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Are people poor because they are lazy?

Wes Mantooth said:
Yes, but based on my viewing experience, they'd laugh you out of the room more often than not because they don't want to live, eat, and breath the product. They're already billionaires and don't need to bust their *** working for it. They need the person coming on the show to do that so that their money (that invested by said billionaires) works for them. So while they will lend their expertise, they also don't want to kill themselves just to make a few more million. That said, there have been episodes where a killer patent/product with no sales to date gets the Sharks drooling. But those products are few and far between. And like I said, they're often HSN type ones.
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As I've watched the show I've tried to imagine what they would say to me and my request. The thing about what I want to sell is that it is not something that you sell on HSN or even the Golf Channel for $20. It is something that has the potential to make tens of thousands of dollars on each sale. Also, a big focus of the business would be Asia (especially Japan since my wife is from there and I know how crazy they are about golf). So all that said, I wonder what they would say to my idea.
Also, I know how important IP is in these things. I have a cousin who owns a company that develops new medical devices. He flat out told me that when he sales his patented product lines to companies, they don't care about how big his building is, how many employees he has, or even what his bottom line was for the last year. They only care about the IP. After that conversation was when I decided to really go after the patent. Sorry for hijacking this thread. But I really appreciate/enjoy reading people's responses and ideas.
 
Obviously without knowing the product at all .. it's very difficult to give any advice. I disagree with Wes .. at least in the real world of finance and funding (can't really speak to the tv show). So take this next little piece of advice with a grain of salt ..

"Sell to the classes, eat with the masses .. sell to the masses, eat with the classes."

Sage advice, but one I've personally never subscribed to personally. My theory has always been to create something people can't live without and demand a price that matches that perceived value.
 
PKM said:
Obviously without knowing the product at all .. it's very difficult to give any advice. I disagree with Wes .. at least in the real world of finance and funding (can't really speak to the tv show). So take this next little piece of advice with a grain of salt ..

"Sell to the classes, eat with the masses .. sell to the masses, eat with the classes."

Sage advice, but one I've personally never subscribed to personally. My theory has always been to create something people can't live without and demand a price that matches that perceived value.
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Hey PKM, I sent you a PM.
 
PKM said:
I was given nothing, ever. Nor did I have any artificial network of help. I learned very early that I was a very, very good salesman. Rather than use that to sell things, I turned it into selling business deals. At 22 years old, I talked a guy into putting up the land (in St. Augustine Beach, FL) for a RE dev't I wanted to do. I talked an engineer into taking a small % of the upside to do the project engineering work. I talked a contractor into taking a small piece to put in some roads, etc, etc. I then sold out my first real estate development.

For the next 15 years, I bought and sold real estate developments .. typically risking everything, everytime. I had the confidence that I could sell my way out of any problem I got myself into.

There's an old story known as 'Nail Soup.' That story epitomizes how I got my start.

(No offense taken, btw)
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So a salesman now all your posts make sense you have no soul

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
 
Surely said:
As I've watched the show I've tried to imagine what they would say to me and my request. The thing about what I want to sell is that it is not something that you sell on HSN or even the Golf Channel for $20. It is something that has the potential to make tens of thousands of dollars on each sale. Also, a big focus of the business would be Asia (especially Japan since my wife is from there and I know how crazy they are about golf). So all that said, I wonder what they would say to my idea.
Also, I know how important IP is in these things. I have a cousin who owns a company that develops new medical devices. He flat out told me that when he sales his patented product lines to companies, they don't care about how big his building is, how many employees he has, or even what his bottom line was for the last year. They only care about the IP. After that conversation was when I decided to really go after the patent. Sorry for hijacking this thread. But I really appreciate/enjoy reading people's responses and ideas.
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Whole billion dollar companies even trade on that. You'll have some tech company that is just bleeding money and they'll still have a 10 billion dollar valuation just because they have a portfolio of patents that may or may not be worth something to some bigger fish some/or not sometime in the future. I personally think that whole way of valuing is a crock of **** because the patents are more likely to be worthless in a few years and they clearly don't make money without being attached to something greater when companies that are already in possession of them are bleeding money , but hey, it's not my money. Although of course, that's quite a bit different than your individual situation. Your patent should be worth money just on the basis that it's your patent, it's a fresh patent, it has use, and is not just one of many rotting away on some mega corporation's books.
 
