Jobs made more from Disney than from Apple
Clooney made more $ selling Tequila than acting
Bechtolsheim made more $ investing in Google than founding Sun
Foreman made more $ selling grills than boxing
Dre made more $ from Beats (headphones) than making music
Jordan made more $ from Nike than from playing basketball
Tony Hawk made more $ from the video game than competing as a pro skateboarder.
Obama made more from publishing than the presidency
Nas made more from Pluto TV than rapping
Jessica Alba made more from Honest Co than acting
Aaron Sanchez made more from TV than being a chef
The Rock made more from acting than wrestling
Arnold Schwarzenegger made more from acting than from being a bodybuilder.
50 Cent made more on Vitamin Water.
John Madden made more on video games.
Yahoo made more money through its investment in Alibaba than its web products and services. (not so sure about this one, but here's a link)
Cristiano Ronaldo makes more money from Instagram than he does from Juventus
Conor McGregor Made More Money From His Whiskey Brand Than He Did By Fighting In UFC 246
Sean Combs made more from Ciroc than he did from music
All of the above was gotten from this tweet and its replies.
Someone read the list above and said "be your own network effect". I love that.
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The above list was difficult to collate because I came across some rather dumb takes.
What I think a lad starting from zero can take away from the above is, take asymmetric chances and take them often. One, the number of chances you take increase your odds. Two, the result of the asymmetric chance taken whether it fails or succeed compounds positively on the next.
You could say those guys only made more money from their "side hustle" because they were already rich. But that truth is they could have chosen to rest on the laurels and not pursue another venture. Imagine if Buffet or Munger had a podcast or YouTube channel. But they don't have, so give kudos to guys who are rich yet still venture out. And by the way, not all their side hustles eclipsed their main hustles. Some failed woefully.
So, the point is not where you are starting from, the point is in the numbers.
Tails, you win.
A hardcore focus on the thing they love, long term.
It's a distraction for people like us to look at Dre and Beats. Why? Because then we start thinking like we're Dre by the time Beats was conceived. When actually we should look at Dre when he was in Compton making NWA albums and then had to start Death Row with Suge Knight and then make the Chronic and then Snoop's Doggystyle... and produce Tupac's California Love and then have to leave his entire enterprise of Death Row behind because of his beef with Suge to start Aftermath. And then produce Slim Shady's albums.
Focusing on the network effect of the future is I think unimportant for normal people because they aren't there yet in any useful way.