Thank you – It was satisfying research. The “rags-to-riches” American story is SO PERVASIVE, it’s very difficult to read-between-the-lines to see what really happened.
Like this list of first jobs. It’s great they had first jobs. But it implies they pulled themeselves up along, by themselves, with just that minimum wage first job or something when that’s almost never the case at all.
It’s better to know the truth behind the mythologies so that one is prepared for the realities when working towards being wealthy.
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Kenneth Udut
9) Oprah Winfrey. Her father did not raise her at first. She was raised by her grandmother.
But: extremely important: He paid child support the entire time and more when needed. … See more
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Kenneth Udut
8 ) Steve Jobs. Oh how strange. He was set to be adopted by a pair of lawyers but ended up being adopted by an auto mechanic who tinkered with electronics in the garage, which is a hobby Jobs picked up from him.
His birth mother insisted that the parents be college graduates but these weren’t. But they signed a promise that they would sent Jobs to college, which allowed the adoption to go through.
It sounds that his parents were standard middle class. Not upper, not lower, just just right in the middle. Managing. Some described as ‘lower middle’ because they had to use their savings to buy another house but they had the savings to do so, which is middle-middle class level.
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Kenneth Udut
7) Sheryl Sandberg parents. Father was an ophthalmologist, Mother was a college professor of French.
Both of which together means an upper-middle class family – an extremely stable backing for business ventures to rest on when needed.
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Kenneth Udut
6) Jack Ma. Jack Ma’s parents were traditional Chinese musicians who also did storytelling to make money. A poor but happy family.
It seems that his wife, Zhang Ying, “supported all of his business ventures”. So he was able to lean on his wife financ… See more
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Kenneth Udut
5) Mark Cuban had both working parents. His mother did various jobs, his father made about $40k a year doing car upholstery which would have been in the 1970s/80s.
So his father made approx $120,243 a year in today’s money.
Particularly with his mother’s added income, that would be a middle class family who would be able to afford to sent their kids to college, which they could and did do.
Good solid American middle class dream. Not rags-to-riches but likely what you would need as a minimal cushion along with being a hustler you could make your way to success.
That is, there would at least be a couch for you at mom and dads house if you fail because they have their own act together and are stable.
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Kenneth Udut
4) Warren Buffet. It’s rare to find negative press about Buffett. I like Buffett too BUT his father was a stockbroker that later became a congressman. His exposure to his father dealing in stocks as a child inspired him.
“in 1930. His father, Howard Buffett, was a stockbroker and later a congressman. The family was comfortable but not exceptionally wealthy. Warren’s early exposure to the stock market through his father’s brokerage firm sparked his interest in investing, ”
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Kenneth Udut
3) Bezos:
Quarter of a million dollar investment by his parents in his ‘garage business’
https://www.cnbc.com/…/how-jeff-bezos-got-his-parents…
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Kenneth Udut
2) Musk’s dad and the emerald mine connection: (his mother also rarely gets mentioned but her business saavy when arriving in Canada was key)
https://web.archive.org/…/how-elon-musks-family-came-to…
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Kenneth Udut
1) Bill Gates
I’ll go through each and see who holds up. Having a ‘first job’ is nice – parents often make kids get jobs whether they need them or not – but was that instrumental to their future success or was it family help?
First: Bill Gates.