You can make statistics to prove anything, but let me ask you, how many people do you know who'd actually quit their job and risk everything to start a business and try to be successful that way? My guess is it's very few. That's why there are more wealthy people with an education statistically, because there are fewer people who actually go the route of starting a business in the first place.
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You can make statistics to prove anything, but let me ask you, how many people do you know who'd actually quit their job and risk everything to start a business and try to be successful that way? My guess is it's very few. That's why there are more wealthy people with an education statistically, because there are fewer people who actually go the route of starting a business in the first place.
Fortune did a piece on the richest and most influential people of the 20th century and right off the bat 25% percent didn't have any degree. And most of the remaining ones who did have their bachelor's studied something like French (but went on to become top dog at a women's magazine), or studied ancient history (but did well in high tech). Only about five or six on the list were MDs or MBAs. One MD made a fortune selling kid's toys, and his fortune had nothing to do with medicine. One MD went on to write pulp fiction stuff. None on the richest/most influential list were lawyers, and among the MBAs, only one went to a well known school (Stanford).
So from that list of 100 people, only one person took that traditonal path of upper end college with stellar GPA, upper end graduate degree from good school, related job to that education, and became a centimillionaire/billionaire.
And yes, that short list, nearly all of them, made the article. I think a later issue put Simon Cowell on there. I think Simon went to the University of Mean.
Quite a few. I personally know about 2 dozen, maybe more. I myself did this. Most of them went bankrupt one or more times, a few made some good money including myself. It was my education that made me the money more than the independence to work on my own, however.
Fortune did a piece on the richest and most influential people of the 20th century and right off the bat 25% percent didn't have any degree. And most of the remaining ones who did have their bachelor's studied something like French (but went on to become top dog at a women's magazine), or studied ancient history (but did well in high tech). Only about five or six on the list were MDs or MBAs. One MD made a fortune selling kid's toys, and his fortune had nothing to do with medicine. One MD went on to write pulp fiction stuff. None on the richest/most influential list were lawyers, and among the MBAs, only one went to a well known school (Stanford).
So from that list of 100 people, only one person took that traditonal path of upper end college with stellar GPA, upper end graduate degree from good school, related job to that education, and became a centimillionaire/billionaire.
And yes, that short list, nearly all of them, made the article. I think a later issue put Simon Cowell on there. I think Simon went to the University of Mean.
Think you can link me to that article? I'd like to read it
That's quite cool actually, I do like how more people are becoming entrepreneurs now.
But it all depends on your definition of "good money", because it's impossible to make $100,000,000 as an employee of anything.
Want a free tip on how to get rich? Write a book entitled How To Get Rich.
dangit, now I've publicized my get rich quick scheme...
He was rich a long time before he wrote the book, he made most of his money publishing magazines and he talks about his own experiences in business in the book too.
I respect what you are saying, but it does not address the point that odev, myself, and others are saying.
On average, to make slightly little more than the next bloke who has a regular job w/o college, yes, I say it's good to get a college education. I don't disagree with that.
I studied business, employment, and statistics in college and graduate school, and continuing on for more gruduate education and I loved what I learned from school. It was fun, period. But that's the extent of it. It won't make me rich, but I relish the process of learning and that's the payoff for me. Employment experts or statisticians don't become wealthy.
The truly independently wealthy, 99.9999% percent of them (you get the idea) are entrepreneurs and mostly closely resemble that short list of college dropouts. But instead of having tens of billions, they may have five billion, a billion, or 500 million and not be on any mass media list or tv.
Think you can link me to that article? I'd like to read it
That's quite cool actually, I do like how more people are becoming entrepreneurs now.
But it all depends on your definition of "good money", because it's impossible to make $100,000,000 as an employee of anything.
Absolutely. Its a parallel to professional sports players, however. Out of the 11 million kids each year that dream of making it in professional sports only a handful do. The road to billionairedom is littered with millions of bankruptcies. No one writes articles on the failed ones, only the successes. Your best bet at a secure future is to get a good education and apply yourself with a good work ethic always being watchful for opportunities.
Nahhhh. No one succeeds the first time, the key is to learn from your mistakes and not to lose your determination to keep trying. Only when you give up have you truly failed.
And I say for those who try that route, they are by far the exception. Although if that is your goal, it is also your best chance.
To make things clear, my quote was from a TARGET commercial where a guy goes around the store yelling "Wow! thats a low price." aka a joke.
Who said it would be easy? I sure didn't.
...And no, most don't succeed first time, even the most successful entrepreneurs have their failures.
To make things clear, my quote was from a TARGET commercial where a guy goes around the store yelling "Wow! thats a low price." aka a joke.
I think that was a Staples commercial
Think you can link me to that article? I'd like to read it
It was in my b-school days in the early 1990s so I don't think I have a link. You would have to prolly go to the library and look at back issues of Fortune (but it could have been Forbes or Money) from that period.
But it mentioned Streisand, Gates, Geffen, Michael Jackson, Ellison, Dell, Jobs and Woz, Oprah, President Truman, and a few others not only very wealthy, but very influential in popular media and world history. I think the only one from that list on the cover of the magazine, or article, with a college degree was Oprah.
