Phase One Complete

Yes, the formal phase of the 50c challenge is complete, and can you believe it, we made quite a tidy sum. Even though the game has formally ended, Tanya and I decided that we want to take this all the way to the million.

It's been a while since my last post, this is mainly due to the very diverse nature of pies I am getting my fingers into. Exiting and interesting times indeed.

So on this very fragmented post I actually just want to tell you about the major lesson I have learned from the last 3 months. Passive income. Yup you have heard the term, read it in all kinds of books, but until you experience the joy of getting money without having to do any work you cannot begin to realize the power of getting money without having to work for it.

Ok so now for your challenge, let's see with how many sources of passive income you can think of. Then ask yourself, how can I begin benefiting from these?

Good luck to you

Feedback and Goals

I'm not familiar with the rules of football, so apart from knowing that ball in net means goal, I have no idea what a good play looks like. The game of football elicits no excitement from me, in fact I can't understand why so many people watch and enjoy football. You see I do not understand the visual feedback I get when watching a match, and thus I am unable to feel the excitement that makes football something akin to religion to a large part of the world population. Clearly the problem is not with football, but with my lack of understanding.

So what does this have to do with goals?

If you are playing a game and you do not receive clear feedback on your actions, and thus do not know if you are winning or loosing, you will inevitably loose interest in the game. The goal of any game is to improve until you win, the same is true of any goal in your life. The question is what differentiates the skill of pushing console buttons in the correct order from any other goal? Yes, feedback! The feedback from your button pushes are clear, in enjoyable games, and thus you can see yourself improve until you reach a certain level of competence. When you work towards a goal often the feedback is not as clear for various reasons, ranging from unclear, immeasurable goals to uncertainty as to what constitutes a move in the right direction. Ensuring that you are much more likely to give up on said goal.

When you set goal, make the goals measurable. Make sure that you clearly define what a good move is. When you make one of these moves, feel the joy and excitement of knowing that you are now that much closer to your actual outcome. This will give you constant bursts of enjoyment with each micro choice in the right direction, and quickly alert you when you are moving away from your intended outcome. You will thus reach your goals more consistently.

Why not give it a try?

Taking the plunge

There is a definite inner conflict that happens when you invest your hard earned income in a venture with no guaranteed return. On the one hand you (and by you I really mean me) have the promise, excitement and potential of a new venture, on the other hand you might loose it all.

Luckily for me, this is challenge money, not mine at all. So it happened that Tanya and I decided to invest in an online venture. You will have to wait a little while to find out exactly what this business is all about, I will tell you that it is in the health industry...

So there I was standing in a bank queue with a tin full of cash in my hands, ready to pay for our domain registration and web hosting, and I realized why a lot of people get stuck in their own particular rut. Fear is a nasty character, some how it convinces you that you do not want to do what ever is causing you to be afraid. More often than not, the reason you give yourself has nothing to do with fear, and so you sabotage yourself. I'm afraid to invest in our new business. Afraid that it might fail, losing out capital. Afraid that I will embarrass myself while trying to build the business. Afraid for a million other irrelevant reasons. Then I look into myself and take the plunge anyway. Immediately I feel some of the apprehension turn into excitement. We have calculated the risk, weighed our options, the business has potential and makes sense. The decision to jump makes all the difference.

I heard that Donald Trump asks himself what the worst case scenario is, if he can live with that, he goes for it. I came to understand something of that mindset. Face the reality, acknowledge the fear for what it is, make your decision, and jump.

50c Steps in Life

In life neither success nor failure is reached through giant leaps, rather it is the multitude of small steps and little decisions that take you in either direction. We see the giant effects of a million small steps and marvel at the ability one person has to achieve such lofty standards, whatever they may be.

Of all the lessons I have learned during this challenge, this lesson is probably the one that up until now have influenced me the most. Every day you make choices, simple choices that either take you closer to your goals, or pulls you further away. Each of these choices seems trivial, in the bigger scheme of things is will make no difference of you act on this one choice or not. The cumulative effect, on the other hand, is staggering. Before you know it your inconsequential actions have either pulled you into the dark caverns of failure, or propelled you into the stratosphere of success.

Many people, me included, try to find the one thing that will make all the difference in their lives. Today I want to tell you that there is no single big thing, no One Gate to open, no final wall. All your small choices, all the little obstacles, adds up and becomes the snowball that is your life, your success, your choice.

