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RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

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Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#61

Post by lacker »

In tech it's pretty rare to become a millionare overnight. You can go overnight between each of these phases:

Phase 1: You are making very little money. You are excited when there is free pizza at an event, because you got a free dinner.

Phase 2: You are making a decent salary, enough to survive quite comfortably, even in a pretty expensive location. In tech, often this salary is enough to make you a millionaire if you just invest it conservatively and wait a decade.

Phase 3: You are still making that decent salary, but now you are also a millionaire on paper. Your stock is worth millions of dollars, but that isn't directly relevant to your daily life.

Phase 4: You have millions of dollars in liquid assets.

I have worked with a number of people who have gone through each of these phase changes. In my experience, going from phase 1 to 2 is by far the biggest change. After that, things just don't change immediately. You might move to a nicer place to live, or have enough money to become an investor or leave the conventional career track, but those things happen slowly.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#63

Post by hef19898 »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #56
dvt wrote: post #51

I don't like articles like this for two reasons: (1) they trivialize actually building a company, growing it, and selling it, and (2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!" First of all, as others mention in the thread, this is hardly an example of an "overnight success" -- there are no such examples, barring a few…

Agreed. I also grew up poor and now live comfortably. Having my own place with no roommates (or mentally ill family members screaming at me) brings me a lot of peace. Being able to just uber somewhere when I have an appointment but feel too tired to take public transit for 45 minutes makes my life easier. There are a lot of problems in life that you can make disappear (or simplify a lot) by throwing a little money at…

The most precious thing money can buy is freedom. Any more money than that and it can become a burden. The tricky part is the sweet spot, you have to find it, be aware of it. Ah, and yes, just where that spot is so depends on everything that it won't be the same for more than one person.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#64

Post by coldtea »

dvt wrote: post #51

I don't like articles like this for two reasons: (1) they trivialize actually building a company, growing it, and selling it, and (2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!" First of all, as others mention in the thread, this is hardly an example of an "overnight success" -- there are no such examples, barring a few…

>(2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!"

That's not too far off.

First, beyond a certain point (more easily achievable than a $600 million exit), money really don't make you more happy.

Second, it's not like building such a company or performing some great achievement (whether sports, arts, science) is some necessary part of being a human, and those that didn't or don't "have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there" are failures.

>But at the same time, can we not kid ourselves? Money makes life much easier than the alternative.

Which is neither here, nor there, regarding such cases as in the article. You don't hundreds or even tens of millions for that. A million or a couple millions are more than enough.

>I'm reminded of a (2008 crash) documentary I saw years ago where a banker says: "I grew up poor, and now I'm rich; trust me, I'd rather be rich."

Perhaps this is more of a preoccupation/conditioning/fear for those that grew up poor / much poorer? Or rather, for some of those?

If one is brought up in comfortable middle class / upper middle class, they can be quite satisfied with much less material success and without some huge financial fallout like in TFA.

Somebody who had lived through poverty though, might develop some need to overcompensate in excess.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#65

Post by cycloptic »

dvt wrote: post #51

I don't like articles like this for two reasons: (1) they trivialize actually building a company, growing it, and selling it, and (2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!" First of all, as others mention in the thread, this is hardly an example of an "overnight success" -- there are no such examples, barring a few…

>Money makes life much easier than the alternative.

I don't think that's true. If it were, you wouldn't see these companies fundraising 9+ figures and then still failing to turn a profit and crashing and burning. It didn't make anything easier for them. If anything, it made it harder because the management got overconfident.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#66

Post by alexis_fr »

motohagiography wrote: post #38

Just means you are responsible for deploying more liquid capital into productive assets. Have fun finding those. If you are creative and a builder, the people who made you what you are were the ones who told you "no," and now there are a lot fewer of those once they think you have money. Barring a few quality of life things and some freedom, the rest is just symbols and artifacts. That bit about finding a woman who w…

I’m upvoting and I wish you could develop your first 4.5 paragraphs. The rest is just logical conclusions, but each of your first 4§ nails something that I’m not entirely grasping about identity and love, and I bet there are hundreds of people who would benefit from this too. (there are many other ways - a slightly more developed essay, a discussion filmed and made available on Youtube, etc).

