3 Stories Of People Making Millions In Weird Ways

Martha Stewart's Career and Downfall

• Martha Stewart was a highly driven and charismatic individual who started her career as a model while attending Columbia University, where she studied architectural history (52s).
• After graduating, she became a stockbroker at the age of 24 with the help of her father-in-law, despite having no background in stocks, and worked in a male-dominated industry (1m15s).
• Martha Stewart's charm, charisma, and put-together appearance helped her succeed as a salesperson, earning her $135,000 per year, equivalent to $1 million today, at the age of 26 (2m32s).
• She worked as a stockbroker for six or seven years, making successful investment recommendations for her clients, including a stock that rose from $1 to $50, but ultimately dropped back down to $8-10 (2m57s).
• The rollercoaster ride of her clients' investments left Martha Stewart distraught, leading her to quit her job as a stockbroker in her late 20s (3m14s).
• After quitting her job, Martha Stewart moved to Westport, Connecticut, at the age of 30, where she wanted to start a family and try a new path in life (3m23s).
• A housewife moved to Westport, Connecticut, and turned an old house into an estate by painting, building a garden, and raising goats and chickens, eventually hosting lavish dinner parties that led to a catering business (3m30s).
• The catering business became successful due to her unique approach of making everything from scratch, including going to farmers' markets in New York at 4 a.m. to get produce and baking food in the morning (4m42s).
• She became famous for creating overflowing fruit and meat boards, which she considered her art, and aimed to make the dining experience about generosity, abundance, and community (5m14s).
• Her catering business grew into a big company, catering events for prominent clients such as the Met and art museums in New York, and eventually led to a cookbook deal with a major publisher (5m44s).
• The housewife was hands-on in writing the cookbook, insisting on colored photos and hiring a photographer friend to take lavish photos at her estate, aiming to create a high-quality cookbook similar to Martha Stewart's (6m13s).
• The cookbook took three to four years to complete and was a significant project for the housewife, who was determined to make it a success (5m59s).
• Martha Stewart's lifestyle is showcased through her lavish kitchen, which is filled with 9,000 pots and pans, and is described as looking like an overflowing sherry board (6m37s).
• Stewart was a perfectionist and initially wrote a book called "Entertaining" about creating an atmosphere of warmth, which became a massive hit and sold 650,000 copies (7m12s).
• She was one of the early influencers, and her book was not just about cooking, but about being better and perfecting a craft, which resonated with women in the 80s (7m51s).
• Stewart had a vision of creating a media company centered around her lifestyle, which she confidently believed in, as evident in her business plan (8m4s).
• Despite facing personal challenges, including her husband's infidelity and being a demanding boss, Stewart remained confident in her abilities and unapologetic about her perfectionism (8m43s).
• Stewart's business ventures, including partnering with Kmart and creating a line of bedding, were successful, and she eventually raised $85 million to buy her magazine and take it public (9m20s).
• Her company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, became a behemoth, generating $130 million in revenue in 1997, and Stewart became the first self-made female billionaire in America (9m43s).
• A data pack report is available for free, which provides insights and strategies for entrepreneurs, and can be accessed through a link in the description (10m32s).
• Martha Stewart, worth around $400-600 million, sold a stock and made $30,000, which led to an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) due to suspicions of insider trading (10m42s).
• The investigation found that the CEO of the company whose stock she sold was corrupt, but Martha Stewart was not aware of this and did not engage in insider trading (11m39s).
• However, Martha Stewart lied to the DOJ about being on a schedule to sell the stock, which led to her being sentenced to five months in federal penitentiary for lying (12m3s).
• Martha Stewart's reputation was also affected by stories of her being rude to people, including her stock broker's assistant, which swayed public opinion against her (12m38s).
• After serving her sentence, Martha Stewart participated in a roast of Justin Bieber, which helped change public perception of her and showed a more humorous side of her personality (13m16s).
• Martha Stewart made a shank in prison using a piece of pencil and bubble gum, humanizing her in a documentary, but her arrest led to a significant decline in her company's stock value, resulting in the company being sold for $300 million instead of potentially being worth $10 billion (13m40s).
• Martha Stewart is described as a "bad bad woman" who is brutal, smart, and conniving, with a non-nonsense attitude, and has shown these traits throughout her career (14m18s).
• Martha Stewart started her career as a model, then became a sales stockbroker, and eventually built her brand into a major company, becoming a self-made influencer and author of cookbooks (14m36s).
• Despite her tough personality, Martha Stewart paid the price for her behavior, including her husband leaving her and a strained relationship with her children, and has not had a relationship since her divorce (15m19s).
• Martha Stewart's company was not as successful as it seemed, with total revenue of $295 million and net income of $21 million in 2001, and consecutive annual losses from 2003 to 2015, except for one year (16m33s).
• The decline of Martha Stewart's company was partly due to the rise of the internet, which significantly impacted the publishing industry, a major source of revenue for her company (17m14s).
• A woman, who was 30 years too early for her time, had a talent and ruthlessness combination that could have served her well if she had access to the internet, potentially becoming a juggernaut and the number one women's or mom influencer of her era (17m21s).
• Despite the challenges she faced, her businesses still do around a billion dollars a year in sales (18m30s).

