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Is success tied to having rich parents?

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Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#21

Post by onion2k »

skywritergr wrote: post #9

Once you don't have to worry about not having to pay rent, not having to pay electricity etc then your appetite for risks grows. To get to that point you either need to start from a rich household (parents) or get to a certain age, have some money to support you (from previous work) and then go into entrepreneurial experiments. This is a big reason why you see older entrepreneurs embarking into that journey.

your appetite for risks grows

Your need for success diminishes with wealth though. A lot of founders struggle to motivate themselves to push through the hard stuff, get over the pits of depression, and to drive themselves following mistakes and rejections if they have resources to fall back on. It's a lot easier to take a month off and book a nice vacation after you've been told "no" by an investor or a major customer than it is to keep going and fire up your IDE or pick up the phone to chase another sale.

Many of the founders I've met work crazy hard because they won't be able to pay the rent if they don't. They literally don't have a choice except to succeed. That's a hell of a motivator that wealthy people will never have.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#23

Post by jp57 »

Years and years (and years) ago I was considering starting my own business. An entrepreneurship book I read started (quite rightly) with a chapter on "Are you cut out to be an entrepreneur?" It mentioned that having (implicitly successful) entrepreneur parents was a predictor of successful entrepreneurship.

It's a leap from "successful entrepreneur" to "rich", but not a huge leap. In the cited examples, I don't know how the parents made their money, but it's not hard to see how being raised by entrepreneurs could confer advantages beyond a safety net and possible seed investment from parents.

In particular, a child from an entrepreneur household would very likely simply be more comfortable and at ease in that environment and have base level of domain knowledge that others lack. This doesn't mean that nobody else can be successful, of course, they just have more to learn.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#24

Post by fallingfrog »

I think one thing I want to point out is that acknowledging that being a startup founder is only a path available, practically speaking, to the already privileged is not about just wanting to complain, or about jealousy, or about wanting to freeload on someone else's work, or any of the other things that defenders of modern day capitalism will bring up as strawman defenses of the current system.

What this is about is changing things so that everybody else has the same chance that currently only a tiny minority do. Because as much as our current economic system is much better than anything that came before, it still wastes the vast majority of the talent and potential of its members.

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” -Steven Jay Gould

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#25

Post by manuelabeledo »

Wiseacre wrote: post #12

Pointing out things like privilege tends to be seen as a sore loser mentality, regardless of truth. Sore losers have no place in hustle culture.

> Sore losers have no place in hustle culture.

"Hustle culture" is what happens when "pulling your bootstraps" is not edgy enough.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#26

Post by jokoon »

I went through a six months entrepreneurship class in France, targeted for low income people.

I learned about marketing, pitching my projects, but my views on business got much worse.

The result is mostly make believe and "just do it" mindset. We were taught by several coaches, who helped us making us feel good.

But in the end, Bourdieu is just right about everything.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#27

Post by strikelaserclaw »

m0llusk wrote: post #20

Money opens doors, but wealthy living also tends to teach bad habits that limit ambition and grit. Also, in that thread it was asserted that Steve Jobs did not have rich parents, but they were reasonably well off and lived in a leafy and pleasant neighborhood with excellent schools.

I would describe Steve Jobs as coming from a middle class background, but this was in boom time America, where middle class meant a relatively privileged upbringing.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#28

Post by jasonkester »

If you’re looking for an excuse to not start a business, you can’t get better than this. The game is rigged. Thus you would be a fool to try.

Problem solved.

If, however, you kinda like the idea of running your own business, it’s worth knowing that you do not in fact need rich parents or any of the other prerequisites that non-entrepreneurs think are required.

Ask around here and you’ll find plenty of us. (And, of course, if you’re looking, I’m sure you’ll also be able to disqualify all of us individually based on some form of invented privilege).

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#29

Post by wink »

lazypenguin wrote: post #10

Rich parents means you eat better, have access to higher quality resources, have more time for fitness, more time to go to the doctor for preventative issues. Rich parents means you don’t have to work two jobs or work while studying. Means you have free “consulting” on life decisions from the perspective of the upper class. Means you access to new things like computers, phones, cars, etc. It’s a huge advantage to com…

Pretty much skewed towards many countries with exorbitant tuition fees though.

I don't think I remember any students here in Germany working 2 jobs. Sure, there's some inherent privilege in getting there to be able to study in the first place, but it has not a lot to do with 'wealth', being middle class and living at home (which kinda used to be the default until you were finished anyway) because we don't have so many campus universities and the majority would study at the closest uni anyway.

But I think I misread your comment as too generic, in the narrow sense of starting a company, yes, but my point is that your 'safety net' doesn't have to be your parents millions in the bank - just keep living at home would be fine.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#30

Post by 71a54xd »

skywritergr wrote: post #9

Once you don't have to worry about not having to pay rent, not having to pay electricity etc then your appetite for risks grows. To get to that point you either need to start from a rich household (parents) or get to a certain age, have some money to support you (from previous work) and then go into entrepreneurial experiments. This is a big reason why you see older entrepreneurs embarking into that journey.

I have a decent backstop and quite frankly I still have a relatively middle of the road risk tolerance. I've done one startup and quite frankly just grinding and doing stuff I like is starting to sound like a much better route as I'm entering my mid to late 20's. For me the bigger force pushing me away from startups was just the amount of stress / energy it takes relative to just working somewhere. To be frank, I think people with decent money and more importantly social energy / connections give you a leg up. Being able to afford living in a place / attend a university that lends itself to these kinds of connections is also incredibly relevant.

The notion of having roommates or not a few years of savings just isn't as cool or interesting as it once sounded. Granted, it feels weird to think about giving up on something I thought I wanted to do for a really long time, but that's just life sometimes.

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