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Billionaire video game creator learns wealth does not equal happiness

September 01, 2015
 Staff

WRITER

It's the dream of any startup founder. You make something people love, become wildly rich and then sell your company for billions. That's what every startup in Silicon Valley is trying to do. But after you do that, what comes next?

Markus Persson, who created the video game Minecraft, is revealing things aren't always as they seem. He sold Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion a year ago. He's now finding that the meaning of life has nothing to do with all the things that he thought it would.

Listen to Glenn's commentary below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: It's the dream of any start-up founder. You make something that people just love, and you wind up wildly, wildly rich. And you sell the company for billions. That's what every start-up in Silicon Valley is trying to do. But after you do that, what comes next?

The guy who was the founder and the creator of Minecraft is revealing that things aren't always as they seem. He sold Minecraft to Microsoft for 2.5 billion years ago -- a year -- a year ago. Sorry, $2.5 billion a year ago.

PAT: There you go. That's a lot.

STU: Wow. Jeez.

PAT: That's a lot. But, I mean, that game is an unbelievable cultural phenomenon.

STU: Everywhere.

JEFFY: Yes, it is.

STU: Every kid in America I think owns it. Is that true?

PAT: Every kid. I think so. Pretty much every kid in America. And if they're not playing it, they want to.

STU: Yeah, and what is it? You're just building things with blocks, essentially.

PAT: I guess. I guess.

GLENN: It's basically virtual Legos. It's virtual Legos.

JEFFY: Yeah.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: But then you can chase people around in the land that you've created. You know, it's all kinds of different things. But it's a virtual world.

STU: Can you run over hookers? I just want to make sure that that's part of the game --

GLENN: No, you can't run over hookers.

STU: Aw, jeez.

GLENN: So he was living the high life. It looked like he was having a blast. $2.5 billion. What would you do with $2.5 billion, Pat?

PAT: I'd probably -- I'd donate most of it to charity.

GLENN: Shut up.

STU: All lives matter. That's where I would -- Nazarene Fund.

PAT: Yeah. I would get a house.

GLENN: That's the first thing he did.

PAT: I mean, I have a house. But I would get a bigger house.

GLENN: He bought a 70 million-dollar house.

PAT: I don't know if I would get a 70 million-dollar house.

GLENN: You should see this house.

PAT: I bet it's nice.

GLENN: It is. It's on the hills of Beverly Hills, and it is unbelievable. I'll post the link to the real estate video that they --

PAT: Does it say the square footage?

GLENN: No. But it has a movie theater in it. It has an infinity pool. It came all furnished. It is unbelievable. Sixteen-car garage that actually has elevators.

PAT: Nice. Jeez.

GLENN: In the place where there's a wall of -- in the candy room. Okay. There's a place where it's a bar and a wall of candy. And on one of the walls is behind glass, the garage. And it -- the picture of it shows a Veyron on a turntable.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: So the garage is actually behind glass in the downstairs, and it's got a Veyron.

PAT: And then he has a Bugatti Veyron, which is a $2 million car.

GLENN: Yeah, it's unbelievable. Okay. So here is a guy who has everything. And he earned it.

PAT: And did he go from poor or middle class to just wild wealth like that?

GLENN: I don't know.

PAT: Is that the one step to wild wealth?

GLENN: Wild wealth. I mean, you could have $250 million and then suddenly have 2.5 billion and it's a totally different world.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: So here's the latest string of tweets from him. Now listen to this, this just came out August 29th. Over the weekend. The problem with getting everything -- the problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying. And human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.

Later: Hanging out with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people. Able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated.

In Sweden, I'll sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time just to do stuff, just watching my reflection in the monitor.

Next tweet: When we sold the company, the biggest effort went to making sure the employees got taken care of, and now they all hate me.

Next tweet: Found a great girl. She's afraid of me and my lifestyle. She went with a normal person instead.

I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same types of people that made me sell Minecraft again.

Here's a guy who has absolutely everything and has created something great, who sounds a little suicidal, quite honestly. He's now finding that the meaning of life has nothing to do with all the things that he thought it would.

There was a New Zealand art director that -- his name is Linds Redding. He was one of the great guys of ads. I mean, he really created apparently a lot of stuff. And everybody was trying to get him -- ask him about ads and how things go.

He wrote towards the end -- he just had esophagus cancer. And it was inoperable. And he just passed away. But he wrote something before he died.

