With no disrespect, and I may well be misinterpreting the tone of your response, but at 17 I was given a position in one of Europe's hottest start-ups, I looked after a team of 6, jetted around Europe in fancy-class flights, stayed in swanky hotels and had an expense account.
Between two of us we developed Blyk's innovative ad production and delivery process that is currently being rolled out globally, and I might add, are currently in the process of patenting. I was responsible for the UK's main consumer site and b2b site and in September 06 (when I were a wee lad) project managed the launch of our 50 launch campaigns which included clients such as Visa, Coke, Sky, Xbox,Ford, Apple and many other fairly big companies.
...all without an education. I may have summed up my skill-set in 50 words, but that doesn't mean I'm average at it.
One for you: 'concrete skills like programming'? ; )