4 ms·

And Musk started with very little - at one point seeing if could get by on a dollar a day if it came to that. Or Kalanick who things went bad enough for that he

And Musk started with very little - at one point seeing if could get by on a dollar a day if it came to that. Or Kalanick who things went bad enough for that he was forced to move back in with his parents as an adult, and then later to Thailand for a lower cost of living. Or Dell who worked as a dish washer and newspaper boy - eventually using those funds to drop out of college to focus on his booming computer assembly/upgrade 'business' he was running out of his dorm room.

TAForObvReasons 8y ago
Musk absolutely didn't start from "very little": https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/10/2014-rocket-man-the-otherworldly-ambitions-of-elon-musk/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/10/2014-rocket-man-the-o... > After [Musk's parents] divorced in 1980, Elon mostly lived with his father, who says he owned thoroughbred horses, a yacht, several houses and a Cessna. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. > Wanderlust ran on both sides of the family. On holidays, Errol [Musk's Dad] and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. Or they’d take the plane to Lake Tanganyika, where Errol had a stake in an emerald mine. Elon would later get his own pilot’s license, but he no longer has time to fly. > While wealthy South Africans typically hired maids and gardeners, Errol decided that his children would do chores and cook their own food, taking shifts. Michael Dell: http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Dell-Michael.html http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Dell-Michael.ht... > In 1984, as a first-year college student in Austin, Texas, Michael Dell borrowed $1,000 from his parents to start a computer accessories business. To put this in perspective, in 2015 less than 30% of Americans have $1000 in their savings: https://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/savings-account/62-percent-americans-under-1000-savings-survey-finds/ https://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/savings-account/62-pe... Kalanick's parents: https://www.recode.net/2017/5/27/15705290/bonnie-kalanick-mother-uber-ceo-dies-boating-accident https://www.recode.net/2017/5/27/15705290/bonnie-kalanick-mo... > From teaming over complex science projects like building a real electrical transformer to giving him his first experience programming computers, [Kalanick's dad] had been the one to bring home early computers for his tech-curious son to fiddle with.
- TangoTrotFox 8y ago
  You know I could provide more detail on the Musk thing (look up his relationship with his now estranged father - you're presenting a woefully misleading tale) but really I don't think you care. You're arguing here that Dell getting $1000 from his parents is something? $1000 is literally 2 weeks of overtime working at a McDonalds for the federal minimum wage - $7.25. I don't entirely understand why people do this. It just seems pitiable. Rather than learn from others, people seem more interested in trying to look for reasons why they can't achieve.
  - s2g 8y ago
    > $1000 is literally 2 weeks of overtime working at a McDonalds for the federal minimum wage - $7.25. If you don't have to do anything else with that money. My parents couldn't have spared 1000 bucks just because when I was younger. Musk grew up wealthy. He's the child of rich white south africans.
    - TangoTrotFox 8y ago
      He was in college! In college now a days the the average kid is going to have thousands in his bank account due to the way student loans are tossed out like candy. Or in the case where that is not true, taking two weeks off to work, or even staying in college and getting in internship and people can easily get thousands on their own. There are just so many sad excuses.
  - fzeroracer 8y ago
    It's important to remember that $1000 in 1984 went a lot further than it does now, especially when there was a fair amount more opportunity back then. Statistically speaking the United States is among the lowest in social mobility. This is why pointing to these people is futile because not only did they have large advantages that many others did not, but they are also largely the exception to the norm. It's the survivorship bias in action.
    - TangoTrotFox 8y ago

TAForObvReasons 8y ago

Musk absolutely didn't start from "very little": https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/10/2014-rocket-man-the-otherworldly-ambitions-of-elon-musk/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/10/2014-rocket-man-the-o... > After [Musk's parents] divorced in 1980, Elon mostly lived with his father, who says he owned thoroughbred horses, a yacht, several houses and a Cessna. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. > Wanderlust ran on both sides of the family. On holidays, Errol [Musk's Dad] and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. Or they’d take the plane to Lake Tanganyika, where Errol had a stake in an emerald mine. Elon would later get his own pilot’s license, but he no longer has time to fly. > While wealthy South Africans typically hired maids and gardeners, Errol decided that his children would do chores and cook their own food, taking shifts. Michael Dell: http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Dell-Michael.html http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Dell-Michael.ht... > In 1984, as a first-year college student in Austin, Texas, Michael Dell borrowed $1,000 from his parents to start a computer accessories business. To put this in perspective, in 2015 less than 30% of Americans have $1000 in their savings: https://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/savings-account/62-percent-americans-under-1000-savings-survey-finds/ https://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/savings-account/62-pe... Kalanick's parents: https://www.recode.net/2017/5/27/15705290/bonnie-kalanick-mother-uber-ceo-dies-boating-accident https://www.recode.net/2017/5/27/15705290/bonnie-kalanick-mo... > From teaming over complex science projects like building a real electrical transformer to giving him his first experience programming computers, [Kalanick's dad] had been the one to bring home early computers for his tech-curious son to fiddle with.

TangoTrotFox 8y ago
You know I could provide more detail on the Musk thing (look up his relationship with his now estranged father - you're presenting a woefully misleading tale) but really I don't think you care. You're arguing here that Dell getting $1000 from his parents is something? $1000 is literally 2 weeks of overtime working at a McDonalds for the federal minimum wage - $7.25. I don't entirely understand why people do this. It just seems pitiable. Rather than learn from others, people seem more interested in trying to look for reasons why they can't achieve.
- s2g 8y ago
  > $1000 is literally 2 weeks of overtime working at a McDonalds for the federal minimum wage - $7.25. If you don't have to do anything else with that money. My parents couldn't have spared 1000 bucks just because when I was younger. Musk grew up wealthy. He's the child of rich white south africans.
  - TangoTrotFox 8y ago
    He was in college! In college now a days the the average kid is going to have thousands in his bank account due to the way student loans are tossed out like candy. Or in the case where that is not true, taking two weeks off to work, or even staying in college and getting in internship and people can easily get thousands on their own. There are just so many sad excuses.
- fzeroracer 8y ago
  It's important to remember that $1000 in 1984 went a lot further than it does now, especially when there was a fair amount more opportunity back then. Statistically speaking the United States is among the lowest in social mobility. This is why pointing to these people is futile because not only did they have large advantages that many others did not, but they are also largely the exception to the norm. It's the survivorship bias in action.
  - TangoTrotFox 8y ago