Ask El Diablo

[DCopper04]

Diablo,

Think you could use the quote feature here? I'm sure you know that Ask Me threads are much more difficult to read if the question is not repeated right before the answer.

Also, how come you never use the quote feature? I know you often put other people's words in quotations, but it seems that hitting the quote button would be much easier.

[jgorham]

Hey El D,

My plan for the next couple years is to play poker to make as much money as I can, then grow sick of it. At that point my goal is to start my own business. I don't have a particular type of business I want to start, I just really think that running a business of any kind would be extremely rewarding for the type of person I am.

Problem is I majored in political science and have no real business experience. Not only do I feel behind the curve, I also can't really afford to get jobs besides poker in the near future. If it matters I am 22 and graduating in March. What books would you recommend I read to start my mind thinking about business decisions the right way, as well as what other recommendations might you have to help me along this path?

[Ray Zee]

el d.

i recently had an expensive bottle of wine and it had a plastic cork. good cork is hard to get but an expensive wine using plastic corks?

[Abones]

El D,

Have you ever read a book titled "Monster - The autobiography of an L.A. gang member"

If so, did you enjoy it?

If not, would you consider reading it based on the title? What if someone recommended it to you, assuming you have some regard for the recommender.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
el d.

i recently had an expensive bottle of wine and it had a plastic cork. good cork is hard to get but an expensive wine using plastic corks?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ray,

My wife runs a Wine Meetup group that goes to restaurants and wineries etc., tastes wines and listens to lectures about wines/wineries/wine making/etc. She had an event recently and the wine somalier talked about this very topic. It turns out that there is nothing wrong with synthetic corks, and in fact, it delivers a better, less variable product. Without a real cork, there is far less chance that a bottle can be "corked." Guy seemed to know his [censored], so I'm inclined to believe him.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
El D,

Have you ever read a book titled "Monster - The autobiography of an L.A. gang member"

If so, did you enjoy it?

If not, would you consider reading it based on the title? What if someone recommended it to you, assuming you have some regard for the recommender.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read it about 12 years ago. If I recall correctly it was a very fast read, enjoyable and hard hitting; just skimmed some Amazon reviews and I'd say I concur with most of them.

Even though it was written in 1993 I'd say it isn't really dated if you want to get a feel for hard core gang life in general from the inside.

~ Rick

PS I recommended mid priced wine in 3 liter boxes for small dose drinking before bedtime so I doubt El D has much regard for my opinion [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[goofball]

If you could make two books required reading for every adult american which two would you choose and why?

How do I get someone to give me money to start my own gymnastics school? (or any business without the potential for 1000x% growth)

[jackdaniels]

When I opened 2p2 today there was a menu item called "El Diablos General Discussion Forum" - or something like that listed. Once I logged in, this menu item disappeared and the only way to get to this forum was to use the link in OOT.

What happened?

[samjjones]

Diablo - my wife is a complete retard when it comes to money management. For example, instead of maximizing a 401K with matching company contribution, she will put $5K in a CD and make $120 in a year. Her justification is "you can't touch the 401K for another 35 years anyway!"

I love her dearly, but I'm afraid that she will never understand the concept of compound interest. What should I do?

[mmbt0ne]

ED,

I meant to pm you this question recently: Let's say your company goes for 2 rounds of VC. First they get $10M from Sequoia, then $24M from some angel. Is company ownership split up at the time of each deal (so S could get say 30% for their 10M while A would get 20$ for their 24M) or is it all split up at the end according to what was put up?

- mmbt