I'm not skipping out on the small actions, if I keep getting the small things done, the big things take car of themselves. There is another part of the equations, that is seeing the big picture, having clear goals, for they are what pulls your small actions in the direction you want your life to go. Without that picture, your actions will tire you out and lead you nowhere.

Looking for something new

The cold wet winter we have all been waiting for finally arrived this week, and it is freezing. Still there is no rest for those who want to make some money.

The fudge business eventually slowed down, like we knew it would. New business opportunities need to be explored, and not only explored, but put into action. If their is one thing that I have learned to be true it is that there is a fine line separating the successful from the rest. Those people who are successful take action, massive immediate action. The rest gets bogged down in lists, planning or excuses. The challenge is simple, how does one turn a little over R200 into R400? What industry to be in, and how to go about it.

I have just finish reading "Around the World in 80 Trades" and it became an inspiration to me. Now to find the product to trade...

R600 000 in one day, sounds like a scam to me

I recently received an email from Dr Hannes Dreyer, in this email he claims to have helped a student to build 2 businesses and within the first 24 hours of operation (not counting all the setup work done) the student made more than R600 000. I was, and still am, sceptical. But what the mail, and my subsequent research have done, was to make me think about the process of building a business and the capital used to do it. Is the traditional knowledge really true, do you need massive amounts of risk to really make money.

During the first part of this challenge I have already found that you do not need to have money to make money, in fact, starting out with nothing I have already made more than R130. Yet it has taken a long time, but mostly because I had to spend small amounts of time on my projects. Also this amount is only my part of the challenge money, for as you know Tanya and I have been sharing our profits. So yes you might say that R130 is not a lot of money, but you would agree that making R260 from R130 is possible. You would probably not have believed that one could make R130 from nothing, without one cent invested, and only selling goods, not services or time. So no you definitely do not need money to make money.

Maybe the conventional wisdom that suggests that Dr Dreyer and his student should not be able to show that kind of returns without running a scam, may be mistaken. I will continue investigating. Do not get me wrong, I will not encourage you to invest in businesses that promise you millions up front. You have to do your research, and do it thoroughly. What I am saying is that maybe we should push our businesses for bigger returns, and expect more from ourselves than anybody else ever would.

Do Anything

This was probably the first and most important lesson I have learned to date.

When you start out with that first 50c piece in your hand, you quickly realize that this is not going to be a comfortable process. You will most probably look a little silly in the process of trying to double your money.

A little bit of magic happens when you reach the point where you are willing to do anything to make that first sale. This is where most people loose the battle, most of us have this pre-programmed set of things we are willing to do to earn money, and everything else is either below us, or does not even enter our minds as a possibility. I'm coming to believe that this is one of the major distinctions between the people that really reach the next level, and the rest.

Another interesting thing I have noticed in my own experience is the fact that I quickly reach a point where I'm not that willing to do anything anymore. Tanya and I are doing well with the fudge business, and we are still in a position where we make a significant amount of money from our fudge sales (relative to our total capital). Already I'm looking for reasons to call it quits and move on to the next thing, any next thing. The lesson I am learning is two fold. Firstly stay with an idea or opportunity while it is effective, just like you need to break through the pain barrier when you start out, you need to persevere. The second part of the lesson is that you should always be on the lookout for new ideas, new opportunities, and only move on once you have something to move on to.

I believe that you need to grow and evolve to reach the next level, but I have also found that you cannot move to the next level before you have sufficiently grown into your current level.

Repeatability

The easiest way to start out in this challenge is to try and sell the dream of making R1 000 000 from a simple 50c piece. Most people will almost give you R5 to help you on your way. This is however not a repeatable feat. So Tanya and I chose to add an additional rule from the beginning in that we decided not to mention the challenge in any way when we are doing challenge business. That means no mention of the challenge in an attempt to secure a better price from potential suppliers, and also no playing the challenge card as part of a sales pitch. Even though a number of "deals" would be within the parameters of the game, it would (in my mind) take something away from the process.

My progress have up until now not been what I would have liked it to be, but such is life. I have bills that need to be payed every month, and so other work and business tend to take up a lot of time that I would have liked to spend on the challenge. I have thus opted for the slow and steady approach. Please join me on this journey, it may be long, you may get board, but I'm in this for the long haul all the way to R1 000 000 and even beyond. Upon reaching one million rand in cash, I plan on writing a book about my journey, the lessons I have learned and the sights I have seen, and who knows maybe that will inspire someone else to pickup one 50c piece from the side of the road and become a millionaire.

