NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Archives for 2005

I Would Like to Thank the Blog…

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I started this site to track my financial life. So far it has done that and then some.

BECAUSE OF THIS SITE, I HAVE:

  • …been able to keep myself fully occupied with business ventures
  • …met a powerful current business partner
  • …have had at least 7 in-person meetings with strangers who found my site
  • …become the #1 and #2 search result for “Starbucks Liquor“
  • …become the #1 search result for “Financial Blog” (Shameless plug)
  • …have been mentioned in: Yahoo Finance, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Business Week
  • …had several business articles published in a newspaper
  • Much, Much More

Thank you Blog. Sorry I can’t tell you everything right now, all my current ventures are confidential for the time being.

Sincerely,

-Nev

Herb Kelleher

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My attempt to crash the I C 2 Corporate Governance Conference was very successful.

I was tipped off about the conference by “Bob” on Wednesday night.

Thursday morning I whipped out my suit and headed over to the Barton Creek Resort and found the conference. Every single person in the room was either a CEO or member of a corporate board….and often times many boards at once. EVERYONE. In fact, “Regular” people weren’t even invited.

I purposely showed up 5 minutes late so I could rush in past the registration people. It worked. Everyone had huge nametags around their necks except me…..but it didn’t really cause any problems. I was spotted talking to some prominent figures, so no one questioned me after that.

I met tons of people there….and not ordinary people. When I asked “What do you do”…the typical response would begin with :
“I own…(insert big company here)“
or
“I founded…(insert big company here)”
or
“I am the director of…(insert big company here)”

There were LOTS of very prominent figures present, but the most well known was Herb Kelleher, the famous founder of Southwest Airlines. I got to meet, talk and sit next to Herb Kelleher.

Not a very clear picture, but that’s Herb speaking.

Here is me (with the goofiest smile ever) with Herb Kelleher:

After he was done speaking, he sat down at a mostly empty table. I left my table and went to sit closer to Herb. I snapped this quick video to prove how close I was to him!

The rest of the speakers were great, but Herb was the BEST.

“Bob” and “Vinny” were both present at the conference. They are also both board members/CEO’s of very successful companies. I can’t give too much information about them, but both of them have companies undergoing extremely rapid growth. They are both very photogeneic:

The conference went from 10:00am till about 7:30pm. It was good food, good drinks, lots of mingling, learning and fun.

When I left, I couldn’t tell which car was mine. The Camry or the Mercedes SL500???

Well it’s Friday now. ‘Tis time to party!
-Nev

Corporate Governance Conference

by

My attempt to crash the I C 2 Corporate Governance Conference was very successful.

I was tipped off about the conference by “Bob” on Wednesday night.

Thursday morning I whipped out my suit and headed over to the Barton Creek Resort and found the conference. Every single person in the room was either a CEO or member of a corporate board….and often times many boards at once. EVERYONE. In fact, “Regular” people weren’t even invited.

I purposely showed up 5 minutes late so I could rush in past the registration people. It worked. Everyone had huge nametags around their necks except me…..but it didn’t really cause any problems. I was spotted talking to some prominent figures, so no one questioned me after that.

I met tons of people there….and not ordinary people. When I asked “What do you do”…the typical response would begin with :
“I own…(insert big company here)“
or
“I founded…(insert big company here)”
or
“I am the director of…(insert big company here)”

There were LOTS of very prominent figures present, but the most well known was Herb Kelleher, the famous founder of Southwest Airlines. I got to meet, talk and sit next to Herb Kelleher.

Not a very clear picture, but that’s Herb speaking.

Here is me (with the goofiest smile ever) with Herb Kelleher:

After he was done speaking, he sat down at a mostly empty table. I left my table and went to sit closer to Herb. I snapped this quick video to prove how close I was to him!

The rest of the speakers were great, but Herb was the BEST.

“Bob” and “Vinny” were both present at the conference. They are also both board members/CEO’s of very successful companies. I can’t give too much information about them, but both of them have companies undergoing extremely rapid growth. They are both very photogeneic:

The conference went from 10:00am till about 7:30pm. It was good food, good drinks, lots of mingling, learning and fun.

When I left, I couldn’t tell which car was mine. The Camry or the Mercedes SL500???

Well it’s Friday now. ‘Tis time to party!
-Nev

Quick Update

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My stock portfolio has gone into the 5-digit range in the last few days. Here is my portfolio as of Wednesday, 6-8-2005. The main factor in this is Dynegy (DYN). It keeps going up about 3% per day. I went from a 25% loss to a 9% gain in a few days.

Also, Thursday morning I will be crashing an exclusive entrepreneurial convention. “Bob” tipped me off that some pretty important people will be attending and speaking. I’ve got my suit ready, a black portfolio, business cards and a fake name tag….lets see if I can pull this off!

Dubai – Always Thinking Big

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There is something about the city of Dubai and its “Big Thinking” that attracts me to it. Every new structure they build outdoes the last.

