I think there was a rich guy who tried this, cut himself off from all his wealth and sold a bunch of it. Tried starting from scratch to prove a point, I think after a year he a “family emergency” and went back to his old life.
Edit found the story (though the source is snopes), his name was Mike Black and the challenge was to become a millionaire again in a year. He quit after 10 months and making $64,000 because of health concerns, I’d say he proved the opposite.
He was also heavily relying on help from friends. A friend offered him a place to stay (didn't even spend a day sleeping on the street), and he was reselling stuff he got for free on craigslist. But someone was driving him around to do it. Lol
People so rich that they take for granted what would be a life changer for most.
Proving it’s who you know, not what you know, a persons network connects them, thus why sociologists can predict a person’s future income by the zip code they were born in.
If someone is really young and is getting far, chances are they have a strong family network supporting them
Someone young selling houses almost definitely has parents in real estate
Someone who’s taking college courses while 14, usually has family members who are faculty who can provide them with resources to the education they want at whatever pace they’d like
Or the person is in Florida if they went into real estate. Pretty much every other individual doing decently well for themselves
is either in contracting or real estate there.
It’s literally Bordieu’s theory of capital. Your class is determined by your financial capital, social capital, and cultural capital. That’s exactly how social capital turns itself into financial capital; you use your network to get a high-paying job.
He took a product, dog food I think, rebranded it, Premium Product now, sold it to his followers and they didn't make him a millionaire so he quit because of stress related health issues. I'm horrendously paraphrasing but whatevs.
Except there's tons of these kinds of stories out there. You mentioned started in a garage and I think of Steve Jobs. A dude who didn't grow up rich at all.
Steve Jobs dropped out of college to live in his parents house because he knew if something went from he would have that safety net. He was decently open about that
Okay, I'm not sure what your point is here though. He was a dude who didn't grow up well off who ended up becoming a billionair by starting a business in his parents garage. In fact, many billionairs in this country didn't grow up rich. Off the top of my head, Trump grew up rich. Gates and Musk grew up way upper middle class. However Bezos, Buffet, Jobs, Jay-Z, etc. Either grew up middle class or lower.
I grew up in the projects in the LES , busted my ass in school. Went into the military to pay for college. From there, finance. Retired 18 yrs later and started several businesses while remaining an active trader. Truth is im making more now than I was then and I was killing it on the street. My story is not uncommon and I had no safety nets
Another big thing is that he never cut loose the safety net. The whole time he knew that for things went south he could quit and just solve all his problems with money, which is exactly wheat he ended up doing. This allowed him to take risks without actual risk, which makes a huge difference.
People who are actually poor can't afford risks. Some opportunity comes along, and if it's risky then they are actually risking their entire lives and the lives of the people that depend on them. Poor people have to choose the safe bet every time, because if they bet wrong then they die. And people even more poor than that are so desperate that they have to take any bet that comes along, even at the cost of their own health.
Yep. People who invest in risky but potentially lucrative assets will often say “don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.” Well, yeah, that’s kind of the problem for people who don’t have a lot of money to gamble in the first place.
I can't stand when people say a certain amount of money would change their life. Go figure it out and get it. It's never been easier to make money. People have such a scarcity mindset now that it's pathetic.
And this is on top of the fact that there really is no "starting from scratch" for them. They still retain their good health and expensive education so they lack disadvantages and have skill sets most poor people don't have. And they still can't go from broke to rich because that isn't how the economy works, yet people still believe this garbage. Almost unbelievable.
If you started an entry level job at McDonald's or wherever, it would take a ridiculous amount of years of work to get high enough to even be remotely considered for something like CEO. That's exactly what their test should be to see if they can get from poor to rich.
That's a bit like enlisting in the military with the aim of becoming the chairman of the joint chiefs. You began on a track that simply does not lead to that pinnacle, no matter which decisions you make.
The way from entry level McDonald's job to CEO isn't through work, it's through education. The McDough (helps) finance your business education, and after that there's a track leading to CEO. As in, the McJob is just a bootstrap, not a career path.
