Not many people end up being great actors but some do. Why would you tell your child not to do something just because there are high odds they might fail? What if Tiger Woods dad had said, "son you're good at golf but most people that try to play golf end up being club pros. Go get your engineering degree and grind out a 9-5 at GE for the rest of your life". What if Steve Jobs had decided to go to college and grind out a degree instead of following his passion with computers? If you want to win big you got to gamble big. Losers sit on the sidelines because they made the safe play there whole life. Winners are on the field because they took the risks and did the work to get there. Enjoy the sidelines. That whole statement you made is so fraught with a fixed mindset it's gross.
You don't have to gamble big to win big. Going to an IB or a proper hedge fund where you get credibility and access to information will help you leaps over going to online trading academy with a 5,000 deposit. If my kid got into Julliard, I would support a career in singing or songwriting. If he's just busking around Europe, I would say his "call option" is too far out of the money. I know lots of people who have made millions (in a few cases hundreds of millions) without taking the "95% fail and have no real safety cushion approach."
safe route. 1. intern as analyst 2. go to good undergrad 3. go to top-15 MBA 4. done with being analyst and become portfolio manager 5. do that for 10-years, make 200k+ per year little risk 6. try proprietary trading with OPM while flying around the world getting capital and working out like a PRO. not-safe route: 1. buy calls in appl 2. lose and start drinking 3. win and win and win and then lose and start drinking 4. win and win and become a gambler and lose it all and drink 5. win and win and get married and lose and lose and lose 6. trade for 20 years and make no money and become depressed and fat. lol
They said the same thing to Van Gogh or Jackson Pollack. Was there call option to far out of the money when Van Gogh was cutting his ear off or Pollack was splattering paint and they were laughing at him. Not everyone takes the same track. You would have told Jobs to leave India and come home too?
Not to mention the countless great musicians who didn't go to Juilliard. The great bussinessman who didn't go to Harvard. The great traders who didn't start at an I-bank. Etc. Etc. You're a sucker and always will be with that attitude. How can you ever succeed at anything if you expect to be at the top level right when you start?
There's a reason there's a term called "the starving artist." You are experiecing outlier bias talking about the 3 guys. I wouldn't discurage my child to go into business without a degree from HBS. Lots of business people make fine livings not being the CEO. But if he becomes the CEO, that's great too. I wouldn't discourage my child from starting a company. If he fails, he'll be out a few dollars, but he won't be out of a decent livelihood. I would discourage my child from being a professional Jai alai player. Back to the orginal point: It's great for kids to learn investing and trading. however, if you don't go to an investment bank or a top hedgefund your odds of failure and the cost of that failure increase substantially. Trade on the side, and find another career option.
They are because anyone who has had great amounts of success has taken lots of risks to get where they are. Are you deluded? There is no easy/ riskless path to success. You would have told Bill Gates to stay in college too. "Bill stay at Harvard that business idea you have is pretty good, but, you know you might fail and have a resume gap or not be able to get your first mortage at 30". "Why don't you go work for IBM maybe they would like your idea." Honestly, to me it sounds like you probably haven't ever had that much success at anything in your life because all you did was stride the same boring bath without every really deviating and trying to do something unique. People that get to the top at whatever they do don't do the same things everyone else does, nor do they worry about *gasp* "the risks" which in this case really aren't risks but instead blows to the ego.