Really. There’s a lot of luck involved. I have no college degree but retired at almost $100K/year. My first job was $.75/hour as a waitress.
In high school I was in Advanced Placement in the NY Regents program, and took all the appropriate required courses in Math, Science, Latin, etc. But the class that got me in the door at companies where it counted was Personal Typing. That gave opportunities to advance.
Once you have a high skill, it can take you places. College definitely doesn’t have to be a part of it, but “they” say (whoever “they” is) that college does give a leg up generally. I don’t even know if that’s true any more with the dumbing-down going on.
Most arguments for college are caused by a basis statistical fallacy—correlation does not demonstrate causation.
Someone from a wealthy family is more likely to be wealthy than their poor neighbor—they are also more likely to have gone to college—proves nothing about the value of a college education.
What college is good for is networking—it is obviously easier to get hired by people (or families) you know than people you don’t.
However, blue collar trades are excellent for building up a network of satisfied customers...and that could lead in a lot of different directions.