Way back when I was a millionaire I spent the Summer on the Cote D\u2019Azur in the South of France. Long days passed basking in the Mediterranean sunshine, swimming in the warm, clear blue waters of the Cap d\u2019Antibes. I brushed shoulders with movie stars at the Cannes Film Festival and made numerous excursions to Monte Carlo, the playground of the rich and famous.<\/p>\n
I did some work while I was there, an hour in the morning and an hour, sometimes two, at night. Not every day, but as much as was required to keep my businesses going. That was back in the early 90\u2019s when there weren\u2019t too many millionaires in Ireland. Life was good. I hadn\u2019t a care in the World.<\/p>\n
Recently I read a copy of Tim Ferris\u2019 bestseller \u2018The Four Hour Workweek<\/a>\u2019 as recommended to me originally by James Kennedy<\/a> at Bizcamp Limerick.<\/p>\n It brought to mind my Summer in Nice living the millionaire lifestyle.<\/p>\n Technically speaking I wasn\u2019t actually a millionaire. I merely lived the life of one.<\/p>\n Yes, I lived in the sunny South of France and did all those things I mentioned earlier. I did the things that a lot of us fantasize about doing if we won the lotto. The only difference being I hadn\u2019t a million pounds. Not even close to it. In fact I was pretty much penniless. The business I had which required an hour of my time each morning required no training and very little skill or technical knowledge.<\/p>\n For an hour each morning along the Promenade Des Anglais I set up camp and washed car windscreens at the traffic lights. During that hour I earned, on average, more than I did for a days work in my previous job as a trainee accountant in Mullingar. Granted the career prospects were less appealing, but the hours were great. And you got a break every time the lights turned green.<\/p>\n My night time job was a little more glamorous. I had conceived the idea and being confident that it would work, I handed in my notice in the Brasserie where I had worked as a barman for 3 weeks. Then I planned to find an Art student to carry out my plan. A chance encounter by my flatmate with some Irish girls on my last day at work proved very fruitful. We were invited to a party in their flat that night and as luck would have it, one of them had done Art in college. I kid you not.<\/p>\n I bought a Polaroid camera and borrowed a sheet of plywood from a building site. The girls set to work and painted one of those things you put your head through to have photos taken (the photo below explains better:)). I set up shop each night in Marche Aux Fleurs, the centre of night life in Nice. There were several other street traders and entertainers. I charged 40 Francs (about \u00a34 at the time) a photo (10 francs if you used your own camera). Each photo sheet cost around 5 francs if I remember rightly. At the end of the Summer when I was returning home I sold the board to a pub for 200 Francs.<\/p>\n