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>self made billionaire I see this thrown around and want to understand what this means. When I hear "self made billionaire" I imagine someone with zero connect

>self made billionaire I see this thrown around and want to understand what this means. When I hear "self made billionaire" I imagine someone with zero connections or family money or money at all, going out and starting a business with loans that then years later they become a billionaire. It seems as if Matthew Prince doesn't meet my qualifications for that: "His father, John Browning Prince,[3] is a former journalist, restaurateur, and owned a stock brokerage firm, while his mother owned several gift stores; in high school, Prince worked for his mother. The Prince family, who have resided in Park City for multiple generations, assisted in the construction of various buildings in Park City, such as the Parleys Summit Ski Resort, the Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley, and the Yarrow Hotel." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Prince https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Prince So it seems to me he had a great head start being born in an affluent family, which I would hardly consider "self made". Not to be a pedant, just curious what people's definitions of this are.

NicoJuicy 3y ago
For me, would be that you earned the billions yourself. Getting the right attitude, connections and perspective on life/business on how to approach things, is something that you need to learn/observe early on from your parents. That's almost always related to your parents being rich in this case ( multiple millions), but not billions. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, ... Are all self made billionaires. But their parents were still rich before they were billionaires. That's my perspective fyi.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  >> Self-made billionaire > For me, would be that you earned the billions yourself. I think that would be billionare. At the least, yours seems to be an uncommon understanding. It deviates from 19th and 20th century use where self-made was applied to wealthy people that started without any access to privilege - commonly immigrants and their direct descendants. This was during a time when historical class divisions were still in play. There was real distance between the upper classes and everyone else.
  - NicoJuicy 3y ago
    My interpretation includes going abroad and becoming rich there without knowing anyone ( even while that makes it easier). Consider it a ladder with 5 steps representing dirt poor to super rich and you can at most go up or down 2 steps in 1 generation. If you grew up poor, chances to get rich and stay there is almost non existent. It's not related to hierarchy like in the middle ages, although I'm presenting it like that. It's about multiple factors at once. The hierarchy of the middle ages may be gone, but personal interpretations of life are still influenced by how you grew up. That still matters a lot.
- voidwtf 3y ago
  Money provides opportunity, better education, early networking with other wealthy people, the ability to try and fail. If your family was in the most common tax bracket growing up, then maybe you could be considered self-made. Otherwise, you had opportunities the majority will never have.
  - NicoJuicy 3y ago
    None of these require lots of money in many cases/places. They mostly depend on some money and what you learned early in life ( not school related, but in how to connect with the right people even later in life) - You can go bankrupt and start again without problems in my country. - Education is good and cheap, the US is an exception in comparison to Europe - Networking can be done at any age. To become super rich though, you'll probably be better off in the US. Investors are easier with giving you a bunch of money and if you tried well, could give you another shot later on. Most of all, I think, is you need exposure to how others did it to find your own "place".
    - voidwtf 2y ago
      - Going bankrupt in the US is a black mark on your future in the US, unless you're wealthy (which is ironic that you can go bankrupt and remain wealthy). Student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy in the US, they stick with you for life. - I'm speaking from the point-of-view of a US citizen in the US. Education is, on average, fairly limited/poor without money. Getting an education, without money, even with grants/scholarships still typically burdens a person with significant debt before they've even entered the workforce. - Networking can be done at any age, but if my father is a CEO I'm going to have access to other CEOs, if my father is a welder I'm going to have access to other welders. Neither of these things are bad, but one of these things provides significant advantages when it comes to future employment opportunities and avenues for early investment.
      - NicoJuicy 2y ago
        I don't really agree with that assessment from networking ( note: I'm a social guy, much of those limits you mention, don't apply to me). Student loans suck in the US, sure. Is a bankruptcy really a black mark as you think it is? Is anyone actually stopped to start again? Will their network actually consider them a complete failure and disband ties with them? Can't they get any loans after? I don't think so tbh. Since a bankruptcy is just lost money for banks and you'll need to rebuild the credit score for some time. But nothing is stopping you from planning ahead and retry.
toofy 3y ago
Yep, the “self-made” is absurd. We’re all so intertwined and the amount of people who help build a billionaires empire is never ever just the billionaire. How many times have we seen a billionaire declare “look what I did!?” when something works, and then when something doesn’t work, suddenly they have a team behind them who messed up. For so many of these people they take credit for the “self-made” wins and distribute blame amongst others when something goes wrong. The myths we let certain people build are wild.

