A short reflection on the pursuit of the American dream

Jeremy Stern is an excellent writer. It’s rare, in my life currently, for a medium online to capture my attention for longer than thirty seconds. It’s difficult for writing to compete for attention against Instagram’s AI-powered slop machine and Twitter’s faux-productivity—and yet, Stern’s profile on Joshua Kushner (which you should read, first) captured mine for thirty minutes.

At the end, I felt as if I had learned more than any non-fiction book has ever taught me. High praise, that is for sure.

There is a string that ties many of the exceptional people at Thrive Capital, Oscar Health, and the Kushners — the American Dream.

In my eleventh grade Advanced Placement Literature class, I was tasked with exploring the concept of the American Dream. Yet, by this point in school, I had learned a tough lesson - your thesis on your paper mustn’t interfere with your instructor’s political opinions. And so I wrote an essay, for my Portland, Oregon -based high school about how the American Dream is dead. Wage inequality between classes is growing, racial discrimination permanently forces members of our society to underachieve, and - oh - the billionaires aren’t paying their taxes.

I’m still grappling with my belief on this matter — now as a Harvard College junior, almost twenty-one-years-old. I describe my political views to be centrist and strictly moderate, although recent policies brought by the Trump Administration on immigration and higher education leave me distraught.

Alas, one thing is clear: the American Dream exists. And, no, I do not think expressing optimism for an aspect of our nation should be assigned to a political agenda.

Josh Kushner’s story is one that inspires. His grandparents fled persecution from the Nazis (after having most of their family and neighbors viciously murdered), and raised a family of hardened Jewish-American entrepreneurs, politicians, philanthropists, et cetera. This is all in the span of just two generations.

I have watched my share of World War 2 films and read a few books — and yet the Holocaust has never truly chilled me. Very few things that I read about in history have (perhaps Nolan’s rendition of the Manhattan Project being a rare one). Stern’s story-telling, however, did. It was bone-chilling and frightening: something new for me.

Many will read this and say I am naive, sheltered, and privileged such that I haven't had to experience hardships. To those - I am all of those things.

However, I did have my share of “struggles,” being a child of immigrants assimilating to this country. Of course, nothing close to the magnitude of hardships many humans have endured, but, I still have a story.

My parents came to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. My father’s parents instilled in him a deep value and respect for higher education, which he pursued in America as a student. He hasn’t faltered in this conviction, as he has repeatedly encouraged me to pursue a PhD (which I do not have plans of doing, particularly because of AGI timelines suggesting a rapid devaluation of labor and an elimination of upward mobility altogether).

Today, we are a tight, and honestly boring nuclear family. My parents don't get the opportunity to travel much (apart from work), they fix their own car, and live a middle class life.

Stern’s piece asked me — did my father achieve his American Dream? What about my mother? Did I?

I think the answer is probably indeterminate, depending on who you ask. My parents' living conditions aren't dramatically better than the ones they were given by their parents in India. They aren't particularly more fulfilled than their parents. They are quite free--thanks to financial freedom--and they can pretty much do whatever they want to (but I don't think they utilize this freedom often).

If you ask some of Kushner’s partners described in the profile, then, on the matter of success and achievement, no. But if you ask, let's say fifty percent of Americans?

But Kushner actually tells us it doesn’t matter what others think. It’s this thought which has helped him develop conviction for investment opportunities others couldn’t. And it’s what Rick Rubin tells Kushner, too. And so I introspect:

No.

My parents are somewhat unsatisfied with their careers, and the outcomes they achieved. Additionally, due to various reasons I don't typically discuss on the internet, their children—both students at Harvard University—were raised in an environment that left them with a hunger for more.

The parents gifted in one of their children the ability to foretell the future: a person who will either become an incredibly successful founder of an Oscar Health-like company after finishing up at Harvard Medical School or a venture capitalist who spots the next OpenAI. And in their other child, in contrast to the other, a deep pragmatism and enterprising ability.

But this all, of course, is wishful thinking. There are many like me who think similarly—that they have a superpower! But if everyone had superpowers, there are no superpowers. So I cannot be sure of myself, and will need to keep going.

Yet, I remain in pursuit of the American Dream and inspired by Stern’s piece on Joshua Kushner.

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P.S. No AI tools were used—I just love to use a lot of em dashes.