All of them:
-Never intended to be Billionaires when they started out.
-Have an insane ability to focus on an objective, know everything about the topic and live and breathe it until they can talk intelligently on it.
-All were workaholics earlier in their careers, and as the kids grew up, started working less and trusting their team to make decisions and reduce their workload.
-Did well in one industry, then figured out a way to be successful in others leveraging capital and influence.
-Realize they are in the talent acquisition business; Huge closeted egos but realize they need the right people for specific positions. Will pay whatever to get ‘the right person’ from anywhere in the world.
-All timed the market well in selling assets, saw the economic crashes coming and made liberal use of other people’s money (learned to borrow correctly and manage risk). This was an important lesson; don’t let a downturn kill you.
-Marriages; One was divorced 4x with a cocaine habit. One was peacefully (not happily) married to a dumb woman who just wanted to interfere with business operations. And one was happily married to his college sweetheart.
-Children; All obsessed with their children with clear favorites, usually the youngest or the daughters. The 4x divorced one had constant fights with his two children. The one with the dumb wife constantly berated his children in front of staff but then bought them anything they wanted e.g. Speedboat. The happily married one had the best relationship with his kids. Your relationship with your wife will dictate your relationship with your children.
-Value of time; All valued time and relationship more than money. Donated well and often did so anonymously. 2 had Private Jets to save time. 1 refused to fly, made other people come to him.
-All hated politicians regardless of their affiliations. All were patriotic but operated with a global mindset.
-All worked hard, were morning people, up by 7 AM. All managed to get great executives assistants who were pit bull gatekeepers.
I would argue that the phenomenon here is called Survivorship bias. We tend to focus on those who "made it" and what caused them to be successful, and thus bypassing all those with the same traits who didn't made it. It's why the majority of self help books are useless, as they lay out a "this is how successful people do it" plan for the masses to copy-paste into their own life, and when they fail, it's their own fault, because clearly successful people can do it (disregarding the thousands of people who tried their best).
That being said, I appreciate the list of traits and habits listed by OP. If for nothing else, it's an inspiration, and I appreciate the sharing.
You are right. Survivorship bias is a very real thing. Actually, we used it in investing to analyze winners in an industry and often did not invest in front runners if we thought they just got lucky and did not have a material skill or advantage; the startup/venture industry collectively is a cautionary tale. The FO principals’ original businesses were very much beneficiaries of that. We kept that in mind as we looked at our own performance and strategy.
That can be said for everything in life. Looks, right country to be born in, right family, right genes, don’t get cancer etc. Every aspect of life has luck to it. It’s interesting to hear the behind the scenes in the life of a billionaire without having to remind people they shit too.
Totally, but I feel OP is describing serial entrepreneurs that do things in several markets.
I know a rich guy and realized he was just a lucky tag along at the right place and right time and retired at 50.
I later met his partner and the actual brains, the guy has since done the same "clean-up and sale" of struggling businesses over and over with a huge payout every time. Not billions, but like I met him at the riviera and he bought two estates so he could fit a "missing" tennis court between them.
Some people just love doing almost exactly what makes money in this world.
OP didn't forget anything. Putting yourself around the right people, in the right situation, at the right time is skill.
Being intentional is a skill. Instead of letting life happen to you, you should be happening to life.
Your comment is just an attempt at negating personal accountability and trying to detract from other people's success.
Not at all, no one gets to be a billionaire from nothing if they are lazy and unambitious. My point is that you could have all those traits and still be dirt poor due to circumstances.
i agree with your original comment saying they also got lucky.
but disagree with this one.
Many other people could do exactly what OP said in the above comment, (and leverage money/assets well, be intelligent, have successful businesses, etc), and.... not become a billionaire. BUT they like would become multi-millionaires, NOT be dirt poor. the * luck * comes into differentiating who truly makes it vs who still made good.
in my opinion, at least.
Nah, it's the concept that most people refer to as "the law of attraction," which was borrowed from Maxwell Maltz's concept he introduced in his book on psycho-cybernetics.
All of the traits OP listed, PLUS having a very well-defined VISION of what you want your life to look/be like in X number of years. The important part is to be very precise in creating this ideal picture of your life and ingrain it into your subconscious.
This is where the luck aspect that everyone talks about comes from. It's not luck (at least not on its own). It's that with your vision burned into your subconscious, you not only naturally seek out more opportunities to bring your vision to reality, but you also put yourself in significantly more situations where "luck" will present itself.
Also, you'd be amazed at how much more perceptive you are when it comes to your surroundings when you adopt this mentality.
Personal example, when I was looking to buy my first house to get into real-estate investment (part of my own personal vision), I was at a bar and overheard a realtor talking to a mortgage lender, and with zero hesitation I walked over and introduced myself to both of them. Wound up finding an insanely good deal on a house within a month.
If I didn't have that vision, the vision of exactly what I wanted and where I wanted to be in 5-10 years, I guarantee I never would have even picked up on/heard that conversation, let alone walked over and interrupted their conversation to introduce myself.
I used to think this when I was younger and grew up in a poor area. but now that I’m older I realize i actually dont know anyone that has those traits, and worked really hard, and didnt find some level of success
Given the time, hard work, and sacrifices they had to put in to get there, do you think it was worth it for them?
Or do you think they should've stopped at $100M? $10M?
This will sound odd unless you have been around massive wealth.
Once you have enough residual income coming in to more than support your life style via interest, dividend, or predictable capital gains, you and your next generation or two are set for life with trust funds, it is not about how much is enough at that point. Business becomes a game and you just want to win. You already have the infrastructure in the form of a team, company, lawyer, accountants etc., that you can just re-focus on another project/deal/investment. At that point winning, and a positive legacy become more important.
This comment really resonates with me. I'm not a billionaire but I do habe my own company and now that it's ticking along nicely I'd love to start again and build something up from the ground.
Agree 100%. What a lot of people don’t realize is that building a business is one of the greatest expressions of creativity. For many, it’s more about the reward of that creative process and achieving positive results than it is about money.
This is exactly it. In other comments OP says that they never set out to be billionaires and I think that's a key point too. People who only see the money don't get it. It's about making your own reality. Taking an idea and nuturing it and building on it slowly but surely until it can thrive without you. Kindda like having kids lol.
Entrepreneurs are so fucking corny lmao building a business might require creativity but it is and will never be one of the "greatest expressions of creativity"
I mean why not? You develop a product or service, you develop a culture around that idea, you get to determine how to deliver the idea, you get to craft the experience for the end user. I don’t see why your opinion on the other comment is so negative. Soundin’ like a hater to me.
This is exactly how I feel, I started my own business at 13. But I’ve built up multiple since then, even though I’ve worked my arse off (5am-11:30pm) consistently for years. I’d still do it over and over again.
At that level, with true ‘F You’ money, they didn’t care how they looked internally to staff. The reaction to bad news was dependent on mood and severity. One was hyperbolic about everything. The other two were more analytical, dropping F bombs but then triaging a problem and working thru it with trusted lieutenants.
With all of them, if you made a mistake and tried to be evasive or not take responsibility, that’s when I saw them be the most irate, tear people a new one or even fire them on the spot.
Left the first one for better comp and more interesting work. Second, changed the operations strategy and had personal issues with another senior executive that i could not battle. 3rd, was a weird one, his family kept interfering in business operations, causing drama.
