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Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

qz.com

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Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#171

Post by logfromblammo »

rebootthesystem wrote: post #109

I'm sorry, I am going to call this nonsense. I am second generation from immigrants who arrived at these shores with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They escaped Genocide and other horrors. When they got here they grabbed whatever job they could. They had nothing. They saved their money. And when they could, they started their own small businesses (yes, both of my grandparents behaved the same way without kno…

People emigrating to escape genocide have a different definition of failure which makes them more risk-tolerant.

When someone whose definition of failure is getting buried in an unmarked mass grave is competing against someone whose definition of failure is sleeping in their car for a few months, that first guy will risk more to win.

I recall from the movie Gattaca, when the natural-genes protagonist had a swimming contest against his engineered-genes brother, and won, the latter demanded to know "How did you beat me?!" and the former responded, "I never saved anything for the swim back." He was prepared to drown, so long as he could win before dying.

Having to go back to square one seems like a failure only to those people who are not aware that there is a square zero. For those people, square one is still one step away from failure.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#172

Post by dahart »

Terr_ wrote: post #145
dahart wrote: post #126

The article is arguing as if Social Darwinism is an accepted theory of business success. Is it really? I don't think so. I followed several of the links the article was using to support the Social Darwinism claim. One only was actually making that claim (inc.com) and it was obvious pseudo-science, it has the wonderful line: "Self-employment income is heritable". To the people taking offense to this because they didn'…

> I followed several of the links the article was using to support the Social Darwinism claim. One only was actually making that claim (inc.com) and it was obvious pseudo-science, it has the wonderful line: "Self-employment income is heritable". Your post confuses me, because I think you're lumping two very different -- almost contradictory -- claims together under the vague banner of "Social Darwinism". The inc.com…

Have you heard of Social Darwinism before? Its not a term I made up, and you've succinctly identified the exact reason it's so questionable.

From Wikipedia:

Social Darwinism is a modern name given to various theories of society that emerged in the United Kingdom, North America, and Western Europe in the 1870s, which claim to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology and politics.

You seem to be agreeing with me in pointing out the contradiction between some parts of the article and some of the sources the article used to back up its own claims. It was Aimee Groth that used inc.com to make her points, not me.

Aimee's article is inferring biological mechanisms, both through her sources, and directly in the language:

“Genes probably matter, as in most things in life, but not much.”

"..and found that environmental factors (not genetic) most influenced behavior..."

Do you read purely social from those uses of the words "genes" and "genetic"? To me they reflect the biology meanings, or at the very, very least are intentionally conflationary.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#174

Post by karambahh »

rebootthesystem wrote: post #156
karambahh wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although your parents built their business from scratch, they benefited from a social, cultural and economic background which led them to more easily attempt and succeed at starting a business. I am a business owner myself, not coming from a high-income family. I am now part of a network of young entrepreneur/lending scheme for innovative business. A wild guess: 75% of our alumni come from privileged environment: 50%…

I think our scale and perspective, by being in tech, can be skewed. Over 540,000 new businesses are started EACH MONTH in the US. The sheer number of them should be evidence enough that the vast majority are not started in the context of privilege, wealth or perhaps even a safety net that protects the would-be-entrepreneur from failure. I just don't think this world view is correct. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonn…

You are probably right about the tech-induced skew.

If a social-studies/economy research reads this, please research this subject... I don't know how it could be done, but it seems very interesting!

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#175

Post by grandalf »

People with more money do more of everything... they have more fun, more sex partners, better sex, more entertaining lives, more meaningful lives, more profound moments, more meaningful relationships, and make more of an impact on humanity.

This is not a value judgment. Having access to resources means having more freedom. That's freedom to do what you want, to think about what matters, to exercise, to eat healthy, to take time off to spend with friends, to participate in humanity rather than just working to meet your basic needs.

All this is trivially true or full of counterexamples depending on where you draw the line between rich and non-rich.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#176

Post by speik »

alexfisher wrote: post #86

Step 1: Spend less than you make. Step 2: Take risks when you have enough of a safety net. Step 3: Fail/retry or succeed. You don't need to be from a rich family to do these things.

> Step 2: Take risks when you have enough of a safety net.

Someone from a rich family has more of a safety net, straight out of the gate, than someone from a poor family.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#177

Post by ant6n »

vog wrote: post #75
bakhy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true. there was an interesting text posted here once, about how one of the worse things about poverty is that it kills the will to dream big and make plans. when you're scraping by, it's much harder, and any big plan can easily fall through due to bad luck (some unexpected expenses you cannot cover eat up your small savings, e.g., and ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely).

> ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely Well, that's mostly an US issue, I guess. When you live in a country with even modest public healthcare, such as Germany, things are not that terrible. Here, if you get ill, no matter how bad, you get the base treatment that you need. Of course you can (and should) pay on top of that for better treatment. But event without money, you don'…

Maybe having everything trashed during the World Wars (plus other interesting times like hyper-inflation) instilled conservatism in the common psyche.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#178

Post by wageslave420 »

Jacqued wrote: post #32
maratd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is very hard to take risks when you are not financially secure There's a caveat here. It depends on your responsibilities. If you have children, fixed expenses, then absolutely. If you have nothing to your name and no responsibilities, it's very easy to take risks without anything to fall back on. After all, you have very little to lose.

You can always lose your own life, pretty much. If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room while you find a job and start earning again, sure, it's easy to take risks (I've done it this way). On the other hand, if you come from a rather poor background and have no one to fall back on, finding yourself with a failed company, in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say tha…

> If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room

Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#179

Post by wageslave420 »

Jacqued wrote: post #32
maratd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is very hard to take risks when you are not financially secure There's a caveat here. It depends on your responsibilities. If you have children, fixed expenses, then absolutely. If you have nothing to your name and no responsibilities, it's very easy to take risks without anything to fall back on. After all, you have very little to lose.

You can always lose your own life, pretty much. If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room while you find a job and start earning again, sure, it's easy to take risks (I've done it this way). On the other hand, if you come from a rather poor background and have no one to fall back on, finding yourself with a failed company, in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say tha…

> If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room

Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?

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