47% of the world’s wealthy people are entrepreneurs

[pohl]

What percentage of entrepreneurs are wealthy?

[erikstarck]

What percentage of entrepreneurs are happy?

[derrida]

What percentage of people with negative net worth are entrepreneurs? I would get it would approach 90%.

[rokhayakebe]

I guess 5%. That is the success rate for businesses.

What I would like to know is how the other half got wealthy.

[Joakal]

That would be hard to tell due to a common issue of confirmation bias. eg during the WorldCom era, there were a lot of wealthy entrepreneurs.

[axiom]

"The global wealth pyramid has a very wide base and a sharp point. The richest 1% of adults control 43% of the world’s assets; the wealthiest 10% have 83%. The bottom 50% have only 2%."

Why do they never think to age adjust these damn numbers? is it not common sense that you can't compare a 22 yearold college grad entering the workforce with $50k in debt to a 65 yearold lawyer about to retire?

I guess because then the numbers stop looking so shocking.

[brudgers]

Recent college graduates are an insignificant fraction of the poorer half of the world's population.

[steveklabnik]

It's because it doesn't matter. The $50k income people and the $100k people are in the same bracket.

[muhfuhkuh]

The biggest surprise is the blinding speed in which Asia has caught up with the rest of the world, both in total population of millionaires (equal with Europe) and in total assets accumulated (almost as much as the US).

I slum it in political forums often (I had to wean myself off of /r/politics just to get IRL stuff done!), and the prevailing wisdom of the crowds always think that the wealth in Asia is more concentrated into distinct industrial silos filled with nepotistic back-alley corruption and Politburo greed; which might well be the case, but it looks like some real entrepreneurial success is creeping in there!

[jacquesm]

Not much of a surprise there. If you ship all your manufacturing to an area and then proceed to get yourself hip-deep in debt to buy the stuff they make then the balance will shift rapidly.

Asia always had the long view, it's the West that is on a three monthly myopic 'quarterly earnings reports' schedule that makes it look as though we're making the right decisions but actually we're setting ourselves up for a bit fall. The cycle repeats.

[galactus]

How are they counting people with rich parents who started their own business? As having inherited their fortune or as entrepreneurs?

[brudgers]

That's a way in which the article is deliberately misleading. Inheritance is just one way in which wealth is transferred intergenerationally. By highlighting the small percentage, the article creates a false impression that a significant amount wealth is bootstrapped by individuals.

That got me thinking about the obvious question - how are they counting people who married into wealth? They have 23% getting wealth from employment, 16% from inheritance, and 43% from owning a business. That only leaves 14% for spouses (less lottery winners, malpractice award recipients, etc.) That just doesn't seem correct - considering the frequency of marriage among adults.

[dotBen]

The report says 16% inherited their wealth.

That means that 56% of people who earned their wealth (ie not inherited) did so as entrepreneurs.

[candeira]

Your calculation assumes that entrepreneurs and people who inherited their wealth are disjoint sets. Not so: many rich entrepreneurs got their start in life and fortune by inheriting a successful company.

[jedberg]

Some of them did it as employees. You can earn a million over your lifetime as a doctor in a hospital or whatnot.

[nreece]

In other words, 53% of the world's wealthy people are not entrepreneurs.

[jacquesm]

Let's take that as true, how many entrepreneurs are there versus the total population?

[tsotha]

It also says only 16% inherited their money. I don't find this very surprising, TBH. A million dollars isn't what it used to be - if you're some kind of professional making, say, $150k/yr you can retire with a million.

[dedward]

Their definition of "Rich" is flawed in my mind, or at least not very meaningful...but that aside.

Is it any surprise that about half of the people in the world who are "wealthy" by some definition spend their time... investing in and starting businesses? Creating jobs? Investing?

If they redefined their definition of "Wealthy people" to not look at net worth and instead look at income earned from investments -vs- living expenses, then look at the people who aren't in the red - then we'd probably find that near 100% of them were entrepeneurs of some kind.

[gohat]

Yes, entrepreneurial ism is how you make a lot of money.

That or massive entitlements in commodities from the government. Or just growing a basic commodity compony, like a steel firm.

So not surprised by this statistic.

To make a lot of money, it's good to be an entrepreneur. But being an entrepreneur isn't necessarily good for making a lot of money.

[ericmsimons]

Being an entrepreneur is one of the few fields where your ingenious mind and relentless motivation will always pay off. I haven't met one true entrepreneur that hasn't built something really friggen' cool and had a burning passion that fueled that fire.

[alsomike]

LOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

[bloggergirl]

Well said, ericmsimons! Pavel commented earlier that "hard work and working up the corporate ladder to some executive position at some big company [will get you rich]"... but most of us were frustrated by or left the corporate world --- or never joined it in the first place --- because hard work doesn't make you rich. Sucking up to the right person does. And, damn, there's gotta be a better way to get rich than fake-laughing three times a day with your boss. :) That 'better way' is working for yourself. If you can be happy along the way, all the better!

[known]

    Employment is to *survive* in life
    Entrepreneurship is to *succeed* in life

[dedward]

Whoah there - let's not be defining everyone's intentions for them, or be looking down on emloyment.

If it's not for YOU, and doesn't meet your definition of success - that's perfectly fine - but good luck telling me that that I'm just "getting by" and "not succeeding".

[6ren]

Real estate prices in Australia have pretty much gotten to the point that if you own your own home, you are a millionaire.

[dedward]

The problem with throwing the home in there, and in looking at "net worth" -vs- "net income" is that things like your house don't generate income. Having a million dollar house and $50/month leftover to spend on fun puts you in the same position on a day to day basis as the guy who, after rent and bills, has $50/month leftover to spend on fun. I mean it puts you in the same place in terms of "I'm rich, I can do whatever I want" - neither of you have f-you money. Neither can just go do whatever they want. Guy who owns the house has more equity he can borrow against if he has to... he also has to take care of that house. Renting guy renting -but he's mobile, and can pass a lot of expenses on to others. He can just cut his living expenses by a bunch and live in a cheaper place if he needs more income.

[forinti]

What percentage of entrepreneurs are poor or middle-class?

Market economies aren't made up of millionaires and billionaires only.

[durbin]

This headline is why I went to Babson in a nutshell.

[cadr]

Do you think going to Babson made you a better entrepreneur? I know they have a good reputation as such, I was just wondering about your experience.