Good points.
My most successful friend ($100M+) only had a high school education. I asked him what the secrets of his success were.
“I know accounting. I can tell you to the fraction of a penny what I make selling an auto part. Then, I hired the BEST people in the business. I gave them impossible goals tied to huge bonuses. They made me rich.”
And I know several Ivy League entrepreneurs at that level who milked their degrees to the hilt—from connections to credibility in winning investors and customers.
Your pal did it the hard, old-fashioned way, which is all the more to his credit.