How People Get Rich Now - Paul Graham  ## Metadata - Author: **Paul Graham** - Full Title: How People Get Rich Now - Category: #articles - URL: http://www.paulgraham.com/richnow.html ## Highlights - In 1982 the most common source of wealth was inheritance. Of the 100 richest people, 60 inherited from an ancestor. There were 10 du Pont heirs alone. By 2020 the number of heirs had been cut in half, accounting for only 27 of the biggest 100 fortunes. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh8zq8gye77nwmrw1q0vdf19)) - How are people making these new fortunes? Roughly 3/4 by starting companies and 1/4 by investing. Of the 73 new fortunes in 2020, 56 derive from founders' or early employees' equity (52 founders, 2 early employees, and 2 wives of founders), and 17 from managing investment funds. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh8zphmkpbcgasseasd6eg22)) - In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, financiers like J. P. Morgan combined thousands of smaller companies into a few hundred giant ones with commanding economies of scale. By the end of World War II, as Michael Lind writes, "the major sectors of the economy were either organized as government-backed cartels or dominated by a few oligopolistic corporations." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh908rz54z3np98d2fq2y2z7)) - This trend has been running for a long time. IBM, founded in 1896, took 45 years to reach a billion 2020 dollars in revenue. Hewlett-Packard, founded in 1939, took 25 years. Microsoft, founded in 1975, took 13 years. Now the norm for fast-growing companies is 7 or 8 years ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh91qgh9ykwag0ysvd8fek3w))