Post: #76

To the op, your friend sounds like he's the type who says he's gonna do A2M from Jessica Alba to Charlize Theron, while Olga Kurylenko is sucking his balls. Obviously he's got some "positive mindset" thing going on, but I'd just find that offputting. It makes him look silly.

Anyway, its an interesting topic as it raises lots of points. Firstly, you have to look at who he's looking to emulate. True self made legitimate billionaires are far rarer than many people think. Money is inherited, people are front men for organisations ("standardbearers" etc), people launder money or commit major frauds or are involved in heavy criminality. People get positions as part of some elaborate croney capitalism etc etc. But if you look in the "Times Rich List" it will assure you they are purer than the driven snow and started out by investing their unemployment benefit cheque or some lame story. I can think of a few "household names" where I know the official line is absolute shite and the business's engine for growth was actually crime/inheritance or whatever in substantial part.

I set myself some pretty lofty goals when I was 22. The problem with targetting very high levels of wealth is that some businesses are scaleable at low levels. Some only really work when you are starting with lots of money. I knew a guy who became a millionaire owning a pub. No money laundering, no wonderful business concept. He was an objectionable prick that bought just when the local university was expanding. Could he repeat that with 2, 3 or 100 pubs? Absolutely not. Likewise hedge funds or office development are a good way to turn big money into bigger money. But you need a fair bit of money, skills and connection to get started. True self made billionaires (or even say 70m plus networthers) often struggle for a LONG time before reaching success. James Dyson is a good example of that. And he admits that his billions today still don't compensate for the hardship and poverty he experienced in the past. I had to make sacrifices for longer term gain. You're losing out on fun in quality years, I'm not sure its always worth it.

Often extreme wealth is no different from winning the lottery. I'm thinking the guy behind Skype, Michael Dell, Fuckerberg etc. Atleast Gates had a scaleable plan. Even if Windows failed, he'd built a really good business in software and computer games etc.

I'd say to people, take a look at the REAL lives of super wealthy, or apparently super wealthy people. Your money isn't for you, its for hosting parties for 200/500 people who aren't your friends, and funding charities you don't even believe in. Often your "friends" are scumbags who'll drop you in a flash after they are caught stealing, or you aren't any use to them. You could be one step away from 15 yrs in jail, just on a change of government. Imagine that hanging over your head for decades. Billionaires often aren't alpha in the red pill sense. Their central nervous system is oftern too stressed to build muscle, they can look old before their time. Consumed in their work for years/decades even and one day they wake up and think "fuck I never knew I was THAT old"! The women they marry are often plain as fuck or like prostitutes in every sense of the word.Effectively they're a form of geek in many cases.

Finally, I'd ask people, whether they really want to BE a billionaire ie simply numbers on a screen? Or just live like one/a very wealthy person? Self made billionaires are either criminals/front men/trust fund kids OR people who just love their business. Why earn 1bn to have 5 of your 6 houses empty? And your 100m yacht unused for 46 weeks of the year. Do you want your home full of virtual strangers most weeks? People visiting and won't shift 2 weeks later, unless you ask them to? I've seen what huge mansions and the like bring to some people.

I think there's actually something a little diseased about the billionaire lifestyle that MTV and the like promote to us. Its actually a poor use of resources and worships money for money's sake. Rather than rewarding talent, skill and effort. True self made billionaires often know the system needs changing. And quite a group of them have voiced disapproval of the idea of their kids getting large (or even ANY) inheritances.

Anyway, billionaires need to optimise resources to become billionaires. Its ironic that when they reach that stage, they build up assets that are actually left to rot, literally on many occasions. I think the solution for aspiring red pillers might lie more in fractional ownership, lifestyle concierge services and generally networking among fellow redpillers. That opens up the jet set lifestyle to far more, and its a far better use of resources for everyone.

Post: #77

I also told my friends I would become really rich. After years of hardship and not giving up I'm not rich per se, but still way ahead of anyone I know at my age. On my journey I've faced great failures and been humbled many times. It's tough and sometimes you wonder if it's worth it. I have just failed more times people at my age has ever tried and I constantly work at evolving. I've also lived a great life with tons of travelling, cool experiences, great people and women.

