r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago

TIL Steven Spielberg made up that he got his start at the age of 21 by sneaking into Universal Studios dressed in business attire and commandeering an unoccupied office. Spielberg's entree to the Universal lot was gained while he was a 16-year-old in high school on break & was arranged by his father

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/spielberg-universal/
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u/GriffinFlash 1d ago

It really is all about who you know.

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u/Fast_Garlic_5639 1d ago

A friend of mine is helping his 16 year old son start a landscaping business. Hard working kid, great head on his shoulders and he deserves whatever he gets- but it totally helps that his first reference photos are work done on his own incredible yard, and his first customers are all well-to-do family friends and neighbors. He’ll be driving a dually by the time he graduates high school

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u/bizzaro321 1d ago

There’s that aphorism about a carnival game that I’m too tired to find right now. Something about life being a carnival game where rich kids can afford a few shots while everyone else might get one if they scrape the cash together.

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u/R0nnyA 1d ago

It's like the ring toss.

The poor get one shot and need to pray that they hit something.

The middle class can afford a couple chances incase the first doesn't work out.

The rich... The rich get to keep throwing rings until one lands. It doesn't matter how many tries it actually takes.

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

The poor don't get one shot, they're the ones working the stand.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PotatoAppleFish 1d ago

That’s the middle class, really. The poor usually don’t meet anyone who has real power.

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

No, they don't even see the owner. And that brother certainly wasn't poor.

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u/MarkEsmiths 1d ago

No, they don't even see the owner. And that brother certainly wasn't poor.

I hope they are thinking along and hard about that part. He was really one of them.

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u/Teh_Compass 1d ago

I think it works better if the rich are the ones running the stand. Carnie games are rigged.

The poor may or may not get a shot. Middle class may get a couple. The rich are have enough cash or are friends with the ones running the stand so they get to keep trying.

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u/ExposingMyActions 1d ago

The rich owns sections of the carnival or the land it’s own or owns the city that makes the rules

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

Running, as in owning and managing, but not working.

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u/The_BrownRecluse 1d ago

The rich aren't the ones throwing rings. They're running the game and it's rigged.

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u/teenagesadist 1d ago

Now the rich kids take infinite shots at home in VR while the rest of them just look at dilapidated old carnival games.

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u/FadedEdumacated 1d ago

Born on third base. Say they hit a homerun on the first pitch.

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u/dillon_tx 1d ago

It’s “born on third base and think they hit a triple”

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u/TheVog 1d ago

In Tajikistan, it's "Hoisted by angels up to the flag on a greased-up pole."

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u/anonymousposterer 1d ago

Although this is the correct phrase, I feel like the other version more fits our modern times. Not only born on third base but entitlement is high they still feel they were robbed of something.

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u/one_big_tomato 1d ago

it's "some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill"

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u/pursuitofhappy 1d ago

this makes zero sense baseball-wise

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u/FadedEdumacated 1d ago

I wrote it wrong. It was a triple.

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u/DesperateAdvantage76 1d ago

And the rest of us are the carny workers who never get a shot in the first place.

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u/starkistuna 1d ago

There's plenty of rich kids with top gear and $5,000 cameras and have no talent, even with spending $100k and graduate from film school they can't put up a descent short or direct a commercial to save their own lives. Putting together Movies at 21 with Duel and then Then starting the blockbuster era with Jaws at 24 years old is something that speaks to his talent. No easily replicated in the 50 years since. Yeah there's been others Orson Welles was 25 when he directed Citizen Kane. John Singleton was 22 when he made Boyz N The Hood. Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi when he was 23. There's been some even younger at 14 or 16 but they didn't make hits for decades afterwards.

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u/bizzaro321 1d ago

Yeah that’s part of the aphorism. You still have to win the carnival game to get a prize. The world is chock full of talented people who didn’t have advantageous parents.

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u/TowerOfPowerWow 1d ago

Yeah and poor people dont even get a try

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u/BeagleMadness 1d ago

It really is, especially in showbiz. Not just in Hollywood either. My eldest son from age 3 - 18 was a member of a local Stagecoach class. They did singing, dance and drama, mostly just for fun, but the kids could do LAMDA performing arts exams if they wished. I saw some very talented kids there over the years.

One 9 year old boy joined my son's local drama/dance/singing class about ten years ago. He wasn't particularly talented at acting and couldn't sing. But he left months later as he'd be too busy with "filming and school" to continue. He then appeared in a couple of different TV adverts with well known actors, was cast in a film alongside A listers and appeared briefly in a UK TV drama. Not sure what he's done since then, I didn't keep track tbh.

We were all wondering how this kid had been talent spotted or got through the auditions tbh. I'm not trying to be mean here, but there were far more talented kids just in that local class, let alone the whole of the UK. Until we discovered his uncle is a well known British director, and his aunt is a reasonably well known UK actress. Mystery solved!

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u/MaximumZer0 1d ago

Let's see who's under the mask, gang.

[pulls mask off of villain]

Nepotism!? I'm shocked!

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u/TheRealBananaWolf 1d ago

Well there is definitely nepotism without a doubt.

But also, it just kind of naturally happens that way. Working in almost any industry, you'll meet people who's parents have also worked in the industry for years. It's a lot easier to get into an industry and advice about decisions in that industry when you have been around it your whole life, and/or you have someone close who can give you advice. As someone who doesn't have any family who have life long industry careers, it's crazy how difficult it can be sometimes trying to navigate shit by yourself

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u/LuxNocte 1d ago

And the worst part is how they convince everyone including themselves that they got in through hard work and determination.

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u/officiallyaninja 1d ago

it was hard work, determination AND nepotism

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u/j-random 1d ago edited 5h ago

Yeah, I never understood how Nicholas Cage got all that work early on, until I learned who his uncle was.

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u/bullybabybayman 1d ago

Cage changing his name to pretend like everyone who mattered didn't know who he was is the most bullshit nepotism example of all time.  Every god damn person involved in casting knew who the fuck he was, give me a break.

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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago

Fun fact, his first role in a move was an unnamed bit part in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He was Judge Reinholds’ character’s coworker at the fast food place in the mall. I don’t remember if he even had any speaking lines.

He is credited as Nic Coppola.

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u/ReallyFineWhine 1d ago

In addition to connections, it's the ability to try and fail, and still have the resources to try and fail again and again until you hit success. I tried and failed once, then my money was gone.

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u/manimal28 1d ago

This especially pisses me off when people point to college dropouts like Gates or Zuckerberg, as a reason not to go to college. Like, do you know how far ahead they already were to even get into Harvard? No, Johnny, you do in fact need to educate yourself, you don’t have the wealth or connections of the people that can casually drop out of Harvard to pursue their side businesses.

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u/LuxNocte 1d ago edited 1d ago

Gates and his "garage" is such a massive lie.

You too can be successful if you drop out of college, start a company, and your Mom directs the multinational corporation where she is an executive to use you as a vendor.

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u/redpandaeater 1d ago

The garage thing was just Apple I thought. Never heard it directed towards Microsoft though Gates and Allen did have a serious two month period of crunch time since they'd already been able to sell their product before it was actually functional.

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u/LuxNocte 1d ago

American tech has a serious fetish for garages. The story they tell is about starting in a garage, and I've definitely heard that about MS, Google, Amazon, and Apple. I don't know if its any more true than Spielberg sneaking into an office.

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u/bretshitmanshart 1d ago

Gates went to a boarding school that was able to buy a computer with money the families made from doing a yard sale at a time where people barely knew what a computer was. It was about as privileged as you could get

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u/filthy_harold 1d ago

I used to mow neighborhood lawns as a kid. My dad taught me how to do a good job on our own lawn so that was my weekly chore. My mom told me I was going to start mowing our divorced neighbor's lawn (I guess I didn't really have a choice) and got paid $20 for it each week. Eventually I was doing several lawns every week and making some decent money, like $200/week. Clients were scattered around the neighborhood but luckily most were next to another client so it's easy to do both at once. Most of the clients were just friends of my parents so I'm sure some of it was just them being nice but other clients actually liked my work and asked me directly.

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u/big_guyforyou 1d ago

what would be REALLY impressive is if he started a manscaping business. hard to find a rich person who wants their balls shaved these days

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u/eagledog 1d ago

Call it Puber Cuts, and run it out of an old van

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u/Thoracic_Snark 1d ago

Hell I'll do it for free if they buy me a sandwich!

edit: just realized that it's not really free because it's $5.99 for a footlong.

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u/GrinderMonkey 1d ago

Oh I doubt it's actually a foot long that's just something people say

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u/therealruin 1d ago

I know you’re being funny, but this was also true lmao

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/airfryerfuntime 1d ago

I tried starting a landscaping business when I was a teenager and never had an upper hand like this. It failed miserably because I just wasn't able to secure long term customers like the other two wealthier kids were. I was using older equipment, had a shittier truck, and just didn't have the sparkle. It was maddening seeing them grow their companies to the point where they had employees and brand new trucks, while I was having trouble just affording operating costs. I eventually gave up and became a welder instead. I still sometimes see landscapers out working in the sun and imagine if it would have been any different if I had my foot in the door somehow. Both kids are now in the late 30s, still have their companies, and are independently wealthy.

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u/Tolaughoftenandmuch 1d ago

I had to look up what a dually is. What is the significance of driving one?

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u/Fast_Garlic_5639 1d ago

Having the kind of equipment that a top-level landscaper uses requires a huge trailer, and that means huge truck to drive it all around. Basically just means he’s running a successful business.

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u/M2DaXz 1d ago

It helps that the guy delivers quality work and can back it up? Makes sense

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u/16tired 1d ago

Of course. He's not saying that the kid isn't going to be good or reputable at his job. He's just saying that the opportunity would likely never have been afforded to this kid if he wasn't born into such an advantaged background.

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u/Dogeishuman 1d ago

The only reason I have my job is because the woman who interviewed me for the internship just so happened to go to both the same high school AND college that I did. She said she never saw that before, and we chatted more about our hometown than the job itself, and next thing ya know I’ve got an internship lined up. Was getting rejected left and right up until that point, career week was hell for me.

I should add I had a 2.7 GPA, so yeah, achievements be damned, it really is about connections.

