>My father was career military. That isn't a recipe for wealth, and is an avenue available to millions of people.
I was actually going to ask this, but I didn't want to be presumptuous.
Your family, like mine, were probably recipients of GI Bill benefits. These benefits (like college grants and home loans) were systematically denied to black folks, disallowing them from participating in the post war economic boom.
There probably weren't a bunch of black students in your graduating class.
Bill Gates had a lot of guts and savvy on top of a great work ethic- and a lot of social advantages.
I guarantee you there's a billion dollar opportunity today right in front of my face that I do not see, but will find out about 5 years from now. It's in front of your face, too, and about every other HN reader.
Never in history has there been more opportunity than there is right now in software. Software is a completely unregulated free market, the barriers to entry are essentially zero, the market for a product is global, training materials are zero, and marketing costs can be zero.
I was actually going to ask this, but I didn't want to be presumptuous.
Your family, like mine, were probably recipients of GI Bill benefits. These benefits (like college grants and home loans) were systematically denied to black folks, disallowing them from participating in the post war economic boom.
There probably weren't a bunch of black students in your graduating class.
Bill Gates had a lot of guts and savvy on top of a great work ethic- and a lot of social advantages.