CRED CEO Says "Success Isn't Club You Can Enter Through Inheritance", Sparks Debate Online

Kunal Shah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of fintech company CRED, has sparked a social media debate after stating that success is not a club that one can enter through inheritance. It all started after Mr Shah took to Twitter to say that most successful parents take away the gift of "struggle" from their children. His post quickly garnered the attention of nearly 500,000 social media users, including Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau. Reacting to the post, Mr Rau disagreed with Mr Shah and wrote that a privileged upbringing (and hence less struggle) has a disproportionately higher percentage of success.

"Most successful parents take away one gift from their kids which made them successful in first place : struggle," Mr Shah tweeted on Friday. Responding to this, Mr Rau wrote, "Most successful people have significantly lesser struggle than their parent.  In many cases due to their parents itself. Infact, less struggle and privilege has a direct correlation to success. I know this doesn't sound good. But it's plain fact."

Most successful people have significantly lesser struggle than their parent. In many cases due to their parents itself.
Infact, less struggle and privilege has a direct correlation to success.

I know this doesn't sound good. But it's plain fact.

— Amrish Rau (@amrishrau) November 2, 2023

Mr Shah then responded to Mr Rau saying "you rarely see same hunger". To this, the Pine Labs chief gave examples of a few billionaires, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Satya Nadella and Mukhesh Ambani, and wrote that there are "Enough examples of privileged people with massive hunger and building at scale". "I am sure you know at least 200x more names who fit my model," Mr Shah then tweeted. 

To this, Mr Rau said, "Actually not. Statistics are clear that privileged upbringing (and hence less struggle) has a disproportionately higher percentage of success. Again, sounds terrible. But, it's just facts." 

"Success is slope. Not a club people enter into through inheritance. Most of these studies compare it with lens of club. Not slope. Where did you start. Where did you end up," Mr Shah wrote in response. 

Success is slope. Not a club people enter into through inheritance. Most of these studies compare it with lens of club. Not slope. Where did you start. Where did you end up.

— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) November 2, 2023

Now this to and fro between the CRED CEO and Pine Labs chief has sparked a debate amongst social media users. While some agreed with Mr Shah, others supported Mr Rau. 

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"100% agree with @amrishrau here. Also, to assume that privileged background necessarily means lack of hunger is also a misplaced notion imho," wrote one user. "Struggle then success seems like a nice story. But privilege to success is just a reality," commented another. 

A third user, however, agreed with Mr Shah and explained, "Agree with @kunalb11 - 1 lakh to 1 crore is 100x but 100 crore to 1000 crore is only 10x. If eventual absolute quantum is high, doesn't mean that slope is high. Unfortunately, most people and largely the capitalistic way of thinking only uses eventual quantum to define success". 

Another user agreed with both the CEO's and said, "Both of you seem correct- top of slope and bottom of slope have better chance of success. It is the middle ones that have the least chance". "Everyone has to struggle. Others struggles may not be evident to us. But everyone does," commented a fourth.