Writer's Block: Jackpot

[packbat]

If you won the lottery, what would you do with your newfound riches? Submitted By kimbereli09 View other answers

Assuming it was the proverbial million-dollar jackpot, I would, in order of increasing frivolity:

1. Pay off my parents' mortgage.

2. Buy a nice, new, reliable, environmentally-friendly car (but probably not a Mini - it's a splendid vehicle in all four respects, but the back seat is cramped and my parents already have one); let them drive it, but learn to drive.

3. Get all our bicycles repaired to fighting trim; get a new bike helmet that's designed for freakishly oversized heads like mine.

4. Have a nice family dinner at a good restaurant.

Whatever remains, I would invest.

Comments

[toya121.livejournal.com]

Would you buy me a copy of Shardik?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I can do that! Do you have an Amazon account? You can add the book (http://www.amazon.com/Shardik-Richard-Adams/dp/1585671827/) to your wishlist there, and I'll order it for you.

[toya121.livejournal.com]

You can buy it for me the day you win the lottery...
Of course, i'll have a few more books on my amazon wish list by then:)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wouldn't be buying what was on people's wish lists - I'd just be buying copies of Shardik. For everyone. (;

[toya121.livejournal.com]

I can handle that!
Plus I'm not sure a million dollars would cover my wish list anyway.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

"Wait, you want the Gutenberg what?" ^_^

[roaminrob.livejournal.com]

I would change the world.

No, seriously.

With a million dollars, I could hire a small staff and transform overnight the business that I already have. Within a year, Geek Squad would either be falling behind or struggling to match the policies and rates and services my company offered over a hundred mile radius, and my first web-based services would be released. The million would become 2, and then 3, and then 4.

During the second year I would launch, on one flank, a series of minor social services and community programs. These would be money sinks on paper, but in fact be run well enough that it would act as a marketing program for the rest of the company. Meanwhile, the web-based services would fund the development of consumer products. Paper growth would slow during this period and maybe even reverse a little, but everything would stay in the black.

Year 3 would see the social and community programs going nationwide, and the consumer products would begin revolutionizing one industry after another. Data storage? Imagine never having to back any data up, ever, and being able to use the internet as your personal, secure hard drive. Data management, file management, document control, revision systems -- all completely transformed. 3 million would become ... I don't know. 10? 20? 100?

Within 10 years, I would change people's expectations of products, and change the way they think about communities. I would lower the costs of overhead, of production, of management. I would launch educational programs and proceed to build a brain trust rivaled only by Google or NASA, and then I would start to look at the stars.

But, I didn't get to start with a million. I started with 0, and the end of my first year is coming up. I've managed to turn 0 into a few thousand, and my first employee is (hopefully) starting next month. So... maybe in a couple of years. :-)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Cool beans! I'll be watching out for your name in the headlines, then. :)