Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
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Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#2[deleted]
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#3This was an important thing for me to read. For the past several years I have been trying hard to deprogram myself of the "richer is better" mindset. Part of my problem has been the assumption that richer people believe themselves to be better than those less rich, to the point that someone like Bill Gates would think less of someone who "only" had a couple million dollars.
I'm slowly weaning myself off of this damaging viewpoint. Something that has really helped have been TED Talks: it's awesome to see a room full of people - some of them hugely wealthy and successful - looking with absolute respect and awe at the presenter on stage talking about (say) the intelligence of crows.
This answer by Gates really helps further cement the idea in my mind that, yes, having more money is great to a point, but in the end, what have you DONE with your life? What have you MADE that brings value to the rest of the world? Those are the kind of things that bring true respect to you, from the rich and non-rich alike.
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#4I'm not speaking from experience, but based on what I've read, this makes perfect sense.
Happiness/life satisfaction doesn't improve with more money. You need enough money to be comfortable (i.e., a roof over your head and food on the table), but after that it has no effect.
With $5M you buy an excellent house anywhere, send your kids to the best schools, drive a very nice car and have plenty of money left over for traveling the world. $5B will get you more houses, cars and a massive yacht, but why do you want those things? If you want it to beat your neigbours, then you'll always be unsatisfied since there'll always be people with more (except when you get to the level of Gates), but more importantly, people get used to good things. I have seriously impressive camera equipment. A few years ago I would have loved to own such high quality gear and would be using it all the time. But now, most of the time it sits on a shelf in my bedroom. And I imagine it would be exactly the same if I owned a Ferrari. Or a fleet of them.
And then you have the super-rich people problems, foremost is worrying about their children. A well-meaning relation telling them that they'll never have to work a day in their life isn't going to do much for their drive to do something with their life. And finally, most rich people, whether they're worth tens or hundreds of millions, don't consider themselves financially secure, but they think they would be if they increased their wealth by 25%...
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#5A million dollars isn't cool, you know what's cool?
Not a billion dollars.
But yeah I always wondered what the threshold of wealth is when you literally can do anything you want without any thought to how much.
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#6Anyone know if there's a recorded version of the talk I could watch? It sounded like an interesting event.
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#7Ben Elton explained the diminishing marginal utility of wealth in his book Stark in this fashion:
"A man only has one stomach and one dick".
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#8A million dollars isn't cool, you know what's cool? Not a billion dollars. But yeah I always wondered what the threshold of wealth is when you literally can do anything you want without any thought to how much.
Without trying to be fatuous, this depends on what "anything you want" means....
If you want to go to the bar and have a beer, you might already be rich.
If you want to go to Mars, you might never be wealthy.
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#9“I can understand wanting to have a million dollars, it’s freedom, but once you get beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger."
The declining marginal utility of money, defined
Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
#10I think the subtle value lesson he was trying to get across to these kids is to avoid making money ( i.e. a certain amount of it ) as the goal. Humble, self-effacing and smart answers.
Oddly enough, I know very few people personally who set out with an exact locus on their future net-worth. Many, in my and the upcoming generation, aspire to have meaning over / along with money.