August 14th, 2006 - Step Seven Completed

How To Double Your Way To A Million In 28 Steps

On August 13th, 2006 while out shopping with my wife I found two plastic bottles near the Stop and Shop supermarket. I thought this would be an easy way to make some money for DTAMP.

I went into the recycle part of the store but the machine rejected both plastic bottles. I read them again and it seems they could only be redeemed in New Hampshire or Maine and not in Massachusetts. I threw them in the trash can and after leaving the area I realized that I should have saved them because I go up to New Hampshire every once in a while and I could have redeemed them at that time. So in essence I threw away ten cents which at this time was a large percentage of my gains.

The more I thought about this idea the more it sounded like a good opportunity to build my "Stake". I could easily collect up old discarded glass bottles, plastic bottles and aluminum cans and redeem them for a nickel a piece.

So it was decided for my first business I would go into "Recycling Engineering" or the "Scrap Collecting Industry". Of course some people might just call it collecting up other people's garbage or discarded refuse. It doesn't seem like a proud, noble or particularly clean sounding business but I just needed to be in the business long enough to complete Step Seven and then move onto more respectable and high falutin enterprises. After all who wants to be socializing at a party when people could say, "This is Mr. Goldbar, his firm owns 27 gold mines and this Mr. Richest, his firm provides all the finances for Mr. Goldbar and this is Bob he collects beer cans off the street".

Well anyways you get the picture. Its not that I am too proud to show my face in public but I have decided to only show a facsimile at this present time.


This is not an actual photo
of Xinfinitum, only a facsimile.

Lessons:

(1). Even when making a mistake it can sometimes help you to create a new idea that you can put into motion. Other people are throwing away plastic and glass bottles in Mass. that are redeemable in N.H. and not in Mass. Even at the store recycle centers they throw them in the trash just like I did with the two I found. In fact I saw some in the trash can when I threw mine in. Since I need to travel to N.H. anyways from time to time I may be able to raise some funds using this method. At five cents($0.05) per bottle, 20 bottles would be a dollar. This early in the game that would accelerate me quite quickly.

(2). There is a lot of lost money out there. Lost change totaling in the millions of dollars no doubt. Plus it renews itself continually. Finding it is the hard part, but one could become a millionaire just finding lost change. I found twenty-five cents in a short time of looking down in only a few places, multiply that times thousands upon thousands of places and you could easily see how a million dollars in change is lying around. There IS a million dollars just lying on the ground. Perhaps there is a unique way to find an advantage in that situation. Have to think about it. Robin told me that she has a friend whose Grandparents, in their early 80's save up enough money to make a trip up to new England each year just from money they find lying around on the ground.

(3). There have been a number of side benefits that I have noticed from all the activity surrounding this project. One is my wife and I have been getting some exercise from all the walking around we have been doing while I have been looking for some money on the ground. The second is that with picking up trash that is lying around, such as the plastic bottles, I have been cleaning up litter, making the world a cleaner place. It may have only been two bottles so far but that is two less to litter the environment. Another side benefit is although my wife is not doing the project she has been learning and applying some of the lessons that I am learning after I have been explaining my experiences to her. She is finding some of them useful in her approach to issues at her job and other areas of her life.

Step Seven was now complete: $0.71

(Please see the Time Line for the actual events.)

Motto: It is only "one" found penny.

Regards,

Xinfinitum



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