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It’s much easier to take risks when you have a safety-net in case of failure. People who aren’t born into financial privilege more often have nothing or nobody

It’s much easier to take risks when you have a safety-net in case of failure. People who aren’t born into financial privilege more often have nothing or nobody to fall back on if there’s a problem. Just knowing that can impact whether or not you really chase your dream or play it safe.

foogazi 6y ago
This guys dad crossed the Pacific Ocean, immigrating to the US without speaking english - how is that not a huge fucking risk Mom was so proud of her son - he was successful just by walking out the door every day to pursue his dream Is the measure of success to build a unicorn ? Going to Mars ? A billion dollar exit ? Or raising a kid that can thrive in this world ? Everyone is measured differently
- AstralStorm 6y ago
  Ultimately, the success is not ending up homeless, without healthcare and food. Plain old survival. (And for populations, replacement level demographics or better.) Families, especially big ones, both temporarily stack and mitigate this risk. How many immigrants ended up in perpetual precariousness? Or worse?
- alphabettsy 6y ago
  I was speaking generally, not about one particular exceptional person. For every amazing story like that one there are 10 more who had such dreams, made one mistake and never made it.
  - foogazi 6y ago
    I get that, and I know this is HN, but you don’t need a full ride at Stanford + be a founder to be a successful person
    - coolgeek 6y ago
      You also need to be able to pay your rent, food and health insurance while you change direction. Any improvement plan takes time, and carries the risk of failure. It's easy to get - and to remain - stuck. You don't/can't viscerally understand that if you've never been in that position. It's easy to tell someone to just do x, y and z. It's not easy to do x, y and z when there is a substantial risk of catastrophic failure.
AstralStorm 6y ago
The author does sort of realize they beat the odds, but does not quite realize by how much, and how little of it is actually "mindset". Just getting into Stanford and not flaking out means big potential network of rich contacts, and if you actually did anything, skill backed by credentials. This alone is less than 1% shot. How many we have not heard about, had these or better qualities and failed to get anywhere? Anywhere lesser, the story would be one of no startup service industry dead end job, or at best a corporate one getting nowhere. One that is written too rarely.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

foogazi 6y ago

This guys dad crossed the Pacific Ocean, immigrating to the US without speaking english - how is that not a huge fucking risk Mom was so proud of her son - he was successful just by walking out the door every day to pursue his dream Is the measure of success to build a unicorn ? Going to Mars ? A billion dollar exit ? Or raising a kid that can thrive in this world ? Everyone is measured differently

AstralStorm 6y ago
Ultimately, the success is not ending up homeless, without healthcare and food. Plain old survival. (And for populations, replacement level demographics or better.) Families, especially big ones, both temporarily stack and mitigate this risk. How many immigrants ended up in perpetual precariousness? Or worse?
alphabettsy 6y ago
I was speaking generally, not about one particular exceptional person. For every amazing story like that one there are 10 more who had such dreams, made one mistake and never made it.
- foogazi 6y ago
  I get that, and I know this is HN, but you don’t need a full ride at Stanford + be a founder to be a successful person
  - coolgeek 6y ago
    You also need to be able to pay your rent, food and health insurance while you change direction. Any improvement plan takes time, and carries the risk of failure. It's easy to get - and to remain - stuck. You don't/can't viscerally understand that if you've never been in that position. It's easy to tell someone to just do x, y and z. It's not easy to do x, y and z when there is a substantial risk of catastrophic failure.

AstralStorm 6y ago

The author does sort of realize they beat the odds, but does not quite realize by how much, and how little of it is actually "mindset". Just getting into Stanford and not flaking out means big potential network of rich contacts, and if you actually did anything, skill backed by credentials. This alone is less than 1% shot. How many we have not heard about, had these or better qualities and failed to get anywhere? Anywhere lesser, the story would be one of no startup service industry dead end job, or at best a corporate one getting nowhere. One that is written too rarely.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]