Someone Asks “What’s Your Excuse” With ‘Billionaire Beginnings’ Pic, Gets 15 ‘Real World’ Replies
Just like all the other ‘isms,’ capitalism relies on some form of indoctrination to survive. We are taught from a very young age about the rewards of succeeding at school, working at a steady job, buying plenty of stuff, eating processed foods and just believing that life is a competition searching for ways on how to become rich.
As long as the theoretical possibility of starting a business from scratch to make one’s own fortune exists, the idea is that people will continue to work hard and chase it, despite the increasingly vanishing odds.
To keep the millionaire dream alive we need role models, and in our times these are often people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos.
These ‘self-made’ billionaires are often venerated for their humble beginnings, spawning their business empires from a garage with a virtuous combination of technical brilliance, business acumen and absolute dedication to their work. If these guys can do it, anyone can! What’s your excuse?
Happily, more and more people are coming to the realization that the current form of the neoliberal capitalist system is unsustainable not just to the vast majority of people, but for the Earth itself. Things have to change, so why not start by busting the myth that we are all potential millionaires, if only we worked harder at it?
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Our wealth is our shared humanity and our beautiful planet, we don’t need to become millionaires to live our own personal ‘American Dream.’
Perhaps we should follow Bhutan’s lead and measure progress in “gross national happiness,” rather than simply the net worth. And while we’re at it, let’s find better role models than these ‘self-made millionaires’ and their ideas to make money, focusing on the people who achieve genuinely good things for all of us!
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Share on FacebookWho says you are successful only if you are a millionaire or richer? I know a woman who was widowed young, lived in a council owned terraced house with her young kids, and sold groceries from a table she setup just inside her living room window, through the window to her neighbours. By the time she was old, she’d bought her own house with a small shop on the ground floor that she sold groceries and sweets out of. That to me is a success story.
Yes indeed. But that wasn't what the original post was about. ;)
Load More Replies...with enough money, you can buy your own Success In Business While Being A Self-Made Person.
We don't even have a lot of the most basic "leg ups" these days. Here in the UK, one of the most fervent critics of our centre-left opposition Party, Lord Sugar, was recently ridiculed for going on about how he "made it rich despite growing up in a council estate". Effectively, he benefitted from policies that he now campaigns relentlessly against.
JK Rowling is another fervent critic. She was a single mum on State benefits when she wrote the first Harry Potter.
Load More Replies...Another one is "Bill Gates was a dropout" to prove similar points. Yes, but he dropped out of Harvard, not Algebra 1. I just find this stuff kind of misleading.
My MBA thesis was about how people's childhood affect their leadership styles. The people that were chosen had to be the founders of well-known companies. Eventually I failed to find anyone who had a childhood with not much money except Steve Jobs, hence the subject of the thesis was required to change. Money talks.
Malcolm Gladwell busted the myth of the self-made millionaire quite convincingly in his book 'Outliers'.
Yep, my grandad also added "Money begets money, and ticks beget ticks". :-D
Load More Replies...This is inspiring. I'm going to go get adopted by a rich family so I can use their garage, network and money to start my business. Then I'll write a book about it and create "motivational" videos so other folks think they can start from nothing. The real irony will be my "training course" that will charge people a ridiculous amount and basically not teach anything of value, but will create another avenue of income for me. I'm so excited to get started!!
I find all these "Gets Shut Down" articles offensive. It's like people don't even try to argue and listen the othe people's opinion anymore.
When that person's "opinion" is based on lies and myths to push a narrative, they deserve to be called out for it. If you are blatantly lying, WHY on Earth would I sit and listen to that? ALL opinions, especially those based on false and misleading information, are NOT all equal and deserve "equal" treatment.
Load More Replies...My house and quite a few others in my neighborhood don't even got a garage... I'm sure no one else gots a millionaire buddy either
Rich people start a business. Poor people start an adventure (that might stop pretty soon). Is there really a universal rule that tells that there is a cause to effect law in success. Success looks more like you're the good person at the right place with the right idea and at the right time and also with some support. It explains why huge successes are finally so unique. It's easy to rewrite a story for admirers and let people think it's possible for everyone.
I remember when a few years ago one of the richest Polish businessmen, Jan Kulczyk died. Of course, after that, you could buy his autobiography and read how he made his fortune all by himself: from zero to hero! But the author "forgot" to admit that his dad was an ambassador and he helped him open his business and earn first millions. Jup. So no excuses! I have to go to my garage! O! I forgot - I have no garage. Or even my own apartment bought for my parents for me. Damn.
