What does it mean to you? Let's consider if you had to pick one among the following: (normal/John Smith + Mary Sue) 1. Average at everything, normal family with typical kids, median income, nothing too out of the ordinary, with minor ups and downs but none extreme. (rags to riches/Andrew Carnegie, Li Ka-Ching) 2. Grow up in crazy tough environment, develop emotional resilience, work like a maniac, get stellar grades and job opportunities, quickly climb to the top, with power and the money, type 3 and 4 kids (see below); can retire whenever, but keep hustling for love of the game. (calm and curious/archetypal techie) 3. With parents in frontend and backend, early teen passion to build apps and program for fun, hang out with other nerds, finish MS at tier 2 school, learn lots of new technical skills on interesting and moderately paid job at above-average company. Can't retire early with little savings in Bay Area, but enjoy work anyway and put in extra hours to satisfy enthusiasm on open-source and with learning (blockchain, deep learning, self-driving, VR gaming) which one will never get to use on the job and will have no impact on TC. Marry and repeat cycle. (spoiled happy/Ferris Bueller, Saudi prince) 4. Born to the upper crust, helped all the time by parents and relatives, party recklessly, get kicked out of school, travel the world, swing several partners and many kids, accumulate more and more multimillions thanks to hedge fund accounts set up by financial advisors, never work a single day in life, just endless pools of entertainment. (purebred academic/Grigori Perelman, Noam Elkies) 5. Born into academic lifestyle, self-study college math in middle school, top private tutors, start research in high school at parents' lab, 5.0 GPA at MIT, award winning dissertation in category theory, tenured professor at 26, below average money living on university campus in the middle of nowhere, brilliant peers, publish groundbreaking/seminal papers in new "esoteric" but important field, name unknown to most humans in the world but worshipped in academia, legacy carved into history forever. Obviously the best from each would be ideal, but the point here is to consider the tradeoffs under constraints. (Named examples are rough approximations, not meant to be exactly accurate.)
Tldr
Ferris Bueller wasn't rich.
"Named examples are rough approximations, not meant to be exactly accurate." I've edited with Saudi princes as the wealthier half of that image.
Financially independent a couple times over, using spare capital to bootstrap businesses with double bottom line. Work whenever I feel like it, read and travel the rest of the time. None of the options quite fit. I think 3 would be the closest, but tier 1 school, company and TC enable the FIRE and calm entrepreneurship route.
Why must the normal/calm and curious routes involve median income or tier 2 schools? Smart, lazy and happy is my ideal :P
Im going to get some heat for this. I’m definitely a spoiled happy/Ferris Bueller and it’s absolutely amazing. I know many people say that this type of life sucks; but that’s just because they haven’t lived it. Just some of the amazing benefits I have: I quit my job without hesitation and had the last laugh because I know we come from money. Anyone else in this situation would feel differently. I mainly wear Gucci, LV, Supreme, Fendi, etc. these tier of clothes sets you far above and beyond many other people in terms of fashion. I eat at the best restaurants and never get tired of it. Some may argue how it loses its luster but I would argue otherwise. Recently I tried a 3 star Michelin restaurant in Shanghai which costs $800 USD a person. Didn’t even think about it twice and was absolutely impeccable. I stay in the best hotels. Many argue how “you don’t get to experience backpacking and hostels if you have money” but I do that when I feel like it and then stay at the Carlisle or the Ritz if I feel like it. Life is absolutely amazing, stress-free, and keeps you looking young; happy, and just all around blissful.
I think that's perfectly fine. Out of curiosity, what motivates you to continue working at Amazon? Also, what do you enjoy doing the most, e.g. dining, reading, sailing, or something else?
This is cool, but drving luxury cars and eating at expensive restaurants don’t sound that exciting to me. A middle class life where I could do something I’m passion about would be more fun (scientist, astronaut, successful entrepreneur using the money for social impact while living a modest life etc).