Why are the most successful people all dropouts?
What is it inside the brain of a prodigy that seeks to walk their own path?
Why do these success stories refuse to follow the norm?
Steve Jobs left college after just one semester. Alicia Keys left Columbia University after just four weeks. US Vice President Dick Cheney dropped out of university not once, but twice. Joel Osteen dropped out of Oral Roberts University during his first year, before creating the evangelical church Lakewood. Tiger Woods left Stanford in his first year. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard during his first 12 months to start his own small company… Microsoft. Brat Bit left the University of Missouri just two weeks before graduation, claiming: “I just felt I was done.” Daniel Ek dropped out of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technologies after just eight weeks and went on to create Spotify. Ashton Kutcher only started modelling after leaving his biochemical engineering degree at the University of Iowa. Quincy Jones left the Berklee College of Music to play jazz, because being in a band with Lionel Hampton was actually the world’s greatest university.
All of these famous names started with the same decision, to have faith in their own ability, to take a leap of faith, and to set out on their own. But one more name can be added to that esteemed list… Iliyan Kuzmanov.
When we talk about the crazy ones, the misfits, the rabble, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes, the naughty kids on the block, Iliyan Kuzmanov is certainly an example of that. He is a person who started from the bottom, from the slums – a real street fighter.
He quit, he went broke, he rose up the ladder, he went broke again, but he continued to chase his dreams in the UK. He took risks that were so high, living on next to no money at all in some dodgy places. He committed crimes in the name of love, fought against organised crime on his own, invested everything he had to save the life of another, battled corruption, but faith in his dream, and stood tall against one of the most broken systems in the world.
Iliyan Kuzmanov was bullied because he was different. He failed on multiple occasions but never let that define or stop him. He painted the box from the outside while everyone else was thinking within. He is an example of what you can achieve by being positive in this world. He is the change – perhaps the only one crazy enough to actually change the world.
Iliyan’s latest success story comes in the form of his new book, If You Meet Buddha, Kill Him which reached number 15 on the Amazon listings. It was also Number One in Greenwich Book Stores for October 2021 and was among the finalists of the biggest book contest for Reader’s Favourite. But he is more than a successful writer, Iliyan Kuzmanov is the founder of a multi-million-dollar business in London and he uses this wealth to fund his important social activism work. He is fighting against corruption for human rights, while also helping other people with their businesses. He receives zero financing from other sources, everything is funded through his UK company as he seeks to make a positive change in Bulgaria and the wider world.