Yes, the famous: "Don't ask me how I earned my first 1M" question.
Load More Replies...I just listened to the podcast “How I Built This” with the founder of Belkin. He sort of keeps how he was helped (by the environment around him, his family, others) and the gratitude he feels as a definite part of his story. He has no need to prove he magically did something; he gently pushes back on any narrative implication that he achieved success in a context-free way. Regardless of the intention, not acknowledging success within the framework around you is pointlessly self-aggrandizing.
In the grand scheme, not too long ago, you were considered successful if you killed a mammoth without getting trampled.
Silicon Valley has turned San Francisco in to some of the most expensive places in the USA to live. People with ordinary jobs live in their cars while those while the big companies make it impossible for anyone to live our live out their ideas. This big companies is strangeling the creativity to individuals with creative and new exiting ideas. Capitalism at its best.
There's a lot of BS in these replies, but it's a repeated BS, so obviously it must be true. Especially the "but they had capital investment..." nonsense. Yes, they did. They all did. But it's not like they bought a scratch-off card at the 7-11 that said "You got $100m! Now go do something with it." These people had a business plan and went to people with capital and said, "Invest in me. You'll make a big profit. Here's why." That's a nontrivial exercise. But it's easier to complain "Well I didn't have that!" and act like you just said something. The Apple story is a great case in point. These two didn't just wake up one day and say, "I'm gonna do this." They spent years really working at it, building skills, before they built their own. During the formative period they met people and learned the nascent industry and realized shortcomings in a market that they loved.
The sad part is that success and happiness is judged on becoming a millionaire or billionaire. Many people are loving the modest life they live, coming home to a family that loves them. I gave up a higher paying more prestigious job I had,before when our first child was born because it kept me away from home to much. Its been over 4 years and two children and I don't regret it at all.
What a bunch of unimaginative frustrated losers!! You can look for any excuse in the book to fail and take it on successful folks but it won't make you any bigger, on the contrary. You'd still be a failure. Congrats!!
I am related to several very successful people and they all have one thing in common: they don't know why they were successful. They only know it took a lot of effort. So if someone else can't duplicate their success, they assume he must be lazy. Get "Dress For Success" by John Molloy and consider his advice for students: - Vocal skill will affect your earning power more than any other detail. - Acting skill will get you a job offer even when you are not qualified for the job. - The most important benefit you get from school is your address book. - The difference between a successful person and a very successful person is that the latter knows hundreds more people, and knows them quite well. - No school will teach you any of the above. They don't even teach how to do well in their school.
If you don't think it's fair you didn't have parents who were able to push/pull you into the upper crust then add bitching about your physical attributes and go after those who inherited a top 1/1000's of 1% face and body whose only talent is to make faces - aka actors. When you tire of that then jump on the pro athletes who got the free genes that made them bigger, faster and more capable of performing some kind of senseless physical act. Then finish up by complaining about all those folks who are just simply smarter than the rest of us and went into politics to become multi-millionaires by "serving the people." End point: Quit the bitching and play the best hand you can with the cards you were dealt.
Plenty of financially successful people really came from nothing, everyone's journey is different. This just sounds like a lot of bitter whining. I'm not sorry that I dont hate rich people. Their success no matter how they got it, doesn't automatically put up impossible road blocks up for everyone else. Such silliness.
Geez, quit with the "rich folk are mean and nasty.." , why? Cuz they won't give it to you?
Its very trendy to hate rich people, it makes you look like a champion of the disenfranchised while getting to play the victim yourself.
Load More Replies...OMG the whinnnnnnnnnnnning. I cannot believe this is being promoted at all. I am not a wealthy person but I can see these people have a poverty of spirit. Wah I cannot do whatever because parents, garage, skin color, blah blah blah. The reality is none of them can do anything because they spend all their time coveting what others have and then complaining about it. Does that even pay? Super strange way to live a life.
That should be Edgar Allan Hoe, the ring is so much better
So how does one explain Kylie Jenner? she's thick as s**t, using FAMILY MONEY for her alleged empire and is a compulsive liar. Self made billionaire my peachy A**E!
