IPO Dreams

Re “There’s More to Life Than IPO Dreams,” Commentary, March 26: Mark Steinberg’s analogy between teenagers chasing pro-basketball stardom and today’s techies aspiring to be the next Bill Gates is fatally flawed. The NBA is a very elite organization (only a few hundred individuals make a living at professional basketball). By contrast, the emerging high-tech economy promises to be a wide-open frontier of opportunities for those willing to apply core American values like hard work and ingenuity.

The Internet is already restructuring the entire U.S. economy in much the same way the railroads did in the 19th century. Who is to say that the collective fortunes of aspiring techies will not dwarf Bill Gates?

MARK T. RISNER

Counsel to Inter-Logic Systems

Garden Grove