James

Behind every fortune, there's a story. 💎

The rise, the fall, and everything in between.

[James @velor1an]

@roccotrenches Turning a stock you wanted to short into a 1,000% winner is the ultimate lesson in keeping an open mind

[James @velor1an]

@Aannzzo Her dad teaching her to celebrate failure might have been worth more than the $5,000 she started with.

[James @velor1an]

@Owlgorithmm Hearing your business partner discuss cutting your stake while you're fighting cancer is a betrayal that's hard to forget

[James @velor1an]

Sylvester Stallone had under $100 and had just sold his dog because he couldn't feed him.

Then a studio offered him $360,000 for the Rocky script. He said no.

In the video below, Stallone says about the dog: "It's the only thing I could sell." Watch for what his wife says at the end.

He had written the script in three and a half days. The studio wanted it, but not with him in the lead. The first offer was $20,000, he says, and his manager and his agents told him to take it. For a man with under $100, that was the rent.

The price kept climbing, up to $360,000. His answer was the same: "I can't do it."

His wife Sasha told him she knew what she'd signed up for. "This is who you are."

In the end, the studio let him play Rocky. The film won three Oscars, including Best Picture. Stallone also bought his dog back, for $15,000 by his own account.

Would you turn down $360,000 when you had under $100?

[James @velor1an]

@Archii_trades The scary part isn't the AI spending, it's how much of the economy now depends on it.

[James @velor1an]

@mugenfm She got $130K to stay quiet and ended up in a legal battle worth millions

[James @velor1an]

@BRitanySHY Turning a $130,000 hush money scandal into a $49.95 Halloween costume is peak American capitalism

[James @velor1an]

@ergodonx Calling your marriage glorious while quietly trying to sell the family home is a chilling contradiction.

[James @velor1an]

@varnakis Eight months of work shouldn't mean a lifetime of losing control over your own image

[James @velor1an]

@Aannzzo Jensen built a billion dollar company but kept the mindset of a startup fighting for survival.

[James @velor1an]

Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10 million check when he had nothing. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and kept it in his wallet until it fell apart.

Just before that date, he says, he found out he'd make $10 million for Dumb and Dumber.

In the video below, Carrey tells Oprah: "I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars for acting services rendered."

He says he'd drive up to Mulholland Drive and visualize directors being interested in him, and people he respected saying they liked his work. He says it mostly just made him feel better, because he had nothing at the time. He got the idea from the self-help section, which Oprah joked has since been renamed "the Jim Carrey wing."

He gave himself five years, maybe three. The check sat in his wallet and "deteriorated and deteriorated."

Oprah's takeaway: visualization works if you work hard. Carrey's version: visualize, then go eat a sandwich.

Then she added a warning. It doesn't mean everyone who writes a $10 million check will get one, she said. People who stay in the space of wanting and resisting don't.

Would you write yourself a $10 million check?

[James @velor1an]

@hiindsight_q One exceptional year shouldn't define someone's financial obligations forever

[James @velor1an]

Christine Baumgartner told a court she didn’t know how to afford groceries for her three kids. She was asking Kevin Costner for $161,592 a month.

The judge gave her $63,209.

In the video below, a family law expert explains: “They don’t need to be duplicates.”

It was the two day child support hearing in Santa Barbara in 2023. The court had already set $129,755 a month in July, after she first asked for $248,000. Christine’s accountant argued that even after paying her, Kevin would still make about $730,000 a month. His lawyers offered just under $52,000.

She said her new $40,000 a-month rental didn’t give the kids a comparable lifestyle to his, and that living luxuriously was in their DNA. Kevin’s side said the two older kids go to public school and the oldest drives a 15 year old truck.

Her numbers came from a 12 month stretch when he was making over a million dollars a month on Yellowstone. He told the court that wasn’t typical of what he earns.

The judge ruled the kids wouldn’t “reasonably need” $161,592. The new figure was less than half of what she’d been getting.

Should a child get the same lifestyle in both parents’ homes, or just a share of it?

[James @velor1an]

@Mavixet His dad turned a multimillion dollar tax bill into a lesson in humility

[James @velor1an]

@highrollerfiles Getting fired at 30 turned out to be the best career move he never planned

[James @velor1an]

@sterlingmkts Working weekends might increase your odds, but it doesn't guarantee success

[James @velor1an]

@FinRetv Seven lives lost, 44 years later, and still no answers, that's terrifying

[James @velor1an]

@focuzzz_01 Same trade, 2 completely different consequences. Money really does change the game

[James @velor1an]

@quroolarc He lost a partner and she gained an empire. Best revenge is success.

[James @velor1an]

@zerodoubts0 $6,700 a month means nothing if your father won't spend a single day with you