If you name the forum, I'll show up. I also realize that I'm older, and when I was younger, I thought those who were older were completely off the mark-- and from the perspective of someone who is now older, I realize they were on the mark in many ways, but outdated in others.
So, I don't mean to come off like a pompous ass. I'm also keen to learn from the people who don't have as much experience, but do have a different perspective....
I don't think it should be too difficult, all that's necessary is to make arguments over the differences, or ask questions... rather than try and beat people over the head with politics.
Anyway, as for your guinea pig offer, lets see if I can sum up the things I've had to learn the hard way in a very succinct manner, that isn't also highly repetitive of common advice--
- always have something original to sell
- investing is made extra easy when your competition thinks they can't win (e.g.: if they think the market is efficient they won't look for opportunities.)
- you can earn %25 a year with only 5 hours a year of time invested.
- If you're buying any long term investment, know what your return will be with calculable accuracy before you buy. (Timothy Vick's books on investing like Buffett are good here.)
- Everyone in the world think their country is special and unique.
- Get outside of the USA to see how different the world is from how it is portrayed within the USA
- Internationalize your products. It isn't that expensive and you'll get most of your sales abroad
- Read "Economics in One Lesson". Economics is really key. Understanding it will give you amazing powers of prediction.
- People are the same everywhere, but also different. Every new culture you live in, levels you up. You'll be surprised at what you learn. And going and living somewhere for 2 months is much better than the tourist thing. You can get work done while you do it too.
- Never be involved in a franchise unless you're the one selling franchises.
- "The Millionaire Fastlane" is a hokey books, and written for seemingly the lowest common denominator, but it contains great wisdom.
- Atlas Shrugged is the most important book I've ever read.
- All capitalism works by enriching the lives of your customers. The path to wealth is seemingly "altruistic" because it comes form improving other's lives. They're inextricably intertwined.
- If 4 out of 5 businesses fail, start 6 businesses.
- 1 out of 5 businesses fail in my experience, 2-3 break even, and 1 does rather well.
- This one from fight club: "Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!"
- And again: "Only after disaster can we be resurrected."
- The above two are very taoist / buddhist concepts. You have to let go of you and see what the market says. "hitting bottom" is getting to the point where you take in the response of the market to your product or your idea as the ultimate reality.... you have to let go of your idea that you have a clue what the market really wants. Only after a product launch disaster can you be resurrected as an entrepreneur. Or at least, it was something like that for me. Stop trying to control everything, because doing so keeps you from hearing what the market is telling you.
- Always be Closing. Ok, too many movie quotes, but they resonate with me.
- Always have a marketing strategy. Have at least an idea of something that customers will stop and take notice of. Something outrageous could be good- the Virgin method of promotion might work for you. But you gotta be able to wake people up with just a handful of words that immediately resonate with them and make them go "damn, I've been having that problem! Sign me up!"
- If you value the education you receive from failure, you can't lose in business. That said, might as well go into it whole hog. When you can't lose, it is impressive how much fear you can eliminate.
- Never start a business that costs more than $4,000 to get going (for the essence of the business. ) Never put in real money... it should either make money on its own right away, or if it requires some investment in technology, it shouldn't require any real capital. People are great at shopping and it is easy to rationalize a lot of spending... don't.
- Options, if properly used, greatly reduce investment risk, while also boosting returns. Stock options (calls and puts) are the least understood investment vehicle among the mainstream.
- I never spent money on a book, including a $90 "Due Diligence" book that I barely ever read, that didn't pay for itself many times over, on topics such as investing, business and marketing. Even the bad ones were worth many times the cover price.
I'm sure a lot of that is obvious... maybe I'd be better talking about specific topics or sharing specific experiences.