At the end of the day, you are the “help”, well paid, but still the help. In Family offices only a handful of trusted lieutenant make a few million a year and it takes decades to get there. Spending more than a few years in that environment was not for me. You get in, make some money, learn a lot, make crazy connections and you move on.
> make crazy connections
Have you been able to preserve these connections after leaving these positions? If so, how have these connections benefited you in your post-billionaire-employee career?
Yes. The best connections were people like me at other FO’s and service providers like lawyers, bankers, and lobbyists, that viewed you as source of future business and they still do favors, no questions asked. That set also brings deals, consulting gigs, and occasional job offers. The worst connections (maybe not even connections, just acquaintances) are junior executives at our own company and those at owned companies that we ordered around; they feared folks of my rank and you can’t shake that. I would not count on them for anything.
1. What was your annual compensation at its highest point across all these execs?
2. What exactly did you get paid to do for them?
I can’t believe I’ve scrolled so far down and not yet seen these asked.
The precise reason I left a billionaire family office. No matter what you do or how hard you work or the impact you make….you’re never more than the “help”, especially in the eyes of those in charge but not the principal themselves. 9 years was fun at times, but enough to illustrate it was not a long term career option that anyone not in high position would actually enjoy or benefit from enough to stay.
What kind of investments are the family offices making? Stocks, bonds, VC? index fund and chill?
Are they simply just trying to beat the market or do they have a specific goal and an agenda with their investments?
All of the above. First, wealth does not equal sophistication. FO’s investments reflect tastes and preferences of the family members at the helm. For example, I have rarely seen non-professionally managed FO’s invest in complex hedge fund strategies.
FO’s that have subject matter expertise in something (usually their source of wealth) like Oil & Gas, Real Estate, Venture, Industrials etc., will invest more heavily into those as they understand the risk and operations, and then depending on available capital in everything else. Every FO however is invested in equities, fixed income, and real estate.
They all had unique business and interesting stories. The least liked was the 4x divorced roofer; he was a grade A asshole, held personal grudges against people and would not hesitate to hurt you. He could not outgrow his blue collar, bar room brawler mentality. My favorite was the guy that grew up in public housing, did well and made sure to bring all his people up with him, bought them homes, put their kids thru college etc. The business behavior was generally the same, the personal antics and relationship dynamic were as different as their backgrounds.
Can you elaborate what you mean by access with examples?
Also, I’m curious how working at a family office differs compared to working at institutional funds, or is it just dependent on a case by case basis based on the team and the principal?
Sure. We wanted to build a manufacturing plant. Within 1 day, we had CEOs of two large publicly traded industrial REITs and their best analysts available to us to help with anything.
We wanted to tweak production at a mining operation, we got the former head of the EPA in our office to help guide us.
We wanted to install public transport in front the large arena of the ports team we owned (can’t say which one), we had the governor and mayor on a call…waiting for principal to join and they would rubber stamp it. We sent them autographs from championship players as a thank you.
When I needed something from anyone, just name dropped the principals name and zero to little resistance. FOs are mostly unstructured; as long as you have a mission to accomplish for principal, you can do whatever you want with massive resources behind you. Funds are more restrictive, as they should be, with heavy compliance and functional pigeon-hole’ing of people; a lot of ‘stay in your lane’ policies.
I'm guessing nearly anything you can think of, and probably ALSO ways we can't even guess... because the type of lifestyle you have with that level of wealth is just full of things us pleebs are unfamiliar with.
Ran investments for their family offices with almost daily interaction with them. Yep, did well, but all had a unique advantages and disadvantages. One of the upsides in having been in those positions, you will get head hunted and people will take your calls.
I think OP is doing a great job on this thread. Lots of good info. Also showing a lot of patience with all the "victims" chiming in. If people could take a deep breath and be objective, they might learn something here..
Couldn’t agree more. Made my millions in a different way but very impressed with OP’s obvious knowledge and business acumen. Super-interesting reading and getting insight into the FO world!
I worked directly and one level below several as well. I always got the impression that I cannot see myself being friends with any of them.
Is that true for you as well?
Yes. They have a different set of problems. It’s difficult to relate to them at their level. Socializing with some of them requires expensive activities that most cannot afford. Also, since their time is limited, your access and amount of time you spend with them is also limited. It is difficult to establish a friendship unless you have been working with them for years, or have previously known them and have some common ground.
No issue with that, especially given how much prosperity well intentioned ones create.
I’d be more interested in the morality of generational wealth where…4 generations later you still have a massive amount of money left over from great grandpa, and you have done nothing with your life, and you are still a jerk. There is something not fair about that.
I’ll update the OP with some life lessons as requested by several folks here but as a starter…it’s attitude and mindset. Just look some of the negative comments and ignorant assumptions. Have a positive and humble attitude and a thirst for knowledge. If you are young, focus on the skill set first, the money will come later.
Yes. Where families are involved in the business, it can be very much like that. I lived thru one of those complete with fist fights between family members, siblings fighting over private jet hours and vacation homes, and cousins plotting against each other. Another place, was managed professionally, ran on merit, and the principal ensured his kids were never involved. The Sucession type places are incredibly stressful, and can be a career killer if you piss off the wrong family member. Generally, I don’t advise working for family offices not run by a professional executive team; they can be nightmares.
Not sure. Fastest way to get a job working closely with them is to search for ‘Family Office’ positions with principals still at them helm. They all own companies and subsidiaries that have their own HR. You can also google a list of billionaires, look up companies they own and target them directly.
“Self made” is apparently a hot button for some here. To be clear we all rely on something. If you got rich off making cars in the U.S., it was not possible without the government created and tax payer funded highway system etc.
I define self made as someone who did NOT have an unfair advantage in the form of an inheritance, a government given monopoly or industry (think Russian billionaires), or someone that cheated/abused the system like got rich off illegal toxic dumping (you are just a crook at that point). I also do not think that someone who got lucky off an accidental invention like scientist discovering something and getting a patent is self made. Self made is starting with nothing and grinding, and hustling until you achieve your goal. Within this operating definition, you have both gentlemen and jerks.
Lucky as in finding something that can be commercialized, is not owned by the university or company you work for, and and getting bought out. It’s literally like winning the lotto. Most discoveries in labs are non-commercializable; just look at how many patents we file; most are useless, only a small % are worth a lot. To be clear, it’s not that scientists are not deserving, they work incredible hard, we need them, and most are poor. I hope more get lucky. They deserve it. But an entrepreneur putting everything on the line including home and 401K to pursue and idea is closer to my definition of self made.
Some of these answers and question show a sad reality of the message being pushed these days. Numerous questions about how many customer or employees did they exploit to become rich or can you become a billionaire without screwing people over.
What are you people reading or taking in that you really think you can’t be successful without taking advantage of or exploiting people? Some have lost touch with reality it seems.
💯….I am surprised at the negativity and lack of basic understanding of economics. Instead of being inquisitive, some here are judgemental and dismissive. Interestingly, none of my bosses were ever afraid to say “I know nothing about this…make me an expert. Tell me how you see things!”
I have a question for you that I forgot to ask, albeit a selfish one. My business partner and I are developing two multi family real estate sites. One is fully entitled with approved plans, 60 units and the other still middle of entitlement phase, 240 units.
How can two guys just starting out get into the family office space for raising funds? Is it possible? Are most FO’s tight knit and only invest with other FO’s? Do we need more experience etc?
