Bankrupt to Billionaire (watch it happen!)

Today's Inspiration: Colin Firth

2011-09-24T16:27:00.005+02:00

Colin Firth inspires me.

Let's face it, when push comes to shove, he's no De Niro, he's no Newman or even Olivier. He's OK to look at but...Daniel Craig has the body Christian Bale has the bad boy glamour and Ireland's own Castor and Pollux, Cillian Murphy and Jonathan Rhys Meyers both have the dreamboat good looks.

He's kind of rugged looking, he's tall, he can speak clearly in received pronunciation and he doesn't bump into furniture much but his first name is Colin.

So why this gushing post?

Colin Firth received an Academy Award for his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a performance that also earned him the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. The previous year,

he received his first Academy Award nomination, for his leading role in A Single Man, a performance that won him a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

"Good for him," you say. "So what?" You also say.

So plenty, Colin Firth's Awards success two years running in what is considered independent film is an inspiration to me. Flashback to 2008 - The Dark Knight, Indiana jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Quantum of Solace are the big moneyspinners. Movies that are heavy on Special Effects, explosions, action and although they feature competent narrative

writing nobody's going to buy the screenplay and pore over its intricacies. Perversely, the best writing turned out to be in a Pixar animated silent movie (WALL-E) and a computer animated slapstick comedy (Kung Fu Panda)

....And this is the year that Colin Firth signs up to play a grieving gay man in a stylised Sixties America and who is friends with a glamour puss (Julianne Moore) who drinks even more than he does.

No buildings explode.

Cars don't talk back or mutate into giant robots

He doesn't uncover any conspiracies or battle megalomaniacs.

It's not even in 3D.

So here's a guy that signs up for what he must believe is the 'make or break' movie of his career. (Playing gay is still very risky in the US) It's a slow moving tale, he plays a controversial character that's not exactly loving and caring and it is directed by Tom Ford....a fashion designer.

That's a big leap of faith.

So he decides in early 2009 - He hasn't even been nominated for an oscar yet to do another small film about a guy that is very posh and he has a stutter. That's it. He's playing a stuttering Duke of York! His director is that Giant of the Cinema...Tom Hooper, you may remember him because he directed a movie called The Damned United, you may not.

(I looked it up on Wikipedia)

So for backing 'small' and 'limited audience' projects with his care and talent he ends up winning all the biggest prizes in Cinema and this success opens up a new market for grown up movies that don't rely upon 3D, Special Effects, Robert de Niro trying to be funny or computer animated animals. Every studio in the US is now releasing Adult movies with a genuine marketing budget and they will all probably make their money.

How likely was this in the Summer of 2008?

Now let's look at my job which is writing books. Right now, no publisher seems to want books with grown up characters that actually care for one another and who are actually just human beings, not zombies, vampires or demi-gods and are not involved in serial killing, serial marrying or serial shopping for stiletto-heeled shoes. Just stories about people, you know?

Every writer I know is releasing their books electronically and self-publishing, even writers with a publishing contract. Bookshops are closing down. Writing is going the way of recorded music. Soon, authors will have to open their own book stores just to get on the high street

....or so it seems.

Colin Firth is the reason that I am still holding out for an actual publishing deal. The King's Speech is my target and all you people out there that sat through and actually enjoyed a story about a prince's struggle with a speech impediment and the friendship he found in an Aussie voice coach, you are my audience.

You lot exist. Thanks Colin, you found my audience.

Sunday Sept 4th

2011-09-05T00:51:00.002+02:00

Tonight I had a conversation with my partner which went like this:

Me: So, August is over and I pretty much need to get a job now.

TOH (The other half): What?

Me: I thought I would be finished the book but it's just...look, money's tight....I feel like I'm a leech.

TOH: Forget that, you concentrate on finishing that book and get it out to the editor. That's your priority. Forget the rest. Just finish the book.

