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5 Business Lessons from a High-End Escort
By: Chris Tell at www.CapitalistExploits.at
At a recent meeting with a VC in Singapore a strangely interesting article Sex is Sex. But Money Is Money. was shared with me. It was written by a 24-year-old ex-New York escort named Svetlana, and I recommend it to entrepreneurs, business owners and investors alike.

What I found most fascinating were the business lessons this girl had learned. Prostitution is certainly not what pops into most people's heads when they think business. It is said, however, to be the oldest "profession".
Let's take a look at the lessons from this lady...
Lesson 1: Ongoing capex is necessary to grow your business
This girl realised that she needed to spend money to stand out. She needed to spend money on marketing, clothing, skincare, fitness and so on.
Even if you're not a businessman, an investor or in fact inclined to think about daily activities from a business-minded perspective, you'll likely grasp the basic concept that in order to keep your house, your car or your boat in good shape you'll need to spend some ongoing money on servicing, repairs and maintenance.
If you're in a profession it's likely that you need to spend money on keeping relevant via courses, workshops and so forth. Sportsmen need to keep fit in order to perform and businesses need to spend money on keeping relevant, too. This involves, among other things, marketing, updating technology, equipment and education. As discussed before, we live in a dynamic world and it's very dangerous to think in a linear fashion.
Capex is required to grow an economy too, and from a global macro viewpoint it's important to watch these trends as investors. This is true whether you're looking at an entire country, a sector or an individual deal. Capex cannot grow faster than revenues, so the ratio of capex to revenues needs to be watched. This is, of course, how it is relatively easy to see where in the business cycle a country is. Just as revenues ,or more accurately free cash flows historically drive asset prices or valuations, so too increasing revenues will typically drive capex and falling revenues will cause a contraction in Capex.
As an investor in early stage private equity it's typical to see large capex with little to no revenues, otherwise known as burn rate, but this has a limited time frame and typically a company needs to gain a certain amount of traction during this growth phase in order to begin generating returns on this previously spent capex.
Right now, for example, a concern in global markets is that there is very little capex and it's been falling. This article from the Economist details more on the numbers and the graph below shows the contraction. In short the revenue growth globally is not telling business owners to increase capex.

Side thought: Svetlana had one thing in her favour. She lives (or has lived) in NY, which means she is very close to the hose spewing liquidity into the markets. If I was going to sell my body (not that anyone would pay for it) I'd also locate myself as close to the hose pipe as possible.
Lesson 2: Do not neglect the value of uniqueness
Here was an Eastern European girl with no formal education who had little prospects, and subsequently struggled to find a job. She took the fact that she was from Eastern Europe and turned it to her advantage, instead branding herself as an exotic and foreign girl; an advantage since guys would want to hop into bed with and exotic, beautiful young girl, over and above a local girl presumably. This was her IP and she used it to her advantage.
I have a friend, Derek Sivers, who built and sold a very successful business. Derek wrote an article entitled The Philosophy of Great Customer Service about what made his company stand out, and a major reason for its success. One of the critical success points for Derek was that he had a real person answer the phone. In today's world of automation this is a discerning factor. You need to stand out and provide something unique, valuable and engaging.
Lesson 3: Study the market and position yourself accordingly
Svetlana, the girl in the story, studied her market. She learned that there were customers in all income brackets; she learned what they wanted to hear, what they wanted to see and do, and she positioned accordingly. Whatever your chosen market, it's not as hard as you think to determine what and where opportunity lies. Study your competition, know your market and you'll immediately see where gaps exist. I just got off the phone with a good friend and mentor. He just sent me this fact. I'll just cut and paste it below because I think it's relevant.
Iran now accounts for approximately 90% of the world production of saffron - $11 gram. Wikipedia on Saffron
I'll leave those with an imagination to consider this. A massive concentration of supply in anything in one place ALWAYS increases the arbitrage opportunity. Imagine if you really knew this market.
I've not looked much deeper into saffron, though. I'm a busy guy, but knowing these things has always proved valuable to me. Why? Because I'm always meeting businessmen, entrepreneurs and financiers from all parts of the world and I never know when I'll next bump into someone in the business of trading saffron.
