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outliers hold no interest for me. what percentage of people who tried to become successful financiers made it vs what percentage of tech entrepreneurs started

outliers hold no interest for me. what percentage of people who tried to become successful financiers made it vs what percentage of tech entrepreneurs started a successful company?

_delirium 16y ago
That'd be an interesting number as well, but my guess is that financiers win there, too. Even if you don't make it big in finance, you can "fail" into a lot of lower-level jobs that pay around $200-300k. In tech, the fail-out-into-a-salary route tends to get you more like $100-150k.
apsec112 16y ago
Difficult to say exactly. Both are definitely high-risk industries. The key difference is probably the timespan over which you make your money. A moderately successful entrepreneur might work hard for five years, sell his company for $20M, and get $4M of that. A moderately successful financier might work hard for thirty years, and make $500K - $2M every year that he works. Essentially, successful financiers tend to be older (50s and up) while successful entrepreneurs tend to be younger.
- paraschopra 16y ago
  > Essentially, successful financiers tend to be older (50s and up) while successful entrepreneurs tend to be younger. I think this data can also answer the question. Has any one done any calculations on this front?
jpark 16y ago
If you can make the cut at a top investment bank, hedge fund, PE firm, etc, it's fairly trivial to accumulate $1M in liquid assets after 10 years of work. Much much easier than trying to sell your startup for > $1M.
pyre 16y ago
Maybe, but that's not what this discussion is about: Original Post: http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320439 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320439 > Despite the high risk/high reward, I think the > expected value (in money) of going to Wall > Street is still quite a bit higher than that of > a startup. pg's reply: http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320447 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320447 : > The one place data is easy to find is at > the high end-- in the Forbes 400-- and there > at least that is not the case.

outliers hold no interest for me. what percentage of people who tried to become successful financiers made it vs what percentage of tech entrepreneurs started a successful company?

_delirium 16y ago

That'd be an interesting number as well, but my guess is that financiers win there, too. Even if you don't make it big in finance, you can "fail" into a lot of lower-level jobs that pay around $200-300k. In tech, the fail-out-into-a-salary route tends to get you more like $100-150k.

apsec112 16y ago

Difficult to say exactly. Both are definitely high-risk industries. The key difference is probably the timespan over which you make your money. A moderately successful entrepreneur might work hard for five years, sell his company for $20M, and get $4M of that. A moderately successful financier might work hard for thirty years, and make $500K - $2M every year that he works. Essentially, successful financiers tend to be older (50s and up) while successful entrepreneurs tend to be younger.

paraschopra 16y ago
> Essentially, successful financiers tend to be older (50s and up) while successful entrepreneurs tend to be younger. I think this data can also answer the question. Has any one done any calculations on this front?

jpark 16y ago

If you can make the cut at a top investment bank, hedge fund, PE firm, etc, it's fairly trivial to accumulate $1M in liquid assets after 10 years of work. Much much easier than trying to sell your startup for > $1M.

pyre 16y ago

Maybe, but that's not what this discussion is about: Original Post: http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320439 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320439 > Despite the high risk/high reward, I think the > expected value (in money) of going to Wall > Street is still quite a bit higher than that of > a startup. pg's reply: http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320447 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320447 : > The one place data is easy to find is at > the high end-- in the Forbes 400-- and there > at least that is not the case.