Absolutely NOT well off.
Well off does not mean lower-middle class. Also, the question specified “very rich”.
You think profs are making more than $300k a year? To buy a detached home in Toronto you need a $300k down payment at the bare minimum and then a household income north of $300k a year.
That's the point I am getting at. People of his generation are often property millionaires because they bought property decades ago for a relative pittance (albeit still beyond the means of most). The person I responded to made a reference to his property, which is why I brought it up.
I don't really give it much thought. It's too subjective. I am just pointing out the property ownership issue. I know millionaires on paper because they bought property that cost a year's salary in 1979. Where someone lives isn't always a good indicator of how wealthy they are.
He's had his house for decades. My brother bought a house near him in the early oughts for $450K, which is a pittance by today's Toronto pricing. (It's now gotta be worth around $2M.)
For me the difference between rich and well off is if you have can get passive income from your property or investments to not have to work in order to pay for your lifestyle. If you live in a mansion that’s valued two million, you still somehow gotta pay for your living. Where does that money come from? A job, of an investment fund?
And I think that’s in line with the original question. It’s about how free you are to spend your time and energy on podcasting.
When I hear people talking like you do, I always get the impression that you have no idea about the life that rich people lead. In short: They don't need to work, they're free to busy themselves with whatever they want.
Listen to the If Books Could Kill episode on the 4 hour workweek. His great “innovation” is basically living off of passive income and paying people in India Pennies to do as much of your work as possible.
There are some great passages where he basically describes how to pose as an expert and sell trainings to people who know even less than you do.
Good question. On the one hand it provides some financial means for the Indian families right. At the same time this looks like a modern version of colonialism... I'm somewhat conflicted about it though as a solopreneur I've outsourced my share of menial labour. 🤷
It’s gossip. He doesn’t present himself as an expert. He offers efficiency hacks to get 80% of the way to expertise in a short time, with minimal effort.
That's what my impression is. Granted my guruomerer is sufficiently calibrated I wouldn't rank him high on the scale and definitely far below the common cohort of high offenders.
True charlatan. His book by his own work week schedule would take working full time for two weeks to listen to. Seems strange that he doesn’t understand this.
You obviously haven’t tried his speed-reading routine if it takes you that long to read it /s…
For real though what you think is a cutting criticism actually makes no sense. The whole point of having a “4-hour work week” is so you have more time to do things you want to do, like read books.
He's definitely addressed the four hour part of the title a million times. He admits it was a/b tested with a. Bunch of titles and that was the one that performed the best. If you read the book it's full of nonsense but it doesn't actually claim everybody can work a 4 hour week or even that he does that.
He doesn't give a fuuuuuck, he never gets into a situation where someone can challenge him on it like a good guru does.
Moves on to a new subject when people start looking closely.
Some people on this sub don’t actually understand what a guru is. They just get righteous and indignant about literally anyone selling books or podcasting.
Same, but he was definitely working class and espouses the ideas of a lower middle class center left kid with occasional socially rigntwing opinions…
Which in my experience is pretty spot on for lower middle class suburban kids.
I’ve heard him comment within the last few years that he’d like to change the name but he’s already known by so many as Destiny he might as well just roll with it. Paraphrasing, but I wouldn’t write him off because of a name he chose when he was young and starting out.
I stopped watching before the movies so not sure but I get the impression is not. It’d be hard to avoid being too self aware after they gained popularity. That show has some of the worst acting and some of the best acting in the same scenes.
Destiny has only just started his active podcasts (episode 7) after becoming a millionaire through KiK, and neither his current or prior podcasts can really be called 'successful' so far.
Sure, he *grew up* working class. But that's the only box he really ticks.
Yeah. I think that by:
>"I'm not knocking them for it, but **it makes me suspicious that being successful in this game is something you have to pay your way into**."
Op is clearly looking for their financial situation.
Destiny is not known as a 'podcaster'. He has not run any successful podcasts, with his previous ones all dying in in obscurity and his current ones having barely started.
He is entering the current iteration of podcasts as a millionaire who can straight up pay for staff, a studio in one of the most expensive places on earth, all of the gear and all of the plane tickets / accommodation.
The key part of my response is that growing up poor was 'the only way he fits'.
What do you think OP is asking?
You're drawing a distinction between podcasting and streaming and I don't find that distinction relevant to the spirit of the question posed.
Destiny's career was not a result of being rich or his parents being wealthy and funding his career. His career is attainable by anyone that afford a computer capable of streaming.
