What Could You Do With $5?

October 9, 2023

Good morning! Happy Feast of Giving Thanks to all our friends and readers in Canada! It is the season of gooses flying overhead — with their necks stuck out — a stunning, goose-bumps-producing sight. Where did that phrase come from?  (To take a risk?)  No one knows, but apparently it’s relatively new, perhaps only sixty years old, and unique to the United States. One would reasonably think the phrase was coined during the French Reign of Terror, but beheadings have been popular elsewhere throughout centuries of history, also. I’ve used Amazon a few times — to buy a book. I got to thinking, how many unique products does Amazon sell, or make available for sale, from its multiple warehouses? Before you answer, take a guess… see if you will be as far wrong as I was. I thought, well maybe about 10,000? Yyyyyup, it’s 12,000,000+    I was 99.9% wrong, but knew it was probably lots. And, here’s the kicker, which again I’m no expert, really out of my league on this topic. The number of unique products offered for sale by so-called third party Amazon sellers is 353,000,000.  (these data from LandingCube — and who knows where it got them from?!)

• China reportedly has more than 25,000 miles of high speed rails — and trains upon which to travel on those rails from Point A to Point B.
  • The U.S., in 11th place globally, by comparison, has fewer than 500 miles of high speed rails; Spain is in second place with about 2,500 miles.
  • Not sure if any of this is good or bad, but now you know.  (Statistica, 2023)
• These Musings have a cherished and faithful reader, a friend I hope, who is erudite and much more.
  • He sent the following to me recently:
    • In 2009 a Stanford business professor split her class into groups and issued a challenge.
    • Each group had $5 of start-up capital and two hours to make the highest possible return on the initial money.
    • At the end, they’d give a short presentation to the class on their plan and actions.
    • Most of the groups followed predictable approaches.
    • Use the $5 to buy a few items… barter or resell those items… repeat… sell final items for (hopefully) more than $5.
    • These groups made a modest return on their initial $5.
    • A few groups ignored the $5 and simply did things to earn money during the two hours such as filling bike tires with air or selling trendy restaurant reservations.
    • These groups did better than the first groups, though they didn’t leverage the start-up capital per se.
    • The one winning group took an entirely different approach.
    • They realized the $5 was nothing more than a distraction and that two hours was not enough time to start and grow a business.
    • They theorized the most valuable asset they possessed was the promised presentation time in front of a class of Stanford students.
    • Realizing the value of this asset, they offered their presentation time to companies looking to recruit Stanford students.
    • They struck a deal to sell their time slot for $650 to one such company, netting a huge return on the $5 of working capital.
    • This group of students took the time to think strategically, big picture, end game, and didn’t get distracted by the limitations of the $5.
    • Strategic thinking — vision — always takes time, patience, persistence, listening, problem solving, and lots of “why” questions.  (Informed by Mike the Erudite)
• Four in ten adults living in the United States report they don’t have a best friend.  (Ansberry, 2023)
  • And, for men, the number is higher.
• Wanna go to college for no other reason than to maximize financial return?  (WSJ/ College Pulse Rankings, 2023)
  • Your best bet is Massachusetts Institute of Technology where, according to these data, the net pay-back is less than two months after graduation.
  • Filling out the Top Ten are the usual suspects from Princeton and Yale, to #10 Babson.
  • If you enjoy a good list — and who doesn’t?! — search the top 400 at The Best U.S. Colleges 2024.  Best Colleges from a Different Angle
• To buy, hold, sell, or leverage, the #1 most popular stock (equity) in the U.S. market for the last 18 months has been… (wait for it…)
  • Tesla.  (Vanda Research, 2023)
• According to a T.E.D. talk by Hylenski,
  • Executives see 4% of the problems;
  • Team managers see 9% of the problems;
  • Team leaders see 74% of the problems;
  • The workers see 100% of the problems.
    • Seems a bit over-simplified — and probably wrong — to this executive-level guy, but…