Money
Yesterday MySpace, which was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for $580 million, was valued to be worth around $15 billion dollars. And YouTube, a company that has always lost money and has no business model, was purchased by Google for over a $billion. While some people might look at numbers like that with their eyes aglow, there is an interesting quote from Craig Newmark (of craigslist) in this article:
Craig says “Who needs the money? We don’t really care. If you’re living comfortably, what’s the point of having more?” He said that he and craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster agree on not cashing in. “We both know some people who own more than a billion (dollars) and they’re not any the happier. They also need bodyguards.”
I couldn’t agree more.
My goals for ZAT are:
1) have fun!
2) work on something interesting and technically challenging, with other interesting and smart people
3) make enough money so the site is self-sustaining
4) provide a useful service to people
5) encourage world understanding through travel
If those goals are met, I will be very happy.
I’ve sold companies I founded for millions of dollars, and I’ve also been dirt broke in my life. Money has never made that much of a difference to my happiness. Having enough money to be free to work on whatever you want is cool, and being able to help out your family in times of need is good, but beyond that, to paraphrase Craig, who the hell needs the money? I had to spend far more time worrying about money when I had it then when I didn’t.
People who spend all their time trying to get more money, don’t have a life.
–wm
First, I am totally digging the site and the concept behind it (really loved the ppt, which helped me out a lot in terms of grasping your structure and set up)
I agree here though. What is the point of having mountains of money? I need enough to live, enough to support my family, and a little left over to keep the tension off.
There’s no contest between whether to have money or have not. The real winner is having enough to get by, without it being the only important thing in your life. After all, if you’re working to earn a billion dollars, what do you do next? What’s the motivation (if your motivation all along has been to earn money) to keep on growing, in your career or in life?
Great site… I live to travel and can’t wait to see how you guys keep it going. Thanks.
David
Comment by David — 7 November 2007 @ 8:20 am