While some rich people do start out that way there are many who literally started from Scratch. In modern times people like Harold Hamm, grew up a dirt poor sharecroppers kid, dropped out of HS at 16 to take a min wage job to help his family, by 21 he started his own company and today is worth $10billion and is a pioneer in shale oil drilling in the Dakota's. You can disagree with his politics and more, but he is an innovator to admire. I know someone whose father in law grew up poor using food stamps, went to a small liberal arts college, and worked his way up a Wallstreet firm till he left and co-founded his own firm and today is work $800 million. It is possible today to succeed from the bottom, just because some had a good head start, doesn't mean all of them did. Remember John D. Rockerfeller never finished grade school with a deadbeat absentee father, started out earning 50 cents a day ($15 a day today) and worked his way up from the bottom . Plenty rose up from the bottom
Far fewer did. Also, it means nothing to say they did. There are plenty of other benefits involved in success than just “having rich parents”. There’s good luck and other kinds of privilege (such as white male privilege). It’s just falling into survivorship bias to use any success story as any kind of model for “hard work equals success” claim.
Load More Replies...My parents converted the garage into an apartment for my grandma. That's why I haven't made my first million.
I just listened to a podcast that interviewed Cesar Milan, while he may not be a tech giant, he's a self-made millionaire immigrant who came to America with $100 in his pocket, his families entire inheritance. It takes a vision, market opportunity, and hard work to "make it". And I think all successful people have those three key characteristics
The fact that you were down-voted shows how ridiculously geared towards the victim-hood narrative BP users are.
Load More Replies...If it weren't for Ube Iworks, Disney would be a long forgotten animator. He screwed his friend. He also hated paying living wages.
He also loved Hitler .... why are there down-votes to this comment?
Load More Replies...It was a unique economic climate. Read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers".
I've got a shared parking space! Woo-hoo! Except I can't afford a car....
Load More Replies...Let's be honest the money was not made by their brillance...it was made by s******g on people, forcing the market to accept your product ( walmart,microsoft) or off the backs of the working poor ( amazon,disney)
Most of us are guilty as charged. For not having had the foresight to choose wisely. Before conception, that is. ;-)
I always wondered about those bootstrap stories. To be absolutely fair though if I'd have had access to that kind of money at that age I'd have blown it all on sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I still would today if I had the energy.
Next thing these naysayers are going to claim is that Kylie Jenner isn't a selfmade billionaire coming from humble beginnings. Sheesh.
Talk about indoctrination: You’re the first person to mention socialism. That’s not in the article anywhere. Also, yes, capitalism IS bad when it’s unregulated opportunism and results in a plutocratic oligarchy. Laissez-faire capitalism is a society-destroying form of capitalism; we could be doing capitalism in an entirely different and healthier manner. Instead of repeating lame Cold War anti-Russian propaganda, maybe you could actually engage your critical thinking skills. Criticism of America’s current method of capitalism is patriotic, unlike your nationalist Cold War era knee-jerk reaction.
Load More Replies...Everybody can "try" to get venture capital? Really? That is like saying that even though someone may make only $30k a year, they can "try" to get a million-dollar mortgage. Of course they can "try"...you can basically try anything...but the chance of getting it? Almost zilch. Moreover, how do YOU know those authors DONT have successful businesses? Because they called out this lie and described how it is not true??
Load More Replies...Who says you are successful only if you are a millionaire or richer? I know a woman who was widowed young, lived in a council owned terraced house with her young kids, and sold groceries from a table she setup just inside her living room window, through the window to her neighbours. By the time she was old, she’d bought her own house with a small shop on the ground floor that she sold groceries and sweets out of. That to me is a success story.
Yes indeed. But that wasn't what the original post was about. ;)
Load More Replies...with enough money, you can buy your own Success In Business While Being A Self-Made Person.
We don't even have a lot of the most basic "leg ups" these days. Here in the UK, one of the most fervent critics of our centre-left opposition Party, Lord Sugar, was recently ridiculed for going on about how he "made it rich despite growing up in a council estate". Effectively, he benefitted from policies that he now campaigns relentlessly against.
JK Rowling is another fervent critic. She was a single mum on State benefits when she wrote the first Harry Potter.
Load More Replies...Another one is "Bill Gates was a dropout" to prove similar points. Yes, but he dropped out of Harvard, not Algebra 1. I just find this stuff kind of misleading.
My MBA thesis was about how people's childhood affect their leadership styles. The people that were chosen had to be the founders of well-known companies. Eventually I failed to find anyone who had a childhood with not much money except Steve Jobs, hence the subject of the thesis was required to change. Money talks.
Malcolm Gladwell busted the myth of the self-made millionaire quite convincingly in his book 'Outliers'.
