Russell Brand

[russell]

"When Sugar was young, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mopsy". He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton, Hackney, and made extra money by working at a greengrocers. In The Apprentice (2009), Sugar revealed "I was in the Jewish Lads Brigade, Stamford Hill Division, Trainee Bugler, but it didn't make me sell computers!" After leaving school at 16, he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician at the Ministry of Education. He started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van he had bought with his savings of £50."

"Richard Branson started his record business from the crypt of a church where he ran The Student magazine. Branson advertised popular records in The Student and it was an overnight success. Trading under the name "Virgin", he sold records for considerably less than the "High Street" outlets, especially the chain W. H. Smith. Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration"

"More than 40 years after arriving in New York from Mexico uneducated and broke, Felix Sanchez de la Vega Guzman still can barely speak English. Ask him a question, and he will respond with a few halting phrases and an apologetic smile before shifting back to the comfort of Spanish. Yet Mr. Sanchez has lived the great American success story. He turned a business selling tortillas on the street into a $19 million food manufacturing empire that threaded together the Mexican diaspora from coast to coast and reached back into Mexico itself."

9 American Entrepreneurs Who Went from Dirt Poor to Stinking Rich | FastUpFront Small Business Blog

All these people had the ideas, took the risks and found the money to follow their ambitions and I am sure they would all say that they had help along the way and maybe wouldn't have had such great success without good people behind them but the businesses wouldn't exist without them

Survivorship bias, you may as well list people who won the lottery, they took the risk with their £1. For every Branson there are millions of dreamers with their head in the clouds and an empty bank account and string of failed businesses. You need huge amounts of luck (right place at right time), and then be sharp enough to take that opportunity and work hard to keep being successful.

[doodab]

FTFY

Oh do shut up you sad irrelevant little man. You aren't even looking at what I've actually written, you've just misrepresenting it so you can spout your usual cliched bollocks. If you can't be bothered to at least try why don't you just **** off?

[DodgyAgent]

Survivorship bias, you may as well list people who won the lottery, they took the risk with their £1. For every Branson there are millions of dreamers with their head in the clouds and an empty bank account and string of failed businesses. You need huge amounts of luck (right place at right time), and then be sharp enough to take that opportunity and work hard to keep being successful.

So you think that success in business is down to luck?

[DodgyAgent]

Oh do shut up you sad irrelevant little man. You aren't even looking at what I've actually written, you've just misrepresenting it so you can spout your usual cliched bollocks. If you can't be bothered to at least try why don't you just **** off?

[doodab]

So you think that success in business is down to luck?

Well if it were down to talent you'd be called DodgyToiletCleaner wouldn't you?

[russell]

So you think that success in business is down to luck?

Not entirely, but let me ask you a question. If becoming a successful businessmen person making millions just took hard work and some risk why wouldn't every person who did that be successful?

[DodgyAgent]

Well if it were down to talent you'd be called DodgyToiletCleaner wouldn't you?

You are quite right. Being an agent is like having a job poking turds down the pan

[MyUserName]

Not at all. The argument revolves around the fact that being wealthy gives one access to much better opportunities.

Hang on - was anyone actually disputing that? If nothing else you can afford to have more failed ideas before going bankrupt!

I thought people were arguing that starting poor did not mean you had to stay poor? Although I have only skim read the thread.

[DodgyAgent]

Hang on - was anyone actually disputing that? If nothing else you can afford to have more failed ideas before going bankrupt!

I thought people were arguing that starting poor did not mean you had to stay poor? Although I have only skim read the thread.

I think it has morphed into a tirade of prejudice

[MyUserName]

I think it has morphed into a tirade of prejudice

Rats, did I get here too late for rational part of the discussion?