Highly Succesful Siblings

[FidelCashflow]

I was flipping channels yesterday and caught a few minutes of "The Full House, E! True Hollywood Story" the one thing that really surprised me is that the Olsen twins are only 2 of 4 kids, and they have another brother and sister that most people never heard of because they're not in show-biz. This got me thinking and wondering what it must be like for the 2 non-famous siblings to know their sisters are billionaires. Wouldn't that be incredibly awkward whenever they're together?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone here have siblings that are incredibly successful compared to them, or vice-versa? I'm curious to know what its like. Does it make you want to avoid them? Does the family ever make you feel like you're obligated to help them out in some way?

 

[Septavius]

Billionaires is a bit of a stretch for the Olsen twins, don't you think?

Anyway, I'm friends with a pair of twin brothers from a big family. There are 3 males and 3 females. All the brothers haven't done much as far as careers, but the sisters are all doctors or dentists. The brothers aren't dumb by any means, but maybe they just didn't apply themselves in that way.

 

[GY!BE]

that's the best spam ive ever seen

my brother is a neurologist at Columbia

I have some catching up to do

 

[cbusguy]

i hope i am not the the succesful sibling

i make no money, but i do research- my only claim to fame

 

[acidboy]

I have a sibling whose on her way to reach the pinnacle of her medical career, and when she's done with her training she could come home and be the only certified specialist in her field in the country. And I'm very happy and proud of her accomplishments. I chose the capitalist pig path and although I'm well rewarded for my lack of scruples and ethics in work, I feel her mission (trying to heal very very sick folks) is a nobler calling and her determination to excel in her field is something I don't think I can do. What would bother me more, though, is being a sibling of someone like Maria Ozawa.

 

[KBW]

My sister didn't graduate from college and quit with only 12 credits left to graduate. I have one degree already, get my second in December, have been accepted to UNC for my MSA, and own one business and help my dad run his as well. My sister is marrying into a wealthy family and runs two very nice female only boutiques. I'd say although I'll end up making more money myself and being higher educated she is doing well in her own right. We are best of friends and communicate daily through phone calls and texts. She is happy with where she is at and I'm proud of her (she started the boutiques from the ground up before she was in the relationship with her current fiance). She is the kind who would love me no matter what as she doesn't really care about education or what I do as long as I'm happy and I want her to use her talent which she does and I'm happy for her. Her fiance owns two car dealerships and he doesn't have a completed degree either. My fiance is in med school so I guess we are very different but all four of us get together often and get along very well. I'm very lucky to have the sister that I do...I'm much closer to my sister and her friends than any of my friends are with theirs.

What is funny but it was completely unplanned is that she is 3 years older than me and we got engaged two weeks apart (I was the first). Her fiance mentioned something to me and I knew it was coming but I had no clue as to when. My mom will probably go crazy from being too happy by the time we both get married.

 

[sho'nuff]

my little brother is very successful in my eyes, he got his PhD at UCLA and now teaches at a college in Ohio as a professor and does research and wrote a couple of books and a couple dozen articles.
He also owns a house, and has two lovely sons.

Me on the other hand barely scraped by with a BA at a cal state and now working in IT at Herbalife. im married but no kids. living in an apt trying to save money for a house but it will take forever because me and my wife are such lavish spenders.

i have no jealousy towards my brother. i actually am very proud of him and speak about him constantly. im very happy for my parents that at least one of their sons came out to do very well in the world.
however, my parents still look at me as the heart of the family. there is no bad feelings going on between anybody in our family. just alot of love and support to each other. i pray for my brother alot. he tells me he constantly does so for me too. you know how encouraging that makes one feel to hear that?

 

[MetroStyles]

I hate how success is defined as wealth.

 

[RedLantern]

When we were little I always felt like I had to compete with my brother who is 2.5 years older than me. I knew that in some ways he was smarter than me and I hated that. As we grew up I noticed that the gap between our "success" both academic and social was closing. My brother really began struggling at the end of middle school and elected to go to an alternative high school and consequently fell in with a bunch of alternative highschool type folks. We moved and he dropped out of high school. In the meanwhile I really began to come into my own in high school and enjoyed the relative success over my brother. While in college I enjoyed feeling superior to my brother, knowing that I was doing well in school and life in general while he was working at the wing zone and had no real friends. Towards the end of college when I realized that I would be going on to law school while my brother would still be delivering chicken wings indefinately I began to feel guilty about my fortune. I realized that my brother somehow lacked the ability to succeed in the way that people (including himself) had expected him to, while my success had come to me fairly easily. The differences between me and my brother seemed inborn and abritrary, we have the same values and were raised exactly the same way by my mother but we had ended up on entirely different paths.

