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Been soliciting career advice. You guys gave me good advice before... here's hoping you can help me sift through some things I've been hearing.
Rich Person 1
This person runs one of the world's largest venture capital funds. He's worth between three and five hundred million dollars.
- Find someone who is really good and be their apprentice. In my case, it was Jack Welch. I wouldn't say that everything Jack did was right, but he accomplished a great deal and taught me a great deal.
- A corollary - the #1 reason you should choose another job is not because your boss is a bad boss, but if you think he or she doesn't care. Because a boss who doesn't care won't teach you much worth learning.
- The Valley is a tough place. I've seen a lot of extremely well-qualified people try and fail to break into it. Granted, what you're looking at is not some fifth-tier fund, but still something where you will be rowing against the current, especially on the West Coast.
Rich Person 2
This person is a successful repeat entrepreneur. He is worth close to $2 billion.
- Even if you don't end up working for me, go work in genomics. Genomics will be the dot-com opportunity of your generation. AI is also close but the hardware and technical requirements make it harder to break into. Genomics - now if you can put together a team around that and learn how to sell... you'll make a killing.
- We are on the verge of being able to control our evolution as a species. Think about what this statement means. Why do you want to spend your time chasing after the next social media network that will be marginally better than the last one? If you're smart, you should hitch yourself to a rocket ship that changes the world.
Rich Person 3
This person founded a $8bn private equity fund. He's worth around $1 billion.
- Don't take a job opportunity just so you can brag to your MBA classmates about it. 90% of employment fads are just that - fads - that sucker in smart, insecure people like yourself.
- I see all these guys from (his alma mater) running around the Bay Area telling 23-year-olds that they're gods gift to humanity because they can code Ruby on Rails. They do this knowing - knowing! - that more than 75% of the time their idea will end in failure. Then they run back to me and ask if they can be a VP with (his private equity fund). It's farcical, I tell you.
- Most things that are exciting are exciting because of beta. Real alpha in this world comes from boredom. Find something that's boring and stick to it. You might learn something that no one has done anything about, and then you can make a move.
So who should I listen to? Should I take the steady corporate job, chase the next great social network as a VC, or hitch myself to a rocket ship?
 
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Canada4222 Posts
As the old saying goes, shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll find yourself flying among the stars.
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On May 04 2016 19:41 Shady Sands wrote:
So who should I listen to? Should I take the steady corporate job, chase the next great social network as a VC, or hitch myself to a rocket ship?
I vote for the rocket ship. At least you won't be able to regret it afterwards.
Seriously though, is your life goal to become rich? If so, tough luck because your chances are slim no matter what you do. If it's something else then work towards that. If you're not sure, try out stuff.
If all it took to get rich was hard work, dedication and career advice from rich people, there would be way more rich people out there.
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You should go back to flirting with leggy brunettes on planes obvi
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I work in for a company that is funded through private equity, we are small but much more efficient than the corporate counterparts. Corporate jobs are good for meeting young people and a status symbol among some, with a most likely a higher salary than a private equity gig.
I chose private equity for two reasons, A) I have more responsibilities and am forced to tackle problems head on, it's been an amazing learning experience and cannot imagine the same happening at a corporate job where I have only a select few tasks that rinse and repeat. B) The potential payoff is much greater in some scenarios. My counterpart job at a corporate company has a higher annual salary, where as my job involves buying and selling for profit, if the profit is big enough, the employees receive a bonus. So for me this was a no brainer, I have learned much more than I believe I would have at another job and in the future I can always do something else.
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i think you should be personal fluffer for dude b
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The easy answer is "depends". Depends on your age, your skill set, and your appetite for risk.
From the post, it sounds like you're a young guy who lives in the Bay Area with a lot of career options. You can try chasing start-ups or biotechs, but be warned that it is a very unstable career path. That's not necessarily a bad thing because the compensation and the learning experiences are very high, but it is pretty common to have to find a new job every year or two. It can be very difficult to find stability later on, something a lot of young people seemingly haven't realized yet, although you could always retreat to grad school if things get hairy or you get set on something you want to do.
The unifying strand seems to be to find something you enjoy and where you have talent and then get really really good at that thing. It does help if you avoid talents that can be replaced with machines and try to do something that requires good insight and judgment and powers of persuasion, which will always be rare.
Also, you should balance out listening to super rich people by listening to moderately successful people and then people who took their shot and missed. Super rich people are often very lucky in ways that can't be easily replicated and they take a lot of things for granted. The attitude about genomics is frankly immature, to be honest. You need to balance that out by talking to somebody whose biotech went belly up because a patient died in clinical trials and the FDA pulled the plug. Although it is fun and exciting to see someone like Elon Musk turn his immature thoughts (he thinks we're all already in the Matrix) into a suspension of belief of what is not possible and build something totally new and unexpected.
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do all three, take a corporate VC job that's based off of a spaceship.
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I think you should ask yourself some questions. I do not understand this obsession with money.
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Just some random thoughts, a lot of it is mentioned by others. I think genomics and nanotechnology is definitely the "rocket ship", and it all probably would come much faster than we expect, even tho they seems science fictionish. People constantly miss the law of exponential change. (there is a documentary on it, our brains is just not evolved or trained to consider exponential change nearly as well as linear) and we are now near the cusp of some super rapid changes. (I was at the Albany nano tech center recently, you won't believe the progress and how much main stream media doesn't really cover, cuz lets face it. They prioritize whatever brings in the most eye balls and $ in the short run always)
But importantly you should also do w/e it is that you are passionate about and brings people value. The money part should always be considered as result, not the goal. Not many people makes a lot of money when it is the main goal, and even when they do, they are not happy. ( I know some wall street friends).
