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Thought Experiment: WWYD in Your Post Powerball Euphoria?

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

NuclearPuma

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I would reform education in America. I volunteered at some low income charter schools after school programs when I was in college and I really saw some tragic situations. A lot of kids who fell into one of two groups, 1). decent kids in really difficult family situations or 2). Kids age 10 or 11 who were know it alls who showed jaw dropping arrogance and disrespect.
I think the approach to education in America needs change. I'd start by opening up some kind of after school non-profit for tutoring.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Suzanne Bazemore

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That probably doesn't need a billion dollars to start! And it's a great idea!
Okay, @Tommo, I don't really know why this idea grabbed my attention so much, but I'll tell you my thoughts, anyway, and @MJ DeMarco is right, you don't need a whole bunch of startup money:
1. Do you have food service experience?
2. Start with one restaurant, but with your process, view it as a chain, so that when you are successful, you can already have a franchising plan worked out.
3. I have no idea how popular vegan food is in Australia. If you are concerned about its popularity, could you start with a food truck? That way you can travel around and reach different crowds to sell people on the idea. In Texas, we have food trucks at all kinds of places: local breweries, open houses at schools (they have to bid with our school district). If you can travel around, you could hook people who might have never intentionally tried vegan food, but will try it on a food truck due to its convenience, and they might keep coming.
4. Are You Financially Equipped to Run a Food Truck?
 

KLaw

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Interesting thought experiment...

Assume you won $1,000,000,000 (1 Billion!) in the Powerball.

What would you do in your post Powerball euphoria?

I'm talking about your daily day AFTER you reveled for a couple of years in riches...

I'm talking about AFTER you bought 10 exotic cars and drove them to death...
I'm talking about AFTER you traveled the world and saw everything to see...
I'm talking about AFTER you bought the dream houses speckled about the world...
I'm talking about AFTER you went on a video game binge...
I'm talking about AFTER you took care of your family...
I'm talking about AFTER you spent the last X years living large, spending, traveling, etc...

Now that you've experience EVERYTHING you've ever wanted...

WHAT WOULD YOU DO NOW?

I mentioned this little exercise in Unscripted and I ask it not because I'd like to entertain the mental masturbation of it all, I ask it because it gives a little INSIGHT into your meaning and purpose.

If money was no object, would would bring the most meaning to your life?

For instance, my answer to this question would be probably something relating to animals; a dog rescue or some kind of massive animal shelter.

Your answer might NOT be altruistic.

You might respond with, "I'm going to become the best Nascar driver on the planet" and that's OK.

Anyhow, I'm curious to what people value on a macroeconomic level -- after all your hedonistic/materialistic experiences have been met, what's next?

How will you spend your life?
Why haven't you started a dog rescue yet?
 
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GoGetter24

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I'd construct a task force to assail the schooling regime.

It'd be comprised of people from many walks of life, employed full time to prosecute an ideological war against the university and periphery education establishment.

It would employ a wide range of tactics, from negative advertising, to disgracing professors individually, to positive advertising the alternatives, to direct outreach to young people looking for direction (to save them from the clutches of university), to researching the lines of support that are propping up the regime with view to attack them, to forming new alternative training centers for marketable skills in direct and targeted competition against the universities, to participating in debates, to publishing books and internet material, to supporting lawsuits against schools and universities, to conducting historical research into superior forms of social organisation regarding work and education (e.g. the traditional apprentice-journeyman-master system), and so on.

With $1B, I reckon I could make a pretty solid dent in them.
 

kkoasdfawfqwe2

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I think there would be 2 stages for me in this post powerball part of my life.

The first stage would be to develop two types of companies, which I HAVE always wanted to, which is a movie producing company, with myself as the instructor, as I've always been super inspired by good movies from the day I was little and saw Pulp Fiction with my dad. The other company I would make would be a computer/console game development company, since I've always been playing games and I used to develop custom maps in certain games with the dream of making a real game just the way I imagine it.

So these are more egoistic things, though I would go for them.

When that would be a success, I would really like to disrupt the water industry, by making other means of water purification cost-efficient, so that water is a common and extremely cheap commodity in the whole world, no matter where you live.

I think the latter would take me the rest of my life and would be a project my future children would have to develop further.
 
Last edited:

Santi M

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Very Interesting! There are lots of great ideas here. Mine:

- Changing the whole education system here in Spain (and in the whole world if people want) by privatizing it. Prioritizing and creating new useful subjects for life. Making school an incredible place where everyone can learn interesting and useful things about the world and about themselves.

