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> But they don’t always. Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Richard Branson did not grow up rich. Richard Branson was the son of a barrister....a career, in the UK, n

> But they don’t always. Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Richard Branson did not grow up rich. Richard Branson was the son of a barrister....a career, in the UK, not known to be short of money. He was also sent to public school from an early age. I'll leave it at that. Sergey Brin...well "His father is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, and his mother a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.[5][8][9]" Hardly a blue collar career. Lattry Page...again: From the first para of his "early life" in wikipedia you can clearly see he had a fairly good advantage over the rest of us in his family life. None of these folks may have been "rich" but they weren't poor either, and they had some fairly good connections to get them started in business life.

barry-cotter 8y ago
I fail to see how a barrister father helps with Branson’s first successful business venture, a magazine. Larry Page I absolutely concede, he seems to have had not just highly educated parents but a father in the field he eventually went into. Sergey Brin’s parents arrived in the US when he was six, as penniless refugees. If that qualifies as starting life on third base there are a lot of people endowed with similar or greater privilege.
- teh_klev 8y ago
  > Branson I'm just kinda pointing out that he didn't exactly come from the the "black stuff"[0]. I'd be curious to know how much his fairly well off father loaned/donated to his Student magazine. Also: "His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Surrey, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex." So, c'mon his family likely wasn't short of a bob or two. > Sergey Brin’s parents arrived in the US when he was six, as penniless refugees. Sure, but made pretty good due to financing by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They already by western standards had an academic prowess, and thus giving Sergey a fairly decent start in life educationally. By Soviet standards these were effectively middle class parents until the state caught wind of his father's intention to emigrate in 78 and by 79 they were in the US. Now I'm not suggesting this was an easy time for them, but they were hardly "penniless refugees" (and skill-less) upon arrival to the US. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff

barry-cotter 8y ago

I fail to see how a barrister father helps with Branson’s first successful business venture, a magazine. Larry Page I absolutely concede, he seems to have had not just highly educated parents but a father in the field he eventually went into. Sergey Brin’s parents arrived in the US when he was six, as penniless refugees. If that qualifies as starting life on third base there are a lot of people endowed with similar or greater privilege.

teh_klev 8y ago
> Branson I'm just kinda pointing out that he didn't exactly come from the the "black stuff"[0]. I'd be curious to know how much his fairly well off father loaned/donated to his Student magazine. Also: "His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Surrey, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex." So, c'mon his family likely wasn't short of a bob or two. > Sergey Brin’s parents arrived in the US when he was six, as penniless refugees. Sure, but made pretty good due to financing by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They already by western standards had an academic prowess, and thus giving Sergey a fairly decent start in life educationally. By Soviet standards these were effectively middle class parents until the state caught wind of his father's intention to emigrate in 78 and by 79 they were in the US. Now I'm not suggesting this was an easy time for them, but they were hardly "penniless refugees" (and skill-less) upon arrival to the US. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff