Why Aren't I a Millionaire?

Very well produced piece. Check out this pod: http://current.com/items/90942192_through-stills-of-life-the-annenberg-space-for...

Could he not move to Zimbabwe? Everyone's a millionaire there!

Why are we so driven by money and material objects? Does this really make us happy? For me NO!

You are lucky to have a great Mum and wise and all knowing Dad and friends who are true and honest and willing to go on camera to the nation.....if I were you I'd feel like a million dollers/pounds!

Health...Love and happiness is what it should be all about...

Great pod...it made me think...

And I recognised familiar faces...being from Cambridge like...

People are STILL talking about gas once being a quarter a gallon! You can sell anything at any price if you know how! I am STILL trying to sell wigs to Donald Trump with no real luck! Humans are depressed often because we don't have things,but what are those things to us really anyway? I'll make a million dollars in my life ,but I will have spent all of it very randomly & I will think,how did I spend that money & then I'll realize capitalism is a big part of global economy & I will say to my self have we all failed?

I am 23 and know i am gonna be wealthy no matter what. I think you will be rich if you are not already this was great.

your mum is brilliant, she should have her own show.

Excellent stuff.

As previous posts have said this topic definately resonates with a generation of late 20 somethings and our vague aspirations to be richer/more successful without actually having a clue how to achieve this.

Keep churning out work like this which appeals to our niche demographic and who knows, you might actually be onto something that may make you that first million.

hi man. This is good, perhaps too long for a wider audience, but great for young men. Like me. Well done!

Hey there James!! See you got some of the old punting footage in there too! You coulkd make a mint from punting films on punting...

There are dozens of things that hold you back from becoming rich: laziness, vices, destructive family and friend influences, immoral behaviors, even moral behaviors (being a too good can definitely hold you back -- idealism is a real ball and chain).

It seems that if you're not rich by luck you pretty much have to be amoral to some degree to make it rich. The other surprise I'm sure is that you don't get to stay that way forever... hehe

I loved this pod. Kinda sad though, I want to be a millionaire. I hope I achieve it. and I hope you do too.

J' You're already worth a Million squids!

With a well anchored family, friends and a mother's love you're already headed in the right direction and its brilliant to see you existentially pursuing your "equity dreams" Keep UP your HarD Work there's MORE in store and keep writing and shooting. Thanks fro the 'serious' laugh. Latrrrr. '!????" "!???" Watch those on the way down while you're going up......" Great to see Current tv acknowledge you're talent. Ok now sweep the floor" Satory Tontxi

Is a million dollars still considered a lot of money?

I wasn't sure where you were going with this at first, but as the introduction seemed to dissolve and I got a bit more familiar with the individuals being interviewed, I found that I was more interested in what they had to say. Taking a look at the piece as a comment on contemporary global economic positions, I can see how this display of a tongue-in-cheek type attitude is relevant. As for a political and/or social comment, I feel that the piece can be described through semiotics, i.e. it can be spoken for visually. That is, the social background of the people being interviewed are included, literally in the background of the shots. This is due to great placement of the interviews and thoughtful consideration of where (geographically) or what visually best describes the interviewee.

Interesting

according to bob dylan i am successful. i never wanted to be a millionaire i just wanted to have fun :D

I wake up every mourning, and while in the shower, i dream of having millions. I guess im just building my self up for a sour and solid disappointment one day. Oh well.

Maybe you should stop asking your friends why you aren't a millionaire and just join a fight club.

i bought a lotto ticket! but i only got two numbers...what a chiz!

Now here is an idea for you James: start making a video on how you can make the world a better place for next years World Economic Forum U-tube competition and win a ticket to Davos 2010 and go meet several hundred real millionaires under one roof. Good luck.

Very good, James. I think I would have to agree with one of the guys. "Why? Why do you want to be a millionaire?" Yes, you can have everything you want but will that make you a better person? Maybe it will or maybe it wont. Either way, holla at me when you do become a millionaire that way you and Shelley can come visit me here in NY. Cheers Trish (NY)

Loved this! As a follow up, how about you go to somewhere desperately poor and experience the 'millionaire' dynamic for a few days, and make a heart-wrenching documentary about how dissatisfying it really is. That will become a morgan spurlock type hit, but the trouble is there'll be loads of pressure on you to give away the million pounds you were offered for the rights. You'll have to give that money to charity (but secretly make a docco about that decision, as a kind of pension).... etc.

Because it addresses the issue of the spirit of man in a very human way (with humour). That is to say a man without dreams is an empty shell.

10 years ago there are many unaffordable things because, probably like me, you spent your money on disposables having fun (as Tim pointed out!). Now there's still fun to be had but you also have to pay the mortgage. Trouble is if you won a million it would be spent within a few years, then you'd be up shit creek knowing what its like to be a millionaire without the cash.

I've enjoyed the videos, good luck mate. Thomas

A good question, i think you have enjoyed life to the maximum to have been able to become a millionare. There has not been alot that has held you back in doing what you wanted in life. I think your question was a step to far. Keep going though James only 6 mounths to push......

James this is great, it's funny and charming!

