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Kudos to the guy for bouncing back though !! “After losing everything, he toiled in misery for years — but he eventually made an improbable comeback. In 1997,

Kudos to the guy for bouncing back though !! “After losing everything, he toiled in misery for years — but he eventually made an improbable comeback. In 1997, he took out a £155k (US$203k) loan on his house, built up a health club business, and sold it for £3.9m (US$5.1m). He then used the profits to start an online jewelry company. (The Ratners Group rebranded as Signet in 1993; today, it is the largest diamond retailer in the world.)”

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
ylesaout 7y ago
While he made a successful comeback (however far from his first success), saying he toiled in misery for years is a little bit exagerated. Indeed, he was still the owner of a house (and probably of other goods). And this house was big enough to have a value probably equal to a today million dollars. That's not what I call to be toiled in misery.
- colechristensen 7y ago
  Being rich doesn't make you automatically happy, you can hear many stories about billionaires who have and have achieved everything they could possibly want being miserable – wanting things and then getting them isn't the source of happiness, being faced with this reality firsthand by running out of things to want and still feeling dissatisfied with life can be (imagined at least) really miserable and hopeless.
  - digitaltrees 7y ago
    The line is subsistence, not being a billionaire. If you don’t have food, shelter and health care you are often very very in happy. If you have those, each additional dollar contributes a much smaller degree of happiness. The research suggest the line for diminishing returns in the US is $80k in most cities.
- core-questions 7y ago
  Misery is a state of mind, not of finance. I'm sure plenty of billionaires are personally miserable, despite their ability to do literally anything.
- Smithalicious 7y ago
  Whether or not he toiled in misery is independent of how much money he had. It only depends on whether he toiled, and whether he was miserable doing so.
  - chosenbreed37 7y ago
    Indeed. And I dare say living in a million dollar house is not so comforting if you've just forfeited $125m worth of profits year on year :-)
    - lutorm 7y ago
      What happened to diversification??
- arunbahl 7y ago
  Misery, like happiness, is orthogonal to material possessions.
  - TuringTest 7y ago
    ...above a certain level of material possessions. You cross the barrier down, and that assertion becomes false real fast.
- asdfman123 7y ago
  Happiness is relative to expectation. Most people reading this will never feel extreme hunger and have all their material needs met forever, but they will probably also go through things that to them, feel like miserable failures. You might even be forced to leave your cushy jobs and take an annual salary that is what 50 African laborers make in year. And it will possibly take years, maybe well over a decade, to live down how bad you feel about yourself.
  - colechristensen 7y ago
    Zoom out from specific circumstances and it seems like human misery is fairly constant. Whether you're scrambling around the forest looking for berries and killing things to eat with pointy sticks or working an office job living in a suburb – I don't really think your emotional experience really changes all that much. I think your misery and delight are driven by the best and worst things in your life and it doesn't really matter all that much what your circumstances are. When things get better you find new things to be miserable about, when things get worse you stop caring about the little things and your misery is driven by the new worst thing. I don't see standard of living really driving all that much happiness. Maybe some, but much less than I think most people expect.
