If you ask someone in highschool what they wish to do when they get out of school, their response will normally fall in the lines of "I want to get a good job." If you ask me, I will tell you "I want to start a buisiness" or "I want to work for noone." People think it's hard to get rich. Well let me tell you something, I watched my Dad do it (at least get on his way).
He used a skill (programming) totally unrelated to his career (a pilot) and turned it into a major asset.
www.rvcorner.com (not very successful, but
www.rvdata.com is what he's working with now instead), and
www.allpme.com are two buisinesses which he started and brought him a little money, along with his hosting company of ww.paladincomputers.com. Now he's about to start
www.securesurveys.com and
www.expersignal.com the latter expected to bring in at least 2 million within the first year.
www.allpme.com turned out to exceed his air force salary within 2 years, with 15 minutes or less of work a day. the RV stuff didn't work out so well, but it's getting better. expersignal.com will probably blow away his expectations, and the securesurveys stuff has tons of potential but he's not even worried about that right now.
4 or 5 years ago, he was living like any other american. had some financial problems, worried about certain expenses etc. Now, after lots of work and motivation, he can go "hey that's a cool piano what do you think, should we get it?"
In addition, he's been really into trading stuff (which is what expersignal is based on). based on trades on and off, he would be able to make a few hundred thousand a year if he did it full time.
7 or 8 years ago, he didn't know anything about using coldfusion (the programming language he's an expert in now), how to trade stock/option/futures successfully, or successfully run a buisiness. In a few years, he changed all that.
Watching my Dad turn things around and create something for himself was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen. Few people realize their potential, and even fewer make the effort to reach it.