This is why I love him.

pushes back cobwebs

2011-03-28T23:39:00.003+02:00

....As we creep past the overgrown roots that snake their way down from the collapsed roof like well....er....snakes I suppose...we enter the chamber of the Blog that once was written by Garalt Canton known as Bankrupt to Billionaire.

This blog was once ultra new and exciting but, as time and evolution moved on many things that made this blog important changed and it became the BLOG THAT GARALT FORGOT!

Gary is no longer bankrupt and as his bank manager can attest he is certainly not a billionaire but...

The Fifth Kingdom is going to be finished soon.

Reader Ship launches 4th April until end of 4th of May

Gary will probably get a job soon.

Here goes nothin'

2011-02-21T22:33:00.003+01:00

Because I was forced into coming back here by StellaDeleuze....the place of my shame....

God, this needs a TSFH soundtrack...

...Here is the story so far.

Gary is no longer broke...

His two years of striving has brought him to a rented house in Montpellier with a VIEW...Ok? 310 degrees of Montpellier skyline! Suck it up, people!

Yes, it's rented and not owned but I'm over that Irish thing of having to pay ALL the taxes.

I have just bought my high quality printer and the graphics tablet as well as the high resolution screen and graphics friendly PC.

Any expert out there might guess where I'm going with this.

The Fifth Kingdom will not only be a book but a Graphic Novel and an onlin animated Series.

And here we go!

Chill Out Music - Track One - Energy

2010-05-19T17:47:00.005+02:00

Step 1 - sit back with the relaxation aid of your choice and read this out aloud -

Imagine if every thought you had, every silly little fantasy became reality somewhere. Imagine if the entire complex system of energy, gravity, dark matter and life that is the universe took what popped into your head and turned it into reality.

Does this read like 'The Secret' ?

The universe does exactly that.

All human thought is a collection of biochemical impulses that encourage a neuronic network to grow and expand into more and more complex patterns. These impulses are a form of energy.
That energy cannot exist without provoking an impact somewhere. A spark cannot exist unless it is provoked by two isotopes.

Thus....

Every thought in the human head has been provoked by the two isotopes of....The energy contained within the skin of our bodies reacting to the different energy outside of our bodies.

The point being?

The universe has formed the thought first and we have 'picked up' the transmitted image of that neuronic pattern and relayed it to our consciousness and, through the virtue of communication, propagated the celestial spark into a form of 'virtual viral idea' within our species. This idea can warp change, provoke other ideas and ultimately change the world.

Watch this little miracle of alien life enter the heads of your friends and then witness it enter your consciousness and alter your own comfortable perception of what once you deemed reality.

But if reality can be altered by such an ephemeral thing as an idea - a neuronic spark pattern - is there such a thing as reality or is there nothing but the collected reflections of energy adhering to all the sentience of the universe. Is LIFE the physical stuff we are made of or the engery that animates us?

- I'm gonna love Amsterdam and Amsterdam is gonna love me!

The joy of cutting

2010-05-06T21:54:00.005+02:00

From the Top,

The Fifth Kingdom is seriously kick - ass after the voluntary seppuku that I have endured over the last three months. Since this is my first novel this is also my first edit. Thus, mistakes have certainly been made. I admit that my laser sharp understanding and perception is somewhat off-beam after four a.m. with a bottle and a half of wine in me but that wasn't EVERY night. Just every third night.

What I have learned so far is this: GARY'S EDITING TIPS (Vol 1)

If the sentence doesn't serve the book but only your ego - cut it out.

If the sentence doesn't push the story forward or deepen your knowledge of (and sympathy with) a character - cut it out.

It doesn't matter if the point you are trying to make runs over to the next page as long as you are not padding out a point to make the page end 'just so'. The publisher will change the font and size on you anyway. (Yes I am THAT control obsessed).

Does that character really need to be in this scene? Really? Truly? Can the scene possibly go smoother without that character? (A trick I use is to imagine the scene played by really poor daytime soap actors - especially the ones that hover in the background looking sweaty waiting for their cue) Yes cut that character out.

Does this character have a point? Will the book be totally bereft of its artistry and beauty if this character is eliminated? No? Bye bye, sucker!

