Not Your Typical "Education" Success Stories

[j.griff]

I'm interested in hearing about the people you personally know, who may have taken a different path than others expected, or than others now expect- and were/are happy with the outcome.

 

This was a totally randomly triggered thought, but I'll share one of mine.

My dad was told that he shouldn't go to school any more (I believe that was his 8th grade year), by the principal- he wasn't the best reader. He still isn't the best reader, but he is a great person, and has so many talents. I'm pretty sure I get a LOT of my "I can do anything I want to do" mentality from him.

Seriously, that man can do ANYthing- he just has to be shown how to do it. Though he does see things "backwards" sometimes. He has always amazed me. When I was little, he'd always take odd jobs on the side, like roofing houses, building decks/porches/additions/etc. He always worked on our vehicles himself, and helped my uncles work on theirs. He can drive an 18wheeler, he has to sometimes, but he's a spotter- he backs the trucks up to the loading docks at his place of employment.

 

He's SO good at everything he does too! His workplace doesn't seem to function well when he's on vacation, :lol: (much like my DH's)

He's had a hard life, has always worked hard, and is an honest man.

He has problems with his knees now- they hurt him constantly- he's had surgery on them that didn't correct the problems he was having. He's had other major surgery, always wanting to get back to work ASAP.

 

When my aunt (3 years older than me) needed a porch built for their doublewide (NICE home!), they asked my dad to help. He went to their home, took some measurements, and told them how much wood to buy. The bought 2 extra pieces, just in case. When dad was done building their porch, they had exactly 2 extra pieces left. :D

 

He may not have been smart "on paper" when he was in school, but I admire him and his work ethic, his ability do adapt, his intelligence, and his "can-do" attitude. He ROCKS!

[Eleni]

We have a friend who is only 27....was voted least likely to succeed in high school, barely squeaked out, came from a very odd family situation, writes in text message language, and managed to earn 1 million last year. Seriously. He is also on the executive board of the company he works for.

 

dh barely made it out of high school....was considered a failure by his teachers..never went to college...once worked in a factory and did not know what he was doing, his foreman even said "If you cant even do this stupid job I will be driving past you while you are in the welfare line getting govt' cheese" Dh is now the #1 Sales Manager worldwide with his company and is renowned throughout for his amazing speeches and the things he writes. rs..

 

I know of several others....funny thing they are all in sales. :lol:

 

Sometimes I look at how all the people that I know who are incredibly successful ,and it is funny that they barely made it through high school, and none of them finished college, yet no one makes under 100K a year. :001_huh:

[j.griff]

Wow! "several others", :D That is encouraging to hear.

One of my elementary school teachers always called the boys who didn't make good grades/didn't turn in their homework- "a pig in the mud puddle", said they'd "never amount to anything" and said, "all you'll be when you grow up is a DITCH DIGGER!".

It's wonderful, for me, to hear stories of people who were put down by "the system", or who were never expected to "be anything"- to go on and succeed and surpass those that put them down. Awesome.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

You know, people that use the gifts they were given can really shine. We all have different ways about us. We are all smart in our own ways. There's not just one way to define smart. I went to school, but does that make me smarter than anyone else? Nope. It was just the path I took. I don't even know if it was the right thing for me, but I did it anyway. And there are so many life things that I am so ignorant of too.

 

I love to hear how others use their own talents and gifts to succeed in life. Truly inspirational.

[JenneinCA]

My Dad could not recognize his own name in third grade. (His name is Mike.) He could not tell you the sound a single letter made. His third grade teacher spent the entire year teaching him phonics. He remembers the day he saw the letter r and realized it made the sound "ur". He was eight years old. He cries even today when he remembers how earth shattering that realization was. He was in remedial classes forever. He was told he was good for nothing.

 

In about 7th grade he discovered photography. And he taught himself how to take pictures and develop film. He still read poorly and was in remedial math. Somehow he figured out how to do photography.

