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The Million Dollar Question

sebastianmarshall.com

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Re: The Million Dollar Question

#21

Post by pchristensen »

typicalrunt wrote: post #14
espadagroup wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From his about page: "I’m consulting on increasing LVOC numbers (lifetime value of a customer – usually selling additional valuable things to customers you’ve already got, but also conversion rates, price points, referrals, etc), doing some light real estate development, and some professional writing."

Understood. But you misunderstand me. I read that section of his About page, but it's not succinct enough. If I were to walk into a crowded room and say, "For my business to succeed, I need an %X", what would be the value of X for it to apply to Sebastian's role? I can't just say "consultant".

There's not a word for it, but I'm pretty every business ever anywhere would benefit from someone who "increases LVOC numbers". And the best business won't be stopped by the lack of a buzzword.

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#22

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

alttag wrote: post #7
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #6

This is a fantastic post, very thought-provoking. But also very sad to me. I disagree with the underlying premise that success and happiness are somehow negatively correlated. There's this idea in the post that if you want to be uber-successful, you can't have a "normal" life. I know very successful people who are miserable, stressed-out workaholics. And I know very successful people who could have been one of the pe…

All of this assumes a different definition of success than I have. It presumes wealth == success. My definition: Being happy. That comes with a loving family with strong relationships, intellectual challenges and growth, and work that I enjoy (and that pays the bills plus some), but where the job is a means not an end.

Thank you. This always bothers me in discussions about success. It seems that everyone equates it to being rich.

For many of us, it simply means having the bills paid and being able to do work we love, on our terms.

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#23

Post by mds »

pchristensen wrote: post #21
typicalrunt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understood. But you misunderstand me. I read that section of his About page, but it's not succinct enough. If I were to walk into a crowded room and say, "For my business to succeed, I need an %X", what would be the value of X for it to apply to Sebastian's role? I can't just say "consultant".

There's not a word for it, but I'm pretty every business ever anywhere would benefit from someone who "increases LVOC numbers". And the best business won't be stopped by the lack of a buzzword.

I took that as part of his point -- there isn't a convenient buzzword or easy label to describe what he does, which leads to fear and "people won't understand".

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#25

Post by mst »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #11
mixmax wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might be misunderstanding the post - or at least interpreting it differently than me. I dont' think it's so much about success as it's about being different. Once you step over the cliff into the unknown there aren't that many people that will follow you. You become a loner, a misfit and a stranger to many people. Your desires, goals and interests drift away from normality, and thus you will eventually fi…

That's one of the ideas presented, and one that I agree with. That's part of why I think it's important to have people around you who are supportive in general, but also people who have similar goals and dreams. No matter how abnormal you are, there are probably many out there who can relate. But that's only part of the post, and Sebastian seems to indicate that "being different" means not living the idyllic suburban…

"He just wants money, and it's not even clear why."

I'm not sure that's quie right; my takeaway was that he wants to create something awesome, and that the fact that it would likely be highly profitable is somewhere between a pleasant side effect and a way of keeping score.

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#26

Post by Hisoka »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #6

This is a fantastic post, very thought-provoking. But also very sad to me. I disagree with the underlying premise that success and happiness are somehow negatively correlated. There's this idea in the post that if you want to be uber-successful, you can't have a "normal" life. I know very successful people who are miserable, stressed-out workaholics. And I know very successful people who could have been one of the pe…

Hmm.. I didn't really get that message. I think you're absolutely right. You don't have to sacrifice relationships, happiness, and certainly not health to be successful.

But when you're entrepreneurial, you often can't be content with living the "normal" life. You really want to be like one of those people in the suburbs: they're blissful (partially because they don't know the possibilities/opportunities you see).

But deep down, you know you have to follow your dreams. You often wish you could go back, but you know you can't. In a sense, you wish you had the mindset and experiences of "normal" people, so you didn't had this itch to achieve more.

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#27

Post by [deleted] »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #6

This is a fantastic post, very thought-provoking. But also very sad to me. I disagree with the underlying premise that success and happiness are somehow negatively correlated. There's this idea in the post that if you want to be uber-successful, you can't have a "normal" life. I know very successful people who are miserable, stressed-out workaholics. And I know very successful people who could have been one of the pe…

[deleted]

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#28

Post by stmartin »

"HAPPINESS CANNOT BE PURSUED; IT MUST ENSUE, AND IT ONLY DOES SO AS THE _UNINTENDED_ SIDE EFFECT OF ONE'S PERSONAL DEDICATION TO A CAUSE GREATER THAN ONESELF OR AS THE BY-PRODUCT OF ONE'S SURRENDER TO A PERSON OTHER THAN ONESELF."

V. Frankl

Re: The Million Dollar Question

#29

Post by DanielBMarkham »

I really liked this post. Sebastian continues to develop his conversational style. Very nice.

Asshole consultant inside of me kept nodding early on: "You just don't get it, Sebastian! Charge more!"

You see, there's a very sad truth consultants learn early on: it doesn't matter how much you know that can help somebody. All that matters is how much influence you can have.

The reason some consultants charge ten times what others do for the same information? It's not that they are ten times as smart; it's that they don't want to waste their life giving great advice to people who aren't going to value it. If you walk in the door at 10K per day, bet your bottom dollar people are going to listen to you. And that means you can help. Walk in the same door for free, just to help out a friend? Your advice, by definition, is worthless. You'd be lucky getting them to accept just a tiny piece of advice.

But then I got to the key of the piece: when you do finally "get it", it changes your relationship with "normal" folks.

I think Sebastian's being a bit over-dramatic here, but I firmly agree. There is something very crazy about making money from thin air. Especially how it's done today, with some keystrokes and a bunch of virtual magic. At least in the old days if you met a millionaire he could take you down to his factory or something. Maybe told you about all the hard work he's done.

Nowadays the same type of guy made much more money that than that and there's not even an office. For most people, it just doesn't compute. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that to most people, there's something just wrong about making money the way it's made today on the net. Something shady. If you're lucky you get the "odd weirdo" label. If you're unlucky you attract attention from people you would rather not.

Because of that, I think I'm giving up on the $40Mil dream. I'm happy just to make enough to free up my time to work on things I love doing. I'll let the other guys be the really extreme weirdos. :)

Short side story: I sold a piece of land a year or so ago. It wasn't much, but it was in the tens of thousands of dollars. The guy who bought it paid cash. He was a contractor. Over the past decade he had been saving here and there, scrimping up enough in cash to make his dream come true. He kept it all in hundred-dollar bills in a large ziplock bag. It wouldn't have been my choice but it worked for him.

As he paid me, he told me he had gotten stopped for a bad taillight by the police a few months back. Once they saw his money that he had been saving, he had a hell of a time convincing them he wasn't a drug dealer. While I understand that carrying large amounts of cash is suspicious, to hear him tell it the police went far beyond suspicious and started thinking there was definitely something wrong going on. You see, to those small-town cops, you just don't carry that amount of money around. Somebody who looked like that should not have the amount of money like this. Just having the money was an indication of something really bad, even if it could all be explained.

He almost lost all of it.

You can only stand out so much -- the forces of society will gently (or not so gently) pull you back into line. You either have to conform or move to some place where the definition of "normal" is different.

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