A friend of mine once said about a mutual acquaintance of ours “she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but she thinks she mined the silver.”
Silver spoons of privilege, of course, come in many shapes and sizes, including class, race and gender. But in his book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell exposes some of the previously unconsidered forces of place and time that combine to create successful individuals like Bill Gates or John D. Rockefeller.
Rockefeller, he points out, is one of 14 Americans all born in a single decade who find themselves on the list of the 75 richest people in all of recorded history. It’s mind-blowing to think that 9 of the most wildly successful “self-made men”* in all of history just happened to be born in the same decade. Here’s what Gladwell says:
“What’s going on here? The answer is obvious, if you think about it. In the 1860′s and 1870′s, the American economy went through perhaps the greatest transformation in its history. This was when the railways were built, and when Wall Street emerged. It was when industrial manufacturing started in earnest. It was when all the rules by which the traditional economy functioned were broken and remade. What that list says is that it really matters how old you were when that transformation happened.
“If you were born in the late 1840′s, you missed it. You were too young to take advantage of that moment. If you were born in the 1820′s, you were too old: your mindset was shaped by the pre-Civil War paradigm. But there is a particular, narrow nine-year window that was just perfect for seeing the potential that the future held. All of the 14 men and women on that list had vision and talent. But they also were given an extraordinary opportunity. . .”
Gladwell uses the story of Bill Gates extensively in “Outliers,” effectively debunking the myth of the “self-made man” by showing how a confluence of events and factors outside of Bill’s control–e.g., the fact that his school PTA purchased one of the first computers with individual workstations instead of laborious punchcards and he had unfettered access to it; the fact that he was old enough to afford one and young enough not to have taken on a desk job and a mortgage when the first personal computers were available to the public–allowed him to become the world’s most successful software mogul.
In my experience working with first generation wealth creators and entrepreneurs, they are usually the first to understand and acknowledge that the whole “self-made” thing is ridiculous. They might not have been born with economic privilege but there were key events, key opportunities or connections or coincidences that opened the path to success before them. This is why I think entrepreneurs seem to favor education so heavily in their giving. And this is why they are so generous in giving back–thanking the people and institutions that provided them with opportunity and trying to make sure as many people coming up behind them have similar opportunities.
