I was pretty poor. The house I lived in still had an outhouse. We had an old-fashion washboard thingy to wash clothes. And, my mom made $7k to take care of 4 kids (in the 90s).

I chased the dream hard. Worked at 4 startups, worked myself to burnout. I went through 4 exits and didn’t get rich (because exits don’t favor non-executives and socially awkward).

I finally got rich just by saving and investing well. I saved pretty much everything I made. It was worth it, because now I get to live the life of The Dude.