patrick.net

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Bingo. My first business during undergrad years required 7 day weeks, tons of phone time and working through the night on a regular basis, even on Sundays which made me feel like a witless grind. I could see people my age staggering home or getting on the train going out and having lives that did not involve endless lists and lists of lists. Sigh. Years later, and a couple of countries away, in New Zealand, between enterprises I had convinced the STA office in Dunedin that I was a student and got a travel ID that I could abuse to get half off commuter flights and to save money I would walk to the airport. I forget where but I think it was Greymouth, as I remember the locals had trouble with flooding at the time, and as these things are often developed, cars and pedestrian traffic had to travel through an adjacent industrial park. Wouldn't you know it, every corner office was lit. It was long after dark. Sunday.

Were you running small arms to central African warlords???

The one factor that is glaringly left out is:

LUCK.

I'm not detracting from any of the other qualities that lend themselves to success.

However, anyone who leaves out luck is being dishonest with themselves or bullshitting you.

This applies to myself as well. I'm not technically a millionaire (unlike some of our paper millionaires on this board) but I do have an excellent paying job. Yes I worked hard, studied, sacrificed, etc etc, but I did have a good bit of luck on my side to land me where I am.

Facebooksux says

The one factor that is glaringly left out is:

LUCK.

I'm not detracting from any of the other qualities that lend themselves to success.

However, anyone who leaves out luck is being dishonest with themselves or bullshitting you.

This applies to myself as well. I'm not technically a millionaire (unlike some of our paper millionaires on this board) but I do have an excellent paying job. Yes I worked hard, studied, sacrificed, etc etc, but I did have a good bit of luck on my side to land me where I am.

Agreed.

coriacci1 says

many rich, not all of course, but many are different from the rest of us, in that they think serving them in the style to which they are accostomed should be thrill enough

I'm thinking of the Andre Agassi anecdote about Pete Sampras tipping the valet $1.

Google "Steve Garvey deadbeat" for more of this sort of entertainment. He patiently explained to his personal assistant that you don't have to pay home contractors, baby sitters, etc., since such people don't have a lot of pull in the legal system, and you can always find the next one to work for free. I'm sure that day care, plumbers, and other middle-class went into their field with open eyes, and should know the risks - it's their fault.

A contractor on my house had an anecdote about a rich fvcker in Malibu who underwent a huge renovation, spread the work among multiple contractors, and then told each of them individually that there was no evidence they had ever worked on his house, and that they were welcome to try to get their money through the court system.

Many or most wealthy people are not like this, but, as an HOA advisor who worked with multiple developers once told me, you should assume when getting a wealthy person to pay for something that's between $5K and $12K, that you may only be getting $5K, as many of them figure that, below $12K, most of the plebes can't afford the legal fees and will be happy not to have to hassle with small claims court.

Bad example. Willie may have had only 6 bucks in his pocket at the time. Or maybe the cabbie was rude to him...lots of reasons not to tip a larger amount.

coriacci1 says

example 1: i hailed a cab in sf that had just dropped off ex -mayor willie brown. cabbie told me that for a $5.80 fare slick willie gave the cabbie $6.00 and told him to keep the change!

Bad example.
Maybe, just maybe the food and/or service sucked. Why should anyone tip poor service?

coriacci1 says

example 2: sitting in a famous sf resaurtant next to a diane finestein party of 6, which included her uc regent, war-profiteering, real estate-developering, post office fire- selling husband, mr r blum, who removed himself away from the table to pay the check. the waiter showed me the credit card slip after the difi party left.

mr blummer left a whopping 12% tip!!!

SoftShell says

Bad example. Willie may have had only 6 bucks in his pocket at the time. Or maybe the cabbie was rude to him...lots of reasons not to tip a larger amount.

coriacci1 says

example 1: i hailed a cab in sf that had just dropped off ex -mayor willie brown. cabbie told me that for a $5.80 fare slick willie gave the cabbie $6.00 and told him to keep the change!

Correct!!
He may have spotted him a free hour or two with a high end local escort! We don't know all the details of the story!

Blurtman says

Millionaire ain't rich.

This.

The ignorance of the L-curve of wealth distribution in this country amazes me. If you make less than $750,000 a year, you're labor or middle-class. You might be acquiring capital rapidly enough to place your children in the capital class, but that means no Audi or BMW for you (well, used maybe).

More fun at http://www.lcurve.org/

The US population is represented along the length of the football field, arranged in order of income.

Median US family income (the family at the 50 yard line) is ~$40,000 (a stack of $100 bills 1.6 inches high.)

--The family on the 95 yard line earns about $100,000 per year, a stack of $100 bills about 4 inches high.

--At the 99 yard line the income is about $300,000, a stack of $100 bills about a foot high.

--The curve reaches $1 million (a 40 inch high stack of $100 bills) one foot from the goal line.

--From there it keeps going up...it goes up 50 km (~30 miles) on this scale!

SoftShell says

Bad example.

Maybe, just maybe the food and/or service sucked. Why should anyone tip poor service?

service was excellent. i was there and heard all of the positive comments from the difi’s.