But to say because she graduated from a university in Tennessee is the reason she is a billionaire is a ridiculous argument and doesn't explain away Gates, Jobs, or Michael Jackson. Oprah made it because she had talent, not because she sat in some college for four years. If the reason for Oprah's gigantic success was that bachelor's from that school in Tennessee, don't you think we'd all be enrolling there?
Ah. In that case the Whooosh! you heard was your comment going over my European headTo make things clear, my quote was from a TARGET commercial where a guy goes around the store yelling "Wow! thats a low price." aka a joke.
The point still stands though, even if your comment is excluded.
I mean most people give up and go back to employment. I agree that many are serial entrepreneurs.
Then they are the only ones who have truly failed.
A lot of people fall into that trap, actually - they think it'll be easy and they make the jump, but soon end up jumping back to what they know because they realise it's not easy at all. The ones that keep going are the ones who will get rich.
So maybe the question isn't who can take the risk, but more who can summon the determination to keep going after they do, even when they fail?
While the route to being a billionaire is the self-made entrepreneur, it also is the route to reaching independent wealth as a multi-millionaire, too. It's not college.
The rich person, or one who is independently wealthy, did not learn it from a classroom, but from starting their own business, and yes, being at one time, or more, among the failures or bankruptcies you talk about.
Just from what my professor told me in MBA school, a millionaire, as part of the population (back in '95 and more so now), failed four times before he made it big, was not from a tawny school, and had that mundane business or franchise. It is often the MBA who ends up working for this entrepreneur landing a good salary, but rarely financial independence.
What you are talking about is landing a better than average salary or wage, and that in itself is a fine thing for most people.
True wealth is the business owner, not the "educated" employee.
Also check out some of Thomas J. Stanley's books. The main ones are The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind, and Stop Acting Rich. 63Dot got it right. In The Millionaire Next Door, a huge percentage of the millionaires surveyed ran their own business. The most commonly owned vehicle was a Ford F150 truck, usually 3 or so years old and bought with cash. In the latest book, he goes into housing and things like that. It turns out most millionaires don't live in million dollar homes. And most of them don't make $1 mil per year. They just don't do stupid stuff with money.
That's a great book (millionaire next door) and it broke the myth I had thinking education and climbing a corporate ladder working for a company for life would equate to being independently wealthy. Today, the ladder has fewer steps and does not reach as high. Also, any company is vulnerable to failure, even big ones with big reputations.
Education at worst means you are more educated and at best means you may make 20%-50% (even 200% percent more in some cases) than your region's median income. Not bad to shoot for, and totally honorable in its own right, but by no means being anything that will get you close to rich/wealthy/independent or being close to retiring at age 55.
Economically, people who earn 20, 50, 100, or 200% percent more just tend to live up to their means to the edge of their check and have slightly better cars, clothes, or rent a better apartment or house. If they are lucky to have slightly better pay and live in an area with reasonable real estate prices, they may get to buy a house and buy another as a rental for supplemental income. They may have a comfy life, but never have a realistic chance of getting rich, especially if they work for somebody else.
The argument that: more eduction= possible higher pay is usually valid. The argument that more education = getting rich is probably the biggest myth out there.
Anyway, I second the recommendation for reading "The Millionaire Next Door". It's a NYT bestseller and required reading for many MBA programs.
Yes. Determination in the face of adversity. Having a great idea and a bit of good timing helps too.
I would need some proof of that. From what I have seen, the majority of financially independent people are college educated and did so earning a crust from someone else and then investing the money wisely and with due diligence. Some have been independent business owners and in that group the numbers of college educated is probably slightly above average in my experience.
Education is less important in the achievement of wealth than persistence and greed.
Probably. Particularly persistence. A sense of timing and a bit of wisdom in your area of endeavor helps as well.
We are all talking to you until we are blue in the face.
Instead of trying to argue against the lot of us (who are of different ages, different incomes, different locations, different education, etc), get the proof you need by doing your own research. I did six years in college myself. I did it by having two viable businesses, but more importantly by having two failures over nearly 25 years. Trying to convince you of the obvious is like trying to convince people who are sure they know bigfoot exists yet have no evidence or experience.
Don't take the word of the people here arguing against you, just take a couple of days and read "A Millionaire Next Door", or something like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". If you want to read something from an educational standpoint, the Harvard Business Review is a great start, too. They take the basic, still used tool of the Harvard Case Study Method.
Rule 1: take a look at a business situation, problem, issue, or case
Rule 2: analyze it from several points of view, whether they are your own or not
Rule 3: present several alternatives that you believe are the best to the issue
Rule 4: come to a conclusion from the best of those alternatives
This b-school method, or Harvard Case Study Method is called P, A, A, C for short for problem (or issue), analysis, alternatives, and conclusion.
Just doing that and applying it to independently wealthy friends should give you some insight. You don't have to go to college or university to learn this method and many unschooled, successful business people think along these terms while weighing every major business decision.
I suggest confronting the problem, and on your own terms and experience: "Why are so many uneducated entrepreneurs successful?" or "Why do those pesky Macrumors folk think that entrepreneurship, not college, is the more practical path to financial freedom?" And don't take it as we are wrong and you are right, or vice versa.
I hope you realize your logical fallacies you present, see the light, start a business, and get filthy rich. If you want to get a piece of paper or two and hang it up in some office, or cubicle working for others and think that will make you financially independent, be my guest. I will tell you to stand in line behind those who spend their paycheck on buying up lotto tickets.