A Day in the Life of Martha Stewart and Short Sleeper Syndrome

• A typical day for 60-year-old Martha Stewart starts at 4:30 a.m., where she answers her email, takes a three-mile walk with her trainer, tours her garden, and shoots her TV segment by 9:00 a.m., showcasing her high energy and productivity levels (18m35s).
• Some people, including famous individuals like Mozart, Thomas Edison, Sigman Freud, Margaret Thatcher, and Obama, have a condition called short sleeper syndrome, which allows them to operate on four to five hours of sleep per night without any negative consequences (19m41s).
• Research suggests that people with short sleeper syndrome do not pay the price in terms of health and longevity, despite sleeping less than the average person (20m31s).
• A researcher from Utah, known as the Johnsons, has been studying a genetic condition that affects about 1% of the population, allowing them to require less sleep without detrimental effects on their health or productivity (20m56s).
• The researchers have identified four protein changes, including changes in the glutamate receptor GRM1, that are associated with this condition, and have conducted tests in mice to understand the genetic mechanisms behind it (21m26s).
• The researcher, possibly named Isaac, suggests that it may be possible to develop a treatment that can reduce the need for sleep in the same way that certain drugs, such as OIC, can modify appetite and have downstream health benefits (22m40s).
• The potential treatment could allow people to save three or four hours of sleep per night, which could have significant benefits for longevity, potentially allowing people to live healthier for longer and pushing back the onset of age-related health problems (23m34s).
• The researcher notes that while mouse models do not always apply to human models, in this case, the genetic condition was first observed in humans and then recreated in mice, making the findings more promising (22m28s).
• A researcher claims that a potential breakthrough in sleep technology could allow people to sleep for only five hours and feel just as good as they would on eight hours, effectively adding 10 more years to their life, with an 80-year lifespan having eight hours of sleep per day compared to 80 years with four hours of sleep being equivalent to a 10-year difference (24m29s).

