Questioning the popularity of IB/PE/HF/Conuslting/law etc

Is a career on wall street truly the best way to become successful as opposed to building your business?(real question, not trolling).

For example in Peter Lynch's quora answer he writes " I like to joke with people in my industry that we kid ourselves into believing we’re on the best path to success when really we are just competing to meet and partner with the founder CEOs that have already pulled it off."

Peter Thiel voices similar sentiments in Zero to One book and Warren Buffet with his quote Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

I am a student and though I have been interested studying markets early on, I find it odd that all these PE/ HF/ IB shops are really to service someone else yet so many people rush to careers in servicing the wealthy instead of trying to become those very clients that your target bank/hf/pe/law firm serves.

It also explains why we have seen less innovation than what is really possible.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

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