    - paulmd 7y ago
      Spoken like someone who can't comprehend living hand to mouth. Happiness is definitely a hockey-stick shaped curve, going from 1M to 10M is not going to make you happier, but someone who is making $100k is going to be far far happier than someone making $20k. The difference between scrabbling to pay your bills and keep the heat on, vs actually having some savings and free money for recreation, is absolutely massive.
      - Aeolun 7y ago
        I’m not so certain about that actually, I’ve certainly seen people making $20k that had more free money and recreation time than some people making $100k. Especially as regards recreation time. To be fair, making $20k was almost always a choice in those cases.
Traster 7y ago
Yes, let's all cheer on the guy who has open disdain for his customers. I wonder what he calls his health club customers behind closed doors.
- EGreg 7y ago
  Probably similar to what Mark Zuckerberg called people who trusted him with their data :) https://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zuckerberg-ims-confirmed-by-zuckerberg-the-new-yorker-2010-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zu... ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard ZUCK: just ask ZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns FRIEND: what!? how'd you manage that one? ZUCK: people just submitted it ZUCK: i don't know why ZUCK: they "trust me" ZUCK: dumb fucks
  - imulligan 7y ago
    TY for Posting truths
  - askafriend 7y ago
    He was 19. This is a stupid meme that always gets posted.
  - skinnymuch 7y ago
    I doubt almost anyone on HN is squeaky clean with what they said and wrote as a teenager.
    - eitland 7y ago
      Correct. Problem is in this particular case it seems highly relevant today as well.
    - EGreg 7y ago
      I don’t see how that’s relevant. Can’t the same thing be said of the OP’s main character? Why have a story at all? The point was that Mark Z had the same attitude about the people who shared their data with FB, and the history is replete with FB abusing that trust in myriad ways. Is Mark Z still a teenager? And furthermore, that other CEO guy reformed. Does that mean the story is pointless? Here is the real point. Both this CEO and young Mark Z were right. They were selling crap and people were buying it. People really did simply share their info and back then Zuck was a little taken aback. The point is that we all collectively as a society buy De Beers and we have collectively begun thinking it’s totally cool to trust some third party with all our private data just so they can connect us. So this is actually a critique of society and how we do exactly the things that they said were pretty dumb - and we really enjoy doing them!
indigodaddy 7y ago
At the time Ratners already owned Kay and Jared... I think “destroying” the company is a bit overstated/exaggerated. The company itself came out just fine. They still own Jared and Kay, and Zales more recently.
- snazz 7y ago
  Destroying the brand then? That seems more accurate.
  - aeternum 7y ago
    Sounds like a very strategic move. If he already owns two of the leading more expensive jewelry stores, why not destroy a cheaper brand?
    - dagw 7y ago
      If the people that shop at the cheaper brand would never shop at the more expensive stores, why not keep both a cover the entire market?
EGreg 7y ago
Where do you imagine this fits in? Just today https://www.cbsnews.com/news/juul-ceo-kevin-burns-tells-non-smokers-not-to-vape-or-use-his-companys-product/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/juul-ceo-kevin-burns-tells-non-...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ylesaout 7y ago