Granted I did well enough in the internship to get recommended for their leadership rotational program, so it’s not like I didn’t earn my now full time job, but I would’ve never even got my foot in the door without a stupid connection like that.

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u/Klightgrove 1d ago

Step 1. make friends with people

Step 2. thats it

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u/Unleashtheducks 1d ago

This will get almost zero upvotes but is almost as important as who you are born to. Steven Spielberg’s dad wasn’t a movie mogul, he was a guy who knew somebody. If he had been an asshole, they would have told him to fuck off. But not being an asshole requires effort and so will be ignored by Reddit.

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u/layerone 1d ago

I've often thought about this. I've been stuck in a career I don't like my entire life, tech. My whole career history has been cold calling, cold applying, and getting in on my own persistence.

The thing about tech tho, it's one of the few career fields where your own ability and knowledge can carry you to 100k+ jobs, no reference or friends/family needed.

I desperately want to get into a people facing role. Pre-sales engineer, project/product manager, medical sales, etc... But those jobs seem absolutely impossible to get without friends/family or personal connections to get. I really do need to just get out into the world and start meeting people, or I think I'll be stuck in tech my entire life.

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u/YT-Deliveries 1d ago

Pre-sales engineer is where it’s at. You get to make all the promises and then smokebomb after the purchase order is signed.

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u/NYCinPGH 1d ago

I'm not super important, or successful, or influential, but I have made a lot of friends over the course of mt adult life, in a wide variety of circles. As a result I have a good number of friends who are quite successful and / or influential, and through them, I've been able to at least set up contacts for other friends trying to advance themselves.

One was someone who really wanted this dream job, in a field that's hard to get into with any success, mostly because of oversaturation. When this was somewhat casually mentioned in my presence, I told them that I was good friends with the vice president of this particular field for literally the global leader; they thought it was b.s. until I put them in contact with each other, my 'important' friend mentored the other, and that friend as become quite successful there themselves.

Another is someone affected by the current federal employee firings, and wanted to line up something else so they could just transition. They had 20+ years of experience in a niche field, but also couldn't really take a pay cut with a new job. As it so happens, another old friend of mine is a director, in their exact niche field, for another company with is a global leader in this, I put them in contact, and it looks like they're getting a high-level position out of it.

And a third person, the child of another set of friends, is about to get their masters in this same niche field. So I've set up a meeting with them and my friend, for at least advice for where to look, if they can't arrange a job in their own company right now.

It really is about networking. None of these people I knew before graduating from college, neither they nor I came from wealthy or connected families, we just made our own connections over the years.

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u/TheDamDog 1d ago

Bill Gates: When I started Microsoft all I had was a garage and my mom's business connections to IBM.

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u/HowAManAimS 1d ago

And went to a high school where he was able to dedicate his entire time to learning computers at a time when almost no school could afford them.

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u/DOG_DICK__ 1d ago

Getting that first contract for reliable cashflow is insanely important for a business. And such a big advantage for Billy.

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u/Zinski2 1d ago

There really is no such thing as a "self made man"

We all exist where we are because of the help we have gotten along the way.

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u/sherlock-helms 1d ago

This should have been upvoted. It’s so fucking true.

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u/Faptainjack2 1d ago

Arnold Schwarzenegger said this in an interview. The self made man is a myth.

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u/Stinkcatfartcano 1d ago

I hate how people get weird when you bring this up.

Most super wealthy influential people you know are nepo babies one way or another. I dont begrudge them that in theory- Spielberg is a great director. But what about the rest of us? Seems like money and influence heavily, HEAVILY determine your outcome and if you don't have those things you are fighting against the current all the way.

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u/leshake 1d ago

Getting experience when you are young can be crucial to success in business. Who is ever going to be in a position to learn a business when they are a teenager? Rich kids, that's who.

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u/Stinkcatfartcano 1d ago

Right? I started cooking along side this other dude a long time ago. I was poor, he came from some amount of money. He could afford to take a few vacations a year experiencing all sorts of crazy food and dining culture. He moved to Copenhagen, and staged at some world renounced restaurants and did it for free. Now he's back, and is opening a restaurant out of pocket, with a shit ton of experience at places that will get you job offers anywhere you apply and skills you'll only ever get to develop at places like Noma.

He's good. Probably better than me- but those opportunities were always way beyond my grasp. I learned my own way, and I'm doing okay for myself as far as cooks go but damn would it have been nice to just dedicate to working for free under someone like Rene Redzepi or whoever.

Not sure what the take away from that is, but I sure wish these notable people would look at their own privilege and instead of acting like they did it all themselves, see their opportunities and maybe support giving the rest of us a leg up somehow.

Edit: honestly though it's not even just money. I'd say I'm pretty talented at what I do but I suffer from some severe mental health problems- Major depressive disorder being a big one. But adhd has taken its toll and so has what I expect to be ASD. I don't let those things be my excuse for failure but wouldn't life be easier if every few months I didn't slide into a near suicidal pit of despair and struggle just to continue breathing? Imagine if I didn't need drugs to help me focus. Some folks don't have to deal with those things at all. It's like going through life with concrete shoes on and everyone telling you to just try harder.

