People who haven't been to college aren't likely to have those kinds of connections. If they do, they're not going to be desperate for work.
> Oh yeah, if you really need the money, maybe an early stage startup isn't the best idea :P
If you really need the money you'll work for the next paycheck no matter who's paying it, even if it's just for the next month or two.
It's really not that hard to meet and develop a relationship with someone who works at FB/Apple/Google/Etc. Especially if you live in the Bay area and go to meetups/network a little.
The whole world is not the Bay Area. Most of us do not have it so easy as to be able to walk into random meetups and leave with three potential contacts at decent tech companies.
I made a lot of contacts by organizing local meetups, travelling to different conferences in other parts of Europe and fostering relationships online.
I now work as a software engineer at Facebook, prior to that I worked at Apple. Effective networking takes a lot of work and can be achieved even if you are living in a remote area.
> I grew up on a farm
Not everyone lives in the bay area. I'm sure there are plenty of places where it really is "that hard", and it sounds like derefr might live in one of them.