
Wanted: Buyers for a 1% stake in all my future income - SellingMyself
I&#x27;m a software developer in the UK, got &gt;$1M to my name, and am 29 and unmarried.<p>I&#x27;m looking for a mentor, and would like to reward the right mentor with a 1% stake in all my future income.   If you mentor me well, you will earn lots.  If I fail, you earn nothing.   If you no longer want to be a mentor, you can pass it on to someone else.<p>In a real company, you get voting rights, and the ability to direct how it&#x27;s run.   When mentoring me, you get no say whatsoever - but it will be in both of our best interests to work together.<p>To pick the best mentor, I propose an auction.  How much would you pay for this right?<p>(There is a reserve price, offers also accepted for a 0.1% stake or a 0.01% stake)
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bjourne
I highly doubt your proposed contract would be legally binding. I don't think
you can sign away 1% of your total (pre-tax?) remaining life-time earnings.
But even if you could, your prospective mentor is very likely to be ripped
off. Let me explain.

I don't know how much time you want your mentor to spend on your development.
But I'm assuming it is at least one month of full-time mentoring, so about 175
hours. From experience, I know that providing one hour of quality mentoring
takes at least one hour of preparation. So the mentor would have to spend
about 350 hours. The mentor wants to get compensated for this time. Since you
want a highly qualified mentor and not just any random programmer, his or her
hourly rate would be quite high. I'd say at least €60. So the mentor would be
out about 350 * 60 = €21 000 before he or she starts making money of your
salary.

The UK median salary is about €50 000 per year, but we'll assume you'll make
€60 000 per year thanks to the great mentoring. Assuming you'll work for
another 30 years that's a measly 600 * 30 = €18 000 into the mentors pocket (I
realize salary increases makes this calculation suspect)

Clearly, the deal is not worthwhile. And that is not even taking into account
the uncertainties (what if you die or get sick?) or that the mentor could have
put the €21 000 in index funds instead, yielding about 3% per year or €50 000
over 30 years.

I have had a mentor. A guitar teacher. I paid him €40 per 45 minutes of
mentoring. If I had told him that he could instead pay me for the privilege of
mentoring and get 1% of profits of all my future record sales, he would have
rightly laughed in my face. I don't understand why you can't do the same? If
you have >$1M then you can surely afford to pay someone an hourly salary to
mentor you?

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bjourne
I wrote "ripped off" which implies malicious intent on your part. I should
have phrased that differently since that is not the case. To late to change my
comment now.

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natalyarostova
You misunderstand why people enjoy mentoring. The absolute best mentors don't
want money, they want someone that is receptive to their advice, and who they
can watch grow.

Relevant link: >
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20715136](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20715136)

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shinryuu
This is fairly relevant. [https://kmikeym.com/](https://kmikeym.com/) He
started to trade himself as public person. The stockholders don't really get
any monetary value from it. Though if the stock rise they can cash out.

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boltzmannbrain
How is there no About page?

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quickthrower2
The problem for the mentor is you can succeed and make no "income" but plenty
of "capital gains". Or maybe your wife will on paper (nod to sister comment).

A mentor would be incentivised to get you working for a high income, a job at
Google for example, and not investing or running your own business.

The problem for you is someone can come along for 1 hour, mentor you but not
do much useful stuff. You then go away and are successful anyway by say using
a normal hourly paid mentor, and the original useless mentor want's his 1%.

If you are going the business route, pay the mentor per hour, then if
appropriate offer them the opportunity to invest in the business once it is
ready for it.

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zapperdapper
You are 29 with greater than $1M. Assuming you didn't inherit that then you
don't need a mentor. Get back to work! :)

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lun4r
My usual rate is around 245 EUR / hour. Assuming we'd do at least one call of
an hour every second week you'd have to be earning 637K a year before I got my
hours fully paid..

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SellingMyself
Arguing against myself here... But:

I need to earn much _more_ than 637K per year to pay for your hours. Thats
because if you were to decide to stop the 1:1 sessions, you'd still get paid
the 1% of income. So the real question you should be asking is, 'If I invest 1
hour into mentoring this guy, will he earn EUR 24,500 extra in the rest of his
life?'

And that EUR 24,500 should be in todays money, so with a discount rate of ~5%
annually for future earnings.

So over a 40 year working life, that works out to EUR 77,689 _extra_. Quite a
lot to earn for _every_ 1 hour consultation!

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jessehorne
I'm a fellow developer. I'm younger and have less resources. What would you be
willing to work out in exchange for my assistance/collaboration?

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londons_explore
$20.

While I'm sure you'll make more income than that even this week, theres no way
I'll be able to ensure you pay up.

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gaspoweredcat
what are you looking for in a mentor? a fellow developer, a manager, a
promoter?

also how will this work? are you basically thinking of a similar thing to
BowieBonds?

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SellingMyself
> what are you looking for in a mentor? a fellow developer, a manager, a
> promoter?

I don't know - if I knew what I needed to do, I wouldn't be asking for advice.
I'm hoping that's what an auction can decide. Whoever thinks they can benefit
me the most would offer the highest price.

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thiago_fm
The guy got >$1M, but has no idea what to do.

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quickthrower2
$1M earned or inherited? Or won? Or lucky bitcoin investment?

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SamReidHughes
Question: If I find you a spouse, do I get to keep 1% of her income, too?

