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Harve$t Moon Billionaires Club - Members OnlyPrev TopicNext Topic
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Quote:
"Wall Street doesn't exist to help the average American profit. It exists to profit from the average American.
According to Warren Buffett, "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."
"See It! Believe It! Receive It!"
I am who I am, Not because of who I am, But because the Great I AM, Made me who I am.
Power Numbers Numbers Of Opulence Universal Dreams Empress-N Hot Triads All States P4 - Triads
Lotto Losers Lounge Harve$t Moon Billionaires Club - Members Only TRIADS All States P4 Lottery Bible__________________________________________________________________
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“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineQuote: Originally posted by Harve$t Moon on Feb 27, 2012
Facebook Creates a New Millionaire’s Club…And a Few Billionaires Too
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg
The millionaire's club has to make room for a few more hundred people...at least.Facebook filed to go public on Wednesday and many current and former employees are expecting huge paydays. The public offering could value the social media titan between $75 billion to $100 billion and for those employees who received stock options, their personal worth could equal several hundred million dollars.Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, is slated to become one of the richest people in the world with a personal fortune of at least $28 billion. His salary will be cut to $1 from $1.48 million last year, effective Jan. 1, 2013.Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who made $30.8 million last year, will enter the billionaire's club for the first time and early Facebook investors like Peter Thiel and venture capital firm Accel Partners are both expected to net profits in the billions.Even Facebook's biggest foes - Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss - will become richer, thanks to the 1.2 million shares they own, part of the settlement deal they agreed to after suing Zuckerberg for stealing their idea. (Have you seen The Social Network?) Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on expanding Facebook, which he started with a few friends in his sophomore college dormitory eight years ago. Facebook has 845 million users worldwide.The New York Times profiled graffiti artist David Choe as one example of how Facebook's public offering will change the lives of thousands of people. Choe was hired to paint murals on the walls of Facebook's Palo Alto office in 2005; instead of taking cash as payment, he accepted several hundred stock options. Those shares could be now worth north of $200 million.Zuckerberg's father Edward, a dentist in New York, will also greatly benefit from the IPO. He was given two million shares "in satisfaction of funds provided for our initial working capital," according to Facebook's S1 filing.One person left out of the Facebook filing is estranged Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin. Zuckerberg's former best friend and roommate, and the one who provided the company's early financing, Salverin has sold a majority of his stake (worth five percent) of the company on the secondary market.Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson joined The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task to discuss the Facebook IPO and how the newly-minted Facebook millionaires will be spending their money. Google's IPO in 2004 made many people rich, but Facebook's public offering takes it to another level."It's a monument to capitalism," Carlson says. "A thousand millionaires overnight."Thanks ~ Morgan Korn
Pick 3
Method 1: 1-7-0
Method 2: 9-4-9
Method 3: 9-7-7
Method 4: 4-3-4
Method 5: 6-6-2
Method 6: 8-2-3Play 4
Method 1: 2-7-3-5
Method 2: 0-0-6-4
Method 3: 9-9-9-7
Method 4: 1-1-6-8
Method 5: 0-3-3-6
Method 6: 1-1-2-1$$$$$$$$$$
Mark Zuckerberg's Lackluster Love for Profits
By now you've heard, Facebook filed paperwork to sell shares of the company to the public on Wednesday. The I.P.O. is expected to top Google's record $1.67 billion 2004 tech offering with a value between $5 billion and $10 billion, making the company worth a hefty $75-to -$100 billion.
The S1 form, which gets submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission by companies that wish to go public, is filled with details never before seen by the outside world. In the case of this generation's tech giant, the filing contains a treasure trove of information for the media, analysts and investors to devour and discuss with excitement.
Nicholas Carlson spent his Wednesday night pouring over the document with a team of his Business Insider colleagues and joined The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task this morning to hash through the revelations and highlights.
#1 Shocking Number of Users: It's been project by outside forecasting groups that Facebook will hit 1 billion users this year, possibly near the end of summer. The S1 revealed that the company is well on its way to that milestone and could even hit the mark sooner.
The social networking site has 845 million monthly users and 483 million daily users. The number of people in December who used Facebook on the go using a mobile application was 425 million.
To try to comprehend those figures, Carlson compares the number of daily Facebook users to the number of people who tune in for Super Bowl, which is usually the most-watched television broadcast of the year. Two years ago, the Super Bowl game between the Colts and the Saints became the most-watched show of all-time with 106 million viewers. Facebook attracts more than four times the number of people each day!!
#2 Slowing Revenue Growth: Facebook's revenue hit $3.71 billion last year and grew by 88% from 2010 to 2011. But that increase is well below the 154% growth from 2009 and 2010. Profits for 2011 totaled roughly $1 billion.
Facebook derives 85% of its revenue from ad sales. In 2011, Facebook added 42% more ads than the year before and sold them for 18% more than 2010.
#3 Mark Zuckerberg's Lackluster Love for Profits: In a letter to investors included in the filing, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described how he is more interested in social connectedness than money and generating profits.
"Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected," he writes. "We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do.
For a man that is now worth upwards of $25 billion, it is hard to believe he does not care about money, says Carlson. But to Zuckerberg's credit, Carlson notes Zuckerberg has always said he does not care about money.
In that same vein, Zuckerberg does not want to relinquish control of Facebook like the Google co-founders did when they brought in Eric Schmidt. "He doesn't want people who really care about money to screw it up," says Carlson. "I think he sees them as different and he doesn't want them to really run the company."
Zuckerberg currently owns 28.4% of the company and controls 54% of the voting rights, giving him more power at Facebook than Bill Gates had when Microsoft went public in 1986.
#4 Facebook Risk Factors: Last but not least are the risk factors Facebook sees as potentially harmful to its bottom line. Among a host of factors, the company sees competition from Google, Microsoft and Twitter as a "significant" risk.
Carlson agrees that competition from someone who can do it better and faster is a threat to the company, especially coming from a start-up, which might "do exactly what Facebook did to everybody else."
Thanks ~ The Daily Ticker
Pick 3
Method 1: 8-5-9
Method 2: 1-5-1
Method 3: 9-7-9
Method 4: 0-9-3
Method 5: 9-3-0
Method 6: 9-1-0Play 4
Method 1: 9-1-7-1
Method 2: 9-8-6-4
Method 3: 4-8-3-7
Method 4: 1-6-6-1
Method 5: 4-2-8-0
Method 6: 3-5-6-3How Many Facebook Friends Do You Have?
Study Links Narcissism and Facebook Activity
For the average narcissist, Facebook is tool that may promote anti-social behavior.
Facebook "offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication," according to study by Western Illinois University professor Christopher Carpenter.
The study was published this month in Personality and Individual Differences, the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
In the study, Carpenter defined narcissism as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance," according to a press release from the university.
Using a Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Carpenter and his students surveyed 292 people - most of whom were college students - to measure "self-promoting" Facebook behavior, such as people posting status updates, their photos, updating profile information; as well as "anti-social behaviors," including seeking social support more than providing it, getting angry when others do not comment on status updates and retaliating against negative comments.
People who score higher on the inventory promoted themselves more on Facebook - by tagging themselves and updating their newsfeeds more frequently, and by having more friends on Facebook, according to a report om tje Guardian newspaper.
The study concluded that grandiose exhibitionism correlated with anti-social behavior on Facebook. Self-esteem was negatively related to self-promotion and anti-social behaviors on the site.
"In general, the 'dark side' of Facebook requires more research in order to better understand Facebook's socially beneficial and harmful aspects in order to enhance the former and curtail the latter," Carpenter said.
Social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, have long been criticized for being vehicles for meaningless relationships, and have recently been mentioned in connection with making bullying easier and more pervasive.
Thanks ~ Susan Clarke
~
A narcissistic connection can be implied to most forms of social media outlets. IMHO
Method 1: 6-2-5
Method 2: 6-3-8
Method 3: 0-8-5
Method 4: 2-5-2
Method 5: 2-4-3
Method 6: 0-6-4Method 1: 7-8-3
Method 2: 4-8-1
Method 3: 4-7-9
Method 4: 3-2-0
Method 5: 8-0-9
Method 6: 4-2-0 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineQuote: Originally posted by Harve$t Moon on Mar 21, 2012
How Many Facebook Friends Do You Have?
Study Links Narcissism and Facebook Activity
For the average narcissist, Facebook is tool that may promote anti-social behavior.
