Men need a tribe.
In this age of easy travel and high speed internet in every pocket we still manage to have an atomized and disconnected culture.
People feel best when they feel connected to a group, and contribute. It’s not just about shooting the shit over poker chips and beer every Friday. Our ancient ancestors lived in literal tribes, and those that survived thrived best within a tribal social setup. We are at our best when we rely on each other and help each other.
We also need hope. Hope for a better future. Working together on a common cause can be more than the kind of hope that you scratch at the lottery ticket counter. Guys can pay their dues through long hours of diligent effort, and over years purchase their own freedom from this system of slavery that everyone assumes is inescapable.
Being an entrepreneur on your own is dangerous and difficult and risky. I didn’t go to college and just could not bring myself to get a career. For me working for a company, no matter what the salary, did not offer enough hope. I don’t want to just work the system well, I want to conquer it and have financial freedom. More than freedom, I want real power. Some periods I profited over $1000 per day, other periods I lived hand to mouth. During long lean periods I never wavered in my dedication to entrepreneurialship, because I new that I had a shot at greatness.
I’m 50 now, and have earned my food through my own self employed efforts all my life. Actually I’ve had little businesses since age 9. I didn’t go to business school, and there is a lot about running businesses that I have yet to learn. Some things I try fail, other things work. But by now I’ve built up some experience and momentum, and know how to be an entrepreneur.
I have two solid income streams that earn me enough to keep a staff of 3 engineers, two secretaries, one web developer, one 3d modeller, and two manufacturers. I also pay for a four story shophouse that acts as an office, R&D and fabrication lab. We are starting to smelt our own aluminum to use for making parts on the CNC router table that we manufactured. The staff is mostly working on a new startup that has not made one sale yet, but my profitable businesses earn more than enough to fund the new startups.
The shop house is in Java. The town doesn’t have much going for it, but I’ve made my 4th floor very comfortable, with a piano conservatory in an atrium beside my room, and a second atrium abuts the other side of my large room, so I like staying here. I have three girlfriends and another ex girlfriend is a personal assistant.
But I can’t be happy just with my businesses and the girls. Men need a tribe, and I need a tribe.
I have a ten year lease on a plot of land in a great area in Seminyak, Bali. The first bungalow is nearing completion. I will build three bungalows that have two stories, and two that have three stories. The land will be well landscaped with gardens and a good sized swimming pool.
I can use this land to house my tribe, but my plan is to sell off leases to some of the buildings, and get into the real estate development business. This means that I’ll be renting other plots of land and repeating the process.
I will also be building a factory in Bali. If all goes according to plan then construction will start before 2017 comes around. I’ll open a retail outlet in Bali too, that will attract tourists and locals. I also have a new startup business in the modelling industry, so there should be a steady stream of attractive women that need our attention.
I have plans to open up retail and engineering offices in other parts of the world. Bulgaria is one option, but I may also consider tourist towns in South America, Japan, and who knows where else.
When I was a teenager I wasn’t satisfied with my group of friends, and so I looked through the yearbook and thought about every guy in it, and chose a new friend. He didn’t live in my neighbourhood, but the travel was worth the effort. We quickly became good buddies, and it was great to finally hang with someone on the same wave length. We only hung out for a year, as he started doing too many drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd, so I gave up on him. He dropped out of school and committed suicide one year later. But that’s not the point. The point is I deliberately chose to create my own tribe, and it worked for a while. We had some of the best sympatico I’ve experienced in my life, and that’s a genuine treasure.
Or maybe it is the point. If he had not surrounded himself with a bad crowd, his life would not have led to suicide. Our friends are the biggest influence to our happiness, and we can choose them.
I’ve had guys out here before helping with my businesses and exploring the lifestyle that Bali and Java have to offer. I’ve had very positive feedback from most of them, while here and after they left, and no negative feedback from anyone. There were periods when not a day would go by that we didn’t each one of us give spontaneous thanks and gratitude for the lifestyle we were able to create. A big part of what made us happy was just each other. It’s really very good to have a tribe of men. A huge life improvement.
