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You become a $1B by letting people work hard for you, not by working hard

6 points by janmo ↗ HN
Often billionaires, CEOs and other wealthy people such as Elon Musk brag about how much they are working. I don't think that how "hard" they work really matters at all to the company, it is how hard their employees work that does matter. Bezos would not be where he is right now if he hadn't 100 thousands and people working under extreme conditions in Amazon warehouses. The work hard to get successful is a mirage invented by CEOs and company founders to have their employees work hard for them so that they can profit from the hard labor of their employees. You can work as hard and as much as you can flipping steaks at a fast food restaurant work and still not afford a decent healthcare.

5 comments

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[dead] 1680168l
All you want is "decent healthcare"? Maybe your goals are what's limiting you.
strangattractor
Like Duh! Steve Job's was CEO of 2 companies simultaneously at one point. If each was 60 hours per week that would be 120 hours per week leaving him 7 hours of sleep each day if he worked 7 days a week and did nothing else. Obviously that never ever happened. CEO's have sociopathic tendencies. They see others working harder than them as the natural order of things.
utkarshdix02
It's arguable what hard labour is. For me a person running a company with 100 thousands of people working under you, is also very hard working.

As for earning $1B by letting working hard for you, I don't see anything wrong with it. I am sure lot of them have taken their share of risks to be where they are today.

nunez
Or you can get acquired for an insane valuation like Brian Acton did with WhatsApp! Post a tool on FlyerTalk for communicating with people, develop for 10 years and hire, like, 50 people, become billionaire!

It's almost as if there isn't a single path to achieving this sort of financial success that doesn't involve massive amounts of luck