Shortly after this realization my brother was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (pretty late at 25) which explained a lot to me and my family about my brother's suprising inability to thrive despite his exceptional intellect. I felt sorry that by brother was somehow defective. I felt grateful that I was born with the advantages that I have.

Additionally it is looking like my half sister who is 16 has a myriad of mental health issues. Her diagnosis has changed many times from ADD,ADHD, oppositional and defiant syndrome, Depression, etc. to Bipolar and possibly borderline personality. It is becoming apparent that she will never be "successful" in the traditional sense either.

Oddly enough when we were growing up my mother never put any pressure on any of us to "succeed." She never told us that she expected us to go to college and always told us we could do whatever we wanted so long as we were happy. However, with my siblings being the way that they are I feel increasing pressure to succeed. I'm not sure if my mother is actually putting pressure on me or if it is something that I am putting on myself but I don't like it!

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I hate how success is defined as wealth.

Everyone defines success differently.

Some consider success to be monetary, others by accomplishments. I heard that Warren Buffett defines success by how many people that you want to love you, actually love you. Interesting, and he may seem focused on things that arent monetary mainly because he's alreadt achieved great amount of success in that area, and assume because of the fallowing he has, he may also feel he's achieved alot of success in the love area also.

Some do very well for themselves, but never feel successful because they lack they never achieved success in other areas of their lives. I think you could fit most of it into 3 categories, Love, Wealth and Esteem.

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I hate how success is defined as wealth.

it's not that success is only defined as wealth. it is basically to make a point in answering the OP's question about any dynamic between siblings of different levels of success.


like being loved is one example of wealth,

but how would it really make a point if a reply here went:

"my brother is more wealthy in love than i am, but i am not jealous of him or we have a cool relationship"

you see? it dont work for this conversation so we use examples of material and monetary wealth for discussion. if you catch my drift

 

[FidelCashflow]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I hate how success is defined as wealth.

Yes, it's not a good definition of success, but I thought it would make a better title than "IS YOUR SIBLING LOADED AND YOU'RE ******* BROKE????"

But I am specifically curious about money. I was just imagining what it must be like to have 2 siblings so rich, famous, and powerful they can afford their own private jets and they're on international TV all the time, and meanwhile the other siblings are just regular people working everyday jobs trying to make ends meet and watching their investments dissapear in the credit crunch.

I imagine it must be something like that Jack Black/Ben Stiller movie "Envy" where two best buddies start out equally, and are super close, but one becomes a gazillionaire and the other is just left to wonder "how is this fair??"

 

[GQgeek]

My uncle is extremely wealthy and completely self-made. He is the youngest sibling and has 3 older sisters. I would be lying if I said there wasn't some resentment there. At family dinners, the sisters will often make comments about his money which I think are in poor taste. I think they believe he should be helping them out financially, as all of them have had their problems. I don't share that view.

As for my own siblings, it's difficult to tell who will make the most money as we're still too young. My brother could end up doing very well for himself, but he could also be a total fuckup. He's got great strengths but also great weaknesses that could really hold him back in the business world. Then again, he wants to move to Dubai, and maybe things work much differently there. My sister has settled for a loser bf and a career that will never pay her much money. It's kind of depressing.

 

[eg1]

Both of my brothers are more successful in some ways than I am (one by income, the other by travel), and I am very proud of them both.

 

[warmpi]

Originally Posted by acidicboy

I have a sibling whose on her way to reach the pinnacle of her medical career, and when she's done with her training she could come home and be the only certified specialist in her field in the country. And I'm very happy and proud of her accomplishments. I chose the capitalist pig path and although I'm well rewarded for my lack of scruples and ethics in work, I feel her mission (trying to heal very very sick folks) is a nobler calling and her determination to excel in her field is something I don't think I can do. What would bother me more, though, is being a sibling of someone like Maria Ozawa.

are you kidding me. that's the kind of stuff i fantasize about.