 

He took lots of pictures through high school, year book and newspaper. Anything for more time with a camera. He decided he wanted to be a photographer and attempted community college. It didn't work very well. He still read slowly and his math wasn't up to the job. He struggled. He took pictures for the newspaper and loved that. (That is where he met my Mom, she wrote for the newspaper and they went to a football game together.)

 

Then he was drafted. He decided he didn't want to go into the Army and enlisted in the Air Force instead. He took a test and did well enough that he did more photography. He spent his time developing film. Mostly from spy planes and other secret stuff.

 

When he got out he wanted to do photography still. And he decided to go to the best photography school he could, a school called Art Center located in California. But they wouldn't take him until he could do the math and english so he figured out how to do that and reapplied. And then they took him. He graduated 11th of a class of 13.

 

And got a job working a Hughes Aircraft taking pictures of planes. But was laid off when they decided he was too expensive. He had a wife and child (me!) by this time so he took the next job he could find, working for the LAPD taking pictures of crime scenes. He worked there for 26 years.

 

About five years ago he retired from the LAPD and moved to Arizona to be closer to his children and grandchildren. He is now working at the local community colleges teaching Crime Scene Photography.

 

He has spent his entire life chasing a dream of taking pictures. It is the one constant thing that he has had since he was very little. He loves cameras. He loves photography. He loves teaching people how to take pictures. It is just a part of him that has never gone away.

[j.griff]

Oh, I don't mean to turn this into a college vs. no college type thread, and I don't mean anything mean about those who've gone to college, really- no judgement. I have just seen people before say " I know so-and-so who dropped out of school and now he's a x who makes $xxxxxxxxxx a year", but there's no "story" included, KWIM?

Actually, it was your knitting thread that triggered me thinking about my dad, LOL- how he knew how to do so many different things and is so multi-talented. He's never made lots of money doing the things he's good at, but he's GOOD at them and gets satisfaction from doing the work, KWIM?

[Merry]

Love those stories. My dh also didn't do well in school. The teachers told him to forget college. To make a long story short, he ended up in the research and development dept. with Lockheed and invented a tool that was patented by the co.

[Oakblossoms]

A friend of ours was totally unschooled. His mom just let him do whatever he wanted. He got a full ride through 4 years of prestigious private University where he got a degree in Political Science. After graduation he has kept his job as mechanic at a high end shop. He is a really interesting person. Knowledgeable yet comfortable to be around.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

Oh, I don't mean to turn this into a college vs. no college type thread, and I don't mean anything mean about those who've gone to college, really- no judgement. I have just seen people before say " I know so-and-so who dropped out of school and now he's a x who makes $xxxxxxxxxx a year", but there's no "story" included, KWIM?

Actually, it was your knitting thread that triggered me thinking about my dad, LOL- how he knew how to do so many different things and is so multi-talented. He's never made lots of money doing the things he's good at, but he's GOOD at them and gets satisfaction from doing the work, KWIM?

 

Oh no, I didn't take it that way at all. I just used that I did what I did because it was my path at the time. And that I really have great admiration for those that follow their path and use their gifts, you know. I don't know that the way I went was really using my gifts. I still don't know what they are.

 

I have always been a tad envious of those who know what they are meant to do. The passion and excitement is so wonderful to see. I just wish I had that. I did mean what you meant too, I just didn't say it well (see, not my gift).

 

And no judgment on my part at all. Truly, just admiration for those that embrace their gifts and use them regardless of what is considered a "success" by society's standards.

[Ms. Riding Hood]

My grandpa quit school in the third grade and went to work. His family needed the help. He later started working in the oilfields and worked his way up to foreman of a crew. He probably never made much over minimum wage, but had a nice (modest) home, a little land, and is one of the best men I've ever known. He could not read at all.

 

A second story--one that is still in progress: A friend has a dyslexic son who always struggled with reading. He began taking CC classes when he was 14 or 15. He got accomodations--note taker, untimed tests, etc. He turned down the note-taker, used Dragon Naturally Speaking for his written work, and used some textbooks from Books for the Blind and Dyslexic. He's now getting an associates degree and transferring into a large state U. It's an alternate path than most. And he never had to take the SAT!