Sometimes there was just one guy out here, sometimes two or three. The max we had was eight.
I remember talking to Aaron about getting us all to work harder. I told him that if he was unable to help to motivate the guys to put in more hours then people would think that I was nothing but a guy with great ideas, but that I could not get things done and make real money. I know he heard me and that made solid sense to him, but we never did buckle down as a group. Aaron knew I pulled in ample money, and I don’t think he ever felt the same urgency to generate new profit that I did. I was offering everyone a good lifestyle of good food, booze, places to stay, and access SEA chicks and tourists. We were interested in entrepreneurial growth, but I failed to get people to put in 8 hours of productive work each week day. And that’s a small ask. Most entrepreneurs put in much more, and in many careers the expectations for work hours are enormous.
So when people didn’t work, they didn’t grow the businesses, which means that they only got a great lifestyle on my dime, which is not enough for people. People want to bank coin also.
To be an entrepreneur and grow your own businesses you have to pay your dues. Just like in any other way that you want to make money. Lawers put in HUGE hours in schooling and office work to get to the point where they succeed, and even then not all do succeed. Doctors are sleep deprived for years before they earn their high income lifestyle. Entrepreneurialism can bring in big money, but it doesn’t come easily. It doesn’t always come on the first try. It takes a lot of work.
I’m going to get a team together again, only this time we will work. At least 8 hours of productive work per day. I want men who are ambitious. I want men who will motivate each other, and not slide into habits of drinking and partying and surfing and fucking and schmoozing too much. We have a future to build. Not just a solid future, but a top 1% future. Maybe one in 10 guys who will join us will have the skill and diligence to make partnership, I don’t know. I’m only offering opportunity, it’s up to each guy to make something of it. I know that most people don’t have what it takes to put in hard work when they have the option not too. I personally have a hard time with motivation sometimes. Last week was a rough one for me, and I just couldn’t seem to motivate myself. It happens.
But one of the reasons I was unmotivated was because I lack social stimulation from a tribe.
Having a tribe is fucking great. If you haven’t had that, you’ve got to try it, at least once. We were built for that.
So I’m going to be working to build that up again. This site will go to a new domain, and someone will redesign it. I might have people start to post on some entrepreneurial forums. I might put ads in job boards.
What I have offered before is free room and board until the intern earned enough profit to pay me back everything I had invested in him. After that he could keep 20% of profits that he earned.
That 20% is difficult to keep track of, unless the intern is the only person working on a single project, and that’s not likely to happen. So we’ll have to come up with some way to get more clear about that.
Now some people might think 20% isn’t enough. Twenty percent is a great offer, and if you don’t think so go start your own businesses or build your career.
I’m also not going to give away 20% of businesses that I have already developed. The % is for new businesses that the interns develop.
I take all the financial risks. Nobody has to buy a franchise and risk losing his investment. The worst someone could lose is time away from developing their career. The best they can get is happiness and a great lifestyle and eventually vast wealth and global social connections.
As an entrepreneur I’ve had some really tough times. I’ve been too broke to pay my rent or even to cut my own hair. Entrepreneurialism is about risk versus reward, and you’ve all heard the statistics about what the risks are. Something like 90% of all startup businesses fail within the first few years.
But very few careers can give the big financial rewards that can come from having a stake in your own business. My father told me that nobody is going to make you wealthy working for their business. The system doesn’t work like that. Employees get compensation, but not a percent of profits. If you want to be wealthy you need your own business.
But one man businesses very rarely earn big wealth either. The corporate structure is thereby a necessity; men must work as a team in order to compete and bring in the big dollars.
You can get a good position in a good corporation. I’m not offering that. I’m offering starting corporations, from the ground up. I take all the risk for the entrepreneurship, I provide all the capital, and you get to earn a % of the company.
If five guys are working on a new company, they can’t all get 20% of the profits and leave me with nothing of course. And we will want to re-invest our profits into new ventures. So we’ll have to work out how company shares are distributed. Startups have done that in the past, so we can look to precedent. I also like the idea of a pool of resources only available while working in the corp, such as company cars, company villas, company yachts, and expense accounts. That way people will be better off staying then just building an income and leaving. And not everyone is going to make partner just by showing up either. People have to pay their dues here, just like anywhere else.
