
47% of the world’s wealthy people are entrepreneurs - bjonathan
http://www.economist.com/node/17929057
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pohl
What percentage of entrepreneurs are wealthy?

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rokhayakebe
I guess 5%. That is the success rate for businesses.

What I would like to know is how the other half got wealthy.

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marilyn
You must consider too that many entrepreneurs start several businesses through
out the course of their lives. For each attempt, an entrepreneur would
increase his/her chances at attaining wealth by 5%, no?

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aliston
Well, if you wanted to be a real geek about it, given n attempts, your chances
of a single success are 1 - (.95 ^ n)... but I'd also like to think that an
entrepreneurial endeavor is not pure chance.

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electromagnetic
> I'd also like to think that an entrepreneurial endeavor is not pure chance.

Agreed, I don't think you'll ever succeed in your business attempts if you're
not providing something new, original or just not established in the area.
You'll make a killing opening a coffee shop in a moderate sized town - as long
as there's not 3 Starbucks already there.

There's a lot to business beyond the idea, hence it's important to be a
businessman once you've succeeded your entrepreneurial dream of getting a
company started. You don't want your company to fail just because you fucked
up and didn't file your taxes.

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axiom
"The global wealth pyramid has a very wide base and a sharp point. The richest
1% of adults control 43% of the world’s assets; the wealthiest 10% have 83%.
The bottom 50% have only 2%."

Why do they never think to age adjust these damn numbers? is it not common
sense that you can't compare a 22 yearold college grad entering the workforce
with $50k in debt to a 65 yearold lawyer about to retire?

I guess because then the numbers stop looking so shocking.

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brudgers
Recent college graduates are an insignificant fraction of the poorer half of
the world's population.

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jdminhbg
Are recent college graduates and everyone younger than them an insignificant
fraction?

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brudgers
Almost half the world's population lives on less than $2 per day.
[http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-
afficher.do?id=120118...](http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-
afficher.do?id=1201183330593&lang=eng)

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jdminhbg
That didn't answer the question at all, it made an orthogonal, moralizing
interjection.

About 45% of the world's population is 24 or younger:
<http://sasweb.ssd.census.gov/idb/worldpopinfo.html>

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brudgers
How is that evidence in support of the thesis that age correlates with income
or wealth once one adjusts for the increased mortality which correlates to
poverty?

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muhfuhkuh
The biggest surprise is the blinding speed in which Asia has caught up with
the rest of the world, both in total population of millionaires (equal with
Europe) and in total assets accumulated (almost as much as the US).

I slum it in political forums often (I had to wean myself off of /r/politics
just to get IRL stuff done!), and the prevailing wisdom of the crowds always
think that the wealth in Asia is more concentrated into distinct industrial
silos filled with nepotistic back-alley corruption and Politburo greed; which
might well be the case, but it looks like some real entrepreneurial success is
creeping in there!

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jacquesm
Not much of a surprise there. If you ship all your manufacturing to an area
and then proceed to get yourself hip-deep in debt to buy the stuff they make
then the balance will shift rapidly.

Asia always had the long view, it's the West that is on a three monthly myopic
'quarterly earnings reports' schedule that makes it look as though we're
making the right decisions but actually we're setting ourselves up for a bit
fall. The cycle repeats.

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galactus
How are they counting people with rich parents who started their own business?
As having inherited their fortune or as entrepreneurs?

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brudgers
That's a way in which the article is deliberately misleading. Inheritance is
just one way in which wealth is transferred intergenerationally. By
highlighting the small percentage, the article creates a false impression that
a significant amount wealth is bootstrapped by individuals.

That got me thinking about the obvious question - how are they counting people
who married into wealth? They have 23% getting wealth from employment, 16%
from inheritance, and 43% from owning a business. That only leaves 14% for
spouses (less lottery winners, malpractice award recipients, etc.) That just
doesn't seem correct - considering the frequency of marriage among adults.

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dotBen
The report says 16% inherited their wealth.

That means that 56% of people who earned their wealth (ie not inherited) did
so as entrepreneurs.

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candeira
Your calculation assumes that entrepreneurs and people who inherited their
wealth are disjoint sets. Not so: many rich entrepreneurs got their start in
life and fortune by inheriting a successful company.

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thinkingeric
Not to mention that they can inherit 'assets' other than wealth: connections,
experience, confidence, cushion, as well as less consequential financial
support that just makes their lives a bit more fulfilling.

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nreece
In other words, 53% of the world's wealthy people are not entrepreneurs.

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jacquesm
Let's take that as true, how many entrepreneurs are there versus the total
population?

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swombat
100% of the population are entrepreneurs, but most of them don't know it and
have delegated the running of their business to someone else under very tax-
inefficient and unprofitable deals.

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jacquesm
Changing definitions in the middle of a conversation is like changing the
rules in the middle of a game.

~~~
swombat
I.e., it's good fun: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic>

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dedward
Their definition of "Rich" is flawed in my mind, or at least not very
meaningful...but that aside.

Is it any surprise that about half of the people in the world who are
"wealthy" by some definition spend their time... investing in and starting
businesses? Creating jobs? Investing?

If they redefined their definition of "Wealthy people" to not look at net
worth and instead look at income earned from investments -vs- living expenses,
then look at the people who aren't in the red - then we'd probably find that
near 100% of them were entrepeneurs of some kind.

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gohat
Yes, entrepreneurial ism is how you make a lot of money.

That or massive entitlements in commodities from the government. Or just
growing a basic commodity compony, like a steel firm.

So not surprised by this statistic.

To make a lot of money, it's good to be an entrepreneur. But being an
entrepreneur isn't necessarily good for making a lot of money.

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ericmsimons
Being an entrepreneur is one of the few fields where your ingenious mind and
relentless motivation will always pay off. I haven't met one true entrepreneur
that hasn't built something really friggen' cool and had a burning passion
that fueled that fire.

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alsomike
LOL: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman>

------
known

        Employment is to *survive* in life
        Entrepreneurship is to *succeed* in life

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dedward
Whoah there - let's not be defining everyone's intentions for them, or be
looking down on emloyment.

If it's not for YOU, and doesn't meet your definition of success - that's
perfectly fine - but good luck telling me that that I'm just "getting by" and
"not succeeding".

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6ren
Real estate prices in Australia have pretty much gotten to the point that if
you own your own home, you are a millionaire.

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dedward
The problem with throwing the home in there, and in looking at "net worth"
-vs- "net income" is that things like your house don't generate income. Having
a million dollar house and $50/month leftover to spend on fun puts you in the
same position on a day to day basis as the guy who, after rent and bills, has
$50/month leftover to spend on fun. I mean it puts you in the same place in
terms of "I'm rich, I can do whatever I want" - neither of you have f-you
money. Neither can just go do whatever they want. Guy who owns the house has
more equity he can borrow against if he has to... he also has to take care of
that house. Renting guy renting -but he's mobile, and can pass a lot of
expenses on to others. He can just cut his living expenses by a bunch and live
in a cheaper place if he needs more income.

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forinti
What percentage of entrepreneurs are poor or middle-class?

Market economies aren't made up of millionaires and billionaires only.

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durbin
This headline is why I went to Babson in a nutshell.

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cadr
Do you think going to Babson made you a better entrepreneur? I know they have
a good reputation as such, I was just wondering about your experience.

