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Ask PG: Can you do it again?

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Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#21

Post by mindcrime »

adotjdotr wrote: post #17
wellboy wrote: post #13

The whole point of entrepreneurship is persistence, you don't need anything else. If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance. If you simply never stop, try things that no one else has tried before, it's impossible to not become successful. :)

"If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance." Politely disagree here. Most people who succeed in business are usually (but not in all cases) brought up in good homes, in stable social environments and receive good educations. Pull beneath the curtain and even the 'high school/college drop out' is usually from a middle class home or has received private education. T…

Look at the S&P 500. The CEOs education is as follows 97% have a college degree and 67% have a further degree. Most common degrees are engineering. Stanford and Harvard have 4% of the CEO population in the 500. I will also include Zuckerburg/Gates in this stat even if he dropped out he still went!

There's a lot to be said about what the makeup of the S&P 500 CEO pool represents, and what it means to look at their educational background, etc.

BUT... It's also important to remember that setting the bar for "success as an entrepreneur" at anything involving the S&P 500 may be a bit excessive. Oh, don't get me wrong... many entrepreneurs (especially tech entrepreneurs, which probably includes a lot of the population here) may have goals to build a publicly traded company, be a member of the S&P 500, or the DJIA or whatever. But not all entrepreneurs fit that mold.

Depending on where you start out and what your goals are, building a company that brings in just enough income to pay you and your employees, while allowing you to avoid being outdoors doing backbreaking manual labor in 95 degree heat, may qualify as "success". Heck, for a tradesman of some sort (plumber, electrician, etc.) it may be enough to have a business that just keeps the lights on for him and his family, while leaving enough to put some money in a college fund for the kids.

However, please do not be so dismissive of IQ or social environment or education. All of these things play a key role.

They can, but don't overstate their importance either. I've seen with my own eyes the value of sheer perseverance, coupled with great work ethic, and how that allowed a man with almost no formal education, and a poor, rural, "lower class" upbringing to become what I consider a "successful entrepreneur". I don't know my dad's IQ though, so I won't comment on that bit.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

derekp7 wrote: post #14
kuasha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not improved the world, but I still consider myself successful in personal life.

Don't be so hard on yourself about not improving the world. I'm sure that you've positively affected someone. Even if it is a side-effect of your personal success, that allows you, for example, to leave a decent tip at a bar or restaurant. That decent sized tip helped the waitress make rent that month, and not get kicked out to the curb. Which kept her kids in a decent school district, where they learned a lot and wi…

[deleted]

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#23

Post by kitcar »

wellboy wrote: post #13

The whole point of entrepreneurship is persistence, you don't need anything else. If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance. If you simply never stop, try things that no one else has tried before, it's impossible to not become successful. :)

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but that is simply not true. You can dedicate your whole life to a task - being more persistent than anyone else has in the history of the world - and still fail. It's actually a pretty common occurrence in human history - people dedicate themselves to doing something that is impossible (i.e. turning something that is not gold to gold), and at the end of the day, fail.

While it sounds great as a soundbite, persistence alone is not enough to succeed at something. There has to be a realistic path to success. Persistence is then required to stay on that path until you reach the end.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#24

Post by wellboy »

adotjdotr wrote: post #17
wellboy wrote: post #13

The whole point of entrepreneurship is persistence, you don't need anything else. If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance. If you simply never stop, try things that no one else has tried before, it's impossible to not become successful. :)

"If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance." Politely disagree here. Most people who succeed in business are usually (but not in all cases) brought up in good homes, in stable social environments and receive good educations. Pull beneath the curtain and even the 'high school/college drop out' is usually from a middle class home or has received private education. T…

There are actually some good statistics. If you look at 100 richest people on earth, 37% of them grew up middle-class households, 36% of them grew up poor households (http://fundersandfounders.com/how-much-sweat-it-takes-from-z...).

With the distribution of middle-class and lower-class of around 50-50 in the U.S. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_Stat...), it appears that it doesn't matter at all in what environment the 100 richest people today grew up.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#25

Post by kuasha »

pearjuice wrote: post #20

Sorry, but what kind of fluff question is this? Have you even thought about your own question? Your question implies time travel and it comes with all sorts of paradoxes. It's like asking "Can you rewind the tape?". Yes, you can. But , can you watch the movie again in the exact same manner you did earlier? Given he gets warped back in time and he looses all awareness of his situation, he will probably do it again (th…

Exact? No. Its about similar - like affecting same amount of people - may be totally in different field. Personally I am not concerned about money (after a certain threshold)- but other people may be interested.

