Ok, but the comparison was to a 9-to-5 job, not gambling.

That's even more of a no-brainer, as an average 9-5 has practically zero upside, so your net worth is likely to stay flat (if not even go down). We like to pretend that the /r/wallstreetbets or crypto people are crazy, but most are median earners that feel that there's no way to break out without gambling. When we look at the housing situation, most are sadly right.

What do people want? To marry a cute girl, buy a house, have a few kids, retire, go fishing; if they get that big promotion maybe even buy a boat. But this life is simply not attainable today.

I mean, you already probably know this, but the risk profile of a startup that fails is not that you keep your money constant. It’s that you’ve been spending it all on rent and utilities for the last 7 years and have nothing to show for it. You’re still gambling away your savings, at a much slower and controlled rate, and the house at least doesn’t have the advantage over you, but it’s still incomparable to the risk profile of a 9-to-5.

Yep, a 9-5 has no risk, but no upside. In my humble opinion, a startup provides the best "balance" between risk and upside for those of us that come from lower or lower-middle class. I think your 7-year example is a bit contrived, since (barring exceptions like biotech, space, etc.) if you're working on a project for more than 6 months without product-market fit and/or growth, you're doing something wrong.

I think think that is borderline dangerous advice. Most people don't have the mindset or proper understanding of the startup world. On avg if you enter the startup space you are going to get chewed up and spit out and find yourself looking in the mirror at a middle age face with nothing to show for a lifetime of work.

> That's even more of a no-brainer, as an average 9-5 has practically zero upside, so your net worth is likely to stay flat (if not even go down).

The average millionaire is just a schmuck with a high paying 9-5 job. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, generic corporate drones etc. I don't know where you got the idea that it's impossible to make more than a subsistence wage with a W2 job but you are wrong.

I personally find trading crypto to be lower risk than options trading. They have options-like returns, but without the theta decay - you have a longer time period to be on the correct side of the market.