in his enterprises.

At age 66 he founded the United States Steel Corporation and sold it for $1 Billion in 1901. It is now worth $17.5 Billion and has a net income of $102 Million. It was the first corporation in the world with a market capitalization of over $1 Billion.

3. Andrew Perlman ( Chairman and CEO of GreatPoint Energy) - Perlman began college at Washington University in St. Louis, and as a sophomore he attempted to license and commercialize a university-owned technology to prevent credit card fraud. The university declined the request because he was still a student, so Perlman simply dropped out. The university said "they didn’t do business with former students, because they didn’t want them dropping out to start companies", according to Perlman. So he left, determined to become a millionaire by age 21. He failed in this goal, but just barely. 

Perlman and a friend dropped out of Washington University and moved to Washington D.C., where they “hung around business and government offices, knocking on doors, asking anyone they could find about some kind of new technology they could turn into a business.” The two had little technical education, but through research and trial and error, they built a device that converts voice calls into a data format. When the 21-year-olds showed up at a global networks conference in 1996, they were literally laughed at. But by age 22, they signed a deal for the first $14 Million in startup financing for their new company Cignal Global Communications. Three years later, Perlman sold the company for $200 Million.

Perlman went on to “launch five successful startups before he turned 30. 

Cignal Global Communications – A pioneer in integrated voice/data communications technology; acquired by United Pan-European Communications (NASDAQ: UCOMA).

Coatue Corporation - Developer of high speed flash memory chips; acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD).

Coskata, Inc. - Commercializing technology to produce low cost liquid fuels and chemicals from natural gas or gasified biomass

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals - Commercializing Sirtuin activating compounds to prevent and treat diseases of old age, such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; taken public and then acquired by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK).

Zafgen – Developing novel drugs for the treatment of obesity; entering Phase III human trials. Zafgen executed an IPO on the NASDAQ in June 2014 and trades as (NASDAQ: ZFGN).

After 30 he helped starting 4 more successful businesses such as Foro Energy, GreatPoint Energy, AltaRock Energy and Oasys Water. He also sits on the board of AMP Americas, an integrated transportation company working with compressed natural gas.

4. Barry Charles Diller (Media Executive) - Diller is an American businessman, who currently serves as the Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, Inc. and the media executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller is a member of the Television Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1994.

Diller began his career through a family connection in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency after dropping out of UCLA after one semester. He was hired as an assistant by Elton Rule, then west coast head of ABC who was promoted to network President at the same time Diller went to work for him in 1964, taking him on to New York, and Diller was soon placed in charge of negotiating broadcast rights to feature films. He was promoted to Vice President of Development in 1965. In this position, Diller created the ABC Movie of the Week, pioneering the concept of the made-for-television movie through a regular series of 90-minute films produced exclusively for television.

Diller has served with 3 notable broadcasting companies such as Paramount, Fox & USA Broadcasting. As of October 2015 Diller's net worth is $2.6 Billion.

5. Carl Henry Lindner, Jr. (Entrepreneur) - Lindner was an American businessman from Norwood, Ohio and one of the world's richest people. According to the 2006 issue of Forbes Magazine's 400 list, Lindner was ranked 133 and was worth an estimated $2.3 billion. After dropping out of school at age 14 during the Great Depression. He helped to expand his family's dairy business into United Dairy Farmers, a large chain of convenience stores. With his three sons, he controlled roughly 42% of American Financial Group, a holding company based in Cincinnati, Ohio whose primary business is insurance and investments.

Lindner was a part owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Cincinnati Reds until he sold a majority interest to a group led by Robert Castellini on November 2, 2005 and stepped down as CEO. Lindner remained an active partner in the organization after the transaction. In 1997, Lindner was inducted into Junior Achievement's U.S. Business Hall of Fame.

There have been hundreds of successful entrepreneurs who don't have college degrees but were still able to achieve their dreams. Others include Anne Beiler multimillionaire co-founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzels, dropped out of high school, Ansel Adams world famous photographer, dropped out of high school, Ashley Qualls, Ben Kaufman, Charles Culpeper and Dustin Moskovitz (Co-founder of Facebook, Harvard drop-out). Too many to name. Don't let anything stop you from achieving your dreams because what's possible for one is possible for you.

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