How to Make One Billion Dollars in a Month in America
Words matter.
Words express meaning
Words express emotion
Words are the building blocks of thoughts.
Words shouldn’t be wasted.
In the last 20 years as a global futurist, I created work based on words. I gave some 1500 presentations using words. I authored or co-authored 14 books. I published some 1500-2000 columns using words. I think about trends and the future.
Words matter, and we should act and speak as if they do.
Okay, now to the title of this column…
How to make one billion dollars in a month in America
1. Get paid one cent every time a person uses the word ‘awesome’ more than once a day.
2. Get paid a nickel for every time a female from the age of 12 on up says any variation of “Oh My God!” or OMG
3. Get paid a dime for every time a male from the age of 12 on up says either ‘bro’ or ‘dude’
That’s it! I am confident that this plan/formula would result in at least one billion dollars accumulated in one month.
To go a little bit deeper, if something creates a sense of awe within you, it is awesome. If everything is “awesome!” then nothing is. There is a long list of words that could be substituted: great, wonderful, stunning, terrific, brilliant, cool, thrilling, and the list goes on.
Awesome is mostly spoken without any meaning. I have heard people use the word twice in a sentence. I have heard people respond to anything good a person says by saying the word.
Oh my god! OMG! are phrases that men have used, but my experience is that the overwhelming use is from women. I recently was walking a short distance behind a gaggle of five pubescent females and it seemed that every shriek was “Oh my god!” or “OMG”. And of course the OMG is used in texting and writing.
“Oh my god!” It's everywhere; on TV, on social media platforms, and it bounces off the walls of the mall [if you still visit one].
“Bro” and “dude” are overused words that men use. I don’t know of any woman who has called me by either of these salutations. Men have seemed to have less ability to be intimate with the same sex, so these two terms are, to some degree, a statement of familiarity I am guessing.
In one month, I think that the most amount of money would be generated by the vast overuse of “awesome,” closely followed by females saying “Oh my god!” or OMG. “Dude” and “Bro” would be a distant third.
To reverse it, wouldn’t it be great if every time a person said “awesome” more than once a day, they would have to pay a penny for every utterance. Every “OMG” speaker would have to pay a nickel every time. And all the males would have to give a dime every time that “bro” or “dude” was mentioned.
People mindlessly use these words. Paying for each use would result in significantly less use. Then this way to a billion dollars would take much longer.
How about every time any of these payments are made, the funds go into a national food bank? Then, saying “OH MY GOD!” would be an act of contribution to society.
Please be aware when you speak. Words matter.