What Is 8 Figures About?

Meritocracy is complete BS

Not everyone was lucky enough to be born to rich parents.

I wasn’t.

Statistically, you weren’t either.

And, in my opinion, that’s the only way right now to learn how to REALLY make money. I.e., to learn it from someone else.

Once you reach somewhere around $10M, everything suddenly clicks and becomes easy.

I could grow from 0 to $10M in 1-2 years without any capital right now. 90% success rate. Easy.

This knowledge was not taught at any of the schools I attended, even though I attended some of the best ones in the world. For Christ's sake, I hold a PhD from MIT. So why was I poor in my 20s?

I read all the popular nonfiction books on building startups and making money, and this knowledge wasn’t there either. Titles include The Lean Startup, Zero to One, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, and The 4-Hour Workweek.

I would go so far as to even say that reading nonfiction books on business is a complete waste of time. No disrespect to the authors. These books give you a big motivation boost for a while but don’t actually teach you anything.

In my very non-humble opinion, there is literally NOTHING in these books that gets you closer to learning the skill of convincing others to give you their hard-earned money.

I started this Substack because I read a single comment on Reddit once that resonated with me:

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something.

Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on.

Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about "meritocracy" and the salutary effects of hard work.

Poor kids aren't visiting the carnival. They're the ones working it.

Practice your dart throwing in a low-cost environment and save whatever money you can. When the carnival comes around, you'll be more skilled and have more capital to take aim with.

There is much more to success than this, but time and the number of attempts are definitely some of the major factors in learning this skill.

Expert dart throwers can hit the bullseye at a 90% success rate. So, this skill can be learned, and I’m sure it can also be taught. Learning it takes 10 years if it ever happens. Can it be taught faster?

Sam Altman served as president of Y Combinator (YC) from 2014 until March 2019, when he stepped down to focus on OpenAI.

How the fuck did he incubate over 2,000 companies, including Reddit, Airbnb, and Dropbox?

At the age of 30, he quit YC and gathered over $1B in funding to start OpenAI.

As of October 2024, he owned approximately 12.2 million shares, making him one of Reddit's largest shareholders. At that time, with Reddit's share price at $98, his holdings were valued at about $1.2 billion. That’s 1 company.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6

On this Substack, I plan to explain everything that contributed to my success that I didn’t learn from books and schools.

Putting this on “paper” is difficult, so please be patient.

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May the LORD Bless You and Your Loved Ones,

Jack Roshi, MIT PhD

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PS I am a follower of Christ. If you have a problem with that, please find another business Substack. I was a hardcore atheist in my 20s, but things changed for me. I've been making strange friends in the desert; they love Jesus and America, too; it ain't as bad as it sounds. One day, I'll explain it to you. This Substack will not appeal to religion or anything supernatural when it comes to achieving success in any way.

PS2 I am a professional dart thrower