How will this book end? Because writing the first draft is like jumping into the unknown but the edit MUST serve the end and not the beginning. The only way to cut without weeping is to know where the story ends, how the story ends and with whom still standing.

Finally, I use the Harrison Ford rule to dialogue: "You might be able to write this sh*t George but you sure as sh*t can't say it!" - If it's gobbledegook and you're not writing fantasy cut! cut! cut!

Of course, I am not a 'how-to' writer so these observations have their exceptions.

A chick fight with swords in a cathedral (it was going to be a burning cathedral so quit yer bitchin')

The gratuitous cruelty to animals scene featuring a wolf. The wolf is that cute that I knew I hit on a Spielberg moment! (I can justify this by arguing the wolf's suffering affects us more than human suffering- which is true)

The aforementioned wolf's own 'head-jump' page - it was so much fun to write, limiting the wolf's thoughts to a maximum of two or three words per idea.

A proper Shakespearean- style rousing battle speech as opposed to the usual Russell Crowe grumble and growl. It's a book right? Let Hollywood pay for their own clunking lines!

Enough! Peace! I'm off to learn about embedding animated illuminations into e-book formats.

Less than a month to 5th Kingdom day,

2009-12-14T15:42:00.003+01:00

To all those agents and publishers presently holding their noses...please concentrate on the third word of this Blog title and not just the first.

I was bankrupt before all the rest of you, so I'm obviously well ahead of the curve.

For those that feels it matters.

The Fifth Kingdom will be ready and presented to a sadly unprepared world on Jan 2nd 2010.

I have worked out that it will take just 1000 days after that to end the world.

Muah ha aha!

2009-11-12T19:21:00.002+01:00

Well...well...well...

It's the 12th November 2009 and I have decided that I have spent enough time on Authonomy.com. Over the past year I have worked on my novel and developed friendships that I'm sure will stand the test of time. My novel is taking shape nicely and it really has grown into something much greater than the unstructured and idealised collection of ideas that I had begun with.

My partner Des has agreed to be the first editor and whilst I am slipping him some of the secrets and highlights of the novel, I'm hoping that he also gets the 'wow' factor that has been inserted in to practically every chapter.

It's a big risk, this novel because it can either fall flat on its face or it can take over the world....which basically means that I'll get trashed by the critics.

You'll read all about this soon. I intend to have the novel written and edited by Christmas. All I can say right now is....it's good.

I'm still writing!

2008-11-25T13:38:00.004+01:00

OK. Re: The Novel.

It's called The Fifth Kingdom and selected chapters can be read on the Authonomy website:

Just click on the name of the novel to get there...

I'm slowly getting through another novel called Deathwatch:Michael. I'd better find that space where I can write if I'm going to have hours like 5pm - 2am which means that I don't really get to bed before 4am. Factor in 8-9 hours sleep (I'm not young) and that leaves four hours to do everything else.

May to December

2008-11-25T13:28:00.003+01:00

Well howdy!

So here we are, one week into my new job as a bouncer for the Celt Irish Bar. Standing at a door greeting and controlling entry, maintaining the atmosphere collecting glasses and mopping up afterwards. Not exactly Quantum Physics but it gets me out of the house.

Which is part of the problem. The job leaves no time to write.

I had a great conversation on Sunday night with a bloke called Thom who seemed to have read all the same books that I have read and has a polymath quality to him. Definitely one who is a bit further down the road to billionaire status than myself but hey, philosophically, we're on the same road.

I start even earlier tonight (5pm) to be trained up as a barman as well so that's a step in the right direction. We'll see how the first month goes but so far I haven't actually had any extreme nightmares.

The fatigue, yeah that's the thing the body's kicking my arse over. I am really going to have to start a regime of exercise as my belly's dragging at my lower back and frankly I'm smoking like a trooper. I've spent the last three years being happily sedentary and now I've a job that is increasingly physically demanding.

By the end of next week I hope to know what my pay is, when my pay is and how I'm going to get any benefit from it if it goes into the bank.