First Bonsai Sold

Yup it is a happy day for me, Annelie bought our first starter bonsai, including the baby tree, the first pot as well as a small guide on growing bonsai. Here are 3 pictures showing the Tree in the making. You need to keep in mind that this little guy has a lot of growing to do, and the direction it takes is up to Annelie, I just gave it a bit of initial shape.

Flying Fudge and a lesson about partnerships

The fudge flew out of our hands. Within 10 minutes we were sold out. We more than doubled our investment. Clearly our marked has a healthy demand for the product that we are supplying. What Tanya noted was how we each made R17 profit from our initial R10 investment. When you say it like that it does not sound nearly as good as R34 profit. If you take this feeling and magnify it until it is on the scale of a six figure business partnership you quickly begin to see why so many partnerships fail. The reason is greed. When you start dreaming about making all the money for yourself without having to share any of it with a partner, you quickly reach a point where you are no longer happy to get a cut of the cake (no matter how big said cake is). Once this feeling of dissatisfaction sets in you begin to sabotage your relationship with your partner(s).

Luckily I'm happy to share my profits with my girl friend, but the lesson I have learned here is to carefully evaluate the merits of a partnership before I commit myself to it. A good friend and business mentor of mine once said that you never do business with a partner, and I believed him, not really understanding why he made this statement. After this challenge and the discussion between Tanya and I, this lesson became more than just theory to me.

Sweets and Trees

Today will be the first official opportunity to sell fudge to the kids during their study break. For now we will be stocking small packets of chips and fudge. I'm not sure how long we will keep going with the fudge, but for now it seems to be very popular. My cash is still at such a level that the fudge sales provides a significant boost, percentage wise, so as long as this remains true, I will be investing in the business.

One question that begs answering is, how long do I invest a major part of my capital in the sweets business? Part of this question is also what to do with the small business, that Tanya and I are building, once we reach the point where the income from selling sweets is extremely small relative to other ventures. At the moment I'm weighting two options. Firstly to employ someone to handle the sales for us, or alternatively sell the opportunity and market. This is still early days, and as such these questions do not have to be answered immediately.

The lesson I have learned from my own experience, and from seeing what other people have experienced during their participation in the challenge, is that there is a delicate balance between over- and under-stocking. If you are understocked, you might loose potential income, and worse yet you may loose customers. If on the other hand you are overstocked the perceived value of your product drops, and your cash gets locked up in goods. Especially in the food and drinks market, this might be a problem, as most of these products have some sort of sell by date. Also the unavailability of cash can disqualify you from other lucrative opportunities. My approach is to diversify my portfolio together with an slower expansion of stock size. Selling R20 worth of fudge might mean doubling your money, that does not mean that the same will be true if you immediately try to obtain R40 worth of fudge.

Speaking of diversification, I will be selling bonsai starter kits. I have always had a deep love for and interest in these small trees. Recently Tanya and I bought a number of trees and started out own little bonsai project. If you want to buy a "bonsai" at a nursery you pay quite a steep price, so I figured we are able to produce the same product at a better price. Watch this space for the advertisement/official announcement. There will be a number of options available, ranging from simply a freshly trimmed tree planted in it's first pot, to a full starter kit, including a quick and dirty little manual, basic tools, your first tree and bonsai pot. These starter kits are just that, starter kits, so you will have the opportunity to shape your tree the way you want to. Both types of trees we use have character from the get go, so you can display them from day one.

Get one!

It's a matter of Supply and Demand

One box of Wild Juice (passion fruit) was purchased at retail price of R14 and sold for a profit of R6. The simple reason for this is that Wild Juice in this flavor it not so readily available. There is a definite balance that seem to exist with the availability of a certain product and its perceived value. I have an inkling that I will need to explore this link in more detail in order to discover a business secret.

Not What you Know

You've probably heard this one before, but in life and especially in business it is often not so much what you know, than who you know. During my first month of the 50c challenge this sentiment has become really apparent to me. So many of my deals were made possible through my network of contacts. Now you need to understand one thing, I have an extremely small business network. Still the people I know and have come to know via other people have been instrumental in the deals I were able to complete. What I am thinking at the moment is that even when you are starting out with nothing it is of the utmost importance that you use every opportunity available to you to build your network.

