Homeless Student Heads to Harvard

Link to the story.

http://www.gnn.com/article/homeless-student-heads-to-harvard/539624?icid=main|main|dl2|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnn.com%2Farticle%2Fhomeless-student-heads-to-harvard%2F539624

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I think it's pretty empowering. To those of you who think you got it bad, there's someone who has it worse.

EDIT: :? Won't let me make the link neater...

Link to the story.

http://www.gnn.com/article/homeless-student-heads-to-harvard/539624?icid=main|main|dl2|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnn.com%2Farticle%2Fhomeless-student-heads-to-harvard%2F539624

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I think it's pretty empowering. To those of you who think you got it bad, there's someone who has it worse.

EDIT: :? Won't let me make the link neater...

So when's the movie coming out?II_Seraphim_II

Actually, it already is a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338109/ . But it's cool that this girl was able to succeed as well :D

That is very awesome.

She obviously is gifted though not just with drive, but intelligence.. She is obviously not the average person with not only able to almost make victorian but all with a struggling home.. This isn't to downplay, its possible.. But highly unlikely, she is obviously a extremely intelligent person.. Its like people who admire Benjamin Franklin's rag to riches story.. Though people alot of times fail to realize that the man was born with a intelligence that was a great deal higher than the average person.. sSubZerOo

I hope she goes on to do even better things in life.

Somebody with street smarts AND book smarts? Interesting... never occured to me that you could have both.

Too bad most homeless people aren't gifted learners...

I think it's possible for anyone who really wants to. It's all about motivation.

killab2oo5

I disagree. Motivation is very important, but many people just don't have the natural intellectual ability to do what this girl did, including plenty of people who aren't homeless...

good for her she was at the bottom already so she knew she had to give it her all in school and it got her a 4.0 gpa

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"] She obviously is gifted though not just with drive, but intelligence.. She is obviously not the average person with not only able to almost make victorian but all with a struggling home.. This isn't to downplay, its possible.. But highly unlikely, she is obviously a extremely intelligent person.. Its like people who admire Benjamin Franklin's rag to riches story.. Though people alot of times fail to realize that the man was born with a intelligence that was a great deal higher than the average person.. killab2oo5

Going from rags to riches often requires three things:

1. Giftedness in some way (intelligence, artistic ability, physique, etc)
2. Motivation
3. Luck

That last one tends to be especially important. A lot of successful people would just be average Joes if it wasn't for some random event that inspired them or just simply being in the right place at the right time.

One thing that a find out that was pretty interesting is that actually a pretty large amount of people that go to ivy league schools, end up below the poverty line. Im not sure if its true, but i was told that it was because they tend to set there goals to high, and end up failing. The truth about it is a good education does only so much when it comes to being succesful in a work environment. The more important things are communication skills and innovation.

Going from rags to riches often requires three things:

1. Giftedness in some way (intelligence, artistic ability, physique, etc)
2. Motivation
3. Luck

That last one tends to be especially important. A lot of successful people would just be average Joes if it wasn't for some random event that inspired them or just simply being in the right place at the right time.

gameguy6700

Absolutely true. You can't be rags to riches success story without all three of those, and you have very little control over #1 and #3. Something that most conservatives don't understand when pointing to these people as proof that every poor person who doesn't make it is just lazy.

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

Going from rags to riches often requires three things:

1. Giftedness in some way (intelligence, artistic ability, physique, etc)
2. Motivation
3. Luck

That last one tends to be especially important. A lot of successful people would just be average Joes if it wasn't for some random event that inspired them or just simply being in the right place at the right time.

pianist

Absolutely true. You can't be rags to riches success story without all three of those, and you have very little control over #1 and #3. Something that most conservatives don't understand when pointing to these people as proof that every poor person who doesn't make it is just lazy.

[QUOTE="pianist"]

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

Going from rags to riches often requires three things:

1. Giftedness in some way (intelligence, artistic ability, physique, etc)
2. Motivation
3. Luck

That last one tends to be especially important. A lot of successful people would just be average Joes if it wasn't for some random event that inspired them or just simply being in the right place at the right time.

magnax1

Absolutely true. You can't be rags to riches success story without all three of those, and you have very little control over #1 and #3. Something that most conservatives don't understand when pointing to these people as proof that every poor person who doesn't make it is just lazy.

