Send $1 to...

I can't believe what has happened to summer.  Especially since we really didn't have a spring this year.  It basically went from snow to 100-degree summer heat!  However, fall is probably my favorite time of the year.  I spent a significant part of my life in San Diego California, where I had 72-degree perfect weather year around!  So, having that kind of weather in the fall is quite nice!

When I graduated from college, I took my first job at General Dynamics in San Diego.  I lived in a very nice suburb called Poway.  I can remember playing tennis in December, spending a lot of time on the beach, and even trying my hand at wind surfing.

However, when the hi-tech boom hit, I left General Dynamics to join a promising start-up that had a lot going for it.  I had kept in touch with a lot of my Electrical Engineering friends after graduating from college.  One of them hired on with a company called WordPerfect in Utah.  He basically rode the wave at WordPerfect.  I remember him telling me that after about a year with them, his bonus on each paycheck was equal to his base salary! 

I have another friend who went to work for Adobe and yet another to Lotus.  The friend who went to Adobe is doing very, very well.  The friend that went to Lotus is at another company doing OK.  He has had to sell his big beautiful mansion, now living in a respectable family-sized home.

I also have another friend that used to live a few houses down from me.  He helped found an Internet hosting company that was very successful.  I remember him driving fancy cars and having outdoor movie parties in his back yard.  When his company faulted, he moved to Washington to work for Microsoft for a while.  Now his is back close to where I live.  He works for a struggling Internet company and lives in a decent home.

After leaving General Dynamics, the technology company I went to treated me very well for quite a few years until they had some serious competition.  Eventually they outsourced my products to India and I was laid off.  I went to a progressive start-up company that had a vision for a world-changing product.  However they ran out of investment money and were unable to market their products successfully.  I do not live in a mansion, but the company I work for has some great technology and we are make the world a better place.

So this brings me back to the title of my blog, "Send $1 to..."  I have always wondered what I could do on the Internet that would make me tons of money.  I had a friend tell me a while back, all you need to do is setup a website and ask for each person that visits it to send you one dollar.  Now I have never done this, but I'm guessing that if you solicited the money for charity and stated that you would send a certain portion of it to charity, then you would be able to keep a portion for "administrative costs."

But what if you just asked for everyone who visited your website to send in one dollar for no reason at all?  What would happen?

Till next time,
Bill