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Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

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Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#201

Post by wallflower »

jasonkester wrote: post #188
rick888 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's the Mexican fisherman story. Sacrifice your freedom and happiness so that you can get rich so that you can have freedom and happiness." and how do you suppose we do that? Freedom to me means: 1) not having to work for anyone 2) having enough time to do what I want 3) traveling around the world You need money to do all of these. To get money, you need to create something that people are willing to pay for, which…

Sounds like you've never tried this freedom that you speak of. I've been doing the 3 things on your list for the better part of 10 years now, and I've never been wealthy. 3. Living on the road is no more expensive than living anywhere else. Less usually, since there's no rent or car payment involved. I can live large in Thailand for $500/month. 2. Living on the beach, I once calculated that I needed to bill one day p…

A personal question. You do not need to answer.

When you return "home", wherever that may be, do you find yourself treated distantly by friends and family? My sister did the world traveling thing for years and though she did send postcards - we found it hard to share the same feeling of excitement for her travels as she did. She is back home now and starting her own family.

What is it like when you return home?

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#202

Post by tlrobinson »

Elite wrote: post #159
byw wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it has more to do with culture. According to Forbes, about half of all female billionaires are from China. http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/22/billionaire-women-entrepren...

Is Oprah the only self-made Billionaire in the US/Europe? I know that there are several female billionaires but all the fortunes I can think of now are inherited

Scanning the Forbes list (I could have missed some): http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Wo...

Doris Fisher (Gap): http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Doris-...

Oprah Winfrey: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Oprah-...

Meg Whitman (Ebay): http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Margar...

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#203

Post by wallflower »

thetrumanshow wrote: post #40
fizx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because there's billing, payroll, taxes, customer support, management, board meetings and a hundred other things that come with running a startup. We have to do what's best for the company, and that usually doesn't include taking a month off to try to build a robot spider.

Yes, but if your margins are good and your growth is strong enough, you can remove yourself from the equation and hire people to takeover most of these tasks. You'll probably still have to attend the board meethings though. Then again, it's probably not considered a startup anymore at that point.

Read "The E-Myth" by Michael Gerber. It points out how most businesses must be setup from the start to allow a systemizatiom/franchising that allows the founder to exit.

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#204

Post by alassehz »

zackattack wrote: post #90
sosuke wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Darn it you changed your reply after I replied, this still kind of applies. Edit again, you're reply is practically evolving every time I hit update. Being free and being broke is what I think his direct route is. You can say that the pan handlers have more or less freedom than a business owner, depends on how you define the words.

Yeah but very few people can successfully pull this off. The vast majority of broke people are still harboring some sort of grudge against society or someone from their past - it's like they have 99% of the inconveniences of abandoning materialism, but none of the benefit because they refuse to "go all the way" with it. In many ways intellectual freedom can only be found once material mastery has been achieved. There…

Would you really say intellectual freedom is truly achieved only once the material has been achieved?

I would argue that there is a threshold for this material mastery. I don't think is necessary for it to be exorbitantly rich. I can look at researchers who enjoy their work, and are working on problems interesting to them. They usually don't have a big monetary profit. Just a thought

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#205

Post by carnevalem »

waqf wrote: post #134
johnrob wrote: post #36

For both wealth and (perceived) beauty, there is often a relatively easy solution: move! For more beauty, move to a location with a greater ratio of the opposite sex. For more wealth, move to a location with a lower cost of living. I don't know how much longer these arbitrage opportunities will exist, but for now they probably represent the biggest 'lifehacks' one can make.

If you're thinking of trying the sex ratios thing, I strongly suggest controlling for age, and preferably social class.

Do you have any data to do this? I think the results would be interesting.

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#206

Post by waqf »

carnevalem wrote: post #205
waqf wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're thinking of trying the sex ratios thing, I strongly suggest controlling for age, and preferably social class.

Do you have any data to do this? I think the results would be interesting.

Sadly, I was considering including just such an appeal with my original comment. If you find some, let me know?

