Sounds like the difference between me and an acquaintance of mine. I went into software development with a burning passion for it. Nobody was going to stop me

Sounds like the difference between me and an acquaintance of mine. I went into software development with a burning passion for it. Nobody was going to stop me from doing it. He on the other hand went into it because it was considered a good career path and you could make a lot of money. He rushed through college and graduated quickly with good grades (< 4 years if I remember correctly). I putzed around, had bad habits, muddled my way through every course, got 90% through my degree and said "fuck it, I can't do this school thing anymore" in my 5th year and got a job. I never finished my degree, but he languished while I excelled in my career. He's at least as smart if not smarter than me. What I did do is co-op (work for a semester, and then take classes for a semester). I wrote my own software. I created my own websites. I built and managed a primitive social network for my gaming buddies. I took a generic job at a no-name mortgage company for very little pay and worked my way up. He didn't do any of these things. He got out into the real world expecting things to be handed to him, and it never happened. He never did the work-work, just the school-work. I don't know how else to account for it, we went to the same schools. I simply didn't learn the same lessons he learned. Most of what I still build on to this day was the more practical in the field work from the bottom up and fight for it experience. His was from schooling.