[quote=joec]I agree with most of your comments except for the last paragraph. Like most things in life, high risk in business will yield high rewards as well if it works out.
As I mentioned, I know some failed biz people who went back to 9-5 jobs so sure, you can be a multi-millionaire and it’s one of the only ways since you can make 0 profits and put EVERYTHING back into your company so you can expand without taxes, but like I said, it’s exceedingly hard to do as you appear to understand. Similar to being a pro athlete or entertainer, sure, you can be a multi-millionaire that way too, but it’s not very likely. My feeling is that business is not as easy as you make it out to be.
I have more belief that the MIT grad (or ivy drop out) will be the one with 10 apps while in school vs. the SDSU guy. Is there any weak college grads or even any near comparable numbers than the Stanfords/Ivys?
The reason there isn’t is because the Ivy’s (if you get in) already weeds out and finds the best folks who WILL be the guy starting companies already.
Maybe when you hit a glass ceiling, you start to see the big differences in options after you hit either a female glass ceiling or the asian glass ceiling. (where I felt I ended up and where a lot of my comments and experience stems from).[/quote]
joec, you like to point out all the ways you can fail as a business owners, but then point to only the success like Ruth Porat. What about the majority of Ivy graduates who end up not being as successful as Ruth Porat or Mark Meeker? Not everybody can be Ruth Porat. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are a lot more millionaire business owners than millionaire W2-er. When you get to the billions, that club is almost exclusively business owners. If you disagree, do you think it’s easy to become the Ruth Porat of the world? What’s the probability of you becoming Ruth Porat of the world vs a successful small biz owner?
Again, I NEVER said it was easy to be a millionaire, be it business owners or W2-er. If it is easy, then everyone would be a millionaire. But it is easiER to be a millionaire as a business owner than a W2-er. See the difference there? So, don’t draw up straw man and beat it down. I NEVER said it was easy. It requires a lot of hard work, luck and capital.
As for the glass ceiling, that ceiling is there ONLY if you’re a W2-er. As a business owner, the glass ceiling is YOU. Both you and I are forming our arguments based on what we’ve experienced. But I’ve also looked around me at the many successful multi-millionaires. None of them went to Stanford or Ivy. They all went to SDSU/UCSD/no college at all. While the people I know that went to Standford or Ivy are doing no better than their counter part who went to state schools. The doctors that I know are knee deep in debt while those of us who are not highly educated are doing quite well financially at the same age. You’re smart enough to know about the power of compound interest. The hardest million to get is your first one.
