小貓斑比

前幾天在雜誌上看到一則專欄
說的是發明PayPal的四人組，從矽谷發跡
有用過Ebay的人應該都知道PayPal是什麼吧
其實概念就是簡單的網路購物付費系統
也不是多困難的程式
只是可以讓消費者跟賣家都更有保障
他們發明之初也就是看好網路購物在幾年內會發達
在2002年左右才創立公司
先是獨立作業，後來推銷給Ebay這個大網拍網站
最後直接把公司+系統賣給Ebay，四個人都變成百萬富翁
平均年齡34歲

感覺在這個時代最重要的就是idea啊
其實很多成功的背後都只是很簡單的概念

附帶一提,這四人其中一位最近拍了部電影"Thank You For Smoking"
也是以小製作成本打下不錯的票房
是也沒有人規定搞電腦的人不能拍電影...

結論就是, 我這輩子大概當不成百萬富翁
自認為只是幫別人做事領薪水的料
要是被layoff也只好拍拍屁股走人那種
不過只要能吃的飽穿的暖有錢把自己養的好好的
不奢望住大房子有百萬名車
只想每天下班回家不用再擔心工作的事情
這樣就好
當然有時候也會覺得要是有錢一點就好了
也不用現在想買個筆記型電腦還要在$200-300塊價差中間掙扎

一切都是假的，畢業才是真的


**

The Silicon Screen
Erika R. Brown, 04.24.06

Geeks with money burning holes in their pockets discover a second career
in Hollywood.

Here's the pitch: four young guys from Silicon Valley start a little
company called PayPal. They run it for a few years, take it public,
sell it to Ebay, become millionaires and head to Hollywood to produce
a movie. The film is a hit.

It's Revenge of the Nerds meets Entourage.

Okay, the "hit" part is up in the air. But Thank You for Smoking, a
satire about a spin doctor who lobbies on behalf of Big Tobacco, is
coming to as many as 900 screens across the country this month.

Thank You, produced by newcomer David O. Sacks, is the latest example
of a new trend in Silicon Valley: geeks who made millions in tech testing
their resolve--and their riches--in Hollywood. Sacks' production company,
Room 9 Entertainment, is financed by him and three fellow PayPal
cofounders, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Their average age
is 34.

Not long after they took PayPal public early in 2002, the funds transfer
service became the most popular way to pay for items won at auction on
Ebay. Later that year they sold the firm to Ebay for $1.5 billion in
Ebay stock, making the four guys collectively worth something close to
$300 million.

They are a restless bunch. After the merger Thiel started a hedge fund,
Musk went into space exploration, and Sacks started reading screenplays.
He and his three friends put $4.5 million into the movie venture and
borrowed another $3 million. Thank You for Smoking is an adaptation of
a book by Christopher Buckley, editor of ForbesLife. Sacks spent 18
months negotiating the rights away from Warner Brothers and Mel Gibson's
Icon Productions, which had plunked $1 million into the project but done
nothing with it. After three months of filming and six months of tweaking,
the movie was ready for the Toronto and Sundance film festivals.

"The premiere was such a reward--like working for three years on PayPal
and finally getting to the IPO," says Sacks. "No one thought we could do
that, either."