How to start a company
How I did it: I worked for a few months making money as a real estate agent. I ran around with my friend David, helping people find apartments. David and I saved up about $100,000 this way.
At some point, I decided that certain regions of the world (especially Africa) are in a state of constant tragedy, and that the most worthwhile use of my life would be to try to help out as best I can. I thought at first that I should raise a mercenary army, but my plans evolved in a more peaceful direction (help the natives develop their own lands and resources apart from the greedy hands of the empires).
In order to do this, I needed to gain power. Today, MONEY is one of the most basic and easily transferable forms of power. In order to accomplish my life's work, I first need to amass a great deal of liquid capital.
Naturally, the first thing I did was start a company. I put all of my money into it, and all of my credit cards. David did the same. We got an office and hired a few people. We grew slowly for a few months, spending a lot of money, bringing in a lot of money, but overall losing a little bit of money each month.
As we naturally evolved as businessmen, we were able to fix up the system well enough to turn a profit after about 6 months. Over the course of the next few months, we have been continuously improving the system.
We are now at a point (having just passed the one-year anniversary of the formation of our company) that our profits are high enough to grow the company at a more rapid rate. In fact, we have several investors lined up to buy small chunks of the company for large chunks of cash, which will help us expand even faster. We plan to take the rest of the Manhattan market within the next year or so.
I will use this company to make my first million... then, unfortunately, I may have to satisfy my travel bug and take off for a few years. Once I get that out of my system, I'll have enough liquid capital to start another huge company... in a warmer place than NYC.
Lessons & tips: Make sure that if you're starting a company and committing yourself to a particular geographic location, that you will be happy living there for a long time! You may get stuck there, even if you think you won't.
If you are starting a business with partners, MAKE SURE TO DRAW UP A GOOD OPERATING AGREEMENT!
Resources: Experience.
