Person A makes it big. Writes a bestseller that in retrospect creates a narrative for how he made it big.
Person B reads the bestseller and tries to faithfully “retrace” Person A’s steps in the hopes of making it big as well. Person B likely fails.
The logic of Person B is what most of the self-help industry is based on. It sells books based on hope and greed.
But the question is what the real factors of success in a given area are.
Does it really come down to work ethic? Many people work as hard as Elon Musk, but make it nowhere near as big. Some people come from equally priviledged backgrounds as Elon Musk, and yet don’t rise to the same level of perceived success.
I think that modern Western culture largely overlooks the notion of being the right man in the right place at the right time, most likely because the notion of fate makes people uncomfortable as it can’t be purchased.
But perhaps fate is not entirely deterministic and can be “negotiated with”. I think that an extreme focus on following a specific idea for a long time might “bend” your fate in your intended direction. So perhaps you can learn some useful things from business moguls like Musk or Trump.
However, please don’t make the mistake of thinking that their riches are due to their work ethic or that emulating someone else’s behavior leads to the same results. It doesn’t and you are you, and if you are overly invested in emulating someone else’s success, you might overlook what you came here for yourself.
