By the time I graduated, I went from being a top 10 student to being in the bottom quartile. I didn't get dumber, or party or do drugs, I just kind of stopped caring and lost complete interest.<p>I was even going to skip my graduation, when one of my friends convinced me to just go. There, we had an honorary speaker, the CEO of some gold company. And although I thought I wouldn't be interested, he was an eloquent speaker, and he changed my life. He talked about his struggles, and how he eventually overcame them all and became very, very successful, and he said something to the effect of "being successful is fun."<p>I'm not sure what exactly about his speech motivated me, but after that speech, I felt the urge to be successful, so I got my shit together. I basically taught myself everything about programming, computers, hardware, networking, etc. I persevered until I got a job in Silicon Valley, one of my goals. And although I'm not fabulously wealthy, I'm doing better than my classmates and peers back home, and I'm doing what I love. More importantly, I still have more motivation to do better.<p>So, from personal experience I would have to disagree, but I guess peoples' mileages may vary.