Unless of course you don't qualify for the military due to medical or mental health issues (or because you ****ed up on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy).

Thats not exactly true, I mean it is in a case like this person it is, but if you are extremely poor and want to move up in life, you can got into the military to pay for college, or even just so you can get a better job. The military can really help people in poverty out, you can get cheaper insurance when you are out, and it look pretty good on your resume.

magnax1

Firstly, not everybody is a good fit for the military. Secondly, it doesn't matter if you get a free ride to college if you are not intellectually inclined. Thirdly, you still need a great deal of luck to do any better than average in this society. His point stands. You need aptitude, motivation, AND luck to be a rags to riches success story.

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

[QUOTE="pianist"]

Absolutely true. You can't be rags to riches success story without all three of those, and you have very little control over #1 and #3. Something that most conservatives don't understand when pointing to these people as proof that every poor person who doesn't make it is just lazy.

gameguy6700

Unless of course you don't qualify for the military due to medical or mental health issues (or because you ****ed up on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy).

Lol very true, my uncle who was mentally insane, almost got drafted for vietnam. But he acted like his cataracts were much worse than they really were, they thought he was practically blind. Wich is exactly what im gonna do when they try to draft me... "*cough* *cough*..... my asthma.... so suffocating.

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

Thats not exactly true, I mean it is in a case like this person it is, but if you are extremely poor and want to move up in life, you can got into the military to pay for college, or even just so you can get a better job. The military can really help people in poverty out, you can get cheaper insurance when you are out, and it look pretty good on your resume.

pianist

Firstly, not everybody is a good fit for the military. Secondly, it doesn't matter if you get a free ride to college if you are not intellectually inclined. Thirdly, you still need a great deal of luck to do any better than average in this society. His point stands. He is correct. You need aptitude, motivation, AND luck to be a rags to riches success story.

You need motivation to get from rags to riches, and you dont need a whole lot of intellectuallity to get through college. There are plenty of people who are average and below average mentally that get through college, even if there grades aren't outstanding. But pretty much everybody except the very richest need a little bit of luck to get anywhere in life. But the majority of people kind find the sort of luck they need after a while if they are working hard.

You need motivation to get from rags to riches, and you dont need a whole lot of intellectuallity to get through college. There are plenty of people who are average and below average mentally that get through college, even if there grades aren't outstanding. But pretty much everybody except the very richest need a little bit of luck to get anywhere in life. But the majority of people kind find the sort of luck they need after a while if they are working hard.

magnax1

People who simply "get through" college don't typically go on to do anything noteworthy in their lives. And if you do nothing noteworthy, you won't become wealthy, unless you happen to catch a lucky break (there's that word again) and win the lotto or something. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people believe all of us are on equal footing when it comes to potential success, and that any person is capable of becoming wealthy by "working hard" when there are millions upon millions of examples of this failing to work, with only a few exceptions here and there where it does work.

Motivation is only one part of the formula. Hard work alone will NOT make you a financial success story.

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

You need motivation to get from rags to riches, and you dont need a whole lot of intellectuallity to get through college. There are plenty of people who are average and below average mentally that get through college, even if there grades aren't outstanding. But pretty much everybody except the very richest need a little bit of luck to get anywhere in life. But the majority of people kind find the sort of luck they need after a while if they are working hard.

pianist

People who simply "get through" college don't typically go on to do anything noteworthy in their lives. And if you do nothing noteworthy, you won't become wealthy, unless you happen to catch a lucky break (there's that word again) and win the lotto or something. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people believe all of us are on equal footing when it comes to potential success, and that any person is capable of becoming wealthy by "working hard" when there are millions upon millions of examples of this failing to work, with only a few exceptions here and there where it does work.

Motivation is only one part of the formula. Hard work alone will NOT make you a financial success story.

