Last Wednesday might as well have been National Big Dreams Day. As I'm sure you all know, the Powerball lottery jackpot rose to a record 1.5 BILLION dollars. That meant that a single winner, after federal taxes, would take home over $900 MILLION. It seemed everyone was talking about it, people were lining up to buy tickets all over the country, even though the odds of winning were something like 1 in 292 million. That's about the same odds of being hit by a meteor while having sex with Angelina Jolie. Or Channing Tatum for you ladies. Pretty unlikely.
Still, many of us were daydreaming of that insane amount of money all day long, deciding how to spend it. I never play the lottery, but I threw my change into a Coinstar and used it to buy a single ticket. I mean, SOMEONE has to win, right? Like so many others, I wondered just what I would do with that kind of money. My first thought was to pay off bills for myself and my mom. But that's a drop in the bucket of $900 million. Then I wanted to buy a nice house. The strange thing is, I realized I don't really want a McMansion. Just a nice house, back in Huntington Beach, California. OK. that leaves more than $899 million left. I'd build an INSANE bike and skate park, and work to get my fat butt in shape so I could ride and skate again. $897 MILLION left. Dang. That's a lot of money.
I'd like to travel some. But I don't really have the urge to sail around the world or anything. I'd visit some old friends in Europe and roadtrip all over the U.S. and Canada. 897 3/4 MILLION left. Holy crap!
Sure, I'd invest some. But the stock market is a really lousy place to put money right now. Real estate isn't the greatest right now. Maybe it's better in California. Even if I dumped $10 million into good rental properties, that would leave $887.75 million. Now what?
The only real answer I could come up with was to do as much good as I could with the money. As someone who was homeless for years, that would be my primary focus. Yes, there are plenty of losers out there, but NO ONE really deserves to live on the streets. It's a horrible thing.
As I went down the list of things I'd try to spend $900 million on, I realized something. If I actually DID win that huge prize, everyone would say I got lucky and got bailed out of my financial situation by the lottery. I could never say that I EARNED my way back to success after being homeless. Suddenly, I didn't want to win. Seriously. It was a big eye opener for me.
I have a confession to make. I DID win the Powerball Lottery last Wednesday. Really. I won $4. I doubled my money. What did I do with my winnings? I went to McDonald's, bought a Diet Coke and a caramel sundae, and wrote down what I really want to do with my life for the next few years. The next day I started a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the money to start doing it. I realized I don't need the lottery to follow my dreams. I can say I won the Powerball on the biggest day ever. More importantly, I can still EARN my way to success in this world. I like the way that turned out.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
A New Year A New Business
First of all, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last post. My computer literally broke back in November, and getting enough time on another computer to be able to blog has been a challenge. My laptop didn't crash, the hinge physically broke. Then came the holidays, which is a time of year I always dread. I'm really glad they're over. Way too much drama on any holiday in my house. It is kind of funny, though, that this year I got a candy cane for Christmas. Seriously. A single candy cane. It's so ridiculous, it's funny. OK, my sister and her kids came over two days later, and I got a gift card from them. But on Christmas day itself, I got a single candy cane.
So... I'm guessing this year will be better. As I've mentioned before, it's become apparent that I'm not going to be able to find a good paying job here in North Carolina. With the last 12 years of my work history being filled with taxi driving and gaps in employment, I'm pretty much out of consideration for most any job paying a living wage. That's OK, though. Years working as a taxi driver turned me into more of a business man than an employee. So, starting with literally no money, my artwork seemed to be the place to start. So I stepped it up a little, I've sold a few drawings, and I'm getting good feedback on the other drawings I've put on Facebook. All in all, that's good.
But here's my reality. I'm a middle aged man who's been living with my mom since my dad died 3 1/2 years ago. Lame. We argue a lot. Lame. I've had some crazy health issues that have kept me from making money during that time, among other things. Really lame. So now I'm doing better on the health front, I'm motivated like I haven't been in a loooong time, and I'm doing something I really enjoy. That overcomes much of the lameness in my everyday life.
