#9 PewDiePie

Felix Kjellberg, known more popularly as PewDiePie, is a YouTube comedian and gamer from Sweden who is best known for his commentaries on horror-themed video games during the early part of his career. He first opened an account under the name PewDie in 2006 from which he first began posting play-along videos of popular games but has since diversified his content, adding comedy into his repertoire of online videos.

College drop-out

In 2010, the then 21-year-old dropped out from his industrial economics studies and technology management degree at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, which disappointed his parents. His attempts to secure an apprenticeship in an advertising company prompted him to revive his old YouTube channel, renaming it PewDiePie. To support his production costs, Kjellberg resorted to selling art projects and working at a local hot dog stand. His hard work paid-off and by 2017, the Swede’s YouTube channel became the most-viewed, with over 19 billion video views.