Tokyo Commuter

Micro-equity 2

Micro-equity is a combining of micro-credit, which has done wonderful things in the world, with venture capital, which creates new economies.

The transaction size can be bigger, up to US$10,000, but the micro-finance firm retains a 50% stake in the recipient firm. The concept has two advantages over micro-loans:

1) The Micro-equity firm is highly motivated to assist in the success of the investee.

2) The Micro-equity firm earns a profit through capital gains at exit, which profits can be used to launch the dreams of even more entrepreneurs.

Downside:

1) The transaction size is so small that the Micro-equity firm is de-motivated to analyze business plans.

2) The cost per transaction, particularly for fixed costs of the fund and for sourcing potential deals, is extreme.

Hints for adults with ADD

Some of these are taken from Edward Hallowell’s excellent book, Delivered from Distraction

1)      Focus long enough to read through this whole list; none of the suggestions are too trivial, for from small and simple things are great things brought to pass; for ADD people, life failure often comes from failure in doing the details

2)      Marry the right person (you need a person who loves you for who you are and is patient and who can fill in the skill gaps, but won’t take over and become a parent)

3)      Find the right job (focus on what you are naturally good at and find others to do the rest; stay away from a boss who will demean you for weaknesses)

4)      Put a basket near the door for your car keys and other things you must take with you when you leave home

5)      Don’t expect perfection, as everyone makes mistakes

6)      Attack those piles of papers, etc that you have around your house

7)      Put enough waste paper/trash bins around your house; quit hording bits of paper that might seem important at first glance

8)      Do what you are good at, rather than spending all your time trying to improve what you are bad at

9)      Focus on diet: ADD people often use carbohydrates or drugs to medicate; instead, take Omega-3 fatty acid supplements every day

10)  Hire someone to finish projects if you can think of a way to arrange it; don’t let your spouse do all of it; hire accountants and lawyers, etc. to take care of details

I'll post more soon. Please consider these

Introduction to Micro-Equity

The trainmasters’ inhumanity to man is not the greatest evil in the world. Other issues need addressing more than my snivelings and rantings in this blog.

----------

I believe that our Heavenly Father is unhappy with us because of the economic differences among His children. He is not surprised, as he knows the beginning from the end, but he is incensed by our indifference and blindness. He looks upon the poor, and weeps. He looks down upon the inattentive rich in front of their plasma screens, and he is exasperated. We pray for the poor. We ask why God does not free them from poverty. Then we turn on an NFL game, which is the opiate to assuage our consciences. He will not force us to do good, so we continue to pass the chips around while watching American Idol.

    Since the days when Dickens began to bring the issue to light, many strategies have been attempted. From Marx to LBJ, most of them have focused on using the power of the sheriff to steal from the rich (and the slightly-less-poor people) and giving it the poor in exchange for votes and support from the poor. These “do-gooders” have fomented class envy, but have not solved the problem. Today’s poor suffer less than the poor in times past, only because capitalism (in the few instances it has been allowed cultivation) has created a rising tide that lifted all ships. But capitalism has not solved the problem either: inequities still exist.

    Pursuit of profit is not the cause. Pursuit of hedonism is the problem. Selfishness is the root. Socialists love to harangue capitalists because it is a system which encourages selfishness. Capitalism can indeed facilitate the spiraling of a society into depravity. But statism has not encouraged selflessness, and furthermore has not added any value in the pursuit of happiness for anyone, except for those few insiders who have jobs in the bureaucracy and can use their positions to gratify their own pride. Statists often do create organizations that benefit society, but are completely unable to dismantle those organizations when they are no longer needed, even when they become harmful. The degenerating effects to society of LBJ’s programs are well documented.

Now, I am certainly not an apologist for capitalism, but I see few of its critics removing their posteriors from the sofa to do anything to solve economic inequities. I think that criticizing capitalism—the only rational system in theory or in practice—takes our focus away from actually doing something.

    Enter the social entrepreneur.

Whereas the real value of capitalism to society lies in the entrepreneurial aspects (creating value, creating jobs, producing in sectors that are currently needed for society, building etc.), many people believe that applying entrepreneurial principles and practices to the non-profit sector to solve social problems is the way forward.

Is solvency possible?