Facebook "offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication," according to study by Western Illinois University professor Christopher Carpenter.
The study was published this month in Personality and Individual Differences, the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
In the study, Carpenter defined narcissism as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance," according to a press release from the university.
Using a Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Carpenter and his students surveyed 292 people - most of whom were college students - to measure "self-promoting" Facebook behavior, such as people posting status updates, their photos, updating profile information; as well as "anti-social behaviors," including seeking social support more than providing it, getting angry when others do not comment on status updates and retaliating against negative comments.
People who score higher on the inventory promoted themselves more on Facebook - by tagging themselves and updating their newsfeeds more frequently, and by having more friends on Facebook, according to a report om tje Guardian newspaper.
The study concluded that grandiose exhibitionism correlated with anti-social behavior on Facebook. Self-esteem was negatively related to self-promotion and anti-social behaviors on the site.
"In general, the 'dark side' of Facebook requires more research in order to better understand Facebook's socially beneficial and harmful aspects in order to enhance the former and curtail the latter," Carpenter said.
Social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, have long been criticized for being vehicles for meaningless relationships, and have recently been mentioned in connection with making bullying easier and more pervasive.
Thanks ~ Susan Clarke
~
A narcissistic connection can be implied to most forms of social media outlets. IMHO
Method 1: 6-2-5
Method 2: 6-3-8
Method 3: 0-8-5
Method 4: 2-5-2
Method 5: 2-4-3
Method 6: 0-6-4Method 1: 7-8-3
Method 2: 4-8-1
Method 3: 4-7-9
Method 4: 3-2-0
Method 5: 8-0-9
Method 6: 4-2-0Would you give your Facebook password to get or keep your job?
Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords
When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.
Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.
In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."
Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.
Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.
Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.
Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.
"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,
After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.
"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.
Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.
And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.
Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."
When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."
In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.
"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."
Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.
E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.
Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.
"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.
More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.
Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.
Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.
The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.
Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.
The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.
But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.
"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.
Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.
In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.
"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."
Thanks ~ MANUEL VALDES and SHANNON MCFARLAND Mar 20, 2012 SEATTLE
Method 1: 2-7-7
Method 2: 8-6-9
Method 3: 9-5-2
Method 4: 3-3-3
Method 5: 1-0-2
Method 6: 4-2-3 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineAttitudes of Wealth
WINNING THE "MIND" GAME
$ I CREATE MY LIFE. I CREATE THE EXACT
AMOUNT OF MY FINANCIAL SUCCESS.
$ I PLAY THE MONEY GAME TO WIN. MY
INTENTION IS TO CREATE WEALTH AND
ABUNDANCE.
$ I ADMIRE AND MODEL RICH AND
SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE.
$ I BELIEVE MONEY IS IMPORTANT,
MONEY IS FREEDOM AND MAKES
LIFE MORE ENJOYABLE.
$ I GET RICH DOING WHAT I LOVE.
$ I DESERVE TO BE RICH BECAUSE
I ADD VALUE TO OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES.
$ I AM A GENEROUS GIVER AND AN
EXCELLENT RECEIVER.
$ I AM TRULY GRATEFUL FOR ALL
THE MONEY I HAVE NOW.
$ LUCRATIVE OPPORTUNITIES
ALWAYS COME MY WAY.
$ MY CAPACITY TO EARN, HOLD AND
GROW MONEY EXPANDS DAY-BY-DAY.
Thanks ~ © T. Harv Eker 2003
Print copy, post on mirror, read out loud every day!
Method 1: 0-6-1
Method 2: 2-5-5
Method 3: 8-4-0
Method 4: 4-8-8
Method 5: 9-7-5
Method 6: 0-8-4Method 1: 1-5-3-0
Method 2: 5-9-1-0
Method 3: 8-6-4-7
Method 4: 3-0-6-5
Method 5: 9-6-5-2
Method 6: 3-1-3-1 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineAttitudes of Wealth
WINNING THE "MONEY" GAME
$ I AM AN EXCELLENT MONEY MANAGER.
$ I ALWAYS PAY MYSELF FIRST.
$ I PUT MONEY INTO MY FINANCIAL
FREEDOM FUND EVERY DAY.
$ MY MONEY WORKS HARD FOR ME AND
MAKES ME MORE AND MORE MONEY.
$ I EARN ENOUGH PASSIVE INCOME TO
PAY FOR MY DESIRED LIFESTYLE.
$ I AM FINANCIALLY FREE.
I WORK BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO,
NOT BECAUSE I HAVE TO.
$ MY PART TIME BUSINESS IS MANAGING
AND INVESTING MY MONEY AND CREATING
STREAMS OF PASSIVE INCOME.
Thanks ~ © T. Harv Eker 2003
Print copy, post on mirror, read out loud every day!
Method 1: 8-4-5
Method 2: 7-2-9
Method 3: 8-1-4
Method 4: 8-4-3
Method 5: 2-3-0
Method 6: 2-6-6Method 1: 0-4-1-7
Method 2: 4-5-1-1
Method 3: 9-8-4-0
Method 4: 0-5-4-4
Method 5: 5-9-2-7
Method 6: 5-6-2-1 -
Undercover Billionaire: Sara Blakely Joins The Rich List Thanks To Spanx
Sara Blakely stands topless at a conference room table. It’s Monday morning at the Spanx headquarters in Atlanta, and the founder of the hosiery company has been in a product development meeting for all of five minutes before walking out abruptly. She returns a minute later in nothing but a lacy taupe bra with black pants and beige wedges and adjusts herself in a full-length mirror, worrying aloud about the metal clasps on this early prototype. Will they create lumps under her clothes? Her CEO, Laurie Ann Goldman — petite and glamorous in a leopard print shift dress — tugs on Blakely’s straps.
The conference room looks like a boudoir designed by Willy Wonka: a jar of gum balls here, a loud houndstooth print there. Blakely hardly blinks in the presence of five colleagues and me as she removes the bra and tries on a second prototype. She’s been getting half-naked in public for the last decade, controlling every detail of the new category in women’s retail—shapewear—that she created from a one-product wonder sold out of her apartment.
Today Spanx is to slimming undergarments what Kleenex is to tissues: a brand that stands for the category. It nets an estimated 20% on revenue just south of $250 million. In recent months four Wall Street investment banks separately valued Spanx at an average $1 billion, a sum Forbes corroborated with the help of industry analysts. Blakely owns 100% of the private company, has zero debt, has never taken outside investment and hasn’t spent a nickel on advertising. At 41 she’s the youngest woman to join this year’s World’s Billionaires list without help from a husband or an inheritance. She is part of a tiny, elite club of American women worth ten figures on their own, including Oprah Winfrey and Meg Whitman.
Lots of women, from Betty Grable to Kim Kardashian, have put their butts on the line to plump their profiles and profits. Far fewer have had to overcome three phobias—fear of heights, fear of flying and stage fright—to master the art of selling. Blakely is on the road “always,” she says. She feels dizzy in tall buildings (it doesn’t help to have a Manhattan condo on the 37th floor) and often cries in midair. She’s unwilling to board a plane without her iPod, so she can play the same Mark Knopfler song, “What It Is,” at every takeoff. “I have sweaty palms, panic attacks, my heart’s racing,” says Blakely, whose Floridian roots you occasionally hear in her “Ah” for “I.” She once had to muster the courage to hawk her wares 6 to 12 times a month on home shopping channel QVC; now that Spanx is so well-known, it’s maybe once a month but for hours at a time. Blakely had early practice wrestling with anxiety when she occasionally did standup comedy. “Every time I went onstage I was so terrified I almost threw up,” she recalls. “I learned why they call it the greenroom.”
Spanx started as a one-woman show. In her first year Blakely shilled her new invention from a folding table in the foyer of Neiman Marcus, with a giant before-and-after photo of her derriere in cream slacks and bikini briefs underneath in one shot (an embarrassingly obvious Maginot Line) and $30 Spanx Power Panties (et voilà ! no more line) in the other.
Over the last couple of years Spanx has depended less on Blakely’s face—and other body parts—to shift its shapers and stay ahead of a handful of copycats. The company is now run by a team of 125, only 16 of them men. It sells 200 products in 11,500 department stores, boutiques and online shops in 40 countries. Distributors worldwide clamor to get on the stockist list. “With international, we’re just warming up,” says Goldman.
