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Re:Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-st... by TheOtherHobbes on Friday October 23, 2020 @09:17AM (#24869146)
It's striking just how few billionaires come from genuinely low-status backgrounds. Gates, Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Buffet, and so on were not born dirt poor.

And those that do invariably either had a scene they could grow into - like Steve Jobs orbiting around HP and landing at Atari in his earliest days, which wouldn't have happened if he'd been living in (say) Idaho.

Or they have some questionable connections and history - Russian oligarchs being the ideal examples, although there are others.

Re:Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-st... by haagen on Friday October 23, 2020 @12:30PM (#24871201)
When your family is extremely well off, it can lead to the real or subconscious understanding that there is no long term downside to failure. Money will come to you anyhow eventually.

I rarely hear the argument that the USA needs gov funded heath care, BECAUSE it would be good for entrepreneurs. It's a bit like being part of a wealthy family :)

Re:Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-st... by bluedino on Friday October 23, 2020 @10:55AM (#24870115)
To be fair, Idaho Jobs would have hopped into the first VW bus going to California.
Re:Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-st... by poulsbohemian on Friday October 23, 2020 @12:39PM (#24871307)
JR Simplot was the wealthiest man in Idaho for a long time, and if I recall correctly didn't get through high school and was the perfect model for the kind of low-status signaling addressed above.
Re:Underrated predictor of success: willingness to be low-st... by madaxe_again on Friday October 23, 2020 @10:25AM (#24869832)
The causality perhaps isn’t as clear cut as you might think.

Folks who come from a high status background tend to be more willing to do low status things, because doing so doesn’t undermine their status, which comes from elsewhere.