Nobody Ever Got Rich Working for Somebody Else. #horseshit
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What kind of argument is that? It's backed by absolutely nothing. It also conflicts with everyone I've ever known.
Also, from the discussion here, the OP's definition of rich is a dubious one: "But generally, I think if you have a couple hundred grand in the bank you're rich."
If you're an employee, and assuming you've already paid taxes on that 200k, and you don't have kids in school or health problems, that's going to get you a few years down the road. It should be enough runway to get a new job with room to spare. As emergency money it's pretty good.
If you're working with 200k in the bank what does that get you? A down payment on a house you can't really afford? Maybe a sports car? Again this is assuming you're not going to put kids through school. That 200k means you're rich if you don't spend it on anything rich.
That 200k is decidedly not an amount you're going to retire on. You could take that 200k and start a business, but then we're in conflict with the idea that starting a business is completely unnecessary for obtaining riches.
Having said that, I'd be very curious to know how many startup jobs made an employee 200k richer after they've moved on. Given that many startup jobs (at least in the US) are in the Bay Area with its high rent and high taxes and that the average startup salary is what, 100k? IIRC, 100k is going to put you at close to a 40% tax bracket in SF. So that's 60k - 24k for rent for the year? That's not a lot left for a lifestyle in that area. Assuming you saved very aggressively you could, at the outside, put 20k away a year? So that's 10 years. What could you have accomplished working for yourself over those 10 (critical) years? Possibly less, though I think the numbers are probably in favor of a 10-year entrepreneur in a field with low barriers to entry.
What percentage of the current crop of startups will ever see employees make significant amounts via their stock? If you want to roll the dice that way certainly the numbers favor the entrepreneur.
Work for someone because you believe in what they're doing or you simply need the money. Don't ever do it to get rich.
Not a very strong one. I wasn't trying to argue, but rather suggest a new perspective. That out of the very few who strike it rich founding startups, there are many more who have earned a good salary and saved away a good amount of money while working their way up the corporate ladder.
"Rich" is a moving target for most people. As I noted, mine is different than most in the startup / bay area. I've been enough 3rd world countries to know what I need for comfort and happiness in my own life.
To have a few hundred $k in your bank account liquid is meaningful wealth. If you think in only sports cars and large houses, then yes... that goes quickly. If you think about it as the ability to travel, have leisure time, afford quality foods, etc. Then it is a quality of life that most in the world can't enjoy.
I agree with your last point to never do any kind of work just to get rich. Work on what you love, as a founder or employee.
Most rich folks are self-made, full stop. Here's some data: http://www.benefitspro.com/2012/07/20/fidelity-finds-86-perc...
However, I think you're dead on with most of your points. Being self-employed is in the "necessary but nowhere near sufficient" category on the road to wealth. The vast majority of self-employed folks never get rich. The vast majority of them work harder and earn less than their employed counterparts (there's good data on this, but I'm too lazy to Google it).
Short answer: work hard. Be self-employed because it makes you happy and more satisfied, not because you want to get rich.
1. The definition of "rich". I've responded here that I mean a level of comfort that is better than 99% of the rest of the world. Not necessarily millions of dollars.
2. Yes, a large percentage of millionaires are self-made... But were they self-made thousand-aires? Or did they earn the seed capital they started their businesses with? There are no doubt, those that had not a penny to their name but went and started collecting cans for the refund and used that to invest into a food cart or something... But I think most of those self-made people were able to create their businesses because they had a certain level of comfort that could be defined as rich to most in the world. (ie, if you even have access to get a loan for $100k to start a business, you're rich compared to a huge part of the world population.)
Re: #2... I bet you're right. I bet many (most?) of them had pretty well-to-do parents, a free college education, easy access to credit, friends-and-family investors at their fingertips, etc. It's not a fair game by any stretch, but I think that's a different discussion.
Not everyone has the ability, work ethic, brilliance, and 50 other things required to be an entrepreneur and/or and innovator, let alone a leader. Most of the time, people are just lazy and want the easy way out. So they empower themselves with bullshit reads like "start a company and be rich" when they have zero drive in the first place. Most people that are "rich" never became rich because they wanted money money money - they believed in something, worked day in and day out to accomplish when everyone else told them they're crazy. But they kept at it, worked hard, sacrificed, and money was a result of this.
I'm stupider for having read that drivel.