>>19
If you have no successful family business to fall back on, then you can purchase a partnership in a small business and learn how it works (if you can somehow come up with money) while sharing profits. Or you can get into a stream where you are trained and apprenticed at some skilled job. For those whose heart is set on a degree but not interested in academics as such (and so would slash wrists at thought of writing research papers for a living), some degrees are job-specific such as nursing. It's retarded how much credential inflation has made degrees as prerequisite for entry level jobs where we would be better served by technical training and proper internship program.