Why Credentials Won't Guarantee Success (And What Will Instead)
How the shift in our social and economic norms have rewritten the playbook to building wealth.
Like many first-gen immigrants, my parents believed the formula to success was simple: earn a degree, become a professional, get married, etc.
As a parent today, I'm not sure I'd give my kids the same advice - because the economy that made that formula work has fundamentally changed.
From Scarcity Economy…
When I started my legal career over a decade ago, the path to success was clear.
Knowledge came through expensive degrees and credentials.
Credentials opened doors because clients naturally trusted professionals with the right titles.
Wealth meant accumulation—success was measured by assets you could build over 20-30 years of steady work.
This formula worked because the entire economy ran on scarcity.
Information was expensive and hard to access.
Clients had limited ways to evaluate expertise beyond credentials.
Everyone expected building real wealth to take decades.
Today, that playbook is obsolete.
High school students can access the same legal resources lawyers once paid thousands to use.
Young adults with a strong online presence can build more profitable businesses than established firms.
Fortunes are created in months through platforms that didn't exist when I graduated law school.
…to the Attention Economy
What seems clear is that we've shifted from a scarcity economy to an attention economy where
1️⃣ credentials and experience is no longer a guarantee for success; and
2️⃣ your success is going to be about your ability to capture attention, deliver value and build networks that amplify your reach.
The entrepreneurs thriving today aren't necessarily the most qualified on paper. They are simply the ones who've figured out how to consistently deliver value in ways their audience notices and remembers.
This shift creates both opportunity and pressure. You can build influence faster than ever before, but you're also competing with everyone else trying to capture the same limited attention.
Understanding this shift isn't just intellectual exercise - it's strategic necessity.
Because while the rules have changed, the fundamentals haven't. Success still requires delivering genuine value to people who need it.
The difference is how you get their attention first.
What's your strategy to capture attention in your market?