Yep, my grandad also added "Money begets money, and ticks beget ticks". :-D
Load More Replies...This is inspiring. I'm going to go get adopted by a rich family so I can use their garage, network and money to start my business. Then I'll write a book about it and create "motivational" videos so other folks think they can start from nothing. The real irony will be my "training course" that will charge people a ridiculous amount and basically not teach anything of value, but will create another avenue of income for me. I'm so excited to get started!!
I find all these "Gets Shut Down" articles offensive. It's like people don't even try to argue and listen the othe people's opinion anymore.
When that person's "opinion" is based on lies and myths to push a narrative, they deserve to be called out for it. If you are blatantly lying, WHY on Earth would I sit and listen to that? ALL opinions, especially those based on false and misleading information, are NOT all equal and deserve "equal" treatment.
Load More Replies...My house and quite a few others in my neighborhood don't even got a garage... I'm sure no one else gots a millionaire buddy either
Rich people start a business. Poor people start an adventure (that might stop pretty soon). Is there really a universal rule that tells that there is a cause to effect law in success. Success looks more like you're the good person at the right place with the right idea and at the right time and also with some support. It explains why huge successes are finally so unique. It's easy to rewrite a story for admirers and let people think it's possible for everyone.
I remember when a few years ago one of the richest Polish businessmen, Jan Kulczyk died. Of course, after that, you could buy his autobiography and read how he made his fortune all by himself: from zero to hero! But the author "forgot" to admit that his dad was an ambassador and he helped him open his business and earn first millions. Jup. So no excuses! I have to go to my garage! O! I forgot - I have no garage. Or even my own apartment bought for my parents for me. Damn.
Yes, the famous: "Don't ask me how I earned my first 1M" question.
Load More Replies...I just listened to the podcast “How I Built This” with the founder of Belkin. He sort of keeps how he was helped (by the environment around him, his family, others) and the gratitude he feels as a definite part of his story. He has no need to prove he magically did something; he gently pushes back on any narrative implication that he achieved success in a context-free way. Regardless of the intention, not acknowledging success within the framework around you is pointlessly self-aggrandizing.
In the grand scheme, not too long ago, you were considered successful if you killed a mammoth without getting trampled.
Silicon Valley has turned San Francisco in to some of the most expensive places in the USA to live. People with ordinary jobs live in their cars while those while the big companies make it impossible for anyone to live our live out their ideas. This big companies is strangeling the creativity to individuals with creative and new exiting ideas. Capitalism at its best.
There's a lot of BS in these replies, but it's a repeated BS, so obviously it must be true. Especially the "but they had capital investment..." nonsense. Yes, they did. They all did. But it's not like they bought a scratch-off card at the 7-11 that said "You got $100m! Now go do something with it." These people had a business plan and went to people with capital and said, "Invest in me. You'll make a big profit. Here's why." That's a nontrivial exercise. But it's easier to complain "Well I didn't have that!" and act like you just said something. The Apple story is a great case in point. These two didn't just wake up one day and say, "I'm gonna do this." They spent years really working at it, building skills, before they built their own. During the formative period they met people and learned the nascent industry and realized shortcomings in a market that they loved.
The sad part is that success and happiness is judged on becoming a millionaire or billionaire. Many people are loving the modest life they live, coming home to a family that loves them. I gave up a higher paying more prestigious job I had,before when our first child was born because it kept me away from home to much. Its been over 4 years and two children and I don't regret it at all.
What a bunch of unimaginative frustrated losers!! You can look for any excuse in the book to fail and take it on successful folks but it won't make you any bigger, on the contrary. You'd still be a failure. Congrats!!
I am related to several very successful people and they all have one thing in common: they don't know why they were successful. They only know it took a lot of effort. So if someone else can't duplicate their success, they assume he must be lazy. Get "Dress For Success" by John Molloy and consider his advice for students: - Vocal skill will affect your earning power more than any other detail. - Acting skill will get you a job offer even when you are not qualified for the job. - The most important benefit you get from school is your address book. - The difference between a successful person and a very successful person is that the latter knows hundreds more people, and knows them quite well. - No school will teach you any of the above. They don't even teach how to do well in their school.
If you don't think it's fair you didn't have parents who were able to push/pull you into the upper crust then add bitching about your physical attributes and go after those who inherited a top 1/1000's of 1% face and body whose only talent is to make faces - aka actors. When you tire of that then jump on the pro athletes who got the free genes that made them bigger, faster and more capable of performing some kind of senseless physical act. Then finish up by complaining about all those folks who are just simply smarter than the rest of us and went into politics to become multi-millionaires by "serving the people." End point: Quit the bitching and play the best hand you can with the cards you were dealt.
