i should be studying. but, i'm going to blog about our most recent guest speaker.

all the students are wearing business casual, the prof is wearing a suit - all customary. a man walks into our classroom, wearing paint-stained jeans with huge holes in them, a black t-shirt that is a little dirty, and a very long beard. yes, your typical biker outfit. he starts out talking that he has never been to college, even though he finished top 10 in his high school. he thought he was destined for harvard/yale, but unfortuately got rejected. he applied to many other schools, but ended up not going, because he couldn't afford it.

so instead, he started working at TimeLife as the IT guy, right out of high school. nobody knew anything about computers thirty years ago - not even him, but he lied his way through the interview and his career pretending to know stuff about computers. he would illegally sneak into the video room during his breaks and watch how-to videos on computers, and eventually made a decent living. by the time he was 19, he moved to HP and became a senior position in the computer sector, where he still didn't know anything but lied his way through again. he was making today's equivalent of about $80,000 as a 19 year old. he became a VP, got into some personal riffraffs with the execs, and decided to leave and just start his own company... even though he had just bought a house, got married, and a had a son. he wouldn't sleep because he was so scared of losing his shirt, and always regretted jeopardizing his family's future for a stupid business idea. some years later, the company grew and was bought by Computer Associates for 4 billion dollars, and the guy happened to have a huge stake in the company. instant millionaire. so with the passion he developed in starting companies, he decided to start his own VC fund.

one time, he was serving on the board of a company because he was friends with the CEO. the son was also a senior position and had a brilliant mind, but never made it through college, was a drug addict and an alcoholic. the dad passed away, and the company was about to go to the son. the mom said, 'no way that boy is running a company!' and sold his company from right under him. so he had no money, and was basically living on the street. the son comes to our speaker, and tells him about a brilliant idea. it's about a wire you dig into the ground, attach a shocking collar to your dog, and create an invisible fence. he just needed $400,000 to start it up. our speaker thought it was the dumbest idea he ever heard, but because he felt sorry for the kid, he gave him the money. the son invented the product, and presented it to investors. he showed a home made video of his dog with the collar, and the dog was so scared of the backyard, the son had to literally throw him out the backdoor and drag him to the invisible line. needless to say, the dog was shocked and the viewers were appalled. they decided not to fund the idea... and so the invisible fence idea was gone (but as we all know, someone else decided to do it and made millions). the son was back on the street.

soon after, he called our speaker again for more money and another brilliant idea. a kitty litter box, that self-cleans. our speaker told him that the idea was dumber than his previous one, but what the hell, here's some cash to start it up. overnight, the son became a millionaire. you have probably seen him on tv in the infomercials. he has been sober for 17 years now, and making a great living. our speaker? he gets $1.5 - 2 MILLION PER QUARTER on royalties. and that was just one business he helped launch.

he has also launched House of Blues, Margaritaville, a TON of real estate, and many many other companies. this guy... is rich. so the speaker, who liked to drop the F-bomb quite a bit and dressed up in the manner described before... has never owned a bike or has never drank any alcohol or done any drugs. he drives a Mini.