In his case, he wasn’t necessarily incompetent, but gave off a vibe like he expected what he was doing to fail. Actually, it did fail, but for reasons that weren’t his fault. Maybe he just saw it coming, but he gave off an aura of doom—its hard to explain. He did mention a few times that he regularly networked with fellow Princeton alums looking for jobs. My own observation is that success is dependent more on your performance than on your pedigree. Of course, I am not an Ivy Leaguer and don’t run in those circles—so what do I know?
RBG81,
Oh definitely I agree, your success depends on you. It is like the old saying “God helps those who help themselves”. We can slightly modify the saying to say “An Ivy League stamp helps those who are actually smart and hardworking to begin with”
Keep in mind that Gates, Dell and many others have done just fine without an Ivy education. It is just that on average, it seems to help you get a push ahead