Another thing I found really interesting is that in most cases the people in my personal network, and extended network, did not become part of the network because I had some plan for them. The people in the network became part of my network through interaction and simply adding value to each others lives. I do not condone running out pushing business cards into peoples' hand at every opportunity, as I suspect this will have the opposite effect. What I suggest you do is, where ever your life takes you, take some time to invest in the people around you. Be of service where ever you can, and do not begrudge giving somebody the leg up. Cultivate a friendly attitude and a willingness to help others get ahead in life. The bonds you make and the seeds you sow can not but return to you much larger than your initial investment.

Just a small word of warning. If you help people to get something from them somewhere in the future, you will be disappointed. People tend to realize that your intentions are false, and thus they will not trust you. That is why you need to cultivate a character of helping. The second warning, and just as important as the first is not to help people too your own detriment. Some people want to be liked or loved so much that they will harm themselves and their interests in order to help someone else. Balance is the key. The selfish person cannot reach his true potential, nut the flip side is also true, if you give out of weakness you will take away your own ability to be successful.

Help people be better and have more, but not in such a way that you will need to be helped. It's in the Bible.

Just keep the Ticker running

Annelie Strauss is now the happy owner of the first set of Erwin Vessel hand crafted African spoons. She was the quickest respondent to the introductory offer. This takes my total capital up to R76.75. It seems strange how so many people really liked the spoons, but the liking did not translate into actual sales. This makes me wonder about the value of market research. Clearly market research is a critical part of setting up a business, and no business plan will be complete or realistic without it. Still my experience with the spoons suggests that market research tells you only so much. Interest does not necessarily translate into sales. The research is but a useful tool to measure potential for a product and never a fool proof method for determining the actual success of the business. What I would suggest you look at when conducting this type of research is the following: Research related products and your main competition. Look at the size of the market into which you want to release your product, it is no use you have a unique product that nobody want to use, or see the need for. What are the average turnovers of businesses in your target market. In short, look for facts, quantitative facts, if and only if these facts suggest a profitable investment, should you be considering opinions. When asking for opinions, try and question unbiased outsiders.

Although there are many untapped markets, and a large number innovative ideas, you still need to calculate your exposure. Yes, you want to take risks. No, you can't just through money at ideas until one of them makes it big, rather take that cash and make your way to a slot machine, the odds are better.

Our initial success with the fudge made Tanya and I decide to take it one step further, we are going to run a tuck shop in a high school hostel for 30 minutes in their study break, once a week. This will obviously take some time to gain momentum and form a habit in the learners, but we have relatively low exposure and we will not be spending too many hours on this endeavor. Each of us invested R14.45 initially, and at first we will only stock fudge, later we plan to add chips and coke to the inventory. So for now we each stand to make R25 from our stock.

Strange things are happening to me lately. I no longer see small change in the same light, infact I pick up coins if I see them on the pavement. The onther thing that caught my attention is that even in this early stage of the game I have the burning desire to diversify my investments, which is a strange idea if your total cash in hand is R62.25.

May be I'll find something interesting in the next few days.

Fudge it all

Tanya had a brilliant idea for doubling our money from a combined total of R17 (my contribution being R9). We were going to be selling fudge. I'm not one for sweets, and selling them is quite daunting to me. The idea of being "those people" is just a tad unappealing.

How can one sell pieces of fudge for 50c and still be proud and self assured, that was the question. Our initial idea of selling to a group of hokey players that came to town for a clinic over the Easter weekend did not work out the way we planned, so on Saturday morning we took to the streets. We were selling fudge door to door. Guess what, people still like fudge, and our return on investment was way more than 100%

R9 was turned into R26.75

What I have learned is that people want to buy a packet of things (when it comes to sweets). Somehow paying 50c seems to be harder than paying R5. And if you will be selling, you will need to learn to deal with rejection quickly.

Barbra told Tanya:"In sales there is only two answers from the customer: yes and no. From the salesperson there is only one answer: thank you." This simple quote got new meaning for me this weekend. One lady made quite the spectacle of telling her husband how expensive our product seemed to her, even though we were selling our fudge at R2 less than the shops. This should be a case of so what, one person's ripoff is another person's bargain, and yet my initial reaction was to feel hurt and angry at the women for not wanting our fudge and being so rude about it. I'm beginning the realize that it is our reaction to people being really rude and unfriendly to us that determines how far you will go in sales. It's easy to stay motivated when every potential customer turns into a sale, it's a different kettle of fish if someone tells you to sod off.