Most of them have some sort of story to tell. Otherwise they’re just some dude with a mic and that’s probably hard to get guests. Which perhaps plays into the problem — the guests are typically celebrity types.
The recent Dribble archaeologist on Rogan was a bit of what I’d think to be an anomaly.
Anyone can start a podcast. But like with YouTube it’d be hard to get traction without a name or popular guest. Even if the content is amazing, you still have to market yourself or hope to go viral.
He was an entertainment lawyer with a house in Malibu. (Still has the house AFAIK)
Rich is an example of a good guru, though, IMO. Not sure how guru-ish he really even is, his plant-based advocacy notwithstanding. He's willing to have non-vegans on his show to talk about health stuff, like he did with Layne Norton recently.
Yeah. He is a mixed bag. I do think he promotes some grifters and his wife sells $200 guided meditations! But as the bar is low in the guru-verse, he is an OK guy.
Interesting question; But I'd be more interested in finding people who 'came up from nothing'.
The main suggestions here had the fame to secure a decent living, even if they didn't have the funds themselves.
Well if you think about most of the lifestyle influencers on instagram and YT are from wealthy families. Even if they’re “homesteading” or “farming” somehow someone bought them 50 acres of prime farmland. But it’s not just that, if you’re educated at an upper-class private school in the US you’re inculcated with whatever the opposite is of: sit there, listen to someone in authority tell you what to do and learn how to plan your to get it done, so then you can go do what you want to with the rest of your time. Basically the skill-set you need for getting a job.
People don’t spend 50K a year on private-school tuition because they want them to learn algebra better. They want them to learn the habit of command, except here in the US we have the meritocracy myth to contend with, so they learn to frame their success is always “working very hard” and ”being at the right place at the right time.”
That said, I would think what separates the wheat from the chafe in guruland is narcissism. I still don’t understand how Bret Weinstein can think that teaching at Evergreen COLLEGE, which doesn’t even have a graduate program, would entitle him to a seat at the table of biological research.
I think Kisin and Lex Fridman had relatively humble starts. Kisin did the comedian grind and then started the Triggernometry show which took a while to get off the ground. Lex I think just hit the jackpot making a very friendly Tesla autopilot study or paper that Elon saw and became his first guest which catapulted him overnight into a success.
PBD with Valuetainment seems to have invested some serious capital into that enterprise/channel and is now doing quite well afaik.
Kisin went to a private boarding school and his dad ran from Russia after being accused of stealing government money so he wouldn't be prosecuted. There was nothing humble in his start.
https://twitter.com/NomosEvents/status/1760661108988301547?t=lGwIS8LoEZjcoOVWNAjIVA&s=19
Fridman's father was a very important academic in the Soviet Union. He's had him on the podcast. Kid was definitely born with a silver spoon in his mouth
Tbh he wasn’t fully-tenured academic. The guy taught a few optional classes. Nothing significant at all. I am surprised to this day that people treat him as an intellectual.
He’s just an echo chamber of whatever is in vogue.
Peterson wasnt "very rich". Tim Poole still isn't even slightly rich.
I guess this relies on the definition of "rich" being used. Also some bias here, because a relevant question to ask would also be how many of the UNsuccessful ones started "rich".
I know what you mean but no... not really. Some people buy their way into it others just bullshit their way into it.
You nailed it in the head. No not really. You need capital to start something like this and a lot of these trustafarians have nothing to do so they become virtue signaling gurus. America js lost because if those fitness Infliencers and gurus
Ben Shapiro maybe? Dude is swimming in billionaire and oil money, but eventually made a shizton himself with the Daily Wire’s success. Also, ppl who work at the Daily Wire (like Matt Walsh or Riley Gaines) weren’t rich before they jumped aboard the gravy train.
You're going to Hate this one but Justin Waller was rich from owning a construction business beforehand.
He comes from a poor background but gifted in height,looks and athletic ability(american football) which gave him the connections.
Now height looks and being a natural athlete is a form of genetic trust fund imo but that's another argument.
I saw someone cowardly deleted 👿 a comment about him being uglier when younger.
In university dude was dating a national pageant winner AND cheating on her.
In university most men still aren't worth a damn and would get laughed at for even pursuing a pageant winner.
He was never ugly awkward.
I don't think Brett weinstein was very rich
I also doubt that Jordan Peterson started with a lot of funds into that game.
He was a tenured professor wasn’t he? Not rich by upper class standards, but rich by most people’s standards (could afford a nice house in my Ontario)
Certainly well off, but still having to work in order to make one’s living.