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u/YirDaSellsAvon 1d ago

It's pretty much just athletes now that are real rags-to-riches figures. At least in the UK anyway. The vast, vast majority of famous people like actors, singers, politicians, TV presenters are rich kids who went to private, fee paying schools. There's a website that lists all celebrities here who went to private schools and it's really eye-opening how much our media and celebrity class is dominated by them. 

Football players, and other athletes, are the last clade of famous people who are from working class or lower middle class backgrounds. Even the ones that had dads or grandads that were former players have my respect, there's not really any shortcut to the top that money can buy you in this sport, it's all just talent and hard work. 

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago edited 1d ago

In America most pro athletes come from middle to upper class. If you grew up in a richer area you will have better coaches, your parents will be able to pay for extra training and a stable upbringing equals higher chances of success.

In the UK private schools are referred to as public schools an what most know as public schools are called state schools In the UK football is the only sport where the percentages of players who went to public schools matches the percentage of the general population who went to public schools. So something like 7% of the population went to public schools and 7% of pro footballers went to public schools.

But in every other sport the most succesful went to fee paying public schools. More than half of British Olympians went to fee paying public schools when people who went to those schools are only around 7% of the population

In the UK, sports are not tied to the school system in the same way they are in America, there aren't the state championships and most schools do not place a major emphasis on sports. But public feee paying schools do. In some of these schools you have to play a sport. Every kid must participate. They will bring in former Olympians who probably went to the school to be coaches. They have access to better training and equipment and in the first place the public does not place a major emphasis on sports so most of the best end up being fee paying public school children

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u/MisterMarsupial 1d ago

There's been a bit written about how when you are born changes if you'll go pro in the NFL or not.

But after becoming part of a team, and being exposed to training and matches, they really do become better than later-born children who might be equally talented.

Non-fee paying schools tend to not have any organised sport or coaches besides a football team, if that.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

Some schools do bring in outside coaches. But it is schools that aspire to this upper class culture or used to be a part of it and were public schools that became state schools. They will place more of an emphasis om certain sports

But in the public schools it is crazy. Like at Radley college one of the four oldest public schools, you literally had to play cricket or be a rower. Every child at te school did either sport. From the start they are grooming you for success

Regular schools especially one sin cities have a weird culture. Certain people speak of schools like it was a jungle they attended to have fun in.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

I have not read the article but the head line shows it says something a book called outliers says. But it has been disputed.

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u/YirDaSellsAvon 1d ago

Individual sports, especially the more niche ones that have little notoriety outside the Olympics, will always be dominated by rich kids. Nobody from a council estate is taking up fencing or canoeing for a variety of reasons. 

I would doubt it's the case, even in America for basketball and football. These have too much mass appeal to be fully dominated by rich kids. Maybe I could see hockey and baseball having more of that, as it seems like it there would be a higher barrier for entry with regards to costs to play with those sports. Could be talking out my hole in all honesty, I know precisely zero about American grass roots sports. 

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

I get your point about niche sports. I will have to read up on it more, I used the Olympics as I was shocked the first time I heard about this, it was from a guy who used to go to public school, who himself was shocked as he transferred there fom a regular state school

But it isn't just niche sports. I have seen documentaries on public schools and they place emphasis on main stream sports. Cricket and rugby especially. Buy also track and field events.

Like eventhe smartest kid in school is expected to be a top athlete. Expected to win distance events. At Rafley college you had to play either cricket or row. Everyone did either. Then onto f that they all did other sports

In state schools barely any emphasis is placed on sports in this way. Only in certain schools and those ones are either grmamr schools or former public schools

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u/battleofflowers 1d ago

I remember before the days of the internet that a lot of celebs just made up some story about their background that made them sound like rags-to-riches. Now, we have proof. For example, Chappell Roan claims to be "trailer trash" but she grew up in a really nice home and her mom is a vet and her dad is a nurse practitioner (both high-paying jobs). She also has some rant about health insurance, but she was on her parents' (good) insurance until she was 26 (when she got big).

That's just one example, but there's tons of them out there like that. I'm not saying she's not talented, but she was able to spend 10 years working on her career because she always had a strong safety net.

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u/Grokent 1d ago

The CEO of my company likes to cosplay as rags to riches but in reality they went to a very expensive entrepreneurial school and the garage they created their business in was a detached garage in a very expensive Los Angeles zip code.

It's wild that anyone just accepts that story without asking any questions at all.

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u/Merakel 1d ago

Generally, I don't trust anyone about their success if they don't at least include a caveat of they got super lucky.

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u/j-random 1d ago

Same with a lot of the "influencers" and YT personalities. A lot of them became popular because they could afford to do expensive stunts or buy expensive cars when they started out.

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u/Random-Rambling 1d ago

A lot of them became popular because they had the resources to survive being an absolute nobody for 3-4 years until whatever their personal "big break" was.

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u/isthisjustfantasea__ 1d ago

Did something happen with Chappell Roan recently? I like her music but she always came off as a bit immature (and kinda sorta an idiot as well). Saying so on Reddit just a month ago would have gotten me downvotes galore.

