Do you have that one rich friend who always made you wonder: “How did they make such a fortune?” And don’t feel shame if you’d like some of it for yourself too – we only recently discovered that the old saying “money can’t buy happiness” is bogus. Studies have shown that having more money can improve our well-being. However, prioritizing money over free time can also bite us in our behinds in the long run.
Yet, it’s still nice to know how people get their fortunes. And that’s what Redditor u/h3llofaRide was also curious about. He asked people: “What does the wealthiest person you know do for work?” People came through with answers that ranged from being nepo babies to selling Runescape gold. I’m starting to seriously regret that I stopped playing it in the fifth grade.
#1
Pig farmer. I kid you not. He's my father's old friend. I visited him once when my father and I were passing through the state. He lives in a modest classic farmhouse with his wife, both in their seventies. I mentioned I was starting a school in West Africa as we were catching up. A few weeks later I got a text asking how much it would cost. I told him 40k, thinking it was really nice of him if he wanted to send a few dollars.
I got a check for 40k. I thought it would take me years to raise that. I'm typing this from Sierra Leone because he also paid for the house I thought would take years to raise funds for.
101points
#2
One of the first 100 employees of Microsoft.
I was friends with a guy from a rich family; they lived on a lake with a private dock, multi-million dollar home. Microsoft guy was their neighbor.
They used to have these game nights where we'd all get together, have cocktails and play pretty silly games - cards against humanity, pictionary, that kind of thing. I was really, really good at these games, and it impressed Microsoft guy. He wrote me a *glowing* letter of recommendation praising my intelligence because of this.
It helped me, an immigrant, land an engineering job at a huge aerospace company.
I've worked on multiple satellites that are currently in orbit, and I've touched stuff that's on the surface of Mars now - hell, I was able to buy a house before i turned 30 - all because this man thought i was clever and witty, and wanted to help me out.
Needless to say, the imposter syndrome I feel every day is unbelievable.
63points
#3
A family friend retired after being a COBOL programmer for 30 years. About 2 years after his retirement, a company came to him and said "Name your salary" and he requested around $1.5 million/year. He was hired on the spot and still works there.
53points
There's nothing wrong with being curious about how much other people make; that's just human nature. Apparently, the highest-paying jobs in the U.S. are in the healthcare sector. Cardiologists are in first place, making $353,970 per year on average. Anesthesiologists are second, with a $331,190 salary per year.
In fact, it's all healthcare workers in the top 18. Other well-paid professions include radiologists, orthodontists, psychiatrists, and pediatric surgeons. Some other professions that made it into the top 25 highest-paying careers are chief executives, airline pilots, and computer and information systems managers.
#4
My buddy owns a cybersecurity and general tech firm here in town. (Small town, hardly any competition.) He's a badass marketer so he has contracts with the state's NFL team and the largest Porsche dealer in the Southeast.
He also owns a salvage yard, oddly enough.
He balls and he's so fkn cool. His employees all get a track day once a year and box seats to the biggest games. He's also generous with in-town initiatives, like toy drives and tech donations to public schools in the ghetto and the town's "sped" school.
Additionally, he invites the community out to free meals he hosts in his office space (which is gorgeous). He hires pizza and hotdog carts and lets people walk up and get a plate! For his buddies, he turns the office-space (which has a friggin' basketball court in it) into movie-viewing // MMA fightnight watchspots. There's a theatre in there. He charges NOTHING ... has stuff catered in and has a full bar ... wants nothing in return but for everyone to have a good time and get home safe.
He's a fantastic father to his teenaged daughter, too. The way she adores him, dotes on him, picks lint off his suit, fixes his hair. He's been so gentle with her all her life and she's growing up to be just as gentle as cool as her Dad.
(Damn. I just wrote a love letter lol. But naw: I just admire someone who GENUINELY cares about people and doesn't let money go to his head. He's fkn awesome.)
51points
#5
They owned plots of land all over a county.
They lease them to cell phone companies for more than my monthly income x2 per plot.
I'm usually careful what I say around them because I once said I wanted a new fence but we were going to wait until prices came down... I came home from work and someone was putting a new fence up.
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45points
#6
Inherited small factory from his father. Developed it to huge nationwide company. Still goes to work there everyday despite being worth hundreds of millions.
42points
You don't have to be born a millionaire to become one. Wealth X published a study in 2022 that revealed that 68% of multimillionaires made their fortune themselves. Another study by Fidelity Investments found that 86% of millionaires in 2012 were self-made and did not inherit their wealth.
