Chapter 4 Section 3: The Enlightenment of "Pin for Villa"

Both groups have managed to generate hundreds of dollars in revenue for their respective teams and much admiration from their fellow students.However, the group that made the most money reallocated resources in a completely different way and managed to make $650.This group of students felt that the most useful asset they currently had was not the $5 or the two hours of activity time, but the precious three minutes used to demonstrate the details of the activity.They decided to sell the 3 minutes to a company that wanted to recruit students in the school.They made a 3-minute job advertisement for this company and played it to the students during the presentation time on Monday.It's a very smart move, because they can see that they have an asset, and it's an asset of incredible value, waiting for them to develop.

The other 11 groups have also found a number of good ways to make money, including running a small photo booth at the annual Vienna Ball (Viennese Ball), selling maps with restaurant locations on "Parents' Day", and sending Classmates sell custom t-shirts, and more.One group bought a lot of umbrellas on a rainy day and planned to go to San Francisco to sell them, but it turned out to be sunny after a while, and of course they lost money.By the way, another group opened a car wash, and another group sold lemonade, but their profits were below average. The Enlightenment of "Pin for Villa"

This "5 Dollar Challenge" was a successful attempt to stimulate students' innovative thinking.But it also makes me a little uneasy, and I'm by no means trying to convey that pecuniary determinism.Therefore, I changed the homework a little bit for the second activity.This time, instead of $5, the starting capital was an envelope with 10 paper clips.I told them that over the next few days they would have 4 hours to create as much value as possible with those 10 paper clips, and that value could be measured in any way they wanted. This inspiration comes from Kyle MacDonald's famous story of "pins for houses". Kyle started with a red paper clip, and through step-by-step transactions, he finally had a set of his own. house.To this end, Kyle also set up a blog to record the process of each transaction.Although it took a year, he achieved his goal step by step.He first exchanged this paper clip for a fish-shaped pen, then exchanged the pen for a doorknob, and then exchanged the doorknob for a Coleman stove... During this year, he kept exchanging, and finally exchanged for A big house.Considering what Kyle has achieved with one paper clip, I'm being generous in giving the students 10 paper clips.Tasks begin on Thursday morning, with presentations scheduled for the following Tuesday.