A $100 bill would buy less in 1998 than a $20 bill would buy in the 1960s. This means that anyone who kept his money in a safe over those years would have lost 80 percent of its value, because no safe can keep your money safe from politicians who control the printing presses.
A lot of ambitious people spend the early part of their lives in credential-seeking mode. But you'll hit a wall if you're still in this mode when you start a startup. Making what users want is a completely different m.o. from charming authorities and doing well on tests.