This has happened with multiple groups during history. Obviously it's necessary that a group wants to work or learn to have that effect.

The other one which comes straight to mind is the nonconformists in the UK. They were protestants who refused to join the Anglican Church (so Methodists, Quakers, etc) so were barred from government and going to university under the law. This meant that the middle class kids went to university on the continent, got a wider education and picked up new ideas. They then went on to become the main drivers of the industrial revolution and most families who got rich from that were of that group. Most of the people who made the big scientific discoveries of that time, such as Charles Darwin, came from those families, even if they had by then become Anglican.