Saturday, May 28, 2005

What would you do

If you suddenly received $2000 (or its equivalent) what would you do?
What if the $2000 had to be spent on a business, what would you do?

10 comments:

DonCasiragi said...

Realistically, I would put 1000 in a small cap mutual fund..i favor Blackstone small cap mutual..hey, and play with 700 on sharebuilder..would possibly buy an European ADR eg. PT (Portugul Tel) and EDP as well as one undervalued american major..I really like Time Warner (TWX) and FBC (Flagster Bank) at this point..make money!

t said...

Really there are three things I'll think of spending that on:
1. a gift to someone who's been very great to me (1000)
2. a new laptop (not that i need it, but it would be nice, at least 1000. By the way, does anyone have tips on buying laptops?)
3. learning arabic (but i could probably get a job or something in the Middle East and travel and learn almost for free)
None of these is really about business.
Business-wise, i'd be curious to know what it takes to have world-class, high-bandwidth internet in some small subset of Nigeria, e.g. a cluster of Universities, or part of Lagos Island (like V/I or another business area)...and get the people (brains, labour, investors/donors, wherever i'll have to source them from) together to make it happen. i'm not actually doing this, but i don't see why someone else couldn't.

Anonymous said...

Well, if I were spending it on anything else, I have to be honest and say it would prolly be a load of total rubbish and nonsense (you know when you get done spending and you're like 'hmm...what did I spend that on actually?')...but if it were on a business...it would be on an agricultural initiative in one of the rural areas in Nigeria. I might start up a small (eventually self-supporting)local animal and plant fair for local farmers, perhaps. Or something slightly less...ambitious...like a transport-type thing to help local farmers transport their produce to markets with less sweat and tears. Eventually the transport system would be funded by other private and public participants as well...although, then again, I think that's also ambitious. Still, those are dreams I would like to make come true.

t said...

ambitious is good, Anonymous (Ogo?)

Anonymous said...

Yep..

t said...

I did (1) months ago when the perfect opportunity came along.
I haven't done (2) yet.
I have paid for (3) at a cost of about two thousand total, and i hope to depart on the second day of 2006 for five weeks in the Middle East.

t said...

update:
i have done (2) finally.
(3) got more expensive. so fulfilling. so worth it.

now i'm starting to save money. next i'll work on making (a lot of) money.

Info Tek said...

For myself, I'd buy a few months supply of medicinal mushrooms which are, perhaps, the most powerful anti-oxidants on the planet. I won't bother to get into the "magic" stuff here. :-)
This blend looks phenominal: http://www.AdvancedBioNutritionals.com/immunity/
Also, I'd book an appointment with my Naturopath for the following: a colon detox, accupuncture, and a full body massage. After all, what's "living" well if your health sucks, right? I'd use the rest to buy a really kool home gym to put on the roof top patio here at my pad in Nairobi...like SoloFlex or something comparable. If any money's left over, I'd buy a kool video camera so that I can do some video blogging and create some thought-provoking documentaries on social/political/economic issues that plague society.

If it's for business use, I'd do either of the following pronto!
1) Buy some kick-ass WiFi/WiMax gear from Redline Communications, Motorola, Airaya, Proxim, Tropos Networks or
X-Lin, buy a big fat Internet pipe into my place, and beam the signal into other apartments/homes/small businesses in my neighbourhood for far LESS than they'd pay for dial-up access.
or
2) Try to import some samples of this coca-based product to see if it's viable here and in North America. See Colombian farmers launch Coke rivals for more info. And have an OPEN mind.

t said...

Saving is pretty high on my priority list right now.

After saving, well, I would spend the $2000 visiting Paris, Aden, or the Adamawa region - immersion style.

As for business:
If in Nigeria, I'd tinker with getting my electricity or internet and scale up to supply my neighbours.
If not, making web applications relevant to more people...

t said...

I LOVE your video-blogging idea, Max, and I'm totally copying your WiFi idea (or better still, hope other people copy it before I do ;) )
Really cool.

My personal update:
I saved, I spent, currently -ve, oh well. There'll be a lot more.

Previously on UpNaira

 

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