Plus ca change...

2008-07-01T13:03:00.002+02:00

Since my last post: I have been a busy little bee...

I have been paid for the website for the friends Short term let Apartments!

€800 in total and not a bad site either and it's getting business for the clients.

Have a look, see at this link:

http://www.thetricolour.com

I have joined in a team to create a new magazine here in Carcassonne. There are two ideas on the table, both from me:

A local interest booklet, paid for by advertising. Based on each neighbourhood in the Aude. We'll be using interested parties in each neighborhood to provide the content etc. Could be cool and easy to produce.

A high quality luxury magazine, flashy paper, posh ads etc. for the highest end of the market scale. Just what the world wants as the credit crunch bites. Content provided by cultural icons and our editorial team. Could be revolutionary. Long term project obviously but one that might just get me on that yacht in Monaco.

I've contacted a financial adviser at present he is looking into the idea of releasing equity on my home to the tune of 30%. He is approaching this along three routes:

A private loan from a private investor.
(Didn't work out. I thought not.)
A loan from a high street bank
(Still waiting for a yea or nay, probably nay)
A collateral exchange with the local treasury called a 'hypotheque'.
(Sounds interesting but the loan will be for 100% and I'm concerned about my likely behaviour with that amount sitting in the bank!.)

Yes, I have started writing the great Irish/French/Cathar novel. It shall remain nameless before publication....I'm not taking any risks. I'm posting out the manuscript drafts to literary agents this week. I met Kate Mosse signing the French print run of her Sepulcure Novel. I casually invited herself and her husband/partner to visit us the next time they were in Carcassonne, dropping my card off as I did. Who knows...

I am in negotiations to be the key holder and cleaner for a British man who has flats to let close to me. If he agrees to me doing this I'll publicise his property here and elsewhere, natch!

This evening I am meeting the aforementioned architect (see 'The man who can") to give him some costings for a similar website to the one I have built. Finger's crossed.

If today's meeting goes well with the main player in the magazine idea, I may well be looking at earning €4K a month. Tra la la! However, it all sounds 2G2BT. I'll have to horse trade a bit.

Finally, a bit of perspective from the real world:

On Sunday the 3rd Parachute regiment got themselves involved in a shocking SNAFU that to date has not, thankfully, become a tragedy. You may have seen it in the news. 17 injured civilians as the last salvo delivered in a 'hostage retrieval' demonstration turned tout to be live ammunition, sprayed into a crowd who, at first, thought the blood was paint. I was just up the road in my own little 'in debt' world.

This gives great meaning to my favourite phrase: "Relax, nobody died!"

My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the soldier who had the wrong clip at the wrong time, the hospital and emergency staff who dealt with this brilliantly and of even the 3rd RPIMA in Carcassonne who's élite status has definitely taken a hammering with all this nonsense.

That's it! I have just finished the last coffee I can afford in this web café until I hear back from my contacts. Finger's crossed.

So much for Discipline!

2008-06-03T13:27:00.004+02:00

Well, well, well! The road to hell is paved with good intentions....

An update from a month ago.

1 I visited the building I was hoping to renovate into a backpacker hostel with a builder friend of mine. To cut a long and painful story short, the fabric of the building and the French regulations surrounding opening a 'youth' hostel (for that's the only equivalent business model they can process) meant that I would have had to build three toilets, three showers and TWELVE wash hand basins. To compound it all, this water would then have to leave the building through one 40mm sewerage pipe.....hmmm....non-starter. I sent my friend David, the owner of the building, his mail and a letter giving him his options:

Me paying his debts NOT being one of them.

2 My networking is moving me in the right direction but (my God) is it ever slow... One great new contact let me know about a Business Entrepeneurship course over 5 weeks run by the local chamber of commerce. Basically it is a French bureaucracy version of 'The Apprentice' or 'Dragon's Den'. You enter with your business plan and your idea's outline on day one and then you battle for five weeks to defend it against the pitfalls and the demands of business in France ......for five whole weeks....I did mention five weeks of this stuff, right, FIVE WEEKS?

