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Even income and frugality aren't enough. The people interviewed in the book were fond of saying they didn't believe in luck. But a divorce, a serious illness, a bad accident, a special needs child, owning a business that becomes obsolete or gets shellacked by offshoring or regulation or eminent domain, or owning real estate in an area that ends up declining are all out of your control and will all throw a monkey wrench in your dreams of millions.
success is when drive , creativity , skill and luck all meet. i would be lying if i didn't say luck played a big part in my life .
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-17-2019 at 02:10 AM..
My wife actually has an autoimmune disease. One of the most common, type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease. My wife does not have diabetes however and manages with prescription medication and blood tests.
Marrying the wrong partner (and having kids early on in life) isn't luck, it's a bad decision.
Adapting with changing times...needed for everyone...anyone who sits fat dumb and happy and just collects a paycheck will slowly become obsolete. Sorry, that's a life decision.
I've got some good stories about people who had the worst luck and lost a lot, it only made them stronger and dug themselves out of their hole instead of pussyfooting around.
genetics loads the gun and lifestyle pulls the trigger .. i come from a long line of diabetics ...
being a gym rat for the last 18 years and watching my diet , as well as running 4-5 miles every other day kept it at bay for a long time ..
but as my doctor warned me , at some point you will no longer be able to stay off meds no matter what you do ..
he was right , and despite all i have done holding it at bay , finally 6 months ago at age 66 i finally had to go on a light dose of glympride ...
so many things are just inevitable , we can delay them but can't really over ride genetics at the end of the day with lifestyle
Most of those are all excuses or a result of bad decisions made during one's lifetime.
Bad luck is getting a brain tumor at the age of 10, or being born blind, or heck even being born in some crappy country like El Salvador.
just about all of us experience one of the the big 3 at some point in our lives . ILLNESS-DIVORCE-JOB LOSS
but we all come out of it differently .. a lot of how we do coming out depends on choices and decisions we made earlier in life ...
nothing ever applies to everyone across the board but a lot does apply to many .
like losing weight , soooo many can't lose weight , yet very few actually can't lose weight for physical reasons , most just need to eat less and move more , but of course they don't see it that way .
for most of us past choices and decisions influence a lot of the out come later in life ..
i know when i decided to go to apex technical school back in the 1970's after being obsoleted as a drummer by dee jays , i begged my buddies from the projects to go with me .
nope , they did not want to go ... so today i am retired from a great 40 year career , and they are still raising their own families in the projects blaming everyone but themselves for their low paying jobs .
does this story apply to everyone ? of course not , but it applies to an awful lot who ended up where they are by just making poor choices or letting themselves just drift like cork in water to wherever life pulls them vs charting their own course and making things happen . or at least getting themselves in to a position so when luck shows up they are in the right time at the right place with the right skills or resources ..
i will be the first to admit the real estate deal we fell in to was a stroke of luck ... it was a deal of a lifetime dropped in our laps. but the ability to have the resources to take advantage of that deal took a life time of solid investing and a lifetime commitment to making sure i never ended up back in the projects , even if it meant working 3 gigs at a time if i had to so i always had some money to invest .
so yeah , luck was part of it , but so was the committment to do what i needed to do so i was was in a good place when mr luck showed up .
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-17-2019 at 04:51 AM..
a funny story is the owner of the company i worked for took a small store front business and built it in to a 100 million dollar company ...
he is a very business savvy person with nerves of steel . his method of expanding the company was always based on READY-FIRE-AIM .
well 25 years ago he took over a company i worked for . he hired 70 of us in one day .. he did not give a lot of thought to financing this operation until cash flow picked up 30 to 90 days later .
so he began to run low on money ... banks denied him the loans he wanted because he now had so much in expenses so things did not look good .
well one of the bankers from our old company was hounding him for business . so he decided to take him to task . he tells him if he can prove to him he can get him a 5 million dollar credit line by the end of the week he will give him business . he never indicated the desperation the company was in .
well in haste to get the account the lender never checked the financials . they just assumed we were strong , after all we had 80 employees and just took over a failing company...
so luck played a huge part in the plan as he got the money and the rest is history . the company broke 100 million in sales last year . if it was not for the luck of the financials not being checked , the company would have been gone 25 years ago despite the genius of the owner . he always says he rather be lucky then smart .
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-17-2019 at 05:13 AM..
Even income and frugality aren't enough. The people interviewed in the book were fond of saying they didn't believe in luck. But a divorce, a serious illness, a bad accident, a special needs child, owning a business that becomes obsolete or gets shellacked by offshoring or regulation or eminent domain, or owning real estate in an area that ends up declining are all out of your control and will all throw a monkey wrench in your dreams of millions.
I think a lot of people do understand that luck is involved in success, unless they are in denial about reality. Nothing in life is actually guaranteed.
However, the important point is that it is very easy for people to live beyond their means. More often than not,
that is the reason why their savings and net worth are so low relative to their incomes.
Even high income earners like doctors and lawyers often fall into this pattern. There is a different path forward for people who are seeking more financial independence.
My brother had an autoimmune disease--Addison's disease. Medical treatment didn't help him. My brother, who ran his own business, taught himself most of what he knew, made his own breaks, was in so much pain from his illness and a bad back surgery that he ended his life.