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

[QUOTE="pianist"]

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

Thats not exactly true, I mean it is in a case like this person it is, but if you are extremely poor and want to move up in life, you can got into the military to pay for college, or even just so you can get a better job. The military can really help people in poverty out, you can get cheaper insurance when you are out, and it look pretty good on your resume.

magnax1

Firstly, not everybody is a good fit for the military. Secondly, it doesn't matter if you get a free ride to college if you are not intellectually inclined. Thirdly, you still need a great deal of luck to do any better than average in this society. His point stands. He is correct. You need aptitude, motivation, AND luck to be a rags to riches success story.

You need motivation to get from rags to riches, and you dont need a whole lot of intellectuallity to get through college. There are plenty of people who are average and below average mentally that get through college, even if there grades aren't outstanding. But pretty much everybody except the very richest need a little bit of luck to get anywhere in life. But the majority of people kind find the sort of luck they need after a while if they are working hard.

If your goal is to be middle class, then yes, that's true. If you want to be upper class though, or at least significantly more successful than the average person, you need all three qualities. Even if graduating from Podunk State College is easy, that doesn't mean that your mediocre intelligence is good enough to move you up through the ranks in a career. If you had to work your ass off for a 2.0 GPA then chances are you're not going to get very far in the real world. Besides, it's no secret that a person who attends Harvard business school is going to have more and better opportunities than a person who graduates from some bottom tier state school.

Very often the luck involved in making a person successful comes before they start their career. Michael Jackson wouldn't be an extremely successful entertainer had it not been for the fact that he was born in a family of performers. Bill Gates got interested in computers after he used one in his middle school's computer lab. Guess how many middle schools in the country had a computer lab at that time? One. Stephen Colbert only got started in entertainment because of a professor he met at the college he transferred to (had he chosen not to transfer or chosen a different school he probably wouldn't be hosting one of the most successful shows on television right now). Using my own dad as an example, who is a CFO of a large multinational, he only got into accounting because when he was a young teen he had to go over to his dad's store for awhile. Bored he got himself into trouble and one of the managers put him to work doing some basic accounting work in order to keep him from causing any more disturbances. It was then that my dad discovered his love for accounting. Had it not been for that event who knows what he would have chosen to do instead.

So when's the movie coming out?II_Seraphim_II

Haha. Probably next week.

[QUOTE="pianist"]

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

You need motivation to get from rags to riches, and you dont need a whole lot of intellectuallity to get through college. There are plenty of people who are average and below average mentally that get through college, even if there grades aren't outstanding. But pretty much everybody except the very richest need a little bit of luck to get anywhere in life. But the majority of people kind find the sort of luck they need after a while if they are working hard.

magnax1

People who simply "get through" college don't typically go on to do anything noteworthy in their lives. And if you do nothing noteworthy, you won't become wealthy, unless you happen to catch a lucky break (there's that word again) and win the lotto or something. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people believe all of us are on equal footing when it comes to potential success, and that any person is capable of becoming wealthy by "working hard" when there are millions upon millions of examples of this failing to work, with only a few exceptions here and there where it does work.

Motivation is only one part of the formula. Hard work alone will NOT make you a financial success story.

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

It's not that you have to be extremely successful in college to be successful in life. It's that if you don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in college then you probably don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in life either. Motivation is something that can change though. Intelligence isn't. Hence the reason why if you're working your ass off and only barely graduate college you probably won't be going far in life.

Also, we're talking about rags to riches here. Being a nurse doesn't make you rich, not by a long shot.

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

[QUOTE="pianist"]

People who simply "get through" college don't typically go on to do anything noteworthy in their lives. And if you do nothing noteworthy, you won't become wealthy, unless you happen to catch a lucky break (there's that word again) and win the lotto or something. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people believe all of us are on equal footing when it comes to potential success, and that any person is capable of becoming wealthy by "working hard" when there are millions upon millions of examples of this failing to work, with only a few exceptions here and there where it does work.

Motivation is only one part of the formula. Hard work alone will NOT make you a financial success story.

gameguy6700

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

It's not that you have to be extremely successful in college to be successful in life. It's that if you don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in college then you probably don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in life either. Motivation is something that can change though. Intelligence isn't. Hence the reason why if you're working your ass off and only barely graduate college you probably won't be going far in life.

