Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

In earlier posts, I wrote about how LegalShield wants to create 1,000 millionaires by 2020, and how I expect to be one of them.

The company's goal of creating 1,000 millionaire fascinates me, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I know what a millionaire is.

Many people think that a millionaire is someone who has $1,000,000. That's a total misconception, for at least two reasons.

1) A millionaire is someone who has a net worth of $1,000,000. That means that if you add up the value of what they own, then subtract the value of what they owe, the result is at least $1,000,000.

If you have $1,000,000 cash, and owe $2,000,000, you are not a millionaire; you are a person with a serious debt problem.

2) You can be a millionaire without having any cash at all. If the only thing you own is a building worth $1,200,000 and the only thing you owe is a $200,000 mortgage on that building, you are, for that moment, a cashless millionaire.

That leads to a corollary:

2a) Not only do you not have to have $1,000,000 to be a millionaire; you don't have to have $1,000,000 to become one.

For instance, with that building worth $1,200,000, the fact that it is worth that much does not mean you would need $1,200,000 in cash to buy it. You might be able to buy it for $1,000,000. You might be able to buy it for $800,000. Life is unpredictable, and you never know what someone might be willing to sell something for. Heck, if you could buy that building for $150,000, and you got a mortgage for $115.000, you would only need $35,000 in cash to become a millionaire.

Here's another extreme example: You buy $100,000 worth of shares in the XYZ Corporation, and the company then takes off so dramatically that your shares become worth $1,000,000. Assuming you are net positive otherwise, you are now a millionaire.

Then there's the matter of creating assets. Writing a book, for instance, may take a lot of time, but it requires almost no money. If that book becomes a bestseller, it could make you a millionaire. And if you're J.K. Rowling, it could become a series of books that make you a billionaire.

So, while one can become a millionaire by direct earnings, the process can be accelerated by acquiring or creating assets that increase one's net worth.

Back to LegalShield: the second reason that LegalShield's goal to create 1,000 millionaires fascinates me is that, as far as I know, LegalShield gives associates one thing in compensation for our work: cash. Not real estate, not equities. Just cash. So when CEO Jeff Bell talks about creating 1,000 millionaires, he's talking about paying 1,000 individuals $1,000,000 in cash. Each.

I consider that remarkable.

I expect Legalshield to pay me $1,000,000 over time. But on the way towards that mark, I intend to use my growing excess cash both to acquire assets at a discount (there's always a deal somewhere for cash), and to create and market new assets, so that I become a millionaire before I've earned $1,000,000.

That will be fun. But this would be even more fun: helping someone else, or several someone elses, to get there.

I need to get serious about recruiting. For the fun of it.

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 20: refining reporting

So, this work may go better if I have some sort of system for reporting.

First, some clarification - I have created legal entities for at least a dozen businesses through the years, of which I am now focusing my attention on two - Homewood Capital Partners LLC and Luminaria Productions LLC.

Homewood Capital Partners is a for-profit LLC, created to invest in Homewood real estate.

Luminaria Productions LLC, of course, is the media production company behind "Homewood Nation" - and, it occurs to me, would make a perfectly sensible owner for this blog. Duh!

Three other entities relate to Luminaria in some way. I have a long-dormant sole proprietorship, Greenhouse Publications, which I have mentally, but not formally, moved from being an extension of me to being a subsidiary of Luminaria - its arm for print products. I see the first print product being a book derived from four and a half years of the "My Homewood" blog; the working title is "Black Man in a Suit."

There is a real estate partnership, 529 N. Homewood LP, created to purchase and hold the eponymous property. I mention it here because I may place it under Luminaria. As of now, it stands separate.

Finally, there's Capital Synergies, Inc., predating all of the above except Greenhouse Publications. The purpose of Capital Synergies is to own and manage entities that own assets. The original idea was to have it be general partner of real estate limited partnerships, and it is the GP of 529 N. Homewood Ave. It also owns and is Managing Partner of Luminaria Productions. So it will show up in posts about building a billion-dollar enterprise, as a background player; but not much, I think. Most of what I write about BBDE will be about Luminaria.

So, what did I do today (Wed, 6/5) for Luminaria?

1. I promoted Rob Jones' piece on Homewood Nation about coaching Homewood.
2. I scheduled a room at the library for TechShop's presentation on June 18, then wrote, posted and promoted a piece on Homewood Nation about it.
3. I conducted an interview with RaShall Brackney that I think could provide material for at least a couple of stories in Homewood Nation.
4. I promoted last night's BBDE post on both LinkedIn and G+.
5. I created a spreadsheet to decide which venues to use to promote which types of content that I create online. This is a small thing that could have a big impact because I have caught myself wasting time deciding which venues to use to promote which content. I have also wasted time trying to remember which venues I had used and which ones I still needed to use. It is curious how I sometimes simply lose track of what I'm doing, mid-task. As a type of checklist, the spreadsheet should help. Never underestimate the power of a good form.
6. I emailed Eric Brown, president of Hybrid Learning Systems and ImpactGames, about PeaceBuilder
7. I emailed Kilolo Luckett, primarily about Homewood Capital Partners, but also about meeting.

That seems like it. On the one hand, that doesn't look like a full day's work; on the other, I feel as though I kept busy. Except when I was nodding off. Gotta exterminate the night owl.

Tomorrow morning, Pomodoro. Task #1 - update entities and projects list. Going forward, that list will provide the basis for both planning and reporting Luminaria activity.

I've just come up with tweaks on the LinkedIn./G+ experiment:

• share these posts twice: upon completion, then about 12 hours later, or between 12 - 1 pm,
• early in each post, link back to the preceding one.
• always link to new Homewood Nation content (don't just say, " I wrote/posted so-and-so.")