Rags to Riches: From High School (Almost) Dropout to Having $100 Million

by Jennifer Openshaw

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Most people think you need a high school diploma or a college degree to be successful. But I’ve met outright flunk-outs who’ve become millionaires. In my first Rags to Riches column here at AOL -- where we look at how ordinary people become extraordinarily wealthy -- I want you to meet one of them: my friend Bob Lorsch.

A Chicago native, Bob completed four years of high school but only pulled in the equivalent of a D average. His German teacher wasn’t about to let him get away with it, so he held him from graduation, forcing him to take summer school and boost his grades.

Bob was bored at school, but his mind was always ticking. He began to think about ways to make money. He had a knack for selling things -- or coming up with ideas that would help sell other company’s products. Even if you were to meet Bob today, he’d tell you how good he is at selling himself. “When I meet someone, I’m in their face. They’ll never forget me,” he says.

That’s one reason Bob Lorsch has gone from high school almost-dropout, to one of the brains behind the original launch of Microsoft’s Windows, to creator of a prepaid calling card program that built his net worth to $100 million. Today, because he can sell himself, Bob has become a fixture in Los Angeles who is often seen hanging out with the likes of Elton John, Gene Simmons and Diana Ross.

How did Bob do it? How can you? Here are seven winning lessons from Bob Lorsch:

Lesson No. 1: Don’t Let Lack of Education Hold You Back
Who said you have to have a Ph.D., or even a college degree, to make tons of money? It’s true that a poor academic record may make some people think you failed or didn’t take the “proper” route. But the fact is people like Bob -- who either found themselves bored in school or “living in a world inside their head” -- can do well if they put their unique talents to work.

“I have taken a path that is different than what my teachers and the system wanted me to do,” says Lorsch. “I wanted to go outside the system. When I was 14 years old, I didn’t know that was going on in my head. But rather than being congratulated for thinking out of the box, I was punished for getting poor grades.”

Note to parents: Even though studies show that those with college degrees overwhelmingly earn more than those without, in the business world, unorthodox thinkers often end up enjoying great financial success.

Lesson No. 2: Think Outside the Box
Truth is, Bob didn’t have the same opportunities as others who attended college. With “assistant produce manager” at a grocery store as the only job experience under his belt, Bob found interviewing tough going.

“They looked at my background, which was zero,” Lorsch painfully recalls of his meeting with a recruiting firm.

But the firm must have noted Bob’s ability to think creatively, sending him to interview with an ad agency. “The ad agency asked how I would market these rubber stamps and I came up with the idea of marketing them at retail locations throughout the country with a coupon system.”

Rubber stamps may not sound like a thrill, but they are exciting when you think of the tens of millions of dollars generated by being in every post office in the world.

Years later, after turning his ability to think outside the box into his own advertising agency for clients that ranged from Neutrogena to TV networks, Bob was asked by Microsoft to assist with the launch of Windows at the famous Las Vegas Comdex convention for technology. But Microsoft faced a tough problem: It had come to the show late and the usual advertising facilities had been booked months in advance. The software giant still wanted every convention attendee to know about Windows. What did Bob “Outside-the-Box” Lorsch do with Microsoft’s big budget? With the help of some generously tipped hotel personnel, he made sure that 70,000 pillows in 35,000 hotel rooms had a silk-screened poem right on the pillow case, inviting the guests to the Microsoft booth.

“It’s one thing to go out and buy TV commercials or signs on taxis,” says Lorsch, “But I don’t think anyone had walked down the strip and peeled $100 bills to bell captains and housekeeping managers so that in two days every pillow had the Microsoft message.”

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