I have had plenty of luck including growing up poor in a non-religious home, in a great country, never had serious sickness and some of my relatives and close friends were/are wonderful.

My traits are my hunger, curiosity and good people skills. Being brutally honest with yourself also helps (the first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool - Feynman)

There's a difference between saying something out and actually going for it. When I said it to my friends I was super naive so I learnt many things the hard way. But I kept at it shooting for the stars. If he really meant it and is still at it, the numbers say he won't reach the billion. But even if he fails, he might end up considerably better than most.

Post: #78

It's cool that he has a positive mindset, but that's not going to make it happen.

Ignoring the billionaires who became one via inheritance (such as a family business) / crime / marriage, the main way billionaires get to where they are is through a business.

If you want to become just well-off, you either head to Silicon Valley, Wall Street, enterprise sales or you exploit some rare ability such as being artistic or athletic at the world-class level.

If you want to become rich, the only way is really through a business. Now unless you start a hedge fund (which requires lots of money to start anyways), I don't think becoming a billionaire is really planned. Rather, you put the business into a spot from which it can scale, and from there it can either scale to "only a few million" or go all the way into the billions.

I've talked to only a handful of billionaires (in the tech world specifically), and every single one of them were at least partly surprised (if not shocked) that there business scaled to the level it did that made them cross into the 10-figure range.

Point being, your friend once a shot to shoot for the stars. Good for him, even if he misses, he might end up well-off, 8-9 figures, etc, which are hardly bad places to be.

Post: #79

The few replies in this thread that I actually did read just illustrate why I keep my goals to myself.

Any time you project a limiting belief upon another person, you chip away at their psyche and hurt their chances of success. If you don't cause them to question themselves right then, you've still subconsciously affected them... and not in a good way.

Anyone who wants to ever be successful on the highest level needs to get the hell out of this thread and never come back. Even though I'm sure everyone here is well meaning, this content is pure poison. I repeat. Leave this thread and don't come back.

Post: #80

(09-20-2015 12:33 PM)pitt Wrote:  Is he day dreaming?

I know this kid who is 22, he is probably one of the most intelligent person I have ever met, if not the most intelligent. He works hard, he is smart and he is business oriented. As today he doesn't have much money if any.

He keeps on telling me that he will be will a billionaire before he is 30. He reminds me of the old me, I used to say I was going to be a millionaire before I was 30 and I am far from being a millionaire even though I am almost 30 (my case is different, I lost focus and got more into travelling and girls and cared less about money).

I tell him that I see him having a great future but making one billion before you are 30 is very very hard, taking into account that he is dominican and this country (DR) doesn't offer him many opportunities, his goal may not be so realistic. Obviously I didn't really say that to him and I don't want to discourage him.

Are guys in their 20's planning to become billionaires before 30 not being realistic with their goals?

Has he managed to get excited over receiving a huge inheritance from deceased grandparents and is smart enough to invest it than blow it, discovered amazing retail arbitrage opportunities within his area, dealing drugs or yet a ponzi scheme we are not aware about?

Post: #81

He is not even worth 20k as right now (he is 26), however, he works hard and I am sure he will be better off than the average person 10 years from now, not sure about being a billionaire though.

Post: #82

(08-24-2018 06:40 AM)pitt Wrote:  He is not even worth 20k as right now (he is 26), however, he works hard and I am sure he will be better off than the average person 10 years from now, not sure about being a billionaire though.

So let me put this straight:

He was 23 and worth zero 3 years ago.

Now he has managed to accumulate 20k in 3 years and he is 4 years away from wanting to become a billionaire.

If he worked like crazy and saved like crazy, then it's possible to have accumulated 250-300k just by solid work alone in that time-frame.

Most billionaires often started out as millionaires or coming from wealthy well-connected families even if they did start out having a solid capital. Trump for example just multiplied his - his grandfather made the first millions, his father built on that and he expanded it even more.

The other venues are businesses that are started, but then extrapolate faster than anyone could have foreseen and what is a 50 mio. $ idea and business turns into a 50 bio. $ business as it encompasses the entire world. (Ikea for example, but also many others) And even there - the number of startups initiated by sons of wealthy men is impressive, because they often attempt more and have it easier to attract capital (Bill Gates etc)

The goal is there to become wealthy, to have your business grow and be successful. How much that can grow depends on the growth-potential of that very business.