Well then, then it seems like the politically entrenched liberal leftist hack is nothing but a fuckin cheapskate! What do you expect of someone who has spent their entire life enacting legislation that separates the common worker from half his gross wages via union dues?

coriacci1 says

SoftShell says

Bad example.

Maybe, just maybe the food and/or service sucked. Why should anyone tip poor service?

service was excellent. i was there and heard all of the positive comments from the difi’s.

Facebooksux says

The one factor that is glaringly left out is:

LUCK.

I'm not detracting from any of the other qualities that lend themselves to success.

However, anyone who leaves out luck is being dishonest with themselves or bullshitting you.

This applies to myself as well. I'm not technically a millionaire (unlike some of our paper millionaires on this board) but I do have an excellent paying job. Yes I worked hard, studied, sacrificed, etc etc, but I did have a good bit of luck on my side to land me where I am.

You don't understand variance and how it applies at all.

Essentially, as I stated before, luck is a non zero factor but the negative lows of luck are heavily mitigated through repeated try's.

This is why the house ALWAYS wins on gambling, even with very small edges. They have more events than anyone else.

Try try again as you are likely to eventually succeed, even if the odds are a bit against you each time.

In short, luck isn't nearly as strong a factor as you give it credit for being.

mell says

Even emptying trash-cans and cleaning in offices in San Francisco is a relatively well paid job with great benefits (for the whole family), but I hardly ever see born Americans doing these jobs.

I disagree. Janitorial Services was a great job, but starting in the 70s and 80s companies began to outsource these positions to illegal-lovin' firms that employed non-Americans, especially "undocumented" ones.

There's a huge difference in the mentality of somebody who knows they're going to live and die in an expensive first world country, and somebody who is saving money to spend in a third world country back home. Also, just by crossing the border immigrants from the 3rd world raise their standards. The latter only puts up with temporary BS, the former is looking at workin' to live with no hope of much better unless that lottery ticket comes in.

dodgerfanjohn says

You don't understand variance and how it applies at all.

Essentially, as I stated before, luck is a non zero factor but the negative lows of luck are heavily mitigated through repeated try's.

This is why the house ALWAYS wins on gambling, even with very small edges. They have more events than anyone else.

Try try again as you are likely to eventually succeed, even if the odds are a bit against you each time.

In short, luck isn't nearly as strong a factor as you give it credit for being.

If Bill Gates, Zuckerburg, Sheyl Sandberg (I can't stand her), Musk, Buffet, Corzine, or any other hyper-wealthy individual from the US grew up as a black kid in amidwestern ghetto, how LIKELY is it that they'd be where they are today?

So yes, luck and opportunity have EVERYTHING to do with it.

Cut this shit out. This is America.

All you need is an idea, $185,000,000, and a lot of hard work, and you can become rich.

thunderlips11 says

Man, I screwed this up. Make that 500 pounds of Yams!

Make that 500 pounds of Face!

HydroCabron says

The ignorance of the L-curve of wealth distribution in this country amazes me. If you make less than $750,000 a year, you're labor or middle-class. You might be acquiring capital rapidly enough to place your children in the capital class, but that means no Audi or BMW for you (well, used maybe).

Income is not wealth.

If you need a paycheck to sustain yourself you're not wealthy regardless of whether you make $75K/year or $750K/year.

If you can live an upper middle class lifestyle (take vacations, dine out, etc. without taking short-cuts in areas like health insurance) without a pay check you're wealthy.

$5M of non-housing assets gets you there supporting a $150K/year draw without the principal growing slower than inflation.

Approaching $10M where you live off just $150K/year puts you in dynastic wealth territory which allows 2 children to do the same, with that $10M growing to $30M in inflation adjusted money over the 20 years which pass between their conception and college graduation leaving $10M for each of you provided that you transfer assets before their value exceeds your gift tax exemption or apply other legal tax reduction strategies. Each successive generation can do the same.

$5M is achievable over a working professional's career and $10M a couple.

Other people being wealthier and the difficulty of getting to the next level (with $100M and $1B reasonable dividing lines) don't change that.

HydroCabron says

Cut this shit out. This is America.

All you need is an idea, $185,000,000, and a lot of hard work, and you can become rich.

Having helped spend $200M of other peoples' money on ideas with one $360M exit where competitors turned about the same ideas into billions I agree with the caveat that iteration on idea and/or market is usually necessary.

The fast path to wealth is coming up with an idea which serves a large addressable market without compelling alternatives, turning it into a company which can grow exponentially, and accelerating that growth using other peoples' money.

Venture capitalists happily part with $10M-$20M of their limited partners' money for a 20% chance at winning with winners averaging 30X returns over a decade. Once you get good growth going they and private equity firms will give you hundreds of millions to grow faster.

Facebooksux says

If Bill Gates, Zuckerburg, Sheyl Sandberg (I can't stand her), Musk, Buffet, Corzine, or any other hyper-wealthy individual from the US grew up as a black kid in amidwestern ghetto, how LIKELY is it that they'd be where they are today?

There are midwestern ghettos?

The lilywhite & male aspect of the web entrepreneur billionaires? If you're a Teabagger it's simple.