Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

I grew up very modestly, borderline poverty. None of my extended family/friend went to college, I was the first one to graduate from college later in life.

I was always a good student A- since it didn't come easy but I was eager and motivated to put the time and work to achieve.

When I was 18 with a few buddies we started a "fun" business and it was mildly successful. When I tried to start another business everyone told me that I needed an education (college).

Fast forward a couple of decades I have my BS and MBA,with a decent career in high tech (operations). Through the years I have started a few projects and they all failed (my bad), at the same time I have been working for entrepreneurs who are able to make a pretty good living with mediocre ideas and bad management.

I am now at a point in my career where I have the time and some funds to start something, but I am stuck by "analysis paralysis". I know AI is a great opportunity, but I can't find a pain point to use as an entry point.

I am well versed with Paul Graham essays, with the Innovator's Dilemma strategy, and Lean Startup methodology; still not much going on.

I have also done Startup School.

Am I just an employee-type and not cut for entrepreneurship?

Looking for honest feedback, resources, pointers anything.

Thank you in advance.

This sort of inhibition is not uncommon. We are creatures of habit.

The leap you describe is a reinvention. And you have taken the opiate of modernity, delegating self mastery for sublime mediocrity.

You must find within yourself to work your ass off. You must find within yourself the “get it done.” Don’t wait for crisis and loss like every other ordinary human. Preempt your inevitable failure and fix those problems before they come upon you.

Money and asset management is no joke.

Play OpenTTD or some 4x games to drill your mind that resource management is the eternal costrategy for success.

No matter how smart you are you fail when you cannot pay rent.

Good luck!

i once saw someone post on x: the only real measure of intelligence is "do you have what you want". i think that's a tremendous metric for anyone. if you are as smart as you think you are, you probably don't want those things you're describing. if you did, you would probably have it.

Humans have a tendency to downplay what we have and focus on what's missing (missing tile syndrome and whatnot). I have had my share of these feelings over the years. 2 weeks ago, I decided to quit my job and start my entrepreneurship journey. I have no clue on what I am going to build, but excited (call it stupid naivety). I am glad, I decided to do something about the feelings I've had. Be biased towards action.

Well there’s a couple of things at play here

- extreme survivorship bias in the tech and startup world distorts your expectations

- most startups fail, most businesses do not see exceptional returns

- intelligence is necessary (in most cases) but not sufficient for getting wealthy

- If you work in big tech with an MBA you’re probably much wealthier than the median USian.

- I suspect that lifestyle creep/peer comparison is distorting your view of your own personal wealth.

So yeah, there’s a number of cognitive biases that are distorting your ability to assess yourself here. What level of wealth are you aiming for? It would be easier to work backward from that number and try to model what you’d need to do to hit it.