Brilliant post. There are plenty of those people around, who risked it all and lost. Still, I think the vast majority of business owners are neither super successful nor super failures. Even in the IT field, most are just coasting by, with decent incomes but nothing spectacular. And of course this is precisely what one would expect in an efficient market. Take, for example, a tech startup I invested in 15 years ago. At the time, the owner had huge dreams and everything seemed very promising. He is still going at it, making some money, but nothing near what he was shooting for. He has maybe 5-6 big clients who pay the bills and everyones modest salaries, and that is it.

It is true that a large percentage of the prettiest girls only go out with guys who hame fame and/or fortune. Nevertheless, it is not so difficult to find a more average looking girl who has a stellar personality. Personally, I would much rather have the latter. I have met lots of nerds with money, and many of them have these incredibly boring, but beautiful "trophy wives" on their arms. And as soon as their investments go bust, these same ladies skip town with half the remaining assets.

I completely agree. Throughout my life, I have met lots of extremely wealthy people and gotten to know many of them quite well. What they all have in common is that they have started small and worked extremely hard, in addition to 1) having a good deal of luck in that they were young and started their businesses in a period with high economic growth 2) generally being amoral and rather cynical 3) completely sacrificing their family life and 4) being extremely intelligent. All of them started out thinking that they would make their money first and then start enjoying other parts of life. In the end though, when they are 35-40 years old a very rich, they have completely identified with their work and find other parts of life quite boring. And because they have neglected all their non-work skills, those skills have by this time atrophied quite significantly.

Hmmm, well I have seen lots of guys start out with precisely the attitude that you have. Then they meet that "amazing girl," they decide to have kids, they decide that in order to support the kids, the guy should have a regular job, and then suddenly he gets precisely that "average" lifestyle which everyone dreads. Once love enters the picture, all the well-laid plans fall by the wayside. Even the prospect of working 16 hours a day seems quite lame, when you instead could spend half of that time with a very special girl and she tells you that she doesn't care if you are a "failure" or a "success." She just wants to be with you... Of course, you could say that you'll never fall in love, but in reality it is very difficult to control. Once that one-in-a-million girl shows up, few guys would be single-minded enough to pass her up.

Good points. What you say about congratulations implying completion is very interesting and something I have not seen mentioned before. BTW, those two "stunning girls" you met on the cruise, were they by any chance about 65 years old, with fanny packs and dyed hair? I think I saw them here in Cartagena, Colombia the other day...

Completely agree with this. When politicians and others harp on how poor people "have no chance," they are in effect creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Well, I completely agree with your premise that it is totally different for someone like you or me to be a "minimalist" etc.. However, at the same time, what these unfortunate people need more than anything is someone to inspire them. Someone to say hey you can do this! Because in their world, most people are worn out, broken down, negative, cynical, toxic...Even small choices like hanging out with more positive people and eating healthier are small steps to fulfill any goals they may have.

Brilliant analysis. It is pretty typical of the government to pervert the incentives in the free market, then point fingers at that same free market, as soon as things blow up.

Very true! And you also see that when and where there is this questioning, reasoning spirit that Tynan talks about, there is also huge economic and technological progress. Imagine if every factory worker and farmer in the world asked "how can this be done more efficiently?" then communicated his ideas to the owners or himself put those changes into practice. We would literally see a revolution in terms of economic growth and the way most people work.

I see this even more in Latin America, than in the US. The fact that you, an American, is even posting this kind of blog and getting responses shows that at least some part of the population is thinking and questioning things. In most other countries, that is not even the case. Everyone is on autopilot!