Let me back up a little. Google has volunteer days – maybe once every 6 months, and this year, instead of a skiing off site, I decided to do something for someone else. The event that we signed up for really made my day, as my major in college was entrepreneurship, and I was judging the entrepreneurship section of the DECA event. We had 2 hours to read the detailed business plans in written form, and then 15 minutes each to review the presentations of the actual high school students.

So fast forward, I was sitting at a judging table, and the organizers brought the kids over to me to pitch their business ideas. I had 5 kids. All of them were great. I won’t go into detail, but their plans were quite solid. I would say, 3 of them had ok plans. Great passion. Loved the writing. Finances were way off The judges agreed during lunch that their concepts are great, but the revenue forecasts and business acumen of simply adding the numbers didn’t make sense. Essentially, they lacked the experience to give proper judgment to market expectations and conditions that influence their revenue and expense numbers. That said, the kids looked sharp in their suits, and I commend them for stepping up, giving it shot, and taking feedback on how to improve their presentations.

One of my kids really stood out, he had a killer PowerPoint slide, great presentation skills, and a solid plan. Unlike the other kids, his business was simple, clean, and close to his passions. One kid had a $2,000,000 business plan to open a club. I’m said, “why do you need so much money? Where are you going to get it?” Another kid, had an organizational chart with 3 ivy league MBAs working for him. His first year revenue projections are 250k, and his employee wage expenses in the same year is 360k. Unbelievable. He had great charisma and strategy-speak potential. But his plan was probably copied from one of his business school uncles.

The one kid that stood out was really passionate, and he had a GREAT plan. He needed $26,000 to bank on the first year for expenses. He already talked to his dad and the bank about how to get it. He business was focused around his passion – video games. He already had contacts that organized unofficial game tournaments. He knew his market, his city, his demographics, and even had brochure for the store times and store manager schedules. It was amazing. Towards the end I gave him some advice about incorporation and tax shelters. He thanked me, and he said something that was interesting to me. He said, “I am really glad that you are my coach today, thank you for all your advice.”. A simple phrase that was, but it revealed a lot subtleties about this kid’s potential. He was able make me feel special. He took feedback well. He was more focused on his business than winning to plan competition, and ironically those usually are the business plans that do best anyway. Because they don’t care if they win (well, maybe they do a little bit), but ultimately they are going to change their destinies regardless of anyone else. That’s an entrepreneur.

Thinking back on this in highschool, I realized that often times, dad was very stressed from work. Although we lived a seemingly lavish lifestyle moving from country to country, the truth of the diplomatic family is that most of them are not paid that well. They are paid fairly, and most expenses related to moving are sponsored by the government. As dad used to say, we have a lot of power, but not as much money in the government. As I got older dad become more mature, and we became better friends rather than a father-son relationship.

This was one of the big influences in my life, watching dad work in the government and slowly began to lead me to pursue the study of business as a way to escape the “bad government boss” with too much authority entrapment. In economics class with Mr. T in highschool, he always stressed supply and demand. “The market always adjusts”, he would say as a supply-side economist (slight bias there on his part). I began to believe in the power of the capitalistic system. A system built upon the idea that in order to garner wealth and power, you must provide a good or service that benefits and adds value to others. How cool is that!!?

To my slight disappointment, there are many flaws in the capitalistic system. However, these flaws all at some level go back to the core of the human vices. Greed. Vengeance. Abuse of Power. Vanity. To date, it is a better system to advancing our race given the nature of humans.

Why I am telling you this story? It happened such as long time ago. Well. Today I had my first taste of the micro manager. My head felt like it hurt from stress, and I realized that I have never felt this way before. It was an interesting feeling. Fear. The power struggle at work and the feeling of someone having control over your survival value. It is a very humbling, humiliating as well as scary feeling. The reason I got into business was that I believed in the value of the market and that a skilled person can always find employment. While this is true to some degree, there are other things that hold you back to a job as well. Including your savings, health benefits and overall career momentum.

Guys, I feel… defeated. However, in my misery I promised myself one thing: that one day I would become rich enough to not have to bow down to a manager at company. I never, ever want to feel like this again if I can have the power to change it.

Here is a scene from a cool move “Wanted”. This scene happens after Wes meets the fraternity, and is told that he has inherited his father’s fortune and that he was meant for more than to be just a “sheep”. His best friend is fucking his girlfriend, and his life is a mess.