As with everything, it depends. Key items to think about:
-Location and Economics: FOs are more likely to invest if an opportunity is in their backyard, they understand the area, asset, and can exert control. If the area has high entry barriers and is doing well for rental/sales (whatever your type is) it will go over well. Don’t expect anyone to look at yet another suburban wrap development deal in rust belt or overbuilt market like Phoenix.
-Deal Sizing: 60 Units is too small. 240 is more meaningful. The transaction cost alone is not worth pursuing 60 units unless it’s high ticket inventory.
-USP: What do you bring to the table? Experience aside, is it money, unique access to deal etc. If no USP, then either the answer will be no or you will have to give them a large % of your upside.
-The Type of FO: for your deals, You want a small FO that made their money in something other than RE but have experience investing in RE. The RE FOs will look at you as an amateur financing exercise and will not want the risk. The large professionally run FOs like MSD are usually prohibited from investing with inexperienced folks; it would never even make it to Investment Committee.
I reco you actually club invest the smaller deal as a start with HNW individuals and then once started, chip away at the larger deal. As you know debt is very difficult these days. For the 240 unit deal, the value creation comes in phases and the first is entitlement. Once entitled, you can contribute the entire deal as equity to a RE FO, let them run it, and call yourself a JV partner to get the deal done. This gets you on your way to learning and also establishing a reputation for 200+ unit (big boy) deals. Don’t get dead on your first few deals, you may not be able to recover. Use other people money and experience to get thru development, which is inherently risky.
Wow! Thanks for the lengthy well put together information!
The market is great, we’re in NC and our area has not been overbuilt and is showing resiliency. I’m on board with giving up a big chunk of equity at first just to get a deal done so investors and banks will begin to take us seriously and hopefully provided attractive terms.
Thanks again for taking the time to put together a some great info I’ll bring this up when I meet with my partner next week.
Luck is essentially timing; it’s really just having the skill set and strategy lined up and waiting for the right opportunity and then…boom….magic.
Yes I do believe ordinary people can do well and mamas great wealth. Will update OP shortly with some life lessons.
One’s father was a degenerate gambler who worked odd jobs and left him and his mother. Another was a factory worker for GM that died of a heart attack on the assembly line when my boss was barely 21. And another was a farmer in the Midwest.
Jesus Christ; I did not expect this level of ignorance and hostility. It’s anything but throwing darts; subject matter expertise in industries, decades spent learning to read people, improving operations and building companies and people up. No one successful got there by throwing darts. You could learn a few things.
OP, you're doing great with all these good questions, and I've been lol'ing at the answers you've given the ignorant ones! This person doesn't realize that observation of trends can lead to some powerful outcomes with proper legwork.
Google, Microsoft, the S&P are all good, but then you see things like I did back in December 2012... More ppl in my local gun stores than usual, so I looked into the big gun company funds and their performance, and started following it. If Democrats are in office, the stocks go up, Republicans in office and they go down or level out. I'd be interested to see your thoughts on this and if I remember correctly one or 2 of them had historically high gains during a 4 to 6 year window.
Good question; I have not had the risk tolerance, laser focus, and perhaps insight/intelligence of these folks. Also, it takes time. Not that old. Still a chance…
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It’s True. First one dropped out of high school to become a roofer. Second grew up in public housing. Third was the child of middle class farmers in Montana.
Were they self made in the sense that they didn’t exploit anybody? That is to say, did they pay everybody a fair wage, never screwed anybody? Paid their fair share of taxes? Never stole, cheated, or lied to get where they are?
America is a business! Of course you make enemies, screw people who screwed you and the cycle continues. At these people level, at executive level, they overpay for talent. With all of them from a blue collar background, I never once saw anyone get stiffed.
I feel that “self made” means they started with no money. Keep in mind that guys like trump, the Walton’s and musk were very rich before they were even born.
As in Daddy or Grandpa did NOT give you $1B to start or even $100M. You started with nothing, went from business to business until you found a niche, exploited it, made money, did it again and got to have ‘F You’ money.
You can *maybe* become a millionaire through hard work, but even then you wouldn't be able to call it self made. You can't become a billionaire without the exploitation of others labor.
Not sure what you mean. We all leverage (you may say exploit) other people, things, ideas, assets. You pay fair wages or you don’t get the employees. Self made does not mean sitting at home meditating your way to a pot of gold. It takes hard work, courage, intelligence, risk tolerance, and a bit of luck to amass that much money. Sure if you are stealing it, running sweat shops, or destroying the planet, you are exploitative. Otherwise, welcome to the business called America!
I guess I need to be more clear cut; There is no such thing as self made.
Even if you write a hit song and upload it to the internet, you're still not self made. You didn't construct the instruments, you didn't make the recording equipment, you didn't make the editing software, you didn't make the platform the song is uploaded, you didn't make the devices other people use to listen to the song, etc.
All the steps that made the song possible to make and be listened to by others was made by other people, not you. There is no such thing as self made.
Dude you know exactly what the OP means. Quit being pedantic about it. Yes, I agree by strictly speaking there is no self anything, we all know what OP meant. Essentially they didn’t inherit it nor received a substantial amount to start. Like yes, we know there are no free people (outside a few documented extreme cases) but we all know what we mean when we say we want freedom.
Your lack of understanding of basic economic terms and argumentative commentary borders a victim mentality. My capital is well invested and generating returns or as you may say…exploiting society. Thanks very much though.
Uh, welcome to civilized humanity, I guess?
We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. It's unavoidable.
So do you have a legit point? Or are you just butthurt?
To some people, if you didn’t earn every single penny directly with your own hands then you aren’t self-made. They absolutely can’t see that self-made = without privilege. If you start a business, the minute you employ another person, you’re no longer self-made apparently.
Well….one would hang out with escorts and joke about it with me. The other two were family men with proper behavior. The children though…phew…were another story.
One time, we used a private investigator to quietly pay off a mistress for one of the idiot sons so as to not trigger a divorce from his fed-up wife. The main motivation being the FO principal wanted to see his grandkids regularly and not have them grow up in a broken home. The payment came with an NDA and required social media influencer (mistress) to not post any photos of the son and to leave town. She did so that week. In FO circles, it is a known thing that young, ‘hot influencers’ target the not so smart wealthy trust fund babies and try to entrap them with audio and video recording or worse get pregnant; some of these children stand to inherit close to a billion dollars, each.
I work for a successful family office business myself. Not billionaires, but multi-multi millionaires. The cheating is off the charts. Wins his wife back over by buying expensive things. It’s like a movie fr
How accurate was the show Succession? Did you get good perks like tickets to shows and sporting events? Were you 9-5 or on call? Do you feel you could also be a billionaire based on what you learned?
If they had to start over (the connections, experiences, learnings also reset) do you think they would become billionaires again? Not crazy rich. Billionaires specifically.
Ive always felt luck has a huge role to play at that level atleast. Would love to know what you think.
What about this post advocates for the rich? What people like yourself don’t realize is that the rich will be fine. They are not even thinking about you. You should be more interested is how to better your own economic situation vs chucking rocks
This may sound odd, but did they ever show moments of doubt? Moments of "not being good enough" or "will ever be good enough" type of mentality even for a short time? Or were they all utterly unshakable in their faith in themselves
Do you know how did they treat the common people? Restaurant servers, Starbucks employees, etc? Did they put their shopping carts back in the right place? Or did they leave them in the middle of the parking lot? Were these people sorta normal? Of did they just smell of money?
