Newsman Brian Williams
Mark Lennihan / AP
Blooming
Williams dropped out of school to pursue a job as a television reporter at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas, or "TV boot camp," as he called it, but had to quit because of the awful pay. He moved back to the East coast and got better-paying TV journalism jobs in Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Despite his youth, his work in New York won him two Emmy awards in five years.