Also, we're talking about rags to riches here. Being a nurse doesn't make you rich, not by a long shot.

You dont need to be intellegent to suceed in college if you have motivation. There are few people, who if they really tried, would barely make a passing average in college. Maybe only 10%. Nurse is rich enough to me, they make something like 45/50 thousand I think, plus there are many other profesions that have the same situation as nursing that make more money. You could even become an electrician, no college needed. And they make in the 55/60 thousand range.

[QUOTE="II_Seraphim_II"]So when's the movie coming out?jacintos09

Actually, it already is a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338109/ . But it's cool that this girl was able to succeed as well :D

People like that make me feel bad for not trying my hardest throughout high school.

Congrats to her.

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

magnax1

It's not that you have to be extremely successful in college to be successful in life. It's that if you don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in college then you probably don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in life either. Motivation is something that can change though. Intelligence isn't. Hence the reason why if you're working your ass off and only barely graduate college you probably won't be going far in life.

Also, we're talking about rags to riches here. Being a nurse doesn't make you rich, not by a long shot.

You dont need to be intellegent to suceed in college if you have motivation. There are few people, who if they really tried, would barely make a passing average in college. Maybe only 10%. Nurse is rich enough to me, they make something like 45/50 thousand I think, plus there are many other profesions that have the same situation as nursing that make more money. You could even become an electrician, no college needed. And they make in the 55/60 thousand range.

The average salary in the US is, I believe, around $45,000. So a nurse is not rich by any measure. Electricians may not need a college education but they still have a lot technical education that must be completed before they can get licensed. Besides, making $60k is hardly a rags-to-riches story. It's just a "I got out of poverty" story. For rags to riches you would have to take someone living in poverty and suddenly have them earning six or seven figure salaries. Someone like JK Rowling who went from being on government assistance to one of the richest people in England (which, btw, only happened because she happened to talk about her ideas for Harry Potter to a person who was pretty high up in a publishing company, a fact unknown to her, while having lunch one day).

And like I said, just graduating college isn't important. It's what you do afterward. And if you aren't intelligent then you're going to have a very rough time competing with people who are when it comes to getting lucrative promotions and job offers. When it comes to high level jobs promotion is often based on achievement (and who you know), not how good of a worker you are. No one cares if you get all your projects and work done on time. They will take notice, however, if you just turned a fledging department into a goldmine for the company, if you came up with an idea for a marketing campaign that boosted sales quite a bit, and so on.

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

It's not that you have to be extremely successful in college to be successful in life. It's that if you don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in college then you probably don't have the intelligence or motivation to do well in life either. Motivation is something that can change though. Intelligence isn't. Hence the reason why if you're working your ass off and only barely graduate college you probably won't be going far in life.

Also, we're talking about rags to riches here. Being a nurse doesn't make you rich, not by a long shot.

gameguy6700

You dont need to be intellegent to suceed in college if you have motivation. There are few people, who if they really tried, would barely make a passing average in college. Maybe only 10%. Nurse is rich enough to me, they make something like 45/50 thousand I think, plus there are many other profesions that have the same situation as nursing that make more money. You could even become an electrician, no college needed. And they make in the 55/60 thousand range.

The average salary in the US is, I believe, around $45,000. So a nurse is not rich by any measure. Electricians may not need a college education but they still have a lot technical education that must be completed before they can get licensed. Besides, making $60k is hardly a rags-to-riches story. It's just a "I got out of poverty" story. For rags to riches you would have to take someone living in poverty and suddenly have them earning six or seven figure salaries. Someone like JK Rowling who went from being on government assistance to one of the richest people in England (which, btw, only happened because she happened to talk about her ideas for Harry Potter to a person who was pretty high up in a publishing company, a fact unknown to her, while having lunch one day).