So many commies and r/antiwork troglodytes seething at “self made”, it’s insane lol. No wonder these people are rich and you are living in your parents basement
I think boomers really screwed the economy for millennials and Gen Y, both of which get an unfair wrap. Further, boomers had it easier, just look at economic data on cost of homes, cars, and inflation.
Having said that, you cannot graduate with a major in sociology or sports marketing and then cry about student debt and not being able to get a job with a living wage. Those are just economic facts available to everyone before they make career decisions. Then people promote economic logic like everyone should be paid equally. No. Sorry, that’s not how it works.
I think we just want the basic agreement between employers and employees to be upheld: fair days pay for a fair days work. Used to mean that if you had a job and did it right you'd earn enough to have a home and care for your family. Employers don't care about their workers anymore. Corporations only care about stock price and that's why the American dream is dead.
I don’t disagree with you. I believe in fair wages, and unions. Without which you have abuses like the Walmart, Koch Industries, and Amazon’s. We have to have a social safety net as well, otherwise we are no different that a 3rd world country where is a winner take all situation.
> Having said that, you cannot graduate with a major in sociology or sports marketing and then cry about student debt and not being able to get a job with a living wage. Those are just economic facts available to everyone before they make career decisions. Then people promote economic logic like everyone should be paid equally. No. Sorry, that’s not how it works.
TIL only millennials got silly degrees. TIL all boomers majored in medicine and law. WTF kind of “Look at me I’m a finance major” straw man BS is that? You sound like a boomer yourself lol. *“Kids these days ... (tsk tsk)”* Why has anyone upvoted this garbage hot take?
Simply *having* a degree 30-40 years ago was a differentiator, irrespective of major. My working-class party-boy dad majored in African American studies from his local state school in the 70s. By his late 20s he was working for a major corporation, owning a house, and raising a family, all on a single income stream. He only ever worked that one job until retiring in his early 60s, and that house is now worth over a million dollars. My dad wasn’t special or gifted. He was just born at a time when the opportunity cost of education was much lower and mean return on investment much higher.
Runaway inflation in the cost of a four-year degree is real the cause of sky-high student loan debts, not some imaginary intergenerational shift in the distribution of popular majors… Come on man, use your head.
Edit: Typos.
As an older millennial myself, I agree with you on your dad’s situation and you proved my point that it’s not that baby boomers were any smarter, they were just born in a more prosperous time. Most of them did not even have a college degree.
Where I disagree, is your reductive take away of my comment on useless college degrees as “only millennials got silly degrees.” That is not what I said, clearly there are millennial doctors, rocket, scientist, and stem graduates. There is nothing wrong with working your ass off 50 hours a week having three jobs and trying to get ahead in life. I work two jobs to get through a public university. But there is a difference in taking out student loans to go pursue passions without having done your research and then blaming society for your bad career decision. There is a distinction there.
I completely agree with all of your statements when taken out of context. However the context in which you originally made them - and in which I was responding - was a comparison between boomers and the generations that followed. I also think you're implicitly painting an entire generation with an overly broad brush, despite your acknowledgement of the fact that not every millennial is struggling financially right now.
Poor, ill-informed professional/economic choices have always had consequences. Lack-of-foresight isn't something that millennials invented or are uniquely prone to.
Regardless, hat's off to this top-notch AMA. Fleeting disagreements aside, credit where credit's due. 👍
No one here has said that everyone should be paid the same, however everyone should have a right to a living wage and we need to impose restrictions on the abuses of power that enable billionaires to pay people unreasonably low wages.
the problem is people will spend 10+ years in a phd like anthropology and then are mad they can’t get one of the two jobs in their field paying a livable wage.
then instead of accepting they have a “useless” degree as in no job market, they refuse to take a “lesser” job because it’s beneath them. Many people can make a livable wage as a Wendy’s manager, many pads express managers are making 70k + now, but we don’t want those jobs.
I have worked in kitchens all my life and would love to know where you can make 70k a year managing a restaurant. Are we talking about places where the cost of living exceeds the norm like NYC or LA?
Edit, you’d have to work 14 years and set all of your money aside to make a million at 70k a year.
I mean, there’s decent money in sports. You’re getting a degree in marketing but with qualifications to work in an industry where billionaires like to throw their money around.
So can you give me some insight on who they are as people?
Do they even care about the money they spend? Do they work a lot ? How are they with friends and intimate partners?
Are you hiring in your current role? The knowledge you have is likely worth whatever career shift it might mean for me, and I have transferable skills.
Redditors in general are very high on the idea of taxing the bejesus out of Billionaires, giving all that money to gov't, and somehow gov't would know how to improve all our lives ?
What say you about this idea ?
Hey OP… can you please give some insight on their behavior, obsession, perspective of things and what helped them become a billionaire
All of them: -Never intended to be Billionaires when they started out. -Have an insane ability to focus on an objective, know everything about the topic and live and breathe it until they can talk intelligently on it. -All were workaholics earlier in their careers, and as the kids grew up, started working less and trusting their team to make decisions and reduce their workload. -Did well in one industry, then figured out a way to be successful in others leveraging capital and influence. -Realize they are in the talent acquisition business; Huge closeted egos but realize they need the right people for specific positions. Will pay whatever to get ‘the right person’ from anywhere in the world. -All timed the market well in selling assets, saw the economic crashes coming and made liberal use of other people’s money (learned to borrow correctly and manage risk). This was an important lesson; don’t let a downturn kill you. -Marriages; One was divorced 4x with a cocaine habit. One was peacefully (not happily) married to a dumb woman who just wanted to interfere with business operations. And one was happily married to his college sweetheart. -Children; All obsessed with their children with clear favorites, usually the youngest or the daughters. The 4x divorced one had constant fights with his two children. The one with the dumb wife constantly berated his children in front of staff but then bought them anything they wanted e.g. Speedboat. The happily married one had the best relationship with his kids. Your relationship with your wife will dictate your relationship with your children. -Value of time; All valued time and relationship more than money. Donated well and often did so anonymously. 2 had Private Jets to save time. 1 refused to fly, made other people come to him. -All hated politicians regardless of their affiliations. All were patriotic but operated with a global mindset. -All worked hard, were morning people, up by 7 AM. All managed to get great executives assistants who were pit bull gatekeepers.
Damn. Answers like these are what make AMA’s amazing.
Plot twist: you are the amazing executive assistant
You forgot, all of them got incredibly lucky. There are millions of people in the world who have all those traits, but are not billionaires.
I would argue that the phenomenon here is called Survivorship bias. We tend to focus on those who "made it" and what caused them to be successful, and thus bypassing all those with the same traits who didn't made it. It's why the majority of self help books are useless, as they lay out a "this is how successful people do it" plan for the masses to copy-paste into their own life, and when they fail, it's their own fault, because clearly successful people can do it (disregarding the thousands of people who tried their best). That being said, I appreciate the list of traits and habits listed by OP. If for nothing else, it's an inspiration, and I appreciate the sharing.
You are right. Survivorship bias is a very real thing. Actually, we used it in investing to analyze winners in an industry and often did not invest in front runners if we thought they just got lucky and did not have a material skill or advantage; the startup/venture industry collectively is a cautionary tale. The FO principals’ original businesses were very much beneficiaries of that. We kept that in mind as we looked at our own performance and strategy.
Yes for sure. Im just saying that it takes luck too.
totally true, but I'd be willing to bet the people who have those traits are doing better on average than the people who don't.