If you manage to have a good enough idea that is profitable and makes a smooth enough fit into the local community, your loan is guaranteed by the town. I start in October.

I'm thinking of a hub zone in town, a kind of fusion between coffee shop, arts and culture centre, bookshop, creative space and web café. The initial name is DUBh. It just sounds IRISH and TEKTONIC enough but I still haven't got the USP on that yet.

3 The Tricolour Guesthouse website is uploaded but hasn't gone live as yet. I hope the host gets their act together within the next 24 hours as both my clients (friends!) and my bank manager are getting jumpy. Needless to say, I'm a bit jumpy myself....they won't pay without a working website, will they?

4 Online sales of my art is not even going to feed the cat. Of course my bed remains artfully unmade but Tracey Emin got there first. Anyway, I can't rely on fine art to support me at this stage. I need to be more commercial with my painting talent. Thus I am promoting a pretty cool art gift idea called Alchemic Portraits. (Website is being built and I hope to attract 'exclusive' web based gift sites.)

5 Having attended an art market in Chateau Malves gardens (Wow! Great location, fantastic weather, no sales!) I realise that I need to really commercialise what I am doing when I weild a paint brush. I have found a couple of styles that do attract attention but the Malves crowd were there just to have a look. Some Irish friends of the family visited the market and we exchanged pleasantries. I concentrated on not appearing too desperate, you know, intelligent calm, a good dollop of professional interest in other artist's work, smiling and nodding knowingly, able to talk about the light and its affect upon my colour palette etc. etc.

They went off and bought a big, ugly, wooden sculpture of a cat the size of a six year old child! My canvasses are flightcase friendly, dammit! I hope Ryanair screwed 'em good.

Seriously though, having contacted some of the other artists I realised that out of 40 exhibitors a sum total of five sales happened that day so I'm not cutting my right ear off just yet.

6 I'm still adhering to my principles and to this end, my great master plan has had to be revised, somewhat. That's OK, though, I was aware of setbacks and pitfalls before this blog began and I am still here. A month and a half has passed since I first started this blog and I have done the following:

* Registered as a member of a local artists group.

* Signalled my availablility to discuss and help those on the same path as me.

* Received monies for a commission (OK it's my parents but they're getting a damn' fine painting!)

* Started work on my online portfolio and Alchemic Portrait website.

These will be finished by the end of June.

* Made connections with local people in every area of art, business, commerce. etc.

* Started work on the great sequence of Gary Canton novels: The Silent History.

* Developed and rejected a business plan for a backpacker's hostel

(in a different building it's a goer!)

* Developed TWO bloody Tricolour websites and designed a professional and attractive brochure, so that would be value for money, I'd say.

* Got back to blogging and web based research for my ideas.

* Finally, the Alchemic Portraits idea is being looked at seriously as a business idea by a manager/agent. This is imperative. I'm the production end, let someone else be the sales end.

* Remained in contact with artists in the region that I had hoped to bring on a touring exhibition to all the great art markets in Northern Europe. Obviously the credit crunch has put paid to this idea in the short term but talent is talent.

* My arse is in gear but my bank account remains the same....for the time being.

STOP PRESS: 3rd June 2008 14:15pm

The financial consultant (he that doesn't lose control of his bladder laughing at me) has finally sent me an email with a list of documents I need to apply for a personal loan for €30,000 over ten years. I'm getting out the French/English dictionary as we speak. Hello Solvency!

Ciao babes! It's been all to real.

BTW

Conor's evil spreadsheet has been the most soul destroying exercise I have had to undertake. I wouldn't lend me any money!

Taking a dump may be necessary but this feels like a vindaloo and cider induced diahorrea.

Note to self: To many exclamation marks!!!! I read like I'm a character in a bad Operetta.

OK, ok, monsieur Web café man, I'm going, I'm going...