Do what you passionate about that brings value. Not only will you be happier doing it, have more energy doing it, it is much more probable that money will come as a result as well. And don't let stuff like but "but I have no talent" or this and that stop you. Almost everyone can be passionate and excel and learn well in something. I have a friend who can't draw for shit, but because of me he started an Instagram account sharing other people's artwork just a year ago. He now has near 2 million followers and makes $$$ like nothing, people pay him big bucks just to post their art work, when at the start all he wanted was for more people to see interesting art, he was passionate about that, not to make money off Instagram or w/e.
If you're thinking "but I don't know what I'm really passionate about", then that should be the 1st question answered, not ... which path would get me rich. Just my opinion.
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On May 05 2016 03:28 Glider wrote:
People constantly miss the law of exponential change. (there is a documentary on it, our brains is just not evolved or trained to consider exponential change nearly as well as linear) and we are now near the cusp of some super rapid changes.
It's more like a sequence of successively steeper S-shaped slopes than an exponential curve though. Phases of rapid progress and slow progress. When we unlock a new key technology, we enter the rapid progress part and then it levels off again. It seems like we are currently in a slow phase, but that phase can end very quickly.
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#1 Sounds like Shkreli 
I agree with the sentiment that genomics is going to be the next big thing. However, I have a hard time believing that a person with a business background will be the one to make the billions, it's going to be someone who combines medical knowledge with business knowledge. That, or some investor will pour billions into 20 different biomedical startups and hope that one takes off.
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don't spend so much time looking outside yourself for answers.
find your niche by experiencing life first hand...
adjust your life path based on how you feel about things.
"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." -Ayn Rand
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
Thanks for sharing.
On May 04 2016 19:41 Shady Sands wrote:
So who should I listen to? Should I take the steady corporate job, chase the next great social network as a VC, or hitch myself to a rocket ship?
Depends on your meta-goals.
On May 05 2016 01:56 SoSexy wrote:
I think you should ask yourself some questions. I do not understand this obsession with money.
I think the context is relevant not because they have money, but they've actually done what they preach (instead of saying something that sounds good without having done it themselves). It's very hard to accumulate 9-10 figures of wealth riding someone else's coattails.
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On May 05 2016 05:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
don't spend so much time looking outside yourself for answers.
find your niche by experiencing life first hand...
adjust your life path based on how you feel about things.
"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." -Ayn Rand
haha it's great how an Ayn Rand quote may appear tame and almost sensible in a ridic'ly capitalistic thread.
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You know a thread will be entertaining when it starts with venture capitalist giving advices on how to get rich, and ends up with people quoting Ayn Rand.
My observation is that people who want to be rich at all cost and succeed are in an immense majority jerks. Don't become a jerk, do something you like and think is meaningful, do it well, and if you succeed in that, maybe you'll get very rich, which probably won't make your life one bit better.
Being rich because you are the next Walt Disney or the next Ford is great. Being rich because you are a shark who exploited the rotten universe of venture capitalism because you have never seen value in anything else than money is not. Don't take that road. Redefine your definition of success, and if you want advice, ask it to great artists, great scientists, great economists, nobel prize winners, and so on..
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On May 04 2016 19:48 Impervious wrote:
As the old saying goes, shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll find yourself flying among the stars.
but the moon is easier to reach than the stars.......
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On May 05 2016 19:14 JieXian wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2016 19:48 Impervious wrote:
As the old saying goes, shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll find yourself flying among the stars. but the moon is easier to reach than the stars.......
Not much of a difference between the moon and a certain star in terms of difficulty to reach it.
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On May 05 2016 16:51 Puosu wrote:Show nested quote +On May 05 2016 05:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
don't spend so much time looking outside yourself for answers.
find your niche by experiencing life first hand...
adjust your life path based on how you feel about things.
"Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver." -Ayn Rand
haha it's great how an Ayn Rand quote may appear tame and almost sensible in a ridic'ly capitalistic thread.
people have said money is the root of all evil.. has any one asked what is the root of money?
On May 05 2016 09:16 thedeadhaji wrote:Thanks for sharing. Show nested quote +On May 04 2016 19:41 Shady Sands wrote:
So who should I listen to? Should I take the steady corporate job, chase the next great social network as a VC, or hitch myself to a rocket ship? Depends on your meta-goals. Show nested quote +On May 05 2016 01:56 SoSexy wrote:
I think you should ask yourself some questions. I do not understand this obsession with money. I think the context is relevant not because they have money, but they've actually done what they preach (instead of saying something that sounds good without having done it themselves). It's very hard to accumulate 9-10 figures of wealth riding someone else's coattails.
if you want advice from someone not riding any one's coat tails find successful people who come from a single parent drug addict family; and they were physically and/or sexually abused throughout their childhood. these types of people possess a rare depth of intellectual independence.
you'll get advice from this type of person that's just as valuable as any billionaire.
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If you are not a complete idiot, any job in a developed western country will provide you with more then enough money to have a pleasant life. The not being idiot part comes in twice, firstly in not being completely useless so that your job isn't something really bottom feeding and secondly in not wasting money on every nonsense around just because that's what other people do. I have a below-average wage in a rather poor central-european country and I am essentially swimming in money just by not spending them uselessly.
So if you don't live in the "third world" (whatever that means today) you do not really need to care about having enough money, despite everything you may hear daily in the media. Then the only question left is what you enjoy doing. I don't know much about you, but I remember your username and have a vague idea that you are a rather smart person, so I feel like you really can do anything you want at this point. I would personally go for the spaceship way then, but that's really a matter of personal prefference.
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EPT
