Seriously. Jeff Bezos got super-rich by literally being bad at his job.
How?
He was VP of a hedge fund, and assigned the project of investigating the potential of online commerce on the nascent Web by the company. He did so, and concluded that there was enormous potential, but after his report, the company decided to pass on it.
Clearly, he was right about the potential. If he’d been better at his job/more persuasive, D.E. Shaw & Co. would have invested in the Web, and he would not have had reason to leave and start Amazon.
That’s a pretty stupid conclusion to draw. You have no idea why the hedge fund passed on the investment, and the only reason you conclude it’s because Bezos was bad at his job is because you personally don’t like him. And more to the point, because you want to get upvoted in this thread.
It’s just an amateurish, embarrassing argument. If you want to skewer billionaires there are plenty of legitimate gripes, but it’s self-evident that most billionaires are pretty damn good at their jobs, hence the success. Sure they’re also lucky and privileged, but there are tons of other people with the same privileges that accomplish nothing.
This meme is just pure brain rot tbh. Do better Lemmy 😤
I don’t know who or what hurt you, but I hope tomorrow is better.
Fuck off bootlocker
Ha ha. Clearly the avg lemmy user is inexperienced or business ignorant. The site does lean heavy Marxist, which says plenty of their reasoning skills. I was thinking the same thing as you and you’re getting skewered for it. Hedge funds are not looking for a 20+ year ROI, which is what it took Bezos. That’s the simplest answer I can think of, but I’m sure there’s plenty more reasons they didn’t think young Bezos’ idea was worth throwing millions at.
Bud you think China is going to try to invade Taiwan, maybe you need some marxism in your life.
Or you could keep being uneducated to the point of gullibility, your choice.
Failing upwards
Nice paragraph and NASCAR is trash
I mean the super rich generally did a lot of things on their way there. The wake up call is usually around the things they do and people they exploit, not equating the difference to dumb luck.
Millionaires often worked for their money. Billionaires often worked for their first millions too. Problem is, difference between a billion and a million is about a billion.
On the other side of the argument, the amount of people that work harder and smarter than any given billionaire and have nothing is simply staggering. If it wasn’t down to luck, they’d all be billionaires.
So yeah, it is dumb luck. Randomness is not uniform, and someone ends up being close to the time and place of a local spike.
I would say that willingness to exploit other, be selfish and have low ethic also play a big role.
Except life is much more complicated than that.
Working hard and being smart doesn’t equal to having lots of money.
Luck also doesn’t equal having lots of money. How many “lucky” people have won the jack pot? And lost it all in a manner of months/years?
Not saying luck doesn’t play a part maybe even a huge part but it just seems silly to attribute someone’s success to luck.
Please reflect on the fact that until you joined the discussion, we didn’t talk about equating success to luck.
Afterwards, you will likely notice that your jackpot argument reinforces mine.
Please reflect on the fact that until you joined the discussion,
Please lets not be condescending here. I will rephrase, instead of success I will say wealth. I used the two interchangeably.
we didn’t talk about equating success to luck.
Didn’t you say this here.
On the other side of the argument, the amount of people that work harder and smarter than any given billionaire and have nothing is simply staggering. If it wasn’t down to luck, they’d all be billionaires.
Wealth itself is a stronger predictor for future wealth than individual performance.
That quote of mine doesn’t talk about success, nor wealth itself for that matter. You’re ignoring everything in the message to argue against a statement that was never made in the first place.
Wealth itself is a stronger predictor for future wealth than individual performance.
I agree with that.
Yes just saying it’s only luck is just wrong.
Even the rich (not the super billionaire rich), yes they had luck but there is definitely more. Like I work as a freelancer in software development. Lots of people I have worked with are smarter and more talented than I am, but I still make more money. Because they never took the risk of going freelance and keep working for a company that takes halve the money a client pays.
Some people just don’t like to take risks
These super rich people usually took big risks, worked for almost free for a while until it started to pay off. Of course for every billionaire there a 1000s of people that took the same risk and completely failed.
If you can take multiple large, failed, risks without ending up on the street then you have immense privilege.
It’s hard for most people to “learn from their failures” and keep taking “big” risks, unless the risk to their own life circumstances was never actually that “big”.
It is a meritocracy … whoever can be the most ruthless, greedy, selfish, egotistical, ignorant, arrogant, immoral, unethical and wicked can more easily become enormously wealthy.
For someone with a bit of ability, knowledge and training, they can easily make thousands fleecing the elderly, poor people, widows, or the mentally challenged. It takes a really ruthless person to do it but it is relatively easy money.
You can also become a drug dealer and buy trade and sell illegal, immoral and life destroying drugs and easily make a lot of money fast.
Someone in a developing country can also start a small business based on slave labor, children or indentured workers paid little or no money.
And that’s just the bottom of the barrel. Professionals in first world countries deal with these people to generate wealth for themselves. Then billionaires sit on top making more money on those below them … all the wealth if you follow it is based on taking advantage of weaker individuals. The whole system is based on taking advantage of lesser people.
It’s a meritocracy … a meritocracy of immortality, whoever can become the most depraved gets to win the world.
I think all the temporarily embarrassed billionaires are downvoting you. In their meritocracy they will be considered the worthy who can take everything, not these imposters like bezos.
While the system does select for psychopathic behaviors, it’s not a meritocracy because you don’t need to be exceptional at being ruthless, greedy, selfish, egotistical, ignorant, arrogant, immoral, unethical and wicked to become enormously wealthy. There are plenty of deplorable people who never make it big under capitalism. It’s mostly just a birth lottery. People who are lucky enough to be born into money, who end up having family connections, and are plugged into the oligarchy are the ones who statistically make it.
And there are actual studies showing that luck is the major factor
I would do so much to improve the world if I had even one billion dollars. Rocket ships don’t help the homeless. Mars won’t solve the lack of money in education. A car flying through the void of space does not create public transportation. A mega yacht doesn’t feed the hungry.
Please let me handle your money, billionaires. You’ll look so good at the end of it.
While Musk is undeniably a massive dickhead, let’s not devalue space exploration because of him. Many things we rely on today such as GPS, certain types of medical treatments and drugs, even eye surgery, were only possible due to the advancement of space technology.
Rocketships don’t help people directly, but for isntance, they put satelites in orbit that help farmers have a more precise control and understanding over their crops, putting more food on our plates.
You’re right. I don’t mean discredit all space-related activities. Satellites help make our world function, and rockets are needed for that.
I meant to emphasize the desire to go to Mars. I see no net-benefit for the world. It’s a vanity project.
I’d say luck will sometimes make you rich, and being good at what you do will sometimes make you rich. Being good at what you do and also lucky has more of a chance of making you rich
It’s *usually not entirely luck, you generally have to sort of know what you’re doing