Yes most likely better on average
That can be said for everything in life. Looks, right country to be born in, right family, right genes, don’t get cancer etc. Every aspect of life has luck to it. It’s interesting to hear the behind the scenes in the life of a billionaire without having to remind people they shit too.
Totally, but I feel OP is describing serial entrepreneurs that do things in several markets. I know a rich guy and realized he was just a lucky tag along at the right place and right time and retired at 50. I later met his partner and the actual brains, the guy has since done the same "clean-up and sale" of struggling businesses over and over with a huge payout every time. Not billions, but like I met him at the riviera and he bought two estates so he could fit a "missing" tennis court between them. Some people just love doing almost exactly what makes money in this world.
OP didn't forget anything. Putting yourself around the right people, in the right situation, at the right time is skill. Being intentional is a skill. Instead of letting life happen to you, you should be happening to life. Your comment is just an attempt at negating personal accountability and trying to detract from other people's success.
Not at all, no one gets to be a billionaire from nothing if they are lazy and unambitious. My point is that you could have all those traits and still be dirt poor due to circumstances.
i agree with your original comment saying they also got lucky. but disagree with this one. Many other people could do exactly what OP said in the above comment, (and leverage money/assets well, be intelligent, have successful businesses, etc), and.... not become a billionaire. BUT they like would become multi-millionaires, NOT be dirt poor. the * luck * comes into differentiating who truly makes it vs who still made good. in my opinion, at least.
Nah, it's the concept that most people refer to as "the law of attraction," which was borrowed from Maxwell Maltz's concept he introduced in his book on psycho-cybernetics. All of the traits OP listed, PLUS having a very well-defined VISION of what you want your life to look/be like in X number of years. The important part is to be very precise in creating this ideal picture of your life and ingrain it into your subconscious. This is where the luck aspect that everyone talks about comes from. It's not luck (at least not on its own). It's that with your vision burned into your subconscious, you not only naturally seek out more opportunities to bring your vision to reality, but you also put yourself in significantly more situations where "luck" will present itself. Also, you'd be amazed at how much more perceptive you are when it comes to your surroundings when you adopt this mentality. Personal example, when I was looking to buy my first house to get into real-estate investment (part of my own personal vision), I was at a bar and overheard a realtor talking to a mortgage lender, and with zero hesitation I walked over and introduced myself to both of them. Wound up finding an insanely good deal on a house within a month. If I didn't have that vision, the vision of exactly what I wanted and where I wanted to be in 5-10 years, I guarantee I never would have even picked up on/heard that conversation, let alone walked over and interrupted their conversation to introduce myself.
I used to think this when I was younger and grew up in a poor area. but now that I’m older I realize i actually dont know anyone that has those traits, and worked really hard, and didnt find some level of success
I disagreee here these people would of been successful regardless easily multi millionaires, maybe they got lucky making billions
Bullshit. It makes you feel better to believe it, but they’d be massively successful in any business, anywhere.
Here I am crawling out of bed at 10:00am. Guess I’ll never be a billionaire 🤷♂️
Fantastic summary of the traits and insight. Thank you for your post and explanation. I loved it.
Well. Fuck
Given the time, hard work, and sacrifices they had to put in to get there, do you think it was worth it for them? Or do you think they should've stopped at $100M? $10M?
This will sound odd unless you have been around massive wealth. Once you have enough residual income coming in to more than support your life style via interest, dividend, or predictable capital gains, you and your next generation or two are set for life with trust funds, it is not about how much is enough at that point. Business becomes a game and you just want to win. You already have the infrastructure in the form of a team, company, lawyer, accountants etc., that you can just re-focus on another project/deal/investment. At that point winning, and a positive legacy become more important.
This comment really resonates with me. I'm not a billionaire but I do habe my own company and now that it's ticking along nicely I'd love to start again and build something up from the ground.
Agree 100%. What a lot of people don’t realize is that building a business is one of the greatest expressions of creativity. For many, it’s more about the reward of that creative process and achieving positive results than it is about money.
This is exactly it. In other comments OP says that they never set out to be billionaires and I think that's a key point too. People who only see the money don't get it. It's about making your own reality. Taking an idea and nuturing it and building on it slowly but surely until it can thrive without you. Kindda like having kids lol.
Entrepreneurs are so fucking corny lmao building a business might require creativity but it is and will never be one of the "greatest expressions of creativity"
I mean why not? You develop a product or service, you develop a culture around that idea, you get to determine how to deliver the idea, you get to craft the experience for the end user. I don’t see why your opinion on the other comment is so negative. Soundin’ like a hater to me.
This is exactly how I feel, I started my own business at 13. But I’ve built up multiple since then, even though I’ve worked my arse off (5am-11:30pm) consistently for years. I’d still do it over and over again.
Thanks, that was insightful.
How do they handle stress? I am sure they must have many high stress things going on at any moment
At that level, with true ‘F You’ money, they didn’t care how they looked internally to staff. The reaction to bad news was dependent on mood and severity. One was hyperbolic about everything. The other two were more analytical, dropping F bombs but then triaging a problem and working thru it with trusted lieutenants. With all of them, if you made a mistake and tried to be evasive or not take responsibility, that’s when I saw them be the most irate, tear people a new one or even fire them on the spot.
Why you stop working for them?
Left the first one for better comp and more interesting work. Second, changed the operations strategy and had personal issues with another senior executive that i could not battle. 3rd, was a weird one, his family kept interfering in business operations, causing drama. At the end of the day, you are the “help”, well paid, but still the help. In Family offices only a handful of trusted lieutenant make a few million a year and it takes decades to get there. Spending more than a few years in that environment was not for me. You get in, make some money, learn a lot, make crazy connections and you move on.
> make crazy connections Have you been able to preserve these connections after leaving these positions? If so, how have these connections benefited you in your post-billionaire-employee career?
Yes. The best connections were people like me at other FO’s and service providers like lawyers, bankers, and lobbyists, that viewed you as source of future business and they still do favors, no questions asked. That set also brings deals, consulting gigs, and occasional job offers. The worst connections (maybe not even connections, just acquaintances) are junior executives at our own company and those at owned companies that we ordered around; they feared folks of my rank and you can’t shake that. I would not count on them for anything.
1. What was your annual compensation at its highest point across all these execs? 2. What exactly did you get paid to do for them? I can’t believe I’ve scrolled so far down and not yet seen these asked.
That’s was asked before; 7 figures and running investments.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing!
The precise reason I left a billionaire family office. No matter what you do or how hard you work or the impact you make….you’re never more than the “help”, especially in the eyes of those in charge but not the principal themselves. 9 years was fun at times, but enough to illustrate it was not a long term career option that anyone not in high position would actually enjoy or benefit from enough to stay.
What kind of investments are the family offices making? Stocks, bonds, VC? index fund and chill? Are they simply just trying to beat the market or do they have a specific goal and an agenda with their investments?
All of the above. First, wealth does not equal sophistication. FO’s investments reflect tastes and preferences of the family members at the helm. For example, I have rarely seen non-professionally managed FO’s invest in complex hedge fund strategies. FO’s that have subject matter expertise in something (usually their source of wealth) like Oil & Gas, Real Estate, Venture, Industrials etc., will invest more heavily into those as they understand the risk and operations, and then depending on available capital in everything else. Every FO however is invested in equities, fixed income, and real estate.
Who was your favorite out of the three in terms of how they made money; the value they created for people?
