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‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

dariusforoux.com

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Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#61

Post by [deleted] »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #48
schwartzworld wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 97.8 billion dollars, 97.5 billion or so of that was earned after he was 50 years old. To think he started off with a paltry $300 million. How much avocado toast do I need to not eat to get there?

Dammit. I totally forgot that I have an avocado ripening... should be perfect just about now, but ate the last of my brioche for breakfast. I'm seriously not kidding. I've never had avocado toast (was going to make guac) and I'm thinking that brioche avocado toast would be amazing.

[deleted]

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#62

Post by betwixthewires »

schwartzworld wrote: post #8
rufus_foreman wrote: post #6

>> Person A was born in 1930. Person B was born seventy years later, in 2000. They both start applying the Graham investing strategy at a very early age, let’s say when they were 15 years. >> Person A becomes Warren Buffett, once the richest man on earth, who experienced one of the biggest booms in value stocks when he was young. Person B loses half of their money because value stocks are out of favor in the 2010s Bu…

> 97.8 billion dollars, 97.5 billion or so of that was earned after he was 50 years old. To think he started off with a paltry $300 million. How much avocado toast do I need to not eat to get there?

"Started off" at 50.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#63

Post by lakevieew »

A bit tangential to the main point covered in the post.

>> Becoming rich and famous is mostly a matter of luck.

I am not sure if I agree with this completely.

I recently watched a Netflix movie "Look both ways" with my wife. The movie shows parallel timelines in which the protagonist despite facing different scenarios ends up with a very similar fate in the end. That movie got me thinking if our life's trajectory is based on a few defining moments, or if it is more about the small decisions we make everyday.

For example, if Amazon/Meta didn't work out for Bezos/Mark, where do you think they would end up. My guess is they would still be running some big successful companies, as founders or CEOs or VPs.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#64

Post by [deleted] »

betwixthewires wrote: post #57
sbf501 wrote: post #27

In the Buffet example, OP left out that once you cross a certain threshold of wealth, it is almost impossible to NOT make more. There are hedge funds, exchanges, shell corporations, ways of diffusing assets across businesses, and other strategies that only people with hundreds of millions can access. Not to mention many laws basically stop applying to you once you achieve a certain level of wealth because the vehicle…

Its irrelevant in the example, because the Buffet-like person is only using one strategy in the example, available to everyone.

[deleted]

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#65

Post by triceratops »

> Ask 100 ten-year-olds what they want to do, and I’d guess 99 of them will say something that’s related to becoming rich or famous : A musician, YouTuber, actor, NBA player, Elon Musk, and so forth.

For crying out loud, every generation from the 20th century onwards would have given a similar answer at that age. Heck, I wanted to be a Tony Stark/Bruce Wayne type of person when I was 10. Or a famous writer. I am neither. I'm still quite successful and happy.

Yes modern culture is vapid and shallow. Most things that people are into are vapid and shallow, and always have been. It's the essence of the human condition. That doesn't have much impact on the lives people ultimately go on to lead. Your local environment is far more important.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#66

Post by NordSteve »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #16
zehaeva wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the equivalent of ~$240k in today's dollars!

>> In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They sold the business later in the year for $1,200 That's ~$20k in today's dollars in a few months while still in high school. >> At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly deliver…

There’s no way anyone who was doing delivery of newspapers in the 1940s and making $175 nominal.

Newspapers then cost roughly 5 cents apiece, and in Omaha a route with 100 doors would take 90 minutes. Your monthly gross sales for a seven day route of that size would be $150, and the vast of that would go to purchase papers. You’d probably net $25, and then get $15 in tips.

That’s about the same amount I made on my route in the late 1970s when adjusted for inflation.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#67

Post by throwaway8582 »

bee_rider wrote: post #30
rufus_foreman wrote: post #6

>> Person A was born in 1930. Person B was born seventy years later, in 2000. They both start applying the Graham investing strategy at a very early age, let’s say when they were 15 years. >> Person A becomes Warren Buffett, once the richest man on earth, who experienced one of the biggest booms in value stocks when he was young. Person B loses half of their money because value stocks are out of favor in the 2010s Bu…

It is sort of tangential to his point, but the Buffett example seems kind of weird to me. Investing is inherently competitive. Surely the strategy that Buffett (or any other large investor) used to get big would now be obsolete?

I agree this was a bad example. Of course people who try and copy the strategy of a very successful person are not going to be as successful themselves, because the people that come later are going to be competing with millions of others doing the same thing. If you want that level of success, you probably have to be ahead of the curve and do something different from what most people are currently doing.

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#68

Post by somenameforme »

ISL wrote: post #29

> Ask 100 ten-year-olds what they want to do, and I’d guess 99 of them will say something that’s related to becoming rich or famous: A musician, YouTuber, actor, NBA player, Elon Musk, and so forth. People actually do ask this question of large numbers of kids regularly. Here's one: https://www.approvedcourse.com/when-i-grow-up/ Top three in that survey were doctor, teacher, astronaut. (I have read other surveys wher…

That wasn't asked of kids, that was asked of adults to recall what they wanted to be when they were kids, which is going to result in different answers. Lego, through Harris polling, ran this poll [1] internationally not that long ago and the results were stereotypical. Respondents were allowed to pick multiple dream careers:

---

China:

Astronaut - 56%

Teacher - 52%

Musician - 47%

---

US:

Youtuber - 30%

Teacher - 25%

Pro Athlete - 21%

---

[1] - https://www.businessinsider.com/american-kids-youtube-star-a...

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#69

Post by theandrewbailey »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #46
theandrewbailey wrote: post #31

Rich and famous? I don't care. I'd settle for a wife and 2.1 kids right now.

Which body part would you rather have for that 0.1 child? Or do you just share time with 10 other parents?

A healthy child 1/10th the size of a normal child would suffice. Women would say 'he's so cute!'

Re: ‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times

#70

Post by rufus_foreman »

NordSteve wrote: post #66
rufus_foreman wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They sold the business later in the year for $1,200 That's ~$20k in today's dollars in a few months while still in high school. >> At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly deliver…

There’s no way anyone who was doing delivery of newspapers in the 1940s and making $175 nominal. Newspapers then cost roughly 5 cents apiece, and in Omaha a route with 100 doors would take 90 minutes. Your monthly gross sales for a seven day route of that size would be $150, and the vast of that would go to purchase papers. You’d probably net $25, and then get $15 in tips. That’s about the same amount I made on my ro…

He had 3 routes, this was in DC, not Omaha:

"Young Warren attended the DC public school Alice Deal Junior High and he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School.

Buffett says delivering papers at age 14 instilled the importance of hard work and reliability.

Wartime Washington was short of adult men and for that reason, says Buffett, he was able to get multiple paper routes at the Westchester Apartments, a five-building complex that was home to the city’s elite.

“I also learned,” he says, “that if you did a good job you were going to move up. The very fact that I did a good job in Spring Valley got me the Westchester routes later on.”"

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