NicoJuicy 3y ago

For me, would be that you earned the billions yourself. Getting the right attitude, connections and perspective on life/business on how to approach things, is something that you need to learn/observe early on from your parents. That's almost always related to your parents being rich in this case ( multiple millions), but not billions. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, ... Are all self made billionaires. But their parents were still rich before they were billionaires. That's my perspective fyi.

WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
>> Self-made billionaire > For me, would be that you earned the billions yourself. I think that would be billionare. At the least, yours seems to be an uncommon understanding. It deviates from 19th and 20th century use where self-made was applied to wealthy people that started without any access to privilege - commonly immigrants and their direct descendants. This was during a time when historical class divisions were still in play. There was real distance between the upper classes and everyone else.
- NicoJuicy 3y ago
  My interpretation includes going abroad and becoming rich there without knowing anyone ( even while that makes it easier). Consider it a ladder with 5 steps representing dirt poor to super rich and you can at most go up or down 2 steps in 1 generation. If you grew up poor, chances to get rich and stay there is almost non existent. It's not related to hierarchy like in the middle ages, although I'm presenting it like that. It's about multiple factors at once. The hierarchy of the middle ages may be gone, but personal interpretations of life are still influenced by how you grew up. That still matters a lot.
voidwtf 3y ago
Money provides opportunity, better education, early networking with other wealthy people, the ability to try and fail. If your family was in the most common tax bracket growing up, then maybe you could be considered self-made. Otherwise, you had opportunities the majority will never have.
- NicoJuicy 3y ago
  None of these require lots of money in many cases/places. They mostly depend on some money and what you learned early in life ( not school related, but in how to connect with the right people even later in life) - You can go bankrupt and start again without problems in my country. - Education is good and cheap, the US is an exception in comparison to Europe - Networking can be done at any age. To become super rich though, you'll probably be better off in the US. Investors are easier with giving you a bunch of money and if you tried well, could give you another shot later on. Most of all, I think, is you need exposure to how others did it to find your own "place".
  - voidwtf 2y ago
    - Going bankrupt in the US is a black mark on your future in the US, unless you're wealthy (which is ironic that you can go bankrupt and remain wealthy). Student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy in the US, they stick with you for life. - I'm speaking from the point-of-view of a US citizen in the US. Education is, on average, fairly limited/poor without money. Getting an education, without money, even with grants/scholarships still typically burdens a person with significant debt before they've even entered the workforce. - Networking can be done at any age, but if my father is a CEO I'm going to have access to other CEOs, if my father is a welder I'm going to have access to other welders. Neither of these things are bad, but one of these things provides significant advantages when it comes to future employment opportunities and avenues for early investment.
    - NicoJuicy 2y ago
      I don't really agree with that assessment from networking ( note: I'm a social guy, much of those limits you mention, don't apply to me). Student loans suck in the US, sure. Is a bankruptcy really a black mark as you think it is? Is anyone actually stopped to start again? Will their network actually consider them a complete failure and disband ties with them? Can't they get any loans after? I don't think so tbh. Since a bankruptcy is just lost money for banks and you'll need to rebuild the credit score for some time. But nothing is stopping you from planning ahead and retry.

toofy 3y ago

Yep, the “self-made” is absurd. We’re all so intertwined and the amount of people who help build a billionaires empire is never ever just the billionaire. How many times have we seen a billionaire declare “look what I did!?” when something works, and then when something doesn’t work, suddenly they have a team behind them who messed up. For so many of these people they take credit for the “self-made” wins and distribute blame amongst others when something goes wrong. The myths we let certain people build are wild.