Image via WikipediaI have had my double cheese burger super sized. It was like a six month disappearance - they had Wael Ghonim disappear for 12 days in Egypt, they had me disappear for six months in America, cost me two major victory parties, I guess it is a bigger deal to put a black man into a White (WHITE) House than it is to kick an Arab out - plus the Great Recession - all my investors walked away - plus the Great Immigration Humiliation. But I have not so much as flinched. It is like I went to the best school in Nepal, a boarding school. They called it a piece of Britain in Nepal. The buildings' architecture, the whole thing about cutting grass. A new British teacher would walk out of school every morning to go have breakfast at a local eatery. I asked him, why? He said he liked the idea of reminding himself every day that he was in Nepal, not Britain.
I got out of that school and moved into a modest place at the other end of Kathmandu valley. My emotional demeanor did not change one bit. My friends acted surprised. I guess I was a Buddhist - that whole detachment thing - a long time before I actually declared I was, which happened about a year after religious harassment from Christian fundamentalists in Kentucky.
Image via WikipediaThrough the triple whammy of a disappearance, a recession and an immigration humiliation, I have cut costs to the minimum and spent a ton of time online. It has been some serious diet of mind food. I have not flinched. I have been happy.
The only part that worries me is, if you talk in terms of taking a company IPO, are you not supposed to talk in terms of private jets and things like that?
On the other hand I hear Mark Zuckerberg also lives a spartan live. When some guy tried to buy his company for a billion, Zuck got him to see his apartment.
"You saw my apartment? I don't need money," Zuck said.
I have never felt the stupid Manhattan, non Manhattan thing. Fuck. Microfinance is a Global South business. If I am not in love with the outer boroughs, I am in the wrong line of work.
As I work to raise money, I do think big money. I am starting out at a 10 million valuation for my company. Come one, come all.
"Where do you live? What do you do?"
Image via CrunchBasePeople sometimes ask that question to x-ray you socio-economically. It is like the founder of Netscape was filling out some form for some bank somewhere in Europe. And the form had this space where you had to indicate your income bracket. The guy took the form to the clerk and complained, there is no slot for someone like me, he said.
You don't look down upon the outer boroughs when talking to a Third World Guy.
Talking about the socioeconomic thing, this story of my personal hero Larry Ellison fascinates me: Larry Ellison's Personal Life. His first wife laughed uncontrollably when he said he was going to make a million dollars. His second wife picked the family pickup over Oracle shares. His third wife left him for a Harvard MBA. This story is fascinating to me. The people who truly create wealth in a big way are blind to the stupid little income brackets thing that most people seem to function in.
Most of my wealth I intend to give away. But not before it has grown, really grown. I also want to set up a prize, kind of like the Nobel Prize, but with a decided Global South orientation. Categories would be democracy/governance, education, health, credit, internet access. That's five wonderful categories.
I have a very healthy attitude towards money.
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