I’m not sure you really can, at least not in the way it’s often portrayed. Founders usually need a high level of skill or a clearly transferable capability in something already valuable. That phrase gets repeated a lot, but the more I think about it, the more it feels like an oversimplification. Maybe there’s a version of it that works, but it’s probably more about reframing or uncovering hidden leverage than starting from zero.
Money, education, powerful parents, safety nets, a good upbringing: these things are levers that multiply the work you put into things. I think a lot of people put the maximum effort into their work and lives, but these levers mean that existing privilege will usually result in amplified results for the same input level of effort.