But still, I'm starting a small business. That has certain demands. First, I need ideas and motivation. Got that. I also need SOME money. Yes, there are lots of ways to creatively get around many expenses, but some money is needed for basic supplies. I've got that covered for the moment. But then some more money is needed for the everyday needs of the business. If I sell a drawing to someone out of state, I need to be able to ship it. I need to get my laptop refurbished. I need gas money to get around town to do the various things that need to be done. Here's where it gets frustrating. Most people start a business by either using savings, or borrowing money from someone. There are many, many ways to do this. The basic idea is: an entrepreneur uses saved/borrowed money to get the business off the ground, to get sales happening, and then they re-invest much of the money back in the business in its infancy. I don't have that luxury. I need this little business to start paying my bills immediately. And that's difficult since I'm starting on a shoestring. Shoestring, hell, I'm starting on a thread of a shoestring.
Another issue is that, as an artist, I need to make a name for myself to be able to sell some of my work. The same thing goes for my writing. The cool thing these days is that the internet, mobile technology, and all of our connectivity today gives me hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that for very little money. The down side of that is that I have to stand out from the millions of other people in the world doing their own creative thing. Even with Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, the internet, and all the other things available, it still takes good old fashioned hard work to build a following, and ultimately, a business. The downside of that is that this type of work doesn't look like work to a lot of other people. While I may spend my time publishing a blog, and writing something other people actually read, to someone who spends their time online trolling Facebook, it looks like I'm just goofing around. You may have noticed, but the high paying factory jobs are mostly gone, and the people making good money today earn it with intelligence and creativity. Physical labor dosn't pay these days. Mental labor does.
So these are the things that are frustrating me as I head into this new year of 2016. I take heart in one of the great sayings of Mark Twain: "The person with a new idea is considered a crank... until the idea works." Happy New Year everyone, and keep plugging away at whatever it is that makes your life worthwhile.
But still
So... I'm guessing this year will be better. As I've mentioned before, it's become apparent that I'm not going to be able to find a good paying job here in North Carolina. With the last 12 years of my work history being filled with taxi driving and gaps in employment, I'm pretty much out of consideration for most any job paying a living wage. That's OK, though. Years working as a taxi driver turned me into more of a business man than an employee. So, starting with literally no money, my artwork seemed to be the place to start. So I stepped it up a little, I've sold a few drawings, and I'm getting good feedback on the other drawings I've put on Facebook. All in all, that's good.
But here's my reality. I'm a middle aged man who's been living with my mom since my dad died 3 1/2 years ago. Lame. We argue a lot. Lame. I've had some crazy health issues that have kept me from making money during that time, among other things. Really lame. So now I'm doing better on the health front, I'm motivated like I haven't been in a loooong time, and I'm doing something I really enjoy. That overcomes much of the lameness in my everyday life.
But still, I'm starting a small business. That has certain demands. First, I need ideas and motivation. Got that. I also need SOME money. Yes, there are lots of ways to creatively get around many expenses, but some money is needed for basic supplies. I've got that covered for the moment. But then some more money is needed for the everyday needs of the business. If I sell a drawing to someone out of state, I need to be able to ship it. I need to get my laptop refurbished. I need gas money to get around town to do the various things that need to be done. Here's where it gets frustrating. Most people start a business by either using savings, or borrowing money from someone. There are many, many ways to do this. The basic idea is: an entrepreneur uses saved/borrowed money to get the business off the ground, to get sales happening, and then they re-invest much of the money back in the business in its infancy. I don't have that luxury. I need this little business to start paying my bills immediately. And that's difficult since I'm starting on a shoestring. Shoestring, hell, I'm starting on a thread of a shoestring.
Another issue is that, as an artist, I need to make a name for myself to be able to sell some of my work. The same thing goes for my writing. The cool thing these days is that the internet, mobile technology, and all of our connectivity today gives me hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that for very little money. The down side of that is that I have to stand out from the millions of other people in the world doing their own creative thing. Even with Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, the internet, and all the other things available, it still takes good old fashioned hard work to build a following, and ultimately, a business. The downside of that is that this type of work doesn't look like work to a lot of other people. While I may spend my time publishing a blog, and writing something other people actually read, to someone who spends their time online trolling Facebook, it looks like I'm just goofing around. You may have noticed, but the high paying factory jobs are mostly gone, and the people making good money today earn it with intelligence and creativity. Physical labor dosn't pay these days. Mental labor does.
So these are the things that are frustrating me as I head into this new year of 2016. I take heart in one of the great sayings of Mark Twain: "The person with a new idea is considered a crank... until the idea works." Happy New Year everyone, and keep plugging away at whatever it is that makes your life worthwhile.
But still
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