a few of the things that they forgot to teach me at mit
DESCRIPTION
A few of the things that they forgot to teach me at MIT. …that I wished I had known about sooner. For example…the origin of “Buffalo Wings”. Q: How many of you have wondered: “Why don’t Buffalos fly?” A: Their wings are clipped and sold by restaurants as appetizers! - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
A few of the things that they forgot to teach me at MIT
…that I wished I had known about sooner...
For example…the origin of “Buffalo Wings”
Q: How many of you have wondered:
“Why don’t Buffalos fly?”A: Their wings are clipped and sold by
restaurants as appetizers!
Would you believe they were created at The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY???
How this talk came about...
• Stuart: “How about an Internet talk?”
• Me: “How about a talk on charity?”
• Stuart: “So how about a talk that people would want to come to?”
Agenda
• Your money– How to make it, how to keep it, how to give it
away
• Your time• Your business• Your health• Your family
– How to get the kids to do what you want
Details
• On my website
• Type– Steve Kirsch
into www.go.com
YOUR MONEY
Best “thumbs up” investment
• EV1• 42 mi range; 3 hr recharge; zero maintenance• Faster than my NSX (0 to 30mph)• 180 mph (in first gear)• Very effective donation to our environment• Anyone interested in helping change the laws
for ZEVs in HOV in CA
How to consistently get a 60% average annual return in the stock
market
Buy and hold
10 stocks max
Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Oracle, AOL, Sun, Intel, ...
What your stockbroker doesn’t want you to know: why trading
stocks may be riskier than gambling in Las Vegas
•Spreads
+
•Stocks are completely unpredictable over the short term
= YOU LOSE
Company announces great earnings (above expectations) but
its stock tanks. Why?
“Who the hell knows?”
• Market explanations are done AFTER the fact
The two most important facts about the stock market
• The market is always right
• Stocks go up when demand exceeds supply
Why mechanical trading systems don’t work
Because I’ve lost money in every proven, tested system I’ve tried
How Steve personally made over $200 million in a year
1) Infoseek went from 5 to 100 in little over a year
2) Having 6M shares didn’t hurt either
How to buy real estate for no money down
Anyone seen those Carleton Sheets infomercials (14 yrs on TV!)?
Do you think he’s doing that to help you get rich or him?
Carleton Sheets, Tom Vu, Dave Del Dotto
• Few houses that you can buy with no money down. Many areas have zero.
• Assumable loan programs are disappearing.
• Buying houses and sticking renters in them is really hard work and can be dangerous. Wait until the first time you have a trashed house without any money coming in to pay the rent.
Get rich quick…
• Outdated techniques
• No personal consultations without big $$
• Risk: declining prop values, tenants leave
• Complex
• Can’t get a loan from the bank
• Not enough detail on preparing offers
• Course is meant to appeal to uneducated with little money
Carleton Sheets
• He doesn’t tell you: The real money is in the live seminars! The tapes are just a selling tool.
• Think of 100 people in a room for two days that paid $3,000 each.
• $150,000 a day is more than you can make in real estate
Where are they today?
• President of Allen Club in Atlanta: Jail
• Charles Givens: dead
• Tom Vu: 20/20
• Dave Del Dotto: selling long distance cards
A better charity alternative to private foundations or donor-
advised funds
Supporting organization to a community foundation
$1M and up
Why it is better to donate to charity sooner than later
• No tax advantages to giving after you are dead
• No personal satisfaction to giving after you are dead
• Giving can benefit yourself or your family
deviated septumPresbyopiahair lossSnoringLactose intolerancepsoriasisreceding gumsnear sightedtorn ACLtype I diabetesmacular degenerationringing in my ears
Charitable investments that could save the world
• Asteroid identification
• Nuclear disarmament
How to donate to charities when your stock is locked up
• You can typically donate the stock, but the charity can’t sell it
• Charity can short the stock
• Allows you to give charity lots more money AND gives you a bigger writeoff
• Typically done through a community foundation
How to give intelligently
• Figure out the areas important to you
• 20 different criteria
• Fund people, rather than projects
• See my website for details ...
How to legally avoid paying capital gains taxes forever
Always sell at a loss
Donate the stock
Die
A complicated technique...
How to precisely value Internet companies
• Finally…for the first time...the secret formula revealed…
• Say someone asks:
“Is Yahoo overvalued?”• You say...
Well… If you have to ask, you just don’t get it, do you?
Some of my other really cool toys
• Panasonic digital phone system + FLASH voicemail/attendant
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile
• Harman/Kardon Take Control
• Covad DSL
• Tek 840/DP printer
• Runco rear projection TV
• Miele washer/dryer
• Vantage lighting control
• Audio Ease Monaco
• Wolf FlashBake
• BlackoutBuster
• Mouse Systems optical mouse
• Dual Pentium NT system with 4 OSes
• SGI 1600SW flat panel
• Sony DCR PC-1
YOUR TIME
A tour of the high roller villas at the Bellagio: how the “other
half” live
Fastest way to search the web
• http://express.infoseek.com
• Best way to index your site:
Ultraseek server
http://software.infoseek.com
YOUR BUSINESS
Do you have what it takes to start a company??
• Q: Why are most startup companies started by mediocre people?
• A: The really smart ones know better!
• So if you rely on Dogbert’s Management Handbook for advice, you probably qualify
How to recruit really good people
• Take your time• Network• Advertise in places where great people NOT
looking for jobs would be– Java Search Engine– Big Fast Index (Python, C)– Personal assistant– Managing director for my charitable foundation
How to tie a tie
• What’s the right length?
• How many loop around your neck inside-out?
Two courses everyone should take after they graduate from
college
• Presentation skills
• Negotiation skills
• Survey…how many have taken these?
How to get your web page to the top of the search results page
Pray
The single biggest mistake you can make when starting or
running a company and how to avoid it
Hiring the wrong CEO
How Steve made $10 million for his second startup company as a result of attending a 4 hour free
course taught at a hotelNegotiation skills
How to sell $30 worth of lemonade in only 20 minutes on the Stanford campus and how it
relates to commerce on the Internet
The most important skill for success in the real world isn’t
taught at MIT, but that’s starting to change
Interpersonal skills
How to get higher status frequent flyer privileges even when you
don’t have the miles to support it
Ask!
YOUR HEALTH
Your hair
• Propecia
Medical collaboration
• Myth: all these medical researchers help one another and build upon each other’s work
• Reality: – Highly competitive
– People out to discredit others and promote their own ideas
– Collaboration is interdisciplinary or university/commercial
How to avoid being a casualty of our medical system and receive premium, high quality medical
care
Ask!
Befriend a doctor
Research; find the best
You spend a third of your life in bed: what you need to know
about sleep
•Survey: How many people average … hours/night?•James Maas, “Power Sleep”•8 hours, most important is at the end•Chocolate•dairy products and lactose intolerance can make your night miserable
This means that…
• Most students are learning while they are impaired
• They don’t know it because it is unlikely they would have learned it anywhere
• Having Maas give his entertaining 1 hour talk on sleep on sleep at MIT is a simple act that could make a substantial impact on the effectiveness of an MIT education
How cancer and AIDS may someday save your life
Cancer cells don’t age and divide fast… immortality?
AIDS isn’t attacked by the immune system so can be useful in gene
therapy
A charitable contribution to research that may save millions
of lives, win the Nobel prize, and make millions of dollars to boot.
Targesome
Agreed to donate all profits to charity
Ironic: IRS won’t let me donate money to this...
Protecting your jewels…
NSV vs. regular vasectomy
How to save your marriage…
Somnoplasty vs. LAUP
YOUR FAMILY
My best personal investment (it was $15,000 and it’s more than
paid for itself already)
Kodak DCS-520 digital camera
Check out the sample on my web page
How to get your kids to always finish their meals and go to bed
on time
I’d love to explain this, but I’m out of time...
My personal notes
• I’m on the board of 6 non profits if you count Infoseek
• Revenue and daily pageviews are same
• how many came for “how to get your kid to do ..” this? I’ll save it for last.