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The Odds Of Making Money Are Against You

Darius Foroux
5 min readJan 25, 2023

When you start your career, you’re more likely to fail. And making money becomes harder.

Ouch. That hurts. But it’s better this lesson hurts you now than let failure discourage you.

According to data about the failure rate of small businesses, somewhere between 5% and 25% of new businesses make it beyond 15 years.1.

My dad and I started a wholesale company of laundry equipment in 2010, and our company is still around today. None of the companies that started around the same time in our industry are alive now.

Our competitors are the ones who were already in business long before we started. The new players came and went. So the success rate really depends on your industry. In my experience, 95% of new businesses are no longer around 10 years later.

You can say the same thing about writers. I started writing in 2015. I saw many people who started around the same time in my category. Other than a handful of others, I don’t think the others are around.

Investor Brian Gelber, who was profiled in the book, Stock Market Wizards, talked about this dynamic of success/failure when it comes to traders:

“Out of every 100 people who go to the floor to become traders, how many will make at least a million dollars within five years…

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Darius Foroux
Darius Foroux

Written by Darius Foroux

I write about productivity, habits, decision making, and personal finance. Join my free newsletter here: dariusforoux.com

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