I'm the OP, not nick007, but I really enjoyed this post and would like to respond to it and give my thoughts...
b9 wrote:
nick007 wrote:
Some are rich & successful because they are born into (it)
but that is not an answer to the question "how does one get rich" (which implies making the money rather than inheriting it).
True, and yet that is indeed how most people get "rich & successful", because to get there without being born into it is so unbelievably difficult and requires huge amounts of luck as well as good parents & parenting, right genes, right personality, right temperament, great people skills, high "EQ" (emotional IQ) good health, tons of energy in order to persevere, etc., etc., etc..
b9 wrote:
nick007 wrote:
they lucked out
i can only assume that you mean "they were lucky" i agree that luck is an element that may prevent success, but i do not agree that luck is an element in in achieving success. i will talk about that at the end of the post.
You assumed correctly here. I'd say luck is a huge factor in both success and lack thereof.
b9 wrote:
nick007 wrote:
they have something special about them like the way they look or the way they sing, have some kind of charm or some kind of talent
that sounds like you are bitter and jealous.
Maybe, maybe not - I took it as just a statement of fact... because these are in fact ways that a tiny number of people get there.
b9 wrote:
nick007 wrote:
had a great idea, figured out what education & employment field was very successful that they could do well
well then they deserve to be rewarded
Agreed - good for them.
b9 wrote:
nick007 wrote:
or they met someone who put them on a reality TV show or some combination of all this
i think you have a streak of bitterness in you that is hostile toward the notion of success but i am often incorrect.
As I said above. Your assumption might be correct, but I can't tell from the wording.
b9 wrote:
anyway, i think that "luck" can certainly destroy the prospects for prosperity.
when i used to work full time in an office, i used to go to a tavern inn for dinner, and i became friends with a smart old man (who was rather coarse in his manner (irrelevant)) who told me a story about 2 brothers he used to know who suffered seriously bad luck (but in my opinion it was mismanagement).
I can see your point of view... so in the first case they should've either went with a 1st rate shipper or else bought insurance? And in the second case... maybe hired someone who knew something about loading a barge?
b9 wrote:
they invested everything they had into a frozen prawn (shrimp?) import business, and they only had a modest amount to invest, so they did their homework and sourced a cheap supply and also found buyers in australia that were eager to purchase them.
their mistake was to skimp in the transport costs by assigning their shipment of prawns to a 2nd rate taiwanese ship who's engine broke down, and their shipment went off in the noon day sun in a taiwanese dock.
Yes, Americans would tend to say shrimp. Imagine the poor guys whose job it was to clear those smelly shrimp out of that boat!
b9 wrote:
they lost so much money that they had to go back to 9-5 jobs for about 10 years before they saved enough money to invest in a new idea they had.
Absolutely tragic. You see how hard it is? That's a long time.
b9 wrote:
their new idea was that they would buy a barge and use it as a waste disposal vehicle.
there are many houses being built on islands or in areas where land access is impossible, and they planned to take the waste products to a depository using their craft.
they secured a contract to remove the rubble of a demolished house (to make way for a new dwelling) from a peninsula that was not accessible by road.
they had a little bobcat type of thing that they used to load their barge with the rubble.
on their first barge load, they struck disaster because they loaded so much rubble on board the barge that the hull of the barge became stuck in the sea bed, and they did not perceive it until the tide came in and the barge failed to float. they were not able to rescue the situation in time, and water spilled into the barge and rendered it sunk.
HAHAHAHAHA! Too funny!
b9 wrote:
they did have a third venture but i forget what it was and the old man who told me what i just told you is dead, so i can not ask him.
So your own story would seem to support the view that luck is a massive factor, wouldn't it? Most people would not be able to try a second or third time. Ten years to save up seed capital! And most people earn so little that they can save nothing, or next to it. But had their first venture turned out, they might have stuck with that business model, and learned more and more as time went on, and done better and better with it. I think few people have the kind of jobs where they learn something valuable which they can leverage into their own business after a few years, which means that most people who start a business have little idea of what they're doing. Because most jobs are "cog in the machine" type jobs, where you only learn a tiny segment of the business, so there's no way you could go out and start a similar business on your own.
I don't know. I'd like to hear more of your thoughts, b9... what do you think those guys' mistakes were, and how can an ordinary person, with Asperger's no less, become rich, or at least financially independent?
22 Jul 2012, 7:52 am
