I'm more interested in the process leading up to college, your work ethic definitely makes a difference there but your opportunities when you are younger affect

I'm more interested in the process leading up to college, your work ethic definitely makes a difference there but your opportunities when you are younger affect whether you ever even go to college and how prepared you are once you get there. How did you write those scripts and websites, did you have a computer growing up? Internet access (what little internet there was to be had then that is)? I'm not trying to take away your achievements, but I think this kind of thinking is a big part of what is wrong with how we make public policy. We see things in a very narrow way (just human nature) and we generally have a hard time empathizing with other people and their experiences. I think if we could get over that and stop romanticizing the exceptions and start understanding better the average experiences of people in our societies, maybe we can make better decisions that allow more people to succeed. By the way working full time through undergrad and grad school would have been tough, I ended up taking out loans myself (partly so I could enjoy the experience a little more and not work all the time, only most of the time) so kudos to you for pulling that off. I'm not sure I want everyone to have to go through that (if even they could have done that, not too many people can make $75/hr even as professionals let alone students), but there is nothing wrong with taking pride in having done it yourself.