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I don't make 20 million a year because I'm NOT smart enough, and don't work hard enough. I don't have a head for math, but I am artistically talented. I don't want to work 80 hours a week, and don't want to work harder than my 8-5, Monday through Friday. But I don't whine about it, because I wasn't raised in the generation that thinks I should succeed just because I'm special.
Luck has NOTHING to do with it. There is no such thing. There is "life happens". But it happens to everyone. It's how you deal with hand life gave you that results in your success of failure. I'm working for a company that may result in a big paycheck, that I hope to invest, and get rich. Is that luck? Hardly. I found the job by chance, got the job because of my artistic talent and willingness to do what the job demands, and stay here because I'm smart enough to see the potential of this business. If I succeed, it's because of the choices I'm making. If it turns out to be bust, it's because of the choices I'm making.
As my dad used to say - "if I'd only been born rich instead of good looking."
I thought you said luck does not have anything to do with it. See the bolded words.
I don't make 20 million a year because I'm NOT smart enough, and don't work hard enough. I don't have a head for math, but I am artistically talented. I don't want to work 80 hours a week, and don't want to work harder than my 8-5, Monday through Friday. But I don't whine about it, because I wasn't raised in the generation that thinks I should succeed just because I'm special.
Luck has NOTHING to do with it. There is no such thing. There is "life happens". But it happens to everyone. It's how you deal with hand life gave you that results in your success of failure. I'm working for a company that may result in a big paycheck, that I hope to invest, and get rich. Is that luck? Hardly. I found the job by chance, got the job because of my artistic talent and willingness to do what the job demands, and stay here because I'm smart enough to see the potential of this business. If I succeed, it's because of the choices I'm making. If it turns out to be bust, it's because of the choices I'm making.
As my dad used to say - "if I'd only been born rich instead of good looking."
So you assume Warren Buffet accumulating over 39 billion had nothing to do with luck or timing (when he was born, the events of his time...etc)?
Because that is essentially what your post is saying...
If that is the case, do you assume you could accumulate 39 billion too (in today's day and age) if you were smarter and worked harder than Buffet? Because your argument so far is that you can. You don't believe luck plays any role... luck of when you were born... luck of the changing conditions in the world... etc, etc...
When we are talking MEGA-WEALTH, luck plays a HUGE role
When we are talking little-money <500K or so, luck plays less of a role
The less money we are talking, the less luck plays a role
Because if this wasn't the case, someone who worked harder than Bill Gates, and was smarter than him would have more money than him... Do you think Bill Gates is the smartest, and hardest working person in America?
So you assume Warren Buffet accumulating over 39 billion had nothing to do with luck or timing (when he was born, the events of his time...etc)?
Because that is essentially what your post is saying...
If that is the case, do you assume you could accumulate 39 billion too (in today's day and age) if you were smarter and worked harder than Buffet? Because your argument so far is that you can. You don't believe luck plays any role... luck of when you were born... luck of the changing conditions in the world... etc, etc...
When we are talking MEGA-WEALTH, luck plays a HUGE role
When we are talking little-money <500K or so, luck plays less of a role
The less money we are talking, the less luck plays a role
Because if this wasn't the case, someone who worked harder than Bill Gates, and was smarter than him would have more money than him... Do you think Bill Gates is the smartest, and hardest working person in America?
If you have worked hard and managed your money you should be rich...right?
Yes. And that is how it has worked out for everyone I know.
Everyone else is usually just kidding themselves about being smart with their money. Or they don't really know what working hard is.
Do you believe frugal hard-working burger flippers can become rich?
Someone can bus tables, then become a waiter. Then begin to have an interest in cooking.. so starts working in the kitchen. Learns more. Opens own restaurant.. it's successful.. so he opens another one.. so on and so forth. These things are very possible and this is where hard work did pay off.... vs someone selling a backwards robe, lol
How does someone working in the kitchen come up with the $$$ to open a restaurant?