Plenty of financially successful people really came from nothing, everyone's journey is different. This just sounds like a lot of bitter whining. I'm not sorry that I dont hate rich people. Their success no matter how they got it, doesn't automatically put up impossible road blocks up for everyone else. Such silliness.
Geez, quit with the "rich folk are mean and nasty.." , why? Cuz they won't give it to you?
Its very trendy to hate rich people, it makes you look like a champion of the disenfranchised while getting to play the victim yourself.
Load More Replies...OMG the whinnnnnnnnnnnning. I cannot believe this is being promoted at all. I am not a wealthy person but I can see these people have a poverty of spirit. Wah I cannot do whatever because parents, garage, skin color, blah blah blah. The reality is none of them can do anything because they spend all their time coveting what others have and then complaining about it. Does that even pay? Super strange way to live a life.
That should be Edgar Allan Hoe, the ring is so much better
So how does one explain Kylie Jenner? she's thick as s**t, using FAMILY MONEY for her alleged empire and is a compulsive liar. Self made billionaire my peachy A**E!
While some rich people do start out that way there are many who literally started from Scratch. In modern times people like Harold Hamm, grew up a dirt poor sharecroppers kid, dropped out of HS at 16 to take a min wage job to help his family, by 21 he started his own company and today is worth $10billion and is a pioneer in shale oil drilling in the Dakota's. You can disagree with his politics and more, but he is an innovator to admire. I know someone whose father in law grew up poor using food stamps, went to a small liberal arts college, and worked his way up a Wallstreet firm till he left and co-founded his own firm and today is work $800 million. It is possible today to succeed from the bottom, just because some had a good head start, doesn't mean all of them did. Remember John D. Rockerfeller never finished grade school with a deadbeat absentee father, started out earning 50 cents a day ($15 a day today) and worked his way up from the bottom . Plenty rose up from the bottom
Far fewer did. Also, it means nothing to say they did. There are plenty of other benefits involved in success than just “having rich parents”. There’s good luck and other kinds of privilege (such as white male privilege). It’s just falling into survivorship bias to use any success story as any kind of model for “hard work equals success” claim.
Load More Replies...My parents converted the garage into an apartment for my grandma. That's why I haven't made my first million.
I just listened to a podcast that interviewed Cesar Milan, while he may not be a tech giant, he's a self-made millionaire immigrant who came to America with $100 in his pocket, his families entire inheritance. It takes a vision, market opportunity, and hard work to "make it". And I think all successful people have those three key characteristics
The fact that you were down-voted shows how ridiculously geared towards the victim-hood narrative BP users are.
Load More Replies...If it weren't for Ube Iworks, Disney would be a long forgotten animator. He screwed his friend. He also hated paying living wages.
He also loved Hitler .... why are there down-votes to this comment?
Load More Replies...It was a unique economic climate. Read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers".
I've got a shared parking space! Woo-hoo! Except I can't afford a car....
Load More Replies...Let's be honest the money was not made by their brillance...it was made by s******g on people, forcing the market to accept your product ( walmart,microsoft) or off the backs of the working poor ( amazon,disney)
Most of us are guilty as charged. For not having had the foresight to choose wisely. Before conception, that is. ;-)
I always wondered about those bootstrap stories. To be absolutely fair though if I'd have had access to that kind of money at that age I'd have blown it all on sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I still would today if I had the energy.
Next thing these naysayers are going to claim is that Kylie Jenner isn't a selfmade billionaire coming from humble beginnings. Sheesh.
Talk about indoctrination: You’re the first person to mention socialism. That’s not in the article anywhere. Also, yes, capitalism IS bad when it’s unregulated opportunism and results in a plutocratic oligarchy. Laissez-faire capitalism is a society-destroying form of capitalism; we could be doing capitalism in an entirely different and healthier manner. Instead of repeating lame Cold War anti-Russian propaganda, maybe you could actually engage your critical thinking skills. Criticism of America’s current method of capitalism is patriotic, unlike your nationalist Cold War era knee-jerk reaction.
Load More Replies...Everybody can "try" to get venture capital? Really? That is like saying that even though someone may make only $30k a year, they can "try" to get a million-dollar mortgage. Of course they can "try"...you can basically try anything...but the chance of getting it? Almost zilch. Moreover, how do YOU know those authors DONT have successful businesses? Because they called out this lie and described how it is not true??
Load More Replies...
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