Consider all phenomena to be dreams
Be grateful to everyone
Don’t be swayed by outer circumstances
Don’t brood over the faults of others
Explore the nature of unborn awareness
At all times simply rely on a joyful mind
Don’t expect a standing ovation
Nothing is permanent – The Buddha
There are many ways to build wealth, I believe investing is by far the most efficient. I have thought about this problem for a number of years. IMHO, startup investing or investing in founders at the Seed or Pre-Seed Stage has the best risk-reward profile (read best Return On Invested Capital). For those who don’t know how I got started, here is how it all began. I did not have any money to get started so I borrowed money from my family who trusted me to do good with the money. I invested all of that money in 1 company and worked with those founders to build that company. We got lucky where my first investment got acquired by a NASDAQ listed company in 3 years from the date we invested. The ROIC on that investment was 2.5x or for every $1 invested we got back $2.50 at the end of the 3rd year. My return profile has improved considerably since that and my average ROIC is close to 50x. Many people who start investing in early stage realize how counter intuitive this type of investing is a.k.a Black Swan Farming. I think everyone can generate that kind of returns and I don’t think everyone needs to start where I did i.e at 0. Today there are various ways in which someone with as little as $500 or €500 or £500 depending on where you are in the western world get started with learning to invest in startups.
I believe that everyone is an investor especially founders, what do you call a founder and her team spending so much time building value for their company? I think every individual is also an investor but they just don’t know how or where to get started. I want to write about how someone who has no experience investing in startups can get started and actually make some money doing this. The best strategy is hands-on-knowledge, i.e. learn about investing by doing. Investing is an apprenticed skill i.e. you have a teacher and you learn by doing. Think of it like learning to be a Jedi 🙂 Sorry had to go there because it is such a good example. Anyways, I digress, if you want to learn how to invest there are platforms like Angel List and FunderBeam, which allow anyone to join and follow investors in their investing strategies. If you are interested just email me and I can help you get started, please note all investing is risky i.e. you can lose money but that should never be the reason for anyone not to try. The best lessons are learnt losing money.
Think about how cool it would have been to follow Warren Buffet when he was just starting Berkshire Hathaway and you could invest in all the companies that he and Charlie Munger invested in and follow their exits and strategies? Or you could have joined his original partnership by investing $500 into his venture? You will have built tremendous wealth, don’t believe me? If you invested $1000 in Berkshire Hathaway in 1964, that investment would be worth approximately $16,000,000 today (yes, Sixteen Million Dollars). If you invested $1000 every year since 1964, your total investment would be worth $124,000,000 ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. Ok, that is nothing to be shy about. 
