I dropped out of high school and college. In my youth I was entirely too stubborn and arrogant for being told what to do. I worked some crappy jobs for a few years (fast food, retail, etc.), and I was miserable. I had no money, no insurance, and people were still telling me what to do.

I got an entry level job in a data center when I was ~20 years old. The work was boring; mostly physical labor. Management realized how bored I was, but saw some potential in me. I was rapidly promoted several times, eventually making my way into a junior developer position. The pay was still terrible, and a lot of the other developers looked down on me.

Eventually the company ran into some financial difficulties and I was laid off. As luck would have it, I was scheduled for an interview the very next day. Things went well and I was hired on the spot. It was one of the most stressful and rewarding periods of my career. The pay was still terrible, but I was the only developer. Every decision was mine to make, and I made as many bad ones as good. I learned a lot about writing stable code (since I was the only person available to clean up the mess).

After working there for two years I got tired of the bad pay. I went to a meet-up and got to know a couple of developers. I earned the respect of a few, which was my first foray into professional networking. The VP of one company said he wanted to hire me and asked how much money I was looking for. At the time I was only making $36k per year, so I figured $85k would be a decent number. He pulled me aside and suggested I ask him for $105k instead. That should give you some idea of how strange and enjoyable it was working for him.

That job was a wonderful learning experience. For the first time I was surrounded by people who really knew what they were doing. No one looked down on me or questioned my lack of degree. Even though some of these people had a decade more experience than me, we ran the place like a democracy. I have also never seen management that was so understanding of the development process. They understood work would be ready when it was ready, and gave us a lot of creative freedom.

Fast forward a couple of years and now I'm at another company. I have a pretty nice title, and my salary has continued to climb. I'm considered to be the company's foremost expert in my specific technology, and I'm frequently asked to train people. Far from being looked down on, people usually treat me with deference.

You can interpret my story however you like, but this is what I've taken away from it:

My arrogance forced me to spend a few years working jobs that I hated. I got lucky, a few people saw something in me, and I was given opportunities. I had to prove myself a bit at first, but that got better once I had a few years of experience under my belt. These days I've got an impressive title, a great salary, and people respect my knowledge and abilities.

I managed to do pretty well without an education, but it took a lot of hard work and a number of incredibly kind people deciding to take a chance on me. I'm really happy with the way things turned out, but it's hard to imagine life would be worse if I'd stayed in school.

Oh, and people still occasionally tell me what to do.