Our fudge venture was so successful that we decided to try a tuck shop during the study break at the hostel where Tanya is staying. 30 Minutes every Wednesday. Only 3 products will be available: fudge, coke, and chips.

Last of the Freebies

Leaving product in the freezer has its own advantages, this is not encouraged for perishable goods. The packet of dried peaches spent a lot of time in a prominent position in the freezer, and this morning my mother could not resist its hypnotic call, and so the peaches was sold for R5. There are no more items left from my run of freebies. Total capital as it stands: R9.00.

The spoons still need to be delivered. Annelie Strauss will soon be the proud owner of a set of handcrafted copper spoons. There seems to be more people interested in the spoons, so I will be making more of them on order.

The obvious question begs an answer, what next?

Many spoons and a fish

I have been busy, so no deals were done. But, and this is a massive but, the spoon is now complete. Now I need to arrange for the sale, and Bob's your uncle. On the picture you will also see a fish, this is an example of the tablecloth weights that Tanya makes.

In that time since I have started the challenge I have realized that adding value is one of the main drivers behind healthy economic growth. When you take a bunch of raw materials and create something from them, you are actively adding value to the economy. Yes the value you are adding might be small, inconsequential even, but you are growing the economy far more effectively than when you buy a share and sell it for a higher price. I'm wondering what the effect will be if large numbers of people begin adding to the economy in this way.

Apart from the philosophy I found that if I want to increase your profit margin to such a degree that I can keep up with the schedule I will need to take raw materials that I can afford and transform them into a product that has more value than the mere sum of its raw parts. Initially a set like this will sell for R32, that is to the first buyer.

Now to find said buyer and make the sale.

Two Cookie or not Two Cookie

Blood donations can be a viable source of start-up capital in this game. Today I once again capitalized on the blood swap. The two cookies I got (one for my own donation, and the other was given to me by Gericke, who went along for moral support) was sold for 50c a piece to Beatrix and Anton. Now they have something to sell for their challenge, as they do not have large amounts of free time to spare. Thus the tally stands on R4 total capital, one packet of dried peaches, one authentic handcrafted spoon (soon to become part of a set), and some copper wire.

Those of you who have been following closely will note a slight discrepancy, the bottle of mineral water is missing from my inventory. The simple reason for this is that there is some risk involved in storing your products in your parents' fridge, especially if they do not realize the importance of said item. I'm not to upset, I got the water for free, so no tangible losses were experienced, and there was no malice in the action. Hope you enjoyed your water dad, it's going to cost you R2. Ok, I am joking.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Blood sweat and bums

So I went to donate some blood today, and when they say donate they mean is in the strictest sense of the word.  In years gone by you actually could get free blood when needed, given that you are a registered blood donor, this is no longer the case anymore. in this day and age you will be lucky to get two boxes of juice and a cookie for your trouble, and you can call me lucky.  My plan was to keep the first juice I get and sell that and my cookie, but the nurse forced me to open my juice and drink it while donating.  But you see I was lucky, and when you are trying to turn 50c into R1000000 you need a little bit of luck.  Once my first box of juice was finished they offered me a second one, and this one I saved.  So in effect I swopped one pint of blood for one box of mango juice.  As it stands I have yet to make use of my initial 50c as the blood is in my, and my body makes it free of charge.

So other than the gift I got from this mornings breakfast, a packet of dried peaches and a bottle of distilled water,  I had a box of juice and 2 cookies, oh yes and die infamous copper spoon.  I feel raw fear before approaching anyone to offer them something to buy, just another reason to push harder in the challenge.  So Tanya helped by pushing me to approach people.  The first person was a gardener raking some leaves.  He had no money or my sales technique was lacking, I suspect the latter.  When I got back into the car I said that it would be an amazing experience to try and convince a bum to buy something from me.  You should watch what you say around my friends.  So when we saw a group of beggars Tanya simply stopped the car, and that was that, I was not getting back into the car without making a sale.

