Even dumb people can make money

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
1

First off lets begin by saying I am dumb, legitimately book dumb.

I was a rebellious child and fought against my stepfather until I thought I was “old” enough at 16 to move out, drop out of school. Stupid as hell as hindsight proved my stepdad loved me and only was strict for my own well being. But I stray, anyway took my GED took my ASVAB joined the army. Never utilized there schooling monies just chose to live my life day too day.

I got a “WebTv” in the late 90’s somewhere my first real experience in surfing the internet, started a cute little website that forwarded mail using codes you where you paid a yearly or monthly fee and could then give out your address in a chat room as RSF2232 P.O. Box 555 MyAddress and I would in turn forward it too the person as to not reveal your location to strangers. Not sure if this was legal but it was worthwhile and actually made a little profit before I couldn’t handle it anymore and my real life was interfering with it.

I then started a job laying sewer lines, made prevailing wage, good overtime clearing more then I thought I would ever make. But I got my dumb mind too work for me and said there has to be an easier way.

I started a network of over 100 websites ranging from the mundane selling scooters to the obscure selling knicknacks and sites for everything in between.

While I was working IRL this was slowly starting to provide more and more income as my sites become google friendlier and got seen. Soon it became possible for me to quit my IRL job an depend solely on the income generated by websites I hand designed and coded (Pure html now using some more advanced but for the most part just plain old html) purely by trial and error.
Sure I made mistakes, Iask.net was mine at one time, let it go because I had my hands full just paying to keep all the other names registered.
Had an offer for another one of my websites that I wouldn’t let go, came too find out it was a rather large company that wanted it and had a dickered rather then ignored I might be retired in Beverly Hills now :slight_smile:

I can now say I am a success for a dumb SOB, I don’t work for anyone, I have an actual office, actual employee’s and to make things all that much better when I don’t want to go to work I don’t have to.

I am in no way belittling what the highly educated amongst you have done, nor will I do that. I want my son and daughter to attend the best schools in the future and have a life as easy as possible. But I feel vindicated everytime I wake up and decide to sit with my wife and baby all day rather then trudge to work.
And the point to all this? There is none really other then explaining my lack of proper grammar and spelling errors that some have pointed out. Which I apologize for, they may make me look dumb in education but I am smart in life.

2

I remember talking to a guy who is making a really good income in real estate in florida about it (he does some things with the law too like tort reform even though he doesn’t have a J.D.) and he said that education is barely a factor when you are talking about the really well off in society. Getting to be really well off is a mix of the right connections, luck, good decisions and hard work. College degrees are just to let you work for other people.

Anyway, good for you. The richest guy I knew (net worth of about 8 million at one time) dropped out of 4th grade.

3

I don’t think I’m dumb. I graduated in the top 1/5th of my class from high school, had a GPA of I think 4.2 – I had some AP classes, I got a 1230 on my SATs without doing any kind of prep classes or studying, mostly because I didn’t really care – I had a lot untreated of emotional/mental problems back then. I had been accepted to the Art Institute of Houston, but I ended up not going because it’s incredibly expensive; even though my dad was the only earner in a family of five his income disqualified me for a lot of financial aid. I wasn’t going to put them in debt $30k for my school. I ended up withdrawing and going to community college for about six weeks, where I was utterly miserable because no one really wanted to be there, until I finally dropped out and went up north (Minnesota and Canada) where I had friends, to spend some time away from my toxic family, and so I could work out a lot of my mental issues before I ended up killing or institutionalizing myself.

I spent about a year away from my family, which was enough time to start healing myself and improve my relations with them – I am the oldest and they had pretty much frozen me in their mind as a perpetual 15 year-old. While up north I had a lot more positive experiences with school, even though I didn’t go myself, the boyfriend was going to University of Toronto and I went to his office there a lot, sat in on at least one of his classes and spent some time with his friends – it was nice to be around students who actually enjoyed what they studied and wanted to learn. It helped me shape a much more positive attitude towards learning and life in general, when I came back to Houston, sick and broke in 2001.

When I got back, I ended up starting the process of learning how to run a business (taxes, accounting, etc) it was kind of a learn-as-you-go thing, but I did it while working about 50 hours a week between a frame shop and waiting tables (this is when I started getting heart palpitations and anxiety attacks #_#), until I found a regular full-time job. I stayed at the full-time job over two years, running my business on the side the whole time, until a manipulative coworker sexually harassing me and just generally doing everything he could to make my life miserable finally forced me to leave. At that point (a little over a year ago now) I found myself doing my business full-time, and only that, for the first time. I did end up working a part time job half of 2004 though after I moved into my own place. Last year (besides the PT job), between working my ass off putting together a book, keeping up with my two comics the best I could, taking commissions, tips, and keeping up with my other projects, my business net profits were almost $7000 after all taxes. Almost triple any previous year. While it’s pretty pathetic in the grand scheme of things, at least it’s something and at least I’m trying. My readership/audience is growing pretty rapidly now, I’ve taken steps to minimize expenses, and I’ve got some publishers interested that might even see my “Asylum on 5th Street” comic in the big box bookstores some time in '06. So, you know, it’s progress.

There are a lot of people who will tell you you’re dumb just because you don’t have a piece of paper declaring you completed four years of university education, or whatever, but really… education comes in a lot of forms. You can’t judge a person on that alone. I sometimes wonder where I might’ve ended up, or what I might’ve ended up doing, if I hadn’t been so disturbed in high school and could’ve really applied myself and gone to a real university. But it’s not something I dwell on. Clearly some people just have different paths in life, for whatever reason; I’ve found mine, and it sounds like you’ve found yours. You just have to find a balance between what you must do, and what makes you happy and fulfilled.

Who knows? Maybe like me you might even decide you want to go back to school one day, just for the learning experience. :slight_smile:

4 
I'd never last in school because it doesn't interest me in the least bit and when I am not interested in something I fail it miserably. I probably have ADHD always have according to the online test I took I have it  (Don't know how accurate [this test](http://www.amenclinic.com/ac/addtests/adult.asp)  is) And it doesn't adversly affect me other then in a school setting.  Handcoding websites is the one thing I love doing, its fun, and you can see how what you do can change things people see.

I wish I could correct my grammar, spelling usually is not an issue as I can spell ok and spellcheck can catch what I miss, but there is nothing for grammar or the proper use of there,thier, your, you’re, to, too using spell checkers. But sadly I do not hold the attention needed to go through a learning program to learn proper grammar. Thats not an excuse for me, because if I really thought it would make my life easier I would go see a doctor get some meds and do just that.

But I don’t see how learning proper grammar can make my life any better. Sure I would love to learn new things about different topics, thats why I am here. I can understand everything about almost every thread I read here. Doesn’t mean I need to know the difference between to and too though. And if I don’t understand it, I google it :slight_smile: