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> Elon Musk was a South African-born undergrad at Pennsylvania Who first emigrated to Canada, where he attended Canada's most prestigious business school for t

> Elon Musk was a South African-born undergrad at Pennsylvania Who first emigrated to Canada, where he attended Canada's most prestigious business school for two years before transferring to the United States' most prestigious business school. > Peter Thiel was a German-born lawyer trading derivatives at Credit Suisse After which he ran his own hedge fund for two years, then co-founded PayPal. These guys certainly had more merit than many people, but to hold them up as people who succeeded with merit over connections is silly.

bfe 13y ago
Musk first arrived in Canada alone at 17 with very little money and worked manual labor jobs to make ends meet. When he first got to Silicon Valley he basically spent his first six months there locked away in his room coding the initial version of Zip2 which he co-founded with his little brother. What more do you want to decide someone succeeded by their own intelligence and drive as opposed to connections?
- Consultant32452 13y ago
  Can we agree that, to a certain extent, both are necessary?
  - bfe 13y ago
    How about, can we agree that when you spend years achieving great successes, you tend to form relationships of trust with high-performing colleagues who learn to value your drive and intelligence and to look forward to helping you or working with you again? That still seems like a boundary value at one end of the personal merit vs. connections continuum of drivers of success, as contrasted with the other end of the continuum, which we might define as being a VP at JP Morgan because your dad is on the politburo standing committee of the PRC.
    - ycmike 13y ago
      Cannot agree more.
  - rl12345 13y ago
    Knowing how to do business networking is a talent and a skill that can be trained, so I would say being well connected is a subset of this thing called meritocracy.
pbreit 13y ago
FFS, why would people with merit not have connections?

bfe 13y ago

Musk first arrived in Canada alone at 17 with very little money and worked manual labor jobs to make ends meet. When he first got to Silicon Valley he basically spent his first six months there locked away in his room coding the initial version of Zip2 which he co-founded with his little brother. What more do you want to decide someone succeeded by their own intelligence and drive as opposed to connections?

Consultant32452 13y ago
Can we agree that, to a certain extent, both are necessary?
- bfe 13y ago
  How about, can we agree that when you spend years achieving great successes, you tend to form relationships of trust with high-performing colleagues who learn to value your drive and intelligence and to look forward to helping you or working with you again? That still seems like a boundary value at one end of the personal merit vs. connections continuum of drivers of success, as contrasted with the other end of the continuum, which we might define as being a VP at JP Morgan because your dad is on the politburo standing committee of the PRC.
  - ycmike 13y ago
    Cannot agree more.
- rl12345 13y ago
  Knowing how to do business networking is a talent and a skill that can be trained, so I would say being well connected is a subset of this thing called meritocracy.

pbreit 13y ago

FFS, why would people with merit not have connections?