> The problem with owning things is that it is usually zero-sum. Can you give some examples? Certainly this is party true with real-estate in some large cities

> The problem with owning things is that it is usually zero-sum. Can you give some examples? Certainly this is party true with real-estate in some large cities, but there are lots of places where land is available and real-estate isn’t yet zero-sum. I’m having a hard time seeing other examples, so I’m wondering why you said “usually”. I would assume that Sam is also referring to software, where ownership means owning all parts of production, or means owning the rights to IP & creative work. In the software startup and in the creative art sense, I don’t think ownership is zero-sum at all. Ownership there is more about having control over the income and expenses of all parts of your business, and avoid rental traps. In general, this does seem like good sound advice to me. > Perhaps I’m overly cynical but I think a better title would be: “how to rig the system to your advantage”. That does seem a bit cynical when the majority of points were things like ‘work really hard’ and ‘believe in yourself’ and ‘think independently’. It’s hard to even find something I would consider ‘rigging the system’ - like owning things and having a network are the only two, but those are pretty generic and more centered on what I should do more than affecting the system. Not that there’s anything wrong with being cynical. ;) We can’t all be billionaires, and using the Forbes list as the example of success is questionable and gives real reason to be cynical. I’m wondering what your list of how to be successful looks like, and what makes it different?