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It's "self-made billionaire" and the distinction is very important because many billionaires just inherited wealth. She has many good points though, especially

It's "self-made billionaire" and the distinction is very important because many billionaires just inherited wealth. She has many good points though, especially about the web (waste of time...) and such articles not being what successful people tend to be reading...

BurningFrog 12y ago
273 out of the Forbes 400 (68%) made their money themselves. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-self-made-forbes-400-billionaires-earned-their-money/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-self-... I'm aware this doesn't contradict what you said. Just wanted to give more detail.
- 6stringmerc 12y ago
  Heh, I decided to take a look and see if one of my darker hunches might be worthwhile: "After technology, real estate produced the next largest group of self-made Forbes 400 members." Yeah I get that real estate is a good business to amass large scales of wealth. From what I've studied about money laundering, real estate is the most advantageous method for cleaning up dirty money...I'm not accusing all of the self-made real estate moguls of money laundering, but I'd be suspicious that not all of them saved up their tips from working minimum wage jobs to get their start.
  - kamaal 12y ago
    Historically speaking, Real estate would come out as the best bet for getting rich. Gold would be the next best thing. Real estate is also a very good vehicle to medium level riches. And the best part of real estate like every other investment is. Most people don't realize how good it is until more than half their life is spent. At that point, the entry price of that arena is generally quite high and given all the family responsibilities and other expenses(Health, education and your own retirement) the level is prohibitive enough for most people to not even try. This means people who make these investments early on in their lives(in their 20's) are best positioned to reap rewards from real estate investments.
  - lkbm 12y ago
    Not minimum-wage, no. More likely a lawyer (or banker or doctor or programmer) earns $100k+/yr., invests in real estate, and ends up a real estate millionaire/billionaire. When you look at the end millions, the initial few hundred thousand seem inconsequential, but it's a lot easier to get there if you can invest $100k/yr rather than from $5k/yr. (Saving $5k/yr while earning minimum wage is difficult. Saving $100k/yr. while earning $150k/yr., not so much--assuming all these earnings are after taxes.)
- zerr 12y ago
  There is also one thing to take in count - how many of them were poor before? E.g. being raised in an American [upper] middle class family is already considered as being quite a rich by world standards.
jusben1369 12y ago
Yeah I thought that point was mean-spirited. Assuming she's a bright person she knows that a) A significant portion of readers would aspire to be Elon Musk and so b) By reading this overview you just disqualified yourself from becoming your idol. It wasn't necessary and struck me as an attempt to needle Elon followers. And saying "I too like reading this stuff" doesn't count because she doesn't aspire to be Elon Musk. BTW I agree with her point. I just think it makes her mean spirited or completely lacking in social nuance to state it and the post would have stood up fine without it. (sorry I read this a few days ago and so chewed it around in my head what I didn't like about it)

BurningFrog 12y ago

273 out of the Forbes 400 (68%) made their money themselves. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-self-made-forbes-400-billionaires-earned-their-money/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-self-... I'm aware this doesn't contradict what you said. Just wanted to give more detail.

6stringmerc 12y ago
Heh, I decided to take a look and see if one of my darker hunches might be worthwhile: "After technology, real estate produced the next largest group of self-made Forbes 400 members." Yeah I get that real estate is a good business to amass large scales of wealth. From what I've studied about money laundering, real estate is the most advantageous method for cleaning up dirty money...I'm not accusing all of the self-made real estate moguls of money laundering, but I'd be suspicious that not all of them saved up their tips from working minimum wage jobs to get their start.
- kamaal 12y ago
  Historically speaking, Real estate would come out as the best bet for getting rich. Gold would be the next best thing. Real estate is also a very good vehicle to medium level riches. And the best part of real estate like every other investment is. Most people don't realize how good it is until more than half their life is spent. At that point, the entry price of that arena is generally quite high and given all the family responsibilities and other expenses(Health, education and your own retirement) the level is prohibitive enough for most people to not even try. This means people who make these investments early on in their lives(in their 20's) are best positioned to reap rewards from real estate investments.
- lkbm 12y ago
  Not minimum-wage, no. More likely a lawyer (or banker or doctor or programmer) earns $100k+/yr., invests in real estate, and ends up a real estate millionaire/billionaire. When you look at the end millions, the initial few hundred thousand seem inconsequential, but it's a lot easier to get there if you can invest $100k/yr rather than from $5k/yr. (Saving $5k/yr while earning minimum wage is difficult. Saving $100k/yr. while earning $150k/yr., not so much--assuming all these earnings are after taxes.)
zerr 12y ago
There is also one thing to take in count - how many of them were poor before? E.g. being raised in an American [upper] middle class family is already considered as being quite a rich by world standards.

jusben1369 12y ago

Yeah I thought that point was mean-spirited. Assuming she's a bright person she knows that a) A significant portion of readers would aspire to be Elon Musk and so b) By reading this overview you just disqualified yourself from becoming your idol. It wasn't necessary and struck me as an attempt to needle Elon followers. And saying "I too like reading this stuff" doesn't count because she doesn't aspire to be Elon Musk. BTW I agree with her point. I just think it makes her mean spirited or completely lacking in social nuance to state it and the post would have stood up fine without it. (sorry I read this a few days ago and so chewed it around in my head what I didn't like about it)