The gold-rush prospectors of the mid-1800s may not have had the luxury of central air and heat, but they did have the same excitement for get-rich-quick fortunes as the many prospectors who bet on dot-com stocks in the late 1990s.
Most prospectors in both groups lost their shirts (or worse), but these cloudy times had hidden silver linings. Gold mining brought many people who possessed an entrepreneurial mindset to the hills and valleys of California. They were willing to face risk and change for a better life and later became business owners, managers, and employees in the California economy.