Two Thirds of the Wealthiest People are Self-Made

So here’s something that I came across this morning:

from poor to billionaire — Thanks fundersandfounders.com

If you’d like to fact check, have a look at the Bloomberg Billionaires page. Things I learned interactively this morning:

As of yesterday, the Total Net Wealth of the 200 richest people (according to Bloomberg) is about $3 trillion.
Of those 200 people, 135 of them are “self-made”, and 65 inherited their wealth.

Self-made billionaires are definitely richer than the heirs of those self-made billionaires that are no longer with us.

Also, as of yesterday, 10 of the richest 10 people were all “self-made”.
As were 16 of the richest 20 people.

As far as I can tell, the biggest thing that they all have in common (apart from being really rich) is being really fortunate. Either born in the right place at the right time, or born into the legacy of someone who was once born at the right place at the right time.

And as I said last week, I completely disagree with the line “You can go from very small to VERY BIG, if you sweat enough”.

Most people sweat. Some people sweat more lucratively than others.

And if you were to graph the effort-reward ratio of work, I think that you’ll find that the really rich are just statistical outliers.

Rolling Alpha posts about finance, economics, and sometimes stuff that is only quite loosely related. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, or like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha. Or both.

Comments

Eric Setterberg November 12, 2015 at 10:05

Thanks for your insights… generally I agree with you…..but! Self made billionaires are not lucky, and they’re not billionaires because they worked harder than anyone else. Sure, they worked hard, but they also worked smart, and most importantly they risked their capital and time and they did not give up even when (much of) the world and their peers laughed at them. Billionaires only become billionaires if the market wants and can afford the product / service they offer. That’s not luck. Where would we be without the self made billionaires? Better off or worse of?

gina November 12, 2015 at 10:26

I work for someone who is exceedingly wealthy. I agree that he is a statistical outlier. However he is a statistical outlier, because he has the ability to think strategically differently to all other people that I have met. He also works 12 – 16 hours per day 7 days per week and never ever stops. His policy is work smart and only work on things where you can see they will actually make you profit – which means he works on about 20 things at a time.

Leon Hendricks November 12, 2015 at 16:30

Ok, why am I still working for someone…time to be a billionaire 😉

Eric Setterberg November 12, 2015 at 10:05

Thanks for your insights… generally I agree with you…..but! Self made billionaires are not lucky, and they’re not billionaires because they worked harder than anyone else. Sure, they worked hard, but they also worked smart, and most importantly they risked their capital and time and they did not give up even when (much of) the world and their peers laughed at them. Billionaires only become billionaires if the market wants and can afford the product / service they offer. That’s not luck. Where would we be without the self made billionaires? Better off or worse of?
gina November 12, 2015 at 10:26

I work for someone who is exceedingly wealthy. I agree that he is a statistical outlier. However he is a statistical outlier, because he has the ability to think strategically differently to all other people that I have met. He also works 12 – 16 hours per day 7 days per week and never ever stops. His policy is work smart and only work on things where you can see they will actually make you profit – which means he works on about 20 things at a time.
Leon Hendricks November 12, 2015 at 16:30

Ok, why am I still working for someone…time to be a billionaire 😉

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