MAY 2008

2008-05-02T22:38:00.003+02:00

The master plan so far:

1 Build and open a Backpacker's Hostel in Carcassonne at the base of La Cité.

(La Cité is the third most visited place in France, after Paris' Eiffel Tower and Mont St. Michel)

This is a goer based on my being able to access finance. I held a meeting with a financial consultant for that reason two days ago. He didn't wet himself laughing at me so there's hope.

2 Complete web sites I started for friends and get paid for them.

I should finish the Tricolour website this weekend. So with a bit of luck, you will be able to see my work on: www.thetricolour.com (With thanks to iWeb on the Mac)

3 Publicise my existing painted work for sale.

This is the connection to my portfolio: www.ebsqart.com/Artists/cmd_20710

4 Get more website work and network, network, network!

Before all of that though, I do have the small matter of getting a job to do first.

I have a painting that satirises my position. It's called: "Will hang on walls for money".

I'm kind of like that now. It's a good energy though.

Money is coming my way in dribs and drabs so I realise that I've made the first important step. To my philosophy, money behaves like water in a river. You can stand in the water and get wet but you may drown. It is smarter to carry a vessel with you into the river and drink as much as you like. I'm just getting my vessels together.

Of course, this blog is part of the overall discipline. The spreadsheet is being edited to protect people's identities and to get my sums right!

A plus, people.

Broken Promises and New Opportunities

2008-04-30T14:13:00.003+02:00

So this is Blogging! The web café closes early and I'm not able to keep my promise. Oooops!

Sorry to all those millions of you that are following my every challenge with bated breath!

My Spreadsheet is on the way.

Good news on the job front too.

More tonight!

Great Plays written by bankrupt people No: 1

2008-04-26T22:18:00.006+02:00

Bankrupt to Billionaire: Make sure you're recognised as The man who can...

THE MAN WHO CAN - A PLAY BY GARY.

Dramatis Personae

G: An architect that works in international markets, especially in Dubai and Bahrain.

Gary: Yours Truly

C1: The business mind behind a chambres d'hotes business

C2: The building, decor, painting, DIY expert

THE MAN WHO CAN - (ACT 1, SCENE 1)

Scene: A porch in front of a disco bar. Gary is planning a business meeting with C1 and C2. Guy is sitting at the same table.

C1: You remember Guy, right? That night when we were...

C2: Pissed!

Gary: (Shaking hand but penny hasn't dropped) Hello Guy. How are you?

G: Yeah! Gary! We met before. Remember?

(This is the moment that I realise that so many opportunities have passed me by because of a very heavy backing beat and too much cheap French wine.)

Gary: (Big lie) Of course! But I just didn't get your name then 'cos I was half deaf from the music and very stupid from the wine.

C2: What? You weren't as pissed all that!

(My nickname was 'Hollow' as in Hollow Legs - i.e. I don't get sloppy drunk....much)

Gary: Er....um...I just don't let on but yeah I was fairly slaughtered.

G: But you were saying that stuff about architecture that night.

Subtitle: WHAT STUFF?!!! SHIT! WHAT DID I SAY?!!

Gary: Well I stand by what I said! Building is going to change in the 21st Century.

Gary starts talking about Dubai and Bahrain regarding architecture.

G takes out a very pricey mobile phone an proudly shows the group photos from a major architect's convention in Cannes illustrating major 21st Century office developments. C2 tells Gary about a new development using old plane wings as part as a power generator at the centre of the architecture. Gary feigns intelligent curiosity....

Gary: (To C1) That's the kind of mobile I was talking of!

(To G) Can you record conversations on that phone live, as you are speaking?

G nods dead proud of his phone but determined to make the nod look like a shrug.

Gary: (To C1) That's what you need, you see? That's the business.

C2: I want a blackberry, though.

C1: ...and I'll get a diary.

Gary: (Eager to press home his point) But that phone's better than a blackberry. You just push a button and the conversation is recorded. That's worth it's weight in gold!

G: (lightly) An iPhone's better though. You can slide meetings in and out.

