Gekko

Not that Gekko. Just a guy obsessed with how the rich actually got rich.

[Mark @MarkGrokLab]

SoftBank sold a stake in Nvidia worth about $3.6 billion in 2019. By late 2024, the same 4.9% would have been worth about $178 billion.

Nvidia had just had a bad quarter. SoftBank sold all of it.

Then AI happened.

“The fish that got away was big,” Masayoshi Son said in 2024.

That wasn’t even his biggest miss.

In the video below, Jensen Huang tells a packed room what Son offered him ten years ago. To lend him the money to buy Nvidia. All of it.

“Now I regret not taking it.”

Earlier on the same stage, Huang says Son was once Nvidia’s largest shareholder: “We can cry together.”

In October 2025, SoftBank sold its Nvidia shares again. 32.1 million shares, about $5.8 billion.

The case for Son: he locked in a profit after a bad quarter. That’s what investors are supposed to do.
The case against: he sold the most important company of the AI era. Twice.
Would you have sold after a bad quarter, or held on?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@MarkGrokLab $50,000 a month on a credit crad and she’s fighting for more. Most people don’t make that in a year.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

George Lucas could have asked for $1 million to make Star Wars. He asked for the t-shirt rights instead.

Disney later paid him $4.05 billion for the company those rights built.

He wanted the merchandising rights. And the sequels. The studio said yes, because they thought both were worthless.

He tells it himself in the video below. The way he says the studio saw it: “Licensing isn’t worth anything. Nobody’s able to license anything. There’s no money there.”

He says he only wanted it “to get t-shirts and posters so I could promote the movie.”

Star Wars toys brought in about $100 million in the first two years. Over the next 35 years, around $12 billion.

The sequels he kept became one of the biggest franchises in film history.

“They thought they were getting a good deal,” he says. “We were both happy at the time.”

The studio won the negotiation. Lucas won the galaxy.

Would you have taken the million?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

George Lucas could have asked for $1 million to make Star Wars. He asked for the t-shirt rights instead.

Disney later paid him $4.05 billion for the company those rights built.

He wanted the merchandising rights. And the sequels. The studio said yes, because they thought both were worthless.

He tells it himself in the video below. The way he says the studio saw it: “Licensing isn’t worth anything. Nobody’s able to license anything. There’s no money there.”

He says he only wanted it “to get t-shirts and posters so I could promote the movie.”

Star Wars toys brought in about $100 million in the first two years. Over the next 35 years, around $12 billion.

The sequels he kept became one of the biggest franchises in film history.

“They thought they were getting a good deal,” he says. “We were both happy at the time.”

The studio won the negotiation. Lucas won the galaxy.

Would you have taken the million?

[Tolot @Tolot0caw]

Terrell Owens told GQ he was nearly broke. He was still paying $44,600 a month in child support.

That was January 2012. Four children, four mothers, and three of the mothers had sued him.

He blamed his advisers. One investment, an Alabama entertainment complex, cost him about $2 million and turned out to be illegal in the state.

He also blamed his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. Five months later, he split with him.

In May 2012, Dr. Phil put him across from three of the mothers. They said he was behind on support and barely saw the kids.

Then the IRS came. A $438,913.52 lien in February 2013, which TMZ reported he paid that June. In 2014, a second one for about $244,400.

In the video below, Owens says the people handling his money had a fiduciary duty, then rejects the word broke: "Maybe in a financial bind, but to say that I'm broke, I think that's a stretch."

He says he isn't broke. Whose fault was it: his advisers or his own?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@vandalbv She drove across the country with him, helped build the business plan, and when it was over she took 25% and gave most of it away. Meanwhile he’s building a yacht with its own yacht. Tells you everything about who was in it for what

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@focuzzz_01 Won a million dollars on national television and thought the IRS would’t notice. That’s a bigger gamble than anything he did on the island.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@MarkGrokLab The guy who bought his dog refused to sell it back. So Stallone gave him a role in Rocky instead.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@thedrbryte $248,000 a month for three kids is not child support. That’s a salary.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@MarkGrokLab He was 23. Most guys that age run. He came back, took her in and left her millions. People changes.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@MarkGrokLab She signed at 15. It took 20 years and a reported $360 million to get her own songs back. Watch her face at 0:30 when she hears the news.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

@thedrbryte Represented herself against the lawyer who handled Charles and Diana and still got $48M. Say what you want, that took guts.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

The Winklevoss twins said Mark Zuckerberg stole Facebook from them. He paid them $65 million to go away. They turned it into billions.

At Harvard they started ConnectU and say Zuckerberg took their idea. In 2008 they settled for $65 million.

Their lawyers told them to take cash. They took Facebook stock instead.

“The lawyers thought we were crazy.”

In the video below, the twins tell their side.

By Facebook’s IPO in 2012, their stake was worth about $300 million.

Then they did it again. In late 2012, when one bitcoin cost under $10, they started buying. Within months they owned about 1% of all bitcoin in existence. Roughly 120,000 coins.

By December 2017 that bitcoin was worth about $1.3 billion.

The case for Zuckerberg. He settled. He never admitted taking their idea. And Facebook became what it is because he built it, not them.

Do the math. Stock instead of cash: about 6 times the money by the IPO. Bitcoin at under $10: more than 100 times by 2017.

Here’s the lesson. The people who lose the first fight don’t always lose. The ones who take the safe money usually do.

Someone takes your idea and offers you $65 million to go away. Cash or stock?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

The Winklevoss twins said Mark Zuckerberg stole Facebook from them. He paid them $65 million to go away. They turned it into billions.

