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Fortune
Fortune
Preston Fore

Jimmy Fallon dropped out of college in his last semester—he says he survived on $7 a day just to get stage time, before making the millions

Jimmy Fallon SNL Barbara Corcoran
Jimmy Fallon on the set of The Tonight Show (Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
  • Multimillionaire TV host and actor Jimmy Fallon knew at 12 he wanted to join SNL (Saturday Night Live)—so he dropped out of college, lived on cardboard furniture, and survived on $7 a day to get there. His advice to Gen Z? Don’t let rejection stop you: “If you stop trying, you get boring tomorrow.”

Could you live on $7 a day? For Jimmy Fallon, that’s what it took to survive the treacherous path toward success in show business. 

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