Comment by bbarnett

On the other hand, no matter what you do, you can’t invest like Warren Buffett.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/11/19/why-you-...

The whole idea of succeeding by “grit” makes way too many people too idealistic and unrealistic.

Don’t get me wrong, Peter Drucker (hopefully that’s the Peter you are referring to) had some great actionable advice. But believing in yourself and having grit is about as banal as “thoughts and prayers”

You know what? This is indeed where courage, tenacity, and risk-taking make a difference.

But what makes the difference in whether or not we hear about it is pure luck and survivor bias.

If their luck was just right that with all that push in the right time the deal came through or the product sold, then we hear about what a great success it was, and how important was their grit.

And many smart determined people with all the courage, tenacity, and risk-taking in the world have also taken the big risk, but dice did not roll their way, or the hill was just so steep it didn't work, so we hear nothing of them. And their number likely vastly exceeds the few for whom it did work.

At one point in Tesla's path, Musk was down to a net worth of $200k or so. He laid his entire fortune on the line. How many of us would be willing to do that? Not me.