You don't need a special degree or even college at all to be a successful coder, as long as you have a passion for it. At least that is what I walked away with.
In my opinion, if a story distills down to a lucky moment, you should probably refrain from taking too much away from it.
I would argue the tech industry is more egalitarian relative to other industries, which makes it possible to become successful without having a formal education. Sure it'd be difficult, but it's not impossible compared to another industry like finance.
Many passion-stories involve someone growing up in an environment in which key figures around them - like one of their parents - encouraged or enabled them to do certain things, and they happened to also really like - or grow to like, naturally without any push-back - that same thing. So then they get the chance to develop their abilities from some young age, like say 8, and are naturally quite good at it when they reach college-age.
Now even if they don't "fit into the school system" or whatever, it isn't a story of 'life's ups and downs' - it's a story about them being incredibly, incredibly lucky in that they just fell into their passion straight from the start. Dropping out of second year of college becomes a minor nuisance in the grand scheme of things, for them.