Blakely would still happily pose in nothing but Spanx on the cover of any of the nine catalogs mailed each year to 6 million shoppers, but she knows Goldman, 49, won’t go for it. “I’m game for anything,” says Blakely. “The company has to pull me back.” Goldman, who created the first business plan at Spanx over the founder’s objections that it would stunt creativity, plays the straight man to Blakely’s more impulsive act.
Fueling her more impetuous side is her entrepreneurial twin: husband Jesse Itzler, 43, a former rapper from Long Island, who has backed and cofounded a few startups, including Marquis Jet, which sells fractional air-travel time. When I meet him at his midtown Manhattan office, he bounds up the stairs in a sweaty headband, his blond curls dripping. He’s come from an intense cardio workout with a Navy SEAL he hired to move in with him and Sara for a month. (This is more efficient than hiring rickshaws from his office, as he used to do, and paying the driver to be a passenger while he hauled the vehicle all the way home.)
Itzler regards Blakely’s accomplishments with amazement and amusement. “She’s 50% Lucille Ball, 50% Einstein. I keep a list of Sara-isms in my phone,” he says, referring to her goofy moments. “There’s something every day.” Recent example: wearing two different shoes, one red-soled Christian Louboutin and one plain boot, and having to hobble up the escalator at Bloomingdale’s. Legend: On the way to the Screen Actors Guild Awards one year, Blakely realized in the limo she’d forgotten her jewelry at her hotel. Instead of turning back, she had her driver stop at a candy store—and accessorized her gown with stretchable candy necklaces and bracelets. Spanx fans recognize her on the street, in stores and in airports and want to show their allegiance. “Women flash her,” says Itzler. “Imagine that. She’s just really good. She’s the best, man.”
Blakely didn’t set out to invent anything, but she always had a knack for hucksterism. The daughter of a personal injury lawyer and an artist, she grew up in the beach town of Clearwater, Fla., always looking to make a buck. She’d set up a haunted house at Halloween and charge her neighbors admission. Or, tearing a page from Tom Sawyer, she’d trick her friends into doing her chores by turning weedpulling into a competition. As a teen she pulled off a rare double act: popular blonde cheerleader and debate team champion (no performance anxiety then).
But tragedy eclipsed her sunny childhood. While riding a bike around her cul-de-sac, she saw a car run over her best friend, right in front of her. “I think that when you witness death at age 16, there’s a sense of urgency about life,” she says. “The thought of my mortality—I think about it a lot. I find it motivating. It can be any time that your number’s up.”
That same year Blakely’s parents separated. Not long afterward, both her prom dates died in horrible circumstances. She sought solace in her father’s Wayne Dyer cassette tapes, memorizing all ten volumes of the motivational speaker’s How to Be a No-Limit Person series. Dyer preaches “self-actualization” and “eliminating your erroneous zones.” She was so moved that she marched to her principal’s office to suggest they include the cassette tapes in the Clearwater High curriculum. Her friends couldn’t run the other way fast enough. “People used to fight over who had to ride home with me at night after a party,” says Blakely. “No one wanted to be in my car—they’d be, like, ‘No! She’s going to make us listen to that motivational crap!’”
Blakely started her first business in 1990, a kids’ club at the Clearwater Beach Hilton, charging $8 a child for a few hours of babysitting while moms and dads tanned. She was just out of high school, had no experience, no CPR training — and no insurance. She got away with it for three summers before trying to steal business from rival hotels’ summer programs. It was only when she went to pitch the Hilton’s general manager— age 20, in her first suit from Casual Corner—that she was busted. “He literally escorted me off the premises,” Blakely remembers.
After getting a degree in legal communications at Florida State, Blakely twice took the LSAT exam for law school admission and twice scored abysmally. Frustrated, she drove from Clearwater to Orlando to audition for a job at Disney World. Two inches too short to fill the 5-foot-8 Goofy costume, she instead spent eight hours a day on a moving walkway buckling visitors into their seats at Epcot’s now closed World of Motion ride. “I think I wanted to postpone reality, having spent my whole life thinking I’d be a lawyer,” says Blakely, who as a kid loved watching her dad in court. “It didn’t work. My first day at Disney I went on break and saw
Snow White dragging on a cigarette.”After three months of misery at Disney, Blakely applied for a job she’d seen advertised on a billboard. She spent the next seven years at Danka, then a $1 billion Florida-based office supply company, now part of Japanese printer giant Ricoh. It taught her the art of the cold call. “They gave me a cubicle, a phone book and a territory of four zip codes in Clearwater and said, ‘Now go sell $20,000 of fax machines a month door-to- door,’” she recalls.
Blakely again found herself being escorted out of buildings. “I’d get business cards ripped up in my face because I was soliciting.” But with her easy charm, good looks and slick debating skills, she became, at age 25, Danka’s national sales trainer.
Like many startups, Spanx began life as an answer to an irritating problem. The panty hose Blakely was forced to wear at both Disney and Danka were uncomfortable and old-fashioned. “It’s Florida, it’s hot, I was carrying fax machines,” she says. She hated the way the seamed foot stuck out of an open-toe sandal or kitten heel. But she noticed that the control-top eliminated panty lines and made her tiny body look even firmer. She’d bought a new pair of cream slacks for $78 at Arden B and was keen to wear them to a party. “I cut the feet off my pantyhose and wore them underneath,” she says. “But they rolled up my legs all night. I remember thinking, ‘I’ve got to figure out how to make this.’ I’d never worked in fashion or retail. I just needed an undergarment that didn’t exist.”
Blakely, then 27, moved to Atlanta, set aside her entire $5,000 savings and spent the next two years meticulously planning the launch of her product while working nine to five at Danka. She spent seven nights straight at the Georgia Tech library researching every hosiery patent ever filed. She visited craft stores like Michaels to find the right fabrics. She sought out hosiery mills in the Yellow Pages and started cold calling, only to be told no repeatedly. Immune to rejection thanks to years selling door-to-door, she decided just to show up. At the Highland Mills hosiery factory in Charlotte, N.C., she was turned away, only to receive a call from the manager two weeks later. He had daughters, he told her, who wouldn’t let him pass up her invention. (Today the Spanx line is manufactured in 15 countries, including Thailand, Israel and Honduras; the cotton crotches are still hand-sewn in North Carolina.)
To save $3,000 in legal fees she wrote her own patent from a Barnes & Noble textbook, setting aside $150 to incorporate her company, but couldn’t decide on a name. After a succession of terrible ideas she settled on Spanks, substituting an “x” at the last minute after reading that made-up names sold better. “The word ‘Spanx’ was funny,” she says. “It made people laugh. No one ever forgot it.” In the summer of 2000 she spent evenings on a friend’s computer designing her packaging. She went for cherry red and, with the help of a graphic artist, created a blonde cartoon model with a long ponytail called Sunny—Sara’s animated alter ego.
Blakely flew to Dallas that fall to meet with buyers from Neiman Marcus. Current CEO Karen Katz was president of all the upscale chain’s stores at the time and remembers seeing Blakely in a conference room, pitching. “Sara’s effort was to solve an age-old problem for women in a modern way,” Katz says. She adds that Blakely’s obvious charisma and unusual backstory didn’t
hurt. “We were smitten from the beginning.” With Neiman in the bag, Blakely convinced Bloomingdale’s, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman to give her a shot.Blakely was still working her day job at Danka, keeping her side business top secret, sitting up all night shoving Spanx orders into white padded envelopes from Office Depot. She was 24/7 customer service, answering phone calls from her bathtub or bed. Her then boyfriend quit his job and took care of shipping and handling.
Unable to shell out for advertising, Blakely took on marketing and p.r. She tore out journalists’ bylines from magazines and called them. She took over morning staff meetings at department stores to show sales associates why Spanx shouldn’t languish in the beige hinterland of the hosiery floor but be sold alongside womenswear and shoes. If that didn’t work, she improvised, once sneaking some red Spanx packages onto a rack she bought at Target and placing them by a cash register in Neiman. “All the staff assumed someone else had approved it, until they caught me on CCTV,” she laughs.