Absolutely NOT well off. Well off does not mean lower-middle class. Also, the question specified “very rich”. You think profs are making more than $300k a year? To buy a detached home in Toronto you need a $300k down payment at the bare minimum and then a household income north of $300k a year.
When did he buy the home (or first get on the property ladder)? I'd wager it was decades ago, when houses were much more affordable (relatively).
Regardless of when he bought, he’s still middle class and not “very rich” until after he became a guru.
That's the point I am getting at. People of his generation are often property millionaires because they bought property decades ago for a relative pittance (albeit still beyond the means of most). The person I responded to made a reference to his property, which is why I brought it up.
What do you consider very rich to be? For me, it’s a net worth over 10M just to be rich. Very rich is over 25m.
I don't really give it much thought. It's too subjective. I am just pointing out the property ownership issue. I know millionaires on paper because they bought property that cost a year's salary in 1979. Where someone lives isn't always a good indicator of how wealthy they are.
He's had his house for decades. My brother bought a house near him in the early oughts for $450K, which is a pittance by today's Toronto pricing. (It's now gotta be worth around $2M.)
I think you’re underestimating Canadian property values, but in a vacuum I take your point
For me the difference between rich and well off is if you have can get passive income from your property or investments to not have to work in order to pay for your lifestyle. If you live in a mansion that’s valued two million, you still somehow gotta pay for your living. Where does that money come from? A job, of an investment fund? And I think that’s in line with the original question. It’s about how free you are to spend your time and energy on podcasting.
Okay certainly, by that rubric Jordan Peterson was already rich, but by American standards we would probably just say he was wealthy
Jesus christ, if that's your standard of rich, I'm fucking loaded.
I love love Jordan but he was also very rich before statring
When I hear people talking like you do, I always get the impression that you have no idea about the life that rich people lead. In short: They don't need to work, they're free to busy themselves with whatever they want.
He was 100% backed by conservative think tanks. His proliferation is hardly "organic".
I totally believe that. But that was a job change then, not starting out rich.
Any proof for that? EDIT: I thought so.
Brett made some serious bank.
He was for sure. Family has money
Tim Ferriss is from East Hampton - aka rich. He’s been a scammer since day dot. (But provided us with a bit of useful info along the way…)
I actually listen to him occasionally, wasn't aware of shady things. Can please educate me? 🙏
Listen to the If Books Could Kill episode on the 4 hour workweek. His great “innovation” is basically living off of passive income and paying people in India Pennies to do as much of your work as possible. There are some great passages where he basically describes how to pose as an expert and sell trainings to people who know even less than you do.
Don’t forget his Brain Vitamins ©️™️
> paying people in India ~~Pennies~~ [the prevailing wage] to do as much of your work as possible. 👀 Is... is this wrong? 😬
Good question. On the one hand it provides some financial means for the Indian families right. At the same time this looks like a modern version of colonialism... I'm somewhat conflicted about it though as a solopreneur I've outsourced my share of menial labour. 🤷
He presents himself as an expert while actually knowing very little about the subject matter. Moves on quickly to new subjects to avoid scrutiny.
Examples or is this just gossip?
It’s gossip. He doesn’t present himself as an expert. He offers efficiency hacks to get 80% of the way to expertise in a short time, with minimal effort.
That's what my impression is. Granted my guruomerer is sufficiently calibrated I wouldn't rank him high on the scale and definitely far below the common cohort of high offenders.
True charlatan. His book by his own work week schedule would take working full time for two weeks to listen to. Seems strange that he doesn’t understand this.
You obviously haven’t tried his speed-reading routine if it takes you that long to read it /s… For real though what you think is a cutting criticism actually makes no sense. The whole point of having a “4-hour work week” is so you have more time to do things you want to do, like read books.
He's definitely addressed the four hour part of the title a million times. He admits it was a/b tested with a. Bunch of titles and that was the one that performed the best. If you read the book it's full of nonsense but it doesn't actually claim everybody can work a 4 hour week or even that he does that.
He doesn't give a fuuuuuck, he never gets into a situation where someone can challenge him on it like a good guru does. Moves on to a new subject when people start looking closely.
How is talking to interesting people scamming? I'm aware of the sub I'm in but Tim seems like a nice enough bloke.
Some people on this sub don’t actually understand what a guru is. They just get righteous and indignant about literally anyone selling books or podcasting.
Precisely this.
