"... in effect I've spent the last 21 years training people to become billionaires."
"So far about 30 of them have, but there are many more in the pipeline."
"I felt like a skating coach hearing someone say that it's impossible to do a triple axel."
Imagine a skating coach who has been training skaters to execute triple axels. If he has spent 21 years training 6500 skaters and only 30 of them are able to perform triple axels, would you take him seriously
That's less than 1% (0.0046%)
With that extremely low success rate, how valuable is the "training"
Maybe there is no causal link between the "training" and success
Less than 1% succeed
It's easier to argue that there may be a causal link between the training and failure, or that "training" has no effect at all on the success rate
Over 99% of those who "train" with this "coach" fail
Maybe it's not a bad deal for the coach is he gets paid fees by his real clients, the limited partners, regardless of outcome
But is it a good deal for the skater given a less than 1% success rate
The coach, on behalf of his clients, the limited partners, is providing a loan to the skater. If the skater learns to perform the triple axel, i.e., becomes a billionaire, this will enrich the coach's clients and the coach. The skaters are not paying the coach. If they are one of the more than 99% who fail to perform the axel, then they are only wasting their own time and effort
"Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jared Friedman, Jessica Livingston, and Garry Tan for reading drafts of this, and to Arwa Elrayess and the Oxford Union for hosting me.
Funny that none of these the proofreaders caught the misspelling of "billionaire"