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So do millions of other ambitious people. Many of us do achieve moderate success. Walter - do you think there's a vast gap in ability between you and Zuckerber

So do millions of other ambitious people. Many of us do achieve moderate success. Walter - do you think there's a vast gap in ability between you and Zuckerberg? Or better yet, between you and Dustin Moskovitz? (He's worth 10.4 billion). Or did they just also happen to be in the right place at the right time?

WalterBright 10y ago
In the 70s I was with a company that designed SBCs. They had everything needed to be an Apple - talent, money, expertise. Everything but a Jobs who saw the opportunity. Hence I'm not a billionaire. In the years since, over and over and over, hindsight tells me I was in the right place at the right time, but was either too blind to see the opportunity or too chicken to take the risk. It's a running joke in my family. Ironically, the ventures I have been successful at were all pooh-poohed by everyone when I started them. If you can get up out of bed in the morning, have a brain that works, and live in a free country - you have all the luck you need to be successful.
- jonmb 10y ago
  > If you can get up out of bed in the morning, have a brain that works, and live in a free country - you have all the luck you need to be successful. In general I agree with this, though of course there are exceptions. One of my brothers had a mental disability that required him to have 24/7 care. His main caretaker was my mother, and as a sibling I helped where I could. This was bad "luck" not only for my brother, but also my mother. She was always ambitious but my brother's disability needs took over most of her time and energy, leaving her with very little to pursue any financial/career success. Anyway, that's just one example. I think there are many clear paths in the U.S. to becoming a millionaire. Most U.S. citizens can pick up a career guide and learn about high-paying careers and what it takes to get into it. I did this with becoming a software engineer. Then it was just a matter of following the well-beaten path. Go to school -> get computer science degree -> take up one of the many opportunities -> properly manage finances and save/invest. Of course, this all requires some degree of luck. I was born a white male in America. This alone put me off to a great advantage over someone born in a poor corrupt country. I haven't had any known health or genetic issues, which is another fortunate circumstance. Like you said, as long as you have a reasonable/average amount of health, then there are a lot of opportunities. As individuals we just need the courage and be willing to put in the work to make it happen. But let's never get too full of ourselves, because there is luck involved with any success.
- sshumaker 10y ago
  Maybe we're in agreement. You fit my definition perfectly - success for sure (even your own wiki page), but never that massive breakout. And hindsight isn't great for predicting those once-in-a-lifetime convergences. Maybe Steve Jobs himself could have led your 70's era company to be Apple instead. Or maybe the happy set of coincidences would have played out differently and it would have been a moderate player but not the most valuable company in the world. I too consider myself moderately successful (without quite your track record). I've also been close to those who do experience that next level of success. They are uniformly talented but their huge successes were once-in-a-lifetime. Some of them even tried to replicate and they achieved only moderate success the second time - what you'd expect of someone of their talent - despite their obvious advantages from having done it once before.

WalterBright 10y ago

In the 70s I was with a company that designed SBCs. They had everything needed to be an Apple - talent, money, expertise. Everything but a Jobs who saw the opportunity. Hence I'm not a billionaire. In the years since, over and over and over, hindsight tells me I was in the right place at the right time, but was either too blind to see the opportunity or too chicken to take the risk. It's a running joke in my family. Ironically, the ventures I have been successful at were all pooh-poohed by everyone when I started them. If you can get up out of bed in the morning, have a brain that works, and live in a free country - you have all the luck you need to be successful.

jonmb 10y ago
> If you can get up out of bed in the morning, have a brain that works, and live in a free country - you have all the luck you need to be successful. In general I agree with this, though of course there are exceptions. One of my brothers had a mental disability that required him to have 24/7 care. His main caretaker was my mother, and as a sibling I helped where I could. This was bad "luck" not only for my brother, but also my mother. She was always ambitious but my brother's disability needs took over most of her time and energy, leaving her with very little to pursue any financial/career success. Anyway, that's just one example. I think there are many clear paths in the U.S. to becoming a millionaire. Most U.S. citizens can pick up a career guide and learn about high-paying careers and what it takes to get into it. I did this with becoming a software engineer. Then it was just a matter of following the well-beaten path. Go to school -> get computer science degree -> take up one of the many opportunities -> properly manage finances and save/invest. Of course, this all requires some degree of luck. I was born a white male in America. This alone put me off to a great advantage over someone born in a poor corrupt country. I haven't had any known health or genetic issues, which is another fortunate circumstance. Like you said, as long as you have a reasonable/average amount of health, then there are a lot of opportunities. As individuals we just need the courage and be willing to put in the work to make it happen. But let's never get too full of ourselves, because there is luck involved with any success.
sshumaker 10y ago
Maybe we're in agreement. You fit my definition perfectly - success for sure (even your own wiki page), but never that massive breakout. And hindsight isn't great for predicting those once-in-a-lifetime convergences. Maybe Steve Jobs himself could have led your 70's era company to be Apple instead. Or maybe the happy set of coincidences would have played out differently and it would have been a moderate player but not the most valuable company in the world. I too consider myself moderately successful (without quite your track record). I've also been close to those who do experience that next level of success. They are uniformly talented but their huge successes were once-in-a-lifetime. Some of them even tried to replicate and they achieved only moderate success the second time - what you'd expect of someone of their talent - despite their obvious advantages from having done it once before.