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Most of the 'how to succeed' advice is a mix of survivorship bias with 'necessary but not sufficient' traits. (You can apply a lot of grit at a fast food restau

Most of the 'how to succeed' advice is a mix of survivorship bias with 'necessary but not sufficient' traits. (You can apply a lot of grit at a fast food restaurant and never become a thousandaire.) Turns out that having both grit and a large family nest egg too reduce the consequences of failure go a long way together. But maybe they're rare to have together: the safety net reduces the need for grit.

zippy5 6y ago
I somewhat agree that a gritty person shouldn’t keep a fast food job, but some of the Uber drivers I meet are incredibly gritty. They work incredibly long hours and grind on multiple apps. They have well thought out strategies for how to make as much as they can per hour and have plans for how they will invest their money. I admire the heck out of em but I can see most people don’t want that life. I have no doubt that kind of work ethic could be wasted in the wrong environment but a successful person should have both grit and the ability to find an environment where they can use it to get ahead. I’d even argue that corporate America as whole rarely rewards grit with a couple exceptions.
- Balgair 6y ago
  > and the ability to find an environment where they can use it to get ahead Reminds me of this quote: "Free enterprise needs elbow room" -Poul Anderson
- sdenton4 6y ago
  "some of the Uber drivers I meet are incredibly gritty." That's exactly the point. There's a huge number of people bringing a hell of a lot of hustle to just keeping their head above water. There was a brilliant blog post a couple years ago pointing out that perfect competition - from the perspective of the gig worker on the ground - is fundamentally dystopian. When you're providing a commoditized service (like driving a car) in perfect competition, you've got nowhere to go but working harder or smarter. Which quickly means that everyone in the market is working just as hard and smart, bringing maximum hustle (or, if you prefer, grit) just to hang on.
zappo2938 6y ago
The road to success: either "be the first, be the best, or cheat." I was on the transom of a mega yacht at Atlantis on Paradise Island and a tourist walking along the dock asked me how he can get one for himself. I shrugged, I wouldn't know, I only worked on it and said "work hard, I guess." He said that he works in IT, works his butt off, and does ok but will never have that type of wealth. But my assertion isn't quite the truth. It is more simple than my first statement. "Buy low and sell high." It helps coming from wealth however most of the Americans who own yachts are self made often coming from middle class or lower families. They started the process of buying low and selling high in the 60s and 70s. Most of the people I've met who own a yacht share a characteristic, they are passionate about making the deal. It is almost like they aren't passionate about making money but rather getting something below its market value and selling it above its market value.
- pdimitar 6y ago
  > It is almost like they aren't passionate about making money but rather getting something below its market value and selling it above its market value. I'd say that's exactly the case. It's a game for them and the money gained is just an additional motivation and something that makes them do it more and more... the hook plus the drugs included in one package, I guess. And I'm talking far beyond just stock market games. I am talking anything and everything that makes money, including just hearing about a struggling business, buying all its assets and then reselling them at 500% profit in a matter of week.
coldtea 6y ago
>Most of the 'how to succeed' advice is a mix of survivorship bias with 'necessary but not sufficient' traits. Plus a lot of rich-person-worship (1) and self-glorification (2). (1) The press version: "Econ Tusk is rich, and he got there by working 22 hours a day, exercizing for 1 1/2hour, and taking a single 30 minute power nap. The secret of his success? Endless grit. It doesn't have anything to do with striking it rich by building a payment app as a regular nerd (that might just as well have gotten nowhere), and then diverting his efforts into media-friendly geek-wet-dream VC instruments that are perfect as opportunities of government contracts and subsidies". (2) The interview/autobiography version: "How did I made it? I gave it all I've got, risked everything, and worked hard every day. Sure, it only 2 two years before we were bought and I made 100s of millions, working was mostly maginal helping our first employees in building the MVP, business meetings, bossing people around, and having the 'vision', the risk was minimal because I had an MBA and/or CS skills I could use to get a job anytime, and everything was paid by VCs anyway, but it was all grit I tell you".
- glogla 6y ago
  Econ Tusk was a child of rich plantantion slav... I mean Fouth Rafrican Bapartheid farmers long before any payment apps.
  - stronk2 6y ago
    I'm sorry, did you have a stroke while writing this? Or is this the same kind of attempt at humor as writing "Micro$oft"? The people on this website always talk about how this isn't Reddit. You're right, it's actually pretentious Reddit.
  - eloff 6y ago
    As a child of South African parents I find this quite offensive. Elon Musk, with his brother received a $28,000 investment from their father in their first business. That's a lot, but not more than many kids receive toward their college education. When they started they could only afford one computer, so the site was up during the day and down at night so he could write the software. Not nothing, but hardly ridiculous inherited wealth either.
lumost 6y ago
Grit + a large nest egg can effectively buy success in many markets. If a millionaire decides that they will run a successful restaurant come hell or high water then that is what will happen as they're now spending double the typical startup cost of a new restaurant they can be quite bad at it and still be successful.