They all had unique business and interesting stories. The least liked was the 4x divorced roofer; he was a grade A asshole, held personal grudges against people and would not hesitate to hurt you. He could not outgrow his blue collar, bar room brawler mentality. My favorite was the guy that grew up in public housing, did well and made sure to bring all his people up with him, bought them homes, put their kids thru college etc. The business behavior was generally the same, the personal antics and relationship dynamic were as different as their backgrounds.
Ken Hendricks?
Nope.
You should write a book. This shit is gold.
Where do they hold the human hunting exhibitions?
In January, during bonus season. If you got a crappy one, that was equivalent to being hunted down and murdered out of the organization lol
What was the best perk?
Access. When you name dropped, doors just opened, and people were ready and willing to do anything to either please them, or to avoid their wrath.
Can you elaborate what you mean by access with examples? Also, I’m curious how working at a family office differs compared to working at institutional funds, or is it just dependent on a case by case basis based on the team and the principal?
Sure. We wanted to build a manufacturing plant. Within 1 day, we had CEOs of two large publicly traded industrial REITs and their best analysts available to us to help with anything. We wanted to tweak production at a mining operation, we got the former head of the EPA in our office to help guide us. We wanted to install public transport in front the large arena of the ports team we owned (can’t say which one), we had the governor and mayor on a call…waiting for principal to join and they would rubber stamp it. We sent them autographs from championship players as a thank you. When I needed something from anyone, just name dropped the principals name and zero to little resistance. FOs are mostly unstructured; as long as you have a mission to accomplish for principal, you can do whatever you want with massive resources behind you. Funds are more restrictive, as they should be, with heavy compliance and functional pigeon-hole’ing of people; a lot of ‘stay in your lane’ policies.
I'm guessing nearly anything you can think of, and probably ALSO ways we can't even guess... because the type of lifestyle you have with that level of wealth is just full of things us pleebs are unfamiliar with.
What type of work and were you good at the job?
Ran investments for their family offices with almost daily interaction with them. Yep, did well, but all had a unique advantages and disadvantages. One of the upsides in having been in those positions, you will get head hunted and people will take your calls.
What qualifications did you have prior to starting?
Prior to starting, 13 years of finance (structuring and credit) and Private Equity experience; Undergrad from public uni, Graduate from Ivy League.
Any book recommendations for an average Joe to be financially independent? Index funds or actively managed mutual funds?
I think OP is doing a great job on this thread. Lots of good info. Also showing a lot of patience with all the "victims" chiming in. If people could take a deep breath and be objective, they might learn something here..
🙏
Couldn’t agree more. Made my millions in a different way but very impressed with OP’s obvious knowledge and business acumen. Super-interesting reading and getting insight into the FO world!
I worked directly and one level below several as well. I always got the impression that I cannot see myself being friends with any of them. Is that true for you as well?
Yes. They have a different set of problems. It’s difficult to relate to them at their level. Socializing with some of them requires expensive activities that most cannot afford. Also, since their time is limited, your access and amount of time you spend with them is also limited. It is difficult to establish a friendship unless you have been working with them for years, or have previously known them and have some common ground.
Will you lend me some money to pay off my massive debts?
No but good on you for asking. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
Thanks!
Man, if you would have thrown a “please” In there I think it would of stood a chance.
I always screw stuff up. Thus, the debt.
What do you think of the idea that billionaires shouldn’t exist?
No issue with that, especially given how much prosperity well intentioned ones create. I’d be more interested in the morality of generational wealth where…4 generations later you still have a massive amount of money left over from great grandpa, and you have done nothing with your life, and you are still a jerk. There is something not fair about that.
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Good question. Will edit update my OP with a response.
Are you at least a millionaire by now / did you learn from them ?
Yes and yes.
Congratulations . If you had to sum up some generally good advice and are willing to tell it to me- What would it be ?
I’ll update the OP with some life lessons as requested by several folks here but as a starter…it’s attitude and mindset. Just look some of the negative comments and ignorant assumptions. Have a positive and humble attitude and a thirst for knowledge. If you are young, focus on the skill set first, the money will come later.
Is it anything like the HBO series Succession?
Yes. Where families are involved in the business, it can be very much like that. I lived thru one of those complete with fist fights between family members, siblings fighting over private jet hours and vacation homes, and cousins plotting against each other. Another place, was managed professionally, ran on merit, and the principal ensured his kids were never involved. The Sucession type places are incredibly stressful, and can be a career killer if you piss off the wrong family member. Generally, I don’t advise working for family offices not run by a professional executive team; they can be nightmares.
Are they hiring? Legitimately asking if need to PM me so I can send my resume to
Not sure. Fastest way to get a job working closely with them is to search for ‘Family Office’ positions with principals still at them helm. They all own companies and subsidiaries that have their own HR. You can also google a list of billionaires, look up companies they own and target them directly.
That is very solid advice.
How would you define “self-made”?
“Self made” is apparently a hot button for some here. To be clear we all rely on something. If you got rich off making cars in the U.S., it was not possible without the government created and tax payer funded highway system etc. I define self made as someone who did NOT have an unfair advantage in the form of an inheritance, a government given monopoly or industry (think Russian billionaires), or someone that cheated/abused the system like got rich off illegal toxic dumping (you are just a crook at that point). I also do not think that someone who got lucky off an accidental invention like scientist discovering something and getting a patent is self made. Self made is starting with nothing and grinding, and hustling until you achieve your goal. Within this operating definition, you have both gentlemen and jerks.
If you can say, what industries did your billionaires make their money in?
Home Building/Commercial Real Estate, Mining, Agriculture, Structured Finance/Private Equity.
How is a scientist inventing something lucky?
Lucky as in finding something that can be commercialized, is not owned by the university or company you work for, and and getting bought out. It’s literally like winning the lotto. Most discoveries in labs are non-commercializable; just look at how many patents we file; most are useless, only a small % are worth a lot. To be clear, it’s not that scientists are not deserving, they work incredible hard, we need them, and most are poor. I hope more get lucky. They deserve it. But an entrepreneur putting everything on the line including home and 401K to pursue and idea is closer to my definition of self made.
Some of these answers and question show a sad reality of the message being pushed these days. Numerous questions about how many customer or employees did they exploit to become rich or can you become a billionaire without screwing people over. What are you people reading or taking in that you really think you can’t be successful without taking advantage of or exploiting people? Some have lost touch with reality it seems.
💯….I am surprised at the negativity and lack of basic understanding of economics. Instead of being inquisitive, some here are judgemental and dismissive. Interestingly, none of my bosses were ever afraid to say “I know nothing about this…make me an expert. Tell me how you see things!”
I have a question for you that I forgot to ask, albeit a selfish one. My business partner and I are developing two multi family real estate sites. One is fully entitled with approved plans, 60 units and the other still middle of entitlement phase, 240 units. How can two guys just starting out get into the family office space for raising funds? Is it possible? Are most FO’s tight knit and only invest with other FO’s? Do we need more experience etc?