Reminds me of an old joke: What's the difference between a sous chef and a restaurant owner? Startup capital.
Do you believe frugal hard-working burger flippers can become rich?
NO
But I do believe frugal hard working people who work to improve their marketable assets can become wealthy.
can the kid working at Jiffy lube become wealthy?
YES. He started life as an oil changer, learned to do transmitions, learned to tune engines put himself through a technical school.
Opened a garage of his own.
Learned to build engines that boast impressive horse power.
Gets the reputation of being the go to guy if you want to make your stock engine perform for a reasonable price.
I know a guy that did just that and he makes a boat load of money, yet works 16 hour days. Now he has 3 shops.
I guess he was just lucky. nah I don't think that at all. I think his effort and decision making delivered a good life. He is 40 now and is looking to open an ATV shop.
LOL his daily driver is a dodge caravan with about 200,000 miles on it. To look at him you would think low middle class at best.
You beat me to it, and Genetics is luck/chance. You don't get to pick your DNA before you are born.
exactly OP is not "hating on the rich" imo, just explaining the fact that they are a tiny percent, and the "american exceptionalism" notion is a fiction sold to the lower middle class so they work at menial jobs.
The only rich people who are "lucky" are the small percentage who are born into wealthy families, like the Du Ponts, or the Hunts or the Biltmores, Rockefellers, etc.
That's less than 1% of all the "rich." Everyone else works for it.
That didn't stop Steve Jobs. He was adopted. I suppose it's a good thing his birth mother didn't pull him half-way out, squish his head, suck his brains out and toss the body in the garbage, or you wouldn't have any of the Apple things.
I can already smell where this thread is going. The rich are lucky, and because they are, they don't really deserve their wealth so we should tax the snot out of them.
Then that is a personal choice. That is matter of satisfying infantile urges, and acting stupid in a No-Stupid Zone.
It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you refuted your own pedantic thesis that the rich are "lucky."
That's subjective. Things that are subjective are based on emotion, and not based on logic or reason.
Even if you put a dollar value to it, it still fails because the cost of living varies from city-to-city, county-to-county and State to State.
Yes. I could do it, but I have no desire to do it. I have no real interest in money or tangible things, and at the present, I have other priorities and goals which would conflict with the time and effort I would need to do that.
Well then he is just as stupid as the premise of this thread.
Buying 10,000 shares of stock has nothing to do with being at the right place or the right time or luck.
Having your 10,000 shares of stock double into 20,000 shares when the stock splits is a matter of being at the right place at the right time and luck.
Learn and understand the difference.
Yes, he would be a billionaire. I built computers and programmed them in Physics II in high school, and I went to a public semi-rural school, not a posh private school.
The only difference between Gates and I is that Gates sees computers and technology in general as good, while I see technology as bad, because it always gets perverted into dreadful things.
That's exactly right. "Rich" is also a matter of attitude and sheer common sense.
I'm a disabled vet, and I'm rich. In the US I live, um, "in poverty" so I'm told. In Romania I'm part of the Upper Class.
Then you need to get out more.
That only suggests there are rare exceptions.
Ah, I knew it.
I guess some people just hate success. You know if you put as much effort into earning wealth as you do your silly threads, you'd probably be a millionaire.
It is easier now to to gain wealth in America than it ever was at any time in history. The information and resources available are astonishing. 1/4th of the 3rd floor at our main public library is devoted to starting and running small to medium-sized businesses. There's SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives that will help you with your business plan -- for free. Many cities and counties have small business incubators. You get an office, 800-telephone support, fax service and a secretarial pool for free.
If you don't want to run a business, fine, that's your choice, but there are other ways to gain wealth. You can educate yourself at the library, you can join local investing clubs and learn from them (if you don't know what you're stay away from the internet lest you get bad advice).
Instead of hanging out with your dope-smoking friends and blowing bongs on weekends, go hang out with successful people and see how they make money. There's a lot of things you can do, you just have to want to do it.
Of course there was no reply to any of that...
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