How to Work Hard
I worked my way through college as a mover (and came out the other side with high 5-figure debt). Many of the older guys I worked with had drug habits. I worked 16-hour days with those guys. They&#x27;d get on me for not running up stairs, for packing with too little paper around glass, for setting things down more than once. None wrote articles entitled &quot;How to Work Hard.&quot; None knew Warren Buffet as a child (see Gates). None attended the most expensive schools, if they had they certainly wouldn&#x27;t have chosen to drop out because they got bored or were unfulfilled (see Graham and Zuck). Take a look at the top 10 highest valued YC startups. All their founders came from schools with less than 10% acceptance rates.<p>Privilege is what I&#x27;m getting at. Having an income 300:1 your lowest paid employee is disturbing. Making millions or billions off speculative, debt-fueled VC is disturbing. Proselyting your brand of success is disturbing. Recommendation: every time a founder, investor or businessperson starts to wax poetic on virtue, look for an angle. Why do founders want to appear virtuous and hardworking? Why do we need that from them? How else can they justify making sometimes up to 50% of their companies entire payroll? How emotionally satisfying must it be for Graham and his ilk to tell you why they got what they have?<p>What if most of serious wealth and success is decided at birth?