You can do it!

If experience is the best teacher, my grandfather had a PhD.

Upon arriving in America, his work experience was limited. Jobs were hard to come by and employers had few ethics and employees had no security. While he was very smart, he did not have skills that he could call upon. In order to gain experience, my grandfather used one of his natural talents, his smarts and a bit of craftiness.

And so the story would go something like this. Interview for the job. When asked, "Can you do XYZ?". My grandfather naturally replied "Of course, I've done XYZ before". Which of course was a complete fabrication. But, by the next time he applied for a job, which was relatively soon after they found out he had no clue what he was doing, he really did have experience doing it.

He did this... job after job... until one day he met someone that realized his potential. He took my grandfather under his wing and taught him a trade. This is probably be one of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone. For my grandfather took this and made a career out of it ad eventually a business in which his whole family would one day be employed.