"2010. I started the year in the middle of my stint
19 with Good Wagon Books. Donny and I had worked on it the last
20 quarter of 2009 and we were trying to ramp up by hiring people
21 to go door-to-door. It was a real struggle and by the end of
22 our trial partnership, it was clear that we hadn't grown the
23 business to the point that it made sense for me to stay on.
24 "I had to find a job quickly, so I turned to Craig's
25 List and found American Journal Experts. For the next six
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1 months, I edited scientific papers written by foreigners. It
2 sucked. The hours were flexible, but it drained me. I hated
3 working for someone else and trading my time for money with no
4 investment in myself."
5 Can we go to the next page, please.
6 "While all of this was happening, I began working on a
7 project that had been in my mind for over a year. I was
8 calling it Underground Brokers, but eventually settled on Silk
9 Road. The idea was to create a website where people could buy
10 anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could that
11 could lead back to them. I had been studying the technology
12 for a while, but needed a business model and strategy. I
13 finally decided that I would produce mushrooms so that I could
14 list them on the site for cheap to get people interested. I
15 worked my ass off setting up a lab in a cabin near Bastrop off
16 the grid. In hindsight, this was a terrible idea and I would
17 never repeat it, but I did it and produced several kilos of
18 high quality shrooms. On the website side, I was struggling to
19 figure out on my own how to set it up. Driving out to Bastrop,
20 working on Good Wagon, and trying to keep up my relationship
21 with Julia was taking all of my time. By the end of the year,
22 I still didn't have a site up, let alone a server."
23 Ms. Rosen, can you zoom out to the next page, please.
24 "In 2011, I am creating a year of prosperity and power
25 beyond what I have ever experienced before. Silk Road is going
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1 to become a phenomenon and at least one person will tell me
2 about it, unknowing that I was its creator. Good Wagon Books
3 will find its place and get to the point that it basically runs
4 itself. Julia and I will be happy and living together. I have
5 many friends I can count on who are powerful and connected.
There's more, if you're interested. That was the romantic part.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/253356971/Ubricht-Trial-Day-5