Millionaire Quest: Internet Business, a First Attempt (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the story. Make sure to read part 1 before reading this.
Internet Business, a First Attempt (part1)

...we produced a nice looking little site. Ah! It was finished. Now to just start making money.

It was at this point that we realised we had a slight problem. The site was pretty much finished, but we had no jobs or resumes to post. Remember this is a job site. So the idea is that those seeking a job could come, search it and see the various openings. Also, for those looking for employees, they could come, post their jobs as well as search, and see the resumes of available folks. Now the dilemma becomes evident when either the employer or jobseeker comes to the site. The employer is meant to come and post his job, but if he comes and sees no resumes online, then what incentive does he have to post his job? Similarly, when the jobseeker comes and sees no jobs posted, what incentive does he have to post his resume?

We just never anticipated how much of a problem this would become. I thought of ways to overcome this hurdle. The most appealing solution I could think of, was to hire a pretty sales girl, who could do the leg-work required to get the database filled, and who I might also take on as a wife (if she proved useful). I was already looking forward to the interview process:

(Assuming the girl is pretty enough to get to the question stage...)
Me: So, do you have a boyfriend?
Girl: Ahh...Yes
Me: NEXT!


However, we just didn't have the money for this. (I know what you're thinking, but no, I never did figure out how to get a girl to work for free, or on the thought of future returns. And even with such incentives as getting a regular smile and a pat on the back from me are not enough to keep them long enough to get the job done; sooner than later they will feel the need to buy another pair of shoes, and then will start to miss the monetary compensation). So alas, we were unable to make progress.

The website became totally non-functional last year when the hosting company did some stuff which caused a malfunction in the way the site works. We never bothered to fix it. But, we still pay for website hosting! Maybe one day we'll put the site to some use and finally begin to see some returns. It could happen.

Millionaire Quest: Internet Business, a First Attempt (Part 1)

The main problem in getting to be a millionaire, is that first million. Just that first million. That's my obstacle right now, and has been for a little while.

As I have related in a previous entry, in my quest so far to be a millionaire, I have tried several things, which all seemed to fail to varying degrees. I've started recounting the sad tale of my involvement in the stock market. I shall say more on that issue another time. For now, I want to reflect on a different attempt to reach that first million.

Some years ago, I worked for a software company that started to aggressively reduce its workforce. The company went from about 400 people to less than 100 in about the space of a month. That is an interesting story by itself, so I won't get into that here (watch the movie Office Space for further reference). I barely escaped losing my job, but one of my friends wasn't so lucky. Now being an expatriate ( we both were), it was difficult for him to readily find another job, unless he decided to move back home. So weeks went by and no luck.

It was at this time, that I came up with a brilliant way that both of us could become rich. My friend was looking for a job, and I wanted to have options at my finger tips, just in case they decided to give me the letter and the pink slip too. The solution became obvious- start a job site! We could generate income by charging folks to post jobs, search resumes and/or to post advertisements. And of course it should make finding a job easier for us.

Now even back then, there were enough job sites around to make getting into this business difficult. However, as you would expect, my idea had something unique to it. The job site wouldn't be just another one, but it would be for a particular niche.

My friend and I discussed it, and naturally we were excited. It was a winning idea! I had numerous visions of being interviewed on TV shows, for us to relate how we achieved such success, how we turned a sour situation around in our favour. So we started the planning and working together on the Big Idea. Although we were programmers, it was our first experience in website development, so there was a learning curve for us. Nevertheless, as we could see the $$$ at the end, we persevered. We went through many toils and tribulations. Once when we were nearing the completion of the site, the hosting company goofed, and lost all our files forever. As luck would have it, the computer that I kept the backups on, was tampered with at about the same time, and the files were totally gone. We basically had to start from scratch. Nevertheless, more than a year later after we started this project, we produced a nice looking little site. Ah! It was finished. Now to just start making money.

I will continue the story in the next entry soon to come...

For The Girls: How to get the guy

I've moved this post to the learning stuff site. It is actually a million dollar post, and was being wasted here where there is little exposure.