She connived her way to her biggest coup, shipping samples to Oprah Winfrey’s longtime stylist Andre Walker, who noticed the talk-show host started looking ten pounds lighter. In November 2000 Winfrey named Spanx her favorite product of the year on the annual audience scream-a-thon that was her Favorite Things Show. When Blakely got the call from Harpo Productions, she was warned to get her website ready, since orders would undoubtedly cascade after the show. Spanx didn’t have a website. “We took a color copy of the packaging and scanned it in,” Blakely says. “I ran a considerable Web business for $18 a month.” She resigned from Danka two weeks before the show aired. Spanx was profitable from day one, and raked in $4 million its first year and $10 million the next.
For the next two years Blakely constantly traveled to do in-store demos and local news appearances. In 2001 she scored a coveted deal with QVC, which turned her down until it read a Forbes story (“Footless and Fancy-Free,” Apr. 2, 2001) that described Blakely as an “accidental entrepreneur” who’d reinvented the girdle. So what if Spanx took the high road (Bergdorf ) and the low (QVC) at once? Women were buying like mad.
“Sara was out there shaking her butt and selling her product,” says Goldman in her office, next door to Blakely’s and furnished like an Upper East Side living room—velvet fittings, monogrammed Louis Vuitton trunks. Goldman, a ten-year veteran of Coca-Cola, where she ran the licensing division in 54 countries, came on board in 2002, first as a consultant, then as CEO. She was Spanx’s fifth employee. Her office was the kitchen in Blakely’s apartment in Decatur, but she knew that wouldn’t be the case for long. “I wanted to run Spanx like a public company from the start. I thought, Let’s get Ernst & Young to do our audits. They didn’t really do companies our size, but I said we were going to be bigger one day. We did the same with IT.”
As Goldman set about professionalizing the company, Blakely found a publicity stunt she couldn’t pass up. After six auditions she was cast on Richard Branson’s 2003 reality show, Rebel Billionaire, which aired on Fox in 2004. Her lawyers (and her dad) begged her not to do it. But Blakely says she wanted to meet and learn from the Virgin mogul. Branson saw it as another sign of her p.r. savvy. “She was already reasonably successful before, and she cleverly thought the show would help,” he says.
Leaving Spanx in Goldman’s hands for three months, Blakely won task after task—shocking her teammates and the crew. “I was cast as the girl who’d have the meltdown from heights on the first episode and lose her mind,” she says. Blakely followed daredevil Branson up the side of a moving hot air balloon at 8,000 feet, climbing a rope ladder the equivalent of a 17-story building. She’d be a world record holder if she’d remembered to call Guinness afterward. “Sara was the runner-up overall,” says Branson. “The only reason I didn’t give her the top prize was because she was already successful. She didn’t need a leg up.” Instead, Branson cut her a personal check for $750,000 to start a foundation. To date Blakely and Spanx have donated $17.5 million to charities primarily aimed at supporting girls and women—college scholarships in South Africa, homes for single mothers and their families (via Habitat for Humanity) and empowerment grants supporting entrepreneurship among them.
“Isn’t my wife delicious?” Itzler asks aloud in an Atlanta restaurant, while gripping her thigh under the table. He’s flown in from New York for one day to watch Blakely speak to a group of jobless women seeking inspiration. With six homes—two in Atlanta, an Upper West Side condo in Manhattan, a Connecticut summer house, an outpost near Blakely’s brother in La Jolla, Calif. and a new place in Clearwater—he and his wife often miss each other. One of them usually has in tow their 2-year-old son, Lazer, named after Itzler’s Brooklyn-born greatgrandfather.
Blakely and Itzler met six years ago through Marquis Jet, an offshoot of NetJets. He’d come up with the idea of allowing travelers to buy time on private planes at age 27, after a few years in L.A. rapping (biggest hit: “Shake It Like a White Girl”) and writing sports jingles, including the NBA’s Knicks anthem “Go New York Go.” In 2006, when he planned a celebrity poker tournament, a sales rep suggested he invite Blakely, who by then was successful (and brave) enough to fly on private planes. Itzler had never heard of Spanx and Googled Blakely’s picture, thinking, “Yeah, she can come. Top of the list.” Each was hooked, even though both were attached to other people. They married in 2008 in Boca Grande, Fla. in front of Blakely’s early Spanx employees and Itzler’s friends from his years in the music and sports industries. “We had very successful people and, like, thugs,” he says.
Blakely had a moment of panic weeks before the wedding. She sat Itzler down at a favorite Upper West Side restaurant and told him the secret only her immediate family knew: just how rich she was. “She said to me, ‘I’m not sure you really know how successful Spanx is—[and] I am.’” Blakely told him the company pulled in not a couple of million dollars a year but a couple of hundred million. Itzler started crying. “I was just so happy for her.”
Itzler himself isn’t exactly poor. In 2010 he sold Marquis to Berkshire Hathaway, which owns NetJets, for an undisclosed amount. He now owns a stake in Zico, a trendy coconut water brand (Coca-Cola has 20%), as well as Voli, a low-calorie vodka, and Sheets, a caffeinated version of Listerine’s strip that dissolves on the tongue—all held through his 100 Mile Group, an incubator and marketing company. Investors in various projects include friends LeBron James and Gisele Bündchen.
Blakely has strong views about her wealth. “I feel like money makes you more of who you already are,” she says from behind a mirrored desk in her plush Atlanta office, stirring a bowl of take-out soup and exhausted from a sleepless, flu-ridden night. “If you’re an , you become a bigger . If you’re nice, you become nicer. Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away.” Most fun: anonymously buying dinner for an entire restaurant crowd at her favorite Japanese steak house in Atlanta or bidding on travel “experiences” like VIP trips to Paris Fashion Week and Sundance at the charity auctions she and Itzler attend.
Coming off its best year ever, Spanx has big plans for expansion. Goldman is pushing to double international sales, now over 15% of the total, within three years. She spends a lot of time jetting around Asia, laying the groundwork for Spanx in countries that don’t obsess about their posteriors quite as much as Westerners do. She and Blakely plan to open stand-alone shops, first in Atlanta, then slowly worldwide. They’re pushing their cheaper diffusion line, Assets, and adding new categories— swimwear, activewear, men’s underwear—as customers demand more options and competitors like Yummie Tummie, Dr. Rey Shapewear, Skweez Couture and Body Wrap (as well as Victoria’s Secret and Maidenform) flood the booming shapewear market.
Spanx is often the most expensive brand on the shapewear rack, but it hasn’t hurt sales. “If you have a great product, you can charge whatever you want,” says Noah Wrubel, CEO of lingerie site BareNecessities.com. “I as a retailer have no interest in a race to the bottom. Anyone can make a cheaper product.”
Blakely can afford to fund Spanx’s planned growth, but she and Goldman might, for the first time, consider a public offering or an injection of outside capital to speed things up. “We’ve been approached consistently from day one, and it was never something I entertained,” Blakely says. “Now, for the first time, I may entertain it.”
She still gets teary-eyed whenever she rides up the escalator in Bloomingdale’s to see the Spanx shop that opened last spring. “I have to pinch myself,” she says, hobbling in her different shoes, greeting shop assistants and adoring customers who recognize her from years of TV appearances. “Five grand,” she says, thinking back a decade. “Good investment.”
614 019 147 117 918 498 798 479
3085 0729 3907 7774 7779 3987 3005 4207
"See It! Believe It! Receive It!"
I am who I am, Not because of who I am, But because the Great I AM, Made me who I am.
Power Numbers Numbers Of Opulence Universal Dreams Empress-N Hot Triads All States P4 - Triads
Lotto Losers Lounge Harve$t Moon Billionaires Club - Members Only TRIADS All States P4 Lottery Bible__________________________________________________________________
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“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineQuote: Originally posted by Harve$t Moon on Mar 21, 2012
Would you give your Facebook password to get or keep your job?
Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords
When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.
Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.
In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."
Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.
Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.
Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.
Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.
"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,
After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.
"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.
Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.
And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.
Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."
When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."
In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.
"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."
Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.
E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.
Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.
"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.
More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.
Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.
Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.
The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.
Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.
The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.
But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.
"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.
Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.
In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.
"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."
Thanks ~ MANUEL VALDES and SHANNON MCFARLAND Mar 20, 2012 SEATTLE
Method 1: 2-7-7
Method 2: 8-6-9
Method 3: 9-5-2
Method 4: 3-3-3
Method 5: 1-0-2
Method 6: 4-2-3If you don't, you could lose your job!
Grade school teacher’s aide fired for refusing to hand over Facebook password
Kimberly Hester's story proves that we need protection from this breach of privacy.