It turns out, I didn't actually like my old nearly as much as I thought I did.

This is what he wrote after he was diagnosed.

I know this now because occasionally I catch up with my old colleagues and work mates. They fall over each other to enthusiastic show me the latest project they're working on. They ask me my opinion. Proudly show off their technical prowess. I find myself glazing over, but politely listen as they brag about who has had the least sleep and the most takeaway food.

I haven't seen my wife since January. I can't feel my legs anymore. I think I have scurvy, but another three weeks, and we'll be done. It's got to be done, and then the client is going on holiday. What do you think?

What do I think? I think you're all mad. I think you're all deranged. So disengaged from reality, it's not even funny. It's a commercial. Nobody really gives a crap. This has come as quite a shock to me, I can tell you.

I think I've come to the conclusion that my whole life has been a bit of a con, a scam, an elaborate hoax. Countless late nights and weekends, holidays, birthdays, school recitals, anniversary dinners, were willingly sacrificed at the altar of some intangible, but indefinitely worthy higher cause.

If that were true, maybe it would be worth it in the long-run. But that's the con. Convincing myself -- convincing myself there was nowhere I'd rather be was just a copying mechanism. I can see that now. It wasn't important. It wasn't of any consequence at all. How could it be? We're just shifting product, our product, and the client's. Just meeting the quota. Feeding the beast.

The beast. Was it worth it? Of course not. It turns out, it was all just advertising.

The top five things that people regret when they die: I wish I let myself be happier.

Most people don't realize, until the end, that happiness is a choice. This is what we're trying to get across to you with all lives matter and never again is now. It's a choice. You can be angry. You can -- you can scream for vengeance. Or you can choose peace. You can choose love. You can choose happiness. You can choose unity. But it is our choice in the end. Choose light or darkness, life or death.

Number four, I wish I would have stayed in touch with my friends. In people's dying weeks, they usually try to track down old friends. They become so caught up in their own lives, we've all been so busy, that we lose track of people.

Number three, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. Most people don't realize until the end of their life that they've been cowards their whole lives. They just wanted to keep peace with others. We're all told this in society. Don't bring up religion. Don't bring up politics. Don't bring up anything. Just make peace. Just don't argue.

And so most of us shut our mouths and don't make an impact. Most of us shut our mouths and we don't speak our true feelings. People at hospice say, every male patient they nurse always says, I wish I wouldn't have worked so hard.

Marxist Methods: Debunking the Left's LIES About Critical Race Theory

We've heard a lot about critical race theory lately, and for good reason: It's a racist ideology designed to corrupt our children and undermine our American values. But most of what we see are the results of a process that has been underway for decades. And that's not something the mainstream media, the Democrat Party, and even teachers unions want you to know. They're doing everything in their power to try and convince you that it's no big deal. They want to sweep everything under the rug and keep you in the dark. To fight it, we need to understand what fuels it.

On his Wednesday night special this week, Glenn Beck exposes the deep-seated Marxist origins of CRT and debunks the claims that it's just a harmless term for a school of legal scholarship. Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer joins to argue why we must ban critical race theory from our schools if we want to save a very divided nation.

Watch the full "Glenn TV" episode below:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Glenn Beck: I'd give up my American citizenship ‘in a heartbeat’ if THIS happens

On the radio program Monday, Glenn Beck blasted the Democrats — and anyone else on the left — who have been so eager to open our southern U.S. border for the past several months, but also willing to turn a blind eye to the Cuban people in need of help today.

"While we are welcoming people from any country, all over the world, without any kind of information, and setting them into our country, putting them on American planes paid for by American taxpayers," Glenn began. "And our Coast Guard Cutters are turning these [Cuban] people away. Shame on you! Shame on you!"

Glenn said that he's "sick and tired" of hearing about "brave" leftist activists like Colin Kaepernick, who protest the America flag while wearing Che Guevara and Fidel Castro t-shirts. Meanwhile, the Cuban people are risking their lives by taking to the sea to escape their oppressive regime and come to America.

"Anybody who glorifies Che doesn't know their ass from their elbow. You can't call them a human rights activist. You're protesting the American flag, because you so deeply believe in the right to be free? And yet, you wear a Che T-shirt?" Glenn said.

