Successful people without any education

[pb4uski]

There are definitely successful people without a formal education out there (and good for them). My dad would have been one. He didn't finish high school but had a gift with people that developed into a successful sales career, then was in management and then missed the contact time with customers and asked to go back into sales. Successful enough that they had to do trusts for estate tax purposes back in the 1990s.

I have always thought that a college education just improved your odds. I've know people from "no-name" colleges who were on the ball and did very well and people who graduated from Harvard or Wharton who were ok but nothing special. Of course, lots of in-betweens.

 

[Tetto]

A college education is a great way to begin an engineering career and I do see the value there (me included). It instills a set of understanding and skills that are otherwise difficult to develop in your own. Not impossible though, as we see examples throughout this thread. People continue to blow me away with innate skill they are born with. It’s pretty interesting how some have it and some don’t!!

 

[Car-Guy]

One thing that troubled me most about Megacorp was their insistence on having certain educational achievements to reach a given title/salary level. We had people who could do the w*rk (and did) who never achieved the "status" or the money of much less qualified people who happened to have certain degrees.

Megacorp had some good things about it, but they were extremely prejudiced regarding academic achievement. It was to their own detriment to place such restrictions on people.

It didn't work that way at my O&G Mega Corp. Not at all. The college degree got your foot in the door. But once you were hired, the degree was meaningless. I always found it interesting that they would recruit from the top schools in the country and some years, when recruiting targets were low, if you didn't have a 4.0 GPA, you didn't even get an interview. But once you were hired, it was all about what you could do.

 

[rembrandt]

There are definitely successful people without a formal education out there (and good for them). My dad would have been one. He didn't finish high school but had a gift with people that developed into a successful sales career, then was in management and then missed the contact time with customers and asked to go back into sales. Successful enough that they had to do trusts for estate tax purposes back in the 1990s.

I have always thought that a college education just improved your odds. I've know people from "no-name" colleges who were on the ball and did very well and people who graduated from Harvard or Wharton who were ok but nothing special. Of course, lots of in-betweens.

I think salesmen are born, not made. John Hancock Insurance tried to make me into one and failed miserably.

 

[TickTock]

A college education is a great way to begin an engineering career and I do see the value there (me included). It instills a set of understanding and skills that are otherwise difficult to develop in your own.

Fellow engineer here. I have long said that graduating from a good technical college proves two things: (1) you know the underlying math, and (2) you've learned *how* to learn.

Not impossible though, as we see examples throughout this thread. People continue to blow me away with innate skill they are born with. It’s pretty interesting how some have it and some don’t!!

Absolutely. IME, the more someone talks/brags about how good they are/how much experience they have/how many academic or professional achievements they have, the less useful they tend to be in real life situations.

 

[street]

My youngest daughter decided she didn't like living by our "rules" and when she turned 18 left our house, 1 english class short of her HS Diploma. Went through the school of hard knocks for a number of years, had our one and only grandchild (so far), then got her GED and worked her way to be GM earning mid 6 figures for a national body shop chain. Not millions, but I call it a success and am proud of her work ethic!

Flieger

Excellent!!! Very happy for her and for both of you!!! Thanks for that story.

 

[street]

My dad hadn't the chance to make it past 8th grade. He had to help in my grandfather's business to make it a sustainable income for the rest of the family.
He was a wizard genius in math. He could tell you a number faster than you could on paper. He was a hardworking man and finally entered the air force for a tour.
I always thought if he could have gone on to secondary education I really thing he would have gone places.
He ended up back in rural America living in the same area/town he was born. Raised sheep and cattle and worked in a small-town hardware. We made a living but that was about it.

 

[braumeister]

I also have an amateur extra radio license, something that you acquire by passing a set of three exams.

You might be surprised to find that there are a number of hams here. I'm also an Extra, and I got mine back in the days when you had to go to an FCC office to take the exam.