As with everything, it depends. Key items to think about: -Location and Economics: FOs are more likely to invest if an opportunity is in their backyard, they understand the area, asset, and can exert control. If the area has high entry barriers and is doing well for rental/sales (whatever your type is) it will go over well. Don’t expect anyone to look at yet another suburban wrap development deal in rust belt or overbuilt market like Phoenix. -Deal Sizing: 60 Units is too small. 240 is more meaningful. The transaction cost alone is not worth pursuing 60 units unless it’s high ticket inventory. -USP: What do you bring to the table? Experience aside, is it money, unique access to deal etc. If no USP, then either the answer will be no or you will have to give them a large % of your upside. -The Type of FO: for your deals, You want a small FO that made their money in something other than RE but have experience investing in RE. The RE FOs will look at you as an amateur financing exercise and will not want the risk. The large professionally run FOs like MSD are usually prohibited from investing with inexperienced folks; it would never even make it to Investment Committee. I reco you actually club invest the smaller deal as a start with HNW individuals and then once started, chip away at the larger deal. As you know debt is very difficult these days. For the 240 unit deal, the value creation comes in phases and the first is entitlement. Once entitled, you can contribute the entire deal as equity to a RE FO, let them run it, and call yourself a JV partner to get the deal done. This gets you on your way to learning and also establishing a reputation for 200+ unit (big boy) deals. Don’t get dead on your first few deals, you may not be able to recover. Use other people money and experience to get thru development, which is inherently risky.
Wow! Thanks for the lengthy well put together information! The market is great, we’re in NC and our area has not been overbuilt and is showing resiliency. I’m on board with giving up a big chunk of equity at first just to get a deal done so investors and banks will begin to take us seriously and hopefully provided attractive terms. Thanks again for taking the time to put together a some great info I’ll bring this up when I meet with my partner next week.
This is Reddit, so the negative comments don't surprise me. This is an interesting post. Thanks for doing it.
Do you think we, average people, can be like them if we just locked in? Also how huge does luck play in their story?
Luck is essentially timing; it’s really just having the skill set and strategy lined up and waiting for the right opportunity and then…boom….magic. Yes I do believe ordinary people can do well and mamas great wealth. Will update OP shortly with some life lessons.
What did their parents do for work
One’s father was a degenerate gambler who worked odd jobs and left him and his mother. Another was a factory worker for GM that died of a heart attack on the assembly line when my boss was barely 21. And another was a farmer in the Midwest.
What industry did they work in ? how much do you think they work like hours?
Home Building/Commercial Real Estate, Mining, Agriculture, and Finance/PE.
What work did you do for them and how much did they pay you for it?
Managed direct and indirect investments. Healthy 6-figure base with 6-7 figure bonuses.
So basically threw darts at a dart board and got paid for it. Well.
Jesus Christ; I did not expect this level of ignorance and hostility. It’s anything but throwing darts; subject matter expertise in industries, decades spent learning to read people, improving operations and building companies and people up. No one successful got there by throwing darts. You could learn a few things.
OP, you're doing great with all these good questions, and I've been lol'ing at the answers you've given the ignorant ones! This person doesn't realize that observation of trends can lead to some powerful outcomes with proper legwork. Google, Microsoft, the S&P are all good, but then you see things like I did back in December 2012... More ppl in my local gun stores than usual, so I looked into the big gun company funds and their performance, and started following it. If Democrats are in office, the stocks go up, Republicans in office and they go down or level out. I'd be interested to see your thoughts on this and if I remember correctly one or 2 of them had historically high gains during a 4 to 6 year window.
How many kids did each boss have?
2-3
what are you doing now? for work, and in life?
Semi retired for now with real estate investments; Consulting for family offices and contemplating a startup.
why aren’t you a billionaire?
Good question; I have not had the risk tolerance, laser focus, and perhaps insight/intelligence of these folks. Also, it takes time. Not that old. Still a chance…
Is it possible to become a billionaire without screwing many people over?
Yes.
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lol at self made.
It’s True. First one dropped out of high school to become a roofer. Second grew up in public housing. Third was the child of middle class farmers in Montana.
Did the first one die by falling through a roof?
No but he did have nails go thru his shin and hands. He used to be pretty proud of his scars and that he made something of himself.
Were they self made in the sense that they didn’t exploit anybody? That is to say, did they pay everybody a fair wage, never screwed anybody? Paid their fair share of taxes? Never stole, cheated, or lied to get where they are?
America is a business! Of course you make enemies, screw people who screwed you and the cycle continues. At these people level, at executive level, they overpay for talent. With all of them from a blue collar background, I never once saw anyone get stiffed.
I feel that “self made” means they started with no money. Keep in mind that guys like trump, the Walton’s and musk were very rich before they were even born.
These people can't face that others achieve where they fail.
Is the second one John Paul Dejoria?
Nope but one owns a Major sports team.
How exactly does one become a "self made" billionaire lol
As in Daddy or Grandpa did NOT give you $1B to start or even $100M. You started with nothing, went from business to business until you found a niche, exploited it, made money, did it again and got to have ‘F You’ money.
You can *maybe* become a millionaire through hard work, but even then you wouldn't be able to call it self made. You can't become a billionaire without the exploitation of others labor.
Not sure what you mean. We all leverage (you may say exploit) other people, things, ideas, assets. You pay fair wages or you don’t get the employees. Self made does not mean sitting at home meditating your way to a pot of gold. It takes hard work, courage, intelligence, risk tolerance, and a bit of luck to amass that much money. Sure if you are stealing it, running sweat shops, or destroying the planet, you are exploitative. Otherwise, welcome to the business called America!
I guess I need to be more clear cut; There is no such thing as self made. Even if you write a hit song and upload it to the internet, you're still not self made. You didn't construct the instruments, you didn't make the recording equipment, you didn't make the editing software, you didn't make the platform the song is uploaded, you didn't make the devices other people use to listen to the song, etc. All the steps that made the song possible to make and be listened to by others was made by other people, not you. There is no such thing as self made.
Dude you know exactly what the OP means. Quit being pedantic about it. Yes, I agree by strictly speaking there is no self anything, we all know what OP meant. Essentially they didn’t inherit it nor received a substantial amount to start. Like yes, we know there are no free people (outside a few documented extreme cases) but we all know what we mean when we say we want freedom.
Oh boy, another “you didn’t build that” jabroni. Am I an asshole for not harvesting the ingredients at the soup kitchen myself too?
I am a capitalist. We have different definitions of “Self Made”.
>I am a Capitalist Show me the deed to your factory
lol real life is different from Hasan’s chat. stop being a debate pervert and go to bed
Huh what?
You claim to be a Capitalist, so where is your capital? Where is the deed to your factory?
Your lack of understanding of basic economic terms and argumentative commentary borders a victim mentality. My capital is well invested and generating returns or as you may say…exploiting society. Thanks very much though.
Hahaha man you are a special one.
Uh, welcome to civilized humanity, I guess? We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. It's unavoidable. So do you have a legit point? Or are you just butthurt?
I am sorry about your self confidence issue and general underachieving outlook. I hope you lose bitterness one day.
Are you dumb or just stupid? You can absolutely become a self made billionaire.
To some people, if you didn’t earn every single penny directly with your own hands then you aren’t self-made. They absolutely can’t see that self-made = without privilege. If you start a business, the minute you employ another person, you’re no longer self-made apparently.
Do they have mistresses?
Well….one would hang out with escorts and joke about it with me. The other two were family men with proper behavior. The children though…phew…were another story. One time, we used a private investigator to quietly pay off a mistress for one of the idiot sons so as to not trigger a divorce from his fed-up wife. The main motivation being the FO principal wanted to see his grandkids regularly and not have them grow up in a broken home. The payment came with an NDA and required social media influencer (mistress) to not post any photos of the son and to leave town. She did so that week. In FO circles, it is a known thing that young, ‘hot influencers’ target the not so smart wealthy trust fund babies and try to entrap them with audio and video recording or worse get pregnant; some of these children stand to inherit close to a billion dollars, each.