Now it seems it's okay to say something negative about her on Reddit without massive and immediate backlash?

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u/Swimming-Scholar-675 1d ago

i think there was the whole "kamala supports genocide so i wont vote for her" and then recently i think she said something along the lines of "im too busy to keep up with politics" which pissed tons of folks off considering drag culture is like 90% of her shtick

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u/hoxxxxx 1d ago

you've got a few comments about it already but in the states the "poor kid from the ghetto makes it to the big time" is starting to be a rare story anymore

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u/manimal28 1d ago

It's pretty much just athletes now that are real rags-to-riches figures.

Some are, but mostly even that’s bullshit. Look at the farce that the biography of the williams sister’s father is. To excel in athletics you essentially have to have parents that sacrifice everything for you and are able to afford transportation to practices, equipment, etc. There are plenty of people with talent and hard work that never see the field, because mom, can’t drop work to take them to get a health screen in the middle of the work week.

I think your opinion might also be highly skewed by perceptions of professional American basketball and football.

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u/ArmchairJedi 1d ago

Even then, its only an old perception when it comes to basketball (not sure about football). Sure there is the odd rags to riches story (can't teach or buy height), but the majority of basketball players are there because their family could pay for camps, trainers, coaches, schools etc.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

There's a website that lists all celebrities here who went to private schools and it's really eye-opening how much our media and celebrity class is dominated by them

In game of thrones most of those actors went to fee paying public schools (private schools). In the UK you have to go to school to become a succesful actor, the ones who do not are rare. The ones who can afford those acting schools are people whose parents sent then to public schools . It doesn't mean they were rich though, just that there parents made a bit more than average and wanted to be in that social class

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u/Greedy-Affect-561 1d ago

I begrudge them lying about it and pretending they started from nothing.

If they weren't ashamed of it like Jack Quaid then they wouldn't invent these stupid stories.

That's the problem. They are the ones ashamed of it who take the time to lie to people.

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u/FrermitTheKog 1d ago

The nepotism problem goes right across the arts. Even if you can't act, but you know the right people, you can keep mysteriously getting prominent roles. If you can only do childish paintings, that's ok, as long as you know the right people, they will hang your paintings in galleries. The list goes on.

A lack of diversity in the arts (particularly acting) is a direct result of nepotism. Hollywood did not want to address the nepotism issue, so instead they tried to focus on racism, leaving nepotism completely untouched and still ongoing.

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u/Mathblasta 1d ago

It undercuts their personal feeling of accomplishment. But beyond that, we have an expected narrative in this country of the "self-made man", and you are discounted/devalued if you cannot present yourself in that way.

It's the same thing we get when we look at race/gender issues. People tend to get defensive when you tell them they're only succeeding because of some thing that's completely out of their control.

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u/Bruno_Mart 1d ago

Because society relies upon it. People tolerate vast wealthy inequality due to the notion that the rich are wealthy because they are special and uniquely talented.

Were that myth to disproven in the minds of many, the current social system that facilitates such inequality would be questioned and potentially torn down.

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u/ArkitekZero 1d ago

I hate how people get weird when you bring this up.

Well of course they do. You're pointing out rightly that money doesn't follow merit. Their entire argument for why they deserve to live in luxury while you struggle to make ends meet is that they got what they have fair and square, and if that isn't the case, that arrangement needs to change.

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u/jonathanquirk 1d ago

JJ Abrams got into Hollywood because his parents were friends of Spielberg. Funny how the wheel turns.

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u/anacidghost 1d ago

And now JJ’s daughter is a pop star 

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u/Queasy_Ad_8621 1d ago

It's not about who you know, it's about who knows you.

A lot of what people call inequality, racism etc. can really comes down to the fact that a redneck who grew up in a trailer park in Oklahoma doesn't happen to have an uncle who's a lawyer, or who works in finance. Neither does a black person who grew up in a small town in Georgia.

"Jews run the world" because they tend to be a very small, tight knit and well educated demographic... but even then: The ones you get to hear about were the ones born into the right families. So they're the ones who happen to have a cousin who works in Hollywood, or their dad's a lawyer, or their husband's boyfriend is an accountant...or his dominatrix is a judge etc. As you can see, it can get very kinky. Very fast. Quite frankly, I really wasn't expecting it to take this turn and now I'm a little scared.

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u/BooteeJoose 1d ago

Or who your relatives are.

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u/old_bearded_beats 1d ago

But that does make logical sense. I'd always rather hire someone I know about, much lower risk.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

Even in the most simple minimum wage jobs this happens. I have been a temporary staff and noticed how most of the people who got hired on a permanent basis were ones who got the job by knowing the managers. The rest applied online

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u/ketoske 1d ago

IMO it's about who wants you around

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u/Baskreiger 1d ago

No one with success wants to admit it

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u/ScaryBluejay87 1d ago

What about that Fünke?

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u/Dbo81 1d ago

That Fünke is some kinda something!

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u/RevTheThird 1d ago

So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant that Funke is

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u/burntroy 1d ago

He's all the rage at the water cooler talk

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u/gvfb60 1d ago

The glitter queen strikes again! Never hire Tobias Funke.