The newest additions to the Dubai coastline are two man-made islands in the shape of giant Palm leaves. They also have made 300 new islands in the shape of the world. A friend who lives in Dubai told me about this project and thought it was a bit crazy, so did I.

Now several years later the islands are nearing completion:

I’m sure when The World was proposed, many people doubted its feasibility. We’ll see who has the last laugh when the hyper-rich people of the world start paying for some of the most unique real estate on the planet.

The Palm’s are equally impressive. I never would have imagined such a thing:

-See time-lapse photography of The Palm construction here.
-More info on the Palms and The World: https://www.gizmag.com/go/3310/


One of the things I want to do in my lifetime is stay with family and friends at the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. To me, it represents MUCH more than a simple hotel stay.

Every time I see a picture of the Burj Al Arab, it motivates me.

Click to enlarge each Burj Al Arab picture from Dubai which can be used as desktop wallpaper:

The BurjAlArab at Night:

Just glancing at the interior pictures can make me shudder:

One day you will find me vacationing at the Burj Al Arab. Look for me, I’ll be at the spa getting a massage.
-Nev

This Weekend In Numbers

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$22 – Tubing down river for 6 hours.

$13 – Food For Tubing.

$17.50 – CiCi’s Pizza.

$12 – Brunch at Moonshine’s with business associate.

$10 – Misc. Expenses.

22 – Miles I drove exploring East Austin. Just keeping my eyes opened to what’s around me.

2 – Amount of new business projects I worked on.

2 – Number of times cops have been called for excessive noise violations coming from my apartment this semester.

Bazillion – Number of motorcycles I saw at a bike rally this weekend in Austin.

14 – Number of new people met this weekend.

More Business Ideas

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If I have an idea, I write it down on my:

Here are three business ideas I formulated from reading Gizmag.com, one of my favorite websites.

Office in a bucket:
Buy a couple of these portable offices/booths and store them at your place. They are around the size of a large trash can, and inflate into a semi-private room. Place some ads and you can rent them out. Unlike traditional inflatable buildings, these Office In a Bucket structures can be setup and taken down by the renter.
https://www.gizmag.com/go/3073/

Super Fast Pizza:
This idea seems like a great money maker, especially if you get in early. Fast, hot pizza. The difference is the pizza is actually made during delivery in the van. This means the pizza comes out of the oven and is delivered to your door within the next minute. Delivery times are under 15 minutes and the pizza is less expensive. As an avid pizza connoisseur, this sounds profitable and delicious.
https://www.gizmag.com/go/3919/

Oil Cleaning:
After an oil change, oil is generally discarded. Now there is a portable machine that can separate good oil from its impurities. With tons of oil being wasted everyday, this seems like a golden opportunity for anyone who can pull it off. Take the dirty oil from oil change stations, run it through the machine, re-sell. You could even get people to bring you their old oil for free if you dispose or reuse it in an environmentally safe manner.
https://www.gizmag.com/go/2793/

That’s all for me.
-Nev

Weekend Update

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I had some visitors stay over in Austin this weekend and I was really expecting to completely exhaust my spending account. Fortunately, I could not find a single boat to rent this weekend, and certain people refused to let me pay for meals/drinks etc.. I wasn’t complaining.

I came out alive with $54 in the Spending Account.

I felt smug having such a fun weekend and spending half of what I expected, see for yourself:

Still had tons of fun and went to all sorts of fancy places in Austin. However, if I didn’t previously save for this weekend, I would have exceeded my spending account limit.

The Power of Craig

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Money is all over the place, you just have to hunt it down.

One great place to find some easy money is CraigsList. Think of it as a localized, “free Ebay” in the style of a blog.

People post all sorts of things. On Craigslist you can

  • Find a temporary gig
  • Find a job
  • Find cars/motorcycles
  • Find an apartment
  • Share poetry/thoughts/rants
  • Find events in your area
  • Browse resumes
  • ALL FOR FREE

The reason Craigslist isn’t driving a knife through Ebay is because it’s localized and leaves all the logistics up to the poster. Ebay takes care of everything through the auction and then leaves you to deal with only ONE winner in the end. With CraigsList you must deal with every interested party via email.

This resource is NOT to be underestimated. If you live in a decently large area, you are bound to have a Craigslist. I regularly look over the Austin Craigslist and find TONS of easy-money gigs. If you sit at home all day….THERE IS NO EXCUSE not to look over CraigsList a few times a day!

Not only can you look for people who need help, you can also advertise yourself. If you are good at building cabinets, post yourself as “Great cabinet Builder for cheap” or something along those lines. It’s FREE exposure, why not?? I see posts all the time such as “9th grader wants money, will do odd jobs.”

I personally like looking in the SALE section under the FREE category. Also the GIGS section.

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Oh yea, two months after taking a motorcycle safety course, I FINALLY took the exam and got my motorcycle license.

I will now have a license with a new picture and a new “M” on it

Removed Adsense

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I completely removed Google ads from my site. I never liked them in the first place, so I never put them on my main site, but I did stick them in the forums.

Even there, they still bugged me. It’s time they go.

-Nev