Well, I did not have a college degree for the longest time. I first went into the Army as an Infantryman. I learned a lot about motivation and discipline. I left the Army in ‘89. I did not finish my Associates until this year. Yet for the past 15 years I have made either right at, or over 6 figures. The difference is that I sought after vendor technical certifications and leveraged those into jobs and opportunities.
Hustle, determination, research and guts count for a lot more than most people are willing to give credit.
Congratulations on your hard work and doing well! The problem with youth today is that they think the college degree is all they need, losing sight of having a work ethic and building real useful knowledge. Too many kids go to college that don't belong there. Case in point, a brother-in-law of mine got a psychology degree but was never able to get a real job in the last 15 years. He's been a cellphone salesman, car salesman, and his current job is being a TSA agent. You don't need a degree for low-paying jobs. My wife has no degree but earned a six-figure salary before retiring. Determination and guts.
“Hustle, determination, research and guts count for a lot more than most people are willing to give credit.”
In the “before-times” that was certainly true; nowadays with gloabalization anyone earning high 5-figure salaries have forces working furiously behind the scenes to either 1) move that job elsewhere or 2) import Asian coolies to do it for less. While I was in college (early 1990s) business professors told us we wouldn’t have the standard of living our parents did, and that the Wal-Mart operating model would dominate in the future; nowadays one has to be very careful about how they invest in education.
While I was in school the big accounting firms would send recruiters to meet with “NABA” (National Association of Black Accountants) to discuss careers; the much larger (and whiter) Accounting Society was ignored...