Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
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Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#2Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#3As the first reply on Reddit notes, the title is false: https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/business-people/sel...
(Yes, a wealthy family is an obvious advantage if one's goal is to become a "self-made" billionaire.)
More interesting: Why are so many people obsessed with the "Behind Every Self-Made..." thesis? Are they indulging childish fantasies? Nursing "I'd be a billionaire too, if only..." emotional problems? Renouncing any concern for the welfare of the 99.9%?
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#4Ellison, Jobs, Bloomberg, Amancio Ortega were born to middle class or poor homes. Behind every billionaire is a great deal of luck whether rich or poor.
It’s not something one works or outsmarts their way into.
Most people whether born to kings or peasants will not become self-made billionaires. We should focus our efforts on eliminating poverty and ensuring there’s a solid middle class/upper middle class instead of focusing on the 1 in a million people that’ll become ultra-rich.
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#5More interesting to me is their ROI. Would they be as wealthy had they just parked their money in an index fund?
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#6a lot of people are clinging to this necessarily being a "biological" father
someone handing you a wad of cash and telling you to "make your dreams come true" doesnt necessarily have to be your parent; that person also doesnt have to be named a "father" for having done the act
perhaps "behind every self-made billionaire is an investor with money" would be a more fitting (albeit redundant) hypothesis
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#7Sounds like typical whining to appease the hivemind by taking cheap shots at "fun to hate" targets as a way to generate clicks.
Where the author failed is by not including Musk, too.
I especially lost interest when the author added a brief description of what Exxon is: "one of the world’s top oil companies." (When the readership doesn't know what Exxon is, you can imagine what else is in store.)
Then, there's this portion:
> One more illustration: Mark Zuckerberg. His parents’ fortunate social and economic status afforded him the opportunity to enroll at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the oldest educational institutions in the United States, favored by political and financial elites.
How come everyone who attended Phillips Exter Academy isn't a billionaire?
Let's look at Oracle's Larry Ellison, the fourth wealthiest person in the US. From Wikipedia:
> Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, in New York City to Florence Spellman, an unwed Jewish mother. His biological father was an Italian-American United States Army Air Corps pilot.
That doesn't sound like a wealthy upbringing to me. Maybe his dad had some connections, but it doesn't seem like they were better off than most. This is just one example from a cursory search.
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#8Ellison, Jobs, Bloomberg, Amancio Ortega were born to middle class or poor homes. Behind every billionaire is a great deal of luck whether rich or poor. It’s not something one works or outsmarts their way into. Most people whether born to kings or peasants will not become self-made billionaires. We should focus our efforts on eliminating poverty and ensuring there’s a solid middle class/upper middle class instead of…
True, though one thing is certain: no one ever became wealthy by whining about those who are. Perhaps the "unlucky" worked their way into nothing more than the upper middle class, but they certainly wouldn't have had they chosen to not make the effort.
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#9As the first reply on Reddit notes, the title is false: https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/business-people/sel... (Yes, a wealthy family is an obvious advantage if one's goal is to become a "self-made" billionaire.) More interesting: Why are so many people obsessed with the "Behind Every Self-Made..." thesis? Are they indulging childish fantasies? Nursing "I'd be a billionaire too, if only..." emotional problem…
Because one of the reasons people don't think billionaires should be held accountable is they think they earned that money (and so, they can earn it as well, just work hard ;). Showing that they almost always just were born into wealth helps these people realize that they have no hope of ever becoming taxable at that level.
Re: Zuckerberg,Bezos,Gates.Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire Is a Father with Money
#10I think the difference between succeeding and failing in business is the confidence to get over yourself and ask for business/payment/quid pro quo or whatever.
From some introspection, I've concluded that if I had 240k in the bank today, I would still think ten times before hiring a team of developers, rent an office, setup a company, and start spending money to make money.
I'm just diffident that way which makes me think entrepreneurs are just wired like that.