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Success is a matter of luck, inheritance, hard work and intelligence. You are all correct.
However, I think people vastly overestimate the amount of inherited wealth in this country. My father was a venture capital executive with a Fortune 500 firm. He made close to a million dollars some years. My income is in the mid 100K's. I feel I am successful, but I also made it on my own. My parents money didn't get me where I am.
That having been said, I had advantages that poor but intelligent people don't get-- Connections, excellent college education, etc...
If you have the connections and excellent education, then you didn't necessarily make it on your own. Yes you worked hard, and congrats too you on your success, but you already had connections right off the bat that get you the interview, get you the attention that someone who doesn't have your family name might not get. How about the nice internship and the opportunity to make connections.
Additionally your family had wealth and security. If something goes wrong with someone's health, you don't have to quit your education to work to support the family. How about the burden of student loans, did you take out loans for everything? How about the interest rate on them????
Not to mention you had better food, healthier environment etc. than someone who lives in inner city USA. You had the benefits of better upbringing. It isn't everything, but it ramps up the odds in your favor.
Again you worked hard and deserve to be in the higher bracket I'm sure. But really where did you start out at??? I'm betting you had quite a nice head start. Don't overestimate what wealth and status gets you in this country.
If you really think that wealth is a minimal factor, you should be completely in favor of an estate tax and use it to fund higher education. Let those who are best qualified and hardest working get the rewards, not someone who won out in the lottery for wealthiest, most connected parents.
So much of success is the luck factor. Even intelligence. You simply lucked out on good genetics and parents who were responsible in raising you.
Rich people are lucky, not just hard working
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I don't believe that there is anything such thing as luck. Whether someone is rich or poor, average or outstanding, law abiding or criminal is entirely a function of the application of one's mind training and/or adaptation of skills and the mind's application of those skills.
Would it be that Donald Trump is widely recognized and sometimes wealthy a result of luck? No, he has trained his mind and applied adapted skills to the success of his business.
Would a son of Donald Trump be lucky to have been born into that family? Geez, no. That strictly a result of a combiantion of egg and sperm and the application of egg and sperm donor's skills at a moment in time. Luck? Ask a teen mother who hadn't planned those next nine months.
Are the achievements of Temple Grandin luck? I would suspect hardly so. Temple Grandin taught her mind to adapt and achieve. Maybe lucky for the cows.
What would be lucky about winning the lottery? Someone had the buck, made a rational decision to place the buck into action by making choices.
That someone is poor is unlucky? Where is the luck in two students attending the same schools K-12, one turning out wildly successful and wealthy and the other only modestly successful. Same education. Did luck intervene? I suspect it would be an application of personal training and skills.
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And Bernie Madoff's son... where did his luck go?
Of course hard work is important, but most of the rich are also very lucky. You need luck AND hard-work to be rich. The problem with setting taxes is that people just assume that the rich's wealth is proportional to their effort. I don't think that's true. I think it's more like after a certain amount of effort, you need luck to be super successful.
That's why I think the rich needs to have more taxes. It accounts for the luck factor.
The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about how people become successful.
Are you rich? I would bet my bottom dollar you are not.
Do you rub shoulders with the rich? Again, it's obvious you don't.
So what makes you an expert on how the successful achieved their success? You have no experience, first or secondhand. For the record, I'm what you would term "rich", though I don't believe the moniker applies to me (maybe that's why I continue to reach for the next brass ring, while you sit on the mat on the floor and don't even attempt to climb the rope). Luck had nothing to do with it. Dedication, determination, and sheer concentrated power of will did.
Saying the rich are are just lucky is what lazy, losers say. It's much easier to make stupid statements than to get off your lazy butt and try to do something to improve your own status.
If you worked hard and became rich, you wouldn't be in here complaining about those more successful than yourself..
If you have the connections and excellent education, then you didn't necessarily make it on your own. Yes you worked hard, and congrats too you on your success, but you already had connections right off the bat that get you the interview, get you the attention that someone who doesn't have your family name might not get. How about the nice internship and the opportunity to make connections.
If a door doesn't open for you, kick it open
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Additionally your family had wealth and security. If something goes wrong with someone's health, you don't have to quit your education to work to support the family. How about the burden of student loans, did you take out loans for everything? How about the interest rate on them????
Student loans are one of the biggest bargains out there. The interest rate on them is phenomenal, so long as you're talking about the Stafford loans and not private loans. And really, nobody ever *needs* to take out private loans.