Glenn went on to argue that, even though the left has "bastardized" the meaning of our country, he still believes America is the best nation on Earth. In fact, he'd give up his citizenship "in a heartbeat" if another country could prove to be better, more noble, and more free. But no other nation exists like ours, he said, which is why it's so imperative we fight for freedom here, in Cuba, and around the world.

Watch the video clip below to hear Glenn explain:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

'They believe their job is to REMAKE your child': WSJ writer warns public schools may be LOST to woke trans activism

There's a new "reality" spreading, and the mere act of questioning it has become incredibly dangerous, Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Abigail Shrier told Glenn on the most recent episode of "The Glenn Beck Podcast."

Shrier's book, "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters," exposes the radical gender activism that — like critical race theory — has overtaken our children's schools and culture. But even worse, she warned, it could end your parental rights for good.

Shrier made it clear she is by no means "anti-trans," but simply speaking up against the extremes of this new "reality" has made her enemy No. 1 to many activists. Her book has been bashed so hard by the Left that Target has stopped selling it twice, Amazon once banned ads for it, and the American Booksellers Association even called sending it to others "a serious, violent incident."

In the clip below, Shrier explained why she believes "there may be no hope for the public school system."

"You have teachers behaving like activists across the country who have no interest in actually teaching. They believe their job is to remake your child," she asserted. "We're seeing so much evidence of that, I think it's fair to say that it may be too deeply rooted in the ideology being taught in public school. I'm not sure that the public school system is redeemable at this point."

Watch the video clip below for more or find the full podcast with Abigail Shrier here:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Gov. Abbott: Yes, Texas really can ARREST House Democrats when they return. Here's how.

What is actually in Texas' new GOP-led voting bill? Nearly every Texas House Democrat fled the state to block its passage, calling it racist and oppressive, and President Joe Biden backed them as well.

But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) joined Glenn Beck on the radio program Friday to set the record straight and call out the lies: All of these claims are "completely false." He also explained his promise to "arrest" the Texas House Democrats when they return to the Lone Star State.

"What is in the bill is completely different than what they're saying, what Kamala Harris is saying, what President Biden is saying. What's in the bill actually increases the number of hours that people have to vote in the state of Texas. In the state of Texas, we have at least 12 days of early voting, and we are adding hours to those days. And on top of that, we are giving people time off from work to be able to vote. Bottom line, we're making it easier to vote in the state of Texas," Gov Abbott explained.

"In comparison, Delaware — the state that President Biden votes in — has exactly zero hours of early voting," he added. "That said, there is one thing that we're doing in the state of Texas, and that is we're making sure we tighten the reins on mail-in ballots that can lead to voter fraud. And it's not me saying that. It's a federal judge, appointed by Barack Obama, in Corpus Christi, Texas, who wrote in a legal opinion that voter fraud occurs, quote, in abundance as it concerns mail-in ballots. We know. Texans know. There is fraud in mail-in ballots in the state of Texas. It must be fixed. That's one thing we're trying to do. That being said, all these claims that we're denying people the right to vote and yada, yada, yada, are completely false."

Abbott went on to discuss the much-debated voter ID laws in Texas and to explain why Democrats insist on calling basic voter ID requirements "racist."

"When Democrats do not have truth on their side, they resort to one single word and that is 'racism' ... Texas implemented voter ID almost a decade ago, and when we went through that fight, what word did they use? Racism," he said. "Guess what? After Texas imposed voter ID requirements in the state of Texas, there have been more people voting and more people of color who went to vote. Voting didn't get harder. It got easier and more abundant in the state of Texas. And so, once again, Democrats have absolutely no legal standing, other than to say, 'racism.'"

Glenn asked Gov. Abbott to explain his pledge to "arrest" the Democratic lawmakers that fled once they return to Texas.

"Let me explain how this works. So, whenever there is a break of quorum, which is what is happening now — meaning there is not a sufficient number of people who are showing up to the Texas House of Representatives for the Texas House to engage in business. Whenever there's a quorum break like that, the House issues what's called a 'call on the House.' And when that happens, the sergeant-at-arms is authorized to work with the Texas Department of Public Safety, to — you can call it arrest, apprehend, whatever you want to call it — any of the members who are not in the Texas House of Representatives and bring them to the Texas House where they will be 'cabined' with no ability to leave the Texas House chamber, without a permission slip from the speaker."

Watch the video clip below for more details:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.