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#207

Post by piaw »

blizkreeg wrote: post #53
pg wrote: post #13

In my experience, startup founders who want to get rich want it more in order to have the freedom to work on what they want than to impress people. That could be because we prefer startups whose founders include hackers. On the other hand, we don't just prefer that type because they're more fun to hang around with, but because in our opinion they're more likely to succeed.

I keep hearing this thing about freedom to work on something you want to after getting rich as opposed to something you have to. I'm not sure that Utopian scenario exists. It sounds charming to be a vintner, writer, film producer, or my personal favorite, travel the world care-free once you have enough money but I'm honestly not sure there's more to it than the charm of it. Time and resources aren't that short that w…

OK, since I have retired to travel and write, I'll chime in here. The writing part is fun, and being able to do it on my own terms (i.e., not kowtow to a publisher/editor's need to sell books by the pound rather than by content) was worth it to me.

The travel is even more so. I'd taken vacations before, but always came back wishing I had 1 or 2 more weeks more. With a day job, it was hell asking for 5 weeks or so. Now, I just go. And I no longer come back wishing I had another 2 week. The indignity of having to ask for permission always annoyed me, but I didn't realize how annoying it was until I didn't have to ask.

Ultimately, I think you have to ask what it is that drives you. Some people like being bosses and being able to lord it over their underlings. Those people will never retire, and they shouldn't. Their self-worth is dependent entirely on other people being subservient to them and their goals. But many INTJ types (especially engineers) don't have self-worth tied to the opinions of other people. Such people historically do very well in retirement, and retirement is not a bad goal for them: http://retireearlyhomepage.com/mbti.html

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#208

Post by piaw »

cageface wrote: post #194
potatolicious wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sympathy upvote - not sure why you got downvoted for a perfectly cogent argument. You are of course absolutely right - if what you're after is the resort hotel experience, jet-setting around the world, fine-dining and boutique shopping then yes, you do need to be exceedingly wealthy. But IMHO travel is so much more meaningful than that, and in fact I don't see much of a point to the jet-set lifestyle at all. A trendy…

These have been some of my biggest disappointments in travelling. Globalization has made Europe look almost indistinguishable from the States in many ways. The week or two that a typical U.S. job allows you to spend abroad doesn't really accomplish much either. The real appeal of travel to me is to genuinely immerse myself in a different culture and live and see the world in a different way. This takes the kind of ti…

If you think Europe looks like the US, you're doing travel wrong.

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#209

Post by piaw »

pvdm wrote: post #150
oconnore wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the one way that riches truly improve your quality of life is to make travel easy. The ability to explore your world is a great gift, and something that not many underpriveledged people can afford. A Lamborghini doesn't factor into that equation, because unless you live near the Autobahn, it doesn't get you anywhere a more modest car can't in the same time. But if I ever become extraordinarily wealthy, my fir…

Travel is overrated. http://earlyretirementextreme.com/travel-is-not-worth-it.htm...

That's a bizarre attitude. If you cookie cutter travel, you'll get cookie cutter memories. I travel my way, my style, at my pace, and at my speed. When I travel, I get invited into people's homes for tea, get introduced to their families, and get asked to stay. I get chefs coming out of retirement to cook me dinner, because I'm in a position where their hospitality really means something to me, and both they and I appreciate it.

There's no way I would give up travel. If you think travel sucks, you're doing it wrong.

Re: Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

#210

Post by mkramlich »

jasonkester wrote: post #188
rick888 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's the Mexican fisherman story. Sacrifice your freedom and happiness so that you can get rich so that you can have freedom and happiness." and how do you suppose we do that? Freedom to me means: 1) not having to work for anyone 2) having enough time to do what I want 3) traveling around the world You need money to do all of these. To get money, you need to create something that people are willing to pay for, which…

Sounds like you've never tried this freedom that you speak of. I've been doing the 3 things on your list for the better part of 10 years now, and I've never been wealthy. 3. Living on the road is no more expensive than living anywhere else. Less usually, since there's no rent or car payment involved. I can live large in Thailand for $500/month. 2. Living on the beach, I once calculated that I needed to bill one day p…

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