From one of the more highly educated people you are likely to encounter, let me relay something that happened to me yesterday. I was on a plane, returning from a conference (and upgraded to first class), when someone sat down beside me. I can only describe this person as a loud redneck, because that's exactly what he looked and sounded like. But let me abbreviate what he said to me in conversation:
"I never went to college, but thirteen years ago I looked at Europe and saw where gas prices were going to go for us. I was trained as an engine mechanic in the Marines, and I worked on the NASCAR circuit for a while. I had two auto body shops, and I sold them and invested every penny into an idea I had for making a sugar-based ethanol fuel from beets and sorghum. I worked for thirteen years on my own property, hundreds of thousands in debt, and a week away from bankruptcy, when it turned around. Today I can make a higher proof ethanol for much less than the corn-based producers, and I'm worth $81 million."
The story was longer and much better than that, but this is the gist. It was the best thing I had heard in a long time.
Dividend Growth Investor
· 1 year ago
BB,
Once again, a great piece. I enjoy reading your posts and then opening the links in your post for later reading. 2 hours later, I have 10 windows open and I am only halfway through.. I especially enjoy your career articles. Keep on posting!
Steve (Brip Blap)
· 1 year ago
@Curmudgeon: Whoa. That's a great anecdote - thanks for sharing it. Amazing. I have often worried that being "overeducated" - and I am probably overeducated by any reasonable measure of education - makes people tentative and overly analytical and therefore less prone to take risks. One story, of course, doesn't prove that out, but it does tell me that the life story of that guy could never have been my story - my analytical educated brain would've come up with a million reasons "not to do it."
@DGI: Thanks! Glad you enjoy the links - particularly since a bunch more are coming tomorrow!
jollyroger
· 1 year ago
HOW DO YOU DO.. A CAREER A career is not like a ladder, it’s like a really arduous battle of will and self-belief and having that ability to suppress those for many years until you realise you’ve wasted many years befriending coked-up power enthused, twats.
But in the end, after all that work, the sex you missed, the bum sweat sex you wished you missed, the all nighters, the smiles and suppression. To come out with the bequeathed title of Ms Fanny Stainbridge U.K. manager of Tampax, must be so very worth it.
I pretty much agree with everything, apart from the America thing of course ;) .
I'm so glad that the geometry of groups defeated me before I started on my plan to do a PhD at Northwestern. It would have been that much harder to admit that a research/college career wasn't for me when I was several thousands of miles from home, and without marmite.
All Comments
"I never went to college, but thirteen years ago I looked at Europe and saw where gas prices were going to go for us. I was trained as an engine mechanic in the Marines, and I worked on the NASCAR circuit for a while. I had two auto body shops, and I sold them and invested every penny into an idea I had for making a sugar-based ethanol fuel from beets and sorghum. I worked for thirteen years on my own property, hundreds of thousands in debt, and a week away from bankruptcy, when it turned around. Today I can make a higher proof ethanol for much less than the corn-based producers, and I'm worth $81 million."
The story was longer and much better than that, but this is the gist. It was the best thing I had heard in a long time.
Once again, a great piece. I enjoy reading your posts and then opening the links in your post for later reading. 2 hours later, I have 10 windows open and I am only halfway through.. I especially enjoy your career articles. Keep on posting!
@DGI: Thanks! Glad you enjoy the links - particularly since a bunch more are coming tomorrow!
A career is not like a ladder, it’s like a really arduous battle of will and self-belief and having that ability to suppress those for many years until you realise you’ve wasted many years befriending coked-up power enthused, twats.
But in the end, after all that work, the sex you missed, the bum sweat sex you wished you missed, the all nighters, the smiles and suppression. To come out with the bequeathed title of
Ms Fanny Stainbridge U.K. manager of Tampax, must be so very worth it.
...more at lifestyleguides.blogspot.com
I'm so glad that the geometry of groups defeated me before I started on my plan to do a PhD at Northwestern. It would have been that much harder to admit that a research/college career wasn't for me when I was several thousands of miles from home, and without marmite.