As someone who chases alpha for a living I can safely say that the best way to get rich is to simply hold beta and focus on your work. Some napkin math: From my own experience and understanding, really good investors will extract about 4% alpha. This is not gross returns, but excess returns above beta-exposure, and also ignoring opp cost. For each $1M you're personally managing you'll get $40k alpha (a.k.a returns exceeding risk). To get this 4% alpha you generally have to not only put in the work, but also be a good professional with decent market value, so let's say you're worth $200k/y on the market, you need to factor that in. To put myself as an example, I consider myself to be a good market-neutral investor and have averaged ~15% average APY over the past 8 years. Some people will confuse this to be 15% alpha, when in reality a lot of this is USD-opp cost and another chunk is risk. My view of my alpha is somewhere in the 4-5% range. Yes, i'm heavily extracting alpha this market cycle, but i've also had to had on-chain RFR during the 2022 bear market. It's incredibly fluid and only average matters. Getting back to the point, at 4% alpha and $200k opp cost , you'd need to be managing $5M to justify working your portfolio full time. 99.9% of people are not good investors, and confuse nominal returns for market edge. In reality people will most likely have negative alpha, while also incurring in opportunity cost. Your career is your most valuable asset. Each small improvement you can get in your personal market value will compound and accrue for multiple decades to come. Going all-in on a "small" portfolio is pure hopium and negative EV. Yes, some people did it and it work for them. Good outcomes don't validate decisions.