"But it feels the Getty family story is the prime example of being rich at the expense of ruined family relationships. The Getty family story is basically a manual on what no to do if you want your family to love you."

"If you’re unfamiliar with the stock photo business, what these companies do is basically stockpile images by either buying them from photographers or taking these photos themselves. Licenses for these photos are then sold to individuals or companies that needed these photos for their websites, or other marketing collateral."

"But in 2018, the Getty family acquired it back from the Carlyle Group. Getty Images was reportedly worth around $3 billion dollars when it was acquired back by the Gettys. It has an archive of over 350 million images, it makes over a billion dollars a year in revenues."

"It all starts with this guy, John Paul Getty. At one point, this guy was the richest man in the world due to his ventures in the oil industry."

"He was only willing to pay 2.9 million because that was the biggest amount that was tax-deductible. And to think that at this point, this guy was worth $4.2 billion dollars."

"J. Paul decides to set up Getty Oil, a merger of his oil company and his fathers, with J. Paul owning 80%."

"Despite being smaller than rival oil companies, Getty was able to win a 60-year concession in Saudi Arabia’s Neutral Zone. This had an area of over 2,200 square miles which is a massive piece of land."

"Well, he paid a premium for it. It surely was a risky expensive bet that J. Paul Getty was willing to make. He agreed to pay King Abdul Aziz $9.5 million dollars upfront, and $1 million a year royalty, and 55 cents per barrel of oil. In comparison, this was 2.5 times what other major oil companies were paying in the Middle East."

"His success in business could simply not translate when it came to his relationships because J. Paul Getty was simply a complete asshole."

"He had payphones installed in his own home because when guests were around, he noticed that they were using his phone."

"J. Paul was also known to have hand-washed his laundry because he didn’t want to pay for laundry services."

"J. Paul responded with the infamous “well if we give in to their request, my 13 other grandchildren could become kidnap targets too”. Now keep in mind that around this time, there was a global oil crisis which basically triggered higher prices. So J. Paul was pretty much swimming in cash."

"Since the kidnappers demanded $3 million, he paid this via a loan to his grandson at 4% interest."

"“I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting one marital success.”"

"Don’t be like J. Paul Getty"

"You can be both wealthy and a good person."

"The idea of MasterClass came to Rogier through a story told by his grandmother which he vividly remembers."

"Confused as to why they all kept saying no, she calls the Deans of Admissions and asks them why they never accepted her application."

"“David, I’m trying to tell you that education is the only thing that someone can’t take away from you.”"

"“I wanted to build a school that teaches things that people can’t take away from others. I wanted to create a school that made it possible for anybody in the world to learn from some of the best minds and masters of their crafts. I thought, how do we do this affordably, where it’s not thousands of dollars. How do you do it in a way for somebody like me who is curious and wants to learn?”"

"But MasterClass had with it an edge. It understood that in order to stand out, you needed to do something different. A distinct value proposition with a clear brand positioning can allow it to not compete with the others but instead, create its own category."

"MasterClass only enlists the expertise of only the few who are considered the best in their field."

"Marketing through word-of-mouth"

"Having a lineup of celebrities did more than make MasterClass stand out, it was also a killer marketing tool. Since celebrities already have a lot of influence and huge social followings, the word-of-mouth for MasterClass is incredibly effective."

"Honestly, the first few times I saw the MasterClass ads, I really thought they were an established company that’s been around for years."

"Perhaps a bigger expense than their ads is how much they need to pay celebrities to come in and film a course."

"Sources say that these celebrity instructors are paid around $100,000 up front, before they do any work, and receive 30% of the revenue the classes generate."

"MasterClass is pretty quiet about the details of their agreements with these instructors, but Rogier did say that many of these celebrities do these classes as more of a legacy thing."

"But Vox.com described it perfectly when they said that the classes are reminiscent of Tony Robbin’s classes where there is very little distinction between practical advice and motivational superlatives."

"It’s just that, they can’t help but feel that all that information was something that’s readily available to them on YouTube, for free. And with that, it starts to feel like the course is a bit overpriced."