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u/sloshyghost 1d ago

Tantamount to child labour

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u/Amon-Ra-First-Down 1d ago

Marry me!

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u/acmercer 1d ago

Babysit me!

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u/totally-suspicious 1d ago

Marry me!

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u/dasbanqs 1d ago

Babysit me!

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u/Val_Killsmore 1d ago

"What's your name?"

  • "Tobias"

"He's too short, give it to the guard."

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u/CapriSonnet 1d ago

Maeby he did. Maeby he didn't.

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u/Whole-Ad3696 1d ago

Marry me!

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u/goteamnick 1d ago

The only source in this article is one guy who seems to want to give the impression that he is responsible for Steven Spielberg's beginning.

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u/facefartfreely 1d ago

The only source for Spielbergs story is... Spielberg. 

Which seems more likely:

A young Steven (who probably was an extraordinary person with an impressive interest in film) had a family connection with an established film maker that parleyed into a film career.

Or

A young Steven conned his way passed security with a breifcase/suit/lies, found an empty office, gave the switchboard his extension, had plaques made for his office and then did... what exactly?

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u/momscouch 1d ago

The second one, and anytime someone talked to him he said, 'marry me!"

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u/notclarkkent2 1d ago

Babysit me!

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u/ramenups 1d ago

Well if the movie he directed based on the book Catch Me If You Can is to be believed, the latter is true until it is later revealed to be obviously false

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u/PenultimatePotatoe 1d ago

Second one sounds like it would be a great movie.

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u/JohnHazardWandering 1d ago

There was also the woman who he shared the office with. 

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u/Jealous_Energy_1840 1d ago

Entree as in he got a tour of the lot. Not a job. 

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u/turbo_dude 1d ago

Not prawn cocktail?

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u/psychadelicbreakfast 1d ago

Nah that’s an appetizer.

Universal probably has more food and nepotism on their entrees

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u/MarriageAA 1d ago

I have never heard this word being used in this context. I just assumed OP meant entry and typed it wrong!

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u/violentpac 1d ago

Why are the options tour and job and not meal?

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u/Whyworkforfree 1d ago

There is no self made man/person. It’s all made up. 

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u/Grantmitch1 1d ago

The closest you get, in my opinion, is the working class person who, for example, is born from nothing, gets a trade, works their arse off, and is able to buy a house, a nice car, etc.

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u/meneerdaan 1d ago

And then asks him/herself, how did I get here?

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u/cowboyforce 1d ago

Letting the days go by

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u/OhhSooHungry 1d ago

Let the water hold me down

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u/Fascaaay 1d ago

I do know a guy like that. Came to Germany with nothing, took a lot of risks and worked hard and has now a net worth of roughly €50m. Now if you talked to his kids it’s a different story; “I grew up poor.” -“Dude, your father gifted you a 50k BMW as a first car, 12 years ago.” “So? I have friends whose first cars were twice as expensive.”

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

What industry was the guy in?

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u/Fascaaay 1d ago

Foodservice.

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u/YANGxGANG 1d ago

There’s always money in the banana stand

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u/AlSwearenagain 1d ago

That was almost me until home prices doubled just as I was getting my shit together and getting a down payment saved up. Now I'm sitting on what seems like an incredible amount of money, having come from nothing, and wondering how it's not nearly enough. 

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u/Grantmitch1 1d ago

Welcome to the grind my friend. You might be thinking "okay, I don't mind a bit of a grind, but when does it end?" and, you know, what's the best bit: it doesn't. It never ends.

Honestly, if you are a millenial, which you might be, you've basically been fucked since day 1. For a lot of millenials, their entire adult life has been within the context of recession or stagnation.

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u/MrPL1NK3TT 1d ago

It's over for the little guy

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u/wanmoar 1d ago

What I don’t understand is why people hide this.

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u/TuahHawk 1d ago

They want to believe that poor people must be lazy and/or sinners, thus absolving the rich of all responsibility with regard to their fellow man.

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u/TheUltimateCatArmy 1d ago

Redditors say shit like this to justify doing nothing all day, meanwhile half a decent university’s campus are people who are first generation or low income on scholarships using school resources and connections to get internships and positions. Fucking pathetic

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u/PGMetal 1d ago

The term "self-made" is so loose it could mean anything which doesn't help the thread. When is it even applied?

Like with what you said; how can they be "self-made" when they're still students and haven't even made it yet?

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u/STK__ 1d ago

The GI bill, as well as military training itself, has allowed countless individuals to raise themselves from growing up poor to having marketable skills and education. 

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u/Falsus 1d ago edited 1d ago

Using governmental services isn't being self made, it is relying on tax payers money and it is a societal effort to rise people out of poverty, something that should be afforded to everyone in my opinion and not only to people who enlists.

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u/kia75 1d ago

This sounds suspiciously like the old "I never relied on government services, I had to go on welfare!" line.

GI Bill is government services, and anyone who utilizes it to go to college isn't a "self-made man", they're utilizing public infrastructure and public funds, which is a good thing because those public funds make people's lives better!

But what doesn't make people's lives better is to utilize a bunch of public resources like the GI Bill and then claim you're a self-made man. This leads to gutting the same resources that made their life better so that future citizens lack those same resources.

