It's all relative
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This week: Diligence and relativity.
Get Pretty: You’re going to have to work for it
An interesting take-away from a story in Inc. about why smart people don’t necessarily become financially successful: “Innate intelligence plays, at best, a 1 to 2 percent role in a child's future success.”
Instead, the underlying research by researchers at the University of Chicago points to a few other factors: “Self-discipline, perseverance, and diligence.” Luck, too, plays a role. But still, you can be a dummy and still get rich — clearly.
But if you actually want to make some money, it’s going to take some work.
The takeaway: Just because your smart doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. You’ll have to put some work into it.
Get Rich: It’s all relative
I came across a blog post by Auren Hoffman, who is the CEO of a company called SafeGraph. In the post, he discusses a family that earns $300,000 per year that is barely meeting their financial obligations every month. There’s a chart included (sourced from the Financial Samurai, which is another site that’s worth checking out) so you can see their spending breakdown.
While the financial situation, on the surface, sounds insane, I think the important takeaway is that money is relative in some areas. I know people who could live like royalty in other parts of the country on their salaries, but instead, live in small, cramped apartments. And a lot of them are one missed paycheck away from the streets — like people earning far less. It’s strange, but I suppose the point is to not let what other people are earning (or not earning) provoke a reaction within you.
It’s similar to what happened with Gravity Payments, a company that raised its internal minimum wage to $70,000 per year. It wasn’t a big deal, but the story made a splash. And in the end, it was millions of people flipping out over the fact that a receptionist in Seattle was making a little more money.
The takeaway: Everything is relative, even money. Worry about your own situation, and don’t waste your energy getting worked up about others.
One other thing: Kobe versus A.I.
A few years back, Kobe Bryant wrote this short piece for the Players’ Tribune about how he had been embarrassed by Allen Iverson, and how he vowed to get revenge. It’s an interesting look at how a single bad outing led to Bryant obsessing about A.I., and ultimately, getting the best of him in round two.
What I’ve been writing about:
Some companies that cratered after their IPO last year are making a comeback. But newly-public companies are still a gamble for investors.
A colleague made a mini-doc about the FIRE movement, so I wrote a companion piece for it.
If you want to check those articles out and share them, I’d appreciate it.
Arrivederci.
Sam
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