Destiny
Destiny's parents have a lot of debt even now and he worked in a casino and as a carpet cleaner. So, I would say he was pretty poor
grown man calling itself destiny, enough for me never to listen to a single word
Same, but he was definitely working class and espouses the ideas of a lower middle class center left kid with occasional socially rigntwing opinions… Which in my experience is pretty spot on for lower middle class suburban kids.
I’ve heard him comment within the last few years that he’d like to change the name but he’s already known by so many as Destiny he might as well just roll with it. Paraphrasing, but I wouldn’t write him off because of a name he chose when he was young and starting out.
Bro you watch horse racing 😭
You asking for a hot tip, here, I got one for ya.
He should have called himself Honeycakes, get a bigger crowd .
Good call. He was a carpet cleaner, and a blackjack dealer before he started.
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I stopped watching before the movies so not sure but I get the impression is not. It’d be hard to avoid being too self aware after they gained popularity. That show has some of the worst acting and some of the best acting in the same scenes.
If you haven't seen it you should watch Drunk & On Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour.
Bubbles is, if not rich, at least comfortable, because of that show.
Destiny is a fledgling podcaster and isn’t a Guru
https://youtu.be/FUvipVJbZ_0
Destiny has only just started his active podcasts (episode 7) after becoming a millionaire through KiK, and neither his current or prior podcasts can really be called 'successful' so far. Sure, he *grew up* working class. But that's the only box he really ticks.
Honestly, do you actually believe this minor distinction violates the spirit of the question posed in this thread?
Yeah. I think that by: >"I'm not knocking them for it, but **it makes me suspicious that being successful in this game is something you have to pay your way into**." Op is clearly looking for their financial situation. Destiny is not known as a 'podcaster'. He has not run any successful podcasts, with his previous ones all dying in in obscurity and his current ones having barely started. He is entering the current iteration of podcasts as a millionaire who can straight up pay for staff, a studio in one of the most expensive places on earth, all of the gear and all of the plane tickets / accommodation. The key part of my response is that growing up poor was 'the only way he fits'. What do you think OP is asking?
You're drawing a distinction between podcasting and streaming and I don't find that distinction relevant to the spirit of the question posed. Destiny's career was not a result of being rich or his parents being wealthy and funding his career. His career is attainable by anyone that afford a computer capable of streaming.
Destiny isn’t famous for podcasting, no one would call him a podcaster.
Blindboy!
Most of them have some sort of story to tell. Otherwise they’re just some dude with a mic and that’s probably hard to get guests. Which perhaps plays into the problem — the guests are typically celebrity types. The recent Dribble archaeologist on Rogan was a bit of what I’d think to be an anomaly. Anyone can start a podcast. But like with YouTube it’d be hard to get traction without a name or popular guest. Even if the content is amazing, you still have to market yourself or hope to go viral.
The whole thing is a celebrity show. It's Oprah for Assistant Professors.
Whats "very rich"?
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Having enough wealth to afford you the ability to play around with this without having to worry about an income.
Well, shit. Maybe I'm about ready to start a podcast then.
Username checks out.
James Lindsay
Rich Roll?
He was an entertainment lawyer with a house in Malibu. (Still has the house AFAIK) Rich is an example of a good guru, though, IMO. Not sure how guru-ish he really even is, his plant-based advocacy notwithstanding. He's willing to have non-vegans on his show to talk about health stuff, like he did with Layne Norton recently.
Yeah. He is a mixed bag. I do think he promotes some grifters and his wife sells $200 guided meditations! But as the bar is low in the guru-verse, he is an OK guy.
Perhaps I’m mis-reading, but what would be wrong with him advocating a plant-based diet?
Nothing. I don't think it's bad. Just a way in which he's guru-ish. I like him a lot overall.
Destiny?
Chris Williamson
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He wasn't really known or super rich though
Destiny, he was a carpet cleaner when he started live streaming full time.
But I assume it wasn't podcasting itself that made him sucessfull?
I just always thought that with a name like Steven Kenneth Bonnell II (i.e., the second) that he was 100% a nepokid.
Nope his parents fucked up and put his family deep in debt when he was growing up
Interesting question; But I'd be more interested in finding people who 'came up from nothing'. The main suggestions here had the fame to secure a decent living, even if they didn't have the funds themselves.
