Originally Posted by Jesus H Christ

I'm on that list, but not a genus because I am here with you clowns.. Got expelled my senior year and only got that far because of a football. At that time my reading level at best, 10th grade as writing was far worse.

It never stopped me as I bailed to the Middle East/Europe with a $150 at 18. Got odd jobs cutting grapes in Crete, running a youth hostel in Morocco, and living in a kibbutz in Israel etc. In short, I also covered most of the Europe/Scandinavia in just under 2 years.

I almost spend another 5 years because I ran out of money and had a 24 hour period before I signed the final contract with the French Foreign Legion, but decided to call the US embassy to tell them in case anyone would be looking for me. Within an hour an embassy official picked me up and took me to a train station, gave me money, and told me to get my stupid ass to the American embassy in Madrid pronto!

Anyway, I caught a flight back and when I hit LA had nowhere to go or a job, but got a telemarketing job for $5 an hour. Due to my learned hustle in Europe I took to it like fish to water and within 2 years I ran that boiler room for $750 a week plus commission. In short, at 22 (1988) I was netting $5k a month as my friends finishing college hoped to get a $25k year jobs.

This set a foundation for the rest of my life because back then at 22, I could reasonably afford to go anywhere and do anything, as I did. This introduces you to a different lifestyle and you grow accustom as it sets the bar.

It's obvious a great education will give you a much higher probability of successful financial life, but few highly educated people actually have common sense or original thought as their future as the spark in the plug determines their growth in the machine.

Now things have come full circle as financial planners, some with ivy league educations, pitch me future financial security advice. I usually take their prospectus and rip out the executive summery, financials, hand them back the rest, and tell them if I wanted to read fluffy bullshit I'll just Google their firms homepage.