Extreme poverty is not a “bullshit reason”. It’s a reason. His parents’ apathy was also a reason. He overcame these reasons - but he was overcoming it during high school, when he was advocating for himself to get onto the college track. He remained poor in Stanford, and afterward - but arguably, he had already overcome poverty by getting accepted to Stanford. Once you do that, odds are, you’ll make more than 2x minimum wage forever, and unemployment isn’t going to be a big worry. Companies are often happy to hire Stanford dropouts.

(Also, please note - this is the US - had he not done that, and had his English skills remained weak, he would likely have remained in jobs that paid between minimum wage and 2x minimum wage. He could perpetually have been at risk of homelessness and possibly joblessness.)

What he did in high school was a mental adjustment - to understand the new system he was in, and the opportunities it presented, and then to adjust himself to conform to the new system, to use these opportunities.

What I read into this is that you need to be aware of your environment, the system you’re in, and what it expects. Know your shortcomings, and then address them as best you can. Within the system, you need to find a place where you enjoy what you’re doing, and then push yourself. (I make it sound easy, but it’s really hard.)

Now, he’s changing his perspectives on taking financial risks and other things that startup founders need to do. I got a lot out of this article. I didn’t agree with his attitude that he’s “getting rid of bugs”, but I do agree that capitalism operates differently for poor, middle class, and wealthy people, and you need to have different mindsets in different situations. Fail to do that, and you will inevitably either suffer from fraud, or fail to recognize opportunities.

Otto - I have a lot of empathy for you. I’m not good at pitching. I’m not a “people person”. I’m often critical - and it’s because that helps me survive. This article isn’t going to help you or me, on these points, because the author didn’t write about overcoming these problems. We need to read something else :)