I know a wealthy college dropout. Do you?
Just curious, has anyone worked with or met a financially successful individual who dropped out of college or did not attend?
I am always fascinated by those individuals who dropped out or avoided college all together who are rolling in the dough. And I'm not talking about (Gates, Zuckerberg, John Dejoria, Ralph Lauren etc) I mean some of those local private business owners, car dealer owners, franchises,real estate...
Doing some research revealed to me its actually quite surprising how many wealthy individuals don't have degrees. Of course wealthy individuals with degrees outnumber those without for obvious reasons. But I still see there is a decent amount that defies the odds. Any opinions or thoughts would be appreciated!
I see this mostly in family business situations. My friends grandfather owned a dunkin doughnuts, which inspired his two sons to start franchising DD's and then they got into CRE development and they bring in mid 8 figures a year in market with roughly half the cost of living as NYC.
Definitely makes sense... I know/knew a wealthy guy who was a tattoo artist and head of a motorcycle club... he owns eternal tattoos here in michigan and sells eternal ink everywhere (I saw it on Kat Von D's show)
It's not necessary to go to college to become an entrepreneur, some people are just born with it
Absolutely, Some people are born with an inherent business sense and for whatever reason don't see secondary education as necessary. One of the most successful guys I know started with nothing, didn't go to undergrad and went on to become one of the original founders of a huge internet retail website--he's worth like $50mm now..
College is just an easy route to take for the majority of people who don't have that sense or a clear idea about what direction they want to take their life.
Not sure exactly how you define "success", but I graduated #284 out of 287 in my high school class, shipped off to Marine Corps boot camp the next morning, and then threw up weekly numbers like this a few years later as a commodities trader:
To be fair, I did attend a 6-week summer Spanish intensive at a community college in my 20's.
Holy shit. Anyone ever break into S&T from consulting?
Edmundo Braverman- When I say financially successful, I mean by banking standards (mid-high 6 figures+) of course nothing philosophical. And sounds like you have some interesting stories to tell haha
And Yea got to love those finance guys without degrees, that's crazy!
Damn Eddie, is that paper or papyrus? LOL. Did they just cut you a check at the end of the week or something?
Regards
hahahaha
Nice Eddie! That's pretty damn baller.
OP: I know a bunch of similar guys - family businesses, CRE, etc. However, if you are talking finance without a college degree, I know some NYMEX guys that used to pull in BANK in the golden days (I was still a kid). Best of all - 100 hour weeks? Hah. They rolled in at 8:30 and left 3....with a long lunch during the lull. I've heard stories from the 90's...that was THE place to be.
I know a Sr MD from DB who worked in London/NYC/etc. Worked at Lehman right out of high school basically. Trades FX and government bonds.
Nice to the commissions above! Holy heck that is some serious dosh!
Wow, that's impressive Eddie. Would you say that sales skills, or trading skills are more valuable as a commodities trader?
Sales skills by far. I worked with guys who couldn't find a winning trade if their life depended on it, but they made bank because they could sell. Sales skills trump just about everything else in life.
That's funny, but it's true. I'll admit that the firm I was working for was a little behind the times in 1999, but not much. You have to remember everything in the futures market was still open outcry and paper tickets. I know it's hard to believe, but the digital revolution in the markets has really happened over the past decade. Even stocks were still quoted in fractions until 2002, if memory serves.
As for the pay, the way it worked at this firm was pretty cool. The trading week was Thursday-Wednesday, and any commissions you had booked at close of business on Wednesday you got paid for on Friday two days later. The majority of trades paid a bonus as well, which would accumulate throughout the month and be paid out on the 15th of the following month. Five checks a month was pretty sweet.
...especially when they are tens of thousands of dollars. LOL.
I was recently talking to one of the senior guys at my firm and 'data rooms' came up. He was like, "I remember when data rooms were actual rooms and you came in for a few hours and copied down the information you needed to build your analysis/model and then left. Seems crazy now but it makes you wonder if they weren't doing very detailed analyses back in the day or if we are being over cautious/stupid with the current hundred tab models, etc.
Regards
I've hung out with Johnny Cupcakes on multiple occasions now. The guy has a crazy cult following (seriously, I've met people that treat J-Cups like a fucking religion) and was named one of BusinessWeek's "Best Entrepreneurs 25 and Under" in 2008. He's making absolute bank, especially when you consider the fact that his business is a sole-proprietorship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cupcakes http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/blog/
Also, I've hung out with a couple Stanford/Berkeley/MIT dropout types that have Valley startups. One of them has funding already, I'll come back and update this post if any of them actually make it, haha.
Great stuff thanks for sharing.
Yea I have read about him awhile back. That's pretty amazing stuff! Even more so that you met him. Although I would almost categorize him into the (gates, zuckerberg, all those young superstars list) the success by extreme odds. I think people like Johnny cupcakes are the stereotype among those who perpetuate the notion that successful people are only lucky- without college success is through luck, and doesn't happen much.
I just like to point out there are a lot more individuals out their with less exciting stories to success, who didn't go to college.
I knew a guy in college that came up with a quant algorithm that he dropped out to focus on. He later sold it for a ton of money to a hedge fund, right as he saw the inefficiency that he was exploiting was starting to close. He was basically able to retire in his mid-20's.
I'm actually watching a show called "Tattooed in Detroit" that features an artist that works for the guy that I mentioned earlier... Tom Renshaw and Eternal Tattoos! You betta recognize!
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