- Putting a big effort on the search of new cures for more common deadly diseases such as cancer.

- Developing poor countries, trying to implement capitalism and democracy on them.

- Creating a political party for making my country a better place.
 
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JG17

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I'd spend a lot of time learning a lot of new knowledge. A new language or two, world history, philosophy, classic literature. That shit fascinates me but it's easy to feel like spending 12 hours reading a tough philosophy book is a waste of time.

I'd also like to start something new, build it and give away the profits. It would be the ultimate self-indulgent 'look at me, look at what I can do' move, but with a philanthropic twist.
 

Xolorr

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Thought experiment:

Replace "would" with "will".

Say hello to your new goals :bullseye:

On a more serious note, completely changing the education system, and making films would be mine. One selfish passion, one to give others something better than I had.
 

Dianne Cohen

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I would...

1.) Build a business based on real estate. Most likely buy and hold.
2.) Go to the municipalities and see if I can buy land to (often the local government has confiscated land for one reason or another) build on. Most likely for the homeless.
3.) Start a charity or get involved with one that helps kids live in a better foster system.
4.) Start a scholarship for people who want to adopt.
5.) Help kids with anxiety. You would not believe the amount of anxiety the youth has. It is epidemic.
6.) Learn to speak publically.
7.) Exercise more.

These are just the ones on the top of my thoughts. I'm sure if I spend some more time on this, I would come out with a bunch more.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Why haven't you started a dog rescue yet?

I could, but that type of commitment is an "all-day, every day" commitment. I think I know that means with my personality, I'd sell/close the forum, stop writing, as well as some other things I got going. I have problems focusing on disparate things, I'm usually all or nothing on one thing.
 

eliquid

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A organization helping with basic needs of orphans and widows, followed by basic needs of children ( not orphans ) in depressed areas of the world, followed again with free entrepreneurial education centers in those areas too aimed at teenagers and adults.
 

redshift

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There's so many lives to live, I feel it could take a lifetime to truly answer this..

I would start by becoming a film-maker and create something deep and impactful, but why stop there, I've always wanted to become a musician as well (and perform in front of a large audience), and an artist, and a writer, maybe even a chef and start a world renowned restaurant, learn a few languages, master my fitness levels / health. Get really really good at a sport, maybe even go professional. Study anti-ageing / life extension and figure out how to increase the human lifespan, live for 100+ years, pick a new field every few years and master it. Invest in startups which aim to improve our lives. Never stop improving / learning / trying new things. Evolve. Try to make the world a better place in the process :)

Once money is out of the equation, the main thing left to manage / optimize would be time. The possibilities would be endless!
 
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fasteddienc

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I would donate money and time to The Venus Project. The Venus Project is a direct antithesis to what entrepreneurship and this forum is about but I do believe that one day capitalism will become a part of history. Go ahead, I'll wait, and expect some push back against this idea.

With the rise of technology, robotics, AI, and the fact that more people are becoming interested in minimalism and turning away from consumerism and more towards experiences I do feel that the system we have today will become a part of the past. It doesn't seem sustainable. You even see people like Peter Diamandis speaking of dematerialization and demonitization in his book "Abundance".

Just reading the above ideas it appears there is certainly a desire to do things not because they pay in green pieces of paper, but because of how it would make people feel to be involved in positive change. I think one day (probably long after I'm gone) the world will evolve past our current system.
 

PersianCub

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After I established systems ensuring generational wealth for my family...

I'd create a non-profit organization to promote the Unscripted philosophy.

I'd have the money to promote it on a massive scale, and not need to receive a single dollar from attendees. Conferences, online courses, free books, etc.

It would be my ultimate "from the heart" pursuit, with 0 strings attached.
More unscripted followers would create more potential for value creation in the world, which would ultimately make the world a better quality place.
 

GregDott

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  • Meditating, blacksmithing, painting & skateboarding.
  • Build an experimental town or two based around alternative economic & social models. Something like eco-techno-capitalist villages. Definitely not talking about anything utopian. We are born to struggle. Just places where things are designed a little better, more sensibly and with respect for those that come after us.
 

Longinus

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I would like to set up multiple platforms that break monopolies and centralized bad systems and make lives better for everyone. I already have such platform in mind, but it needs a lot of resources.

Perhaps this is my life mission already.

And starting an initiative to learn people to have more personal responsibility. Making them less dependent on bad and virtually bankrupt organisations (such as governments).

Also heavily funding libertarian political parties all over Europe, kinda what Soros does with "progressive" parties.
 