Kimberly Hester, a grade school teacher's aide in Michigan, was fired for refusing to hand over her Facebook password to her supervisors. Hester posted a picture of a co-workers' shoes and pants bunched around her ankles on Facebook in April 2011 with the caption, "Thinking of you." She posted the picture in jest, but a parent who's on her Facebook friend list saw the image and reported it to Frank Squires Elementary where Hester was employed, prompting the investigation.
Teachers have gotten in trouble for Facebook status messages before, but in Hester's case, it's her refusal to hand over her password that actually got her fired. One of the supervisors from the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District (ISD), the regional service center for education in Michigan, even wrote her a letter when she refused to give them her password for the third time. Part of the letter read: "... in the absence of you voluntarily granting Lewis Cass ISD administration access to you[r] Facebook page, we will assume the worst and act accordingly." Lewis Cass wanted to put Hester on a paid administrative leave before they fired her, but she chose to go on an unpaid leave because she believes she did nothing wrong. She plans to use the letter she received to sue the school district.
An increasing number of companies and schools have started asking employees and students for their Facebook passwords. The practice has been growing at such an alarming rate, that Facebook released its official stance on the issue, telling its users that they have the right not to comply with their employers' request. Several politicians including Michigan's own State Representatives Aric Nesbitt and Matt Lori have been pushing for bills that will make the breach of privacy an illegal practice. Unfortunately, it hasn't been going very well for them — the House of Representatives recently rejected a legislation that would protect your passwords from employers' prying eyes.
Thanks ~ Mariella Moon (no relationship with Harve$t Moon )
Method 1: 6-4-6
Method 2: 1-9-8
Method 3: 0-7-1
Method 4: 1-1-5
Method 5: 9-2-6
Method 6: 3-3-0 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineQuote: Originally posted by Harve$t Moon on Apr 8, 2011
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, born on 19 April 1957, in Aden, Colony of Aden (now Yemen), is an Indian business magnate is the current chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the largest private sector enterprise in India, a Fortune 500 company, and one of the largest private sector conglomerates in the world. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.In 2010, he was named among the most powerful people in the world by Forbes in its list of "68 people who matter most" As of 2011, he is the second richest man in Asia and the ninth richest man in the world with a personal wealth of US $27 billion. In 2007, a strong rally in the Indian stock market and the appreciation of the Indian rupee boosted the market capitalisation of Reliance group companies, briefly making him the world’s richest man. According to Forbes Magazine forecasts, he is expected to regain the title of the richest man in the world in 2014.
He is a member of the board of director of Bank of America Corporation and a present member of the international advisory board of Council on Foreign Relations.
Early life and education
Mukesh Ambani is the eldest son of Dhirubhai Ambani , the late founder of Reliance Industries. He has a brother, Anil, and two sisters.
The Ambani family lived in a two bedroom apartment in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai until the 1970s. Dhirubhai Ambani then purchased a 14-floor apartment block called 'Sea Wind' in Colaba, where, until recently, Mukesh and Anil each lived with their families on different floors.
(In 2010 Mukesh and his wife and children moved into a private home that is 27 stories high ... more about that later ....)
Anil Ambani is also a billionaire and owns a competing company, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The two brothers have had clashes over business.
Mukush Ambani is the 9th wealthest man in the world.
CareerHe joined Reliance Industries in 1981. He initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production.
Ambani set up one of the largest and most complex information and communications technology initiatives in the world in the form of Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited).
Ambani directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure.
He owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbia Indians.
Mukesh Ambani
$27 Billion
- Age: 53
- Title: Chairman
- Organization: Reliance Industries
- Source: petrochemicals, oil & gas, inherited and growing
- Residence: Mumbai, India
- Country of citizenship: India
- Education: Dropout, Stanford University; BA/BS, University of Bombay
- Marital Status: Married
- Children: 3
Here some interesting reading while you are waiting for your investments to hit.
Mukesh Ambani owns the most expensive residential home in the world.
It costs nearly US $2 billion dollars to build it.
Antilia is named after the mythical island in the Atlantic, Antillia.
The Antilia building is situated on a 4,532 square metres (48,780 sq ft) plot at Altamont Road on the famed Cumballa Hill South Mumbai, India, where land prices are upward of US $10,000 per square metre.
In August 2008,Altamont Road was the 10th most expensive street in the world at US $25,000/sq m (US $2,336 per sq foot)
This home is a private 27 story building (actually it is 60 stories tall condensed into 27 stories with extra high ceilings).
The structure was designed by U.S. architects using principles of Vaastu, Indian traditional geomancy akin to Chinese feng shui, to maximize "positive energy." No two floor plans are alike, and the materials used in each level vary widely.
The home includes:
- 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of living space.
- Parking space for 168 cars.
- A one-floor vehicle maintenance facility.
- 9 elevators in the lobby.
- 1 helipad and an air traffic control facility.
- Health spa, yoga studio, small theatre with a seating capacity for 50 on the eighth floor, multiple swimming pools, three floors of hanging gardens, and a ballroom.
- An ice room infused with man-made snow flurries.
Construction
Antilia was designed byChicago based architects, Perkins & Will. The Melbourne-based construction company Leighton Holdings began constructing it, but it has been finished by another company. The structural design consultants are Sterling Engineering Consultancy, Mumbai.
The home was also designed to survive an 8-richter scale earthquake.
Various construction controversies have been connected to the home.
In 2007 the Maharashtra government said the structure is illegal because the land's owner, the Waqf Board, had no right to sell it. Mukesh then obtained a No Objection Certificate from the Waqf Board for Rs 1.6 million (U$36,100) and began construction.
In regards to the three helipads, the Indian Navy said it will not allow the construction of helipads on Mumbai buildings, while The Environment Ministry said the helipads violate local noise laws.
Indian media frequently reported that Antilia is the world's most expensive home costing US $1 billion. (later reports indicate the cost as US $2 billion)
Thomas Johnson, director of marketing at architecture firm Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates that was consulted with by Reliance during building floor plan design, was cited by Forbes Magazine as estimating the cost of the residence at nearly $2 billion.
In June 2008, a Reliance spokesman told the New York Times that it will cost $50–$70 million to build.
Upon completion in 2010, media reports again speculated that, due to increasing land prices in the area, the tower may now be worth as much as US $1 billion.
"It's a stupendous show of wealth, it's kind of positioning business tycoons as the new maharajah of India."
Hamish McDonald author of Ambani & Sons: A History of the BusinessSome Indians are proud of the "ostentatious house," while others see it as "shameful in a nation where many children go hungry." Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, opined that "such wealth can be inconceivable" not only in Mumbai, "home to some of Asia's worst slums," but also in a nation with 42 percent of the world's underweight children younger than five.
Could not resist ... here is one more article about this house.
Billion Dollar House – Ultimate Luxury or Living Hell?
November 2, 2007 by JS ~ Smart Money Daily
This past week Mukesh Ambani, thanks to a big jump in the Indian stock market, was handed the title of "Richest Man in the World" but sadly for him a day later it turned out to be a miscalculation.
Even so, Ambani’s correct net worth is estimated in the $50 Billion range, ranking him comfortably in the world’s top 5 richest men.
What does someone with $50 Billion do when they need new digs?
Build a billion dollar home of course! Below, thanks to Mumbai Mirror are some of the specs:
According to the plan, the house will rise to a height of 173.12 meters, equivalent to that of a regular 60-storeyed residential building. However, Antilia will have only 27 storeys in all, which means each floor will have a ceiling considerably higher than the current average of nearly three meters.
Six floors for parking
The first six floors will be reserved for parking alone, and that too for cars belonging only to Mukesh’s family. Space for a total of 168 ‘imported’ cars has been earmarked here.Floor for car maintenance
Sources said the Ambanis would prefer to have all their cars serviced and maintained at an in-house service centre. This centre will be set up on the seventh floor.Entertainment floor
The eighth floor will have an entertainment centre comprising a mini-theatre with a seating capacity of 50.Balconies with gardens
The rooftop of the mini-theatre will serve as a garden, and immediately above that, three more balconies with terrace gardens will be independent floors.The ‘health’ floors
While the ninth floor will a ‘refuge’ floor – meant to be used for rescue in emergencies – two floors above that will be set aside for ‘health.’ One of these will have facilities for athletics and a swimming pool, while the other will have a health club complete with the latest gym equipment.For guests
There will be a two-storeyed glass-fronted apartment for the Ambani family’s guests above the health floors. One more refuge floor and one floor for mechanical works will be built on top of these apartments.Family
The four floors at the top, that will provide a view of the Arabian Sea and a superb view of the city’s skyline, will be for Mukesh, his wife Neeta, their three children and Mukesh’s mother Kokilaben.Air space floor
According to the plan, two floors above the family’s residence will be set aside as maintenance areas, and on top of that will be an “air space floor,” which will act as a control room for helicopters landing on the helipad above.Helipad
The plan states that three helipads are to be built on the terrace.The place will require 600 full time staff to keep it running on a day to day basis!
