My dad's business began to decline when I was in middle school, and he had to shut it down by the time I was in my junior year of high school. I'm the second of

My dad's business began to decline when I was in middle school, and he had to shut it down by the time I was in my junior year of high school. I'm the second of seven children, and by the time I graduated my parents' savings were wiped out and they were just barely managing to keep food on the table. They couldn't afford to help me pay for school, but my test scores were high enough to get a full scholarship to a public university near my home town, so that's where I went. I lived at home, used public transit to commute, and made due with what I had available. It's easy for me to say that credentials are worthless, I went to a school you've probably never even heard of, so it's nice to hear this from a successful individual who graduated from a top school.