<p>Hello, it appears that most top MBA students have led a consistent life of high achievement. In life high achievers usually stay high achievers and low achievers usually stay low achievers. However, there are exceptions like J.K. Rowling who was a welfare mom who started writing Harry Potter in her thirties and Ray Kroc who was a working class salesman until het got the idea to start Mcdonalds in his fifties. </p>
<p>How would the following people based on real life case histories be viewed by an MBA admission committee:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My cousin( non ivy league undergrad) who spent his twenties involved in taking drugs, sponging off his folks, and getting involved in left wing socialist movements. However, he somehow managed to get involved in a peripheral role at a few token shares of a very famous tech company( Pre-IPO), through a friend of a friend. With his fortune, he then successfully invested in local privately held companies demonstrating a talent for "small scale" private equity.</p></li>
<li><p>A former welfare recipient who got inspired by a "special program", to change their life around. After completing college, he then started fixing up houses, moving up to buy apartment houses, eventually building a million dollar real estate empire. </p></li>
<li><p>A Blue collar worker with a part time state school degree, who at age 32 decides to take life seriously after his best friend dies from a heart attack. He then starts his own contracting company eventually achieving 20 million in revenue. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Would in these unusual cases, extremely spectacular business achievement within the last five years make up for having a average to below average career trajectory in their twenties and a non ivy league undergrad. </p>
<p>For that matter, how would a person who had an average job history but had huge success via their after hours investing, ebay selling, or real estate flipping be viewed. For example, my father who was a union blue collar worker had a coworker who made millions in real estate by buying houses in his spare time. He also was sage-like in buying a few tech stocks early on. Although at his age, I doubt he would apply to an MBA program, but which would count more, his day union blue collar job or his real estate millions? Lucky for him he sold out before the crash.</p>