Bezos, Gates, Zuck, Behind every “self-made” millionaire is a father with money

- "Every" is a big word. What about Jobs and Woz (I actually legitimately don't know)? I'm sure there's lots of "actual" self-made millionaires. But I bet you they all have the same kind of story: somewhere along the way, someone, whether family or not, showed up with a lot of money.

- It is kind of intuitive that having money, a very versatile tool, can help increase the success rate of your business. Sometimes it means a longer runway, sometimes it means being able to even try.

- There's a survivorship bias, I think, given the above point. What's the success rate of startups built by people with money vs. people without money?

- To me, this relates loosely, perhaps analogously, to the tremendous value of having a social safety net. People with money are usually in a position to take risks. Those who are thinking about where their next meal or rent payment comes from usually aren't.

> This other tweet, emerged in the thread of the aforementioned, illustrates it perfectly: if Bezos was able to get to where he is today, it is due, in part, to the fact that his parents gave him more than $ 240,000 dollars to prevent his idea, Amazon, will fail.

Click through the site, it's fucking bizarre, like a showcase for "here's the kinds of blogspam I can write for your needs!"

1. It would be effectively impossible for someone from a disadvantaged background to start Amazon, Microsoft, or Facebook.

2. Bezos, Gates, Zuck are extraordinary business people who achieved what 99.9% of their peers would be unable to achieve from the same starting point.

I'm not sure why we keep debating whether these guys are good or bad, impressive or not, as some sort of universal truth.

I think all that these stories mean is that “self-made” applies to a few generations rising up from poverty to great wealth, rather than a single person. Rather than denigrate these successful people we should applaud their predecessors for helping the next generation get ahead, and encourage society as a whole to adopt this mindset. Too often it seems like generations have a “I got mine” drawbridge mentality and refuse to sacrifice if it means future generations will have a chance to get ahead.

I point at climate change, public debt, private debt, gutted social programs, etc.

In fact, I'm not sure what could or even should be done to prevent this sort of situation. Does anyone expect parents not to invest in the success of their children? Imagine if you're lucky enough to be well off. Will you move to the worst school district you can find for your child to "even the odds?" An idea like this would simply never get any real adoption.

That was already a joke in 1997, when Dr. Evil demanded "one million dollars" in Austin Powers, and was laughed at.

That may just have been a poor choice of title (often written by editors and not the original writer, though this is just a blog). The rest of the article doesn't mention "millionaires" in that sense.

The thesis may well apply if you change "millionaire" to "billionaire", but it's a weird mistake to make in the title.

The real conclusion of this article and many like it; is that success is not just blind luck and not purely egalitarian, but the combination of the two. There is no useful information to glean from so a large generalization.

There are also many successful businesses where the founders had to scratch and claw for every dime needed to get it off the ground.

I guess you just pick the narrative you want to promote and run with it. There are plenty of examples you can use to support your viewpoint. This article is typical of so many these days.

I remember stories about rich individuals who began with absolutely nothing. Many of wealthy today began with seed money, better liquidity, and a network of supporters. Jeff Bezos wasn't rich but he raised a sizable amount of money from friends and family.

Any business founder who has taken funding, VC or otherwise is automatically disqualified from the title of "self-made" million/billionaire regardless should they choose to sell. Period.

I think those who have bootstrapped their company with their own money are fine being called self-made.

Yes, they came from wealthy families. They could have easily coasted on that money like tons of kids do.

It made it _easier_ for them to build successful businesses, but success isn't guaranteed!

Excellent article.