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Why You Shouldn't Imitate Bill Gates If You Want To Be Rich (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the copy-and-paste dept.

dryriver writes: BBC Capital has an article that debunks the idea of "simply doing what highly successful people have done to get rich," because many of those "outliers" got rich under special circumstances that are not possible to replicate. An excerpt: "Even if you could imitate everything Gates did, you would not be able to replicate his initial good fortune. For example, Gates's upper-class background and private education enabled him to gain extra programming experience when less than 0.01% of his generation then had access to computers. His mother's social connection with IBM's chairman enabled him to gain a contract from the then-leading PC company that was crucial for establishing his software empire. This is important because most customers who used IBM computers were forced to learn how to use Microsoft's software that came along with it. This created an inertia in Microsoft's favor. The next software these customers chose was more likely to be Microsoft's, not because their software was necessarily the best, but because most people were too busy to learn how to use anything else. Microsoft's success and marketshare may differ from the rest by several orders of magnitude but the difference was really enabled by Gate's early fortune, reinforced by a strong success-breeds-success dynamic."

20 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Very simply expressed in xkcd.. by Junta · · Score: 5, Funny

    https://xkcd.com/1827/

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    1. Re:Very simply expressed in xkcd.. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Gates DID get a lucky break - there's no question about it. However that "break" was to be born into a well-off and well-connected family.

      And, honestly... if you can pull that off, it's almost certainly the best way to "become" rich yourself.

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    2. Re:Very simply expressed in xkcd.. by cheesybagel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Microsoft didn't have an operating system. They had to get it from someone else. IBM basically went to talk with Microsoft because Gates' mother, who used to be a bank manager, did benefit work on weekends with people connected with IBM's management. And Bill Gates' father, one of top lawyers in the area, helped craft their (highly favorable) contract with IBM.

  2. being completely with out by Revek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    scruples didn't hurt. He had little problem with raiding others ideas and pushing them out of the market. Many of the things he did to get on top of the pile would be actionable today.

    1. Re:being completely with out by nagora · · Score: 4, Interesting

      scruples didn't hurt. He had little problem with raiding others ideas and pushing them out of the market. Many of the things he did to get on top of the pile would be actionable today.

      Google suggests otherwise - industrial-scale copyright infringement? Just ignore it and no one will do anything about it. Global tax evasion? Get the law changed and move on - tax is so "statist", this is the (new) age of the unaccountable corporation. They're not doing exactly the same things Gates did, but they are doing their things in the same style, and that's what actually works.

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    2. Re:being completely with out by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Aka "it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission".

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:being completely with out by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He knew what the big thing was, that's why he said the Internet was a fad. It also explains why you had to add third-party patches to Windows 3.11 to get your computer on the Internet.

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  3. Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with by laupark · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with his exact circumstances. It has to do with making use of YOUR special circumstances effectively. Capitalizing on each situatiin and conpunding the gains

    1. Re:Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with by Ryanrule · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most people dont have any special circumstances.

    2. Re:Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with by jonsmirl · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you want to get rich you need to partake in an activity that has the potential to generate a lot of money. I have often heard people complain that they give everything working in a job and can barely keep their heads above water. Get a clue, working in a job makes the company owner rich, not you. You also need to do something that amplifies your actions. For example it is hard for a doctor to get really rich. That's because they are paid per action they perform and there is no way to scale. If you invent a drug you can get really rich since the drug goes into a factory which amplifies your invention. You also need to understand the difference between capital and income. It is far easier to get rich off from capital transactions that it is off from income.

      Gates' success is impossible to replicate. He had a "first movers" advantage that is gone now. He was also greatly helped by "network effects". These are also things you need to understand to get really rich.

    3. Re:Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Again, the best chance most people have for "special circumstances" is to jump into the way of a rich person's car.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Step 1 to being like BG has nothing to do with by jonsmirl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Starting your own company is a huge piece of it since it gives you the capital piece. Do you know about IRS section 1202 stock? With 1202 stock your first $10M of capital gains is tax free. 1202 stock is Small Business Stock. The federal government and many states do not tax gains from this type of stock since it is a major way jobs are created.

      But... this company has to have an amplification effect. That is why it is so easy to make a lot of money in software. The marginal cost of 'amplification' (making another copy) is zero. Zero amplifications costs really lowers the amount of capital you need. It is certainly possible to start a software company while working else where to cover your basic expenses.

  4. Survivorship Bias by ptaff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Misconception: You should focus on the successful if you wish to become successful.

    The Truth: When failure becomes invisible, the difference between failure and success may also become invisible.

    Survivorship Bias; You Are Not So Smart

  5. Let me see here by burtosis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So I shouldn't have a extremely wealthy family, who is well connected, and further take vast sums of money to start a business - and if it fails just take even more money to try again? I'm pretty sure that is possibly the single most consistent detail of the success stories of the super wealthy.

    1. Re:Let me see here by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Going off our president and many others I'm starting to think being smart is a hinderance. Having an ounce of decency or a single moral fiber almost assuredly is.

  6. Why you shouldn't imitate yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was very active in startups between 1995 and 2000. Many entrepreneurs made a lot of money, and many lost the money again, because after the trick that earned them the cash, they thought they were pretty smart and wanted to replicate the success by investing in newer startups. Then they found out the hard way it wasn't how smart or special they are that made them successful at first, but that they were at the right place at the right time.

  7. Re:Education and hard work by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The most successful ones, though, combined psychopathy with the hard work of others.

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  8. Jokes aside, it's not hard by RevDisk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To get rich you need three things.

    Hard work - Don't discount this. Yes, connections and money make things easier, but it still takes work. A lot of it.
    Intelligence - Hardest work on the planet won't always get you further.
    Sheer flat out luck - Being the hardest working smart person doesn't help if you get a crippling illness or just at the wrong time. Being born wealthy or with connections is genetic lottery.

    You pretty much need a lot of all three to get super wealthy. Two will get you into a decent place and you'll do fine.

  9. If you just work hard enough you can do it too by bravecanadian · · Score: 4, Informative

    You'll be super rich and successful too, honest. Just listen to all the successful people who believe this...

    Sure, hard work is part of it, but as this article points out it is only part of it. Coming from the correct womb and happening to be in the right place at the right time seems to have a lot more to do with it.

    There are plenty of people who work their asses off and get no where.

  10. Just close enough to the truth to be misleading. by feenberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is true that there are a lot of people that claim that since monopolists are successful and charge high prices for poor products, you can become successful by charging high prices for a poor product. That generally doesn't work for non-monopolists. On the other hand, the emphasis on Bill G's parents does ignore the fact that IBM offered the same opportunity to Digital Research, which turned them down. And IBM offered a word processor of its own - can't have more advantages than that - and it failed in the marketplace. It also offered an OS - what happened to that? Maybe it was higher quality than Windows, but it was 10 times as expensive and the only print driver it came with was for a single dot-matrix printer.