Knowledge Plus Ambition = Success

Data from the U. S. Census and other sources tell us that people with college degrees usually earn more money than people who don't have them.

But no matter how hard you scour the Internet, you won't find any statistics aboutthe growing number of self-educated entrepreneurs who are joining the ranks of the supremely successful. Some of them have college degrees, some don't. It doesn't matter that much. A combination of knowledge and ambition propels them into the ranks of the extremely wealthy.

A good place to study these new achievers, and find inspiration, is Entrepreneur Magazine's Young Millionaires 2006 list.

There you'll meet young entrepreneurial millionaires like Tina Wells, founder of the Buzz Marketing Group, Maureen Kelly, founder of Tarte Cosmetics and Jeff Fluhr, founder of StubHub. You'll also find Andrea Lake, one of the Apprentice candidates from last season.

And you'll find out something else pretty interesting. When Entrepreneur asked each of these young millionaires the question, "When did you first realize you had made it?" not a single one answered, "The day I graduated from college" or, "The day I earned my MBA." Every one said something like "The day my products got into QVC" or, "The day The Wall Street Journal profiled my company." It's progress in the real world, not an academic setting, that makes the difference.

So study hard and add the skills you need. But don't omit raw ambition from your success formula. If that's missing, all the book learning in the world won't bring you the riches you want and deserve.

Michael Sexton is President of Trump University. To make sure you have the real-world knowledge to put your enterprise on the map, investigate our premier class on entrepreneurship, The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program.Classes now forming.