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Absolutely! I'm all for an incentive-based economy, but at a certain point, an incentive-based economy becomes luck-based. Bill Gates didn't become so rich ba
by mdasen 18y ago
Absolutely!
I'm all for an incentive-based economy, but at a certain point, an incentive-based economy becomes luck-based. Bill Gates didn't become so rich based off of hard work. I'm sure he worked hard, I'm sure he had long hours, I'm sure he had skill. But all of those things might get you to multi-millionare's club. They don't make you a multi-billionare. He lucked out that software became so important and that the industry standardized on his software.
How often do we see winner-take-all economies in our business where the winner isn't necessarily the hardest working? Is it that hard to imagine that being successful is hard work, but that being the winner of a winner-take-all (or winner-take-most) economy is partly luck? And I don't think it's unreasonable to highly tax the portion that is luck. Plus, would you chase a goal less knowing that it was a hundred-million-dollar goal than a ten-billion-dollar goal? Remember, we're talking about individual money, not corporations here and I doubt any of us would cough at $100M.
- mrkurt 18y ago"Winning" at that level is all part of the incentive, though. It doesn't matter exactly how or why Bill Gates amassed his fortune, but where he started and how much motivated people can personally relate to him. There's nothing in his history (short of some incredible brains) that is much different from my history, meaning it's quite possible I can be Bill Gates someday if I work my ass off and get lucky.
- nopinsight 18y agoI pretty much agree with you here. However, in Bill Gates case, he actually sensed back then that software will be very important. (from reading about Moore's law) The key piece in his luck came from the IBM deal that put the standard of PC's OS into Microsoft's lap.
- Retric 18y agoNot much luck involved in the IBM deal. http://prospectingprofessor.blogs.com/prospecting_professor/2005/12/bills_billions_.html http://prospectingprofessor.blogs.com/prospecting_professor/... "IBM president John Opel served on United Way's national board...as did Mrs. Gates. In 1980, when someone mentioned Microsoft to John Opel, he responded, "Oh, that's run by Bill Gates, Mary Gates' son." Behind the scenes, Mary Gates had spoken with John Opel about the new breed of small companies in the computer industry, which she felt were under-appreciated competitors of the larger firms with which IBM traditionally partnered."
- nopinsight 18y agoIn this case, it moves the luck part back to being born the son of Mrs. Gates. :-) (with the connections and intelligence)