[ramphastidae]

> I know people well into 8-figures who were never anything more than blue-collar grinders.

Can you elaborate? I don’t see how that’s possible unless they started work in their early 20s, have been maxing their retirement, never had an accident or have been unemployed, made incredible investment decisions, and are now 60+? Even then I dont see how it’s possible for blue collar folks. Well into 8 figures is like … at least 30 million.

[cduzz]

This sounds like a classic "small business owner" success story. One can imagine a scenario where a person owning a landscaping, construction, vehicle repair, or similar business starts out with "can do a thing" and also is good at "get other people to do thing" and "operate / scale business without accidentally going out of business" and so they scale from doing to overseeing to organizing and eventually end up with a business that's got some substantial value.

Having been involved in small businesses, it's exhausting and often times it's simply impossible to transition from "doing" to "overseeing" (hiring people to do things is much harder than you'd imagine) and there are plenty of easy ways to accidentally blow the whole thing up. But if it works out, it can work out really well.

[ethanbond]

Assuming it is possible (it's probably not), it certainly wouldn't be possible without the luck of having been in an insanely strong market for whatever blue-collar trade (allegedly) got them there.

[jandrewrogers]

Start a small blue-collar business doing what you know, be good at it, and iterate. It compounds over decades through good times and bad times. Everyone I know that has built their wealth this way is insanely hardworking but they keep at it, creating value little by little. This is the "construction worker becomes general contractor" story or the equivalent in many boring blue-collar businesses.

I have a few of these in my extended family and seen how they've done it over my life. It is repeatable but I don't think many people would put in the level of work required and it is a slow, long game. Maxing retirement is easier but it also won't buy you beautiful estates on three continents. The people that do this also never really stop doing it in my experience, their work becomes a part of who they are.