Self-made man?

What is a self-made man? Is a person who builds his career by himself? Is a person who succeed without others help? Or maybe just a selfish guy?

By definition self-made man is used to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest exemplar of the self-made man in that age. The term self-made man was conceived by US Senator Henry Clay in 1832 referring to manufacturing moguls. After coining the term, Mr. Clay became the public spokesman for the self-made entrepreneur, being forever associated with the subject “Almost every manufactory known to me is in the hands of enterprising self-made men, who have acquired whatever wealth they possess by patient and diligent labor.”

In a certain way, self-made men were poor or grew with a disadvantaged background but with a lot of effort and hard work they eventually succeed. Not by inheritance, marriage or lottery. This is the common sense regarding those people. And they generally despise people who are rich by other means except for hard work.

Let’s take Steve Jobs for instance. He is one supposed to be called a self-made man. But how about Steve Wozniak who helped him build Apple since the beginning? Or Bill Gates who had Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen to create Microsoft? Warren Buffet had and still has Charlie Munger as his loyal partner. Therefore, they aren’t self-made, just assuming the fact that they are not alone developing their empires.

But how about Donald Trump? It is hard to recall any affiliate who has helped him. But we do know that Trump had a wealthy father. His grandfather indeed, was poor when he migrated from Germany. But Trump’s grandfather built a fortune in the real state market. Considering the fact that Trump had a solid heritage, it is very hard to designate him as a self-made man.

Mark Zuckerberg who created Facebook wasn’t rich. Neither his parents. He is a smart guy who left Harvard’s graduation to pursue his dream to build a better-connected society. However, Zuckerberg had some college fellows who helped him to develop Facebook, including a brazilian mate who was betrayed by Mark. Therefore, we can almost consider him a self-made man.

Nevertheless, the fact is that is almost impossible to find someone who became very rich without support. Those self-made men were raised by someone: parents, adopted or by foster care. They were educated by someone: tutors, teachers or school. They were financed by investors, venture capital or family money. They have hundreds or thousands of employees. They have consulting firms, lawyers, accounters and executives. They were ultimately embraced by friends and family.

Moreover, no one can work for themselves. This is a contradiction. Even if you don’t have a boss, you work for someone. You work for your customer. Every work in life needs to deliver value. Without value, you have nothing, nor customer nor money.

To summarize, rich men love to be called self-made men. They will not call themselves self-made men, because it is presumptuous and arrogant. But they love, indeed to be called. However, self-made men don't exist, because no one can be rich without delivering value to others. And the next time you heard someone saying that a rich man is a self-made man, remember that he is just a rich guy who was poor someday and with hard work, succeeded in life.