So What’s Your Magic Number?

“I do think, at a certain point, you’ve made enough money,” said Obama in 2010.

Well, it’s 2012 now, it’s hard out there for us pimps, so I didn’t much know wtf to say when a financial advisor recently asked me my magic number. “You know,” he said, “the number that answers all the questions.”

“No fucking idea,” I replied.

When someone asked John D. Rockefeller the same question, here’s what he said:

Magic number? In a country sitting on $41 Billion in unused gift cards?

In a world where my top five biggest problems include how to get my kid to stop playing his Nintendo DS?

In a world where making a true impact, creating the scale of change I want to see in the world requires getting farther and farther from the people who need help, and closer and closer to the sources of money so I can redirect it to them?

Louis CK learned something about magic numbers last month. And taught himself (and us) something in the process. First, he bypassed the TV networks in favor of his own DIY special on the web. He decided to charge people $5 to watch his show on demand. Lotsa pundits are all over that story, proclaiming it an inflection point on the path of old media’s demise.  I’ll leave that debate to the jokers I’ll see this month at CES.

Anyway, Louis CK’s phone began lighting up with scores of pays-per-view. When it hit million — yes, a million — bucks, he sat there flabbergasted. Any of us would. But what most of us wouldn’t do is what Louis CK did next, and here’s that story via Jimmy Fallon:

Like most of us, I take my financial cues from rappers. Like Lil Wayne: “Too much money ain’t enough money, you know the feds listenin.” (Smart man.)

And Jay-Z: “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” (Smarter man.)

(Side Note: I’m confused by the Jay-Z vs Lil Wayne pseudo-beef, which is kind about money but not really.)

You wanna know what I’ma do with my next million, dawg? Text a hundred bucks to the kids at St Jude Hospital and then maybe I’ll tell you.


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