Even writing this article may bring out someone who reads this and happens to be in the spice business and will reach out to me and I'll learn about saffron. I know this because we have the most awesome readers :) Perhaps there is an opportunity there. Perhaps not.
Lesson 4: Being an owner is better than being a worker
This isn't as simple as it sounds and though I've been an entrepreneur and owned and run businesses most of my adult life, the above statement is not necessarily true everywhere, every time. I know business owners who work 7 days a week, earn very little and at the same time I have a few friends earning high six figure salaries who work 9-5 and can go home and switch off. That said, for this girl the cost of operating under an escort service was far too high and running her own operation was far more profitable.
When you look at any industry, obviously the top companies or individual entrepreneurs running those companies are wealthy. It's business owners who get rich. This is where the asymmetric payoff exists and it's why private equity historically has been the highest returning asset class. It is the asset class that we dedicate our lives to in our private equity syndicate.
Lesson 5: "Young guys are bad, virgins are awful, young virgins are a nightmare"
Inexperience can be costly. Mistakes are currency and I'm fortunate to have a lot of currency. I think of my mistakes as currency because without it I would not have had success. When I'm investing my capital and vetting deals, however, I don't want to pay that price. I don't want more "currency" any more than Svetlana wants young virgins. If virgins are involved in a business, and sometimes they are, I need to see a "grey hair" involved in the company; someone with currency and someone who can help the inexperienced navigate.
Take heed from this girl. Whatever you think of prostitutes she clearly has a head for business, and I personally look for business people like her when vetting deal flow. She could be an ugly old "babushka" and she'd stand out for her business savvy. I have to wonder what damage she could do if she put that brain to work in the business world. Either way I wish her luck and would definitely consider investing in her intellect and business acumen.
- Chris
"One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough - you have to be a great businessman." - Wolfgang Puck
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How about the other three important lessons in starting a business...
You don't need a lot of capital.
Fill a need in the market.
Know your customer and help them solve their problems.
The girls in the ads on each side of ZH are escorts, right?
Google Anastasia.com and scam and see if escort cums to mind.
Crime pays as long as you don't get caught. Right Eliot?
And if you do get caught, know the right ppl. Forget treble damages, how about a nice little fine /deffered.
Caught a small error in the text "she clearly has a head for business".
Should read "she clearly gives head for business"
"Svetlana had one thing in her favour. She lives (or has lived) in NY, which means she is very close to the hose spewing liquidity into the markets. If I was going to sell my body (not that anyone would pay for it) I'd also locate myself as close to the hose pipe as possible."
No!!! Not THAT hose-pipe, spewing liquidity!
"what they wanted to see and do, and she positioned accordingly"
I see what they did there...
this article, by the way, is TRIPE
Lesson # 6:
Dat ass.
She should be having many equally beautiful and smart children with an equivalently talented man that loves her very much. That is the capex that matters in the long term.
One day I said to my young, fellow Alaska fisherman. I was 30-40 years older than they but only wiser only by more mistakes and life experiences.
"You need the 7 Cs to score with beautiful American women today."
"Seven seas?" they said: "Like the Atlantic & Pacific, Red sea and Dead sea?"
"Nope," I replied: " 7 Cs: clothes, car, career, cash, crib, cuteness and confidence."
Of course being young smart asses, they replied: "Coke and a big cock?"
That works for some, I replied.
Like Charlie Sheen said of his "Angels." I don't pay them for sex; I pay them to leave."
You lost me at "American women"...sorry. Hi maintenance low or no return. Bad ROI.
Her attitude about men is horrific. All she cares about is money, but she wants to be married and have a family one day, but why when she does not have the capability to empathise with other humans?
This is how women get the money to start that business, buy that house, or pay for college. There is NO WAY IN THE WORLD that any young man can EVER earn this much money, unless he is that one in a thousand who can sell and close, and her dismay that her young boyfriends all did not have cash is telling.