 

[Lorenzo]

My dad didn't have a college degree--he gave City College of New York a brief go--but he was gifted with what some call "street smarts." He was a serial entrepreneur who never quite made it. At one time in the '70s he had started a company, venture capital and all, manufacturing machines in Taiwan, before the business collapsed like the proverbial house of cards, and we--the family--lost everything. He was an avid reader of business books and had hired people with expertise, but I often think whether some formal education in business might have made all the difference. Maybe for every success story we hear of someone making it big without a formal education there is an untold story of another equally bright individual who was hindered by a lack of formal education.

 

[Route246]

One thing that troubled me most about Megacorp was their insistence on having certain educational achievements to reach a given title/salary level. We had people who could do the w*rk (and did) who never achieved the "status" or the money of much less qualified people who happened to have certain degrees.

Megacorp had some good things about it, but they were extremely prejudiced regarding academic achievement. It was to their own detriment to place such restrictions on people.

The usual justification for this is it lessens the chance of making a bad promotion which is far more damaging than not making any promotion at all. Ditto for hiring requirements.

 

[Diogenes]

It seems to me that the so-called "bad boys" were often those who didn’t care to conform to the norms of their time. While many of the "goody-two-shoes" students chose more traditional career paths—teachers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, and so on, some of the nonconformists were already bored by convention. These individuals thought outside the box and didn’t particularly care about peer/parent pressure or what others thought of them.

Much has to do with charisma and capacity to persuade others. Also a certain self-knowledge and willingness to take risks. There is, one supposes, a negative correlation between these traits and conventional rules-following.

Colloquially we celebrate the plucky "losers" who fail at education or other conventional paths, but then suddenly burst into incredible success. These are inspiring stories, aren't they? We pan the straight-laced man in the gray flannel suit. The physics PhD who only teaches high school. The JD who ends up as a public defender or tax-preparer. We do this, because of an anti-elitist sentiment, a kind of populism. But is this fair?

 

[427Vette]

Prompted by basically everyone especially teachers and guidance counselors I reluctantly signed up for college. It was short lived and quit just a few weeks later. I walked out the day the white professor was spewing his drivel to all the impressionable minded students. When he said “do you know what the problem in America is…the problem in America today is the white American male” i stood up and said goodbye, left and never went back.

I got a job in the trades. Started on my own a few years later. Three years ago I sold my business and retired at 49 with a mid to high seven figure portfolio. It’s not billions like others mentioned here but I am happy.

People confuse intelligence and education, they are different.

 

[frayne]

Much has to do with charisma and capacity to persuade others. Also a certain self-knowledge and willingness to take risks. There is, one supposes, a negative correlation between these traits and conventional rules-following.

Colloquially we celebrate the plucky "losers" who fail at education or other conventional paths, but then suddenly burst into incredible success. These are inspiring stories, aren't they? We pan the straight-laced man in the gray flannel suit. The physics PhD who only teaches high school. The JD who ends up as a public defender or tax-preparer. We do this, because of an anti-elitist sentiment, a kind of populism. But is this fair?

It's not fair, but I believe society often equates success with money—a flawed measure of a person's true value or life achievements, regardless of their education or lack thereof.

 

[rembrandt]

I bet there are more unsuccessful people with an education than successful people without one.

 

[frayne]

Depends on how you define success.

 

[street]

Depends on how you define success.

Yep, I do have to agree.

 

[Diogenes]

I bet there are more unsuccessful people with an education than successful people without one.

Axiomatically, wealth is unusual. If it were common, then it wouldn't be wealth. If we equate wealth with success, then of course, there are more unsuccessful people, than successful ones. We have four combinations:

1. Well-educated people, who become successful.
2. Well-educated people who aren't unsuccessful.
3. People lacking good formal education, who become successful.
4. People lacking good formal education, who aren't successful.

So... what portion of the educated group, ends up in (1), and what portion in (2)? And of the education-lacking group, what portion ends up in (3), and what in (4)? In both cohorts, the successful-portion will be small. But in which, is it smaller? I would suppose that it's smaller in the education-lacking group.

