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What I took from it is that the story about starting a company in a garage is about the humble origins. But to start a company in a garage you must have access
by monknomo 1y ago
What I took from it is that the story about starting a company in a garage is about the humble origins.
But to start a company in a garage you must have access to a garage; lots of people do not have this level of resources. The origins of these companies are not as humble as they sound, they rely access to resources that are not actually common (unless you look from the POV of a well-offish 'middle class' family)
- mixmastamyk 1y agoYes, though in the eighties and somewhat to the nineties you could own a home with modest job.
- FuriouslyAdrift 1y agoThat was the era before globalization hollowed out the middle class
- mixmastamyk 1y agoOk, though believe the major factor was a refusal to build enough new housing.
- jacobsenscott 1y agoHaving a garage isn't enough. A lot of people with garages need to work everyday to pay for their garage, and food, and everything else. Bezos and Jobs both had free garages and free time paid for by their parents. I would bet the others mentioned in the post had the same sort of freebies.
- tdrz 1y agoI got a lot of freebies from my parents and never been able to build a multi-billion dollar company. I do believe you need someone to have your back for the basics, but there's much more to it.
- throwaway-blaze 1y agoIs the contrapositive also true? If Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos had been dirt poor in childhood rather than solidly middle class, would they not have had success? I.e. how much weight should we put on the things out of their control vs within their control?
- Nevermark 1y agoYou need enough of both. Few would suggest anyone having time, a place, necessities covered well enough, and few distractions is going to be ensured success. But with those things, someone who also has ideas, insights, a strong work ethic (or often much better, a strong natural enthusiasm for something useful) has much better chances.
- bluefirebrand 1y agoIt is impossible to know of course, but it is probably fair to say that if they had been born dirt poor they would have been much less likely to have the kind if incredible success that they did have People like to say that success is right time, right place, but that's not all there is to it. You also need sufficient resources to take advantage of opportunity Sitting on a gold mine does not matter if you don't have a shovel Having a shovel doesn't matter if you don't know where to dig And you need to have enough time ('runway' in startup speak) to actually try digging for gold in the first place
- ryandrake 1y agoThe cartoon "On A Plate"[1] comes to mind in this discussion. 1: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373065/the-pencilswo...
- bluefirebrand 1y agoThanks for sharing, this is spot on
- oceanplexian 1y agoNah, I'll correct the record because anyone who worked hard enough absolutely had access to "that level of resources" My grandparents, First generation immigrants without a college degree bought a beautiful single family house in 1960s Northern California on a working class salary. In fact they lived across the street from George Lucas (My grandmother knew his parents). They too, were a completely average, middle class family. Not any different from Steve Jobs or the hundreds of other success stories. Over the course of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, the same city and cities like it became notorious for crime and gang violence, homes became unaffordable, and the conditions that allowed someone to "start a company out of a garage" was wiped out as society stratified into the super rich and the super poor. Which should serve as a cautionary tale of any place that is thinking of emulating the California success story.
- BobaFloutist 1y agoRight, but having parents that worked hard enough to get that level of resources is another kind of luck.