Not to mention you had better food, healthier environment etc. than someone who lives in inner city USA. You had the benefits of better upbringing. It isn't everything, but it ramps up the odds in your favor.
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Again you worked hard and deserve to be in the higher bracket I'm sure. But really where did you start out at??? I'm betting you had quite a nice head start. Don't overestimate what wealth and status gets you in this country.
I also won't underestimate the power of what a bunch of people whining that life isn't fair and as a result I should be penalized is.
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If you really think that wealth is a minimal factor, you should be completely in favor of an estate tax and use it to fund higher education.
So you're saying the money I earn isn't mine. It's really the government's, but they're kind enough to let me use...at least some of it....while I'm alive? Yeah, that's a great idea.
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Let those who are best qualified and hardest working get the rewards, not someone who won out in the lottery for wealthiest, most connected parents.
Your envy...and ignorance...is showing.
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So much of success is the luck factor. Even intelligence. You simply lucked out on good genetics and parents who were responsible in raising you.
Everyone is blessed with a skill. Some are blessed with the genetic gift of beauty. Some are blessed with the genetic gift of athleticism, some of us are blessed with the genetic gift of intellect. It's not luck. It's natural selection. Why do you think women who go to sperm banks are given candidate profiles that include a person's education, lot in life, etc.? Because genetics dictate that when you combine 2 smart people, the odds are they will spawn a smart child. 2 athletic people will typically spawn an athlete, etc.
Who are smart people attracted to? Other smart people. Who are athletes attracted to? Other athletes. Who are actors/actresses attracted to (keeping in mind that their greatest skill is extroversion)? Other actresses/actors who are similarly extroverted.
Of course hard work is important, but most of the rich are also very lucky. You need luck AND hard-work to be rich. The problem with setting taxes is that people just assume that the rich's wealth is proportional to their effort. I don't think that's true. I think it's more like after a certain amount of effort, you need luck to be super successful.
That's why I think the rich needs to have more taxes. It accounts for the luck factor.
The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about how people become successful.
Believing in "luck" shows you believe in the supernatural and other things ascribed to the mystic. Do you carry a rabbit's foot or avoid black cats? If you think such things are real then you are a superstitious fool. Take a course in Statistics 101, focusing on probabilities and the impact of randomness.
The Bottom Line is:
Luck is word losers use to describe why winners win. It sort of saves them from looking in the mirror and seeing the real reason that they didn't achieve what they set out to do.
Rich people are lucky, not just hard working
- - - - - -
I don't believe that there is anything such thing as luck. Whether someone is rich or poor, average or outstanding, law abiding or criminal is entirely a function of the application of one's mind training and/or adaptation of skills and the mind's application of those skills.
Would it be that Donald Trump is widely recognized and sometimes wealthy a result of luck? No, he has trained his mind and applied adapted skills to the success of his business.
Would a son of Donald Trump be lucky to have been born into that family? Geez, no. That strictly a result of a combiantion of egg and sperm and the application of egg and sperm donor's skills at a moment in time. Luck? Ask a teen mother who hadn't planned those next nine months.
Are the achievements of Temple Grandin luck? I would suspect hardly so. Temple Grandin taught her mind to adapt and achieve. Maybe lucky for the cows.
What would be lucky about winning the lottery? Someone had the buck, made a rational decision to place the buck into action by making choices.
So you think Monopoly requires just as much skill as chess?
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Originally Posted by Xanathos
Are you rich? I would bet my bottom dollar you are not.
Do you rub shoulders with the rich? Again, it's obvious you don't.
So what makes you an expert on how the successful achieved their success? You have no experience, first or secondhand. For the record, I'm what you would term "rich", though I don't believe the moniker applies to me (maybe that's why I continue to reach for the next brass ring, while you sit on the mat on the floor and don't even attempt to climb the rope). Luck had nothing to do with it. Dedication, determination, and sheer concentrated power of will did.
I'm not rich because I'm only 20 and I'm just a student at a Top 30 (worldwide) university. However, I'm intimate with someone who makes around $500K per year. I'm friends with someone who just bought two new Mercedes convertibles. I'm not sure if those people are "rich" but they definitely are wealthier than 99% of Americans.
Luck had a lot to do with how they become rich or at least their current lifestyle.
I've never said that I'm an expert. That's why I recommended Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.
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Originally Posted by Workin_Hard
Believing in "luck" shows you believe in the supernatural and other things ascribed to the mystic. Do you carry a rabbit's foot or avoid black cats? If you think such things are real then you are a superstitious fool. Take a course in Statistics 101, focusing on probabilities and the impact of randomness.
