Do you have numbers to prove it? Because... to many of us, it seems that by far the largest indicator on whether you will make it to the 80th percentile, is if you started there.
Numbers to prove success is possible? There are numbers that show inherited wealth peaks and then declines, there are numbers show that most who have multiple billions of dollars earned their money (as opposed to inheriting it), but I don't think it necessarily matters.
Most individuals aren't entrepreneurs, most are content to work for someone else on a hamster wheel and blame their lot in life for their lack of success.
So I have no doubt people who grew up wealthy or at least well-off are more successful, since their parents taught and showed them that success is possible.
If you grew up in a household where your parents ran the rat race and told you that success is to get a degree and run the rat race, odds are that's what you've done...
I'm curious to know of the actual numbers you are referring to.
I am not convinced you are wrong. However, I am also far from convinced you are right. There is a lot of faith in "work hard and you can become rich." Especially if you are trying to imply this can get you "multiple billions of dollars."
Now, I personally think "rich" begins well before "multiple billions." I also don't think the world is split between entrepreneurs and people content to work for someone else on a hamster wheel. Truth is, as in many things, it is much more complicated.
So, yeah, do you have any good links to the numbers you are referring to?
I'd guess it's harder to poll millionaires since most don't own enough of a public company for it to be reported.
Regardless, stats do a poor job of presenting possibility, and my guess would be most poor stay poor, if for no other reason than a defeatist attitude they inherited...
How would you propose to test this "defeatist" attitude hypothesis?
More interestingly, how would you reconcile it with the core hypothesis of this article. That is, that people can create their own luck.
Also, many of the numbers in those articles are... interesting. To call Bill Gates a "self made" individual is rather... cute. He is far from a poor family. Pretty much everyone they have that is a "self made" rich person came from "upper middle class" families. (The articles words.)
This is concerning, as a large part of the problem that many fear in this nation is precisely how far the gap has grown between "merely middle class" and "upper middle." Consider, the vast majority of the "self made" rich people it lists are people that had early access to technology. Something that was decidedly situational related. Sheer numbers wise, it is on the level of winning the lottery.
