@kapusta: You are correct. I was taught this in Yeshiva. No matter how smart, successful, bright, intellegent, saavy, good-looking someone is, if there is no Derech Eretz then everything is for naught.
I sometimes find that young people in their 20s have no D.E. What happened? Not all. Just some. Their parents pay millions of dollars in Yeshiva tuition and for what? Too bad…..the generation of entitlement…