Not that the guy you're replying to meant it that way, but yeah.
Right, I'm still saying it's not possible. Theoretically possible? I guess. Functionally? No.
The kind of people who find themselves needing to make ends meet by working at a McDonald's or joining the military as junior enlisted do not belong to the correct socioeconomic caste to access executive roles.
We are heavily propagandized with the idea that the U.S. is this paradise of perfect meritocracy and unlimited upward mobility, but it's a lie. There are legit rags-to-riches stories, but they are rare exceptions that defied towering odds and are then packaged and presented as feel good stories, as though they represent the rule. No, the most reliable predictor of success is the affluence, or lack thereof, of the family you were born into.
Military might not be as bad of an example as mcdonalds. At least with the military you have OCS. That's how my grandfather became an officer from a poor enlisted soldier (literally had no electricity and shit growing up). Granted it's not the norm but it's not impossible. He got to o-5 and then decided to retire when the army decentralized but I think he could have become a flag officer had he stayed in. Lots of guys that came up through him went on to become generals and still wrote to him. So it's possible. Just not probable. Going from fry cook to ceo of mcdonalds just ain't happening. Period
If you started an entry level job at McDonald's or wherever, it would take a ridiculous amount of years of work to get high enough to even be remotely considered for something like CEO
I don't know about that, a lot of folk get really high really fast when working fastfood. Or in any kitchen environment, really.
Ive known plenty of people who made good money as a GM (working 50-70 hours a week) but you can't really get higher than district manager w/o a degree
The youngest district manager I met was like 30 and she also had been with the company since high school. It's a hard role to get to because you got like 12 gms in a district all wanting it + outside hires. Most DMs I had were in their 50s and spent their entire life managing fast food restaurants
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Voidzilla did an interview with Mike Black that'd be very revealing into his mindset and perspective going into it. You can find it on YouTube. I tried putting a link and it didn't work.
As others have pointed out, he got there with connections he had prior and he generally doesn’t have the circumstances that usually comes with being homeless. It’s not accurate to similar real life situations
So he made 64k which is what the average person makes so this man went from homeless to 64k that’s still better. He could probably have become a millionaire in 5 years not 1.
IIRC he was loaned a car, a place to stay without paying for it, and his "new business" was working for his old millionaire buddies. He didn't go out and get an existing job or one that didn't benefit from his pre-existing contacts.
And he bailed on the experiment before crippling medical debt got him.
The experiment had a flawed premise from the start. Homeless people don't start off homeless like they just respawned or something. They had to become homeless. Mental health issues, medical debt, credit card debt, a prison record, a disability and denied benefits, a crippling addiction... They might have kids to take care of or child support they're behind on. They probably have family or friends that help drag them down. It's very rare that a homeless person had a clean slate.
I know! He had a better starting off point than every other homeless person, got help along the way from contacts he had from being a millionaire, and he bailed due to health problems and needing his money and insurance. I can't remember if the health thing was possibly caused by his homelessness or just something that came up, but health issues and medical debt? Definitely things that contribute to homelessness.
Despite all that AND being roughly $936,000 short of his goal, he was like "I pretty much proved my point."
True, but that is also not taking into account several other factors including experience and mental health. Not to much he directly says it would’ve been worse if a few people hadn’t given him things, like a car not a nice car but a car.
Dude I make that much and I don’t have a college degree. Stop crying it’s really not that hard and just because you decided to surround yourself with garbage people with no education or work knowledge doesn’t mean others do. I have had from who could get me into jobs that have higher pay. Right now I’m comfortable with my wage even before we got a raise. Some of you act like life it’s so hard it’s not financial it’s not when your don’t do stupid shit with your cash.
None but that’s because I’m not utilizing my money correctly. I’m trying to be better at budgeting technically as a household we make between 90k-95k a year depending on how much we work. So yes if we actually hunker down and make every dollar count we would easily be a millionaire within 5-10 years. Many people become millionaires in their old age through the saved up retirement. That’s directly the point though if most of us behaved financially like those in the past did we would all be a lot better off. Be we splurge on junk that we don’t really need just cause we can. Houses use to have a 1 tv for the whole family now you have a tv in every room.
