Billions With Zero Knowledge

So two of my buddies Andy Nulman and Mitch Joel have both gone and gotten themselves mixed up with a new social meme whereby bloggers post “5 things you don’t know about me”. Mitch’s explains the experiment and gives us his five things here, and Andy responds with his five interesting things here. Well Andy challenged me, and who I am to back down

So five things you don’t know about me,

1. I was once arrested (though not convicted) for attempting to steal a telephone booth. You try explaining to the cops, and then your parents why you had a tow rope running from your car around a phone booth which was ripped half way of the wall. One word - Scavanger Hunt! - 2nd word - Stupid kid stuff.
2. I inhale books the way most people watch TV or movies. I can read a fiction novel in a couple of hours, and non-fiction books generally take me an evening or two.
3. I don’t have a high school diploma. I started high school when I was 17 after quitting school when I was 15. I almost completed a 3yr high school degree at an accelerated pace school but after 18 months of work where I crammed in 95% of my credits needed to graduate, I got tired of school and decided to start a company. Maybe one day I’ll do enough good deeds to earn an honorary high school diploma
4. I’ve performed as a magician and mentalist. As a teenager I use to perform children’s magic shows. I did bar mentalism, and street magic for awhile as well. I started to volunteer doing children’s magic shows again a couple of years ago. My mentalism has come in handy when I hire people. I’ve been accused of using the ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ to get people to leave jobs they love to come work with me.(picture from a show I did for a group of of kids in Toronto a couple of summers ago).
5. I never liked dogs but I got a dog to make up with my girlfriend after a fight. Growing up I never really liked dogs, and certainly didn’t want the responsibility of owning one when I became a busy entrepreneur. Despite this, after a major screw up on my part I got a puppy 2 years ago for my girlfriend Kelly as a way to make up for a fight. Our dog Pearl (who yes, has her own social networking page with my friend Jeff Clavier’s portfolio company Dogster) is now part of our family and I couldn’t imagine coming home without her being there. Best decision I ever made. It not only saved my relationship - but I’ve decided that taking care of a living being who has unconditional love for you is healthy. (Plus she is adorable.)

So there is my five. Instead of challenging five friends to continue this (although I invite anyone with a blog to do this, since it was a lot of fun) meme I’ll be posting something this weekend that includes my little social media challenge for December.

On Fri 8 Dec 2006.