Brainstorm--Letter to my friend

I'm writing this to share with you my ideas. I thought I should give you little more background before I bombard you with my ideas. Also read my other post 'Think BIG' which I wrote this afternoon. Again, don't be surprised by all these thoughts..they are not mine..I have been reading books and all of them are the wisdom I'm trying to attain from the existing market pundits.

Background: I don't want to work for someone for a paycheck anymore. I was infact so ignorant all these days that I wasted 10 years of my life starting from 1997. Ofcourse now that I'm motivated to get to the next level I'm able to process the information that comes my way faster and better. Two years ago I did not understand how the stock market works..actually it is not even 18 months since I started understaning stock market. And then on..my journey of knowledge acquisition and tough times in the economy and my company challenged me to think outside the box and here I'm trying to figure out when should I stop working and start living my life at my own terms.

I would really like to a master of money not a slave.

So, the more I think about it..it is all about the knowledge and power in the marketplace. There are plenty of opportunities all around us. Just that we should take a step forward. We are bound by this labor tradition of working for someone who pays us x$ to kill our creativity. We should put our subconcious brain to work for us.

Anyways..here are my various thoughts..they may seem little random and vague right now..but they give you the direction I'm thinking about if you agree with me.

First of all, we don't have to start anything big..we just have to start it and it becomes big if it has value for the customer.

There are so many businesse concepts coming up in India right now. For e.g. Waste Management. The other day I was reading about this guys who went back from US to India to start a waste management company, and I'm sure you understand the potential of such business and resources right infront of us.

Or

• a Subway
• a movie outlet(we have a movie rental kiosks here right across the street in the departmental stores, it is all automated and electronically paid..visit their website http://www.dvdplay.com/) imagine how many people would be willing to rent movies and enjoy DVD quality.
• an online marketing promotions company (http://www.goimarketing.com/) which promotes awareness in local businesses about the power of online advertising. Read this blog http://www.sethgodin.com/ and check out his ideas on permission marketing. We can easily hire 10 young fresh college graduates to start any sort of technology venture.
• Biofuel plants

Anyways..my point here is there is no dearth of ideas if we look around. We will get the money funding in various ways.

I'm a member of this website http://www.prosper.com/ which is peer to peer lending network. You can borrow 25000 $s with in days. I now lend money to people who are starting their businesses everyday. And I get returns like 12%-15% on my money which is even better than S&P 500 and index funds.

So, we can pair up and do lot of things. We can small start and then grow. We do all the homework while we are fully employed and when we have enough growth we quit our jobs.

Some more reasons:

Earned income is the highest taxed income all over the world. Do you know Warren Buffet pays less taxes than his secretary. He publicly stated that. You know why...all his money is in trust funds and it does not get taxed. Everybody knows that it is his wealth but no body can touch it. And he donated all of that to charity.

Passive income which is generated from your assets is the least interested.

You must be wondering..if we invest our money wisely then we should be fine. Nope, because you can't take leverage of others money(ie. Govt money) if you are working for someone else. And you keep paying higher taxes on your earned income(even if it is capital gains.Period)

So, the way we do that..is

acquire assets that pay you money and redirect those funds to acquire more assets and build your cash flow and assets at the same time.

Make use of Govt provided loans to the fullest and get all the tax credits they give for an entrepreneur. Get subsidized land, power, water everything you name it. Now you know..why rich get richer.

We end up getting caught in this labor tradition (this the term my new course uses to refer to 99% population..only 1% of the pouplation in the world owns 99% of the wealth. There are only 9 million Millionaries in this world whose net worth is more than 1 mil$ just in investable liguid assets and cash) with out realizing it's exploitation.

Ofcourse none of this comes to us easily. We have to fundamentally change our thinking process and the way our mind and boyd reacts to things and observes the world around us.

We need to fill an unmet need in the marketplace.
Provide true value.
Be ethical and trust worthy.
Smart and Agile and know how to take advantage of this information overload and process it and put it to best use.

We have to develop a network of people and professionals who can help us achieve our goals.

Ok..ra...I guess I'm writing too much..so let me change gears here.

So, Are you with me on this new found direction? Take your time..let me know what you think.

Here are the few things we can get started right away. These below items will be easier for you to find out than they are for me.

1. What kind of a company registration will give us all the tax benefits and if possible land and stuff from the government.
2. How long does it take now for us to register a company and the buerocracy involved?
3. Try to develop a network of tax,legal and other professionals who can work with us.
4. Consult a tax guy and find out how to start a company between both of us with my PAN Card details. And what sort of risks do we run into?
5. How do we protect ourselves legally when we set up a business?
6. What banks give us the loan with a solid business plan and at what interest rate?
7. How much net worth do we need to produce to obtain a loan?

I would like to stop here for now.

Transform and think BIG

If you look at history and read the succesful minds and bodies they work differently. They don't think like normal people. Even scientists and philosophers do fall under that crazy category. They look crazy to anybody who is not like them..but when you delve deep into their mindset they are bizzarely different.

Rich people think..how to make the money work for them. Not the other way which is becoming a slave for the money. Intially I had trouble understading this concept but when I analyzed it further..it made lot of sense..think about this..you have only so much time in your life..for e.g. I have only 14600 days left in my lifetime assuming I work till 70 yrs old. And if you take out weekends and holiday I have less than 10000 days left on my clock. When you start quantifying this it is mindblowing.

Then you got to ask this question to yourself..how come some people achieve so much in those same time period while we work for the rest of the life and then die. The problem is..when I die..I don't want to be like a vaccum. I have to generate some critical mass which carries forward....

So, how do we do that? Well, history has always proven that proof of knowledge and power is Money. How much money do you have? Again, it is not currency..it is your VALUE in versus others in the marketplace. How much you have to offer to others and make them transact with you in various ways, which ultimately leads to accumulation of power for yourself.

We have to fill in a need in the marketplace which is not served yet..that creates wealth and opportunities for others.

You don't have to have money to make money. If you have a solid business plan there are millions of investors waiting to pour money into your wallets. The key concept is how much Do we know..so that we can generate an idea..it need not be like Google / Infosys. Even if you provide employement to 10 heads and you don't work for your life as a slave for the money that is good enough.

Currency does not hold any value..it is almost zero when it comes to value. After 1971 when USA $ is taken out of gold standard..Fed can freely print money whenver they want. The whole economic system is being manipulated by handful rich guys sitting on the top. Do you know that FEDERAL reserve is not a Government entity in US. Ofcourse..in India it is still Gov held organization.

Another truth in life is you can never do it alone. You have to have networks of help. And they don't form in a single day..fly by night relationships. You are talking about building trust and increasing personal value by mutual cooperation.