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The issue isn't that he was at Princeton. The issue is that he is discounting what he did, chalking his mom's perseverance (and foresight), his intelligence and

The issue isn't that he was at Princeton. The issue is that he is discounting what he did, chalking his mom's perseverance (and foresight), his intelligence and work ethic, up to "luck" and "chance". Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful.

simonw 10y ago
The interesting thing about luck is that you can make it yourself. In this case both Randy Brown and his mother worked extremely hard and smart to bring around circumstances where something that seemed "lucky" (being accepted to Princeton, meeting someone who introduced him to Paul Graham's writing) was more likely to happen. It's a very inspiring story.
- mxuribe 10y ago
  Someone might over-simplistically state: "fortune favors the prepared". Sure opportunity presented itself - and one might even call it luck - but in order to capitalize on it, it took Randy Brown's and his family's perseverance and intelligence to do so. Kudos to him and his family! Some of the things mentioned struck a close chord with me. My parents are immigrants and - though they would have liked to help - they had no higher education nor any advice to provide me when I was doing things like choosing the college to apply/attend, filling out/submitting financial aid forms, figuring out how to pay for college myself, even choosing my major, let alone helping me with suggestions on my future professional career! I was born here in the U.S., so i was "lucky" to not have language as an additional barrier. And as other posters stated, being in certain geographic regions of U.S. is helpful...But still, navigating your way through some aspects of life without having sage advice from experienced people, and people who can help with things like careers, college, etc. is freaking really hard! Again, congrats to Randy Brown - and all the Randy Browns of the world - for this kind of accomplishment. To echo @simonw's perfect statement: very inspiring story!
gumby 10y ago
> Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful. It's OK to acknowledge the tremendous set of fortuitous coincidences that _allowed you to make yourself successful_ -- doing so does not diminish you. This guy understands this. I count my own luck starting with being born in a wealthy country at peace. I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). Yes I also won the sperm-ovum lottery and by changing countries am now considered part of the "accepted" race. There are roads not taken, and opportunities missed and its worth losing at them to see how more people can have the opportunity to succeed.
- imjustsaying 10y ago
  > I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States#21st_century_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni... The United States is at war all over the entire damn world. A couple days ago its ramifications were clearly displayed when 100 people were shot in Orlando.
  - gumby 10y ago
    The US is waging war all over the damned world but its paying little attention to it. I think it's fair to say that at least 300 million Americans' lives would be the same whether that was happening rt not, except their taxes could be about 10% lower (defense budget is about 16% of the federal budget -- it couldn't be completely eliminated). You're more likely to be killed by someone behind the wheel but looking at their phone than you are by some loony trying to tie the US's external activities to something he or she was going to do anyway. The country faces no existential threat, which is why people have time to argue about picayune crap like ISIL. You want existential threat? People in Syria are facing existential threats (and yet the US has its oar in there too). My parents grew up in towns bombed by invading forces while they were kids (on different continents); my mum's family had to flee into the jungle. My in laws' town (in yet another continent) was bombed flat while they were kids too. Even the attacks of September 2001 did not threaten the existence of the republic or the country, despite the massive and expensive thrashing of the subsequent "immune response."

simonw 10y ago

The interesting thing about luck is that you can make it yourself. In this case both Randy Brown and his mother worked extremely hard and smart to bring around circumstances where something that seemed "lucky" (being accepted to Princeton, meeting someone who introduced him to Paul Graham's writing) was more likely to happen. It's a very inspiring story.

mxuribe 10y ago
Someone might over-simplistically state: "fortune favors the prepared". Sure opportunity presented itself - and one might even call it luck - but in order to capitalize on it, it took Randy Brown's and his family's perseverance and intelligence to do so. Kudos to him and his family! Some of the things mentioned struck a close chord with me. My parents are immigrants and - though they would have liked to help - they had no higher education nor any advice to provide me when I was doing things like choosing the college to apply/attend, filling out/submitting financial aid forms, figuring out how to pay for college myself, even choosing my major, let alone helping me with suggestions on my future professional career! I was born here in the U.S., so i was "lucky" to not have language as an additional barrier. And as other posters stated, being in certain geographic regions of U.S. is helpful...But still, navigating your way through some aspects of life without having sage advice from experienced people, and people who can help with things like careers, college, etc. is freaking really hard! Again, congrats to Randy Brown - and all the Randy Browns of the world - for this kind of accomplishment. To echo @simonw's perfect statement: very inspiring story!

gumby 10y ago

> Stop being coy and pretending like you just "stumbled" into being successful. Own it. It is okay to be successful. It's OK to acknowledge the tremendous set of fortuitous coincidences that _allowed you to make yourself successful_ -- doing so does not diminish you. This guy understands this. I count my own luck starting with being born in a wealthy country at peace. I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). Yes I also won the sperm-ovum lottery and by changing countries am now considered part of the "accepted" race. There are roads not taken, and opportunities missed and its worth losing at them to see how more people can have the opportunity to succeed.

imjustsaying 10y ago
> I moved to other wealthy countries not at war (including, right now, the USA which by any real measure faces no existential threat and is follows a rule of law). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States#21st_century_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni... The United States is at war all over the entire damn world. A couple days ago its ramifications were clearly displayed when 100 people were shot in Orlando.
- gumby 10y ago
  The US is waging war all over the damned world but its paying little attention to it. I think it's fair to say that at least 300 million Americans' lives would be the same whether that was happening rt not, except their taxes could be about 10% lower (defense budget is about 16% of the federal budget -- it couldn't be completely eliminated). You're more likely to be killed by someone behind the wheel but looking at their phone than you are by some loony trying to tie the US's external activities to something he or she was going to do anyway. The country faces no existential threat, which is why people have time to argue about picayune crap like ISIL. You want existential threat? People in Syria are facing existential threats (and yet the US has its oar in there too). My parents grew up in towns bombed by invading forces while they were kids (on different continents); my mum's family had to flee into the jungle. My in laws' town (in yet another continent) was bombed flat while they were kids too. Even the attacks of September 2001 did not threaten the existence of the republic or the country, despite the massive and expensive thrashing of the subsequent "immune response."