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April 19, 2006
Big plans
Tim's first question this morning when he got up was whether I could buy him a color photocopier. My answer was that color photocopiers are not cheap. I did not elaborate to say that several hundred or a thousand euros (color laser printer) seemed like a lot to print reams of Star Wars and shark JPEGs that would be ripped up and thrown away shortly after being printed.
Tim's next question was what career should he choose to make lots of money. He'd consulted with his buddies and found that baker probably doesn't pay very well, and is hard work, so he'd changed his mind about that. He's sticking with the idea of being a biologist. I suggested that if he wants to make lots of money, he should see whether he might like sales and running a business.
He shook his head at the idea of sales. He didn't mind the idea of running a business, as long as he doesn't have to do any of the work. He did get the idea that he'd need money to start a business. I explained the idea of venture capitalists, and how they require that you come with a good idea and a well thoughtout plan of how you'll manage to bring them return on their investment.
Tim found it hard to get his head around that, but he had the right idea. If you cannot do something yourself, delegate. So he says it's up to me to come up with the idea and the business plan.
He's not very good at employee motivation yet, however. Right after he left me with the problem of figuring out how to raise funds and figure out what his business would do, he told me about working conditions at his biology laboratory (where the product they'll make is nature films of sharks). Apparently the biologists will all buy their own equipment, and they'll work shoulder to shoulder "24 hours a day, 7 days a week" basically for no pay. Tim didn't think he'd have enough money left over to pay workers. He also asked where he could get a manager to take care of the day-to-day activities while he travelled through the Amazon jungle in search of interesting animals to examine.
Posted by Mark at April 19, 2006 08:42 AM
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