Ive always had a f-u attitude. I never listened to the teachers at school. It started in middle school, I realized my grandfather owned his own business and was his own boss. In high school I slept in class except when an assignment was due, i skipped class and came to school wasted.
At that point, I started reading books (I was about 15), my first was rich dad poor dad (which had no real substance besides widening my prospective). Then I started reading real estate books, then 'business' books, automotive books, medical books, biographies, books on philosophy & finally programming books (where ie settled for now). Along with that I started making friends with the 'smart' & 'creative' kids at school, which led to meeting 'rich' & 'successful' people and being able to observe, what I thought, were their strong and weak points.
I feel that 'self-starting' comes from awareness that you can do whatever you want and become successful. How you reach this awareness, I'm not sure (my path was basically family, books, new people).
disclosure: i am on my mobile, so my grammar and spelling may be more off than usual.
On average the wealthy attend better schools, receive tons preparatory courses, are providing with learning assistance, receive better health care and endure more plastic surgery than the not-wealthy. Do you disagree with that?
