this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
1000 points (96.1% liked)

Greentext

6494 readers
1223 users here now

This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Literally had someone saying that earlier today. Something along the lines of "you don't become the richest person in the world without some competency." Just ignore the fact he started on third base...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

Not even. He started on home, he just claimed he ran there and for some reason people believed him even though he still had a bat in his hand.

Elon has had "Penisdick" written all over him since day one

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, yeah he had a lot of advantage, but he did have to do something right to become the richest man. But making some good gambles doesn't make you a good person nor does it mean you're great at everything.

Maybe he was good at finding companies at the right time to invest, but that means jack about any economic or political acumen. Same reason why we don't want businessmen in politics, being good at one thing does not mean you're good at everything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

He's a modern day Wilbur Ross, with some edits on background and rich-parent launchpad thrown in.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't know exactly how much his parents were worth, but his net worth has increased by many thousands of times. That's not "third base", saying he got where he is by luck and nepotism is just wilfully ignorant.

Trump, on the other hand, would have done better if he just left his money in a savings account.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I dunno, man, we could probably get into an entire dissertation about this, but I'm not totally convinced that most of these fabulously wealthy people didn't just fail upwards by throwing the spaghetti plate at the wall; the only difference between them and us is that, often, they start with a lot more spaghetti to throw

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Pretty much all of the three digit billions crowd are in tech of some description. There's definitely an element of being in the right place at the right time, but there's also a lot of business skills as well.

A lot of their success seems to be recognising an opportunity before anyone else, whether that's luck or skill is difficult to know.

[–] skisnow 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of their success seems to be recognising an opportunity before anyone else

Pretty much everyone in the world has at some point in their lives had some idea or spotted some gap in the market that could be a successful product, but 99% of us don't get to act on that because the rent is due and will be due again next month.

[–] GreyEyedGhost 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I largely agree with what you're saying, but he's been in the right place at the right time 3 times, and made good on the potential. Maybe he was just really lucky, maybe he had dozens of things going and those 3 are the ones that panned out, maybe he was a genius that destroyed his talents with hubris and drugs. Certainly, having the financial security to take those chances was a big factor in his success, as much as apparently believing that success was all due to his inborn talent was a big factor on his continuing fall from grace.

[–] skisnow 1 points 1 week ago

You're familiar with survivor bias, yeah?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Most of their success comes from knowing when to fuck over other people

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They hire people to do that for them, don't they?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do they know who's full of shit and who knows what they're talking about though?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do you know they know what they're doing?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I don't, I'm guessing.