Millionaire Quest: My Introduction To The Stock Market

Some years ago, I had a bright idea for getting rich. I stumbled upon the idea when I was working at a trading company, doing software development. During that time I had to frequently view trading screens, watching the movements of stocks. It then occurred to me, that there is plenty of money to be made here. All I have to do is buy low, and sell high. It was a sure plan.

So, as a man of action, I promptly sent in the paperwork and got my trading account set up. Excitedly, I placed my first trade. After a couple days, I sold my shares and made a profit of about $50. That might sound small to some of you, but it was a good percentage return (I forget how much now). So things were going according to plan.

Of course, the way my mind works, I started to get more ideas. I figured if I were to buy more shares, and take advantage of the intraday changes (ie. the price movements within a day -so buying low and selling high multiple times in a day), I could significantly accelerate my progress to riches.

I sat down with a colleague of mine, and we worked things out. We did some paper trading, just to test things out. I quickly transferred more money into my trading account. I was all set.

I don't remember the details of each trade that first day, but it went so different from the plan. I was now in the red. Not one to give up, I persevered and as the days went by, I got deeper into the red.

I will continue the saga of my stock market experience in future entries. One lesson I learnt from this beginning though, was that the market had a conscious mind. It knows what you're up to, and it's aim is to thwart your plans. I knew then that it had deliberately given me a decent first trade, and a few successes here and there, just to suck me in. Boy did it suck me in!

Millionaire Quest: Overview Of Things Tried

Hello Again.

Since my last entry, I received one response from one Miss mae. The person's message was simply, "Yeah right!" Such a person is called a detractor. But I take this as encouragement. For you see, all the great success stories have the detractor element to them. Take for example Cinderella. That's one of the great success stories around. Cinderella had her step-sisters and step-mom to contend with. And I say good thing for her she did, for how popular would she be now, if say her siblings and step-mom were sweet little characters? I'm afraid that wouldn't be much of a story. It just wouldn't sell as well as the real thing. So thank you Miss mae for your comment! You have helped to make my success story to come, even bigger. I can just see the big movie studios and producers fighting for the rights to make the movie about me...Ahh, sweet success!

Getting back to the millionaire focus, I want to say a bit about what I've already gone through, so that you can better understand the current position in the story. Over the years, I've tried stocks, starting internet businesses, particpating in internet schemes (which turned out to be scams), asking for a raise, and none of these things has worked out in my favour so far. Some have been very dismal. The bottomline is, it appears that if I never tried any of these things, I would be ahead. Hmm...I'd be inclined to label this person a loser, if it was not for the fact that this is about me.

Well, I am not one to be overwhelmed by past failures. My strategy will be to review some of these ventures, and try to learn from them, so that I can move forward on more solid ground. I'll share my reviews with you as I do them.

One other thing...After my first blog entry, one female lamented the fact that I said nothing about providing the girls tips on how to get the guy. Well I have considered it and I have decided that since I'm a guy, and I do know what guys want, I am well equipped to handle this too. So girls, you're in for a treat!
Stay tuned...

About This Blog

Greetings!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog.

I am atimco. That's right, the famous atimco. In this blog I will share interesting things with you. But my primary concern will be to share my journey with you to millionaire status, and maybe also how to get the girl.

How often have you read those stories all over the net, by so many people, who putatively are now millionaires, where they tell you how they struggled and then came upon some secret which they try to sell you, or just of rich people who try to tell you how they became rich? These stories are good for making your mouth water, but they are after the fact, assuming these guys are really rich. Anything can be written after the fact.

Well I'll be doing something different. I am no millionaire. Not even close. However, I fully intend to be one sooner than later. In this blog, I will give updates of my progress, explaining what I'm doing (if details can be divulged), where I fail, where I succeed...that sort of thing. Since I'm learning as I go along, I welcome your suggestions, and thoughts.

Some of you might be interested to know that several years ago, I discovered the secret of how to get any girl (if you're a guy). Though I'm still single, rest assured, the secret works! At some point I will probably share this powerful knowledge with you, or some of you.

Well that's all for now. In entries soon to come, I will say a bit of where I am on the road to millions, things I've tried, some of my failures, and some of my plans.