If I had an option I would ask on the bottom of his essays. What PG is doing is little different than other successful entrepreneurs. It seems to me what he is doing is doing repetitively. But its just a question- it could be bad one though.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#26

Post by romaster »

adotjdotr wrote: post #17
wellboy wrote: post #13

The whole point of entrepreneurship is persistence, you don't need anything else. If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance. If you simply never stop, try things that no one else has tried before, it's impossible to not become successful. :)

"If you have persistence, then IQ, upbringing, social environment, education dwarf in importance." Politely disagree here. Most people who succeed in business are usually (but not in all cases) brought up in good homes, in stable social environments and receive good educations. Pull beneath the curtain and even the 'high school/college drop out' is usually from a middle class home or has received private education. T…

Its possible to be both white and Jewish (in re to your comment on VCs).

Persistence is key, and I agree... The stats show a strong foundation and the right family values make a big difference.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#27

Post by devnonymous »

pearjuice wrote: post #20

Sorry, but what kind of fluff question is this? Have you even thought about your own question? Your question implies time travel and it comes with all sorts of paradoxes. It's like asking "Can you rewind the tape?". Yes, you can. But , can you watch the movie again in the exact same manner you did earlier? Given he gets warped back in time and he looses all awareness of his situation, he will probably do it again (th…

I think you misunderstood the question:

  >  If you are given back your time and energy but taken back everything else,
  >  can you repeat what have you done? Say, starting today?
What's being asked is basically, starting today, if everything was taken away from PG (or any successful person) and instead he (or the person) was given the same amount of time (20 odd years ?) and energy, would they achieve the same level of success, 20 years hence.

My own take on this is, yes - Most successful people would become successful irrespective of starting conditions. Of course the level of success might differ since things like luck come into play but most successful people tend to 'build' their luck (ref: every self-help book ever).

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#28

Post by general_failure »

Success and significance is relative and it is important that you see why it is so. I don't know where you are from but opportunity is a big part of the story. A majority of the world does not have the same level of opportunity as the western world. Being in the bay area, being born with the right passport, being around with the right people, right education etc are really big influencers of success and have nothing to do with individual itself.

This is not to take away anything from what many people like PG have done, but it is for you to realize that sometimes lots of energy is spent by other people just trying to achieve basic things which are usually taken for granted.

As an example, I wanted to travel on a business trip to this country. My partner could go immediately because he didn't need a visa. My visa processing is still stuck and it's been a week now. Lost opportunity and no amount of hardwork and perseverance from my side can fix it. yeah, this is part of the reason that I am writing this comment. I feel terrible about my passport :)

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#29

Post by soggypopsicle »

derekp7 wrote: post #14
kuasha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not improved the world, but I still consider myself successful in personal life.

Don't be so hard on yourself about not improving the world. I'm sure that you've positively affected someone. Even if it is a side-effect of your personal success, that allows you, for example, to leave a decent tip at a bar or restaurant. That decent sized tip helped the waitress make rent that month, and not get kicked out to the curb. Which kept her kids in a decent school district, where they learned a lot and wi…

By that reasoning nearly everyone has improved the world. Considering the negative impact we all have just existing in our society I'm sure his stance is more accurate.

Re: Ask PG: Can you do it again?

#30

Post by pearjuice »

devnonymous wrote: post #27
pearjuice wrote: post #20

Sorry, but what kind of fluff question is this? Have you even thought about your own question? Your question implies time travel and it comes with all sorts of paradoxes. It's like asking "Can you rewind the tape?". Yes, you can. But , can you watch the movie again in the exact same manner you did earlier? Given he gets warped back in time and he looses all awareness of his situation, he will probably do it again (th…

I think you misunderstood the question: > If you are given back your time and energy but taken back everything else, > can you repeat what have you done? Say, starting today? What's being asked is basically, starting today, if everything was taken away from PG (or any successful person) and instead he (or the person) was given the same amount of time (20 odd years ?) and energy, would they achieve the same level of s…

It will be pure speculation/imagination and no-one will able to confirm/deny the bias. Hence the question is fluff. It's like asking a highly imaginative question and trying to translate it to real world. It's nothing more than luring into something which will never happen. It's not bad that you think about these things, but don't waste your time with it.

"Most successful people would become successful irrespective of starting conditions." - again bias and imagination/speculation. Success is not something you are born with. You "get" it. Just because you got it once doesn't mean you are entitled to it for the rest of your life. Successful people getting more success have much more means to become more successful so it looks like they would have been successful anyway.

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