It’s been said a person learns more from their failures than from their successes. That may be true but the lessons learned can be very different from person to person. One of the big factors is the cost of failure.
Does anyone else get sick and tired of hearing about a person’s many failures before they found success? If you have wealth or come from a family with resources failure isn’t too dire. Heck, someone will probably end up writing it off their taxes. Nobody is going to miss any meals.
If a person of little means fails the costs can be dramatic. Say someone invests their pitiful life savings in a business and it goes under. Those savings are gone and sorely missed. There’s no money to try again. Vehicles and houses are repossessed. Meals are missed. The stress tears families apart.
It’s said the way to win big is to risk big. That’s not exactly useful. For every big winner there are a multitude of losers. Only a person of means can afford to keep risking big.
It’s not just mistakes in business that are hazardous for the poor. Let’s say that, against the odds, you get a degree in a high paying field. Odds are big student loans will be necessary. That expensive degree better pay well. What if you get that job and find you hate it? A well off person can quit and find something else. The person with massive loans has to suck it up or get financially destroyed. Remember, not matter what, student loans have to be repaid.
Obviously the system is rigged in favor of the well off. Once you understand the game you can decide how to play it. It’s not a surprise that hustle culture is falling out of favor. Most of the benefits of the hustle don’t go to the hustler but to the businesses they serve. Many people are reclaiming their time and taking better care of the health, both physical and mental. The risks of going for the big score are too high for many people. Instead they are looking for a balance that will make them happy instead of rich.
-Sixbears
Rigged? You mean rigged like having the family resources to have a daughter give up a summer to drive a backup vehicle for a bucket list event?
ReplyDeleteOf course life is Rigged. Always was, will always be. Folks with a little more CAREFULLY USED will always have an edge on the spendthrifts and folks who will do the least effort in any project.
If you were lazy, you'd not have prepared your scooter and spend your extra time and money (both assets) to improve your chances of success in the Scooter run.
You rigged the odds in your favor.
Most folks that are doing well, carefully estimated the risk-effort-reward and live well below their means.
Doing so and passing on the accumulated wealth and skills to their kids gave THEM a edge to do the same.
However, history is full of examples of the economic success upwards to be wasted and destroyed by the successors.
Thus the lifecycle of families and nations.
My annoyance is that those with means seriously downplay their advantages. Just because they can do it they think anyone can.
DeleteI know my advantages and understand not everyone has them.
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