You aren't going to be showing up in the top few hundred against the people with recent brand new huge fortunes if you have generational wealth - note that 0.01% of a 300M population is population is 30,000 people. How many of those do we know much about?

A better question would be how many of the Forbes 500 started with significant inheritance?

An even better one would be how many people do the top 500 employ.

I don’t care what they started with - I care what they did with it.

For instance, if you started with 10MM and built a billion dollar company, great.

But if you started with 1MM and turned it into 1MM, then you really didn’t help out at all.

aye - but given that logic wouldn't it be beneficial to expand the talent pool of founders and innovators by building more efficient capital distribution mechanisms? A brilliant but rational founder may not be in a position to work without pay for years until well into their 40s, and by these statistics the top 1% of workers would lack capital to invest in their own businesses until they're in their 50s.

You make an interesting point.

But I wonder (and it's only a thought based on some observations that I've had over the years) how large the talent pool is. Because "talent" in starting a business is so much more than just the knowledge to do the work, or the capital to start it...

For instance, I've started a few businesses. All but the current one closed at roughly breakeven.

My current business has required my life savings and selling my house, but we are finally (more than 3 years!) starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're profitable, but I'm not making 6-figures yet. I should be by tax day next year, and hopefully between 150-200K by the end of next year. But interestingly, based on our trajectory, the growth curve is getting steeper, which is awesome, and should top out in the low 7 figures within 5 years or so.

However, there have been several (more than I can count) strong moments of doubt, where I've just wanted to quit. It's been really, really freaking hard. My wife works full time, and that's paid the bills, but the stress has been insane. (with kids, it's not just me - I have to make sure I don't tank the whole family)

This is just one data point (I'm skipping the others for brevity), but the stuff that it takes to start a business that actually generates free cash flow is really unusual. I know other people who've started businesses and shut them down because they didn't want to make the sacrifices. Our cars are old, we sold our house, I dipped into my IRA even. Most people don't have that kind of drive (or is it insanity?). Heck, there have been days recently where I question if I can get through the next 6 months.

So "talent" in starting a business is very different from talent in being good at work. And that kind of talent I think is rare, probably because the risks and sacrifices in many cases are just several standard deviations from the norm. Or maybe I've been doing this long enough where I've become deluded - I don't really know anymore.

Anyway, hope this adds to the conversation somewhat.

Help who? Why ?

Sorry, I was using shorthand of "help" for being a positive addition to the economy (as opposed to a moral version of "help").