While he made a successful comeback (however far from his first success), saying he toiled in misery for years is a little bit exagerated. Indeed, he was still the owner of a house (and probably of other goods). And this house was big enough to have a value probably equal to a today million dollars. That's not what I call to be toiled in misery.

colechristensen 7y ago
Being rich doesn't make you automatically happy, you can hear many stories about billionaires who have and have achieved everything they could possibly want being miserable – wanting things and then getting them isn't the source of happiness, being faced with this reality firsthand by running out of things to want and still feeling dissatisfied with life can be (imagined at least) really miserable and hopeless.
- digitaltrees 7y ago
  The line is subsistence, not being a billionaire. If you don’t have food, shelter and health care you are often very very in happy. If you have those, each additional dollar contributes a much smaller degree of happiness. The research suggest the line for diminishing returns in the US is $80k in most cities.
core-questions 7y ago
Misery is a state of mind, not of finance. I'm sure plenty of billionaires are personally miserable, despite their ability to do literally anything.
Smithalicious 7y ago
Whether or not he toiled in misery is independent of how much money he had. It only depends on whether he toiled, and whether he was miserable doing so.
- chosenbreed37 7y ago
  Indeed. And I dare say living in a million dollar house is not so comforting if you've just forfeited $125m worth of profits year on year :-)
  - lutorm 7y ago
    What happened to diversification??
arunbahl 7y ago
Misery, like happiness, is orthogonal to material possessions.
- TuringTest 7y ago
  ...above a certain level of material possessions. You cross the barrier down, and that assertion becomes false real fast.
asdfman123 7y ago
Happiness is relative to expectation. Most people reading this will never feel extreme hunger and have all their material needs met forever, but they will probably also go through things that to them, feel like miserable failures. You might even be forced to leave your cushy jobs and take an annual salary that is what 50 African laborers make in year. And it will possibly take years, maybe well over a decade, to live down how bad you feel about yourself.
- colechristensen 7y ago
  Zoom out from specific circumstances and it seems like human misery is fairly constant. Whether you're scrambling around the forest looking for berries and killing things to eat with pointy sticks or working an office job living in a suburb – I don't really think your emotional experience really changes all that much. I think your misery and delight are driven by the best and worst things in your life and it doesn't really matter all that much what your circumstances are. When things get better you find new things to be miserable about, when things get worse you stop caring about the little things and your misery is driven by the new worst thing. I don't see standard of living really driving all that much happiness. Maybe some, but much less than I think most people expect.
  - paulmd 7y ago
    Spoken like someone who can't comprehend living hand to mouth. Happiness is definitely a hockey-stick shaped curve, going from 1M to 10M is not going to make you happier, but someone who is making $100k is going to be far far happier than someone making $20k. The difference between scrabbling to pay your bills and keep the heat on, vs actually having some savings and free money for recreation, is absolutely massive.
    - Aeolun 7y ago
      I’m not so certain about that actually, I’ve certainly seen people making $20k that had more free money and recreation time than some people making $100k. Especially as regards recreation time. To be fair, making $20k was almost always a choice in those cases.

Traster 7y ago

Yes, let's all cheer on the guy who has open disdain for his customers. I wonder what he calls his health club customers behind closed doors.

EGreg 7y ago
Probably similar to what Mark Zuckerberg called people who trusted him with their data :) https://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zuckerberg-ims-confirmed-by-zuckerberg-the-new-yorker-2010-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zu... ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard ZUCK: just ask ZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns FRIEND: what!? how'd you manage that one? ZUCK: people just submitted it ZUCK: i don't know why ZUCK: they "trust me" ZUCK: dumb fucks
- imulligan 7y ago
  TY for Posting truths
- askafriend 7y ago
  He was 19. This is a stupid meme that always gets posted.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  I doubt almost anyone on HN is squeaky clean with what they said and wrote as a teenager.
  - eitland 7y ago
    Correct. Problem is in this particular case it seems highly relevant today as well.
  - EGreg 7y ago
    I don’t see how that’s relevant. Can’t the same thing be said of the OP’s main character? Why have a story at all? The point was that Mark Z had the same attitude about the people who shared their data with FB, and the history is replete with FB abusing that trust in myriad ways. Is Mark Z still a teenager? And furthermore, that other CEO guy reformed. Does that mean the story is pointless? Here is the real point. Both this CEO and young Mark Z were right. They were selling crap and people were buying it. People really did simply share their info and back then Zuck was a little taken aback. The point is that we all collectively as a society buy De Beers and we have collectively begun thinking it’s totally cool to trust some third party with all our private data just so they can connect us. So this is actually a critique of society and how we do exactly the things that they said were pretty dumb - and we really enjoy doing them!

indigodaddy 7y ago

At the time Ratners already owned Kay and Jared... I think “destroying” the company is a bit overstated/exaggerated. The company itself came out just fine. They still own Jared and Kay, and Zales more recently.

snazz 7y ago
Destroying the brand then? That seems more accurate.
- aeternum 7y ago
  Sounds like a very strategic move. If he already owns two of the leading more expensive jewelry stores, why not destroy a cheaper brand?
  - dagw 7y ago
    If the people that shop at the cheaper brand would never shop at the more expensive stores, why not keep both a cover the entire market?

EGreg 7y ago

Where do you imagine this fits in? Just today https://www.cbsnews.com/news/juul-ceo-kevin-burns-tells-non-smokers-not-to-vape-or-use-his-companys-product/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/juul-ceo-kevin-burns-tells-non-...