I'm now almost 100% sure that you will be a millionaire. I think the money will be discovered floating down that river in Cambridge! Let me know when it happens...

I know u r not in the usa, right?
You can still kind of make your dream come true. I would like to help by giving just a little advice. do a lil fundraising. In american financial terms, I will give you one $(1) I will donate($1) and if 999,999 other people do the same. u will be a millionaire. I think u just hav to ask people like $ to fund yr film project & make yr dream come true. (if i could give more, i would, so if someone can give more i m sure they will to make yr dream come true.)

i hardly hav a million either(i dont need that much only enough to pay bills like a 45,000/yr job or business income), I haven't asked many people either, i have little pods that i made which i hope to make public access type with donations. I m a marketing consultant & performance artist.

yet money is not everything. yet money is important to pay bills, get food- survive. People who have lots of money may have less burden but only those who are first happy with themselves are truly happy anywhere in life with any amount of $.

many poor get financial aid or earn $, many rich obviusly make it through hard work, connections or family. Well those who r on middle ground have no way to raise $ for projects withour tons of paperwork for grants or loans. No one gives us money, no handout, either we have to make it, work for it or ask for it. (i m doing all three & doing a line up of pods)

I like to find helpful solutions and in this bad economy I say to you: So where can i send my dollar to? do you have a web address? you can tell others about it as well.i will put it out there in form of ad that u r seeking donations to make yr dream come true in filmmaking and u may ask, is this free advice? no- all i ask for is when there is an opportunity, recommend me for a paid job maybe to be hired on tv series-paid. tnx. good luck u can make it.
;-)
so this is what current networking is all about eh?

...an illusion... we only think we want to be millionaires because that's the image fed to us. Hope spring eternal.

Why? Perhaps because you've been unable to master elementary grammar, so what else to expect? (based on the headline)

LOVED IT. I love that mom, too cute. And she kept it real! hahaha, great video

On the "quarter life" issue, I have always laughed at the way people calculate those things, too. At 47 I feel like I am right in the middle of middle age, but I have this gnawing feeling that people don't generally live to be 94. So I have taken to thinking that the first 10 years don't really count for one of two reasons. This is either because 1) one's awareness of life is so limited up to about that point that the age of 10 makes a more natural starting point for determining things like when one has reached "middle age," or because 2) I am just too damned old to remember anything that happened to me before that age.

On the millionaire by the time I was thirty issue. Like one of the earlier posters, I worked for a while after undergrad and then went to law school. So I graduated at the age of 30 and was nearly 100,000 underwater a few months into my 30th year.

Of all the crazy coincidences, I remember being focused on two things I had heard older people I respected say to me on the way to that point in life. The commencement speaker at my undergraduate graduation said what pretty much ALL such speakers say: "Find something you love to do and do it. Your passion for doing it will show in your work, and the money will come." My first year Contract Law professor said that when you finally decide on a particular field of endeavor success will not come if you treat it like a hobby. You must TAKE OWNERSHIP of your field, attempt to learn everything there is to know about it and feel as comfortable moving about in it as a fish feels moving about in the water.

So I just tried to do as many different things as I could those first couple of years. Whenever someone asked for a volunteer to take on a project, I would do so just to find out if it was that thing I was going to love. Sure enough, one of them panned out toward the end of that second year. Less than two years later, I was offered a position as the CEO of a promising start-up company in that field for twice what I was then making per year. I immersed myself in it, and the money came. The really REALLY funny thing is that the money simply was NOT even among my top 10 priorities anymore (I suppose it is easy to say that when you have it, but really I just wanted to keep getting up every day charged up about what I was doing. So in addition to things like my family, my health, my spirituality, etc., the most important thing was keeping my career going in areas that leveraged my previous experience but took me to fun new places). I hope there is SOMETHING in all that drivel that would help someone just starting out...

Great Video. My answer as to why it would make me happy is in reply to naty_forty

A million pounds or bucks doesn't buy that much anymore. One empty upscale suburban house. Massive bills to keep up with. Stuffy neighbors to try to keep up with. No thanks. Instead, we working-class folks work to make others rich. Government sanctioned robbery.

Yeah, I'm 8 years behind myself, but I got sidetracked.

A large "bit o' fluff"

that's the real question: "Why do you want to be a millionaire? Why do you think being a millionaire will make you better than you are now?"

I think both the guys(in the lake) gave interesting and real insightful answers.

james you are awesome and thought just like me when i was 20. I am 27 now but i doubt i will be a millionaire by the time i am 30. or maybe i will be? i gotta stay optimistic!

Great pod, I think this idea rings true for a lot of our generation. I have to admit I also thought I would be at least significantly on my way to my first million by 30. I am now 28, back in law school, and will be in the negative by the time I'm 30...

Our generation was certainly raised to believe we would all be rock stars or pro athletes or at least millionaires in some other random way... nicely done

Like this a lot. Nice piece of work. Well, it strikes a chord with this late twenty something at least!
Incidentally, going by revolver1017's way of looking at it, I've gotta start calling myself middle aged in 7 years. Think I'll roll with the naively optimistic maths myself!

29's a quarter life crisis?

I guess the average lifespan is 116 then.
Awesome.