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u/sponge_bob_ 1d ago

people saying there are...i mean, how much help before you are not self made? inherting a million dollars? landlord lets you skip a month of rent? free extra coffee at the cafe?

i like that Arnold Schwarzenegger quote where he says he is not self made, and his success came only with the help of others

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u/SendMeNudesThough 1d ago

I am sure there are some one-in-a-billion self-made people out there, but their success is typically just being at the right place at the right time, no different from winning 400 million in the lottery. They aren't necessarily extraordinarily hard-working or talented.

And when we see someone who comes from nothing succeed due to pure luck, much like pigeons and their pigeon superstition, the rest of us want there to be a reason for it. We want causality. We want to believe that they did something and that their success is the direct result of having worked hard and made the correct choices. We want to believe that people are entirely in control of their lives and can decide whether to succeed or fail. Because the idea that things happen constantly out of our control, and that whether or not you become a millionaire can be largely unrelated to any particular choices you made, is a scary thought.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

If you just work hard at what a lot of people are doing then you won't get rich unless you ate lucky. You have to work hard at something few people are doing, even then it may not work. The real thing is finding a gap in the market then working hard at filling that gap, but finding a gap is hard. On top of that if you grew up poor you will probably have less confidence and trust in yourself and your ideas and opinions

Jeff Bezos had an idea, found that gap in the market, had the confidence to take the risk and bet on himself. He was hard working as he was the valedictorian of his high school. Luckily his parents had money and were willing to invest 300k in him

Most peoples parents do not have that kind of money to invest in them. And may not have the confidence to invest in themselves.

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u/KnotSoSalty 1d ago

There are some, but for every one that did there are one hundred that claim to have.

Harison Ford for example arrived in Hollywood without connections and worked his way up. He of course had some luck but no one opened doors for him.

Halle Berry similarly worked her way into the industry, living in a homeless shelter early on.

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u/Hour_Basket7956 1d ago

Well, he certainly didn't disappoint.

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u/MrPL1NK3TT 1d ago

Ikr? He sure as hell backed it up.

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u/Oz347 1d ago

Isn’t this a plot line on Arrested Development?

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u/Amon-Ra-First-Down 1d ago

the plot line is a direct reference to the Spielberg story

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u/ilmalocchio 1d ago

Which plot line are we talking about again?

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u/Amon-Ra-First-Down 1d ago

Maeby bluffs her way into a studio executive job

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u/smallaubergine 1d ago

Marry me!

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u/garrbear22622 1d ago

I was thinking Seinfeld when George takes the office of the guy who’s on vacation

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u/noodleyone 1d ago

And then his dad was cucked by Seth Rogen.

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u/bondinferno 1d ago

That Funke is all everyone’s talking about

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u/vcjr78 1d ago

Fun fact: Spielberg directed the first episode of Columbo.

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u/Darmok47 1d ago

Well, first if you don't count Prescription: Murder or Ransom for a Dead Man

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u/happysri 1d ago

Marry me!

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u/goteamnick 1d ago

This post makes it seem like Steven Spielberg was a nepo baby. His father was an electrical engineer for General Electric.

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago edited 1d ago

Your comment is stupid. The article says his father got him the internship through a friend of his who worked with him at General Electric. Just that connection got him his start. Spielberg then tried to hide it and make it out that he started all via his own merit and cunning So of course people are going to comment on that. Having a connection does help

People on the thread are talking about the nuances of having a connection and having parents who are at different levels of wealth and success. People have spoken about middle class parents and legal rich parents.

It just helps in general if your parents know people, are supportive and hustle for you. But you the falsely characterise the people making comments on this thread.

I don’t care about Spielberg and how he got his start, but it is goofy as hell that he lied about conning his way into an internship when really hs daddy got it for him

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u/gh2master52 1d ago

Considering he still had to work himself up from an intern to becoming Steven mf Spielberg, I struggle to say he’s a result of nepotism

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u/ExtensionNo1698 1d ago

Yeah he just had a connection. "I complained about having now shoes until I saw a man who had no feet." Your parents will help you as much as they can usually, but some parents will not. I do not come from money but my parents owned their own home, a child of a chronically homeless single mother would envy my situation

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u/Muppetude 1d ago

Agreed. Like that SNL sketch said, nepotism is “a foot in the door and so much more”.

Sounds like Spielberg got the “foot in the door”, but had to earn the “so much more” part through pure merit.

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u/crybannanna 1d ago

Definitely not nepotism, but weird to lie about it.

Getting a summer internship from your father’s friend might not be as cool a backstory, but he doesn’t meed a backstory he’s steven mf Spielberg. I misspelled his name and my phone knew the correct spelling, that’s who he is. He is pretty self made, but that doesn’t mean you got no help getting a foot in the door. No one is an island.

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u/Jealous_Energy_1840 1d ago

No, it doesn’t say that. It says that the friend got Steven a tour of the universal lot with chuck silver, and that Steven maintained contact with silver until the summer where he was given an unpaid (and seemingly unofficial) internship. 

