I believe that regardless of one’s education, race, or familial financial status, anyone can become wealthy. I’ve heard arguments to the contrary, that my financial success is based on my parents’ successes or failures, or that my race predetermines my finances. I’ve also heard the argument that you can only be financially self-sufficient if you get a higher education. Wealth is created by hard work, determination and implementation of great ideas, in spite of/regardless of one’s race, level of institutional education or even one’s parents’ success.
I come from an American middle-class family. My father earned enough money to take care of our needs and occasionally provide niceties. The argument that I am held back by my parents’ success would seem more concrete if I were to tell you that I, too, am the head of another middle-class family; however, I have been able to accelerate my earnings to flirt with the lower realm of an upper-class family. With an income over $100K/year, I have passed over the invisible economic line of the top third of incomes in America. U.S. News in 2012 published an article by David Francis called, “Where Do You Fall in the American Economic Class System?” wherein Frances states that by earning above $100,000 a year, one enters in the top one-third of American incomes. I am not restricted by a proverbial glass ceiling, based on the success of my father. What about race?
I am a Caucasian who once, mostly in jest, self-identified as a black man. Is that why I’ve been successful? I don’t believe so. Here are some examples where people from other races have succeeded financially in large ways. Carlos Slim is Hispanic and ranks as the 4th richest man in the world according to Forbes’ 2016 “World’s Top 10 Billionaires” list. Amancio Ortega is a Spaniard who, on the same list, ranked 2nd in the world in wealth. According to “The Richest,” an online entertainment magazine, Alhaji Dangote is the wealthiest black man with a net worth of $16.1B. Regardless of race, each of these men has skyrocketed to be among the wealthiest in the world. It must be because they have degrees from higher institutes of learning, right?
If you believe that extreme wealth is directly related to receiving a formal education from a university or even high school, you would be wrong. Amancio Ortega, according to Fortune Magazine, stopped going to school when he was 13 (http://fortune.com/2013/01/08/meet-amancio-ortega-the-third-richest-man-in-the-world/). Instead, he got a job. That’s likely the most dramatic example of the amount of institutional education to wealth ratio. Institutional learning does not guarantee income.
In reality, wealth is created by following solid principles of economics. I believe that if you take control of your finances, meaning utilizing wise principles, you can become wealthy as well. Just as I’ve shared examples of these wealthy men of varying races and educational backgrounds, there are also many more examples of destitute people who have degrees of matriculation, Caucasian, and grew up in wealthy/semi-wealthy environments. I believe we can all become wealthy. We merely need to have the gumption and tenacity to earn.