Young women have the world and cash laid at their feet and still lack gratittude, make demands from their boyfriend, won't give blow jobs, and always want more.
From this article they are also being taken on trips by 60-somethings with money.
Did anybody else notice in the picture that the woman's left leg moves, ever so slightly???
CTRL-+ will zoom the page. If you do that multiple times, and make the picture as large as your screen allows, you will notice that it's not just her left leg which moves, her left & right shoulder also move, and it cycles 3 times and repeats ad nuseaum. This is because the picture is a gif, not a still photograph.
Did anybody notice in the picture, that her left leg actually moves slightly from time to time???
Watch Wolfgang Puck on HSN or QVC; he can make it, but he can sell it too.
His real name is Puck...not Fuck...?
Too much free pussy to pay for it.
"A fellow by the name of Gerry Spence once wrote, in his book,
Give Me Liberty : Freeing Ourselves in the Twenty-First Century:
"The most dissolute whores in America do not wear skin-tight hot pants and low cut blouses. They wear business suits with dignified pinstripes, starched white collars, and two- hundred-dollar silk ties. They will sell themselves to whomever and whatever will buy them'usually on the cheap. They have become the most powerful, the most skilled whores in the history of the world, piously, willfully screwing us under the bedcovers of government in the largest brothel (polite name for whorehouse) in America , the Congress of the United States ."
Too True
And then there is this first person account:
"The best place in Boys Town , the place with the prettiest girls, a place that's been around forever, was the Papagayo (parrot) bar. But any bar in the red zone offered the wide-eyed patriotic warrior, a smorgasbord of sex for very little money.
"Boy's Town is about five blocks of brothels,' said one recent visitor. 'There are hundreds of women available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Alcohol is cheap and is also sold 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Walk around, check the place out. Don't stop at the first place you see - go in, the girls will come to you and will try their damnedest to convince you to go to "Mi quatros" (My quarters).
"Most of the young, pretty girls ask for twenty five dollars, plus five for the room. I don't know if that price is negotiable or not; almost everything in Mexico is, but what the hell? A beautiful, disease-free woman for thirty bucks? Where you gonna beat a price like that? (Remember - the government runs the place, and each girl is checked for STD's at regular intervals).'
"The last time I visited Boys Town was 35 years ago. I imagine a whole lot of the God-fearing, red state folks might wince if they ever realized their precious boys were bird-dogging whores at hundreds of places like Boys Town , around the hundreds of US military bases we occupy around the world. But then most American parents would die if they ever discovered what most of their soldier boys have done in the name of duty. Things a whole lot worse than fucking, I can guarantee you that"
Whorehouses I Have KnownEscorts I would love to "escort" me
Yes, they ARE for hire.
Garotas de Programa Rio de Janeiro - ScortRIopic is view on the Hudson River, probably taken from Standard Hotel, 848 Washington St., NYC
That's just about exactly the spot. Do you know the little missy as well... <8^)
I wish
...said the fag.
The business of survival
See
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2013/08/eva-and-pocahontas.html
So - no contact information ?
How are we supposed to be able to conduct an in depth personal business evaluation with her ?
Post fail. Prick.
One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough - you have to be a great businessman." - Wolfgang Puck
I have eaten some food in his restaurants that suggest he doesn't think a great chef is required at all
Can somone show me where all the $1,000 a night in tips strippers and all the $3,000 a pop escorts have their mansions? Are there exceptions, yes. The idea that some ukrainian cum gargler gurgitated this insight is beyond stupid.
They live next door to you, they married a moderatly successful guy, they live in a large McMansion, they have a few kids, they drive them to and from school, they take yoga at the local YMCA or strip mall yoga studio. Many go into real estate, many pay for college and get a husband. They tell you that they took out student loans, or just lie about their past.
Think over all of the women you have dated and banged and lived with.
Ok, now think about them and try to figure out how many of them were escorts, call girls, strippers, or hookers.
leracounteur, you are kidding right, for about a decade I co-owned a criminal defense mill in St. Pete, strippers have a distinct personality and look, same thing with escorts, very distinct you can spot the former ones that are still alive into their 40's and 50's. I assure you none of them are lined up waiting to retrieve their kids from the local private school or navigating the aisles at Mazzaro's.