So I approached the group, the day was hot.  So I knew that the juice would probably be my best bet.  I played up the heat and the thirst that they must be feeling.  One of the bums, like the leader bum, said that they have no money.  I could see one of the guys looking like he might be up for the sale, so I switched my attention to him.  When he asked to see the juice I jumped, the juice was ice cold, and little droplets of water clung to the sides of the box.  It looked like an advertisement.  My client was more than happy to pay R1 for such a seductive box of juice.

After this transaction my total capital stood on R1.50 as I am still in possession of my initial 50c.  I used R1 to purchase Tanya's juice from her, then I sold that box of juice to my father for R2.50, as he buys boxes of juice for his office for more than that.  As a rule I would rather not sell to my family, but in cases where I can provide a product that they would buy in any case, and provide it at a better price I have no problem, as this would be a win win situation.  The main motivation not to sell to family is that you do not want to take wealth from your family, as this does not enrich your environment.  I feel that where you can save your family money and still make a profit you counter help your family save and grow your turnover, thus enriching your environment on two fronts.

After day two I have R3.00 in cash, two large cookies, one bottle of mineral water, one packet of dried peaches, one copper jam/sugar spoon, and 4 strands of copper wire.  My goal is thus to some how make R3.00 of profit tomorrow.

There is a spoon

Cheers to you Neo.

So after finding a number of ways in which a spoon can't be crafted I finally found one that works. When I was in high school I had a very short lived love affair with copper jewelry, bangles and the such. During this painful period I spent many an afternoon digging in some or the other heap of scrap in our local scrap yard. One sunny day, I hit the mother load, I found a good hand full of thick copper wire. This must have been before people started steeling them like diamonds, because as far as I can remember it cost me one or two rands. Sadly my copper craze died a quite death just after my investment, and thus the wires were relegated to the bottom of a box.

So why all this nonsense about scrap yards and copper wires? Well en my search for a material that would serve as an effective bowl for my spoon I found my long lost treasure! And this enabled me to create the spoon...

I have no potential purchaser as of yet, but the spoon is valued at R16 and I will be trying to sell it for R8. I have realized that it is a lot harder to sell one thing than selling stuff. There seems to be a certain safety in numbers, especially in this low range.

As an alternative I will be donating blood tomorrow, no in South Africa they decided that buying blood from people would not work, so now they beg for it., so I will be GIVING my blood away. Why is this important? It is of the utmost importance, because when you give blood you are given a cookie. I will be attempting to sell said cookie for 50c thus doubling my portfolio.

adios

Frustration

So day 2 is almost half way done, and I need to fit this challenge thing into the rest of my day. I'm totally committed to the challenge, but day one was filled with frustration, as the legal constraints hampered my plan to make a copper sugar spoon. I got a piece of copper wire for free from the scrap yard, I asked how much I could get for 50c and the guy gave me a funny look and said to take the piece I have in my hand for free. a 5c piece would have been perfect for the bowl, but alas destruction of government property is illegal and thus not within the rules of the game. I tried using the bottom of a Cream Soda can, but that turned into a small disaster. Soda cans are coated with some sort of plastic that will not come off. Oh and torn cans cut like razors, ask my hands.

So today I will have to mission out to another scrap yard and try to procure a piece of copper plate to shape in order to complete the spoon. This spoon should sell for R8 which will get me back on track with regards to the parameters of the challenge. Darn you government property!

T - 2 days

In two days my 50c challenge will begin, and I can feel my nerves twitch.

The idea of changing 50c into R1 seems simplistic at first, but when you get right down to it, there is a lot more to it.

So the current ideas range from selling the 50c with the dream of making it R1 000 000 for one rand to buying a 50c piece of wire and making some sort of artifact that can be sold for one rand. The worst part is that the suffering does not end when the R1 has been made. I foresee hard times up until the point where I can work with R100 or more, as this gives you a little bit of scope. For the first few transactions I see myself producing a single item at a time and selling said item for more than the price of the raw materials. In this process I feel that physical labor and ingenuity will add value to the raw materials.

This is early days still, and I can imagine myself pushing really hard to come up with new ways of making money and staying in the game. Thus far I need more time to plan.

Still I can not wait to turn that first 50c into R1 and get this party started.

Join me on April 1, 2009 for the first transaction. I will not be able to guarantee perfect form in following the schedule, but I can assure you of constant action right here on my blog

Got my invitation

So yesterday was a big day in my 50c challenge, the day of invitations, together with my shiny 50c piece. Now I'm not supposed to start with this challenge until April fool's day, but I do not know if I'll be able to wait that long.

