I wrote in September 2007 that beggars in KL can earn RM8,000 a month – well you can throw that piece of news out of the window now, since it was reported by Kosmo in October 2009 that according to the President of the Muslim Restaurant Operators’ Association of Malaysia (Presma), Datuk Jamarulkhan Kadir, they have done some investigation and found out that in one hour a disabled person (blind, disfigured, missing a limb etc) and his/her helper can collect at least RM100. If they “work” for 8 hours a day and 25 days a month, they will earn at least RM20,000 in a single month!
Probably the worse the degree of disability, the more they will get.
Normally they don’t simply ask for money, but rather offer to sell tissues or stickers (or even vitamins?) for a certain amount of money. Usually people would give more than the value of the merchandise, out of pity.
He went on to say that there’s a crime syndicate behind these people – and the proceeds are split 50-50.
Proof? Supposedly there are luxury vehicles ferrying them to and from their “place of work” every day.
It was reported by The New York Times in December 2008 that Michael Buckley (b 1975) runs one of YouTube’s most popular channels: millions of viewers monthly.
He achieved the unprecedented feat of getting 4 of his shows on the week’s 10 top-rated videos.
He runs his online show three times a week, which, by his own admission “is silly.”
Well, the income is not so silly!
He quit his day job as an admin assistant in September 2008 when his online income “greatly exceeded” his salary.
If not, he could still be the man hawking kymaro body shapers on late night TV.
Daniel Lyons wrote in Newsweek in February 2009 that some blogs have achieved admirable success.
He mentioned the gadget blog Gizmodo which had almost 100 million pageviews in January 2009, and “fantastically profitable.”
And who said personal-diary type blogs can’t make it big? Dooce earns USD500K to USD1 million a year, which works out to much more than RM100,000 a month.
Tech blog TechCrunch earned USD3 million in 2007 and even more the next.
The Huffington Post raised USD25 million in 2008.
Granted, these are world-class blogs, but would you rather work in your pyjamas than hawk tv stands door-to-door?
Prior to February 2010, Sir Allen Stanford had it all: billionaire, knighthood, being involved in cricket,a sport which he loves.
Then it all came crashing down when he was accused by the SEC of a whopping USD8 billion fraud, to which he replied by disappearing.
A few days later he was found, and “very depressed”.
He should be. The first Stanford firm was founded by his grandfather, now has more than USD50 billion in assets and many thousand clients around the world. Whoa, with that kind of stress, I sure hope sessions on the elliptical would make it at least slightly better.
It was reported in wired.com in February 2009 that Ethan Nicholas single-handedly developed an Apple iPhone tank artillery game called iShoot and managed to earn USD600,000 in a single month with it.
That’s despite a glut in items to choose from at Apple’s iPhone application store: more than 20,000 applications.
Nicholas said he quit his job as an engineer at Sun Microsystems when his app hit Number One in the application store: that feat earned him USD37,000.
In one day!
One has to admire the guy. He was quoted to have said that when he first started off, he didn’t have the money to buy books, so he learnt from website. Then he worked on iShoot 8 hours a day after his shift, cradling his baby on the other hand. I say he rewards himself by installing stone sinks in his house now.
… and some have said it’s the world’s most expensive dress.
The Star reported on 27th March 2009 that a “couture evening gown” dubbed “Nightingale of KL” designed by Faisol Abdullah of Jendela KL is worth RM100 million.
It has a 6m long train, colour is red burgundy, and made of 14 metres of silk and satin Malaysian batik.
It has 751 pieces of diamonds totalling more than 1,000 carats, and are held together by a pear-shaped 70-carat diamond located on the gown’s left bustier. Add to that mix Swarovski crystals. Reportedly the diamonds would’ve cost RM150 million if sold individually. So you can say it’s a steal.
Well, what can I say: it’s the perfect personalized gift for a spoilt lady.
The designer said it’s designed in such a way so as to be “customisable according to the needs of the buyer.” I guess what the means is if some obese, filthy rich woman wanted to wear it, they could unravel some extra inches discreetly hidden underneath.
It’s so exclusive that only 500 people were allowed to see it during its unveiling. Perhaps wisely so. And Kavita Sidhu must’ve felt so lucky – she was selected to wear and parade it.
At 37, she still looks absolutely stunning, doesn’t she?
A video of the unveiling starts 0:45:
The question is – would someone be crazy enough to wear it in public?
Now here’s a case where you might not be able to apply for business insurance.
The Star reported in February 2010 that a former telecommunications company executive, 34 earned RM11 million by operating a pr0n SMS racket for several years, which offered 3-minute videoclips to subscribers, to which he charged RM3 per clip.
He only officially earned RM4,000 per month as an exec, yet lived with his family in posh Putra Heights near Subang Jaya, as well as owning a Porsche Cayene and a BMW.
He was about to purchase a Lamborghini worth more than RM1 million when he was finally arrested on 23rd February 2010.
The Malay Mail reported on 1st March 2010 that major local telcos were also in the act. The police report against him was done when someone did not like it that he was “stealing customers”.
During his 18-month tenure with a local telco, where his job was to blast thousands of SMSes to his company’s customers, he also sent out the pr0n advertising SMSes.
That proved to be a very lucrative side income for him: he earned up to RM700,000 per month!
The ruse:
- telco gets 50 % from the sales.
- the man’s company gets 40%
- a content service provider gets 10% (helped in sending the SMSes)
The BBC reported in February 2010 that Irish group U2 made the most money amongst musicians in the US, the world’s biggest music market, in 2009.
The total from tours, record sales and “other royalties” – a whopping USD109 million.
At a distant second is Bruce “The Boss”Springsteen at USD58 million.
At third is Madonna with USD47m.
Fourth is perhaps surprisingly aging rockers AC/DC with USD44m.
Don’t you find that amazing? The top 4 is made up of people at least 50 years old! What are their batteries made of? And where are the younger megastars?
An indication of the importance of going on tours is the fact that Michael Jackson sold the most records and ringtones in 2009, but only made no.20 in the overall list.
According to Forbes 2010, the list includes the following:
Peter Thiel, 42, USD1.2 billion
He invested USD500K in Facebook in 2004 – what a decision that was. A tech company afficionado, he also cofounded Paypal in 1998 which was then sold 4 years later to eBay: that deal pocketed him a cool USD60 million.
Michael Dell, 45, USD13.5 billion
I remember the time when people asked when Dell will ever turn 40. He is of course the founder and leader of one of the world’s largest computer makers.
Jeffrey Skoll, 45, USD2.4 billion
His wealth buoyed by eBay’s bullish stock, he was eBay’s first president, then left to do of all things, social work: to help budding entrepreneurs at Skoll Foundation.
One can’t help but show admiration for these people. It seems they can make a fortune out of anything, even, say wireless security systems.