(Gary enters a fourty second private conversation with C2 about the technical benefits of an i-Phone over a blackberry )

Subtitle: Note to self - Be Adaptable.

C2: (Convinced) I want an i-phone, then. I'll get the girls on to it.

G: (To Gary) You should be paid for all this advice that you give out!

C1, C2 and Gary Take a nervous slurp from their drinks.

It was G's advice and I just piggybacked on it but he's right!

Roll on Monday when I do my first spreadsheet:

The numbers will be sick-making but, as my brother wisely says:

" It's like taking a dump, brother.

Dead boring but neccessary!

If you don't take a dump, you die!"

Thanks Conor for the Spreadsheet.

Promise to reader: I will include this speadsheet every Monday on my blog so you can keep track of my progress.

Let's face it: First thing on a Monday, looking at someone else's debt is quite theraputic, non?

Enjoy wealth sensibly! - Gary Canton.

The first day of B2B

2008-04-25T22:13:00.002+02:00

Bankrupt to Billionaire step one: "Be the man who can...."

My plan for world domination starts here, muah! ha! ha!

I have three priorities:

Get solvent FAST!
Get a regular income source.
Save that income and make it work for me.

There's a hell of a lot you can do when your back is to the wall and today my graft started in earnest. Basically, my first plan of action is to be the 'fixer' for my friends living here. I have connections, built up over the last three years, that allow me to think laterally about who might know whom in Carcassonne and in the Aude valley. That is a superb asset.

Carcassonne is a small town of about 50,000 people in rural southern France. Being a foreigner in this town means that I tend to stand out a bit. I am a french speaker of some ability and I tend to greet all those content to converse with me. This means that I not only have a number of friends but I also have a wide range of friends in various communities that may not necessarily have another connection to each other. The Ex-Pats from the UK and Ireland, The North African community, the Local Carcassonne community, The Extended Toulouse and finally, my favourite: The Bears!

Being the loud, funny, generous, friendly Irish man may have been part of my downfall but is also the making of me in this quest. For the first time I am calling in a few favours. (Bye bye Pride!)

Today I met the man who wants to open an Irish Bar in Carcassonne.

(Important note: I will not name anyone in my Blog to protect their privacy, unless they ask me to)

I leveled with him, telling him my position and directly asking him if he would seriously consider me as the doorman/barman when he opens for business. His concern was sourcing quality old wood for the fixtures and fittings...ET VOILA! Gary takes out his mobile phone and calls a friend in the region who does carpentry work and asked for a contact.

(NOTE TO SELF: Top up your mobile credit! It's worth money back!)

I am now in this man's mental credit column. Simple.

Two other friends are opening a business of short term lease apartments in their home. I am in the process of developing their website but of course this also provides me with good training. As they develop their business I shall be keeping my eyes and ears open for all the pitfalls, opportunities and the 'life's lessons' that inevitably crop up.

I am meeting the two tomorrow afternoon in order to get their website firmed up, somewhat. We will spend the evening together and I intend to get their entire website, publicity material and business documentation unified into the one house style. I met one this afternoon and discovered that the people at the adjoining table ran a gîte (guest house) out in the valley. A quick flurry of exchanged business cards and email addresses followed over half bottles of rosé in the brilliant sunshine. (See? Graft doesn't have to be drudgery!)

GARY'S BIG IDEA - PORTE DE L'AUDE (DOOR OF THE AUDE)

I am going to release some equity on my home and use that money to develop a property belonging to (yet another) friend into a small backpacker hostel. To do this I need an income and no bad debt. Catch 22! My friend lives abroad and has no intention of returning to France seeing that he has sunk all his savings into a money pit that is barely habitable. He would be lucky to get half his investment back.

I plan to develop a business plan to be presented to the Mayor's office and (fingers crossed) if I get the permission to proceed I will be on the first rung of the Billionaire ladder. That's the plan. My hour's up! I'm going to have to go but just to let you know that the bureaucracy involved has already expanded to fifteen meetings with departments and authorities throughout France, and that is just after day ONE!

