A Self Made Man - Myth Or Reality ?

Self Made Man - Is It True ?

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It is both luck and persistence/skill imo.
We have a proverb like this: "Luck needs your help".
Persistence opens new doors and opportunities not available to idle men.
Sadio Mané is a good example.

The element of luck is as inseparable from the operation of the market as the element of skill.-Hayek

I also recommend this paper as a further reading on the topic; they actually did the math:

Talent vs Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.07068.pdf

quote: "...In particular,we show that,if it is true that
some degree of talent is necessary to be successful in life, almost never the most talented
people reach the highest peaks of success, being overtaken by mediocre but sensibly luckier
individuals."
 
The less young I become the more I believe that most self made men will agree - they were just more stupid than most to keep pursuing that opportunity that eventually made them rich.

Val
 
ValeryN said:
The less young I become the more I believe that most self made men will agree - they were just more stupid than most to keep pursuing that opportunity that eventually made them rich.

Val
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That one, relentless weirdo, in the whoooole family, whos chasing his dreams & eventually succeeds.

And you said it well, like, when someone asks :
,,- Why didn't you stop ?
- I was just, too stupid to stop"
 
ValeryN said:
The less young I become the more I believe that most self made men will agree - they were just more stupid than most to keep pursuing that opportunity that eventually made them rich.
Val
More...

There is a lot of truth here. At a certain point one realizes one has no more choice.
But I must qualify that this is working toward a definable goal, not just random thrashing.
 
Fortune favors the bold and fortune favors the prepared. we are all given opportunities to take or refuse. given a relatively level starting point (something that is absolutely not the case), it will be decisions that determine ones success.
 
Sig said:
As someone who has started two successful companies...indeed you didn't build that. I couldn't have built my companies in Somalia, for example, and neither could Bezos or Musk or Sergi and Brin. Add to that, if I hadn't won the genetic intelligence lottery and the "born on the right side of an invisible border line" lottery and the "given access to good schools" lottery and countless others I couldn't be where I am today and neither could you or almost anyone else. To be sure I grew up lower middle class and worked my behind off, but by no means do I have the hubris to insist that means I didn't depend on anyone or anything for my success. To ignore all that and insist that successful individuals are solely responsible for their success is the height of arrogance, imho. It's a vanishingly rare success story that arrived penniless after growing up without education and achieved success story, especially in the past few decades.
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Bravo Post!!!!
 
Well,
the thread was a success.

Improved perspective.

And the poll is gonna be open for another 999 months, for me and others once they will change their mind.
 
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