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Thought I'd post this blog by John Scalzi about being poor that he did about six or seven years ago now (in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina). It's a good piece, and was recently reprinted in a book by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West titled The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Being Poor

September 3, 2005 By John Scalzi

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
 
Meh at that article. I get it, being poor sucks. It really sucks, with that said, people have the opportunity to work themselves out of it. You may not become a millionaire, but you could get up to middle class pretty easy. If these peoria had any money management skills at all we wouldn't have this problem. And going to night school to get an AA degree is the problem, it's a worthless degree!

I just have a hard time feelin bad for these people. My grandpa came here 60 years ago with literally nothing. Hell, for most of my dad's childhood they had a sagebrush as their Christmas tree. I don't expect everybody to have the success my grandpa had, but stop bitching about the ****ty job you have and work harder.
 
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As I said I have been poor. I want from very not poor (5 landscaped acres, pool and hot tub, 4 wheelers, two story 5 bedroom house with all the finishings...) to living stuffed to many to a bedroom with not enough of anything to go around.

We worked hard, saved hard and finally climbed our way out. We are not rich by any means but we have enough. Is it easy? Hell no, but it is possible.
 
In my teenage years, we were so poor at times, we had to fish twice per day to eat (no kidding). My dad drowned surfing almost 2 years ago .. now, looking back, that summer fishing with him everyday were as good of memories as anything since. To a VERY large degree, poor is a state of mind.
 
PKM said:
In my teenage years, we were so poor at times, we had to fish twice per day to eat (no kidding). My dad drowned surfing almost 2 years ago .. now, looking back, that summer fishing with him everyday were as good of memories as anything since. To a VERY large degree, poor is a state of mind.
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Couldn't agree more with the state of mind thing.
 
PKM said:
In my teenage years, we were so poor at times, we had to fish twice per day to eat (no kidding). My dad drowned surfing almost 2 years ago .. now, looking back, that summer fishing with him everyday were as good of memories as anything since. To a VERY large degree, poor is a state of mind.
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Which is why I am pushing independence, the ability to think for themselves and hard work on my daughters. I push them right now with choices. I give them choices then talk to them about what choice they want and why. I also make them think about the options they didn't choose and why.

I do not care what they want to be (within reason) as long as they think about it and push themselves.
 
Good stuff stroked79.

I also push my kids to not take themselves too seriously, be self-depricating, have a sense of humor, and MOST of all have fun in this life. Everyone has responsibilities, but not everyone makes life an adventure.
 
PKM said:
In my teenage years, we were so poor at times, we had to fish twice per day to eat (no kidding). My dad drowned surfing almost 2 years ago .. now, looking back, that summer fishing with him everyday were as good of memories as anything since. To a VERY large degree, poor is a state of mind.
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Earl Nightingale tells a story in his series of tapes (yes they are old) called Lead the Field of a guy who had a very successful restaurant. Someone interviewed him one day and asked when he became successful. The restaurant owner replied that he was always successful, even before his restaurant took off and that success was just a state of mind. That is spot on with what you said PKM and I couldn't agree more.
 
PKM said:
Good stuff stroked79.

I also push my kids to not take themselves too seriously, be self-depricating, have a sense of humor, and MOST of all have fun in this life. Everyone has responsibilities, but not everyone makes life an adventure.
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This is something I tailor to my older daughter as she is the more reserved, less emotional/passionate one. The younger one IS what you posted. Always laughing, smiling and full of life. Amazing how different they can be.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
As somebody in love with surfing, I must know. Did you ever find out what happened specifically?
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Yes. My dad was a freaking mad crazy guy that always pushed the ultimate limits. I suspected that every year would be my last with him because he just wanted to see how crazy he could be.

