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Palihapitiya: People with comfortable upbringings rarely become mega-scale entrepreneurs

Chamath Palihapitiya · Pain, Power & The Game Nobody Wins | Chamath Palihapitiya x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF · Nikhil Kamath · Mar 2, 2026 · at 4:01

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya discusses the psychological drivers of ambition and extreme entrepreneurial endurance with Nikhil Kamath.

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“Pain is a fantastic amplifier of capability. Some sort of, like, grudge, pain, anger, but, you know, the child that had a wonderful upbringing is a wonderful human being and not a great entrepreneur in many cases, at least at scale, at mega scale, because it just requires a level of Self-flagellation almost, you know, and pain.”

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