Isaac Freeman and the Poly Market Whale

• This technology could also alleviate sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea, affecting thousands of Americans (24m50s).
• The researcher, a 22-year-old PhD student at MIT named Isaac, is exploring brain simulations as an alternative path to beneficial AI and has a personal blog where he shares his ideas (25m19s).
• Isaac has an impressive background, having skipped high school in rural Austria to graduate early, created a $1 million nonprofit during his gap year, and ran a viral tech conference featuring Sam Altman, and is self-taught in Mandarin (25m21s).
• The discovery of Isaac's blog and his ideas on sleep technology is seen as a significant find, with potential for widespread impact and attention (25m1s).
• The idea of needing less sleep is considered a desirable superpower, with some people preferring to have extra hours in their day rather than being skinny or having other physical attributes (27m4s).
• However, it is noted that many people, especially younger individuals, might prioritize physical appearance over the benefits of extra sleep (27m22s).
• A blog was discovered with a significant increase in visitors, reaching 125,000 in October, after publishing an article in November, which was found by Ben and sent to a friend who had invested in a company related to the blog's content (27m34s).
• The friend had invested in a company that made a GLP1 drug, which sold for millions of dollars, and was grateful to Ben for sending him the blog, as it was a great example of Ben's ability to find and share valuable information (27m48s).
• Ben has a curated feed where he follows a limited number of people, including a guy named Isaac, and knows who to route the information to, making him like a "FedEx" for useful information (28m23s).
• Ben's approach is to find useful information and pass it on to people who might be interested, without asking questions or seeking anything in return, which has led to him being part of many group chats and building relationships with various people (28m59s).
• Ben's ability to be useful and provide value to others has led to him monetizing his efforts phenomenally, as people are willing to invest in opportunities that he presents to them (29m22s).
• Ben's approach has also led to him building a network of relationships, where people are willing to invest in opportunities that he presents to them, and he is able to provide value to others without asking for anything in return (29m47s).
• Ben is exceptionally skilled at creating value through simple actions, which has led to him becoming a better person to approach for help, rather than the speaker, and has created tens of millions of dollars in value (30m52s).
• The speaker jokingly suggests that Ben should write a modern version of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" due to his ability to build relationships and influence others with ease (31m12s).
• The speaker mentions Isaac Freeman, a good-looking and stylish individual who has achieved great success, and notes that looks can be a significant multiplier in how people perceive and remember others (31m44s).
• The speaker discusses how people often use avatars as their Twitter profile pictures if they are not confident in their appearance, and mentions that they use a cartoon profile picture themselves (32m54s).
• The speaker notes that when someone quotes revenue, it often means they don't have profit, and similarly, if someone has good looks, they will often use their face as their profile picture, but Isaac Freeman defies this convention (33m5s).
• The speaker mentions that Isaac Freeman's revenue is reportedly in the eight figures, including his work on the dot z00 (33m20s).
• The speaker introduces the story of the "Poly Market Whale," who made a significant amount of money, and notes that a billion dollars is a more impressive figure than a million (33m47s).
• The 2016 US presidential election had various undercard battles, including mainstream media versus social media, with candidates like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris appearing on different platforms such as Joe Rogan's podcast and Saturday Night Live (34m11s).
• Billionaire backers like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban used their money and influence to promote their preferred candidates (35m5s).
• Another undercard battle was between polls and crypto prediction markets, with polls indicating a close election and prediction markets favoring Trump with odds of around 63-65% (35m15s).
• The prediction markets were seen as potentially more accurate due to the "skin in the game" factor, where people were betting their own money, which could provide a more accurate representation of the election outcome (36m41s).
• The pro side of the prediction market argument was that it could be a better indicator of the election outcome due to the wisdom of the crowds and the free market, whereas polls relied on people's stated intentions to vote, which may not be entirely accurate (36m47s).
• The prediction market odds shifted in Trump's favor as the election started, indicating a potential landslide victory, which was later confirmed (36m12s).
• Poly Market is a crypto betting platform that was banned in the US, resulting in all betting action coming from international users, with over $3 billion bet on the election, none of which came from Americans (37m24s).
• The platform's users are mostly crypto holders, who may have a bias towards libertarian or right-leaning views, and may have voted based on their wishes rather than the actual outcome (37m40s).
• The news reported that Poly Market's results were manipulated by a few "whales" who bet heavily on Trump, swinging the odds and influencing the outcome (38m7s).
• One user, "theo4", made a profit of $22 million on the platform, and users can view the top 10 betters, their bets, and their profit and loss (P&L) on the platform (38m36s).
• An investigation found that a few large bets on Trump came from the same person, who was later revealed to be a French trader who used 11 accounts to bet $40-50 million and made a profit of $80 million (39m7s).
• The French trader, who wished to remain anonymous, was identified through a combination of publicly available information on Poly Market and forensic analysis by a company called Chainalysis (39m45s).
• Chainalysis is a $10 billion company that provides forensic analysis of cryptocurrency transactions to governments and other clients, and was used to track down the French trader's wallet and identify him (40m11s).
• A French man made a massive bet on Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, despite polls suggesting a 50-50 or razor-thin outcome, and his bet ultimately paid off (40m31s).
• The man commissioned his own polls, using a method called the "neighbor method," where instead of asking people who they would vote for, he asked who they thought their neighbor would vote for, as he believed this would indirectly reveal their own preferences (40m51s).
• The results of the polls showed a landslide victory for Trump, which led the man to place a huge bet on Trump's victory, as well as on specific swing states where he thought the outcome would be more in favor of Trump than the polls suggested (42m7s).
• The man's final quote was that public opinion would have been better prepared if the latest polls had measured using the neighbor effect, and he specifically bet on the overall victory and specific swing states (42m36s).
• The man's conviction and willingness to bet $30 million of his own money on the outcome, despite going against the establishment's predictions, is seen as fascinating and admirable (43m31s).

Elon Musk and Poly Market Speculation

• Elon Musk is a unique individual who combines exceptional intelligence, risk-taking abilities, and a strong work ethic, making him a top performer in multiple areas, with a rarity of one in 10 billion, similar to how multiplying 0.1% by five results in an extremely low probability (44m9s).
• Poly Market is a platform that allows users to speculate on various outcomes, including prices and sports games, which can be seen as a form of betting or gambling, but also has the potential to appreciate in value over time (46m51s).
• The concept of buying stocks can be seen as a form of speculation, where investors believe in the future earnings of a company and expect the share price to increase, which is similar to the idea behind Poly Market (46m25s).
• Vitalik, the creator of Ethereum, wrote a blog post discussing the concept of speculation and betting, which is relevant to the discussion of Poly Market and its potential use cases (47m19s).
• The speaker mentions that they have been a fan of Poly Market and have used it in the past, but acknowledges that it may not be sustainable in its current form (45m5s).
• The idea of speculation and betting is not unique to Poly Market, as it can be applied to various forms of investment, including buying stocks or cars, which exist on a spectrum of risk and potential reward (45m51s).

