"The more education the more people make. And it goes all the way up."
[Not really. An undergraduate degree will do]
Grades Have No Correlation with Wealth & Financial Independence
Everyone knows that more education means higher income over the course of life. But what people fail to realize is that there is no correlation between grades and wealth. An "A" college graduate will be just as successful as a "C-" college graduate.
According to decades of extensive research by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D., author of The Millionaire Next Door, the grades one earns in school have no correlation with the economic wealth and success other than in the medical and legal professions. That's not to say education isn't important - it is! More than 90% of American millionaires did, in fact, graduate with an undergraduate degree.
Why, then, do parents, teachers, and councilors continue to tell children that they won't be successful if they have a C- grade point average? Statistically speaking, according to Stanley, it's because these people are themselves not financially successful. Therefore, they have no idea what it takes to achieve financial independence and buy into the great myth that good students go further in life. They pitifully measure analytical intelligence only and not the creative intelligence that is responsible for sparking innovations, societal advancements, and the opportunity to craft solutions in niche markets that everyone else misses. They also fail to realize that most millionaires wear blue jeans, overalls, or work shirts, not a suit and tie. They eat McDonald's and Burger King. They live in ordinary, well-established neighborhoods. Most own their own business.
Statistically, if you want to guess who is going to be wealthy and financial independent, you'd be more likely finding a self-sufficient student in wood shop class who paid for his own car, gets decent (but not spectacular) grades, has a job, and enjoys what he does than selecting someone from the honor roll. It's counterintuitive, but it's true.
"We don't need the rich"
But Americans want to be rich. The average American is more apt to look at the well-off person and want to be like him, to have what he has, not strip him of his wealth.
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