We’ve all been sold the fallacious American dream: if you work hard, study hard, avoid most drugs, go to a good college, get a degree, forge on to the Master’s, there, at the end of the yellow brick road, will await fortune, prosperity and success.

And it sounded so much simpler when we were younger, fed on these promises, bloated with hope. And it had to be true, because our parents said so, and our moms are always right. Unfortunately, that’s just not the way the cookie crumbles. And we’re learning now, in the bleak wasteland of modern reality, how harsh the world can really be.

Worst of all, there are still those among us who cling to these promises we were fed. They think that if they go to a prized university, get average grades, join a frat and party away their four years, there will surely be employers lining up out of the door, astonished by their credentials, dusting off a seat in a corner office as they speak. Well let me, regrettably, burst your bubble. Your credentials are more worthless than your college diploma.

We’re obsessed with our résumés, tossing ourselves from activity to job just to string a few more words under bold headings, all of it, dreamily, culminating in the bewildered employer hiring us for double our asking price. We’re naïve enough to believe that the 3.1 GPA (a resultant of Adderall) and being the treasurer of a frat (in charge of beer runs) will make us the perfect candidates for our perfect jobs.

Unfortunately, today, none of it matters. The world is competitive and your credentials won’t get you that far – there is a plethora of people out there who are smarter than you. Just because your résumé says you were an office bitch in the summer of ’09 doesn’t mean you qualify for employment.

Your credentials are worthless because they have no backbone. Can you honestly say you have worked your ass off once in your life without just finding ways of getting by and doing the bare minimum? Being book smart won’t get you too far in the world today either. Think about how many smart people out there who are unemployed and are dying to pay back their student loans as their interest climbs.

So quit feeling entitled, the world won’t bend over to help you, and you can’t rely on others forever. Depending on your worthless credentials makes it worse because no one gives a fuck about them anymore.

About 50% of graduates from last May, who have credentials just like yours, are serving sodas and burgers just to get by. Don’t be mad at the world for this, be mad at yourself for never escaping the pretty little bubble you constructed where you were the greatest thing to ever happen to this world.

Smart people with high GPAs and fancy degrees have become obsolete, there are too many of them out there, and the demand isn’t high enough to meet all the supply. As the good old saying goes, the A students are being taught by the B students, to work for the C students.

What you need to understand is that it doesn’t matter what you have printed on a glossy paper, it’s what you decide to do with your time that actually makes the difference.

There’s too much emphasis on the past and what you have done, it’s the present, what you do right now, that determines your success.  Look at someone like Steve Jobs who was a college dropout, do you think he had the credentials to get his job? Or did he just love what he was doing and put his passion into it?

The list goes on and on. From Richard Branson to Mark Zuckerberg, these people had no credentials, didn’t depend on their résumés, but relied on themselves, their creativity and what they love to do to get them far in life. These are the people who become special in this world. It’s about being ready and willing to adapt, being versatile and constantly learning.

What makes you great in this world is your passion. A passion for learning, a passion for experience, a passion to make something of yourself beyond the cookie-cutter definition of success.

The next time someone asks for your credentials and your résumé, you should just hand them a piece of paper saying “I’m ready to work my ass off and I’m not an entitled little bitch like the rest of my generation.” That will grant you far more respect than “Office Bitch At Oppenheimer.”

It’s about being hungry; it’s about being creative. Companies don’t want to hire that person that walks in at 9:01 and leaves at 5:01, not answering any more emails. Talent is something you have deep inside of you that only you can bring out of yourself.

It doesn’t come from a worthless piece of paper and your ability to cram the night before a big exam. Employers in today’s world want to see something special; they want to see something different, not the same old entitled college grad that thinks he already has life figured out.

I have built my company with people that don’t even have college degrees. Out of the 16 people who work for me, only three are college grads. The rest are hungry, talented and will stop at nothing to get us where we envision going. That is what makes this so special. I haven’t even glanced at a résumé while hiring.

Preston Waters | Elite.