I'm currently planning to do a comic. I have a blog on the same site (long story) and I have a couple of other sites that are old and rarely updated. I have a parenting/homeschooling site and a health site. But I get reactions from people like I'm an effing messiah or something and they want me to save them, which is all kinds of trouble. Messiahs end up dead (like crucified, burned at the stake, etc). Alternately, I get the crap kicked out of me by people who think I am a charlatan, because their problems are too hard to solve, all the experts say so. This is apparently another means to get burned at the stake, not make money. Sigh. I'm good at solving personal problems -- real good -- and after much thought have concluded that there are two venues for that (for the "wisdom" schtick): 1) religion/personal messiah (no thanks) and 2) humor/entertainment. So after much suffering over the strong reactions (both positive and negative) that I get out of people, I have decided to go into the humor/entertainment business.
There might some day be a product (a game) on one of my sites. But for now, I would like to just get the comic going (trying to decide on the exact starting point in the story) and make enough money to get out of my day job. Then other things can happen.
BTW: I happen to be 46 and am not the typical demographic for this site in other ways. (I'm female, not a hacker, and so on.)
As for naming the forum: I am actually hoping to at some point find someone who knows how to make money who will talk to me (probably via email) and help me figure that out. My story inspires lots of attagirls and head patting. Some folks have tried to give me feedback. For whatever reason, things have failed to click so far. I keep rolling the dice, hoping that will change.
Hi nirvana, really enjoyed this comment thread, though a few days late on this post (got here via Hacker Newsletter, incidentally).
Just wanted to suggest/request you write your own newsletter which I would definitely sign up for and hopefully engage with. I have always enjoyed your comments and would love to hear more of your thoughts and experience. If you do decide to do that, please ping me at username at gmail.com.
I'm also late here but I wish there were more "older" people on the internet that had advice. Sometimes it seems that everyone on the Internet is 25. One investment forum I used to visit had many people in their 50s and 60s and there were some posters who I would always search for their comments because you could tell they had seen it all and their advice contained wisdom from experience.
-- The reality most people live in, is a complete and total fiction. Most people just have no clue. They operate at a low level of awareness and understanding. The "Jay Walking" segments that Jay Leno used to do illustrate this well. Those are not stupid people, they just aren't aware. To use another movie analogy, they're still plugged into the matrix. Intrinsically, with becoming an entrepreneur is to disconnect yourself from the matrix a little bit. You do want to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes because it is very illuminating. Don't look down on the people still plugged in. The people who google for Facebook so that they can get on Facebook are the market. They're your customers and they may seem stupid, but they aren't. They're just trapped in a narrower perspective than you have. Most of them don't want to be freed. Do your best to help them out with your products, but understand where they're coming from.
The thing about these different perspectives that is really profound is that people who are operating from a different perspective often don't even realize it. That perspective is reality to the best of their ability to understand reality.
Being an entrepreneur means understanding their perspective at least enough to be able to produce products that benefit them... but that means that you've got to break out of it if you're starting from the same perspective they are.
Thanks. I've spent much of my life getting unplugged from the matrix. It's one of my strengths. Still trying to plug into the "how one makes money" mental framework. I did the homemaker thing for a long time and now have a day job. I actually was good at recognizing opportunities to make money as a kid and always had money as a kid. Then I got married and was basically treated like chattel property. Still trying to recover psychologically from that, if that makes any sense.
Really enjoyed this last point. Thanks for adding it. It gives me hope. I have spent a lot of time solving very large personal issues and this seems to convince other people I'm not really competent because of the financial issues left in the wake of that. I find that highly annoying when it comes from other people but I'm human so I still wrestle at times with wondering if I really am some lame, incompetent dolt. So this was nice to read.
This whole thread is amazing and i'm definitely taking notes. The only thing I'd add is that ultimately there is no absolute matrix or enlightened perspective. There are relative layers of perception, eg. a corporate cog realizing that their own vision can be built from just an idea. But then there is also the opposite scenario is just as valid, an independent entrepreneur realizing that working from within the system is often the path of least resistance to bringing about a vision.
There is always something we can unplug from.
I'd like to explore that thought with you in some detail, but it is hard to do it in this format. I don't think all perspectives are equally valid, as that would seem to be a form of moral relativism... but if you're saying you can always increase your awareness to a higher level, then I agree completely. There's always more to learn, and there's always a perspective that gives you a more complete and fuller awareness of reality.
Mz volunteers to be guinea pig and listen to whatever you want to share. ;-)
Peace.