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u/ATXDefenseAttorney 1d ago

Yeah, people on the internet just love to hate. Most successful director on the planet who revolutionized the blockbuster film as an art form? MUST BE A NEPO BABY! WHY ISN'T ANYBODY ASKING ME TO DIRECT MOVIES? WAHHHH!

This is literally the career you can come from any background and succeed, and people want to pretend it's all handed to them. Dude got rejected from USC film after spending his teenage years making movies, but it's about about WHO YOU KNOW. Right. LOL.

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u/HowAManAimS 1d ago

Film was already an art form when he was born. He didn't turn anything into an art form.

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u/jmc286 1d ago

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story

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u/squanch_you 1d ago

“MARRY ME!” - Maebe Fünke

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u/Designer-Card-1361 1d ago

Oh yeah, they also play a clip of him telling this story on the universal studios tour. Except he started it with the story of being on a tour and sneaking out and visiting the sets. 

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u/PerfectWasteOfTime 1d ago

More like Steven Schpielberg right?

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u/Berkut22 1d ago

Typical 'self-made man'

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u/apaulogy 1d ago

Seems like a similar story to Maeby Fünke

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u/KanyeWestsPoo 1d ago

Does make you wonder how many visionaries and creative geniuses we have missed out on as a society purely because they didn't have the right social connections

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u/MostCheeseToast 1d ago

In the footsteps of Maebe Funke.

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u/frolix42 1d ago

I wonder how many narcissist filmbros with main-character syndrome read this fake story and tried to emulate it.

Would be really obnoixious for tour guides.

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u/b1gmouth 1d ago

Leaving aside the nepotism question, I wish folks in Hollywood wouldn't make up stories like this. It encourages desperate people to do exactly the kinds of things that are guaranteed to not get you hired.

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u/-MERC-SG-17 1d ago

Spielberg got his passion for science fiction from the stories his father told him of his time in the Pacific War seeing a UFO fly over his battleship and a dinosaur attack marines on an unnamed Pacific island.

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u/Lancerbond 1d ago

Woah, Spielberg ate the Universal lot? I'm more amazed by that than his career if I'm being honest

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u/Jaredlong 1d ago

Turns out this guy is pretty good at making up stories.

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u/Darmok47 1d ago

I'm guessing no one read the article, but his dad was not high powered executive, he was an engineer at GE and knew someone from school who worked at Universal. His dad's friend, Chuck Silvers, gave the kid a tour of the lot as a favor.

Steven kept up correspondence with Chuck Silvers for year or two before coming back for an internship, probably because he impresed him. Its not like Silvers was particularly high up either, being assistant to the editorial director for the TV division.

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u/BlogeOb 1d ago

It’s always nepotism. I don’t believe anyone making millions or billions of dollars in art. They are from wealthy or connected family.

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u/OldWoodFrame 1d ago

Entree? I'll take the beef.

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u/manimal28 1d ago

People love to tell lies about how they are self made.

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u/hombregato 1d ago

People don't lie as often as they embellish.

If I had to guess, the actual story is that Spielberg was given his first real professional gig at 21, snuck past security a few times to get access to some areas, and was never assigned an office, so he just moved his stuff into an empty one.

This would have been a common experience working at a movie studio in 1969, but romanticized.

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u/dizvyz 1d ago

I don't know if this is true or not but hollywood people are notorious liars. They'll make up stories all the time to show us normies how special they are and we'll eat it up.

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u/ThunderousOrgasm 1d ago

You can play this game with pretty much the entirety of Hollywood.

That romanticised myth of young actors/actresses going to Hollywood to find fame. Working in bars of an evening and going to casting calls during the day and eventually “breaking into the industry”, it’s absolute bollocks.

You can pick almost any Hollywood actor, actress, writer, producer or director of the last 60 years, and do a very quick analysis of their immediate family. And it’s almost guaranteed they will have a parent, grandparent or other immediate family member who is already established in Hollywood and got them their big break.

They are all full of shit when they pretend they had normal lives and were normal people before fame. Most of them grew up exceptionally wealthy and privileged in the Hollywood scene already, and just had to express the most minor desire to give it a go, and her TV and movie roles waiting for them.

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u/ClosPins 1d ago

Funny how all these rich and powerful guys tell you nothing but lies about their origin-story, instead of the truth!

Guess people don't really respond to 'my parents did it all for me!'

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u/HorseNspaghettiPizza 1d ago

Man i wish my dad could get some hotshot at hollywood to take me in and show me around and get me an internship.

The sad part is spielberg wont admit it. Hes made some good movies but geez

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u/ZodiacRedux 1d ago

It's been said that the only thing real about Hollywood is how fake everything is-including the people involved.

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u/Swimming-Scholar-675 1d ago

how lame for him to make up some dumb story about it, atleast Cameron's story about being a truck driver and studying films is true

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u/CromulentChuckle 1d ago

Entree lol

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u/trsbops1 1d ago

Wild! It’s crazy how legends like Spielberg sometimes mythologize their beginnings. Still, his talent was undeniable. Whatever the story, he definitely made it happen!

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u/TracyF2 10h ago

Usually when someone rich and famous says they started out with very little means they started out with very little while being rich and well connected. One million dollars to us is a lot but to them it’s “small”.