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Andrew W

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I'd probably use this money to get a bunch of insanely smart people in a room working on actionable ideas that can improve the world. After a certain time I'm sure all people want to have a legacy so my organization would not only provide someone with a legacy but it would also massively help out the world. Not sure what the problems being solved would be but I'm sure we'd come up with something.
 

Andy Black

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From Oct-2017:

I was asked an important question a couple of years ago and didn't really have a satisfactory answer. I was asked this question again last week and my own answer surprised me. I woke up the day after with a spring in my step because it feels right.

The question?

"If money was no object, what work would you be doing?"

My answer?

I'd help local businesses, schools, and colleges in my town and county.

I'd help them get online and help them make sales online.

I'd try to improve the local economy, and prospects for local youngsters.

I'd do workshops and presentations.

Maybe I'd even go so far as creating free starter websites for local businesses?

I've taken on local students occasionally for internships. I help local youngsters with their Maths every year. Maybe I'd train up the local youngsters on how to do the digital marketing for the local businesses, and give them some great work experience and entrepreneurial training somehow?

I'd follow the advice of Mother Theresa that's in my signature.

EDIT: I've just thought of this because a niece doing her accounting degree was let down by their Maths lecturer going awol for a couple of months. She's been round this Sunday evening doing Maths of Finance and Calculus, and gone away happy she understands. It's quite a small thing on my part, but can make a huge difference to the trajectory of her life.


EDIT 2: The guy who asked me that question two years ago told me not to answer straight away, but to think about it. He then asked me a very interesting question straight afterwards: "What's stopping you?".

Oh. Maybe I should just start this now? (I haven't started this, but MJ's thread and my niece being round have reminded me of my answer over a year ago.)


EDIT 3: I'd like to help all members of the local community to find the services they want, and help the service providers get found by those looking for them. Especially close to my heart are those living alone (especially the elderly and vulnerable), people with illnesses, and kids who are bright and eager but who the academic system is failing.
 
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ned.ryerson

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From Oct-2017:

I was asked an important question a couple of years ago and didn't really have a satisfactory answer. I was asked this question again last week and my own answer surprised me. I woke up the day after with a spring in my step because it feels right.

The question?

"If money was no object, what work would you be doing?"

My answer?

I'd help local businesses, schools, and colleges in my town and county.

I'd help them get online and help them make sales online.

I'd try to improve the local economy, and prospects for local youngsters.

I'd do workshops and presentations.

Maybe I'd even go so far as creating free starter websites for local businesses?

I've taken on local students occasionally for internships. I help local youngsters with their Maths every year. Maybe I'd train up the local youngsters on how to do the digital marketing for the local businesses, and give them some great work experience and entrepreneurial training somehow?

I'd follow the advice of Mother Theresa that's in my signature.

EDIT: I've just thought of this because a niece doing her accounting degree was let down by their Maths lecturer going awol for a couple of months. She's been round this Sunday evening doing Maths of Finance and Calculus, and gone away happy she understands. It's quite a small thing on my part, but can make a huge difference to the trajectory of her life.


EDIT 2: The guy who asked me that question two years ago told me not to answer straight away, but to think about it. He then asked me a very interesting question straight afterwards: "What's stopping you?".

Oh. Maybe I should just start this now? (I haven't started this, but MJ's thread and my niece being round have reminded me of my answer over a year ago.)


EDIT 3: I'd like to help all members of the local community to find the services they want, and help the service providers get found by those looking for them. Especially close to my heart are those living alone (especially the elderly and vulnerable), people with illnesses, and kids who are bright and eager but who the academic system is failing.
The reality is Andy there are much fewer barriers for you to do all of those things today than you realize. So I'm going to say something that might sound really harsh. You choose not to do those things otherwise you would be doing them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 

Roli

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Interesting thought experiment...

Assume you won $1,000,000,000 (1 Billion!) in the Powerball.

What would you do in your post Powerball euphoria?

I'm talking about your daily day AFTER you reveled for a couple of years in riches...

I'm talking about AFTER you bought 10 exotic cars and drove them to death...
I'm talking about AFTER you traveled the world and saw everything to see...
I'm talking about AFTER you bought the dream houses speckled about the world...
I'm talking about AFTER you went on a video game binge...
I'm talking about AFTER you took care of your family...
I'm talking about AFTER you spent the last X years living large, spending, traveling, etc...

Now that you've experience EVERYTHING you've ever wanted...

WHAT WOULD YOU DO NOW?

I mentioned this little exercise in Unscripted and I ask it not because I'd like to entertain the mental masturbation of it all, I ask it because it gives a little INSIGHT into your meaning and purpose.

