Dien Rice
November 22, 2006, 11:35 PM
Hi Duane and Infinigeek!
The perfect Donald or the perfect Bill would reach out and say... Hey man! If I can do it, so can you... just find your niche and live your life, leverage what you can... expect setbacks.. Instead... all we really get is "look how good I am THE MIGHTY ME!!! Look at all the computers I have donated or Buildings With MY MIGHTY NAME EMBOLDENED UPON THEM"
Actually, I think there are two types of entrepreneurs... Those who do something which is replicable, and those whose activities are more difficult to replicate.
Both Bill Gates and Donald Trump are not "rags to riches" tales - they are "rich to even richer" tales. Both came from wealthy families!
For example, here's the beginning entry on Bill Gates from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates ...
William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and The United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president.
This page also gives more details...
"How to become as rich as Bill Gates" - http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/
Apparently both Bill Gates' mother and the CEO of IBM were on the board of United Way - so they knew each other. It was Bill Gates' mother personally knowing the IBM CEO that helped Bill Gates get the deal to produce the operating system for the new IBM PC! (So - to make money the Bill Gates way - you have to have a rich Mom who knows important CEOs on a personal basis!)
Donald Trump was also born rich. His father, Fred Trump, became a millionaire as a real estate developer. So if you want to be rich like Donald Trump, it helps to have an already rich dad - and learn the family business!
You can read more about the wealth of Fred Trump here... http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/03/reviews/001203.03margolt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
However, there are others whose examples are easier to replicate. We've talked about many people like this from time to time in the past... One of my personal favorites is Joe Cossman (E. Joseph Cossman), who passed away a few years ago. Michael Dell (of Dell Computer) is another guy who started out from an "ordinary" background, and built himself up through a direct sales model in a growing industry! Kirk Kerkorian is another of the "mega-rich" who built himself up from humble beginnings. And a completely different model is offered by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
If you really wanna help in this world you do so by teaching through example... I have seen more sowpubs that speak true wisdom than I have ever seen come out of either Bill or Donald. :cool:
There is a lot of wisdom here, I agree! I'm grateful that I'm able to be a part of it and learn from the many wise people here myself!
Cheers :)
Dien
The perfect Donald or the perfect Bill would reach out and say... Hey man! If I can do it, so can you... just find your niche and live your life, leverage what you can... expect setbacks.. Instead... all we really get is "look how good I am THE MIGHTY ME!!! Look at all the computers I have donated or Buildings With MY MIGHTY NAME EMBOLDENED UPON THEM"
Actually, I think there are two types of entrepreneurs... Those who do something which is replicable, and those whose activities are more difficult to replicate.
Both Bill Gates and Donald Trump are not "rags to riches" tales - they are "rich to even richer" tales. Both came from wealthy families!
For example, here's the beginning entry on Bill Gates from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates ...
William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and The United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president.
This page also gives more details...
"How to become as rich as Bill Gates" - http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/
Apparently both Bill Gates' mother and the CEO of IBM were on the board of United Way - so they knew each other. It was Bill Gates' mother personally knowing the IBM CEO that helped Bill Gates get the deal to produce the operating system for the new IBM PC! (So - to make money the Bill Gates way - you have to have a rich Mom who knows important CEOs on a personal basis!)
Donald Trump was also born rich. His father, Fred Trump, became a millionaire as a real estate developer. So if you want to be rich like Donald Trump, it helps to have an already rich dad - and learn the family business!
You can read more about the wealth of Fred Trump here... http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/03/reviews/001203.03margolt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
However, there are others whose examples are easier to replicate. We've talked about many people like this from time to time in the past... One of my personal favorites is Joe Cossman (E. Joseph Cossman), who passed away a few years ago. Michael Dell (of Dell Computer) is another guy who started out from an "ordinary" background, and built himself up through a direct sales model in a growing industry! Kirk Kerkorian is another of the "mega-rich" who built himself up from humble beginnings. And a completely different model is offered by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
If you really wanna help in this world you do so by teaching through example... I have seen more sowpubs that speak true wisdom than I have ever seen come out of either Bill or Donald. :cool:
There is a lot of wisdom here, I agree! I'm grateful that I'm able to be a part of it and learn from the many wise people here myself!
Cheers :)
Dien
