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People have asked me a few times this month how I know so many "rich" people (after they learned I am sometimes talk to a billionaire whom I wont name).
Basically, I am well known in a lot of diverse fields so I have a reputation of doing due diligence for them on their investments. They basically call me up to technical review companies and verify their claims before they decide to invest in a company.
I actually offer this service for free as a friend, so it has caused me to make quite a few rich friends over the years through recommendations and i usually offer them the same free help.
You may wonder why I do it for free. Well the business connections pay for themselves. A lot of people would rather complain about how a rich person could afford to pay them (and they do offer to pay). But a good business man takes risks and doing it for free has always earned me much much more.
@bonifartius I do a LOT of work for free, and it is a large part of why ive been relatively successful. When you take all the risk most people will give you a chance. It gives you the ability to get your foot in the door almost anywhere if you do it right. If you are good it will often lead to paid work in some form.
bonifartius ๐ผ๐
@freemo certainly seems a good way to have people remember you! i do wonder though if there are differences in how well that works from the US to europe?
@bonifartius I work around the world, middle-east, US, and europe are all very common for me. Its one reason i travel so much.
@freemo i know! that's why i asked if there is any difference, i have the feeling that if i'd do work for free here in germany people would exploit that. might just be me being bad at saying no though :P
Some people exploit it anywhere. You need to be selective and make sure you give those services to the people that are worth your time (sometimes taking some risk early on that are deadends too, but knowing enough to not keep going down it).
But overall I dont find it is very exploited in the EU compared to the USA. In fact it is appreciated because int he EU work ethic is quite low and it is unheard of someone would work for free to get ahead, hell they wont even work overtime.
In the middle east there is higher exploitation of my services, but its still worth it.
@freemo yeah, working for free here is pretty uncommon. overtime is very common here though, but that might more be a german thing :P
i'd like to do some freelance stuff in the future, maybe i consider going this route as well to get some business :)
@bonifartius Getting momentum is the tricky part, ive been at this all my life. But yea if your willing to put in the time to build a business/reputation it can be very profitable. I havent done anything in germany too recently but when i have I have had good results.
EU usually pays **way** less than the us for most conventional jobs, that can play against you. But when your in the clouds with the owners you can sometimes get away with a lot more. Just gotta pass up those "we have open salaries we cant pay you 50x more than everyone else" people :)
@freemo as long as the work is payed fairly it's well, my goal is to be more independent. i am not really cut out to work for a boss, sooner or later i get annoyed and into a filthy mood.. :)
@bonifartius If you just want to be paid an average salary then you dont need to go to the extent I have and offer free work.
Keep in mind Im shooting for a million a year, despite offering free services when I do get paid im far from cheap :) So if your not after those rates then you can probably do it with much less effort or risk.
@freemo helping others almost always pays back in my experience. if it doesn't, you know who is not worth the trouble in the future which also is valuable ;)