[mikeash]

I'm sure it's hard to do well. My point is that Trump hasn't done well. The fact that he built a not particularly successful business empire with inherited money doesn't say much about his skills or smarts.

Hiring good people is hard, for sure. Has Trump ever done it?

[MicroBerto]

I find this line laughable. Everyone seems to think that turning a million into billions is a cakewalk.

Most people wouldn't even know where to begin and would lose their minds during any downturn. The others would buy a small house and whither away savings. The rest would waste it all on idiocy.

If you're running a billion dollar empire and it hasn't burnt to the ground, you can be sure that he's hired good people.

Why don't you go put $1,000,000 in a market simulator and tell me how your "shell scripts" do over the next 20 years.

Given that you haven't answered the original question, I'm guessing that you have hired very few or even zero people ever?

[mikeash]

Trump inherited tens of millions. Other people have done the "market simulator" thing and the result is that Trump has not outperformed the market. My shell script would have done about as well at growing Trump's wealth as Trump did.

Turning tens of millions into a few billions over the past forty years is a cakewalk. I don't know why you think it's "laughable" to say this. It doesn't even require smart investing, just the minimal amount of non-stupid investing.

I haven't answered your original question because it's simply not relevant. You're trying to make an ad-hominem argument against me. I'm not exactly going to jump at the chance to help you with that.

[MicroBerto]

Yep, it's clearly that easy when you can look backwards at it. You have a time machine too?

You and I both know that you would have shit your emotional bricks in every downturn... while these guys are all buying more. And if not that error, then you likely would have generated some other failure.

If you're so good, you'd have that shell script up and running by now. Use that 20/20 hindsight to go do it in the future and see how that goes. Go turn $1000 into $1,000,000. It's easy, isn't it? Everyone can do it!

Nope. Instead, you haven't answered my question because, I am now convinced, you have absolutely no clue how difficult it is to grow such a large business, albeit a small one.

But of course you won't answer - you've never walked the mile. Yet there you are, on your high horse driving from the backseat on Hacker News with talk of shell scripts and 20/20 hindsight whiling failing to see another person's accomplishments - that is the sin.

Disagree with Trump's political policies, fine. I honestly don't care. But to make business success sound so easy - especially in this forum where there are tons of people who have received generous amounts of capital and squandered it all - is to insult any successful businessperson out there.

Just try and say that he's "lucky". Be that person -- the worst kind -- and be done with it.

[mikeash]

Sure, I'll call Trump lucky. What do you call it when someone inherits eight figures, if not luck?

I love how you constantly make stuff up about me, then argue against the stuff you made up. No wonder you're a Trump supporter. It's a personality match!