Vitalik Buterin's Perspective on Prediction Markets

• Vitalik, a well-known figure in the crypto space, has expressed interest in prediction markets, which may seem unusual given his reputation for being a purist and not being into the "crypto casino" side of life (47m28s).
• Vitalik views prediction markets as a form of "info finance" or information finance, where the betting and gambling aspect serves as a source of news and information for those who are not participating in the betting (48m3s).
• He uses the example of Poly Market, which served as a betting site for some, but also provided valuable information on events such as the US presidential election, with the prediction markets often being more accurate than traditional polls (48m8s).
• Vitalik also mentions the usefulness of prediction markets in understanding events such as the elections in Venezuela, where the markets provided valuable information on the situation (48m47s).
• Another potential use case for prediction markets, according to Vitalik, is as "decision markets," where companies or groups can set up markets to gather information and make decisions, such as whether to hire a particular CEO or what the potential impact on the share price would be (50m12s).
• Vitalik uses the example of a company hiring a new CEO, such as Starbucks hiring the former CEO of Chipotle, and how the news of the hiring caused the stock price to jump, illustrating the potential value of using prediction markets to inform decision-making (49m11s).
• Decision markets can be created to gather information and improve judgment by paying participants to make bets on the outcome of a decision, which can help predict the market reaction to a particular choice, such as hiring Brian Nichols (50m37s).
• The concept of info finance can be applied to various fields, including scientific peer review, where prediction markets can create incentives for people to reproduce studies, addressing the replication crisis in science (51m17s).
• The replication crisis in science refers to the inability to reproduce famous results, which is a problem because reproducibility is a key aspect of good science, and prediction markets can help solve this issue by creating a financial incentive for people to verify or refute existing studies (51m22s).
• The application of prediction markets in scientific peer review can lead to more accurate and reliable scientific findings, as people will be motivated to reproduce studies and verify their results (52m0s).

The Value of Accessible Information and Podcasts

• The era of accessible information and knowledge sharing through blogs, podcasts, and other online platforms is unique and valuable, allowing people to learn from experts and successful individuals, such as entrepreneurs and athletes, who share their thoughts and experiences (52m21s).
• The proliferation of podcasts has democratized access to knowledge and expertise, enabling people to learn from successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and thought leaders, such as Allin, Reed Hoffman, and Mark Zuckerberg (53m34s).
• The sports podcast landscape has evolved, offering a third type of podcast that features individuals who have firsthand experience in the field, providing unique perspectives, although it's essential to consider potential biases and agendas (53m54s).
• Vitalik, the creator of Ethereum, is an exception, as he can be taken at face value due to his transparent and unbiased nature, actively discussing the limitations and challenges of Ethereum (54m40s).
• Vitalik has been actively working on Ethereum, continuously developing and improving the project, which is not a company but a nonprofit, open-source foundation (56m7s).
• He has been writing extensive blog posts, with one post reaching 6,000 words, which is a significant amount of work, equivalent to around 40 hours of writing (55m38s).
• Vitalik's dedication to Ethereum is evident, as he continues to work on the project, which is still in development, with a long-term roadmap, and he is transparent about its limitations and the work that still needs to be done (56m31s).
• The question remains how Vitalik manages to write so much while working on Ethereum, considering it's not a full-time job in the classical sense, but rather a nonprofit, open-source project (56m55s).
• The person being discussed is a champion and steward, but not a traditional leader with many direct reports, and it's unclear if he has a girlfriend or wife due to the difficulty in distinguishing between his real life and memes (57m10s).
• The person had previously made a case for Bitcoin on a podcast, which was met with skepticism, but the price of Bitcoin has since increased by 47% (57m56s).

Bitcoin Investment and Government Support

• The person is not just a commentator, but has also invested their own money in Bitcoin through Poly Market, a platform that allows users to bet on the outcome of events (58m33s).
• The person's investment in Bitcoin was based on their belief that the government would become more pro-Bitcoin, which was seen as a major risk factor for the cryptocurrency (59m31s).
• The person points to the increasing number of pro-crypto individuals in government, including 140 representatives in Congress, as evidence that the government is becoming more supportive of Bitcoin (59m56s).
• The person also mentions that there are discussions about creating a Bitcoin strategic reserve for the country, which would be a significant development for the cryptocurrency (1h0m6s).
• The conversation appears to be wrapping up with a discussion about a prediction that was made, which turned out to be correct, although the details of the prediction are not specified in this segment (1h0m14s).
• The speaker expresses gratitude and acknowledges the accuracy of the prediction, stating that it is making them nervous due to the current state of things being "insane" (1h0m27s).
• The conversation concludes with a mention of various topics that were discussed, including Martha Stewart, Bitcoin, and the poly Market whale, before ending with a farewell message (1h0m42s).