At Harvard they started ConnectU and say Zuckerberg took their idea. In 2008 they settled for $65 million.

Their lawyers told them to take cash. They took Facebook stock instead.

“The lawyers thought we were crazy.”

In the video below, the twins tell their side.

By Facebook’s IPO in 2012, their stake was worth about $300 million.

Then they did it again. In late 2012, when one bitcoin cost under $10, they started buying. Within months they owned about 1% of all bitcoin in existence. Roughly 120,000 coins.

By December 2017 that bitcoin was worth about $1.3 billion.

The case for Zuckerberg. He settled. He never admitted taking their idea. And Facebook became what it is because he built it, not them.

Do the math. Stock instead of cash: about 6 times the money by the IPO. Bitcoin at under $10: more than 100 times by 2017.

Here’s the lesson. The people who lose the first fight don’t always lose. The ones who take the safe money usually do.

Someone takes your idea and offers you $65 million to go away. Cash or stock?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog. Two of her grandchildren got nothing.

Her will said it was “for reasons that are known to them.”

She was a billionaire hotel queen. The press called her the Queen of Mean. A housekeeper testified she once said: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” She denied it. She still went to prison for tax evasion.

When her only son died in 1982, his widow got an eviction notice shortly after the funeral. Then Helmsley sued her own son’s estate over money he had borrowed. She won $146,092.

Two of his children did inherit. On one condition: they had to visit their father’s grave every year.

She left $3 million to keep her mausoleum clean. And she wanted the dog buried next to her.

A judge later cut the dog’s $12 million to $2 million and gave $6 million to the grandchildren she had cut out.

The dog still got more than 20 death and kidnapping threats. It spent its last years in Florida with a full-time security guard.

$12 million for the dog. A grave-visit rule for the grandkids.

Was she cruel, or did those grandchildren earn it?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog. Two of her grandchildren got nothing.

Her will said it was “for reasons that are known to them.”

She was a billionaire hotel queen. The press called her the Queen of Mean. A housekeeper testified she once said: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” She denied it. She still went to prison for tax evasion.

When her only son died in 1982, his widow got an eviction notice shortly after the funeral. Then Helmsley sued her own son’s estate over money he had borrowed. She won $146,092.

Two of his children did inherit. On one condition: they had to visit their father’s grave every year.

She left $3 million to keep her mausoleum clean. And she wanted the dog buried next to her.

A judge later cut the dog’s $12 million to $2 million and gave $6 million to the grandchildren she had cut out.

The dog still got more than 20 death and kidnapping threats. It spent its last years in Florida with a full-time security guard.

$12 million for the dog. A grave-visit rule for the grandkids.

Was she cruel, or did those grandchildren earn it?

[Gekko @realgekkox]

Berkshire Hathaway is worth $1.1 trillion. Its new chairman dropped out of three colleges and pays rent on a farm based on his body weight.

Howard Buffett is Warren Buffett’s son. Warren bought him a 400-acre farm but refused to give it to him. He set a target weight of 182.5 pounds. Under the line, Howard pays 22 percent of gross income. Over it, 26 percent.

Warren said he got either more money or a thinner son.

None of Warren’s three children finished college. He said in 2012 he did not think college was for everyone.

On September 18, 2026, Howard became chairman of Berkshire Hathaway at 71. His role is to protect the company’s culture. He has no management authority.

Warren would not give his son a 400-acre farm. The board gave him a $1.1 trillion company.

[Dr.Bryte @thedrbryte]

https://t.co/MLMblg36ol

[Gekko @realgekkox]

An accountant named Chris Moneymaker paid $86 online and won $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker. The best player at the table had an 84 percent chance to beat him. One card changed everything.

Phil Ivey went all in with nines full of queens against Moneymaker’s trip queens. Ivey was an 84 percent favorite. The river was an ace. Queens full. Ivey was out in tenth place for $82,700.

He told himself one thing. Do not show how disappointed you are. Do not let the world see this.

It was Moneymaker’s first live tournament. The next year, entries tripled from 839 to 2,576. By 2006 there were 8,773.

They called it the Moneymaker Effect. Not because the pros lost. Because the amateurs arrived with $10,000 buy-ins.

[Gekko @realgekkox]

An accountant named Chris Moneymaker paid $86 online and won $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker. The best player at the table had an 84 percent chance to beat him. One card changed everything.

Phil Ivey went all in with nines full of queens against Moneymaker’s trip queens. Ivey was an 84 percent favorite. The river was an ace. Queens full. Ivey was out in tenth place for $82,700.

He told himself one thing. Do not show how disappointed you are. Do not let the world see this.

It was Moneymaker’s first live tournament. The next year, entries tripled from 839 to 2,576. By 2006 there were 8,773.

They called it the Moneymaker Effect. Not because the pros lost. Because the amateurs arrived with $10,000 buy-ins.

[Dr.Bryte @thedrbryte]

https://t.co/MLMblg36ol

[Gekko @realgekkox]

Meta is worth $1.83 trillion. During the Biden administration, White House officials called its employees to scream and curse at them. One of the demands was to remove a Leonardo DiCaprio meme.

Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan what happened. Officials wanted Covid and vaccine content taken down. His team said the content was true. It did not matter. They wanted it gone anyway.

Biden said publicly that platforms like his were killing people. That was July 2021. After that, multiple government agencies started investigating Meta at the same time.

Zuckerberg said his team refused. We are not going to take down humor and satire. We are not going to take down things that are true. He called the whole experience brutal.

The administration lasted four years. The memes outlasted it.