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Comment by seoulbran | Hacker News Reader

I couldn't agree more. I fall squarely into this camp. I grew up with a father in prison and a school teacher mother that had to work 3 jobs to provide for myself and my three brothers. I always knew I could do better, and now I run a multi-billion dollar organization. I just knew I wanted more for myself.

My bigger concern now is how to raise up my four kids so that they come out motivated, hungry, willing to work, etc. I believe struggled makes great people, my kids won't know that type of struggle - fingers crossed. I ran the crucible, they won't... what does that mean for them?

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> I believe struggled makes great people

It also crushes the rest, who might not be gifted or lucky enough to catch a break, despite their continual efforts. Not to disregard your circumstances, but humans irrationally see patterns in randomness. As a counter point: wealth also makes great people (pick any noted 16-19th century scientist, and there's a good chance they were wealthy & could afford to dick around long enough to discover fundamental laws. Alternatively, look at political, startup and corporate leadership)

True, it depends on the person. However, I think that trials, whether given by unfortunate circumstances or wise parents, give you an opportunity to improve in ways that simple wealth never could.

I grew up similar - never thinking I’d have the same life forever. I’m certainly not as well off as I’d like to be yet, but I’m starting to get my life ready to have kids (4 or 5 years out I’d guess), and I’m already worried about spoiling them too much. I mean the entire motivation has been to start a family that didn’t have to have the same issues.

Would love to read something from a similar background and how they navigate raising self-motivated, but well taken care of kids.

Struggle isn't noble. Struggle isn't a shortcut to character development. Struggle isn't something you should wish on anyone. Struggle is just struggle.

Plenty of people struggle. And plenty of people are assholes. There's plenty of overlap.

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