Yep, one in 79,000 made it. All 78999 others utterly failed and can't provide a living for their own family or still live in mom's basement. Just some perspective. Yes it can be done, but it is incredibly rare.
Left out of this story is the fact that Bill's Ackman's father is chairman of Ackman-Ziff, which is one of the most prominent commercial real estate investment firms globally. Between this, his upbringing in leafy Chappaqua NY, and his Harvard MBA, Bill was pretty much destined for success from a young age...or at least he had one hell of a nice fallback option if launching his own hedge fund thing didn't work out. Does this diminish his accomplishments? No, but let's not act like he was some rags-to-riches story borne to a family of landscapers living in a multi-family out in Queens.
Indeed. Easier to take monetary risk when there's a backup and a backup of a backup. A whole different story when failure means you'll be working a regular job for decades.
Others , timestamped : Meanwhile : Didn't knew that - thanks. Disclaimer : 50% of the reason for sharing this, was the... DeepFake (big smile), good choice tho.
Or you have a solid education where you know you can get a 6 digit job and have no debt. VERY VERY different risk tolerances.
I respect expert traders like Destiero who don’t screw others to make their millions. Ackman is no Warren Buffet morally. He is a genius no doubt about that.
Joe Biden Asks The Eternal Question About Bill Ackman: "Who Is This Asshole?" https://dealbreaker.com/2017/06/joe-biden-bill-ackman-who-is-this-asshole
Why do so many play the lottery? Because most average intelligent humans misjudge and misunderstand randomness and also overestimate their own abilities or lack thereof. First of all, they believe that events where someone strikes luck and succeeds occur more often than they actually do. Secondly, they believe they have the ability to make it within the top echelon when they actually lack the ability. So, both luck and skills and ability are overestimated. That's why many play the lottery and many average Joes "try their luck" trading.