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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

#201

Post by govindkabra31 »

mindcrime wrote: post #193

Wow, talk about an article that is completely devoid of value. That stands out as soon as you see "cult of the entrepreneur" in the first sentence. OK, now we know that most entrepreneurs come from "families with money" (according to their definitions anyway). Great, so what do I do with that particular bit of information? I'm most definitely not from a family of means, so do I just quit now? Have I been deluding mys…

There are lot of people who fall for the encouragement from PG and such and take risks without being aware of the expected financial impact. Read through comments here and there are some first hand anecdotes.

It is hugely more efficient for someone to take into account this research result, rather than learn that after years of toiling, the hard way.

Perhaps, it was not as insightful to you personally. But not every piece has to be valuable to everyone for it to avoid being classified as devoid of value.

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

#202

Post by michaelvkpdx »

Remember, in the post-WWII USA we live in a feudalist society. If we lived in a true capitalist society, with societal mechanisms in place to keep wealth circulating, this wouldn't be a problem.

And we'd still know how to get to the moon, too.

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

#204

Post by pound »

rubiquity wrote: post #150
rubbingalcohol wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but then you typically have to drop out from Stanford.

That still does not make sense.

don't get it all too literally. it's about certain stereotypes.

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

#205

Post by justathrow2k »

aianus wrote: post #117
bakhy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, a full answer to the question would also need the percentage of college graduates that land jobs in big companies in the valley... P.S. I don't think we'll get far with this... i just noticed, e.g., "median household income in the US" - that seems a tricky thing to compare with, given that many ppl in the US don't have health insurance, or live in trailer parks eating off food stamps...

I think almost all my (upper-year) classmates got offers to at least one of Amazon/Microsoft/Google/Facebook/Twitter/Palantir/Uber. And I went to a school in Canada that nobody's ever heard of (University of Waterloo).

You do realize that Waterloo has a CS program that's highly regarded (internationally), yes?

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

#206

Post by justathrow2k »

VLM wrote: post #116
aianus wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$100k after tax (including stock) is basically starting salary in the valley for 22-year-old college graduates at big companies.

Which brings us full circle back to the topic of the article such that its only children of rich parents who graduated from ivies, white "1% rock star programmer" males only, then you don't need the easy cash anyway.

Children of rich parents come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, friend.

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

#207

Post by ant6n »

bobjordan wrote: post #105

I mostly agree with the article in that at some point you must gain access to capital in either cash or credit and then put it at risk. That said, I was born in WV to 17-year-old mother and 20-year-old father. I was their second child. My father was a coal truck driver, mother a secretary, neither college educated. By the time I was four, my father was in prison two years, and my mother was a struggling 21-year-old w…

Within the context of this discussion, one wonders how you paid the bills for two years without salary. (And where the 15K seed came from)

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

#208

Post by s73v3r »

eugenekolo2 wrote: post #152
crdoconnor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think it's quite different in the software startup industry. You usually don't need much capital You still need a distribution channel. That requires either capital or connections.

Networking is still invaluable, but capital isn't a necessity in software startups. I do think that either bravery or a nesting egg to fall back on is though.

Capital still is a necessity because people still want to eat and put a roof over their heads.

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

#209

Post by mindcrime »

govindkabra31 wrote: post #201
mindcrime wrote: post #193

Wow, talk about an article that is completely devoid of value. That stands out as soon as you see "cult of the entrepreneur" in the first sentence. OK, now we know that most entrepreneurs come from "families with money" (according to their definitions anyway). Great, so what do I do with that particular bit of information? I'm most definitely not from a family of means, so do I just quit now? Have I been deluding mys…

There are lot of people who fall for the encouragement from PG and such and take risks without being aware of the expected financial impact. Read through comments here and there are some first hand anecdotes. It is hugely more efficient for someone to take into account this research result, rather than learn that after years of toiling, the hard way. Perhaps, it was not as insightful to you personally. But not every…

I don't see how you can say it offers any value. There are no actionable insights here. You can't change your family, so in the end, every individual still faces exactly the same choice: pursue the entrepreneurial path, or not. What other people did and what their circumstances were is irrelevant.

If the article purported to prove that it is impossible to succeed as an entrepreneur without coming from a rich family, and if there were no counter-examples disproving that assertion, then I could see saying it had value. But we know that's not the case. People do succeed as entrepreneurs despite coming from poor families.

There are lot of people who fall for the encouragement from PG and such and take risks without being aware of the expected financial impact.

A "lot" of people do that? I'd need to see some evidence to accept that assertion. And even if that is so, this article doesn't help them. They still can't change their backgrounds / families, and they still face the same choice.

who fall for the encouragement from PG and such

That's some interesting language. You make it sound like encouraging someone to chase their dreams is some kind of scam. Oh, pity the poor gullible fool, who "fell for" the idea of trying to make a better life for him/her-self...

A more useful article, to my way of thinking, would have been one that presented the data from this article and then continued by saying "OK, so if you're not from a wealthy family, here are the things you can do to improve your odds of succeeding anyway..." That what I mean by "actionable information. Give people something they can actually use. That would be a valuable article, and a valuable discussion. All I see here is negativity and anti-individualistic rabble-rousing.

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

#210

Post by michaelvkpdx »

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 1: Spend less than you make...You don't need to be from a rich family to do these things."

Uh, in the USA 2015, you do. Or you need to be a very lucky lottery winner. Living-wage jobs are not available to all, and you need a modicum of education to secure one.

That education is no longer free.

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