How to make tons of money and retire early and/or buy a big boat.

Pub Penalty

yep. You could (imho) not charge him extra for the same pint of beer as everyone else, just on a whim

However, IF he was a Pain In The Arse as judged by say you plus two othr regulars, AND there was clearly displayed notice of the charge THEN you could charge him an Annoyance Penalty. The terms of the AP could be that this had to be paid before buying any more drinks.

You might think that this comes to the same thing, but it isn't quite: The charge has to be fair in that it has to apply to everyone. Like any criminal charge, it can't be applied just cos well, he has a villainous look. Henry II i think brought in this sort of thing.
 
No that's not the lesson at all, slowboat

The kids might parlty have learned how to do a bit of moneygrubbing and hawking.

But all great innovators and producers had to have the same sort of get up and Do It attitude, and no small element of sales skills to get people (even banks etc) to buy in to what they wanted to do.

By contrast, as many have pointed out, school and general education is often a lesson in the opposite: Don't cause a fuss, don't be out of the ordinary, don't ask awkward questions, keep your head down, copy the crowd- and all with the vague tacit promise that somehow happiness and/or vast riches will follow and almost exactly in line with the score you get in your times tables, or the grade you get in A-levels or degree. This is most certainly not valid. Of course, you may as well get the best scores you can in schoolwork, but that is but a small part of the whole deal. Being a Lovely Person is at least as important, for example. And (inthe widest sense) some sales skills, as here.

Note also that cynical carping from the sidelines has not much pushed forward the sum of human achievement much...
 
Re: Pub Penalty

I'm afraid the mention of pub threw you there. I was really meaning a customer of yours, or mine, who you, or I, happened to be in a pub with.
If he was particularly annoying would it be OK to up the prices you, or I, were charging that customer in our business relationship.
Based on his ability to pay, for being annoying.

In my earlier life as a photographer I would add £5 to a bill if I had, through intransigence on a client's part, to miss my cup of coffee in the morning.
 
Re: Lesson for richard?

um, maybe.

It is DEFINITELY not ethical to charge more to one person than others in the same circumstances. But if the circumstances are diferent (egthe lastt few for sale) then it's ok.

The reinvesting thing can make money confusing, as though it is something that it isn't, as though it is something to be built or grown like a nice plant.

Whereas in fact all it does is buy things. That's it. This might (or quite easily might not) be the route to happiness.
 
Re: Pub Penalty

ah, that's different. If you are contracting into a single supplier, then you can charge what you like cos each time the circumstances are different. It might be miles away or near, the client helps you loads, or leaves you to it, thousands of variables. So not like creating an open market, such as selling vids in the street or pints in a pub.

Once, we took a client for whom we built special systems, to a posh restaurant. It was mega, and he said we should come again, next time it was his round. Some months later we did exactly that, but he dithered over getting his wallet out. So we paid. My business partner at the time - responsible for estimating special one-off projects etc - told me that dipping out of buying lunch as promised cost the client exactly £24,000. Heyho.

The lesson here is that the Customer is King .... and as King you can be a Git If you are rich as heck and pay the appropriate rate. OR you can be a quite skint king, but nice. Customer is always king though.

Note that throughout history and fairy stories there are no kings who are skint AND a git.
 
Was recently asked what matters to business leaders:

Answer was

Talent (the right people)
Innovation (always need new things to sell to people)
Performance (do it right, provide quality service but don't waste money)
Perception (what customers think of you is everything)

IMO not much else matters, all a subset of those four cardinals, and as you can see innovation very high on the list. If you cannot create an offering to sell you're going broke very quickly.

Man who asked question is writing some white paper, and is going to translate Perception into Reputation, which is probably more understandable if not quite as accurate.

FWIW
 
Re: Lesson for richard?

[ QUOTE ]
um, maybe.

It is DEFINITELY not ethical to charge more to one person than others in the same circumstances. But if the circumstances are diferent (egthe lastt few for sale) then it's ok.

The reinvesting thing can make money confusing, as though it is something that it isn't, as though it is something to be built or grown like a nice plant.

Whereas in fact all it does is buy things. That's it. This might (or quite easily might not) be the route to happiness.

[/ QUOTE ]

The thread is titled retire early and/or buy a big boat, (or similar)... not, "how to make a couple of quid to buy a few extra beers"

I guess I took it literally /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Can never tell whether you have tongue in cheek or not /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

On the ethics - agreed, but on ebay it is the customer who decides whether he pays more, ditto any normal auction - entirely ethical.

On reinvesting - to me it's spending money now, or more spending money later, or for longer, (hopefully)... which is exactly what has happened, and is still happening for me.

I agree that money is for buying stuff, and it is the stuff that we are striving for, (or not), rather than the money.

In 1999 I had a minor stress issue and asked the doctor for some counselling - she arranged it, (I didnt go), but said that I was a reasonably smart bloke, and spending an hour or so deciding what I wanted from life might help.

It took 10 minutes to decide that I wanted to sit on my fat backside collecting money - everything I have done since then has been with that general/global goal in mind.

