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Ask Slashdot: What Would You Do If You Were Suddenly Wealthy?
An anonymous reader writes: There are a few articles floating around today about comments from Markus Persson, aka "Notch," the creator of Minecraft. He sold his game studio to Microsoft last year for $2.5 billion, but he seems to be having a hard time adjusting to his newfound fame and wealth. He wrote, "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance. ... Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead. I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of a$#@%&*s that made me sell minecraft again." While he later suggests he was just having a bad day, he does seem to be dealing with some isolation issues. Granted, it can be hard to feel sorry for a billionaire, but I've wondered at times how I'd handle sudden wealth like that, and I long ago decided it would make the human relationships I'm accustomed to rather difficult. So, how would you deal with Notch's problem? It seems like one the tech industry should at least be aware of, given the focus on startup culture.
How about volunteering time and money and spend some time helping people in need instead of whining, blaming, and name calling?
Becoming wealthy (whatever "wealthy" is considered these days) comes with its own challenges.
People with no money have very specific challenges: find food and water and shelter for your family. Everything else is secondary.
People that have a job and shelter but not enough money have different challenges: Buying a car, paying for school, You have enough for basic necessities but not enough for aspiration items.
People with lots of money have unique challenges: Who do you trust? Taxes become problematic. Gold diggers. How do you raise kids without spoiling them?
It seems to me that the sweet spot is around 100K per year. You're not rich but you have enough. In many cities that is enough to buy a nice home and a new car every 4-5 years. It's a nice place to be.
Peter Gibbons: What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I'll tell you what I'd do, man: two chicks at the same time, man.
Peter Gibbons: That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all chicks.
Lawrence: Well, the type of chicks that'd double up on a dude like me do.
Peter Gibbons: Good point.
Lawrence: Well, what about you now? What would you do?
Peter Gibbons: Besides two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Well, yeah.
Peter Gibbons: Nothing.
Lawrence: Nothing, huh?
Peter Gibbons: I would relax... I would sit on my ass all day... I would do nothing.
Lawrence: Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin: he's broke, don't do shit.
Realize that your life is yours to live. You choose your lifestyle, not the other way around.
I've been my own boss for a while and I've grown a successful company. I'm a millionaire many dozens of times over. I drive an old Volvo wagon I bought used for $2500. I live in a 1500 square foot house. I buy clothes at Kohls. Only a very small handful of people know what I'm worth, and they are sworn to secrecy.
I chose to life the lifestyle of a regular Joe. Here's a step-by-step guide to coming into a lot of money quickly:
1) SHUT THE FUCK UP. Keep it secret to the best of your ability. If you can't, come up with a plan for that. But, do the best you can.
2) Decide NOW what kind of lifestyle you want to live. Think 5 years down the road about the company you will want to keep. Birds of a feather flock together. White people hang out with white people. Rich people hang out with rich people. It sucks, but you have to decide now.
3) Put the principal away, and pay yourself what it takes to live the lifestyle you decided to live in Step 2.
4) Finally, and most important, change NOTHING right away (except, paying off debt is perfectly okay). Stay at your job. Don't run away. Don't take a vacation. Don't throw a party for all of your close friends unless you want to find out how many of them actually aren't your close friends. Just maintain the status quo and make decisions SLOWLY.
That is the best advice I can give, from one rich guy to another.
I would buy /. and make sure questions like these would be relegated to reddit & digg.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
Until one dies of an overdose, one disappears into some kind of cult, half of the rest spend it all and blame you when you won't give them more because now they're entitled. It sounds like a good plan, but it can go bad pretty easily, too.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Actually, this would be a perfect idea. There used to be a guy in Maryland known as the "Route 29 Batman" who would dress up in a (really nice) Batman costume, and would go to hospitals to visit sick children and entertain them.
And sadly, he was killed in a car accident just a few weeks ago, so there's certainly an opening for it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Anyone who thinks money can't buy happiness has never bought a week's groceries for a poor person.
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