How Much Is the Rest of Your Life Worth?

Image from Change.org

This is not a wimpy philosophical post. We are talking dollars and sense. (Not a typo). A new business model experiment is in the works, relating to social entrepreneurship called: The Life Investment. Basically, it comes down to this question according to the Social Edge blog:

If an investor offered you a large infusion of unrestricted capital, say $300,000, with the only condition being that you would give them 3% of your income for the rest of your life, would you take the deal?

Apparently, it was fueled by this guy as the concept of personal investment contracts. Then, thanks to Nathaniel Whittemore, Change.org’s Social Entrepreneurship blogger, the conversation grew bigger until three innovative bloggers at SocialEdge, the blog hosted by the Skoll Foundation, took the leap and announced the Thrust Fund. Each has their own start-up social entrepreneurship, and here is their offer:

Kjerstin: Offers 6% of her annual income for a $600,000 up front investment.
Saul and Jon: Each offering 3% for $300,000 up front.

Now this gets interesting and I have to say ballsy. If this idea and conversation gets you off your chair and gets your mind thinking, Kjerstin, Saul and Jon are hosting a conversation about their offer saying: “Invest in us; we’ll give you some of our equity for life.” I’m still marinating on this whole concept myself, but I love the innovation here. The details is where it may get tricky–but man, bravo for putting themselves out there and believing in something that strong. What do you think–if you were made the offer, what would you say: Deal? or No Deal?

6 thoughts on “How Much Is the Rest of Your Life Worth?”

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home2/flyfouch/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

James S. Walker January 13, 2010 at 10:25 pm

Right now I’m tempted to say deal…might feel differently tomorrow, but here’s the thing… If you know you have a great idea (really know for sure, not just telling yourself so many times you convince yourself) and your goal is to help people, does the income you have to give up really matter? You got what you needed to achieve your goal.

The details may be tricky, but on the surface, it’s hard to see major negatives.

Geoff Livingston January 14, 2010 at 6:23 am

Seems like a nice way to create indentured servants. No way. They can invest in a venture, but they can’t own me.

Alex Post authorJanuary 14, 2010 at 8:27 am

@James, I was kind of thinking your way at first, but now I’m not so sure. If it looks to good to be true, then most likely it is. Especially when you look at it from the side of the investor, I’m not sure it makes much sense–you would need to be VERY confident in the person you invest in–not just that they will be successful, but that they would be substantially successful to make the investment worth it.

That said, I look forward to seeing how this evolves and what comes of it. What I am envious about is that you have three people here who believe in themselves, in their cause, and in what they do—that is the most powerful thing and the biggest take away for me personally.

Andre Blackman January 14, 2010 at 8:52 am

I haven’t had a chance to read through all of the links yet but I’m more inclined to go the way of Mr. Livingston on this one. It kind of sounds like one of those Brothers Grimm tales of someone who wanted to get rich quick but ends up unhappy for the rest of his life. That said, I can see how this might be something of interest in the social entrepreneurship world where income/salary isn’t the ultimate goal but that of sustainable change.

So if it’s a certain percentage of your salary from just that invested project (and not your overall salary from other things), I’d say it is ballsy but also may start some interesting conversations.

Steve Radick February 3, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Couldn’t do it for the rest of my life, but could definitely see this becoming a trend for shorter-term timeframes. Say, I give you $100K now in exchange for 7% of your earnings over the next ten years. “For Life” is just too permanent, too, like Geoff said, “you own someone.” With proper parameters though, I could see some people doing this.

We could totally start a reality show based on this idea…want to give me $200K now to start it up? 🙂

Alex Post authorFebruary 4, 2010 at 12:50 pm

Steve, I like your twist on this…and regarding the show, think we could get Simon as a judge now that he’s leaving Idol?

There was a similiar show on a few years back about inventions–think it was called the American Inventor on ABC.

Comments are closed.

SocialButterfly

Exploring the Art + Science of Social Change.

6 thoughts on “How Much Is the Rest of Your Life Worth?”