80% of self-made billionaire's completed college, as opposed to 27% of the US adult population (US Census data). What exactly is your point?
More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
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Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course there are ways to fix that. Better education for everyone, and access to upper-middle-class prerogatives like tutoring, clubs, athletics, and unsupervised time with advanced, programmable computers. That's basically the thesis of Gladwell's latest book, that we get mega-successes by providing rich opportunities for young people. Also, universal and well-funded health insurance is a great way to promote entr…
You've read a great deal into my comment that wasn't there. Not blaming you, written comments aren't the best means of communication. Most high schools, including one I went to in a very poor blue collar ex-fishing town, offer tutoring, clubs, athletics, and access to the "computer lab". The issue is that, in general (there are exceptions of course), kids who's parents didn't put much emphasis on eduction, and who di…
I went off half-cocked. I apologize, and I really respect you for de-escalating rather than responding in kind.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#63Don't confuse a symptom for a cause. If going to college would have helped the 20%, they would have gone to go to college. Similarly, if it would have helped to skip college, the 80% would have had no qualms about doing so. The cause here is the motivation and skill of a winner that every self-made billionaire has. You're glorifying a symptom by idolizing dropping out of college.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#64100% of billionaires are outliers. Try not to extract patterns hoping for repeatable success.
Outliers compared to the general population. The subjects here are billionaires; there are enough billionaires in the world to extract statistically significant patterns from that subject group. The article certainly doesn't do this, but you imply that billionaires as a group cannot be analyzed, which is not true at all.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I up voted him because I thought the statistics showed an interesting correlation.
I'm curious though why you found it interesting. Without further data or analysis, the statements have no substantial meaning unless one conflates correlation with causation. You could just as easily say "people who go to college are more likely to have straight teeth."
I definitely was not implying causation.
I was merely pointing out that the article takes the exceptions (dropouts that became billionaires) as the rule, when in fact the opposite is true: dropouts don't become billionaires; graduates do.
The article says the probability of becoming a billionaire increases if you are a dropout because 20% of billionaires are dropouts. But in fact, because there are many more people who didnt complete college than who did, this is even more wrong than if you didn't take that into consideration(which it seems the article didn't).
Like pretty much every article in any type of popular publication, the statistical analysis in this article is wrong. Not "somewhat off", but "wrong". Like, if I was a stat teacher, I would put "F" at the top of the page. Just like I put "F" in my mind on every CNBC or WSJ headline that says "Market drops because of...".
My comment was very short because if I put in much time debunking improper statistics I'd run out of time fast.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#66100% of billionaires are outliers. Try not to extract patterns hoping for repeatable success.
Outliers compared to the general population. The subjects here are billionaires; there are enough billionaires in the world to extract statistically significant patterns from that subject group. The article certainly doesn't do this, but you imply that billionaires as a group cannot be analyzed, which is not true at all.
Clearly, I'm comparing it to the general population. Of course you can take any data set, look only at the outliers, and try to get some patterns. But almost everyone reading this is in the general population. I'd also bet they want to be billionaires.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#67I think the idea of dropping out of college fits in with the general startup mold. Startups are disruptive, they do not follow the traditional path of what's out there. Likewise, dropping out of college and leaving that safety net is certainly disruptive. It takes a special kind of person to do that. Also, it is unclear how many of these billionaires came from the world of tech startups, inherently more disruptive th…
"Some of the most common professions among the parents of American billionaires (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner." It seems to me that most of them had a safety net - their parents.
That's quite possible for a lot of people. I never deemed this an option at all though, I just wouldn't admit I couldn't do it.
I paid my bills, lived frugally (but happily) and basically just...lived on less than I made?
So, were these last few traits something my parents graciously bestowed upon me? Sadly, no.
My parents were frugal to a point, but not cheap. Budgeting wasn't something I really learned the concept of in depth, until I went out into the cold. Avoiding credit wasn't something my parents did, though they never abused it or amassed huge amounts of debt, and could always pay everything off (I didn't know or care about this at the time).
The thing my parents gave me was a longing for independence, success, and the knowledge that if there is ever something I need to learn, nothing stops me from learning it.
Sometimes, no matter which route a person chooses, they will succeed just because of their willpower, hardwork, sacrifice and perseverance.
Consequently I think money is wasted on studies like this, each individual finds their own path to success, even if similar.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#68It is interesting to note that many self-made billionaires did in fact go to college, they just didn't graduate. Furthermore, many of those billionaires that didn't finish college were accepted to top tier institutions.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#69If you look at it the other way around 80% of self-made billionaires went to college
Under 80%
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I worked at Urban Outfitters for $5.15/hour. I started off sleeping on a friend's couch until I could save up enough to get an apartment. I shared a rough but clean apartment in Oak Square in Brighton with two other guys. It was on a bus line, and I could also bike to work if it wasn't snowy. We paid $300/month each. At my income level I didn't pay any real taxes,…
Of course there are ways to fix that. Better education for everyone, and access to upper-middle-class prerogatives like tutoring, clubs, athletics, and unsupervised time with advanced, programmable computers. That's basically the thesis of Gladwell's latest book, that we get mega-successes by providing rich opportunities for young people. Also, universal and well-funded health insurance is a great way to promote entr…
this is silly. the job market is not determined by how undesirable YOU think a job is. It is determined by supply and demand. Many people have the aptitude and willingness to work a street sweeping job, since supply of workers is high demand is low and pay is low.