And like I said, just graduating college isn't important. It's what you do afterward. And if you aren't intelligent then you're going to have a very rough time competing with people who are when it comes to getting lucrative promotions and job offers. When it comes to high level jobs promotion is often based on achievement (and who you know), not how good of a worker you are. No one cares if you get all your projects and work done on time. They will take notice, however, if you just turned a fledging department into a goldmine for the company, if you came up with an idea for a marketing campaign that boosted sales quite a bit, and so on.

Well, im pretty sure the average salary last time I check was about 38 grand. And all I'm saying is if you work really hard, you can at minimum get out of poverty and likely get in the 80+ grand rich range. But obviously if you want to get in the 200-300 grand rich range you have to be a little lucky. But not just if you are poor, even for the average and above average income people. I guess it just depends on what you call rich. I would consider somebody making 80+ grand fairly rich. Also you dont need to be smart or well educated to think of new ideas, wich mostly pertains to doing well, just beyond working hard.

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

You dont need to be intellegent to suceed in college if you have motivation. There are few people, who if they really tried, would barely make a passing average in college. Maybe only 10%. Nurse is rich enough to me, they make something like 45/50 thousand I think, plus there are many other profesions that have the same situation as nursing that make more money. You could even become an electrician, no college needed. And they make in the 55/60 thousand range.

The average salary in the US is, I believe, around $45,000. So a nurse is not rich by any measure. Electricians may not need a college education but they still have a lot technical education that must be completed before they can get licensed. Besides, making $60k is hardly a rags-to-riches story. It's just a "I got out of poverty" story. For rags to riches you would have to take someone living in poverty and suddenly have them earning six or seven figure salaries. Someone like JK Rowling who went from being on government assistance to one of the richest people in England (which, btw, only happened because she happened to talk about her ideas for Harry Potter to a person who was pretty high up in a publishing company, a fact unknown to her, while having lunch one day).

And like I said, just graduating college isn't important. It's what you do afterward. And if you aren't intelligent then you're going to have a very rough time competing with people who are when it comes to getting lucrative promotions and job offers. When it comes to high level jobs promotion is often based on achievement (and who you know), not how good of a worker you are. No one cares if you get all your projects and work done on time. They will take notice, however, if you just turned a fledging department into a goldmine for the company, if you came up with an idea for a marketing campaign that boosted sales quite a bit, and so on.

Well, im pretty sure the average salary last time I check was about 38 grand. And all I'm saying is if you work really hard, you can at minimum get out of poverty and likely get in the 80+ grand rich range. But obviously if you want to get in the 200-300 grand rich range you have to be a little lucky. But not just if you are poor, even for the average and above average income people. I guess it just depends on what you call rich. I would consider somebody making 80+ grand fairly rich. Also you dont need to be smart or well educated to think of new ideas, wich mostly pertains to doing well, just beyond working hard.

Looks like others have taken over here while I was busy in another thread. You guys are making the same points I would. The most important one, I think, is that we're talking about rags to riches stories, not simply achieving a measure of sustainability. That's no accomplishment - most people do that.

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

magnax1

Of course not. But rags to riches is not average, and unless you're doing something which is not average, you're going to have an average income. There's a big difference between those who are poor and become wealthy compared to those who are poor and become self-sufficient. Most normal people can easily become self-sufficient if motivated. But very few can become wealthy, and the road is even more challenging if you start from nothing.

You really don't have to look any further than the numbers to see that motivation alone isn't enough to make a person wealthy. Most people in North America aspire to become wealthy. How many are?

[QUOTE="magnax1"]

Its just amazes me that you believe this. You dont have to be extremely succesful in college to be succseful in life. There are a ton of jobs out there that would take average people, just because there is a shortage of people who are qualified. Nursing is a pretty good example. Nurses make pretty good money, at least depending on the type of nurse you become.

Of course not. But rags to riches is not average, and unless you're doing something which is not average, you're going to have an average income. There's a big difference between those who are poor and become wealthy compared to those who are poor and become self-sufficient. Most normal people can easily become self-sufficient if motivated. But very few can become wealthy, and the road is even more challenging if you start from nothing.

You really don't have to look any further than the numbers to see that motivation alone isn't enough to make a person wealthy. Most people in North America aspire to become wealthy. How many are?