I mostly agree with the article in that at some point you must gain access to capital in either cash or credit and then put it at risk.  That said, I was born in WV to 17-year-old mother and 20-year-old father. I was their second child.  My father was a coal truck driver, mother a secretary, neither college educated. By the time I was four, my father was in prison two years, and my mother was a struggling 21-year-old with two kids and no family support.  Anyhow, I worked my way up from that start, became a bootstrapped entrepreneur in 30&#x27;s after raising $15K seed, no salary for two years, bought back my seed equity, now a millionaire net worth by 40.  If sufficiently hard-headed, stubborn, and unwilling to quit trying to find any way to succeed, it can be done without family money.