51–60 of 81 posts
This is just more of the pervasive attitude of grievance and blame gaming we have these days. Yes, some entrepreneurs come from rich families. But many more are for example, the immigrants that come here and have no choice but to become an entrepreneur to support their families. Entrepreneurs are everywhere. They are running pop ups at the flea market. They cook your food in the restaurants. There's a +billion entrep…
This is such a horrible take I am not going to give the article a click. I know two successful entrepreneurs who come from a situation of struggle in third world countries. Also my girlfriend, who grew up in poverty in Pennsylvania, and now is on her third stable business. We are creating a culture of excuses for anybody who fails at chasing their dreams or doesn’t even have the motivation to do so; the equivalent of…
I agree we shouldn’t create a culture of excuses but at the same time you have to notice that most successful founders come from wealthy backgrounds and the rest seem to be immigrants (who might be wealthy as well?). The average HN poster lives in a Silicon Valley bubble and doesn’t realize this.
Elon Musk was a son of a single mom and an immigrant (that said, his mom is an amazing person and definitely gave him a great start if life just by putting a right mindset in). Jeff Bezos was again a son of a dirt poor single mom who later married a dirt poor Mexican immigrant - his life start was as bad as it gets. Yes his adopted father later became a mid-level manager for an oil company and managed to send him to…
Regardless, these are anecdotes.
Elon Musk was a son of a single mom and an immigrant (that said, his mom is an amazing person and definitely gave him a great start if life just by putting a right mindset in). Jeff Bezos was again a son of a dirt poor single mom who later married a dirt poor Mexican immigrant - his life start was as bad as it gets. Yes his adopted father later became a mid-level manager for an oil company and managed to send him to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Luck, or crime, or some combination of the two.
Nobody worked hard for their money in your world? I was cleaning floors at a fast food place just 15 years ago. If you were to see my parents driving the new car I bought for them this year (I need them to be safe), I bet you’d say the same. Do you understand what is wrong with your perspective?
I dont know anyone who got rich cleaning floors in fast food. I did low level work too and it has zero with where my money come from now.
Many people work hard and never ever become well off.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect that many of the immigrants that come to the US (and end up being successful/ business owners) are pretty well off themselves (relative to wealth of the country of origin). US isn't a country that is easy to immigrate to either.
This is an awful take. From experience, being “wealthy” in a third world country translated to being on one of the lowest brackets of poverty here in the USA.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it was a reasonable point. Inter-generational wealth transfer is very durable over time. Whether or not someone inherits "house money" (and can plan their lifestyle and tolerance for risk according to that expectation) still corresponds to closely to race in the US. A family history of slavery might not necessarily be the cause, but having ancestors who were allowed into the property club, at a time in the pa…
> Inter-generational wealth transfer is very durable over time. You're going to need a citation for this because every article I've ever read about it says that within 2-3 generations most family fortunes (excluding those truly massive billion+ fortunes) are gone. Social mobility between upper-middle and upper class across multiple generations is incredibly high/fluid.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it was a reasonable point. Inter-generational wealth transfer is very durable over time. Whether or not someone inherits "house money" (and can plan their lifestyle and tolerance for risk according to that expectation) still corresponds to closely to race in the US. A family history of slavery might not necessarily be the cause, but having ancestors who were allowed into the property club, at a time in the pa…
> Inter-generational wealth transfer is very durable over time. You're going to need a citation for this because every article I've ever read about it says that within 2-3 generations most family fortunes (excluding those truly massive billion+ fortunes) are gone. Social mobility between upper-middle and upper class across multiple generations is incredibly high/fluid.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody worked hard for their money in your world? I was cleaning floors at a fast food place just 15 years ago. If you were to see my parents driving the new car I bought for them this year (I need them to be safe), I bet you’d say the same. Do you understand what is wrong with your perspective?
1) You’re probably not rich in the sense of generational wealth. 99% of people aren’t. 2) There’s no aspect of luck in your success? If you had gotten sick, would you be where you are now? If the company that hired you had gone with another candidate, would you be where you are now? Did a friend refer you to your job? If you had been born in a different time or a different country, would you have the same opportuniti…
The majority of people who start new businesses do not have generational wealth. In fact, those who achieve generational wealth often turn into investors who collaborate with entrepreneurs.
> If the company that hired you had gone for another candidate, would you be where are now?
There were half a dozen other offers waiting. Looking at the performance over the years of the companies that made these offers, I would be wealthier.
> Hard work is good for success, but it’s not sufficient. And that’s especially the case for gaining outsized wealth.
Hard work is a key component of success. Even those who inherit generational wealth have the option of living off their trust fund or pursuing their ambitions.
It is key to understand that hard work is your best tool for success; it is the only thing you have control over.
Also, I am using here “hard work” in a broad sense. Hard work isn’t only putting hours in front of the computer, but also coming out of your shell to socialize in order to find mentors, learning new things, keeping yourself healthy, etc.