Category: News

With more than 5 million people dying each year from its effects, tobacco smoking is one of the leading causes of death around the world. Even with the Surgeon General’s warnings, the number of smokers remains high, and according to the FDA, 50 percent of the people who recover from lung cancer surgery start smoking again afterwards. Here, we explore exactly what causes the difference between one puff and a habitual post-dessert drag.

If you need to borrow some money, we suggest asking Diddy. Forbes Magazine just released their latest list of the wealthiest hip-hop stars and Diddy claimed the Number One slot with a net worth of $475 million. Yes, you read that right, Diddy is reportedly worth almost half a billion dollars.

How did Forbes determine this? Well, Diddy has stake in Bad Boy Records and Sean John clothing as well as a portion of Ciroc Vodka. Jay-Z is right behind him with a net worth of $450 million; Hova sold his stake in Rocawear clothing in 2007 for $204 million and three years ago he signed a ten-year $150 million deal with Live Nation. Oh, and Jay also owns part of the New Jersey Nets and a line of nightclubs.

Since the first iPod, Apple’s been on a roll getting consumers hooked onto their products. The latest was the release of iPad 2 last Wednesday. No doubt this will be lapped up by Apple’s eager legions! A square foot of an Apple store generates $5,980 in annual revenue, that’s how profitable they are! Investors love Apple, consumers love Apple! Apple’s in a very envious position!

So I thought I’ll try out a different experiment. What if, instead of buying Apple products, one invested the equivalent price in Apple shares?

If you had bought Apple shares instead of the original iPod when it was released in October of 2001, you would be sitting on a return on investment of $16,073.78 on your original $399! That’s a return of 3928.52%.

In August of 2004, Apple released the gorgeous all-in-one iMac G5 for $1299. Instead, had you invested this amount on Apple shares, your shares would be worth $27,013.41 today! A return of 1979.56%!

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Rachel Sequoia presents her brand “Share The Air” to fellow entrepreneurs and VCs at the first Silicon Valley Venture Capital Fundraising Club (VCFC) event in Palo Alto, CA in Feb. 2011.