My mother had type 2 diabetes. For decades, the official advice has been low-fat, high starch diets, which make diabetes worse, as it's a disease of carbohydrate intolerance. Why do you think so many people have diabetes? My mother was willing to change her diet to low-carb, which she did at age 80. Sad to say she was in a wheelchair by then.
A friend of mine--a smart, responsible person--raised two kids by herself after her husband abandoned them. This was before courts finally started getting serious about collecting child support. Too bad she didn't have a crystal ball to see that her husband was going to run out on her! For all her hard work and good attitude, I doubt she's a millionaire.
I'm all for staying current with job skills. But when companies close divisions or go out of business or move offshore, your job goes bye-bye regardless of your skill level. There's no guarantee you're going to get a job at the same rate of pay; if lots of people in your field flood the job market at the same time, it's unlikely. If your specialty became obsolete--good luck. State regulation of things as simple as hair braiding close off dozens of occupations to willing and able people (see ij.org). Changing fortunes of a city--e.g., an industry declines or the company in a company town moves out--can mean a permanent loss of capital on any real estate there.
So don't sit there and tell me your life is entirely the result of your own decisions and bad luck is just an opportunity to make you stronger. From what you've said, it doesn't sound like you've been up close to any tragedies that couldn't be fixed. Yes, your decisions are important. But there are forces outside of you that you don't have any control over.
You can continue to make excuses for the majority of the population if you want.
I'm over the bleeding heart thing. Been there done that. There will always be outliers from the bell curve - those struck with a disability or major illness, and those born into money who have their parents buy their way into school.
For the 95% of the population, none of that applies.
just about all of us experience one of the the big 3 at some point in our lives . ILLNESS-DIVORCE-JOB LOSS
but we all come out of it differently .. a lot of how we do coming out depends on choices and decisions we made earlier in life ...
nothing ever applies to everyone across the board but a lot does apply to many .
like losing weight , soooo many can't lose weight , yet very few actually can't lose weight for physical reasons , most just need to eat less and move more , but of course they don't see it that way .
for most of us past choices and decisions influence a lot of the out come later in life ..
i know when i decided to go to apex technical school back in the 1970's after being obsoleted as a drummer by dee jays , i begged my buddies from the projects to go with me .
nope , they did not want to go ... so today i am retired from a great 40 year career , and they are still raising their own families in the projects blaming everyone but themselves for their low paying jobs .
does this story apply to everyone ? of course not , but it applies to an awful lot who ended up where they are by just making poor choices or letting themselves just drift like cork in water to wherever life pulls them vs charting their own course and making things happen . or at least getting themselves in to a position so when luck shows up they are in the right time at the right place with the right skills or resources ..
i will be the first to admit the real estate deal we fell in to was a stroke of luck ... it was a deal of a lifetime dropped in our laps. but the ability to have the resources to take advantage of that deal took a life time of solid investing and a lifetime commitment to making sure i never ended up back in the projects , even if it meant working 3 gigs at a time if i had to so i always had some money to invest .
so yeah , luck was part of it , but so was the committment to do what i needed to do so i was was in a good place when mr luck showed up .
Exactly most people have things that pop up in their lives that are setbacks, if you are prepared and industrious you can get thru it and it makes you even stronger.
Often it's decisions made years ago that come to light down the road that is the reason for success or failure over the long term.
And that it the balance we’ve always attempted to achieve. Working two jobs, living in a hovel? We live well below our means, essentially save my wife’s paycheck and I still manage to have a nice watch collection, drive a nice (CPO) German car and take at least one “nice” trip a year. It wasn’t always like that - but we did get there.
I’ll give you an example. My wife drives a 2013 Lexus ES350 and the front proximity sensors wouldn’t stop beeping. Dealer wanted $500 to correct the issue. I purchased two from eBay, watch a video or two about removing the front bumper and decided to do the job myself.
Sure - there was an issue that wasn’t covered in the video but ultimately, I replace two of the sensors and they work perfectly.
The old man would have been proud of my efforts and even more proud of the savings I generated by doing it myself.
Internal voltage regulator failed and Dealer wanted $1100 saying they only replace the entire alternator!
$38 for genuine Bosch regulator and 90 minutes because I was watching You Tube... saved a Grand.
Another car had the window regulator fail... about $500 dealer fix... $40 for the part on the internet and also about an hour Saturday morning.
Got to Love the Net when it comes to effecting repairs...
Needed to totally renovate a 1922 bathroom... tub, sink, toilet, window, location of fixtures... etc.
Least expensive bid was 11k... my total our of pocket for ALL materials including Kohler Tub and Toilet... $2,000
I did take a week of vacation time start to finish.... and I don't make anywhere near 9k a week...
success is when drive , creativity , skill and luck all meet. i would be lying if i didn't say luck played a big part in my life .
My dad said the same thing. Of course you have to work really hard, be motivated, etc. but luck does play a role no doubt about it. Even just the luck of happening to meet the right person to take a chance on you. My dad bought his first apartment building, just 14 units, in the 70s for $1 down. His boss, since he worked in residential real estate at the time and had made a lot of money for the brokerage, co-signed the deal. Meeting a guy who went out on a limb like that was certainly fortunate. I bet every successful person has some stories about their good luck, but I do think if you keep plugging away and working hard, even if your luck takes longer, you’ll find it eventually.
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