What would I do with 1 million USD?

Money should flow and circulate

A common point of many rich people is that they are giving back part of their fortune to the society by charities, by sponsoring events, schools, libraries, universities...

I was inspired by Andrew Carnegie's view ("The Gospel of wealth") saying we have 3 options to get rid of our money, as obviously we cannot take it with us ... this would be to leave it to the family, leave it to a public purpose upon death or distribute during our lifetime. He sees little value in giving all your money to the family (who might tend to be mediocre and not continue hard work), or to charity and poor (mostly because many who have nothing would fritter it away on indulgences), but rather using your imagination, diligence and creativity to distribute it actively to create maximum social benefit and maximum value.

Well I don't exactly know how rich people handle their finances, never being a millionaire myself, but in any case at a point in my life I might as well be very rich, so why not have a little thinking about what would I do.

I agree with Carnegie in investing your money back to the society and creating value. I would definitely focus on young people: high-school and university students, because from Eastern Europe point of view they have little to no guidance and help on how to be prosperous, how to advance, how to choose the right career, how to have the guts to change if something is not fulfilling and  not settle for mediocrity.

I would give students a 1 year guidance class, where once a week the students would be presented what universities/ masters/ business schools there are (in and outside the country), what student loans and grants are available, what exams are necessary to qualify later as an international hire, what career paths they can follow: and this one would go into presenting them what an engineer does and how different this is depending on the industry, what an architect does, how an accountant works, what is the beauty of sales, what type of jobs you can do with a law degree, what is an eye doctor and what is a day of a nutritionist, how to be an entrepreneur or have your own (online) business, etc.... I think there is so much to talk about and so much to present, and such a huge knowledge GAP when it comes to choices after finishing school.

As a second step I would involve companies to offer free internships to students (especially because in Eastern Europe companies refuse interns due to lack of finances), and also present the benefits to the students of working about a 1 year unpaid part-time internship, but this giving the necessary minimum experience to enter the job market, and not to be forced to start with invoice processing or call center agent next to the other 1.000 students doing the same repetitive tasks, and waiting to see if in a year or two something better would come around, or some teamlead would actually see that you are so much smarter than punching in information in a slow CRM or ERP...what nowadays you could teach to a monkey.

Few years ago after finishing high-school most of us chose university with little to no knowledge, and many of us just went on what is fashionable, what is the trend. We were unaware and we lost time and energy....some of us just a little and managed to get good positions and develop, others went along with good opportunities, most settled for safe but not challenging jobs...and there are the hundreds of lost great brains who are still jumping from one "short-term" to another, still figuring out, still feeling lost...And soon me and my colleagues, friends and fellow students will all reach our thirties...and are we happy with what we have achieved? Are we having the guts to create actual art and bring a difference and great value...or are we just making another new years resolution?

Well when I will be a rich person, I will put my energy in helping as many future students as possible to answer all these questions...because I believe in greatness, and I believe each one of us can bring a new value to this crazy chaotic market which we call business environment.