What you can discover.... Just by talking to people!

I was visiting a cafe a few days ago, talking to the guy who was bringing coffee to myself and a friend.... This particular cafe has a TV in the corner, and "Who wants to be a millionaire" was showing, and we were discussing the questions....

That's when I discovered just what you can find out just by talking to people!

Watching "Who wants to be a millionaire" was how I got to talking with the guy in the cafe. This cafe was a Turkish-style cafe, and out of curiosity, I innocently asked him if they imported the ice cream they had from overseas....

The answer was no, in fact they made them right on the premises! And he told me that the cafe I was in is, in fact, overseas part of a chain.... He said that they were starting the franchise chain here in Australia.... One of their specialties was ice-cream.

He was excited because he told me that Australia is the 2nd-largest ice-cream consuming country in the world, after the USA, even though Australia has only around 1/14th of the US population....

He explained to me that it had to do with the overall warmer climate generally in Australia, that led to its love-affair with eating ice-cream.... Ice-cream can be eaten all year round....

After hearing all this, I was beginning to suspect I was talking with more than just your average waiter. I thought he knew his research pretty well! So I asked if he was one of the people *running* the cafe....

He told me that in fact, his brothers had started and financed the cafe, and he was also helping to run them. And not only that, they were currently building a factory to produce their own special type of ice-cream....

So we got to talking.... I told him about my internet-based activities, and he shared with me some more interesting tidbits.... It really helped to reveal to me the opportunities that are available out there....

Here's what else he told me, which reveals another opportunity which is available for some....

He told me that he used to be self-employed doing wedding photography. His advertising was all word-of-mouth....

He would take photos before the wedding, then at the wedding there would be a big photo of the bride and groom, and he would produce special name-cards with the photo of the bride and groom right *on* the name card, which would be available near the entrance to the wedding.... That was his advertisement....

He said it worked well, because of the photo on the name-card, people wouldn't throw it away! I thought it was a brilliant idea!

He told me he'd typically work only a few days a week. On Saturday (say), he'd be taking photos of the wedding, the bride and the groom.... Then he'd go home and process the photos on his computer (doing some touch-ups and creating certain effects here and there if needed). He'd have them printed, and all that would be a few days work....

He'd be paid around $2800, and around $1500 of that was profit -- all from a few days work!

He enjoyed being able to work at home to spend more time with his wife and kids....

And what I found was really incredible, was that he was completely self-taught! Photography was his hobby, and it turned into a wonderful means of income for him....

Though now he was doing something new, working with his brothers to build a cafe and ice cream franchise in Australia....

I've been talking to people more, especially about business matters.

I met a professional futures trader, who was trading for himself for a few years, completely supporting himself from his futures trades. He bought himself a small farm, and did all his trading from home.

Now, he's working at a futures firm again (which is where he started), because he told me he longed for deeper conversation than he could have with just his cows....

The stories and opportunities out there are incredible, with the right knowledge, and the right "chutzpah" to explore them.... :)

Hope you enjoyed this post.... Now what have you discovered lately? :)

- Dien