Post: #83

(08-24-2018 06:40 AM)pitt Wrote:  He is not even worth 20k as right now (he is 26), however, he works hard and I am sure he will be better off than the average person 10 years from now, not sure about being a billionaire though.

You can work very hard digging a hole in your yard.

After ten years, you will have a very big hole in your yard.

Success, first and foremost, is about realizing that time and energy are finite resources and identifying the times when you should not be working hard. If this guy is working hard and getting ahead to the tune of $500/mo, he has not mastered this skill.

Post: #84

Anyone who's goal is to become a billionaire will never be one. People who become billionaires become one because they focus 110% of everything on a specific idea/thing and do it better than anyone else. If someone focuses on being a billionaire they already lost.

Was Mark Zuckerberg focused on being a billionaire or was he focused on creating the best social media platform he possibly could?

Was Steve Job focused on becoming a billionaire or was he focused on making the best phone/computer he could?

Post: #85

(08-29-2018 01:24 AM)Shimmy Wrote:  Anyone who's goal is to become a billionaire will never be one. People who become billionaires become one because they focus 110% of everything on a specific idea/thing and do it better than anyone else. If someone focuses on being a billionaire they already lost.

Was Mark Zuckerberg focused on being a billionaire or was he focused on creating the best social media platform he possibly could?

Was Steve Job focused on becoming a billionaire or was he focused on making the best phone/computer he could?

That's all that needs to be said!

Post: #86

(09-20-2015 01:34 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

(09-20-2015 12:33 PM)pitt Wrote:  I know this kid who is 22, he is probably one of the most intelligent person I have ever met, if not the most intelligent. He works hard, he is smart and he is business oriented. As today he doesn't have much money if any.

I also know a guy who claims he "only chills with dimes," but has a washed-up club hoochie--who wears way too much makeup, and too-high high-heels, for the occasion--as his girlfriend. She also could stand to drop 20 clicks, and is on the wrong side of 15-year trip from puberty to wall collision. Another guy I know, whenever we go out and see 20-years-old hotties walking around with half their ass hanging out, will say--with a straight face--that he "would consider hitting that up" if he didn't have the "most beautiful wife." Even by a generous estimate, she was a 5.5 on her wedding day. He also has no game. In fact, he's one the biggest cockblockers I've ever met.

A lot of dudes are delusional.

I've met one certified billionaire my whole life, and maybe 2-3 children of billionaires. That's probably above the mean statistically, and is a tiny-tiny fraction of the people I've met in my years. So the odds are stacked against anyone becoming a billionaire, never mind by age 30. In none of those cases were they self-made. They had inherited--or stood to inherit--a greater part of their riches. They certainly hadn't done so by age 30. Making a billion on your own takes extraordinary accomplishment, often at extraordinary moments in a given field. Dr. Dre--arguably the greatest hip-hop star of all time--didn't do so till like last year, at age 50. Mark Cuban did it at around 40, at the height of one of the largest booms in financial history. This friend of the OP, in not so many words, is claiming to be one to two decades better than these two cats.

I consider the fact that he's "intelligent" a further liability. The type of smarts you describe and being wealthy are often inversely correlated. Smart doesn't equal smart doesn't smart. The smarts that make you billions is different than the smarts that make you good at calculus or writing a term paper. I'm willing to bet serious money that you put me in a room with this guy, and I'm "smarter" than him in most fields of the arts and sciences. Am I billionaire? No. Do I think I could become one in 8 years? No. To keep with the examples above, Mark Cuban and Dr. Dre are smarter than 10 versions of me stacked up on top of each other when it comes to business acumen and conjuring things of extraordinary value out of their surroundings.

"Smarts" in a man are about as common as bangability is in a pool of non-fat women, in the 18-22 age range. This is a bit like these chicks who are cute for a hot minute, on the simple laws of youth and peak fertility, and think they're "models." Just like it takes a lot more than a pair of daisy duke shorts and an Instagram account to make a model, it takes a lot more than confidence and the very-common trait of being kinda smart to make a billionaire.