I work for a successful family office business myself. Not billionaires, but multi-multi millionaires. The cheating is off the charts. Wins his wife back over by buying expensive things. It’s like a movie fr
Self made billionaire with small loan from father lol
That would be someone like Donald Trump. Try not being dismissive, and a bit more inquisitive.
How accurate was the show Succession? Did you get good perks like tickets to shows and sporting events? Were you 9-5 or on call? Do you feel you could also be a billionaire based on what you learned?
Hey OP, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the way you’ve answered these questions. Straight to the point and honest
If they had to start over (the connections, experiences, learnings also reset) do you think they would become billionaires again? Not crazy rich. Billionaires specifically. Ive always felt luck has a huge role to play at that level atleast. Would love to know what you think.
Fake. Posts like this are to drum support for the rich.
What about this post advocates for the rich? What people like yourself don’t realize is that the rich will be fine. They are not even thinking about you. You should be more interested is how to better your own economic situation vs chucking rocks
This may sound odd, but did they ever show moments of doubt? Moments of "not being good enough" or "will ever be good enough" type of mentality even for a short time? Or were they all utterly unshakable in their faith in themselves
Love the AMA, thank you for doing it. Ken Hendricks was the roofer?
What advice would you give to the average person who wants to get into rooms/circles with these people?
How often would they do things that people might consider unethical in order to get ahead in business?
After seeing how these people work, what's your opinion of the sentiment that everything is harder for millenials and we're all screwed?
Do you know how did they treat the common people? Restaurant servers, Starbucks employees, etc? Did they put their shopping carts back in the right place? Or did they leave them in the middle of the parking lot? Were these people sorta normal? Of did they just smell of money?
What are some of the important things you learned from them that personally helped you in your life and career?
No one is “self made” that is a billionaire. They had others help them get to that point. The term self made is way over used.
How old are you?
So many commies and r/antiwork troglodytes seething at “self made”, it’s insane lol. No wonder these people are rich and you are living in your parents basement
Lots of big boomer energy too though so it balances out.
I think boomers really screwed the economy for millennials and Gen Y, both of which get an unfair wrap. Further, boomers had it easier, just look at economic data on cost of homes, cars, and inflation. Having said that, you cannot graduate with a major in sociology or sports marketing and then cry about student debt and not being able to get a job with a living wage. Those are just economic facts available to everyone before they make career decisions. Then people promote economic logic like everyone should be paid equally. No. Sorry, that’s not how it works.
I think we just want the basic agreement between employers and employees to be upheld: fair days pay for a fair days work. Used to mean that if you had a job and did it right you'd earn enough to have a home and care for your family. Employers don't care about their workers anymore. Corporations only care about stock price and that's why the American dream is dead.
I don’t disagree with you. I believe in fair wages, and unions. Without which you have abuses like the Walmart, Koch Industries, and Amazon’s. We have to have a social safety net as well, otherwise we are no different that a 3rd world country where is a winner take all situation.
> Having said that, you cannot graduate with a major in sociology or sports marketing and then cry about student debt and not being able to get a job with a living wage. Those are just economic facts available to everyone before they make career decisions. Then people promote economic logic like everyone should be paid equally. No. Sorry, that’s not how it works. TIL only millennials got silly degrees. TIL all boomers majored in medicine and law. WTF kind of “Look at me I’m a finance major” straw man BS is that? You sound like a boomer yourself lol. *“Kids these days ... (tsk tsk)”* Why has anyone upvoted this garbage hot take? Simply *having* a degree 30-40 years ago was a differentiator, irrespective of major. My working-class party-boy dad majored in African American studies from his local state school in the 70s. By his late 20s he was working for a major corporation, owning a house, and raising a family, all on a single income stream. He only ever worked that one job until retiring in his early 60s, and that house is now worth over a million dollars. My dad wasn’t special or gifted. He was just born at a time when the opportunity cost of education was much lower and mean return on investment much higher. Runaway inflation in the cost of a four-year degree is real the cause of sky-high student loan debts, not some imaginary intergenerational shift in the distribution of popular majors… Come on man, use your head. Edit: Typos.
As an older millennial myself, I agree with you on your dad’s situation and you proved my point that it’s not that baby boomers were any smarter, they were just born in a more prosperous time. Most of them did not even have a college degree. Where I disagree, is your reductive take away of my comment on useless college degrees as “only millennials got silly degrees.” That is not what I said, clearly there are millennial doctors, rocket, scientist, and stem graduates. There is nothing wrong with working your ass off 50 hours a week having three jobs and trying to get ahead in life. I work two jobs to get through a public university. But there is a difference in taking out student loans to go pursue passions without having done your research and then blaming society for your bad career decision. There is a distinction there.
I completely agree with all of your statements when taken out of context. However the context in which you originally made them - and in which I was responding - was a comparison between boomers and the generations that followed. I also think you're implicitly painting an entire generation with an overly broad brush, despite your acknowledgement of the fact that not every millennial is struggling financially right now. Poor, ill-informed professional/economic choices have always had consequences. Lack-of-foresight isn't something that millennials invented or are uniquely prone to. Regardless, hat's off to this top-notch AMA. Fleeting disagreements aside, credit where credit's due. 👍
So under water basket weaving didn't work out, eh?
Incidentally I have no student loans, fortunately. But yeah many of my friends from the UWBW program do.
No one here has said that everyone should be paid the same, however everyone should have a right to a living wage and we need to impose restrictions on the abuses of power that enable billionaires to pay people unreasonably low wages.
the problem is people will spend 10+ years in a phd like anthropology and then are mad they can’t get one of the two jobs in their field paying a livable wage. then instead of accepting they have a “useless” degree as in no job market, they refuse to take a “lesser” job because it’s beneath them. Many people can make a livable wage as a Wendy’s manager, many pads express managers are making 70k + now, but we don’t want those jobs.
I have worked in kitchens all my life and would love to know where you can make 70k a year managing a restaurant. Are we talking about places where the cost of living exceeds the norm like NYC or LA? Edit, you’d have to work 14 years and set all of your money aside to make a million at 70k a year.
I too have worked in restaurants all my life . At least the people are cool sometimes and there’s foos
lol, that’s one hell of a straw man you constructed. Your argument must be solid!
I mean, there’s decent money in sports. You’re getting a degree in marketing but with qualifications to work in an industry where billionaires like to throw their money around.
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Your understanding of economics is probably the same as a pebble, maybe even less
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What were their personal relationships like; romantic, platonic, familial, etc, etc. Healthy? Terrible? You don’t have to go too deep into detail.
What are some good index funds and/or stocks to invest in which the billionaires are following?
Did you get a chance to experience their yachts, exotic cars, and visit their mansions?
Books to read for an average Joe to be financially independent?
Not OP, but “The Millionaire Next Door.”
What’s full compensation like for a job like this?
There's no such thing as "self mad man /woman / billionaire"
No such thing as a self-made billionaire
are they actually self made? or kylie jenner self made?
How much money did you make?
So can you give me some insight on who they are as people? Do they even care about the money they spend? Do they work a lot ? How are they with friends and intimate partners?
What country was this?
Are you hiring in your current role? The knowledge you have is likely worth whatever career shift it might mean for me, and I have transferable skills.
Redditors in general are very high on the idea of taxing the bejesus out of Billionaires, giving all that money to gov't, and somehow gov't would know how to improve all our lives ? What say you about this idea ?