With my next post I will probably have a picture of me with my challenge letter, so then you will know what I look like. This is if I can wrestle it from Gericke in time.

So my current mood is extremely exited!

Hope you have fun watching me, and I'm certain that in the beginning I will be making a complete fool of myself.

The Rules

The 50c challenge is about playing with money in order to learn how to make money. All contenders will start with a 50c coin and a schedule to guide them towards the 1 Million goal. In order to succeed there are a number of guidelines and rules to follow.

You will need
1. One tin to store your cash
2. Wits

You will get
1. After the challenge expired, or you decided to quit, all the money made up to that point will be your to keep and use as you see fit. You have NO current or future financial obligation to the founder of the game or his affiliates, except where potential syndication and media deal may transpire.
2. If you successfully complete the challenge as part of the original group of maiden contenders, you will receive an equal share in the profits generated by the book.
3. You will be part of a growing network of entrepreneurs and receive ample support from everybody involved.
4. You will get experiences you may have never received otherwise.
5. You will receive your first 50 cents from the founder, making this a zero risk game.

Rules
1. You may only use the capital in your tin. In other words, you may not borrow from your own pocket or elsewhere to make a deal.
2. All money must be earned by providing a product or service. No begging, stealing or any other illegal/unethical activities.
3. You may not use this money for any other purpose than playing the game until the end of the 199 days.
4. All the money you make will be your own to keep.
5. This is not a competition, it is a personal challenge that aims to track the progress of the participants. `therefore, if you lose all your money, you have one of two options - either look for investment from your fellow participants (no outside money allowed), alternatively you may scour streets and parking lots to restart your game.
6. Investments from other players are allowed. Once again, you may only invest the money available to you in your tin.
7. Income from your regular job may not be used in any way. Conversely, you may never use the money in your tin for day to day living or any expenses not related to the challenge(including "borrowing").
8. In order to successfully complete the challenge, you must a) remain active for the full 199 days, b) keep track of all transactions during this period and c) keep a journal of your activities and experiences.
9. All records must be made available to the founder for use in the book/other potential media.
10. The founder reserves the right to use the stories and other information in different forms of media free of charge.
11. You my quit at any time and keep your profits. By doing so you forfeit your share in the book profits as you will not have completed the challenge successfully.

Guidelines
1. Collaboration is allowed and encouraged
2. Try to do business with strangers - when we do business with family we eat into the financial system we are part of which is counterproductive
3. Do what works, you don't need to be a creative genius to make money - simply doing what worked for someone else is often good enough
4. If what you are doing does not work, do something else. Anything else.
5. This is Not a competition. We want to help each other and learn from each other. Be willing to share what you have learned - this will increase your chances of success.
6. What is true in the small is true in the big - the same principles of economics apply to turning 50 cents into R1 as does to turning R500 000 into R1 million
7. This game is designed to push you out of your comfort zone - your mind will try to tell you that a) you can't do it or b) you don't have time for this or c) the ideas are too crazy to try. Ignore your mind, it doesn't know what it is talking about.
8. The challenge isn't a writing competition - your journal needs to be accurate and should reflect your personality. Don't spend too much time trying to turn it into a literary masterpiece.

Let the adventure begin!

(This section will be updated and refined as we progress in the game.)

Pre Challenge

A few days ago a good friend of mine came to visit me, he wanted to come and share his ideas on making money and teaching other people to do the same. His theory is that most people never make enough money because their thoughts on money and attitudes towards money is wrong. So he thought up the 50c challenge.

The basic idea is that you take 50c and place it into a large cake tin, you then have one day to use that 50c and turn it into R1 (our biggest currency, to you it might be $ or what ever). Then you have another day to turn R1 into R2. As the days progress the amount you have to make gets bigger and bigger, but the amount of time also gets longer and longer.

So I'm waiting for him to send me my invitation explaining the rules of his challenge so I can start working on it. on this blog I will track my progress in "the 50c challenge" who knows what will happen.

All rights with regards to "the 50c challenge" belongs to Burger Gericke Potgieter, this includes but is not limited to, the concept and idea of the challenge, all movie, book and tv rights with regards to the challenge name, and idea behind the challenge, spinnoff projects and derivitives of "the 50c challenge"