This guy sounds like a moron. Nothing wrong with being confident in your general success--say, believing you can be a millionaire by a certain age, like the OP did, or accomplish something else that's difficult but attainable--but this degree of unrealistic sureness in yourself is more of a statement about his generation than of his "hard work" or talent. It also speaks to his naivete: clear in his fundamental failure to understand the context in which he's growing up. Being 22 and ambitious in 2015 isn't the same as being 22 and ambitious in 1980 or even 1990.

Social media seems to have not only made a generation of women delusionally over-confident, but also a generation of men.

I think you made excellent points, I am now starting to believe that my friend is totally delusional. He is barely making any money at the moment (no more than 1k a month, he will be 27 next week) and he is still very confident that he will be a billionaire. I just asked him few minutes ago, from 0 to 100, what are the chances of you ever becoming a billionaire? He told me 80 to 90%, he said he is sure he will be a billionaire. Clearly being delusional and he understands a lot about probability and statistics, I can't believe he thinks his chances of becoming a billionaire are 80% minimum. I just introduced him to my line of work (sports betting) and he was already telling me how we can make 40 million dollars a year doing sports betting (hahahahahah). I actually used to believe that may be he would end up being a billionaire one day but now I think he is wayyyyy too delusional. It's hurting me to find out that he is just a delusional person. Although he has really good business ideas, I am 99% sure that he will never be a billionaire, hopefully I get this wrong because he is so confident about himself hahaha.

Post: #87

You should tell your friend about the scam where you skim fractions of pennies off the tops of financial transactions and hope nobody notices the rounding error. See: Superman II.

This is presently his best chance at becoming a billionaire.

Post: #88

Wasn't that Superman III with Richard Pryor?

Post: #89

Not impossible.

Post: #90

Your friend can make 40 million dollars a year sports betting but can has only saved 20k in 3 years?

Post: #91

It's a bit weird how he said he would jump straight to billionaire. I've told people I'd become a millionaire in the future and people have laughed that off when that isn't even a lot of money these days. A lot of people have weird beliefs but I'm much more interested in their reasoning. Why does a regular guy think he can become a billionaire in USD terms? Is it a gag where he means billionaire in terms of Venezuelan dollars or other worthless currency?

Post: #92

(03-20-2019 02:17 PM)edlefou Wrote:  Wasn't that Superman III with Richard Pryor?

Shit. You're right.

I guess he'll never be a billionaire now.

Post: #93

You know what I find interesting, why the hell would you even want to be a billionare at all?

I want someone to explain to me how my life (or anyone's in theory) would be at all improved by being a billionaire instead of simply a millionaire with $1 million or $100 million.

As cool as it sounds to have useless and unnecessary fancy looking objects like cars, mansions and you name it all, its just completely pointless. I can only see more burden, responsibility and trouble with having such a large amount of money. That is keeping it safe from theft, keeping spending under control etc.

The only purpose I could see would be some kind of political, esoteric or world control purpose. Look at who most of the billionares are: Bill Gates, Soros, East European Oligarchs, Jeff Bezos and etc.

What do all these people have in common? They're all philanthropists!

(There's much more i could say, but since I'm a low post new member for now, i'll hold myself back from being banned by getting too political since i'm not sure what the minimum threshold for commenting on such matters is)

Post: #94

I'm 40 and at this point fine with not being a billionaire or millionaire.

I have 3 children and a family that love me, unconditionally.

I make decent money. The difference between this ans a billion dollars is made up adequately by this love.

If I ever got into the field I am passionate about, it is possible. However, may be too late.

My point is that there are bigger and better things out there than $.

Post: #95

Its good to see that I'm not the only one thinking along these lines.

Post: #96

There is a saying that vision without execution is delusion.

Post: #97

(03-19-2019 07:27 PM)Jetset Wrote:  You should tell your friend about the scam where you skim fractions of pennies off the tops of financial transactions and hope nobody notices the rounding error. See: Superman II.

This is presently his best chance at becoming a billionaire.

Also Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Season 1, episode 14: Automated Capitalism – ¥€$.