Then we should first define "success" before continuing the conversation. I worry there might be a bit of a No True Scotsman problem, working backwards from the conclusion of laziness preventing success.
The typical definition of "successful" is almost synonymous with "wealthy" except for popular artists (broadly defined) who for some reason aren't able to earn from their work or achieved popularity posthumously.
Do you anecdotally know someone who said "John is a son of a magnate who does nothing all day, he is so successful"?
There is a different situation when the successor generation multiplies the wealth, but that already takes some effort and good judgment.
Yes, though they don't emphasize the doing-nothing. Further, it's easy for a wealthy person to mask doing nothing with appearing busy yet effectively being a socialite.
> There is a different situation when the successor generation multiplies the wealth, but that already takes some effort and good judgment.
It may take good judgement, but not much effort. VTSAX and chill, as the kids say.
I grew up around the kids of very wealthy people, often multi-generational wealth. Most decided to have jobs. Some had very impressive careers, but when you realize that first opportunity was only because of a parental connection, suddenly it seems a bit hollow. It's not hard to appear wise and smart when you're wealthy, and then you can simply not fuck up and the rest of the pyramid keeps chugging along.
Case in point, Trump. He is a lazy fuck-up, but somehow managed to appear "successful" to a large portion of America.
Frankly, that sounds depressing. Seen like that, people who were born to wealthy parents have no way to prove their own quality. They will always be suspected to be just lucky and riding the easy wave.
"then you can simply not fuck up"
There is nothing simple about that. I consider myself fairly smart and I fucked up royally several times in my life. It did not destroy me, I was able to put the pieces together, but none of the decisions seemed bad at that time, either to me or to people I consulted it with. There is a lot of traps out there.
For a start, don't join Dad's company as VP when you're 22.
Luckily, they don't need to prove quality, because wealth is a good enough proxy indicator for almost everyone. If you're talking about proving to oneself, then they're on the same footing as everyone else.
> don't fuck up
Easy: don't do anything. Leave the money where it is. Take an annual allowance.
I think you're saying it's hard to have the self control to not meddle, to not insert oneself into the power nexus? I suppose. Hubris is human.
The first opportunity is always the toughest. Also grew up around wealthy people, vast majority of them fall into the category you describe.
I was lucky to meet someone early in my adulthood who would always stress "What part did YOU do?" "Show me YOUR code"
What I like about him is you can't get the bullshit you describe past him. He always breaks down what you say into the most simplest form to ascertain what truth exists within your words. He won't let you ride another person's coattail.
In a modern economy most "business owners" are passive shareholders who literally do nothing for that money. I am a partial business owner of many enormous corporations via my retirement account. I don't do any work for any of them, and yet, they continually send me money. Strange!
When investing in a corporation, there is no guarantee that you will gain profit from it, you can even lose your entire investment.
If you were a long-term Nokia shareholder, you would have lost a lot of money since, say, 2005.
When you invest, you put the value of your previous work at stake. You can retroactively sink your work (= money that you earned from it) into a black hole.
> When you invest, you put the value of your previous work at stake.
What was the "previous work" I did when I inherited my father's Walmart stock?
Let us hope that they won't get sucked into plots of the next Bernie Madoff, who will likely come one day.
> What was the "previous work" I did when I inherited my father's Walmart stock?
True, I was thinking about investments of surpluses from your salary.
There's a lot of emotional baggage around rich people, but if you strip it down to individual situations it's pretty simple. I've worked for people ranging from small business owners scraping out $50k a year all the way up to billionaires. How hard they work has no correlation to the money they have. I don't resent a boss with money, I resent a boss who isn't working as hard as me, and most founders/business owners I've worked for have worked harder than everyone else.