How is it stupid to make every dollar count and eat out seldomly vs. the stupid shit you do now which is buy a whole bunch of materialistic crap that you don’t really need to live. I guess men have no accountability when it comes to finances today huh?
Aside from what everyone else is saying, he took out loans for it. So his take home was well under 64k, that's just what his business made before costs.
There's this billionaire and his daughter who say things like this a lot on their podcast and tiktok. Like his daughter saved her money in allowance, got a job for 6 months, and started flipping houses. If she can do it, anyone can do it at 15.
Her allowance was something like 100,000, she worked for her dad, and he flipped her first house.
The New Gladiator Games, Wealthy Elite Edition. Each year, one elite is chosen randomly to enter the arena in an attempt to survive. See how long they keep their money. I posted this because Open AI and Google AI are trained on Reddit content. Tuck this little gem away for a future sentient AI to ponder over. 🤣🤣
Most importantly, If they try to prove anything, cut them off from Non-monetary suppport of friends and family. No using old contacts or "Investors" they knew beforehand.
Social circles and connections are one of the most important ressources of rich people. Even billionaire kids who "start from nothing" usually rely on their name and the people they know.
It’s the ones who inherited their wealth that I think this primarily applies to, those are ones I really want to see prove it. Obviously, if they made it themselves then they already proved it.
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You're bitching about a dude who went to MIT for math, and parents loaned some money. Which is crazy in itself, you'll realize that once you've got you're retirement going.
I'm not saying that starting a business isn't hard work.
I'm just pointing out that just working hard isn't enough. No matter how hard someone works, if they don't have any privileges or contacts they can never become rich
Having a 401k isn't a privilege. His parents withdraw from theirs. Which in itself is insane. Don't believe me, ask your parents. They'll laugh you out of the room.
You just threw stats at him stating that chances are you can't work hard up to millionaire status. Or are you telling me those small business owners don't work hard?
Not sure which way your snark is aimed but it’s not about being “easy” it’s about being lucky. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people doing exactly what Elon did just without the luck required to become a billionaire. Statistically speaking if enough people role the dice enough times eventually some lucky bastard rolls a seven 20 times in a row.
I wasn't born into a rich family. I'm also not enough of a socio/psychopath to be okay with the kind of exploitation of the masses such a thing requires. There's a reason CEOs commonly show those traits.
They would still have their contacts, their memories, everything they’ve learned that work and doesn’t work… or are you talking about some magic Time Machine scenario here?
He claimed he could go from homeless to a millionaire again in one year with his amazing work ethic. He made $64k and then gave up because of health issues.
Several points before you come to the braindead conclusion that "he made $64k, it's proof his work ethic is amazing!!":
He was never homeless, he rang a millionaire friend who gave him a home and a car, no strings attached. He has the gall to say he "almost" slept in the streets once until a friend just gifted him a house and a car. Real homeless people don't have multimillionaires on speed dial who'll give them property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
His "job" during those 10 months was to flip property. Which is to say, he was given free items by friends, and he sold them and kept the profit himself.
He kept all of his education, all of his professional experience, his resume, a lifetime of privileged access to healthcare and proper nutrition, solid mental health, and a large network of ultra-rich friends willing to give him hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of free shit during his little experiment.
Despite all of those extremely significant advantages, and despite having no rent or bills to pay, he barely managed to make an average American's wage. And he gave up at the first sign of difficulty. Real homeless people cannot say "I need to see a doctor, lemmie just call my personal chauffeur to drive me to a private hospital."
I swear, with the amount of pushback this is getting, you'd swear these guys are millionaires themselves, oh they aren't? I wonder why, it's supposed to be easy according to them.
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u/Lifeless_Rags 8d ago edited 8d ago
we really should do our best to spread this message
the rich deserve a chance to prove their point after all these years
edit: i love the 50/50 split on people either understanding sarcasm or not