The Fidelity study also mentions the traits that successful multimillionaires share. First, they set ambitious goals and work towards meeting them. They might do that with the help of mentors, especially if they're self-made. Another common trait is listening to feedback. These types of people are good at accepting criticism and working to improve themselves. They also don't fear failure: their philosophy is that mistakes are there so they can learn from them.
#7
They own a large construction company, based in rural NZ. Employ heaps of people, are very generous to their home town, humble too
34points
#8
Wealthiest I know is myself. Make a little over 120k being a ups driver
34points
#9
I know the CBO of an international bank. He works a minimum 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. On Sundays he "only" works 6-8 hours. In his downtime he's on standby for any issues that may crop up, to the point where he once responded to a client within 15 minutes. At 3.45 am.
He's working when I'm sleeping. He's working when I'm at lunch. He's working while flying abroad to visit family. He's working during car rides in between meetings with said family. He's working while working (co-attending 2 separate meetings while replying to clients).
I have no idea how he works so hard and yet remains so calm. He's basically a Swiss Army C-suite, since he does everything from sales to tactical planning to IT support to shareholder discussions. When I talk to him about it, his response is "I'm only 51, I'm still young."
He also has a high-needs child, so his work hours are 6.30 am to 6.30 pm so that he can fetch his child from the daycare, since his office is closer to the daycare than his wife's.
That man is borderline superhuman.
31points
#10
The wealthiest person I know (and hang out with regularly) built a company (IT services) and then sold it for several hundred million dollars.
He now runs a company that does the same kind of IT services in a different field. (He figured out a winning business formula and is just repeating it in a different market.)
30points
#11
I work for a lady who inherited ~100 mil.
She just buys real estate and sets them up as rentals, I just do general maintenance on them (I also rent from her)
She lives like she's on a pension and pays me in magic beans half the time.
A true embodiment of money does not buy happiness.
I have tried many times to push her to go enjoy being so wealthy, but she lives with the mindset that because she does not have a partner, why bother buying a villa in Tuscany or jump on a flight to Bora Bora just to enjoy the beach and a nice seafood banquet.
So she tends to sit on her couch and drink wine with the tv on in the background.
I got a shock one day when she emptied a pillowslip of Krugerands onto her kitchen bench, as it turns out she has somewhere in the range of 2.5mil in Krugers, Maples and Sovereigns just sitting in pillowslips in her walk-in wardrobe.
28points
#12
Found a diamond mine in the NWT.
26points
#13
I used to work with a hydraulics technician. He did property development as hobby. He started by flipping houses and grew from there. He mentioned that he couldn't resist buying 200,000 shares of the company we worked for because it was such a good price at $3 per share. That company eventually went private at $60 per share.
Honestly, one of the nicest and most humble guys I've ever worked with, and I hope that every cent made him happy.
Honestly, one of the nicest and most humble guys I've ever worked with, and I hope that every cent made him happy.
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25points
#14
Buying every beautiful, historical house in town and turning them into small, tiny rooms to rent out, ruining my towns real estate market. F**k him.
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25points
#15
Truck driver. Starting his own trucking company.
24points
#16
My Dad, he does a bunch of random things. He retired from the Navy and uses his retirement pay to invest in real estate. He became a photographer after retiring and did really well for himself. Now he has contracts with a load of schools and sells off temporary subcontracts to budding photographers for schools he doesn’t have the time to work with. He flips cars in his spare time, but right now his day job is high school business teacher.
24points
#17
It's a guy I work with. He started with one Jimmy John's franchise and turned it into 10 franchises. Ran them for 10 years then sold them all and dumped the money into the stock market and real estate. He did this all while working as an airline pilot, currently still working at the airline. This dude owns and flies his own private jet on top of all that.
21points
#18
The first is a self-made multimillionaire who's owned his own concrete finishing business since he was about 19.
The second is a self-made millionaire who became a very successful accountant who was continually promoted at work, & he consistently bought stock & real estate from a young age.
The last person is a millionaire who will inherit family money, & she's a high-end real estate agent.
20points
#19
Worked for a tech company and got paid bonuses for years in the form of company stock. He and his wife decided that when the stock hit $60, they’d sell all his shares. It was somewhere around $5–$10 for most of the years he worked. It suddenly started rising in '98, and mid-'99 hit $60. They sold millions worth of stock. Then the company’s value burst, along with a lot of other tech companies, during the dot-com bust. If they’d waited a week, their values would have been worthless. They reinvested the money and diversified everything and have been living comfortably ever since. He still works 60–70-hour weeks because he likes working.
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20points
#20
Friend got lucky with TSLA. Invested early and retired at 35 a multi millionaire.
Now owns a bar in San Diego to stay busy.
19points