I just read about a young lady called 'Kylie Jenner' - some of you may have heard of her as a member of the 'Kardashian Clan' - who has become the youngest ever billionaire, age 21. Her business is based on what she terms 'Lip envy'. Now, if anyone seeking a business can find anything else that people can be 'envious' of, you might just have it made.
They also said she was "self-made". I guess we can all achieve the same thing, we just have to follow suite and leverage off of our very wealthy and famous parents and siblings and the reality TV show we star in.
Self-made, just means not inherited, it doesn't mean she didn't get a lot of help and luck along the way. Her success has been extraordinary, no taking away from that.
I disagree that's what that means. To me "self" made means you did it all by your self. She absolutely did not do it on her own. Without her parent's and family's wealth, fame and tv show she absolutely would NOT be where she is now. She comes from generational wealth and privilege, f*ck her "accomplishments", they should not be celebrated or looked up to as there is nothing obtainable about her story. IMO it takes away from people who are actually self-made.
Henry Sy comes to mind on this, starts of with 1 shoe stall and the rest is History Or maybe a certain mr Morrison from the UK who had a corner shop and built the company from that to buying out safeway UK adding those stores to those he built before to become probably the largest "owner" operating chain in the UK ( MORRISONS) Look at Many Cohen again from the UK, market stall that he and his wife "Tess" ran and surely is a Force in the UK and now around the Globe, as in Tes & co ( TESCO) I am sure there are many in the US Too that are self made in the true sense Yes how about that FW Woolworth and his penny Bazaar
I thought you said it meant "not inherited". I tend to agree more with this new definition you have adopted. Let me check: Below is what I found on Bill Gates Sr.: Hmm, I'm going to guess that Microsoft Bill isn't self-made. Looks like more generational wealth and privilege to me. (And then to top it off his father seems to have piggybacked off of his son's success later in life as I highly doubt he would have founded Technology Alliance without Microsoft being co-created by his son.) I'm not saying the accomplishments of Bill Gates and Kylie Jenner are something that anyone from a wealthy family can achieve, there is a lot to learn from them, nor am I saying they are bad people for coming from wealth...just that they most definitely are not "self-made". Success breeds success. The game needs to be put back on a level playing ground and we need to stop idolizing the super wealthy. I'm all for taxing income over $10M USD at 70%+, and that includes income made from investments. (Remember the US has a progressive income tax system, you would only get taxed at that 70% once you have made $10,000,001.) I'm also for heavy estate taxes on the wealthy as well. You and/or you children will never become billionaires, and, absent a whole lot of luck or a collapse of the USD, very likely never even be millionaires. There is very little room left for "self-made" success stories, I really think that needs to change.
Self-made men do exist in the US. Read about Huy Fong Foods and its owner's story. http://www.huyfong.com/
