4 ms·

He got lucky in a big way twice. The reason he was able to lose more money than anyone in history, is because the first time he got lucky like that was with Yah

He got lucky in a big way twice. The reason he was able to lose more money than anyone in history, is because the first time he got lucky like that was with Yahoo when a relatively small investment became worth tens of billions of dollars. He failed to sell though and Yahoo of course didn't have a sustainable position (unlike Alibaba). The epic boom in his Yahoo position is what initially made him famous during the dotcom bubble. It started the mythology of Masayoshi as a finder of those types of investments.

sharadov 7y ago
Masayoshi Son seems like someone who started believing like Midas, that anything he touches would turn to gold. I heard the guy speak, and he seemed full of himself. And he's taken Saudi money, I would not want to be in his shoes to say the least.
- wolco 7y ago
  He is still way better off than your average hs commentor. It will be easy to pivot into anything.. flower shop.. ebay jeans store the sky is the limit.
- chmod775 7y ago
  > Masayoshi Son seems like someone who started believing like Midas, that anything he touches would turn to gold. It is so incredibly common in the investment world to mistake extreme luck for skill and cling to flawed methodologies as if they were gospel because they worked once by chance. Your typical investment "strategies" are hardly better than someone bringing his lucky shoes to a gambling den.
hkmurakami 7y ago
Do you mean yahoo japan? They’re a separate company from Yahoo, and still very profitable and a 11 figure item on their balance sheet.
- adventured 7y ago
  > Do you mean yahoo japan? No. Yahoo US was once worth ~$125 billion ($200b today) and Masayoshi's SoftBank owned 28% of it during the peak bubble days of 1999-2000. [1] Yahoo was a very big deal at the time, it was briefly an Internet juggernaut. That's a key reason why he was so rich during the dotcom bubble. That single position propelled his image and made him famous. To put into perspective how relatively massive SoftBank's Yahoo position was considered to be at the time in the tech world (and more broadly): if you go back to early 1995, it's a sum comparable to what Microsoft was worth ($30-$35b), and more than Intel was worth. The notion that a tech company could be more valuable than the old industrial giants like GM was still a rather confounding premise. [1] https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0705/6401146a.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0705/6401146a.html
dheera 7y ago
That's how "vision" investors are supposed to work. You expect 99% of your investments to fail and 1% to give you 1000X returns. That said, I agree that WeWork isn't exactly "vision".
mekster 7y ago
It's easy to call someone lucky on a successful investment. You need more than a luck to pull it off.
- rightbyte 7y ago
  Not really.
  - agustif 7y ago
    Maybe you need to be lucky and (have money) Is harder to be lucky if you're poor
- orestarod 7y ago
  Yes. You need money and connections.
moneywoes 7y ago
Honestly speaking, isn't the whole VC industry dependent on luck?
- chewz 7y ago
  No, entire VC industry is dependent on FED not luck.

sharadov 7y ago

Masayoshi Son seems like someone who started believing like Midas, that anything he touches would turn to gold. I heard the guy speak, and he seemed full of himself. And he's taken Saudi money, I would not want to be in his shoes to say the least.

wolco 7y ago
He is still way better off than your average hs commentor. It will be easy to pivot into anything.. flower shop.. ebay jeans store the sky is the limit.
chmod775 7y ago
> Masayoshi Son seems like someone who started believing like Midas, that anything he touches would turn to gold. It is so incredibly common in the investment world to mistake extreme luck for skill and cling to flawed methodologies as if they were gospel because they worked once by chance. Your typical investment "strategies" are hardly better than someone bringing his lucky shoes to a gambling den.

hkmurakami 7y ago

Do you mean yahoo japan? They’re a separate company from Yahoo, and still very profitable and a 11 figure item on their balance sheet.

adventured 7y ago
> Do you mean yahoo japan? No. Yahoo US was once worth ~$125 billion ($200b today) and Masayoshi's SoftBank owned 28% of it during the peak bubble days of 1999-2000. [1] Yahoo was a very big deal at the time, it was briefly an Internet juggernaut. That's a key reason why he was so rich during the dotcom bubble. That single position propelled his image and made him famous. To put into perspective how relatively massive SoftBank's Yahoo position was considered to be at the time in the tech world (and more broadly): if you go back to early 1995, it's a sum comparable to what Microsoft was worth ($30-$35b), and more than Intel was worth. The notion that a tech company could be more valuable than the old industrial giants like GM was still a rather confounding premise. [1] https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0705/6401146a.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0705/6401146a.html

dheera 7y ago

That's how "vision" investors are supposed to work. You expect 99% of your investments to fail and 1% to give you 1000X returns. That said, I agree that WeWork isn't exactly "vision".

mekster 7y ago

It's easy to call someone lucky on a successful investment. You need more than a luck to pull it off.

rightbyte 7y ago
Not really.
- agustif 7y ago
  Maybe you need to be lucky and (have money) Is harder to be lucky if you're poor
orestarod 7y ago
Yes. You need money and connections.

moneywoes 7y ago

Honestly speaking, isn't the whole VC industry dependent on luck?

chewz 7y ago
No, entire VC industry is dependent on FED not luck.