Everyone knows the tale of Brand X getting bought out by some faceless global conglomerate and going to shit, but does the opposite ever happen?
Everyone knows the tale of Brand X getting bought out by some faceless global conglomerate and going to shit, but does the opposite ever happen?
I’d say it’s probably the sale of Minecraft that sent Notch off the deep end. I read some articles and it seemed like he was having a hard time. Loss of purpose (Minecraft), loss of friends when the very public wealth changed the relationship, and an inability to really fit in with the rich and famous who he shares little in common with. It talked about him throwing parties and basically still being alone while everyone partied around him. When you seemingly have everything and are still alone and depressed, that’s a dark place. A lot of people lash out in weird ways in that situation. Look at Jim Carey or listen to the commencement speech he did.
If I had to pin an exact date on it, it’d be when he bought the most expensive mansion in Beverly Hills (at the time, $70M was a lot for a mansion).
Why? Because you need to deal with life changes one thing at a time. Pro-tip for the future billionaires currently scrolling this comment section: don’t move away from your friends, family, and home country immediately after getting rich – it might screw with your head a little bit. Do what the old money does: stay grounded, dress down, and pretend to be normal.
Me, penniless: Yep, I’m so normal *nervous laughter*
Quite the rolemodel, I’d say! You make it look easy
Stuff like this is why old money laughs at new money.
Of course, if Notch doesn’t have kids, what’s he holding on to it for…
Far be it from me to demand frugality from a billionaire. It would have been wiser to waste money without simultaneously scoring an “own goal” on his mental health, though…
No one is really ready to get a check for $2.5B.
That $70M house was 2.8% of his payout from Microsoft. That would be like someone with $10M buying a $280,000 house. The house wasn’t that crazy of a purchase in terms of price, but didn’t do anything to help give him ties to a community, which is probably what he really needed. Maybe he thought it would get him into the Hollywood community, but he was a fish out of water.
Living, as I do, in a town where I don’t know very many people, I would move back to my hometown to be with my old friends if I got rich. I think that’s the way to do it.
There were hints that he was already on that path and realized that if he didn’t get off when he did, he would have taken his game down too.
Yeah - he decided he wanted a billion dollars more than he wanted his friends. All he had to do was share.
He may have been worried he’d find out they weren’t actually friends, but just co-workers. They take off doing whatever and he’s left in the same spot, just with a lot less money and feeling used on top of it all. He took the sure thing instead of the gamble.
I’ve had co-workers tell me if they won the lotto they would share it with me and some others. When they left the company, I never heard from them again. We weren’t real friends, we just spent 40 hours per week together and made the best of it. If this was the case with Notch’s friends at Minecraft, then they either leave, or they stick around under some sense of obligation. That would still change the relationship and could lead to some resentment.
If you have to share your money for your friends to stick around you, they’re not really friends.
In addition to suddenly being a billionaire, I’m sure life in the public eye didn’t help his situation at all, especially to someone who I imagine spends/spent a lot of time online reading comments from armchair psychologists speaking about him.
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Look, if someone wants to give me a billion dollars I will prove that it doesn’t turn you into a Nazi unless you’re already secretly a Nazi.
It’s more complicated then that, but still fair to say