Jason Voorhees
Say cheese
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I was reading about the forbes lists and noticed this recurring pattern so I thought I should make this thread. Paraphrased with chatgpt btw since i was too lazy to write a proper thread.
1) High IQ + Rare Monetizable skull
~130+ IQ + top 0.01% in a skill that can scale globally Math, code, product intuition,or trading edge. This is the see things 5–10 years before the world does type skill
Paul Graham: One blog essay YC creates 1,000+ unicorns, net worth ~$500M+ from 1% carry
Sundar Pichai: IIT-Kharagpur prodigy from Chennai family. Joins Google 2004 lead Chrome/Gmail and then became Alphabet CEO by 2015 and tripled Google's valuation in just a few years and became Billionaire via stocks
Patrick & John Collison: See global payments gap at 19. Create Stripe and turn it into a $95B company
Jim Simons Starts Renaissance and Medallion Fund 66% annual returns for 30 years and creates a empire of $30B
2) Wealthy, Elite Family + Connections
And I mean real wealthy family not a few million but 50 million minimum with Top 1% zip code + private-school Ivy pipeline or direct trust-fund money
Jared Kushner: Harvard. Daddy donated building. Gets a $2B Saudi deal two years out of office
Hunter Biden: Zero qualifications but still gets $11M from Burisma/China in 5 years
$50–500M fail fund + daddy’s friends seed every round and zero financial trauma which allows them to succeed
3) Both (High-IQ+Wealthy Family with Connections)
Statistically most likely to become billionaires.
Elon Musk: Rare physics/engineering talent with wealthy Pretoria family with emerald mine stake funding early Zip2/PayPal runway to Tesla and acquiring X. $500B net worth as of 2025
Jensen Huang: Taiwan elite family born into the Silicon chip capital with elite connections. Got sent to US boarding school. Creates NVIDIA and churns into a $120B+ net worth
4) Only High IQ with no connections/money
Brian Chesky: RISD prodigy, was completely broke and living on the streets until he founded Airbnb and in an insane turn of events and extreme luck became a billionaire
Jan Koum: Creator of WhatsApp. Ukranian immigrant who lived on food stamps but persevered and in right environment and luck succeeded in creating a multi billion dollar communications empire
Do Won Chang & Jin Sook Chang: Forever 21 founders. Korean immigrants who hit the retail jackpot with perfect timing
Unicorn and Billionaire status possible but <0.001% odds. One perfect idea + one perfect timing and enviornment. Most high iq kids still cap at $5–20M engineering net worth.
5) Only Elite Connections with 0 Talent
Every nepo baby on Forbes 30-under-30
TikTok houses turned VC funds,
Miami “web3 founders” with daddy’s real estate money
Easy $50M-$500M lifestyle money rarely crosses $1B without marriage or luck
6) Neither
Can still have top 1% lifestyle with hard work and be rich by historical standards but eternal peasant next to actual money.
Realistic ceiling if hard working
- FAANG staff/senior engineer; $5–12M net worth at 50
- Trades/business owner (HVAC, roofing, med spas) in red state: $10–50M if ruthless
Main criteria to being billionaires is these 2 things
1)High IQ+Savant skills
2)$50M+ family money + elite network from birth
Having both = near-guaranteed. Having neither = the top 0.01% billionaire door welded shut forever. Everything else is coping with a nicer lifestyle.
1) High IQ + Rare Monetizable skull
~130+ IQ + top 0.01% in a skill that can scale globally Math, code, product intuition,or trading edge. This is the see things 5–10 years before the world does type skill
Paul Graham: One blog essay YC creates 1,000+ unicorns, net worth ~$500M+ from 1% carry
Sundar Pichai: IIT-Kharagpur prodigy from Chennai family. Joins Google 2004 lead Chrome/Gmail and then became Alphabet CEO by 2015 and tripled Google's valuation in just a few years and became Billionaire via stocks
Patrick & John Collison: See global payments gap at 19. Create Stripe and turn it into a $95B company
Jim Simons Starts Renaissance and Medallion Fund 66% annual returns for 30 years and creates a empire of $30B
2) Wealthy, Elite Family + Connections
And I mean real wealthy family not a few million but 50 million minimum with Top 1% zip code + private-school Ivy pipeline or direct trust-fund money
Jared Kushner: Harvard. Daddy donated building. Gets a $2B Saudi deal two years out of office
Hunter Biden: Zero qualifications but still gets $11M from Burisma/China in 5 years
$50–500M fail fund + daddy’s friends seed every round and zero financial trauma which allows them to succeed
3) Both (High-IQ+Wealthy Family with Connections)
Statistically most likely to become billionaires.
Elon Musk: Rare physics/engineering talent with wealthy Pretoria family with emerald mine stake funding early Zip2/PayPal runway to Tesla and acquiring X. $500B net worth as of 2025
Jensen Huang: Taiwan elite family born into the Silicon chip capital with elite connections. Got sent to US boarding school. Creates NVIDIA and churns into a $120B+ net worth
4) Only High IQ with no connections/money
Brian Chesky: RISD prodigy, was completely broke and living on the streets until he founded Airbnb and in an insane turn of events and extreme luck became a billionaire
Jan Koum: Creator of WhatsApp. Ukranian immigrant who lived on food stamps but persevered and in right environment and luck succeeded in creating a multi billion dollar communications empire
Do Won Chang & Jin Sook Chang: Forever 21 founders. Korean immigrants who hit the retail jackpot with perfect timing
Unicorn and Billionaire status possible but <0.001% odds. One perfect idea + one perfect timing and enviornment. Most high iq kids still cap at $5–20M engineering net worth.
5) Only Elite Connections with 0 Talent
Every nepo baby on Forbes 30-under-30
TikTok houses turned VC funds,
Miami “web3 founders” with daddy’s real estate money
Easy $50M-$500M lifestyle money rarely crosses $1B without marriage or luck
6) Neither
Can still have top 1% lifestyle with hard work and be rich by historical standards but eternal peasant next to actual money.
Realistic ceiling if hard working
- FAANG staff/senior engineer; $5–12M net worth at 50
- Trades/business owner (HVAC, roofing, med spas) in red state: $10–50M if ruthless
Main criteria to being billionaires is these 2 things
1)High IQ+Savant skills
2)$50M+ family money + elite network from birth
Having both = near-guaranteed. Having neither = the top 0.01% billionaire door welded shut forever. Everything else is coping with a nicer lifestyle.
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the Arabs had a saying “If you are in need of Gold, Go to the Sudan (means land of blacks)”