If I Were a Billionaire…

Here are a list of stuff I’d do or buy if I were a billionaire.

Note: I’m not one to chase money and I have no intentions of becoming a billionaire.

• Fund exceptional scientists [1].
  
• Start my own Space exploration company.
  
• Buy the Toronto Raptors.
• Go to the moon.
• I’d fund companies working on important problems such as Education, Healthcare, and Climate Change.
• Build the modern day Plato’s Academy.
• Start my own version of the MacArthur Fellowship also known as the Genius Grant [2]. I would award a grant to high potential people from different disciplines. Whether it be Entrepreneurs, Musicians, Authors, Physicists, etc. And give them a prize of 1 million dollars each so they have the financial freedom to continue their work.
• I would also start a micro grant fund ($50000) that is similar to the above but is focused on young high potential people in technical disciplines. This grant will give them the time off to work on projects they want to work on without worrying about financials [3].
• Fund cultural projects that create an exciting vision of the future and expand people’s imaginations. Think movies, murals, world fairs, etc. [4]

What would you do or buy if you were a billionaire?

Notes

[1] Inspiration credits to Alexey Guzey’s How Life Sciences Actually Work.

[2] The MacArthur Fellows Program is a $625,000 grant awarded annually to between 20 and 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction”. The program does not accept applications. Anonymous and confidential nominations are invited by the foundation and reviewed by an anonymous and confidential selection committee of about a dozen people. The award has been called “one of the most significant awards that is truly ‘no strings attached’”.

[3] Inspiration credit to Hussain P’s idea, Couch Capital.

[4] Inspiration credits to Dan Wang’s Definite Optimism as Human Capital.