zippy5 6y ago

I somewhat agree that a gritty person shouldn’t keep a fast food job, but some of the Uber drivers I meet are incredibly gritty. They work incredibly long hours and grind on multiple apps. They have well thought out strategies for how to make as much as they can per hour and have plans for how they will invest their money. I admire the heck out of em but I can see most people don’t want that life. I have no doubt that kind of work ethic could be wasted in the wrong environment but a successful person should have both grit and the ability to find an environment where they can use it to get ahead. I’d even argue that corporate America as whole rarely rewards grit with a couple exceptions.

Balgair 6y ago
> and the ability to find an environment where they can use it to get ahead Reminds me of this quote: "Free enterprise needs elbow room" -Poul Anderson
sdenton4 6y ago
"some of the Uber drivers I meet are incredibly gritty." That's exactly the point. There's a huge number of people bringing a hell of a lot of hustle to just keeping their head above water. There was a brilliant blog post a couple years ago pointing out that perfect competition - from the perspective of the gig worker on the ground - is fundamentally dystopian. When you're providing a commoditized service (like driving a car) in perfect competition, you've got nowhere to go but working harder or smarter. Which quickly means that everyone in the market is working just as hard and smart, bringing maximum hustle (or, if you prefer, grit) just to hang on.

zappo2938 6y ago

The road to success: either "be the first, be the best, or cheat." I was on the transom of a mega yacht at Atlantis on Paradise Island and a tourist walking along the dock asked me how he can get one for himself. I shrugged, I wouldn't know, I only worked on it and said "work hard, I guess." He said that he works in IT, works his butt off, and does ok but will never have that type of wealth. But my assertion isn't quite the truth. It is more simple than my first statement. "Buy low and sell high." It helps coming from wealth however most of the Americans who own yachts are self made often coming from middle class or lower families. They started the process of buying low and selling high in the 60s and 70s. Most of the people I've met who own a yacht share a characteristic, they are passionate about making the deal. It is almost like they aren't passionate about making money but rather getting something below its market value and selling it above its market value.

pdimitar 6y ago
> It is almost like they aren't passionate about making money but rather getting something below its market value and selling it above its market value. I'd say that's exactly the case. It's a game for them and the money gained is just an additional motivation and something that makes them do it more and more... the hook plus the drugs included in one package, I guess. And I'm talking far beyond just stock market games. I am talking anything and everything that makes money, including just hearing about a struggling business, buying all its assets and then reselling them at 500% profit in a matter of week.

coldtea 6y ago

>Most of the 'how to succeed' advice is a mix of survivorship bias with 'necessary but not sufficient' traits. Plus a lot of rich-person-worship (1) and self-glorification (2). (1) The press version: "Econ Tusk is rich, and he got there by working 22 hours a day, exercizing for 1 1/2hour, and taking a single 30 minute power nap. The secret of his success? Endless grit. It doesn't have anything to do with striking it rich by building a payment app as a regular nerd (that might just as well have gotten nowhere), and then diverting his efforts into media-friendly geek-wet-dream VC instruments that are perfect as opportunities of government contracts and subsidies". (2) The interview/autobiography version: "How did I made it? I gave it all I've got, risked everything, and worked hard every day. Sure, it only 2 two years before we were bought and I made 100s of millions, working was mostly maginal helping our first employees in building the MVP, business meetings, bossing people around, and having the 'vision', the risk was minimal because I had an MBA and/or CS skills I could use to get a job anytime, and everything was paid by VCs anyway, but it was all grit I tell you".

glogla 6y ago
Econ Tusk was a child of rich plantantion slav... I mean Fouth Rafrican Bapartheid farmers long before any payment apps.
- stronk2 6y ago
  I'm sorry, did you have a stroke while writing this? Or is this the same kind of attempt at humor as writing "Micro$oft"? The people on this website always talk about how this isn't Reddit. You're right, it's actually pretentious Reddit.
- eloff 6y ago
  As a child of South African parents I find this quite offensive. Elon Musk, with his brother received a $28,000 investment from their father in their first business. That's a lot, but not more than many kids receive toward their college education. When they started they could only afford one computer, so the site was up during the day and down at night so he could write the software. Not nothing, but hardly ridiculous inherited wealth either.

lumost 6y ago

Grit + a large nest egg can effectively buy success in many markets. If a millionaire decides that they will run a successful restaurant come hell or high water then that is what will happen as they're now spending double the typical startup cost of a new restaurant they can be quite bad at it and still be successful.