If money was no object, would would bring the most meaning to your life?

For instance, my answer to this question would be probably something relating to animals; a dog rescue or some kind of massive animal shelter.

Your answer might NOT be altruistic.

You might respond with, "I'm going to become the best Nascar driver on the planet" and that's OK.

Anyhow, I'm curious to what people value on a macroeconomic level -- after all your hedonistic/materialistic experiences have been met, what's next?

How will you spend your life?

My day to day life would entail a lot of thinking... I would sit for hours on end just thinking of all the things I think about now, but have to put to one side because thinking doesn't pay the bills.

I would carry on my passion for languages. I'd fill up all the gaps in my Spanish and German, finish learning Portuguese and Mandarin, whilst having a crack at Cantonese.

I'd go for Italian because why not? And Swedish because I love the way it sounds and people seem to find it extremely funny when I speak the few Swedish words I know, and making people laugh is fun and therapeutic.

Each week I would endeavour to have at least 2 hours of piano lessons, because I love the sound of that instrument, and the logical way it's laid out means that it's the only instrument I've ever been able to even slightly learn.

I might go back and make those films that nobody would pay me for, and maybe they'd be total rubbish, but maybe not. Whichever I'd have fun making them, filmsets are great places to hang out.

I would go to fundraisers and events with the express purpose of meeting my heroes. I want to have Neil De Grasse Tyson, and Professor Brian Cox on speed dial (mainly so I wouldn't have to bother @lowtek with my inane science questions anymore!)

I would start a schools system that focused on the principles of the fastlane and self-improvement. It would start as an elementary school, and I would build it up till it went right up to higher education. My dream would be to create an institution whose blueprint was copied the world over - Nobody would say that my university was a waste of time.

I would own a company that was an adjunct of my education system. It would focus on innovation; profits would be important of course. However I would want room for those ideas that aren't necessarily going to make lots of cash, but would benefit the world greatly.

I would own a research facility that just looked into cleaning up the planet and extending the human lifespan. A lot of my days would be spent in discussions with the amazing minds that worked for me.

I would also own a space mining company which would mine the asteroid belt and turn my billion into a trillion. With some of that money I'd build a huge space lab, which would house the biggest particle beam accelerator ever built. In order to get there easily I'd build a space elevator with the new and amazing material discovered in my lab.

I'd team up with Google's Larry Page and work out how to become a cyborg and/or digitise the human consciousness so that I could live for ever on the cloud.

I'd have the biggest, best, most fun orphanage ever built, it would be such fun that even kids with stable lives and loving parents wished that they could stay there. All the kids there would have access to my network and would be fast tracked into fulfilling their potential.

I would go to all of the roughest most drug and crime ridden places, first in my own country (England), and then my Mother's country (Nigeria), then the rest of the world, and I would hire an army of people to work out what each area needed to transform it into a thriving community.

Then I'd build a golf course, a f*ck off great golf course, and I'd invite Tiger (whom I'd have on speed dial) to come over and practice to his heart's content, whilst also helping me get down to a single, or low double handicap.

I'd call @MJ DeMarco once a month and reminisce about the days when I was a penniless dreamer, and how he helped turn my life around. The rule would be each time we spoke, I'd have to do anything he asked me to. Whether it was fly to Borneo and help clean up after a hurricane, or come over and help him grill some burgers.

Most of all, I'd be happy, and I'd become a happiness junkie and dealer all in one. Trying to spread cheer and good vibes to as many people as I could, which in turn would make me happier and more inclined to spread my happiness around.

OK, well I bet get a move on, this billion isn't going to make itself, and the chances of me winning the lottery is zero, slightly lower than somebody who actually plays it.
 

Roli

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I could, but that type of commitment is an "all-day, every day" commitment. I think I know that means with my personality, I'd sell/close the forum, stop writing, as well as some other things I got going.

I love dogs, I have one, however we need you more than the pooches so I'll set one up for you once I have that billion!

I have problems focusing on disparate things, I'm usually all or nothing on one thing.

I wish I had that, it's a good one to have. I on the other hand, have the exact opposite problem.
 
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Andy Black

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The reality is Andy there are much fewer barriers for you to do all of those things today than you realize. So I'm going to say something that might sound really harsh. You choose not to do those things otherwise you would be doing them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
It’s not harsh. I choose to do other things instead at the moment.
 

journeyman

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Work/invest in order to advance technological innovation and especially biotechnology. I want to see a few biological applications that are currently unthinkable, before I die.
 

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