The 999,999 Drop Outs Who Did Not End Up Like Steve Jobs
Why should we go to school and learn useless things, while Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did not even graduate, yet were far more successful?
I enjoy hearing this question from people. If you are a student and have not seen some statistics about how many college drop out became successful versus those who became unsuccessful mapapaisip at masasabi mo “Oo nga noh. Sila nga hindi naka graduate eh. Magdrop out din ako.”
Every few months or weeks, depending on where you look or listen, you’ll hear about some new college dropout who became a billionaire or multi-millionaire after starting a revolutionary business. And for accuracy’s sake, there are lots of real examples here. Some of the most iconic entrepreneurs of our time have been college dropouts, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison, all of whom quit school and went on to make it onto world’s-wealthiest lists.
While it’s true there are successful college dropouts, statistically speaking, they are not the norm.They are actually the exception. There is in fact a study conducted in 2017 that investigated how many of the wealthiest and most influential people graduated college. We studied 11,745 U.S. leaders, including CEOs, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders and the most globally powerful men and women.
If you want to access that study here is the site:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13598139.2017.1302874
As one neuropsychologist that goes by the name Fabian once said. What might seem useless to you is the basis of an amazing career for someone else. You start out in school learning a broad range of things, as you grow older you get more and more specific. You may not use all that math you’re learning about now, but currently I am glad I learned those concepts because I desperately need them. Providing all topics gives us a solid basis and also helps us figure out what we are interested in. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs aren’t the rule, they are the exceptions you hear about, plus they didn’t drop out of just any school, they dropped out of some nice institutions (like Harvard or Stanford). These people are smart, they didn’t need those schools, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t study. They managed to learn things by themselves at a faster pace than was offered to them because a different learning strategy suited them better. There are books and courses and practice one can do without schools, but that requires a form of discipline and interest not many people have. They didn’t become successful because they dropped out of college, that’s not how this works. Let’s not forget that there are dozens of people who are successful with a degree, who applied what they learned. World changing people aren’t like everyone else, the have big ideas and the means and motivation to make them reality. Some lose nothing when dropping out, they gained opportunities. Others thoroughly enjoy learning in school and take what they learn to higher levels. School-life is just as much about figuring out what we want to do, helping us learn, and putting down a solid foundation for life than it is about learning math, biology, and chemistry. Oh, and enjoy school while you can. It’s the tutorial of life where you can make mistakes, be free, and not be burdened by responsibility.
Let’s look at the Forbes 400, or the 400 richest people in the U.S., all of whom are billionaires. Upon examining the 362 billionaires whose education records were available, 44 were college dropouts; in other words, only 12.2 percent of billionaires dropped out of school.
More often than not, a successful college dropout is the exception and not the rule. The majority of America’s roughly 34 million college dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, in debt, defaulting on their loans, and impoverished. ( I have not yet acquired the statistic sa Pinas about drop outs)
Let’s look at someone like Bill Gates. Here’s just a snippet of his early life. Gates was enrolled at a private preparatory school when he was 13. During the eighth grade, he was able to spend time and learn how to program on a General Electric computer. He wrote his first program at this time. This was during the 1960s when the general public, for the most part, was oblivious to computing technologies. His father was also a partner in the Preston Gates & Ellis law firm, and his mother was on the board of directors for both First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. All of these factors definitely led to him having a headstart in a lot of areas. But that still doesn’t account for everything: There are many rich people who’ve never amounted to anything. His father was also a partner in the Preston Gates & Ellis law firm, and his mother was on the board of directors for both First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. All of these factors definitely led to him having a headstart in a lot of areas. But that still doesn’t account for everything: There are many rich people who’ve never amounted to anything. Someone in this group is 70% more likely to be unemployed and over four times more likely to default on their loans. On average, this group also earns 32% less than college graduates. Far from tipping the scales of outrageous wealth, college dropouts are barely getting by.
Stock Trading Unrealistic Expectations
Pagdating naman sa stock trading sobrang dami ng traders gusto maging full time traders at dahil doon ay dumami na rin ang mga opportunistic gurus na nagbebenta ng seminars kung papaano maging fulltime trader. Walang mali sa pag aspire na maging full time trader. Yung kadalasang mali ay sa pamamaraan na ma achieve ito. Karamihan ay gusto maginng full time trader pero ayaw mag spend ng years sa pag aaral abot stock market. They don’t want to gain a lot of experience. They don’t want yung hirap at failures na mararanasan ng isang trader bago ito maging full time trader. They want the nice car. They want the nice house. They want the glamorous vacation. They want the product but not the process kaya most of them fail. Tipong naka open lang ng trading account ay aakala.in na few clicks here and there magkakapera na sila at walang lugi.
