Second Life. Second Income.
60% americans are dissatisfied with their current careers. 60%. That is a lot of disgruntled, underappreciated employees in our workforce. And compensation, no surprise there, is the number one reason for their dissatisfaction. So I believe there is a great number of people out there, if given the opportunity, would like to do something totally different…an opportunity to totally start over.
Enter Second Life. Of course you have heard of it and it is gaining traction very fast. I had first heard of it through a friend that works in PR back in January. She was telling me how a lot of big companies were backing and funding this 3-D virtual world. And maybe there was an opportunity for me to market my company to this community. I immediately dismissed the validity of this concept. I was picturing an entire community of Dungeon and Dragon lovers playing out their fantasies on the internet.
And then last week, I came across 4 different articles in magazines about Second Life. Companies like IBM were using it to host international meetings and conferences, Dell was giving away “virtual trees” at Second Life on Earth Day, and a SL user Anshe Chung was earning upwards of $1 million USD through land speculation inside Second Life. Wait! What was that last one again? A virtual avatar earning dollars. Correct. Second Life is a real virtual world with a very real virtual economy that has a very, very, real currency exchange rate. So you earn in virtual dollars (called Linden dollars in SL) which you can convert to real hard cash.
The discovery of Anshe Chung was my “a-ha” moment. Her/his real identity is not known. All we know is that she is a wealthy real estate developer on Second Life. For all we know, she/he could have spent years in a cubicle, lab, or a booth day in and day out for years at her 3% a year appreciating job. I bet he/she spent hours wondering if he/she could do something more fullfilling with his/her life. He/She could be an artist, a producer, an entrepreneur, a real estate developer…ah, the possibilities were/are endless…
I only got on Second Life earlier this week and I just bought my first 2500 Linden dollars today. My avatar is still trying to figure out what he/she wants to be when he/she grows up in that world. I’ll keep you posted.
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