[Myrtle]

He may not have been smart "on paper" when he was in school, but I admire him and his work ethic, his ability do adapt, his intelligence, and his "can-do" attitude. He ROCKS!

 

There certainly is more to life than paper smarts.

 

The first thing that came to my mind when I read your post was a very popular and straight A student that I went to high school with that ended up a convicted felon over business dealings.

 

I know three people who did very well with paper smarts in college after having a horrible K12 education. One was a high school drop out who went on to get an advanced degree in statistics and another was illiterate until the third grade, went to 10 different schools in 12 different years, but went on make straight As in college and graduate with honors.

[finding_sanctuary]

Here's a somewhat different "alternate path" story...

 

My father-in-law did start college after a short stint in the military. He wanted to study higher-level mathematics. Instead, he dropped out and became a union pipefitter. It wasn't that he couldn't do the college work; far from it -- he was, quite literally, a genius. He dropped out because he was smarter than his professors, and they kept telling him he was doing everything wrong (when he wasn't...just not doing things in a way they could understand). So, he became a union pipefitter and spent a couple decades in the trade before retiring. The man was a genius, but chose a very physical line of work and excelled at it, making more money than many college grads. More importantly, he was happy, and managed to help raise 6 very different children to be (reasonably) successful individuals.

 

People are always talking about "living up to your potential". Did my FIL live up to his potential? I'd say yes, just not in the way everyone expected.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

A man I met briefly is dyslexic. He was a total failure at school, dropped out, and when I met him, he owned a large trucking company. I don't know the middle part of the story though.

 

My friend's dh was a problem in school, dropped out early, farmed for awhile then got into oilfield work. This was clearly where he belonged since he built his company which now supports his very early retirement.

[elegantlion]

My MIL has a quite a story. She married her high school sweetheart, became a SAHM. When he was killed in accident at age 32 she was left with 5 young children to raise.

 

She opted to go back to school while working full time. The cliff notes version is that she rose to the top of her chosen profession. She wrote textbooks as well. She has since retired and now writes murder mystery novels. She has had three published and is working on more.

 

She's quite an inspiration. She planned on just being a Mom for her career, but didn't let tragedy keep her down.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My own dad has such a story, but he kept it hidden from us for a while. ;-)

 

He's highly gifted, but failed at school. Well, not really 'fail', but not college material. He was receiving a classical education (ironically enough) because that's what bright sons of bright and successful men received at the time. Dad 'did his time' with Latin and Greek, but what he really wanted was to fly airplanes.

He didn't graduate from his classical school, didn't attend college, but he did show up at a recruitment center, where he aced all the tests. Those tests were mainly hand-eye coordination, and mechanical instinct -for lack of a more precise term. His dad refused his son's decision, and kicked him out of the house. They didn't talk for months!

Dad made it as a fight pilot, thankfully just after WWII. As soon as Air Canada started hiring, he switched over, to get a chance at a stable job. He stayed there till he retired, loved every minute of it. He's never had an accident, nor a close call. He suggested new procedures that saved the company mucho dollares, but when they tried to transfer him to a desk job, he refused.

 

Flying was his calling, for sure. He loved it, and he was fantastic at it. Still, he recognised the need for a diploma in today's society, and put lots of pressure on us to get through college. My sister and I both are engineers, and my bro decided to become a pilot too! LOL

[mommaduck]

My stepfather was hit in the head with a bat and they said he would never ride a bike cycle. He's also dyslexic and colourblind, yet he made it in the military (hiding his colourblindness...I've known a state cop that was able to hide it also), and became a computer hardware and software expert. He manages a company's entire systems set up. This is a man who not only rode his bicycle to work for many years ;) but also rebuilt his first car engine at age 12. He started college after age 50 to get a degree stating he can do everything that he has been doing for years.

 

My brothers are also dyslexic. One became a pilot and has a degree. The other never graduated highschool, but he can tear anything apart and put it together, is a wielder, and though he can't read, he can figure money quickly and easily.