I know we’ve all seen Trump’s gold encrusted New York apartment, but this guy is in another league entirely. I would sure be interesting to see the public reaction in America if anyone was to build a house this opulent. But given the horrific poverty that is present in India, to build a structure like this as a personal residence does seem to be highly insensitive at best.
I’m as much of a capitalist as anyone and Mr. Ambani can certainly do as he pleases with all that dough, but I do think an awareness of the fate of those around him should play into his actions.
Really will having a house this spectacular give him a better life; or will the separation it creates from virtually everyone else around him make it a regretful nightmare?
HMBC Motto:"Money is a servant to the Master.It does not judge"
Mukesh Ambani (Wealth Numbers)
From Empress-N:
Pick 3
119-425-224-112-538-314-235-156-350-485-252
233-419-142-459-159-819-998-939-328-450
Pick 4
2222-4222-1421-2159-9319-2223-4218-2345
1957-2245-4899-3281-8993
Pick 5
48928-31832-41922-45918
Jackpot Numbers & Pairs
04-05-08-09-18-22-23-26-45-53
~~~
From Harve$t Moon:
Pick 3
131, 315, 151, 511, 197, 620, 174, 900
413, 160, 419, 191, 919, 195, 957
Pick 4
4191, 1919, 9195, 1957, 1315, 7271, 7170, 2717
From page 5 of this thread: https://www.lotterypost.com/thread/228824/2016772
India's Mukesh Ambani’s correct net worth is estimated in the $50 Billion range, ranking him comfortably in the world’s top 5 richest men.
What does someone with $50 Billion do when they need new digs?
Build a billion dollar home of course! Click on the link above and see his billion dollar house.
Indian wealth on one side of the wall and the poor across the wall.Method 1: 3-6-3
Method 2: 8-5-8
Method 3: 9-1-9
Method 4: 1-3-7
Method 5: 4-8-0
Method 6: 7-2-6Method 1: 3-2-8-5
Method 2: 9-2-9-1
Method 3: 1-2-4-0
Method 4: 6-3-0-6
Method 5: 8-4-0-1
Method 6: 7-5-5-7 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineJust giving you a heads up about a new service that you may now use.
If you are a dollar short, you need not apply, as this service is not for you, dear.
Wells Fargo opens business for the ultra-wealthy
April 2 (Reuters) — Wells Fargo & Co opened its new Abbot Downing business on Monday, officially merging two of its wealth management units under a new brand it hopes will expand its market share of America’s richest families.
The new business, catering to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families with $50 million or more in investable assets, resulted from the combination of Wells’s Family Wealth unit and its Lowry Hill subsidiary. The name Abbot Downing comes from the 19th-century New Hampshire builder of the stagecoaches that have come to represent Wells Fargo.
Since Wells first publicly announced the planned merger in November, the combined business has grown roughly 20 percent to $32.9 billion in client assets under management. In those five months, Steiner said the group had added five billionaires and 13 individuals with $100 million or more in investable assets to its client base.
“We’ve had new success in bringing in new foundation assets,” said Jim Steiner, Abbot Downing’s president. “People are leaving more money to foundations and endowments.”
Steiner said the biggest drivers of new wealth have been cash from the sale of company stakes through initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions.
Steiner estimated that about 10,000 households in the United States have $5 million or more in investable assets. In an October study of 72 multifamily advising firms, the average client asset size was $48.4 million, according to research and consulting firm Family Wealth Alliance.
PSYCHOLOGISTS, TOO
Steiner said the decision to rebrand the combined business was meant to establish a small-firm feel. Wells intended to distinguish its family wealth business from that of other bigger competitors, like the $62.4 billion Bessemer Trust. A bb ot Downing was aiming to keep a client-to-adviser ratio of 15-to-one, which Steiner said was low.
“Their biggest challenge will be to differentiate themselves from others,” said Tom Livergood, founder of Family Wealth Alliance.
The family wealth management industry is highly fragmented, Livergood said, because of the wide-ranging needs of its clients — including traditional wealth investment management, as well as wealth succession planning.
Abbot Downing has four divisions, including an asset management division, a private banking channel, a combined trust and fiduciary service, and a group that addresses family psychology and governance.
There are about 300 Abbot Downing employees working in 16 offices across the United States. Steiner said the firm would be hiring senior portfolio managers, analysts, relationship managers and planners.
The new business is the fourth under Wells’s Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement Group umbrella, which also includes an institutional business, a private bank and a brokerage arm.
Thanks ~ Ashley Lau
Reuters, 04/02/2012 00:00
I'm seeing these numbers in my investment workouts (P3 and P4) for all states!
Method 1: 9-4-3
Method 2: 0-0-5
Method 3: 7-2-9
Method 4: 0-0-2
Method 5: 2-9-6
Method 6: 3-0-4 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
Offline7 Secrets of Self-Made MillionairesLearn how to generate multimillion-dollar wealth -- and enjoy the journey on your way to the top.
First, understand that you no longer want to be just a millionaire. You want to become a multimillionaire.
While you may think a million dollars will give you financial security, it will not. Given the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the world, it's no longer safe to assume a million dollars will provide you and your family with true security. In fact, a Fidelity Investments' study of millionaires last year found that 42 percent of them don't feel wealthy and they would need $7.5 million of investable assets to start feeling rich.This isn't a how-to on the accumulation of wealth from a lifetime of saving and pinching pennies. This is about generating multimillion-dollar wealth and enjoying it during the creation process. To get started, consider these seven secrets of multimillionaires.
No. 1: Decide to be a multimillionaire
You first have to decide you want to be a self-made millionaire. I went from nothing — no money, just ideas and a lot of hard work — to create a net worth that probably cannot be destroyed in my lifetime. The first step was making a decision and setting a target. Every day for years, I wrote down this statement: "I am worth over $100,000,000!"
No. 2: Get rid of poverty thinking
There's no shortage of money on planet Earth, only a shortage of people who think correctly about it. To become a millionaire from scratch, you must end the poverty thinking. I know because I had to. I was raised by a single mother who did everything possible to put three boys through school and make ends meet. Many of the lessons she taught me encouraged a sense of scarcity and fear: "Eat all your food; there are people starving," "Don't waste anything," "Money doesn't grow on trees." Real wealth and abundance aren't created from such thinking.
No. 3: Treat it like a duty
Self-made multimillionaires are motivated not just by money, but by a need for the marketplace to validate their contributions. While I have always wanted wealth, I was driven more by my need to contribute consistent with my potential. Multimillionaires don't lower their targets when things get tough. Rather, they raise expectations for themselves because they see the difference they can make with their families, company, community and charities.
No. 4: Surround yourself with multimillionaires
I have been studying wealthy people since I was 10 years old. I read their stories and see what they went through. These are my mentors and teachers who inspire me. You can't learn how to make money from someone who doesn't have much. Who says, "Money won't make you happy"? People without money. Who says, "All rich people are greedy"? People who aren't rich. Wealthy people don't talk like that. You need to know what people are doing to create wealth and follow their example: What do they read? How do they invest? What drives them? How do they stay motivated and excited?
No. 5: Work like a millionaire
Rich people treat time differently. They buy it, while poor people sell it. The wealthy know time is more valuable than money itself, so they hire people for things they're not good at or aren't a productive use of their time, such as household chores. But don't kid yourself that those who hit it big don't work hard. Financially successful people are consumed by their hunt for success and work to the point that they feel they are winning and not just working.
No. 6: Shift focus from spending to investing
The rich don't spend money; they invest. They know the U.S. tax laws favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can't write it off. The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces cash flow, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You buy cars for comfort and style. The rich buy cars for their company that are deductible because they are used to produce revenue.