The Bottom Line is:
Luck is word losers use to describe why winners win. It sort of saves them from looking in the mirror and seeing the real reason that they didn't achieve what they set out to do.
Have you ever heard of a random number generator? That's pure luck. The existence of pure randomness can be proven.
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In comparison with PRNGs, TRNGs extract randomness from physical phenomena and introduce it into a computer. You can imagine this as a die connected to a computer, but typically people use a physical phenomenon that is easier to connect to a computer than a die is. The physical phenomenon can be very simple, like the little variations in somebody's mouse movements or in the amount of time between keystrokes. In practice, however, you have to be careful about which source you choose. For example, it can be tricky to use keystrokes in this fashion, because keystrokes are often buffered by the computer's operating system, meaning that several keystrokes are collected before they are sent to the program waiting for them. To a program waiting for the keystrokes, it will seem as though the keys were pressed almost simultaneously, and there may not be a lot of randomness there after all.
However, there are many other ways to get true randomness into your computer. A really good physical phenomenon to use is a radioactive source. The points in time at which a radioactive source decays are completely unpredictable, and they can quite easily be detected and fed into a computer, avoiding any buffering mechanisms in the operating system. The HotBits service at Fourmilab in Switzerland is an excellent example of a random number generator that uses this technique. Another suitable physical phenomenon is atmospheric noise, which is quite easy to pick up with a normal radio. This is the approach used by RANDOM.ORG. You could also use background noise from an office or laboratory, but you'll have to watch out for patterns. The fan from your computer might contribute to the background noise, and since the fan is a rotating device, chances are the noise it produces won't be as random as atmospheric noise.
My point is not to make a statement about current tax rates, but to say that the concept that everything is determined by hard work is wrong. I just can't stand how the Republicans say that the rich get all their money from hardwork without any luck. Life is unfair, we should accept that rather than pretend that life is fair.
Of course hard work is important, but most of the rich are also very lucky. You need luck AND hard-work to be rich. The problem with setting taxes is that people just assume that the rich's wealth is proportional to their effort. I don't think that's true. I think it's more like after a certain amount of effort, you need luck to be super successful.
That's why I think the rich needs to have more taxes. It accounts for the luck factor.
The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about how people become successful.
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Originally Posted by Malkiel
Also, people always quote the "rags to riches" stories. But there are a lot of people who work very hard but are still poor.
there is a bunch of hogwash in these posts. luck has very little to do with people getting rich. yes there are occasions when a fortunate happenstance rolls around, but they are few and far between.
and yes there are poor people who do work hard for their money, for 40 hours per week. the rich put in triple that on a regular basis. take colonel sanders for instance. he opened his first KFC in his home. he worked plenty of hours making that business successful, and finally was able to open a second store. he then went on the road in a beat up old station wagon, and talked to prospective KFC franchisees. he would drive across country, and make dinner for these people.
or how about dave thomas who founded wendys? he also put in a huge number of hours. or sam walton who opened a five and dime store, and built it into a empire. or howard johnson who opened a restaurant that failed every year in the slow season, but he was able to convince the bank to let him run the restaurant until he could get back on his feet. he did have the break when a convention came into town one year during the slow season and he was able to keep making his mortgage payments.
but there is one thing that all of these people, and many others who started with very little and made themselves into very rich people, and that is they took advantage of every opportunity that was put in front of them. they worked the long hours needed to make their businesses work.
we all can do the same thing IF we are willing to do what is needed to get the job done. in my case, i started off in the hotel business doing relief night audit and relief front desk work. i worked my way up to various management positions. i did it because i dedicated myself to doing the best job possible, and striving for perfection. i also put in the long hours needed to get where i was. and if i wanted to, i could have gone much farther than i did as i had plenty of opportunity to do so.
Of course hard work is important, but most of the rich are also very lucky. You need luck AND hard-work to be rich. The problem with setting taxes is that people just assume that the rich's wealth is proportional to their effort. I don't think that's true. I think it's more like after a certain amount of effort, you need luck to be super successful.
That's why I think the rich needs to have more taxes. It accounts for the luck factor.
The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about how people become successful.
Each according to their means was communism, no thanks. Ends with a failed country with a bunch of people not wanting to work.
What was your lucky way to becoming wealthy? You sound like you think you know what you are talking about?
With the exception of winning a lottery, I think your statements are full of beans.
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