A Poor Kid's Path to Prosperity:

Get good grades and high test scores. This comes naturally to some people, others have to work hard. Know yourself and do what it takes to be top 5% in your class.

Apply for as many scholarships as possible. Ask every adult you know if their company has a scholarship program.

Go to the best college you can that won't leave you more than $20K in debt. A 4-year degree is your seat at the table.

Choose a technical major: Engineering, Computer Science, Math, Finance, Physics, or Information Systems. You'll learn Business in the real world.

Develop a love for reading. Your studies will benefit, and if you leave college with nothing else, it will be time well spent.

Join groups that surround you with better versions of yourself. Fraternity / sorority, campus clubs, volunteer orgs, etc. Your peers will catch you up on the basic knowledge you missed growing up.

Work while you're in school. The most useful experience will be co-ops, internships, or jobs that teach you to sell: telemarketing, door-to-door, server / bartender, retail, etc.

At the start of each term, email your professors to tell them you're excited for their class. After the first lecture, introduce yourself and ask their advice on how to be successful — in class, school, and life. Write down and save their answers.

Become an expert interviewer. You'll need it to get jobs during and after college. Hiring is 50% résumé / 50% how you sell yourself. Tap into campus interviewing resources every chance you get, starting freshman year.

Go to class. There are no attendance awards in college, but missing class is burning your own $100 bills.

Have fun, but not too much. You need to graduate with at least a 3.0 GPA (ideally 3.5+). You'll never look back and kick yourself for focusing too much.

Get a job that offers tough projects, training, and good pay. Preferably one that exposes you to revenue generation. Quantifiable results fuel career advancement.

Feel free to job-hop in your 20s. Loyalty is foolish if it curbs your finances or professional growth. (And you're an expert interviewer, so explaining job changes will be a breeze.)

Study personal finance. Master the fundamentals.

Think like a CEO. In any job, you'll stand out by grasping the P&L impact of company activities. Run your own finances like a business for extra practice.

Find mentors who have the life you want. Shamelessly copy them.

Chop wood. The #1 trait that will propel you ahead of peers is discipline. Do the work, and your rewards will come.

Ask everyone you interact with: what they do for work, how they got into it, and if it's their forever job (or if not, what is). You have to know what's possible before figuring out where you belong.

Marry someone who shares your values and pushes you to improve.

Learn skills that scale: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Coding, Investing, Real Estate, Copywriting, etc. If your job doesn't teach them, use your off hours wisely.

Acquire assets: businesses, securities, real estate, vending machines, etc. Items whose value does not depend on your time.

Money won't solve all of your problems, but it will solve your money problems.

You are not your genetics.
You are not your upbringing.
You are not your past.
You are not even your present.

You are the life you build. It starts now.