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by dpweb 1623 days ago
Post-PayPal Musk or for instance a big movie star risking every dollar of their life savings in a venture is different than the worker who has saved up their stake over 30 years.

2000’s Musk from his Paypal reputation can easily get a very lucrative job if things go completely to zero. Current day Musk can make six or seven figures just by sending a couple tweets. The movie star with nothing other than their name land a job or six or seven figure deal. They’re never really risking it all.
2 comments
glitchc 1623 days ago
I dunno. Movie stars are always just a couple of flops away from becoming a has-been. There’s plenty of stories of stars branching out, even financing their own films, to have them crash and burn, and take their careers down with the dud movies.

Musk was notorious for being fired from multiple jobs before he did his own thing. If he lost his wealth suddenly over a few bad bets, I doubt anyone would want to hire him. Why would they? He’s unlikely to listen, to do things their way and they know that. That makes him unemployable.

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Jensson 1623 days ago
Nobody risks it all unless they bet their life, everyone can go back making salary doing basic work. For example, if a software engineer risks their life savings on a project and they lose all of that money, they can still go back and make $300k a year just doing basic work, that is hardly "risking their all" either.
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sdze 1623 days ago
Where the hell do you earn 300k per year? In Europe most certainly it this is not possible. Also don't forget life style creep and risk of loss of social circles.
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boring_twenties 1623 days ago
In the US 300k is table stakes for a developer with any experience at a profitable company, certain markets will pay way more.
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cipheredStones 1623 days ago
This is much easier to achieve at big tech companies in the US than you think. Look at levels.fyi and you'll see many examples of people with only a few years of experience making $300k. I personally know many people making that much three years after graduating from a coding bootcamp, and a few people who make $450k-$550k after only a couple more years than that.
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