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#67

Post by omarhaneef »

dvt wrote: post #51

I don't like articles like this for two reasons: (1) they trivialize actually building a company, growing it, and selling it, and (2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!" First of all, as others mention in the thread, this is hardly an example of an "overnight success" -- there are no such examples, barring a few…

I agree that if I read the article the way you did, I would find it condescending. I think part of what makes the article interesting is an implied counter-argument to this point you made:

"If you're like me (and I think most HN'ers are), you continue building stuff in spite of the overwhelming odds. That's the real lesson here. Trying, failing, trying, failing, and doing this over and over, even though expecting a different outcome is technically insanity."

So you are doing it, perhaps, for the sheer pleasure and joy of building, experimenting and using your mind.

If that is the case, then when you actually make the payday, the article argues you may be robbed of this in the future. In the article, the entrepreneur lost his motivation because it seemed pointless to struggle and build after the payout.

Its not just that money didn't make him happy, but that it reduced the prior satisfaction he had in building.

Note that this is not inevitable. We know of entrepreneurs (Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Musk etc) who continue to work very hard after they have become wealthy.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#68

Post by tempsy »

dvt wrote: post #51

I don't like articles like this for two reasons: (1) they trivialize actually building a company, growing it, and selling it, and (2), they provide comfort for those that don't have the drive/luck/privilege of getting there by arguing that "hey, money doesn't make you happy!" First of all, as others mention in the thread, this is hardly an example of an "overnight success" -- there are no such examples, barring a few…

I don't really get your point. First of all, this isn't an "article." It's a story about one founder and one company. It's not supposed to be a middle-of-the-road case study on building startups.

Nowhere in the story does he suggest that being poor would be better than being rich or that having financial security isn't objectively better than the opposite. He's basically saying that the downside of his wealth is living a life without purpose because he can afford to do nothing all day, and how he misses the feeling of having a purpose to wake up to.

Even if you aren't extremely rich, I think most people can relate to that feeling. The reason why the story resonates is because it's a reminder that money does not buy purpose more than anything else.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#69

Post by Invictus0 »

sharadov wrote: post #62

A poor little rich boy is all I can say! If he is feeling so unchallenged and wants "skin in the game" then give away all your money and start again. But he won't, no one can, once you've got a taste for the good life.. Btw, the RX bar tastes awful.

My theory is that the people buying the energy bars prefer that they taste like shit to make themselves feel more hardcore about whatever dieting philosophy du jour they abide by.

Re: RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal on life after becoming a millionaire

#70

Post by soneca »

tempsy wrote: post #55
justboxing wrote: post #31

The story holds it's own, and doesn't really need the "Overnight Millionaire" click bait. Also, > He and a buddy from elementary school started RxBar in 2012... By the time RxBar became a business with revenues north of $100 million, with virtually no outside investment, Rahal was grinding at it from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m daily. This is anything but "overnight". Reminds me of the "overnight success" quotes in many forms,…

He went from nothing to $600M in 5 years. It isn't "technically" overnight but 5 years is not that long. And the 7-10 grind was probably only true of year 0-1. RxBar got a lot of traction well before they were sold, and so to believe he was grinding for the entire 5 years in the same way he was in the basement when they first started is a bit naive. Worse than "overnight millionaire" porn is "hustle" porn. The truth…

> "RxBar got a lot of traction well before they were sold, and so to believe he was grinding for the entire 5 years in the same way he was in the basement when they first started is a bit naive"

I would have the opposite perception. That it is naive of your part assuming that once a business gets good traction that its founders start working less hours.

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