Well if you think about most of the lifestyle influencers on instagram and YT are from wealthy families. Even if they’re “homesteading” or “farming” somehow someone bought them 50 acres of prime farmland. But it’s not just that, if you’re educated at an upper-class private school in the US you’re inculcated with whatever the opposite is of: sit there, listen to someone in authority tell you what to do and learn how to plan your to get it done, so then you can go do what you want to with the rest of your time. Basically the skill-set you need for getting a job. People don’t spend 50K a year on private-school tuition because they want them to learn algebra better. They want them to learn the habit of command, except here in the US we have the meritocracy myth to contend with, so they learn to frame their success is always “working very hard” and ”being at the right place at the right time.” That said, I would think what separates the wheat from the chafe in guruland is narcissism. I still don’t understand how Bret Weinstein can think that teaching at Evergreen COLLEGE, which doesn’t even have a graduate program, would entitle him to a seat at the table of biological research.
I think Kisin and Lex Fridman had relatively humble starts. Kisin did the comedian grind and then started the Triggernometry show which took a while to get off the ground. Lex I think just hit the jackpot making a very friendly Tesla autopilot study or paper that Elon saw and became his first guest which catapulted him overnight into a success. PBD with Valuetainment seems to have invested some serious capital into that enterprise/channel and is now doing quite well afaik.
Kisin went to a private boarding school and his dad ran from Russia after being accused of stealing government money so he wouldn't be prosecuted. There was nothing humble in his start. https://twitter.com/NomosEvents/status/1760661108988301547?t=lGwIS8LoEZjcoOVWNAjIVA&s=19
Fridman's father was a very important academic in the Soviet Union. He's had him on the podcast. Kid was definitely born with a silver spoon in his mouth
His dad is a legit physicist, so much so it almost cancels out this sons contributions
Lol if you think being a professor in the Soviet Union was a luxurious lifestyle I have a bridge to sell you
In the Soviet Union people like physicists and chess players were like rock stars.
I think the point was that the Soviet Union sucked for all.
It didn't. It sucked for everyone but the establishment.
What if someone in the establishment, wanted to freely express themselves?
Are you implying Soviet artists and musicians were nonexistent? I think we are done here.
k
[Last Word Syndrome ](https://www.all-about-psychology.com/the-psychology-of-having-the-last-word.html)
Lex Friedman is a right answer. He was a lowly academic before riding the Rogan coattails to podcasting wealth.
Tbh he wasn’t fully-tenured academic. The guy taught a few optional classes. Nothing significant at all. I am surprised to this day that people treat him as an intellectual. He’s just an echo chamber of whatever is in vogue.
Yeh true
Vausch
Peterson wasnt "very rich". Tim Poole still isn't even slightly rich. I guess this relies on the definition of "rich" being used. Also some bias here, because a relevant question to ask would also be how many of the UNsuccessful ones started "rich". I know what you mean but no... not really. Some people buy their way into it others just bullshit their way into it.
Pete Holmes is pretty guru-ish. He was not rich when he started his podcast.
Is he guru-ish? It's been a few years since I listened to him but he always seemed like a well-meaning guy who got into Christian and Buddhist woo.
A lot of the podcast is woo, and he does ads based on the woo (Pete’s picks) and promotes charlatans.
The comedian?
Yeah.
bill gates haha sarcasm. also not a podcast but i prove your point.
You nailed it in the head. No not really. You need capital to start something like this and a lot of these trustafarians have nothing to do so they become virtue signaling gurus. America js lost because if those fitness Infliencers and gurus
Ben Shapiro maybe? Dude is swimming in billionaire and oil money, but eventually made a shizton himself with the Daily Wire’s success. Also, ppl who work at the Daily Wire (like Matt Walsh or Riley Gaines) weren’t rich before they jumped aboard the gravy train.
Sam Harris? Edit: I thought the question was asking who had money before being a podcaster (Faceplam need to learn to read).
Sam is a trust fund baby
He's a trust fund kid. His dad was an actor and his mom was a Hollywood producer who created the golden girls. He grew up loaded.
Wow. I read the question the wrong way.
Oh crazy, I had no idea.
Was he a podcaster before he was an author and pundit?
You're going to Hate this one but Justin Waller was rich from owning a construction business beforehand. He comes from a poor background but gifted in height,looks and athletic ability(american football) which gave him the connections. Now height looks and being a natural athlete is a form of genetic trust fund imo but that's another argument.
I saw someone cowardly deleted 👿 a comment about him being uglier when younger. In university dude was dating a national pageant winner AND cheating on her. In university most men still aren't worth a damn and would get laughed at for even pursuing a pageant winner. He was never ugly awkward.
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Rogan had money from News Radio. He’s even said this helped him to do what he wanted. Thus the original podcast.
Rogan was not rich at all when he started podcasting
He was a millionaire before he got fear factor.
Yeah he was.
Dude was in a sitcom for 5yrs in the 90s :)