Looking back to the late 70s and beyond, about 2% of 220 women were likely pros. 4 or 5 of the entire lot, several decades of dating. Since I no longer reside near upscale tampa bay eateries, I do not know what they are doing now. But back then, as a young man, and looking upon my experiences now with the eyes of experience, it is about 2% and now is much higher as the girls all pay for university this way.
The article plainly states she is from Chelyabinsk, Russia. Not even a part of Russia that is close to Ukraine.
Lesson 6: There are no $5,000/hr prostitutes, but, there are $5,000/hr Johns.
Years ago a very good friend was a very high class escort and she shared a lot of her experiences with me for a book I was writing.
One comment she made stood out then, and still stands out today. "Just remember the more powerful the guy you're dealing with, whether its in business negotiations, in a courtroom, or on a golf course, the more likely it is that he REALLY likes to be tied up naked, whipped hard, told what a bad boy he is, and then either shit or pissed on. And then of course he wants to fuck you in the ass. I've never seen it fail."
Psychiatrist friend of mine in a mountain state, confirms. Rich, powerful men just love the dominatrix routine.
Did she by any chance work in the U.K. The Brits are famous for liking what you just described.
As powerfull as I am, I never understood Cleveland steamers !!!
You're lying!
So Tuesday Ben - you would know - how?
She knows all about the crack spread.
Seriously...could you jerks stop using prostitutes as examples of business people; I've seen a variation on this article at various times and always think how ridiculous it is. Prostitutes are selling their Bodies to you because they don't feel they have other options. And if you use the services of a prostitute you are the lowest of creeps. This article first refers to this prostitute as a "girl" and then as a "lady." These phrases decry the reality of a woman who sells herself and that makes her a whore no matter what she charges. She can only be a whore because some men think that it's "ok" for her to be a whore if she is making enough money or if she has "chosen" to be a whore. One never chooses to be a whore; it is always a default because of the lack of options, whatever they might be. So when you hire a whore, the next morning look in the mirror and know you have violated a woman, and then given her money to violate her.
If we are human, this is not what we do. You become less human if you trade your conscience and money to a whore for her subjugation of her humanity for your temporary sexual pleasure. And you are to be despised for that.
But what about Goldman ??????
Your mind is so narrow that if you fell on a pin you would be blind in both eyes.
Arrogant & Rude too.
I will make one comment regarding prostitutes. On one of my trips to Asia, i remember several prostitutes that I talked to in Bangkok that suprisingly, looked down upon western prostitutes as whores. Most of the girls who work the sex trade in the Philippines and Thailand are working to support their families and/or to pay off debts that the family has accrued (mainly due to gambling in such things as rigged majong games). When the debts have been worked off they go home and marry and settle down with families. As one young lady in "Soi Cowboy" told me, we work here because we have to, western women do it for money and material goods. And no, I have never been with a prostitute either foreign or the local kind...never needed to.
Hmmm ... over the years I have found that prostitues are simply much more honest about what they want (money) than other women... and the price is set early and by negotation rather than later in the divorce court with a threat of violence to enforce the extracted payment.
I would take only this issue with your post, and it is that a prostitute is a pretty good example of most top CEOs, politicians, and financial people I've met.
The world of the elites is filled with whores and tyrants. Power attracts them like moths to a flame.
Moreover, people of integrity who approach the upper echelons are typically black listed.
"Seriously...could you jerks stop using prostitutes as examples of business people."
You are correct. It is demeaning to the Prostitute
kumquat
Well you have your view. Maybe I agree, maybe I disagree. What I know for sure is that I have no right to tell her how to live. Nor can I tell her clients how to live.
Casual comments about whores are fine unless they are your daughter right? You all aspire for your daughters to be whores? Strippers?
How many of you married a whore or a stripper?
Exactly.
Not yet. But thinking about it. I am sure I would be a lot happier than with a feminist -man hating - battle axe.