Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#1

Post by SMAAART » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:02 PM UTC

Does anyone else feel this way?

I don't know about you, but I am smart. I know I'm smart, I am told that I am smart, I do smart things but . . . I am also old, and all my life I have worked (mostly) for people who were not smart as me, and somehow they:

* were my boss

* had a better/faster career

* or .... they owned the company

I am old now, but I can still kick some ass, and that's what my intention is.

When I was younger I was:

* insecure: some of that shit still lingers.

* anxious: yeah, this is related to the shit above, but I wanted to highlight it. And while I am over it, some of that shit still lingers

* more smarterer #LOL

* more courageous, in a way. Now that I am less anxious and more secure, I seem to have lost the hump!

Any tips for me how to overcome the snart-complex, kick my own ass, and start making money?

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#2

Post by tirrellp » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

Depending on your financial situation, you could Buy an old line company and digitize it.

In the US, If you can get 500k from friends and family, you can buy a $5m company with a strong balance sheet and strong cash flow. It will give you a live Petri dish to test your ideas on how to do things better.

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#3

Post by elliekelly » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:28 PM UTC

It’s almost as if there isn’t any correlation at all between wealth and intelligence...

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#4

Post by SMAAART » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:30 PM UTC

This is what I found by Googling around:

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.

The most successful people are not the most talented, just the luckiest, a new computer model of wealth creation confirms. Taking that into account can maximize return on many kinds of investment.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/01/144958/if-youre-...

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#5

Post by burntoutfire » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:31 PM UTC

Assuming "smart" means 90th percentile of intelligence, there are 700 million smart people, way more that rich people. It shows that obviously wealth creation requires much more than intelligence.

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#6

Post by giantg2 » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:51 PM UTC

Because I'm really not THAT smart, nor are most people (IQ standard distribution).

I think there have been studies and books done about successful people (can't remember the authors). The book basically said that luck is the main influence. There are plenty of smart people who aren't rich and certainly some average people who are. I want to say the experts consider luck to be less than 10% of the success formula.

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#7

Post by lmiller1990 » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

A lot of people will say “it is just luck” but I think this is just one factor.

The real question is what moves have you made to get rich? Have you started making a product? You cannot ride (perceived) intelligent to riches.

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#8

Post by leff_f » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

I can feel your pain, feeling of not getting what you deserve is a tough feeling to keep inside.

By identifying ourselves as being smart we are getting into the trap of being hostages of this label. Lot of scenarios in our life require us to make mistakes. Mistake is something a smart person cannot afford and deliberately avoids.

We are awarding ourselves with an achievement award of being smart without actually doing the work (doesn't it feel great to be smart?). Being smart is a capacity to think logically, not something we achieved in life. It is given, but to feel fulfilled we need to do something with it.

By declaring myself smart I set the scale of measurement for myself, and then I suffer when somebody smarter than me is around. Understanding that even my intellect is not something that defines me is a crucial piece of this puzzle. Intellect is one of the MANY tools available to each one of us. Exploring those tools requires some .... testing and learning, and intellect is a very lousy helper here.

And if you really want to focus on the money in your life - look at the people around you. Money come from the relationship with the people around us not from the ideas, thoughts, reasoning. Knowing you strength and focusing on helping people - producing much better outcome long term than focusing on a great idea.

So as you said - time to kick your own ass! ;)

Hope this was useful.

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#9

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

tirrellp wrote: post #2

Depending on your financial situation, you could Buy an old line company and digitize it. In the US, If you can get 500k from friends and family, you can buy a $5m company with a strong balance sheet and strong cash flow. It will give you a live Petri dish to test your ideas on how to do things better.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: If you're so smart how come you're not rich?

#10

Post by billconan » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

what I learned is that successful people know how to leverage resources to achieve their goals.

smart people focus only on polishing their own skills, but that doesn't scale.