When I try to explain this to a newbie I often sound cynical daw. I’m not. they would often refer to Warren Buffett as an example. Warren Buffet are what we call a product of survivor bias. Ganun din sina Henry Sy. Sina Edgar Sia.
SURVIVOR BIAS
Let me explain what I mean by survivor bias. Survivor bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those that did not, typically because of their lack of visibility. This can lead to false conclusions in several different ways. Every one Henry Sy na naging successful sa business ay mayroong 999,999 taong nagtry mag negosyo pero nalugi. You will probably learn or hear about Henry Sy’s story but not those 999,999 people. Sabi nga ni Winston Churchill, History is written by the victors. One example na makakarelate kayo is yung PBB. Naalala pa ninyo ang Pinoy Big Brother? I bet familiar kayo ky Sam Milby. PBB season 1 si Sam. Familiar kayo ky Sam but not kina Uma, Jenny, Racquel at Rico. Kilala ninyo si Sam Pinto which is from PBB Double Up but not Carol Batay, Riza Patria at Rica Paras. Ang dami pa na example gaya nina James Reid, Gerald Anderson at Kim Chu which are all product of survivor bias. Hindi lahat na sumali at nanalo sa PBB went on to be a successful TV personality. Nene Tamayo comes in mind.
My Trading Journey
When I was starting pa lang sa trading I always try to learn from those who failed. What did he do na mali. What did she do na mali. I acknowledge na may mga successful traders but I was more interested sa mga failed ones. I learned a lot more sa trading sa mga mistakes ng naunang trader kesa sa mga success. I learned to withdraw my gains dahil one wrong trade babawiin ni stock market ang gains mo plus more. I also learned na mas stable ang psych at emotion ng trader na ang gamit pang trade is excess money niya compared sa gamit ay buong life saving niya. I also learned na need mo e fix expenses mo at magstart ka gawa ng target profit based sa expenses mo as well as your capital based sa how much expenses mo sa isang buwan or isang taon. I learned a lot and most ng learnings ko I share sa Trader Lounge which is a facebook group I created to share free learnings.
If you want to one day live off your trades, I urge you not to take any shortcuts. Study, gain experience and bigyan ninyo ng effort at dedication ang stock trading/investing. It took me three years of losing. Tatlong taon na puro losses. Naka ilang wipe out ako ng accounts ko. Naka ilang panalangin ako sa Quiapo at Baclaran na sana mabawe ko capital ko but walang nangyare. Naka ilang “kung maibabalik ko lang sana di ko papasukin to” na speech na ako. I lost a lot sa stock market bago ako natuto. Di ko na mabilag luha na pumatak sakin. Di ko na mabilang mga sleepless nights. Mga weekend na di ko ma enjoy kase balisa sa mangyayare sa hawak ko na stock pagdatng ng lunes. Tatlong taon na puro talo. Yung iba nakaka limang sunod na cutloss lang umaayaw na ako naranasan ko more than 20 na trade sunod sunod puro cutloss.
I hope I can somehow inspire you to be on the right path pagdating sa stock trading.
Remember na most college dropouts don’t become unusually successful, and most unusually successful people aren’t college dropouts.
Here is my port as of now. I might empty this at open at abang ng opportunity if meron.
If you want to learn more about stock trading join our Facebook Group called Trader’s Lounge.
Our advocacy is sharing ideas, experiences and knowledge to traders for FREE. We offer free Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis and Market Psychology learning materials for free.
We also have weekly lessons over there. We created different trading strategies like MAMA which made a lot of traders profitable. Other trading strategies include FISHBALL, PAPA, CALMA and more. We want to offer OFW’s, Employees and all Filipino people a chance to learn without paying a cent.
We also have a Youtube Channel wherein I myself discuss strategies and trading related topics.
Come join us. Let us push free learning.
10 Comments
Joanna
Natapos ko na po ilang assignments ko and noticed this ma’am. Napasilip lang po at ngayon ko lang narinig ang salitang survivor bias. Good thing, simple at madaling intindihin po explanation nyo. Thank you po 🙂
mako solano
Galing. Survivor bias pala tawag dun. Salamat po ulit sa advice
DaniB
Thank you for making us wise. Keep it up 🙂
Carding See sun
Thank you po ulit.
PolarEye
Very nice. Napapa “oo nga,” nlg ako palagi sa mga sulat mo GK. Galing. Isa kang totoong alamat ng pse. Na eexcite ako sa mga iba mo pang isusulat. Alam kong nasa chapter one palang tayo at dami2 kapang reserba jan. Ingat lagi. Love you! At God bless! ❤
Jenny Cahapay
Reading your blogs and watching your videos help us a lot. Thank you so much. God Bless you.
ren alabata
thanks for saving noobies
Ali Aswegui
Thank you ma’am for inspiring traders.
Barkley
Thank you po.
yononjr
Thanks po. Dami ko natututunan dito.