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Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

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Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#31

Post by HardikVala »

scarface_74 wrote: post #29
HardikVala wrote: post #27

I've been your position before and although I can't say I'm a successful entrepreneur, I can share lessons that helped me escape "analysis paralysis": 1. Fear. This is was a huge inhibitor of action. I was afraid of picking the wrong problem and then spending months-years having nothing to show for it. 2. To overcome the fear, I decided that instead of anchoring on the painpoint, I'll anchor on something else: The us…

> *but in practice, most founders are able to expand the niche or find ways of expanding their market by combining niches.+ “Most” founders fail miserably or toil in obscurity making peanuts until they give up.

True true. I should qualify my statement: Most founders who are able to find micro-PMF in a niche generally can expand that niche or grow threw composition. But this is based on my own anecdotal evidence, with a slant towards optimism.

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#34

Post by MaxBrenner99 »

I will add my two cent because just like you we seem to have similar background. I am average intelligence. I do have a MBA and most importantly I am rich. I actually grew up poor and was middle class most of my life. The biggest misconception is that as an entrepreneur you have to start or create something new. The truth of the matter is that you may not have it in you to work as hard and make the sacrifice needed. I felt the same way, starting something from scratch is not my cup of tea. I became rich because I started buying businesses. Think about the advantages. You already have customers, cash flow and staff all you have to do is come in and make it better or keep it the same if everything is already good. Yes, you need capital but if you do get the capital starting a business recommended instead of starting from scratch and most of the time you may not even need to quit your day job. Good luck!!!

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#35

Post by cratermoon »

PaulHoule wrote: post #22
cratermoon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternate reading: being a billionaire is less impressive than it's hyped to be, if it's a pure numbers game.

It's not just a numbers game. Bill Gates was stupendously smart, driven and competitive. He and Paul Allen also got the idea that the microcomputer industry was going to need systems software before he could get a microcomputer to develop it on, so he developed it with an emulator on a PDP-10. It was "flip switches on the front panel" or "ship with Microsoft BASIC" which let Microsoft claim to be "the first microcomp…

> Bill Gates was stupendously smart

[citation needed]

Gates had family and connections. Brain didn't come into play.

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#36

Post by Quinzel »

I think some entrepreneurs actually have kind of obsessive traits. They seem to get obsessed with an idea and see it through major hurdles that most other people would give up on. It’s like a combination of obsession and aggressively putting forward their ideas with confidence, whereas people who are “intelligent” - like have a lot of education, a lot of experience might actually sometimes see the bigger picture in a way that’s detrimental to the success of the overall idea. I actually had an idea the other day that I thought, fuck that would be a great idea - one that could really be something… will I see it through to fruition as an actual sustainable business? Most likely no, because I lose my passion for things quicker than entrepreneurs. That’s ok, not everyone is supposed to be an entrepreneur. I’m looking for other ways to find my success, and basically build a life that is full of joyful experiences and a happy retirement. I don’t need or want a billion dollar idea or company

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#37

Post by scarecrowbob »

"" America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, “It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.” It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: “if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand—glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves. ""

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#39

Post by devoutsalsa »

scarface_74 wrote: post #16
Desafinado wrote: post #13

It's been my experience that business success is less about intelligence, and more about the right combination of intelligence and motivation. Succeeding as an entrepreneur takes an extreme amount of work and fortitude that has to come along with your intelligence. And motivation counts for more than intelligence. A genius who doesn't want to do anything but read and collect a secure pay-cheque isn't cut out to be an…

This is honestly a bad answer. You can have all of the motivation in the world. But if you don’t know how to create products that people want, market it, have funding for it and not get crushed by a larger company that can throw a team at it, you won’t be successful. The world is filled with the corpses of dead companies founded by people with “motivation” and “passion”. The whole idea of if you work really hard you…

Every dead body on Mt. Everest was a motivated, hard working person.

Re: Ask HN: If I am so smart, why I am not rich?

#40

Post by bruce511 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #20
Desafinado wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, but you seemed to miss the part where I described intelligence as nearly important as motivation. It's just that I'd give motivation a greater importance. You need to be smart enough to run a business, but more importantly you need the drive.

Intelligence doesn’t help either, there are thousand of smart people who tried to start a business and failed.

Each part is necessary, but in itself not sufficient.

Successful business takes hard work, the right work, done well, reaching a market that needs it and can afford it.

Motivation by itself is worthless. Working on the wrong thing is worthless. Working hard on the wrong thing is worthless.

Being smart isn't about doing Integral Calculus. It's about deciding to work on the right thing.

Most of all a business needs to reach customers who want what you are selling, and can afford what you need to charge.

To the OP I say "I don't know you, but i expect you looked for product first, then first customers. Switch to finding customers first, then worry about the product."

Once you have that then you'll need motivation, hard work and indeed some luck.

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