Gina Rinehart, the world’s richest woman, dispensed the following pearls of wisdom on how to become rich:
“If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others. There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire.”
Pretty sage advice, wouldn’t you say? Rinehart’s ‘advice’ would have had more meaning had the Australian woman accumulated her billions all by herself. Yep, she’s not a self-made billionaire — she was fast-tracked to her vast wealth thanks to her daddy, Lang Hancock, who presumably spent less time drinking, smoking, and socializing than his less ambitious peers. Her company, Hancock Prospecting, is worth a whopping $30.1 billion. Yes, that’s BILLION. I’m certain with such HUGE coffers, Rinehart can spend all the time she likes drinking, smoking, and socializing since the work of accumulating a ginormous fortune has already been done for her.
Because Rinehart inherited her fortune, she’ll never have to test her theory on herself. We’ll never know if she has the moxie it takes to become a self-made billionaire on her own. She briefly studied economics at Sydney University, but that education was paid for by her daddy. She worked for her daddy, learning about the Pilbara iron-ore industry — but would she have had the initiative to do that on her own? I’m willing to bet that had Gina been born into a poor working class Australian family, she probably would have resented cavalier advice on how to succeed proffered by a person who’d only inherited wealth. But that’s just my theory.