If anyone is interested in joining one of the first things I’ll have you do is work on recruitment from where you are now. Later you’ll need to relocate out to Indonesia. Later we’ll have travel and relocation options to our other offices.
I’ve built a good reputation here with my guys. People who have left have gone on to tell other guys that I’m a good mentor and that they had very positive experiences here. I think for some guys they will look back on the times here as some of the happiest in their life.
What is offered:
- A tribe of guys to collaborate at business and life with
- Access to tourist and SEA women
- Good accomodations in a good location in world holiday destination
- Good food
- Internship in real world hands on entrepreurialism from a successful entrepreneur with three decades of experience in many different fields.
- A possibility to get shares in the companies you help to build
What is expected of you; you have to be valuable to the group. That means:
- At least eight hours of productive focused work per day
- You have to be willing to follow orders, even if you disagree with those orders. Just because we are working as a group does not mean that there is no chain of command.
- You can’t have any mental or mood disorders, and you need to be able to be pleasant and even fun to be around.
- You have to have ambition for your life. The bigger the ambition the better.
- You need to be able to share the wealth. If deep down you want to own 100% of your own business one day, then don’t apply. This isn’t a school of entrepreneurialship or a summer camp. This isn’t a dress rehearsal for something else. This is start up businesses that you become a part of. I’ve had guys leave or not join because they wanted to work on their own modest effort, such as freelance web design. They preferred to keep 100% of something small rather than 20% of something big. If that’s how you think, you are not ready to contribute to this team.
- You have to be willing to go through periods of missing your home. It’s common to get home sick, but this isn’t summer camp where you call your Mommy to come get you because you are home sick. No matter how great the environment that I provide you with, it will not be your familiar home. You have to be able to deal with that.
- You will need to give notice if you choose to quit. I’ve had guys tell me one day that they are really happy to be here, and a few days later tell me that they bought tickets to leave tomorrow. What the fuck man. Grow up. When you invest yourself out here, take it as seriously as you would any job. It’s not only an opportunity, it’s also a responsibility. Give proper notice if you choose to leave. And that doesn’t mean “I’ll be in Bali for a few weeks on holiday before I fly out.” It means wrapping up your work and training up people to take over.
I’m expecting that we’ll again have a high turnover rate. Living in another country is not for everyone, and you’ll never know if it’s for you until you try it. And some guys will not be invited to stay on after their 3 month probation period. What we are building is a team of the best and the brightest PRODUCTIVE men. We will work in all possible ways to be as happy and fulfilled as possible. The business and the money is only one part of that. But it’s the best excuse to work together on the happiness project that I can think of. Those that succeed here will know a level of life success 90 percent of the world has never even considered possible. People already tell me that when they get to my age they want to have what I have, and I’m only getting started. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Lurkers, now is the time to get out of lurk mode and leave productive comments. Tell your friends. Suggest how I can make this vision reality.
Related:
Here Is Your Opportunity To Be Great (Guest Post by Aaron Sollesse)
Is being sigma possible, or is it refusing to acknowledge the inescapable game?
The application form linked in one of the above posts is not working properly right now. If you are interested email from the email address on the contact page and tell me about yourself. Please don’t waste my time with idle curiosity. If you are not emotionally capable and ready to live in Indonesia then don’t apply.
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John said:
Is this offer good, regardless of ethnic background or is it an exclusive group for whites?
xsplat said:
I’m an elitist, not a racist. If you are a cool and capable man I’d like to hear from you.
T said:
This presents a unique opportunity, and yet it is still a glorified job application for potential interns. I think you realize this already, as it is more framed as a job application than your previous call for interns. As such, it may be a good idea to go the route of a typical job application process. A lot of it just secretarial work. And they will definitely need to be trained in the candidate-filtering process.