Anyway, he decided to move to San Felipe, MX for a couple years. Took his H1, a couple Rhinos, and a few other toys and was just going to bum out for a while. He called me one day saying he found this killer spot to try to surf. It was a couple hundred acre shrimp farm whereby the exaggerated tides would fill the 200 acre reservoire and they would damn it with about an 8' wide concrete and metal door (whatever that would be called). Once the shrimp were cultivated out of the reservoire, they would life the door and allow 200 acres of water to flow out of the 8' space. He was all excited to try to surf it. The guy with him said as the door opened he jumped on his board and lasted only about 20 feet before the strength of the flow took him under and he didn't resurface until he was about 400' out into the ocean. I spoke to a world-class surfer that knows the area very well said that no one could make it out of there ..
 
Stoked said:
This is something I tailor to my older daughter as she is the more reserved, less emotional/passionate one. The younger one IS what you posted. Always laughing, smiling and full of life. Amazing how different they can be.
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It's cute how much you talk about your daughters. Honestly, as a kid, you need that one parent that is there to support, discipline, and love you every step of the way.

Personally, I grew up with both parents, but my dad is always passive. He put food on the table, but didn't honestly do much else. My mother pretty much did most of the parenting for the three of us. I always felt the lack of a decent father-son relationship, which is why I aim to have a very involved father-son relationship when the time comes.


Economically, my dad pretty much moved to Canada with only a few hundred dollars to his name, but quickly propelled our family into the middle class (he went to engineering school in Kosovo, but the Yugoslav government removed him from his job, which is why my parents moved away at the time; the Canadian job-market never really recognized his degree though). He joined a company, and worked from a $11.00 hour wage to now a ~36, and he has the highest position in te company without being related to the owner. Very reminiscent to an American-Dream type story, and my old man achieved it through his ridiculous work-ethic. Still, we were fortunate to arrive during the boom of the Albertan job-market of the mid-90s.

Now, my older brother is fast-tracking his way into law-school, and i just finished my first year of sciences. My dad was the first person in his entire family to have gotten a college degree, and we're continuing onto that path; however, this is very uncommon with most 1st generation immigrant families that I've met in Edmonton (with strong exception to the Oriental nations).

It's very hard for recently-landed immigrants to not only start from scratch, but to try and cope with the culture shock of a new nation, as well as trying to raise a kid using two different moral standards. We turned out decently, but in comparison to the many other Albanian families in our city, we are the exceptions. Out of the ~50 Albanian kids my age that I know, only 5 made it into college. Many have gone down the path of drug-trafficking, and other stuff prevalent among inner-city communities.


Im posting this on my iPhone while on the train, so sorry for the lack of coherence :) just got onto a tangent
 
dalamon said:
It's cute how much you talk about your daughters. Honestly, as a kid, you need that one parent that is there to support, discipline, and love you every step of the way.

Personally, I grew up with both parents, but my dad is always passive. He put food on the table, but didn't honestly do much else. My mother pretty much did most of the parenting for the three of us. I always felt the lack of a decent father-son relationship, which is why I aim to have a very involved father-son relationship when the time comes.


Economically, my dad pretty much moved to Canada with only a few hundred dollars to his name, but quickly propelled our family into the middle class (he went to engineering school in Kosovo, but the Yugoslav government removed him from his job, which is why my parents moved away at the time; the Canadian job-market never really recognized his degree though). He joined a company, and worked from a $11.00 hour wage to now a ~36, and he has the highest position in te company without being related to the owner. Very reminiscent to an American-Dream type story, and my old man achieved it through his ridiculous work-ethic. Still, we were fortunate to arrive during the boom of the Albertan job-market of the mid-90s.

Now, my older brother is fast-tracking his way into law-school, and i just finished my first year of sciences. My dad was the first person in his entire family to have gotten a college degree, and we're continuing onto that path; however, this is very uncommon with most 1st generation immigrant families that I've met in Edmonton (with strong exception to the Oriental nations).

It's very hard for recently-landed immigrants to not only start from scratch, but to try and cope with the culture shock of a new nation, as well as trying to raise a kid using two different moral standards. We turned out decently, but in comparison to the many other Albanian families in our city, we are the exceptions. Out of the ~50 Albanian kids my age that I know, only 5 made it into college. Many have gone down the path of drug-trafficking, and other stuff prevalent among inner-city communities.


Im posting this on my iPhone while on the train, so sorry for the lack of coherence :) just got onto a tangent
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Once I had them all of the other stuff that was "important" just faded away.
 
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