Jesus said “the poor always ye have with you.”  Was this His recognition of our unwillingness to share, or was He expressing a prophetic resignation to reality? I don’t know; I only know His heart to the extent that I can say he wasn’t encouraging or even giving up on the problem. He was just proposing an umbrella solution to all problems faced by the world in any and all ages as a higher priority.

    Decreasing the economic gaps may or may not be possible, but we must to the right thing anyway. That is the aim of Pavant Capital. More to come in the months ahead.

Slouching into Maturity

Soon, companies in Japan will induct new graduates into their companies. The trains will be full of giddy young folks, on their way to their new jobs. The first two weeks will be playful, sitting in meetings and partying in the evenings with the other new inductees. The young men will be learning how to comb the mops on their heads, the young women how to walk in a suit and heels. They will all pretend to be adults. Then suddenly the orientation will be period will be over, and they will be adults, weighed down by the cares and responsibilities of adulthood. Their shoulders will soon begin to slump as the train lurches and chugs toward the gray-walled offices each day.

Too little information

The reason I am late getting home is because I got lost in Tokyo station tonight. I’ve walked through this station hundreds of times over the years, but decided to come from a different direction. I just followed the signs, but the direction signage was designed and placed by an evil person who will have to answer for his actions someday. Maybe he feels insecure about his marriage or he is angry that the sports team he supports got whipped. So we are all his victims. Should I say “he or she?” I think not, as everyone with the authority to hang train stations is male.

Japanese trains peeve me

My single biggest peeve related to Tokyo commuting is how the stations are constructed.

No one who is allowed to give input on the construction or modification of Japanese train stations has even been handicapped or known a handicapped person, has ever met an elderly person, has ever known someone who had children. And none of them could have possibly ever been children. None of them have ever walked in high heels or carried luggage such as a briefcase. Otherwise they would design the stations to accomodate people other than young men who are traveling alone and empty handed and who like to be compressed next to other people. And no one who works for a train company has ever ridden a train.

Tonight I was in a train car that was full of people who wanted to sit more than they wanted air. They literally dove across the aisle everytime they thought a seat might become available.

Close quarters on the train

I have been blogging on this topic for one month now, and I realized today the thrust of the issue. I realized today that my biggest complaint about commuting in Tokyo is my gluteal muscle.

This is an uncomfortable topic, but is at the heart of the matter so must be disclosed. The issue is this: standing in such close proximaty to other passengers, my buns will inevitably be touching other people's buns. I don't like it at all. I have several strategies for posterior confrontations, but the confrontations still do occur sometimes.

This one issue could change my plans in Japan.

Back at Japanese Immigration

I am back at the Japanese immigration office today, filling my lungs full of dioxins from the plastics being burned at the public incinerator next door. Now I am begging for refuge for my family members.

The two Japanese members of our family that we adopted (see www.adoption.jp) don’t need visas, but the other four of us do.

I had rushed here, standing on a train so close to other people that based on tradition, the fathers of every girl on that train should have insisted that I marry their daughters. Now we jsut sit and wait. We are surrounded by people representing dozens of nations.

Dreaming of a new business opportunity

I would like to ask for advice from you, dear reader, about the hamburger sales business in my dream.

Last night I dreamed that I had purchased a hamburger joint near a college campus somewhere in Idaho. It was losing money, and I was desperate to succeed. It was called College Dairy, or something like it. The old man who was managing it insisted that we needed to achieve economies of scale by opening a second store. I believed that we needed to make the first one profitable first. I was sure that instead of investing in a second store, I could use that investment for marketing the first store.

If you had a pretend hamburger establishment, what would you do?

- open a second shop, and hope the two can synergize?

- solve the fundamental problems at the first shop?

- fire the manager and bring in fresh blood?

- get out of Idaho, as I know nothing about the market dynamics other than what I have learned from watching Napolean Dynamite?

- stop fantasizing about burger sales and dream about walking down the street in my underwear like everyone else?

I have been thinking about it all day, and appeal to you all for a solution which will help me sleep peacefully tonight. Maybe tonight I can dream that I am three days from high school graduation, but I realize that I have failed to attend my calculus class or take any tests for the previous four months, a nightmare I experience twice a year or so.

The places I've visited

I used the www.world66.com site to create a map of countries visited. Give it a try. Below are all the states that either Julie and I can remember visiting: