The Million Pound Experiment

Hello, I'm an ordinary person from an Asian country. I work a regular job, and I have three cats. My salary isn't much, but it's enough to live on and feed three cats—though barely.

My dream is to be a writer. I once entered a local writing contest and won about $500. Later, I published a short story online and earned around $7–8. After that, I haven't earned a cent from writing. Since then, I've finished a 150,000-word novel and two or three shorter pieces of several thousand words each. None of them got published.

At first I told myself it didn't matter—it's my dream, and I'd pursue it no matter what. Then my closest friend, who was also the person I loved, left me. And one of my cats got sick, requiring expensive, long-term treatment. Even so, my salary could still just barely cover the cat's medical bills and my living expenses.

But those events woke me up. I need wealth to protect and support the happiness of the lives I love. So I put my writing on pause and started looking for every way I could to make money—all legal, all non-harmful. I'm trying building programs with AI, writing songs, looking for business opportunities everywhere. This website itself is one of those attempts.

I will not give up any opportunity to make money, even if it looks ridiculous, even if some people think it's beneath my dignity.

It's a social experiment, inspired by The Million Pound Note. You can send me money through the link below and leave your name or a nickname. The amount is entirely up to you. In return, you'll receive a check-style digital badge with your chosen name and the amount you paid on it—a souvenir of your contribution.

The website also has a leaderboard showing names and amounts, sorted by how much people gave. The top of the page displays the total amount received and the total number of supporters.

The money goes toward improving my life and my cats' lives. I'll invest it, try other ways to earn money, and see if I can build something. If the amounts get large enough, or if I turn this into something bigger, I'll use part of it to give back to society.

Let me be clear: this is not charity. There are no returns. Think of it as an unconditional gift.

Once the total reaches $100, I'll update a blog on the website at least every three days on how the money is being spent—even if nothing was spent, I'll say so. Between updates, I'll post about my daily life and what I'm thinking.

To be honest: I'm not in crisis. You might want to prioritize helping people who are truly struggling, or animals in need—like stray cats.

As I said, this is an experiment. Your name goes on a public leaderboard. You become one of the wealthy benefactors in someone else's life story. What will the person on the other side of the world actually do with what you give? Don't you want to see what happens? Will it turn out the way you expect, or differently? (I believe it will be different. I'm a realist, but I also believe in how extraordinary each person is.)

If you give, you become both the cause and the witness.

For me: on one hand, I'll try my hardest to turn this into real success in business and life—maybe one day you'll meet someone or buy something that traces back to me. On the other hand, I never actually gave up writing. This website becomes my new writing platform—except this time, what I'm writing is my own real life, with your help.

This is a strange plan. On some level, I'm literally asking you for money with no investment return and no promise of any noble cause. But as I said, I will not give up any opportunity to build wealth. I'm selling a story of a life—and you're the only ones who can open it.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing what happens.