To give this some notional numbers, suppose that there are 1000 people: 300 in the educated group, and 700 in the not-educated. Then maybe we have 270 in (1), 30 in (2), 660 in (3) and 40 in (4). That's a success-ratio of one to nine, for the educated, and 1:16.5 in the "uneducated". These are contrived numbers, but they illustrate the point, do they not?

 

[ransil]

I think I fall into this.
I have no degree and the wife didn't get hers until 2 years before we ER'd at 56. ( work paid for her degree)
we both "retired" as test engineers to start our retirement plan , we work camp now just to get paid to be in what ever location we choose for the summer , finished our second year ,I think we are good to go with out working but doing fun jobs to break even for the summer and being able to just leave if it turns crappy is working for us.
we may volunteer for less hours and free camping in the future.

 

[frayne]

Axiomatically, wealth is unusual. If it were common, then it wouldn't be wealth. If we equate wealth with success, then of course, there are more unsuccessful people, than successful ones. We have four combinations:

1. Well-educated people, who become successful.
2. Well-educated people who aren't unsuccessful.
3. People lacking good formal education, who become successful.
4. People lacking good formal education, who aren't successful.

So... what portion of the educated group, ends up in (1), and what portion in (2)? And of the education-lacking group, what portion ends up in (3), and what in (4)? In both cohorts, the successful-portion will be small. But in which, is it smaller? I would suppose that it's smaller in the education-lacking group.

To give this some notional numbers, suppose that there are 1000 people: 300 in the educated group, and 700 in the not-educated. Then maybe we have 270 in (1), 30 in (2), 660 in (3) and 40 in (4). That's a success-ratio of one to nine, for the educated, and 1:16.5 in the "uneducated". These are contrived numbers, but they illustrate the point, do they not?

Again not to split hairs, but how do you define 'successful' or educated for that matter? This is largely a conversation about semantics.

 

[odie42]

People confuse intelligence and education, they are different.

+1

 

[kgtest]

I'm on my way to multimillionaire without a college degree. I made it through a fairly difficult public education and just worked hard and saved.

 

[Koolau]

My dad hadn't the chance to make it past 8th grade. He had to help in my grandfather's business to make it a sustainable income for the rest of the family.
He was a wizard genius in math. He could tell you a number faster than you could on paper. He was a hardworking man and finally entered the air force for a tour.
I always thought if he could have gone on to secondary education I really thing he would have gone places.
He ended up back in rural America living in the same area/town he was born. Raised sheep and cattle and worked in a small-town hardware. We made a living but that was about it.

I'll bet he was mostly happy. I know a lot of "rich" people who are not. Who is better off? Heh, heh, no need to answer.

My dad escaped the deep mines (his dad died of black lung) and though disabled, dad became his own boss of his own business. We never had much money, but my dad was happy and so was our family.

Thanks for sharing.

Depends on how you define success.

Hear, hear!

Happy = successful IMHO though YMMV.

 

[gcgang]

Was thinking about a few days ago when another post got me thinking about very successful people in life financially without any education. I know a couple people personally that have not even had a high school diploma but were financial wizards and had huge successful businesses.
Any of you know of anybody or it maybe you with this talent of success.

Street,

You probably only one who might know where this is - my wife’s uncle, who spoke with a lisp and looked like Junior Sample of Hee Haw, dropped out of school in 8th grade to work on the family ranch in Alzada, Mt. He was into all sorts of businesses, from tobacco and horse farms in the southeast to oil and gas properties in Louisiana. He was very charitable - the head of the Salvation Army would come to Alzada to thank him, and he had a letter on Presidential stationery inviting him to a dinner with George Bush to honor philanthropists - he said he didn’t go cuz he would’ve had to buy a suit. lol. Eastern Montana thru and thru. Just figured stuff out on his own.

 

[street]

Interesting story, Thanks. I have been to Alzada one time and the way you subscribed him is how people live and think here.

Don't want to be front and center but have been very successful in life.

 

[Car-Guy]

People confuse intelligence and education, they are different.

+100

I've known a number of folks with advanced degrees that couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.