Just came across an interesting article in Times Live by Ian Mann that explores a new book by Jamie Oliver, a business journalist, and Tony Goodwin, an entrepreneur who started with nothing, "made it, almost blew the lot, and made it again."
The article describes the book, How They Blew It, as a profile of 16 extremely "successful" men that had lost it all. At first, it reminded me somewhat of the Antoine Walker, Mike Tyson track of spending-so-much-on-your-entourage-that-you-can't-afford-a-1br-apt-in-your-mom's-basement track, but then I quickly realized these cases were different.
Most of these men didn't have the excuse of financial ignorance or a huge posse to blame for the drain on their bank accounts, but rather a sick sociopath tendency to lie - about everything...and most stories did not end "Happily Ever After."
while facing criminal charges. Adolf Merkle, the German multi-billionaire industrialist, committed suicide by stepping in front of a train. Christopher Forster, a British entrepreneur, set fire to his house and died of smoke inhalation after first killing his horses, dogs, daughter and wife.Others are in prison. Bernie Ebbers (WorldCom) is inmate 56022-54; the oil oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in a Siberian prison; and Zhou Zhengyi, the billionaire Chinese property developer, is in a Shanghai prison.
No one described in the book set out to deceive, defraud or steal money, but some crossed that line later in their careers.
Then this made me wonder, are there a lot of pathological liars out there that do extremely well and DON'T lose it all? We've seen a lot of discussions recently on the boards about psychotic bankers and sociopaths but maybe some level of "sickness" is needed to reach the upper echelons of wealth when coming from nothing.
So fellow monkeys, do you have the sociopath / villain in you? Or will you be like Illiniprogrammer and find happiness at $500k/yr and a rusty Honda?
I think that greed is the root of these evils and that we find this incredibly powerful emotion hard to understand.
Why people commit crimes when they are already successful? If the answer is plain greed, are we all subject to its powers?
+1 its a shame im not even making 100k
500K/year and a rusty Honda?
I think 10% of the population is genuinely nice people. These people can't survive in finance.
5%-10 of the population are genuine sociopaths. They're terrible human beings, and they just don't care.
Then there's the other 80-85% of us who can turn our empathy, kindness, and sympathy off for a few minutes when we have to deal with a sociopath. Yes, IlliniProgrammer has a dark side, one usually reserved for bullies and one that looks a bit like Gene Hackman's portrayal of Lex Luthor.
I find the issue isn't people being nice, rather not having the conviction to be authentic in your work-life and true to your principles/morals/beliefs, i.e. you either compromise your values in a material way (or gradually) or opt out of the business.
wow i didn't know ip gets paid that much XD
I actually get paid an apartment on Avenue Q, a rusty honda every five years, PBR and yellowtail wine, hang glider storage, lean cuisine dinners and frozen vegetables, and an undisclosed amount of retirement savings and dividend stocks.
Looks like an interesting read. I sincerely believe in the importance of learning from other people's mistakes. Not as a means of pursuing a no-regrets type of life, but to minimize my own set of errors, especially financial ones at that.
It begs the question of whether being an asshole leads to being successful or if being successful leads to being an asshole?
Regards
I don't agree with the premise that being an asshole is correlated to being successful, or that there is a causation.
Just for the record, neither do I. I was merely being facetious. I do think people that have questionable morals tend to have an easier way of becoming successful. Obviously, the consequence is the departure of your integrity (if you had any to begin with) and possibly getting caught, but for some those are two very small risks.
Regards
Where's heister?
Some people just cant stop and are addicted to the insanity. As the great Porfirio Rubirosa said "I would risk it all to avoid boredom". Of course he died broke after running through many millions attained by being one of the most successful gigolos of his day.
On the nice guy vs sociopath thing: Unfortunately most of us are closer to the sociopath then the nice guy, thats just human nature. I just try to be genuine and a straight shooter and I find that let's me be self-interested enough to do well while still being able to sleep at night. People who are too nice are not being genuine and thats why people dont like them....I have no time for people who pretend they arent self-interested because thats just bullshit.
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