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Is success tied to having rich parents?

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Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#71

Post by Apreche »

100%. I remember in the 2000s I went to a small gathering where a successful (at the time) start-up founder was speaking. Since it was so small I was able to ask real questions. What I asked was effectively "I'd like to do a startup also, but if I fail, I'll have a high risk of being homeless, and failure seems to be the most likely scenario. How do you mitigate that risk?"

In so many hums and haws he admitted he got money from his family. Looked it up, his dad was mega rich. That's defined my perspective of the entire "start-up" world ever since.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#72

Post by usrusr »

onion2k wrote: post #21
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 custome…

> Your need for success diminishes with wealth though

I'd consider that a feature, not a bug for the question of global stage level founding: the subset of rich parents offspring who goes after building something aims for building something actually big, not just for the first best thing that promises access to the world of fancy cars and being someone's boss.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with starting a business aimed at bootstrapping itself and funding a car, later a house and in the end maybe even a boat. I have much greater sympathy for those than for people aiming to be the next unicorn (that term hasn't really made the jump into this decade, or has it?). But when it does come to this scope, I'd take it for granted that the born rich run a considerably higher chance of not getting blinded by high numbers and not deluding themselves.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#73

Post by adamsmith143 »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #40

I beg to differ. Coming from a lower middle class background I got a lot of grit and hunger. I studied computer science, being the first at uni in my family. I always hustled part time while studying. Afterwards, I joined a startup and later co-founded another one. All without any support from my parents or anyone else. My actions ultimately put me on a path of success, not anyone else. Although I understand that thi…

If I say on Average Americans are taller than Chinese and you say "What about Yao Ming??" That doesn't disprove what I just said. Anecdotes aren't all that valuable/

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#74

Post by fellowniusmonk »

moralestapia wrote: post #59
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #38

Absolutely, as an orphan with many different ideas and no safety net I was frequently put in places where I should have been a co-founder since I was technical and the idea was mine, but basically until I was 29 I had no leverage because I had to have income (and health insurance, I was born with a couple heart defects.) I eventually co-founded a company with two others and it went well, but after exiting I am still…

>They don't want cockroach people in my estimation. This is true. It matters much more who you are than what you bring to the table (unless you're bringing in something spectacular).

Agree, and obviously my history and K1's can make the case for a whole slew of other traits besides that one.

By "who you are" do you mean a persons intrinsic traits?

I think the fact that "who you are" in these cases implicitly includes a persons network, access to capital and other _extrinsic_ traits should be spoken aloud and acknowledged.

There are a lot of poor, smart kids who feel _less than_ as a result.

A trait I have that is hard to present is that for every dollar invested in me the ROI has been a minimum of 25x, those numbers start at 15 when I dropped out of HS to pay my families rent (with an "illegal" w2 smb network admin job I turned into a coding/marketing automation job) because of my mothers cancer diagnosis.

Many of us end up being out leveraged early on and our map to success takes far more personal torque and grit than others born into more connected and wealthier circumstances.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#75

Post by [deleted] »

newaccount74 wrote: post #55

I don't have rich parents and I'm not a successful startup founder. I guess this confirms it! Joking aside, I don't think it's just about the money or the safety net -- most parents can afford to support their kids for a few years after college. I think the biggest advantage is an understanding for entrepreneurial spirit. When I started my business (not a startup), my biggest problem was having no role model and havi…

[deleted]

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#76

Post by notreallyserio »

joeman1000 wrote: post #70

Why is this a surprise? It’s easier to be successful when you’re taught by successful people (your parents). Not to mention other aspects, but I think this one is important. It is common knowledge that people that just come into money are likely to blow it. If they are taught well by the parents, and then have money, they’re more likely to be successful.

There's an incredibly large cohort of people that discount or deny their privilege, to the point they laughably claim people can become successful if only they worked hard. They're so out of touch with reality that it helps to post reminders like this from time to time.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#77

Post by Jeema101 »

xtracto wrote: post #64

It's a funny scene us discussing if having rich parents take you places... in an internet forum of people that earn 70k+ a year. I wonder what poor people in countries in India, Mexico or Brazil would think.

It is indeed about perspective.

But many people who live in Western, industrialized countries have never been to a developing country, so they have no basis for comparison except what they see around them.

Even my modest apartment, which is completely mundane by Western standards, would be rather luxurious by developing world standards. It's very easy to lose sight of that sometimes.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#78

Post by 999900000999 »

I'd say the more important part is a baseline of stability. I went through two evictions by the time I was 19, and I ultimately had to estrange myself from my family to avoid getting evicted for a third time.

I'm very happy with my current level of success. I've made 6 figures for a good amount of time and have more than enough saved to take a long vacation.

I can't stress enough how important it is to cut out toxic people. Hell a big part of why I left LA is just how lame folks are.

The typical personal I went out with in LA was around 30 , and simply didn't want to work. Bad things happen when your around people like this.

The moment I moved to Chicago, I was dating a beautiful, amazing career- driven girl. More than worth moving for.

If you date someone who doesn't want to work your life will be very very hard.

I've met a good amount of people from privileged backgrounds ( for me this means you've never been evicted) who squandered their privilege. For ever rich kid that started a million dollar company, another 2 sat around all day doing nothing. These tend to be the most entitled people on earth. If you work at the local pet store cleaning up animal droppings I have way more respect for you then if you live off a trust fund.

Keep in mind alot of lifestyle gurus fit the trust fund kid stereotype. Mark Manson comes to mind, because of family wealth he's never had to work. Then he made millions writing a book about not needing to worry about anything.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#79

Post by staticassertion »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #40

I beg to differ. Coming from a lower middle class background I got a lot of grit and hunger. I studied computer science, being the first at uni in my family. I always hustled part time while studying. Afterwards, I joined a startup and later co-founded another one. All without any support from my parents or anyone else. My actions ultimately put me on a path of success, not anyone else. Although I understand that thi…

Not being in the USA seems really important. For one thing, insurance is tied to employment in the US, so if you're taking time to work on a company that's a lot of money you're going to have to pay every month if you want healthcare.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#80

Post by Salgat »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #66
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.

then your appetite for risks grows Sigh. No, it's not an appetite for risk. It's that those risks get less risky. People become more "risk tolerant" when those risks are less of a threat to them, their survival, their future, etc. That's a little like saying "Rich people eat at more expensive restaurants than poor people because they have the appetite for it." No, they don't. They have the same appetite as a poor per…

It's fine to associate risk with increased reward. It's the same as saying the richer the gambler, the more appetite they have for higher stakes.
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