Wealth is not the same as money. Wealth is the collection of things that improve your life and bring you joy. Wealth is what we truly want: food, clothes, houses, physical and mental health, meaningful relationships, control over your time.
You can have wealth without money. Money is a way to transfer wealth and time. You can grow and sustain wealth by owning assets that earn money while you sleep.
Companies are groups of people working together to create wealth by doing something people want. The wealth created is the average work of all people at the company. Some people, like 10x software engineers, can create wealth faster than others.
Startups offer better opportunities to capture wealth than large companies. This is partly due to the competitive dynamics of startups versus incumbents, which I will save for a future topic. It’s also because a startup’s size makes it easier to measure each person's contribution to wealth creation. If you’re unsure whether a startup is creating wealth, having customers is a good indicator.
Wealth can be created and destroyed, but there isn’t a fixed amount of it in the world. It’s wrong to believe that if one person gets more, someone else must get less. For example, if a farmer invents a way to double her crop yield without using more land or resources, she can sell more food and increase her wealth. Her customers also benefit from more food at lower prices. She has created more wealth.
Creating wealth ethically is possible. By building with integrity, transparency, and fairness, you are generating value for society.