[gonzo]

Cant sell your program?
Start an auction on ebay for your life story.
I shit you not.... bid is at $2

A pornographer.

Sounds strange when you whisper it. Stranger, when you live it.

I had alot of dreams growing up. I wanted to be a filmmaker, amongst other things, but then, life happened.
I started college full of ambition. It didn't take long to learn school was not for me. I felt caged, and worst, I was bored. After one year, I quit college. I was looking for a faster route to riches.
At nineteen, I became a daytrader.
It should have come with a warning; World’s most dangerous profession.
Then one spring day, as it always does, something happened.A company announced a splendid piece of news. Many people would benefit. I would not be one of them.

Just days earlier, I had shorted their stock. Bet against it, if you will. In a single day, I lost it all, and then some.

It’s an eerie feeling when your life changes before you.I took it better than expected at first. Then, I felt numb. The truth hurt.
I sampled school again, but they didn’t offer a course on getting out of this.
After some time, the numbness started to wear off. It was replaced by thoughts of a comeback.I wanted to do it in grand style. So I did what anyone else in my position would do.
I decided to Start an internet company.
There were some obstacles though. Lack of money and know how were the major ones, but there was a way around it. I could do this, if I built it all myself.
And so I started.

My brother taught me the basics about design, and I taught myself the rest.Side jobs satisfied some of the bills, some of the time.

It took four years of enduring red for the promise of riches. Four years, fossilized in eternity.
And now, it’s finally finished.

One year ago though, as I was still laboring on this company, something happened. The side jobs ran dry, and bills became past due notices. That is when I had a profound experience.

Poverty. Real, raw, and uncut.

Two dollars in change becomes the most valuable thing you own, when it has to feed you for a day. This was life, at it's most humbling.
And then one day, a realization set in. No matter how bad I had it, someone else had it worst.
Slowly, something was changing inside me.

The seemingly worst times, became the best. The drive for wealth was gone. Living had taken it's place.
Which brings us back to this moment, and my company. My internet porn company.

When launched, it would bring me wealth and villas. But I do not desire riches anymore. I am content chasing the dream I once had, even if I do it modestly.

Second chances don't happen often. That is, unless the brother who helped you with one path long ago, starts you on a new one.
It would be ironic if this brother grew up and went after his dream. It would be ironic if his dream was to be a filmmaker as well.

I want to use half the money from this auction to tell this story in a feature film. My story, as it really happened.

And what will come of the faith of my company? I am giving it away to the winner of this auction, frozen in a pixelated time capsule, four years in the making. Perhaps they can put it to good use, maybe even to help a cause.


They will also be forever engraved in screen immortality, through a role in this movie. Perhaps even playing themselves, as the one who made this dream possible.

That leaves the other half of the money.

I would like to give that to MakePovertyHistory (makepovertyhistory.org), in the name of the auction winner.


Ali Mirmontazeri
ali@arteia.com