It's not the money I was striving for, it was the ability to sit on my fat backside and get off it at my choosing, rather than someone elses'.

I could now cash in and live the very high life for a few years, but would then have little, or no, money.

I "struggle on", managing cash flow, on the basis that I would rather never do another "proper" days work for the next 20 or 30 years, (the root of the thread title), than have 5 years of high living, then work for a normal wage for the next 12 years, only to retire on a state pension.

When I say "struggle on", it's obviously not a real struggle to do what I am doing, but I definitely have to watch the pennies, particularly when SWMBO has been out for a couple of weeks /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I also dont really want to sit on my fat backside, (although I am an expert in it). I'm currently looking at chartering the boat, and freelance sailing and diving instruction.... all of which will require some investment, and some getting off my fat backside:)

I guess what I am suggesting is that the advice of those of us who are living the life of the thread title, (in a small or a big way), has some value, and I'm sure you wouldnt disagree.

If your kids start with £50, and work on doubling it each year, they would have over £3 million after 16 years.

If they are around 15 years old, this would be serious money at just over 30.

Most people dont learn these lessons until much later in life, (and some dont want to - which is fair enough), so a good lesson to learn at 15, and there is much fun and many challenges along the way.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry!

I wanted to balance it up a bit, not leave it that sales is It and everything else is for losers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sales definitely isnt everything - I've always been a salesman, (since leaving the merchant Navy at 24), and dont really consider myself good at "selling", (i.e. Always Be Closing, Look for Buying Signals, and so on), but I was/am good at either encouraging people to want to buy from me rather than the guy down the road, or at providing a product which sells itself, (i.e. something that people want..... and not necessarily innovative).

I wish I had learned a building trade as this would enable me to turn a few quid at any time, anywhere in the world.... or dump some of the crap builders I've employed over the years, and do it myself as necessary.

If I were starting again, I would get a good education, (degree of some kind - preferably of a practical nature), learn a trade or two, and get on the property ladder as soon as I sensibly could. I would trade up as money and market allowed, and finance a rental portfolio as money and market allowed.

Other would do different, but the above seems as good a strategy as any.
 
I would have never come ashore and married the first time.

My ex-oppo who I worked and travelled with from 1978 to 1983 never settled anywhere or with anyone for more than a year or two and is still wandering the world broke but happy.

As tcm says, to make money you have to want to make money. SWMBO does, my brother does, a lot of people I know do but not for what it can buy, it's more a points system of professional worth for them. Still, you have to be insecure to be competetive, I suppose.
 
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I would have never come ashore and married the first time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Forgot that! A critical part of the strategy!!

Luckily, whenever I got close to wanting to get married, I always got dumped.... which was depressing at the time but, with hindsight..........

RESULT!!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Still, you have to be insecure to be competetive,

[/ QUOTE ]

This happens when 2nd & 3rd chakra are blocked, I am told /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Re: Lesson for richard?

totally agree. The circumstances are utterly different for kids 15, 18 than they are when over 30ish. I spose i think it a shame that the schools don't (or aren't allowed) to teach stuff other than nat. curic.

I still find it amazing that nobody teaches kids roadcraft, life skill. And public speaking, a bit. And cooking is OUT for boys at least. Whereas singing hymns is done every week or every day.
 
Lots of interesting stuff here.

But be careful. Just read the story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis that I picked up from a book swap: hugely successful and wretchedly unhappy. The old Midas parable. If everything you touch turns to gold, nothing is worth anything any more.

The case against education is well known. There are many kinds of smarts. We learn by thinking but also by doing, we learn by studying but also from gut feel (intuition is what you have when you’ve forgotten what you know). But formal education focuses on learning by studying and thinking – only a quarter of what it’s all about.

Formal education is not about creating employers but creating employees, not leaders but followers. Which is how it must be. The world can’t handle too many leaders. So let’s brainwash our kids to always be jumping through that next exam hoop, and they will uncomplainingly succumb to the mind-deadening 9-5, commute, protestant work ethic, and so on.

Sorry tcm, but if you sent your kids to decent schools and they haven’t had the brains and self-esteem to drop out they’re probably screwed already.

www.gerryantics.blogspot.com
 
[ QUOTE ]
The old Midas parable. If everything you touch turns to gold, nothing is worth anything any more.

Formal education is not about creating employers but creating employees, not leaders but followers. Which is how it must be.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is worth watching on precisely this topic.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-4964296663335083307&q=ken+robinson+creativity

Agree about the Midas thing ..... I think you have to stop when you have enough such that you can do what you want with the money, rather than earn it for its' own sake.
 
All is not lost

Agreed.

However, remarks from teachers regarding the kids include "the most smugly self-satisfied pupil I have ever met" which we said er isn't called "confidence"?

So i am reasonably convinced they will be ok. You have to follow some rules, you don't have to follow most conventions, and no lemmings. It was the kids idea to barge up to the "foreign passports" desk at gatwick and sweet talk them into letting thru that way cos it was very urgent we get home. I think there was a foopball match on the telly...
 
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