Alternative career after Wall Street

[Andy Nguyen]

Since this summer, I have a lot of discussions with colleagues about something interesting that we can enjoy if one day we decide to do something totally different.
Some say they will go into fishing, gardening, playing in a rock band, writing a novel, etc.
I think I will make some forum, get plenty of members, sell ads like crazy and travel the world while my site makes money for me. Does it sound crazy?
What are your plans?

PS: I'm still trying to figure out this money making scheme
Step 1: Collect underpaints
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

 

[Dmytro]

you could start with selling your soul to the devil, sueing whomever you need to sue to win legal ownership of QN and then opening it up to more ads and pocketing the revenues. should be a viable model for a couple of weeks/months.

as for me, it'd be nice to be able to doing sth with my own hands, like a furniture or weird puzzles/souvenirs/crafts shop. btw, there's a related article about that in the last issue of Crain's (called Life after Wall Street). or be a bike messenger.

the problem is that only a few people will be interested/able to buy this stuff these days. when the guys on the Street are not making money, it affects everybody around them. but when guys on the Street are making money, then i want to be one of them ;]. i'm only human

 

[doug reich]

Andy, your business model is that of all web entrepreneurs.

You seem to be the registered owner of QN, so there isn't a legal roadblock as Dmytro implies.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Since this summer, I have a lot of discussions with colleagues about something interesting that we can enjoy if one day we decide to do something totally different.
Some say they will go into fishing, gardening, playing in a rock band, writing a novel, etc.

Mostly just idle talk. The would-be novelists discover, for example, that they can't write anything longer than a memo and they have nothing to write about except, er, office work and office politics.

I think I will make some forum, get plenty of members, sell ads like crazy and travel the world while my site makes money for me. Does it sound crazy?

Nope, not crazy. But I thought tens of thousands of would-be web entrepreneurs have tried this (and there are even books on this), but most fail.

 

[Dmytro]

You seem to be the registered owner of QN, so there isn't a legal roadblock as Dmytro implies.

but there may be a moral one, hence the soul selling ;]

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Given the number of desperate souls on the market these days, my soul won't fetch anything decent from the devil himself.
As Doug points out, I'm the legal owner of Quantnet. I tried running few ads here but QF is very niche that I don't see QN ever making money.

As rightfully pointed out by previous posters, web entrepreneur is a tricky business. Out of millions of website, forums out there, maybe a handful of them make money; the rest is dying a slow death.

Maybe something unique? NYC community for owners of furniture or weird puzzles/souvenirs/crafts shop. I can count on Dmytro as my member

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Dmytro,
Could you post link to the Crain's article?

 

[bigbadwolf]

Maybe something unique? NYC community for owners of furniture or weird puzzles/souvenirs/crafts shop.

Hmmm, looks like you're serious. You don't post frivolously. I would get out of NYC first of all, and move to some some town or hamlet in a place like Iowa or Missouri. Living is cheaper, people are friendlier (I've lived there). Then a small furniture or crafts shop might work -- but you may need to bring in some extra skills as well (e.g. handyman, gardener). Or you might consider moving out of the country altogether -- as I and some of my friends have done.

 

[doug reich]

I think one of the most important things is to increase traffic: get other schools to use the site for their students & teachers; try and keep people from disappearing when they get out of school; increase diversity of users; get some GS quant teams posting here so you can get some street cred. That would be my first step.

Second step is to monetize. If you have a big community, then you can charge employers, jobs websites, conference organizers, software vendors to advertise, and they'll be glad to reach your audience.

 

[alain]

... and move to some some town or hamlet in a place like Iowa or Missouri

It looks you have never being in Iowa.

For a small town, move to North Dakota, Wyoming or Montana... that's cheap... maybe, if things keep going the way they're going, you might be able to move to Detroit.

 

[Yan He]

Housewife! The most simple solution for layoff from the Street.

 

[Dmytro]

Crain's article attached. btw, they profiled Tim Sykes in it.

 

[alain]

From Bloomberg: "A Wall Street Job Can’t Match a Calling in Life", Michael Lewis

Nice article from Michael Lewis:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aBabxZ9WD2cE&refer=columnist_lewis

Here is the followup:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=abi_5iukj9gs&refer=columnist_lewis

 

[Pasion]

Sound's like the idea about "jollies" I read somewhere. Personally, I had been trying to get jollies from school/work. Then I realized I'm actually only trying to secure a future that will allow me to have most of the "jollies" and I only derive moderate jollies from school/work.

Now I'm wondering what these future jollies are. The further something occurs in the future, the harder it is to predict what it will be. "Sacrifice now and be rewarded in the future" is the advice my Dad gives me. I guess he's right. I change my mind so often about possible "callings" that I've decided to aim for a rewarding job I can stand and attempt get jollies from more natural places. In my opinion, I also think it's really hard to mix money (e.g working for a living) with something you trully like. Knowing that you have to do something takes a lot of the leisure and fun out of it.

I'm now trying to redistribute my sources of immediate jollies to family & relationships, hobby's, traveling, sports etc. I think it would be a sad shame if I ended up on a path to infinity not knowing what I really wanted or how to get there. Even if I did, what if I changed my mind at that point? Then all for nothing?