From Bankrupt to Billionaire (Watch it happen!)

2008-04-24T16:14:00.006+02:00

Today is Thursday the 24th April 2008.

Today is the due date on my credit card bill which is touching €9,000.

I owe one bank €1,000 and another €4,500.

I have no job and no chance of social security payments.

I have missed my due date for a second consecutive month and thus my card will be flagged as a bad debt by my credit card company (whom shall remain nameless....unless they want to pay me to advertise them!) which will have the knock-on effect of rendering me incapable of raising a loan to start a business that I have been researching.

Today, I am what used to be called bankrupt.

Under normal circumstances, this should prompt thoughts of leaping from skyscrapers, exploring the possibility of prostitution and working on my 'Homeless and hungry!' begging technique. That's not going to happen, not to me. This drastic situation is a blessing in disguise. It is the start of my quest.

I want to make it clear to anyone reading this blog that I am not a comedy writer exploring an amusing situation at the expense of those in actual crushing debt. Nor am I some kind of ersatz 'self help guru' who wants to pitch his latest book to you at just $19.99 (although that would be nice....hmmm).

No, I am the genuine article: A broke bloke in a foreign country without a bank-friendly plan.

This blog is my method of discipline. Every single weekday evening, I will trudge down to my local web café and spend €1.40 on an expresso in exchange for one hour of wireless internet connection. During that hour I will write onto this blog all that I have done to progress closer to that magic €1,000,000,000 number.

BACKGROUND:

How did I get into this fix?

A combination of the seven deadly sins, I'm afraid.

PRIDE: I am an artist and writer of absolute genius, the world must see that!!
ENVY: I mean, look at that Damien Hirst fella! Call that genius? I call it OCD!
AVARICE: I don't get out of bed for less than €10,000, honey!
SLOTH: I don't get out of bed!
EXCESS: Hey everybody! The drinks are on me!
RAGE: Kir Royal?!!! When you were buying, it was just a coke!
LUST: Ok! Ok! Kir Royal, it is.

From here on in I'm going to use the seven cardinal virtues:

HUMILITY: I'm just learning my craft, folks. Any work / commission considered.
EMPATHY: Everyone has problems and the vast majority are far worse off.
EARNESTNESS: A fair wage will get my guaranteed respect and effort.
FORTITUDE: Sweat is not my enemy!
TEMPERANCE: Hangovers should be an occasional nuisance, not a weekly target.
TRANQUILITY: Life is good, it happens for free, live with what you have been given.
FIDELITY: I don't do 'the cheque is in the post/mail'.

For the last three years, I have been scrabbling around in the Languedoc trying to establish myself as an artist and writer. Guess what, it is not a business plan I would recommend for those with children and dependents. I have held down no jobs. I have worked for friends for cash when the need has arisen and I have exhibited three times in those three years.

I have the usual mish-mash of spiritual and religious beliefs (more on this later) and I have acted as if the universe itself owes me a life of leisure and luxury.

I have to say that these last three years were the best and most fun of my life but my bank account never held a credit balance over three figures in all that time.

I'm hitting 40 now, life begins here.

GARY'S MISSION STATEMENT

I commit do anything within my abilities, talents, rights and responsibilities to move from my present state of bankruptcy to full solvency represented by the arbitrary figure of €1,000,000,000*.

*My quest for €1000,000,000 is purely symbolic and is subject to adjustment either up or down depending on my situation and on the following conditions:

I will not break the law.
I will not even bend the law.
I will not betray a trust.
I will not harm a fellow human being as a result of this quest.
I will not harm animals as a result of this quest.
I will not harm my planet as a result of this quest.
I will not exploit the gullible, vulnerable, depressed or dumb
I will not forget that this quest is about growing up, not about greed.
I will not forget how I feel right now.
I will not forget others who feel like me right now.
I will adhere to the principles of my philosophy of Taoism*

*as defined by Lao Tzu in his work the Tao Te Ching

This is it....the quest begins here.

Gary Canton 24th April 2008