-Have a website with some basic info about your company, current projects, etc. even name it something like XYZ Ventures unless you already have a name
-Have a page with details on this opportunity
-Post in typical job-posting sites. There are the typical ones like Monster, Workopolis, Indeed, LinkedIn – but this will likely give you a lot to filter through. There’s also the other route that I’ve previously used of posting specifically in university websites – that’s been my secret for a certain project. Colleges and universities have job posting boards, usually free, where you put your post up. Of course, the postings get reviewed by their staff, so you have to watch your wording, or just give a brief summary and a link to your website. This potentially opens the door to young bright minds from around the world with various specializations – with zeal and a sense of adventure who are willing to learn, follow orders, take direction, etc.
-Find ways of filtering candidates – job applications, looking at their facebook/linkedin profiles, tests, skype interviews, smaller remote projects, etc.
You need to ask yourself if you want to limit it to people who already know you from your blog. That can really limit candidates. There are likely people with similar mindsets who have never been exposed to your ideas. Or perhaps the blog can be included somewhere in the job posting, and be made part of the application process.
xsplat said:
I do have a company website that I use for recruitment, and I do contact all Universities within Indonesia for that.
But for the most part I’m not seeking westerners to help with the existing businesses. My existing businesses already have their own momentum, and I have little incentive to offer profit sharing for them; it makes more sense just to offer salaries. Except for those people that have exceptional abilities and talents to offer for whom I could not afford their salaries. For instance one applicant is an engineer with an IQ of 200 and is currently earning six figures. I told him that I want to wait some months and show him my financial statements for the business that I want him to help with before he comes out. My thinking is that he could offer unique contributions even to my existing businesses.
But for the most part I’m seeking guys to help to create new business ideas that I have yet to develop.
I need westerners for two reasons:
1) Social. I need a tribe, and other men need a tribe, and I’ve found that men socialize best when involved together working on a common project.
2) Westerners are better at problem solving and finding creative solutions and creative writing than are South East Asians.
Secretarial work that doesn’t require creative problem solving can be done by locals who get paid less in salary than it costs me to pay for room and board for Westerners. And I don’t have to give them any profit sharing options.
I need people to help with the hands on dirty work of entrepreneurialism. Not to run existing businesses that already are all set up; that is not entrepreneurialism. Employees and business-builders are very different job descriptions.
Yes, I do plan on posting on Western university and Western job boards, as well as on entrepreneurial forums. And I will let it be known which specialties I know that I need, such as copywriting, video production, marketing, etc. But some projects require more general G plus discipline than specific training.
T said:
You seem to already know what you want and how to go about it. I think finding a way to attract Australians would probably be a good idea as they are closer to Indonesia compared to Canada, US, or Europe. They would be better able to adapt to the life there, and it wouldn’t be much hassle to visit back home, or use their connections to make deals with contacts back home.
xsplat said:
Yes, airfare from Australia is cheaper, and they like visiting Bali. That might be worth looking into. I wonder why I have a sneaking suspicion that I’d not get along as well with Australians as I would with North Americans. I don’t have much experience with them, so I must have picked up some racial bias somewhere.
Canadians are stereotyped as being polite and laid back, and Australians are stereotyped as being gregarious and raucus, with “Americans” being in between. The Brits are all over the place depending on their social background. Do I have that about right?
T said:
That’s an interesting bias, I haven’t heard that about Australians. I’m Canadian and I’ve met Aussies from both ends of the spectrum, but I’ve seen Canadians of both ends as well.. I guess they may have the surfer image. Some would say stereotypes exist for a reason and that you are right, Others would say don’t knock it till you try it. You’ve lived in Canada, I am sure you’ve seen your fair share of not so polite and laid back folk. So who knows, at the end of the day, it’s your crew and you’ll have to deal with them.
xsplat said:
Ya. I’ll definitely give it a go.
I’m learning to do more with locals, but Western education is well known to be far superior. The local social and educational system is not geared to teach problem solving. The teacher would lose face if the student questioned authority.
I have had and do have some very capable Indonesian staff though, so like you say, it’s not only about stereotypes.
xsplat said:
I’ve hired new staff that will help with gearing up the property development business. I’m excited about the prospects.
I’ll be test driving the first bungalow within a few weeks.