No. 7: Create multiple flows of income
The really rich never depend on one flow of income but instead create a number of revenue streams. My first business had been generating a seven-figure income for years when I started investing cash in multifamily real estate. Once my real estate and my consulting business were churning, I went into a third business developing software to help retailers improve the customer experience.
Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that wealthy people wish you were wealthy, too. It's a mystery to them why others don't get rich. They know they aren't special and that wealth is available to anyone who wants to focus and persist. Rich people want others to be rich for two reasons: first, so you can buy their products and services, and second, because they want to hang out with other rich people. Get rich — it's American.Thanks ~ Grant Cardone$$$$$$$$$$
Method 1: 2-4-2
Method 2: 4-6-0
Method 3: 7-4-2
Method 4: 2-0-3
Method 5: 7-3-5
Method 6: 3-1-8Method 1: 2-1-5-2
Method 2: 1-9-5-3
Method 3: 6-9-1-3
Method 4: 0-2-3-8
Method 5: 3-4-3-2
Method 6: 1-6-8-0 -
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineTravel Dreams Survey Reveals Where Affluent Want to Travel
Upscale travelers select sailing aboard a World Cruise as the Top Trip of a
Lifetime. Cruising as the most desired travel experience and Australia as
favorite Dream Destination.
Virtuoso®, the leading network of luxury-focused travel advisors, proves that the affluent have no intention of sticking close to home when it comes to their travel aspirations. Today Virtuoso reveals findings from its fifth annual“Travel Dreams” survey, a poll made available earlier this year through the network’s award-winning magazine, VIRTUOSO LIFE®. Responses came from the magazine’s readers who are among the world’s most sophisticated travelers, in part because they rely on the expertise, knowledge and connections of Virtuoso travel advisors. Full survey results appear below.
Spending time on the high seas emerged as a common theme. Taking a world cruise and sailing the Mediterranean by private yacht were the top two “Trips of a
Lifetime,” while cruising was selected as the “Most Desired Travel Experience.”Australia, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand and Greece appear as the
top five“Dream Destinations,” respectively, indicating a desire to venture farther from home.
The Greek Isles also emerged as the “Top Island Escape,” especially with women, single travelers older than 50 years of age and travelers hailing from the southern U.S.
Former favorites such as the Galápagos Islands slipped from the “Trips of a Lifetime” category to make room for experiences like chartering a private jet. The Caribbean, a previous favorite in the “Dream Destinations” category, was replaced by newcomers like China and Ireland. The rising popularity of historical journeys and cultural experiences, both of which rank high as “Most Appealing Travel Experiences,” may account for the shift in destination preferences.
“Virtuoso clients are some of the most sought-after travelers because of their strong desire for authentic experiences and their propensity to vacation longer and more frequently, and spend more,” says Elaine Srnka, editorial director for VIRTUOSO LIFE. “How and where they want to travel is as vast and varied as the world itself. The ‘Travel Dreams’ results allowed us to determine distinct‘Virtuoso
Traveler’ profiles based on common likes and dislikes, which is the key to
understanding the motivation behind selecting certain travel products and
destinations.”
Virtuoso identified five individual traveler profiles.
‘Adventurers’ like communing with nature in destinations such as Kenya, but
forego Western Europe and organized outdoor activities.
‘Beachgoers’ share a love of water, whether in Australia, French Polynesia or Italy, but avoid expedition cruises and group tours.
While ‘Cruisers’ favor long vacations, their destinations vary based on age: the Mediterranean appeals to those under 35 years; Alaska for travelers 35-49 years; and world voyages for travelers over 50 years.
‘Culture Seekers’aim to visit all seven continents and like to soak in their surroundings and the local language, but you will not find them beachside.
‘Families’ are drawn to beach resorts, national parks and European villas over
theme parks. While the Hawaiian Islands are the clear family favorite, other
desired destinations vary based on children’s ages: families with children under
17 years venture to the Caribbean, while families with children over 18 years
opt for Italy.
Virtuoso identifies its readers as married (73 percent), female (61 percent) with children age 18 or older (47 percent). Sixty-two percent of readers are between the ages of 35 and 65, and 46 percent have household incomes in excess of U.S. $150,000. Sixty percent plan to take three or more short vacations this year (defined as four nights or less), while 63 percent will take an additional one-to-two longer vacations and 33 percent will take more than three longer vacations this year (defined as five nights or longer).
The "Travel Dreams" survey, conducted between January 1 and March 31, 2011, yielded nearly 14,000 responses.
Top Trips of a Lifetime:
1. Setting sail on a world cruise
2. Sailing the Mediterranean on a private yacht
3. Calling on all seven continents
4. Renting a European villa
5. Visiting all seven New Wonders of the World
6. Photographing the "Big five" on African Safari
7. Renting a private island
8. Blasting off on a Virgin Galactic flight
9. Chartering a private jet
10. Dining through Paris' best restaurants
Top 10 Dream Destinations:
1. Australia
2. Italy
3. South Africa
4. New Zealand
5. Greece
6. Antarctica
7. France
8. French Polynesia
9. China
10. Ireland
Most Appealing Types of Travel Experiences1. Cruising
2. Beach
3. Historical Journeys
4. Cultural experiences
5. Adventure/Nature exploration
6. Relaxation
7. Romantic getaways
8. Safaris
9. Family/multi-generational travel
10. Educational
The most alluring island escapes, according to the survey, are the Greek Isles,
Hawaiian Islands, Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, Bali, Fiji, the
Caribbean, Bay of Islands (New Zealand), Seychelles and Capri.
The greatest outdoor adventures include an African safari, exploring a national
park, expedition cruising, hiking/walking tours and whale-watching. The most
ideal family destinations are the Hawaiian Islands, Italy, the Caribbean,Alaska, South Africa.
The most romantic cities are Paris, Venice, Santorini (Greece), Rome and Florence, The most desired enriching experiences are cooking schools, archaeological explorations, historical pilgrimages, photography instruction and foreign language.
Most Ideal Family Destinations are the Hawaiian Islands, Italy, the Caribbean, Alaska and South Africa.
Most Desired Enriching Experiences
1. Cooking School
2. Archaeological exploration
3. Historical pilgrimage
4. Historical pilgrimage
5. Foreign language immersion
Top Seagoing Cruise Itineraries
1. Mediterranean
2. World cruise
3. Australia/New Zealand
4. Alaska
5. South Pacific
The top river cruise itineraries are a French wine country canal cruise, a Danube River cruise, an Amazon River cruise, a Rhine River cruise and a Nile River cruise. The top seagoing cruise itineraries are the Mediterranean, world cruise, Australia/New Zealand, Alaska and South Pacific.
The most craved dining destinations are Paris, Rome, Florence, New Orleans and New York City. The most toasted wine regions are Tuscany, Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Champaign and the Loire Valley.Method 1: 0-0-6
Method 2: 4-5-4
Method 3: 2-0-3
Method 4: 6-7-2
Method 5: 2-5-7
Method 6: 5-9-1 -
Quote: Originally posted by Harve$t Moon on Feb 27, 2012
Facebook Creates a New Millionaire’s Club…And a Few Billionaires Too
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg
The millionaire's club has to make room for a few more hundred people...at least.Facebook filed to go public on Wednesday and many current and former employees are expecting huge paydays. The public offering could value the social media titan between $75 billion to $100 billion and for those employees who received stock options, their personal worth could equal several hundred million dollars.Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, is slated to become one of the richest people in the world with a personal fortune of at least $28 billion. His salary will be cut to $1 from $1.48 million last year, effective Jan. 1, 2013.Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who made $30.8 million last year, will enter the billionaire's club for the first time and early Facebook investors like Peter Thiel and venture capital firm Accel Partners are both expected to net profits in the billions.Even Facebook's biggest foes - Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss - will become richer, thanks to the 1.2 million shares they own, part of the settlement deal they agreed to after suing Zuckerberg for stealing their idea. (Have you seen The Social Network?) Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to concentrate on expanding Facebook, which he started with a few friends in his sophomore college dormitory eight years ago. Facebook has 845 million users worldwide.The New York Times profiled graffiti artist David Choe as one example of how Facebook's public offering will change the lives of thousands of people. Choe was hired to paint murals on the walls of Facebook's Palo Alto office in 2005; instead of taking cash as payment, he accepted several hundred stock options. Those shares could be now worth north of $200 million.Zuckerberg's father Edward, a dentist in New York, will also greatly benefit from the IPO. He was given two million shares "in satisfaction of funds provided for our initial working capital," according to Facebook's S1 filing.One person left out of the Facebook filing is estranged Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin. Zuckerberg's former best friend and roommate, and the one who provided the company's early financing, Salverin has sold a majority of his stake (worth five percent) of the company on the secondary market.Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson joined The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task to discuss the Facebook IPO and how the newly-minted Facebook millionaires will be spending their money. Google's IPO in 2004 made many people rich, but Facebook's public offering takes it to another level."It's a monument to capitalism," Carlson says. "A thousand millionaires overnight."Thanks ~ Morgan Korn
Pick 3
Method 1: 1-7-0
Method 2: 9-4-9
Method 3: 9-7-7
Method 4: 4-3-4
Method 5: 6-6-2
Method 6: 8-2-3Play 4
Method 1: 2-7-3-5
Method 2: 0-0-6-4
Method 3: 9-9-9-7
Method 4: 1-1-6-8
Method 5: 0-3-3-6
Method 6: 1-1-2-1$$$$$$$$$$
Mark Zuckerberg's Lackluster Love for Profits
By now you've heard, Facebook filed paperwork to sell shares of the company to the public on Wednesday. The I.P.O. is expected to top Google's record $1.67 billion 2004 tech offering with a value between $5 billion and $10 billion, making the company worth a hefty $75-to -$100 billion.
The S1 form, which gets submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission by companies that wish to go public, is filled with details never before seen by the outside world. In the case of this generation's tech giant, the filing contains a treasure trove of information for the media, analysts and investors to devour and discuss with excitement.
Nicholas Carlson spent his Wednesday night pouring over the document with a team of his Business Insider colleagues and joined The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task this morning to hash through the revelations and highlights.
#1 Shocking Number of Users: It's been project by outside forecasting groups that Facebook will hit 1 billion users this year, possibly near the end of summer. The S1 revealed that the company is well on its way to that milestone and could even hit the mark sooner.
The social networking site has 845 million monthly users and 483 million daily users. The number of people in December who used Facebook on the go using a mobile application was 425 million.
To try to comprehend those figures, Carlson compares the number of daily Facebook users to the number of people who tune in for Super Bowl, which is usually the most-watched television broadcast of the year. Two years ago, the Super Bowl game between the Colts and the Saints became the most-watched show of all-time with 106 million viewers. Facebook attracts more than four times the number of people each day!!
#2 Slowing Revenue Growth: Facebook's revenue hit $3.71 billion last year and grew by 88% from 2010 to 2011. But that increase is well below the 154% growth from 2009 and 2010. Profits for 2011 totaled roughly $1 billion.
Facebook derives 85% of its revenue from ad sales. In 2011, Facebook added 42% more ads than the year before and sold them for 18% more than 2010.
#3 Mark Zuckerberg's Lackluster Love for Profits: In a letter to investors included in the filing, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described how he is more interested in social connectedness than money and generating profits.
"Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected," he writes. "We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do.
For a man that is now worth upwards of $25 billion, it is hard to believe he does not care about money, says Carlson. But to Zuckerberg's credit, Carlson notes Zuckerberg has always said he does not care about money.
In that same vein, Zuckerberg does not want to relinquish control of Facebook like the Google co-founders did when they brought in Eric Schmidt. "He doesn't want people who really care about money to screw it up," says Carlson. "I think he sees them as different and he doesn't want them to really run the company."
Zuckerberg currently owns 28.4% of the company and controls 54% of the voting rights, giving him more power at Facebook than Bill Gates had when Microsoft went public in 1986.
#4 Facebook Risk Factors: Last but not least are the risk factors Facebook sees as potentially harmful to its bottom line. Among a host of factors, the company sees competition from Google, Microsoft and Twitter as a "significant" risk.
Carlson agrees that competition from someone who can do it better and faster is a threat to the company, especially coming from a start-up, which might "do exactly what Facebook did to everybody else."
Thanks ~ The Daily Ticker
Pick 3
Method 1: 8-5-9
Method 2: 1-5-1
Method 3: 9-7-9
Method 4: 0-9-3
Method 5: 9-3-0
Method 6: 9-1-0Play 4
Method 1: 9-1-7-1
Method 2: 9-8-6-4
Method 3: 4-8-3-7
Method 4: 1-6-6-1
Method 5: 4-2-8-0
Method 6: 3-5-6-3Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion
You know what’s cool? Buying Instagram for a billion dollars.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today, via Facebook of course, that the social networking giant is purchasing Instagram, the very popular photo sharing company. According to a press release put out by Facebook, it paid $1 billion for the company.
“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”
While Facebook is expected to integrate Instagram more closely with its web and app offerings, Zuckerberg also says that it will build and grow the Instagram app independently. “Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”
Instagram, which was released for Android smartphones just last week, allows users to apply filters to images and then share them with others on the network and other social networks, including Twitter. Facebook stressed that it wouldn’t remove the feature that allows for sharing across other social networks. Instagram currently has only nine employees.
The acquisition is the Facebook’s biggest yet, but Zuckerberg says these types of deals won’t be frequent. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” he added.
Thanks ~ Joanna Stern
Apr 9, 2012 1:28pm
922 124 682 023 184 622
5702 5292 8830 3294 4850 8039
"See It! Believe It! Receive It!"
I am who I am, Not because of who I am, But because the Great I AM, Made me who I am.
Power Numbers Numbers Of Opulence Universal Dreams Empress-N Hot Triads All States P4 - Triads
Lotto Losers Lounge Harve$t Moon Billionaires Club - Members Only TRIADS All States P4 Lottery Bible__________________________________________________________________
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“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineHow to Feel Rich, Even When You Aren’t (Yet)
Today’s story shares a way for you to keep your energy in the “energy of rich” even when you can’t yet afford all the things you want…* * *Oh I love this question about money~Hi Summer, I can always generate feelings of wealth while at home doing chores like folding laundry or vacuuming. But when I am out shopping for my family my thoughts always boomerang between I don’t have money for what I really want to buy and I am a wealthy person. How do you personally keep a budget and still feel like a wealthy person?She’s asked something that I hear over and over: How do you feel rich when you clearly aren’t, and when you keep encountering situations that remind you that you’re not (like holiday shopping)?There is a beautiful, simple answer in the Land of Flow. It’s this:Rich people are responsible with and respectful of their money (if they want to stay rich!). They treat it well, watch over it, and make sure their wealth is always growing. When they go to the store, they buy what makes them feel good and gives them pleasure.They can afford to buy more expensive things because they have the income to support the purchase. If they didn’t have the money to cover it, they wouldn’t make the purchase, because it wouldn’t make them feel rich–it’d make them feel poor. They only buy what’s within their comfort zone of responsibility and respect for their finances.Every time you make a purchase, you’re affirming that you have money to spend. The “how much” is totally relative. A “rich” person could spend $100 on a sweater and feel good. But they might not spend $200 on it since that would make them feel that they “don’t have enough” (are too poor) to cover it.So the question really becomes, what is your “rich” level? Maybe you can afford a $20 sweater, and you feel great about buying it! But not a $100 sweater. The key is to spend money wisely that you do have. Just like a rich person does. (By the way, a truly “rich” person isn’t living on credit, or teetering on the edge of financial collapse to support a habit of overspending. That person is actually a “poor” person with bad monetary habits of overspending their resources.)The second part to the answer is this: Rich people are responsible with their money. So even when you look at something and say to yourself, “I really can’t afford that right now,” you can instead rephrase it like a rich person would and say, “I’m really good with my money, and so I’m choosing not to buy that at this time.” This doesn’t close the door to buying it later, rather, it acknowledges how responsible and wise with money you are, and right now you wouldn’t spend money you don’t presently have.Now the question, finally, becomes: “Well then how do I just getmoremoney, so I havemoreto spend!?” And that is a good subject for a whole other article…look for it from me, soon!Now something to think about:When I buy something, are the thoughts that spring up first ones that make me feel guilty and poor, or rich and responsible?
Thanks ~ Summer McStravick, finerminds comPick your pairs from the images below and add 0 to 9
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“How you do anything is how you do everything.”United States
Member #76,984
July 10, 2009
10,811 Posts
OfflineQuote: Originally posted by mjoyg1123 on Apr 15, 2012
Thanks for this article HM!
It is a good one!
YW, MJ! Glad that you like it!