Your first mistake is thinking that you got the first $100mil by “working hard”.
You don’t get $100 mil by working hard. You get there by being born to the right family or by exploiting the labor of others. Usually both. Very, very rarely, it could be just pure dumb luck. But never just by working hard.
Yeah of course. I was imagining being the founder of a growing business or something like that. Most of that value was skimmed from the work of others, but that person could still be putting in long days of “work” to keep the thing growing.
And I’m sure there are plenty of people we’ve never heard about that sold the business and lived a wonderful quiet life with their family. We get to hear about the ones that are mentally ill to the point where they cannot stop, and must continue to acquire.
I suppose that would be the exception…somebody taking no more than a modest salary while building and growing a business, constantly re-investing into the business and their employees, then selling the business for hundreds of millions of dollars and bowing out of the rat-race forever.
That has to be exceedingly rare.
I’d like to say I would do that if I were in that position…but truth be told, I’d probably have everybody asking me to invest in their startup. And some might actually sound very promising and not very morally bankrupt.
But what’s a couple million out of my hundreds to toss to an interesting startup. That’s pocket change now. This is gambling for rich folk.
And that startup makes it big. Next thing you know, I’m a mogul.
Your first mistake is thinking that you got the first $100mil by “working hard”.
You don’t get $100 mil by working hard. You get there by being born to the right family or by exploiting the labor of others. Usually both. Very, very rarely, it could be just pure dumb luck. But never just by working hard.
Yeah of course. I was imagining being the founder of a growing business or something like that. Most of that value was skimmed from the work of others, but that person could still be putting in long days of “work” to keep the thing growing.
And I’m sure there are plenty of people we’ve never heard about that sold the business and lived a wonderful quiet life with their family. We get to hear about the ones that are mentally ill to the point where they cannot stop, and must continue to acquire.
I suppose that would be the exception…somebody taking no more than a modest salary while building and growing a business, constantly re-investing into the business and their employees, then selling the business for hundreds of millions of dollars and bowing out of the rat-race forever.
That has to be exceedingly rare.
I’d like to say I would do that if I were in that position…but truth be told, I’d probably have everybody asking me to invest in their startup. And some might actually sound very promising and not very morally bankrupt.
But what’s a couple million out of my hundreds to toss to an interesting startup. That’s pocket change now. This is gambling for rich folk.
And that startup makes it big. Next thing you know, I’m a mogul.