Projectswww.HuManKindSurvival.com is a one web page summary of my projects regarding the two domains below, and briefly covers the why and what issues. Our generation is the most important generation in all geologic time which decides the survival or self-destruction of our species, and possibly whether life from Earth ever expands beyond this planet. www.SpaceSettlement.com is my main life project. I worked on this almost continuously from the early 1980s until about 2002 when I ran out of money and time. I finished and self-published a book in 1998. I created a website in 1996 and maintained it until 2002. I have resumed work on this website intermittently from around 2008, updating databases behind the scenes, and am working on a completely overhauled website which will be made available all at once. www.GainExtinction.com is what drives me to focus on SpaceSettlement.com -- the realistic, nearterm threats of human extinction by advancing biotechnology, genetics, and possibly nanotechnology. It also covers the impact of artificial intelligence exceeding humans in about 20-30 years due to advancing computer hardware and software, something of awesome impact which such a tiny percentage of people have fathomed, but we probably won't survive on Earth that long due to the above extinction threats. This will surely happen in the generation of our children. My goal is to help bring about self-sufficient space colonies outside Earth's biosphere before the biological extinction events happen. The above work is not income to me, it is purely expense, consuming a lot of my time and money (and with "opportunity loss" as regards not spending time on my other businesses). I tried to set up companies and hire staff in order to give me enough free time and financial support so I can do my work for the world. Unfortunately, I have not been very successful in that. Below, I list some business projects of mine, and some ideas. Since you've read this far, I am guessing that you have some ethics and also want to help the world. Usually, I exercise secrecy about my businesses as regards public exposure, but at this point, without much success, I'm taking a risk. What I really need is good business partners. First, a brief history of my starting as an individual consultant and then switching to setting up companies as a Director: From the late 1980s up thru 1994, I did a lot of consulting work for humanistic nonprofit organizations, as well as work or USAID (US Agency for International Development), and the latter resulted in what was supposed to be a temporary relocation to Bangkok, Thailand, due to an Asia Regional Office there. However, I jumped ship from my plan at the beginning of 1995 and struck out with consulting to purely private multinationals in engineering, construction, and property development from 1995-1997 (Asia economic crash) and even after that, up to the early 2000s in this sector. Eventually, in trying to switch from being an individual consultant to running a company with staff to do most of the work and me creating businesses and being a Director, I set up a few companies over time, which have been successful as regards survival and profitability, but not greatly profitable. I'm not a great business person. Some of my lack of success is because I started with almost no money and cash flow so it was a long struggle to try to ramp up, some is lack of luck in getting a good break, plus some bad luck, some is maybe being too cautious about risks, some is because I don't resort to tricky business, and some is just other traits of mine. As some people have told me, I am more like a professor than a business person. Many other people say I'm a smart business person and have a lot of good ideas, experience, and business planning abilities, but I disagree because the proof shows otherwise. What I really need is one or more good business partners. I don't have enough money to retire, but I have wasted a lot of time trying to get ahead financially while neglecting my main purpose in life -- saving our species. Getting old now, I want to spend the remaining years of mental productivity on my purpose in life as much as I can. Seeing the recent advances in artificial intelligence, I know that I should spend a lot more time on trying to help the world, and be more picky about clients to make money on for survival, so I have cut my personal expenses to the bone. Here are my businesses (skipping my previous fulltime employment at the U.S. Patent Office and after that as a scientist in advanced planning in the space program for the Pentagon): 1987-1994: In the USA, before the internet became popular around 1995, I set up communications networks before the internet and in the early years of the public internet, plus built computers, set up networks, and did general computer consulting. 1995-2001: In Thailand, did I.T. consulting to multinational engineering and construction companies. Notably, after the 1997 Asia Economic Crash, I helped some to survive by exporting engineering design services for projects overseas. 2000-2004: I tried creating websites for companies overseas, which was something I could do at the time to work from Thailand for companies in the US and elsewhere. I also tried exporting services, using local Thais, such as for engineering design. My hope at the time was to eventually use engineers worldwide to design systems for mining and manufacturing in space, habitats and farms in space, and things like that. However, I didn't get very far with website design staff. Most were copycats instead of solution providers (such as provide a copy of something else instead of understanding the client's applications and needs and designing for that), and transient (since there were always easy jobs working for big companies). I learned big lessons in getting the right kinds of people, and having somebody to manage them closely. Web design wasn't profitable enough. Engineering design may be, but needs a good engineer as a manager. Better to partner with an engineering company, but interested companies were not easy to find and close a long term relationship with. I still have some good domain names / brands for this, but I took down the websites when they got outdated, as web styles change ... 2000-date: I ran a popular website www.ThailandGuru.com on helping relocating expats for working and living in Thailand. In recent years, I haven't done much work on this website, and would like to partner with somebody in Thailand. 2000-date: In Thailand, did real estate helping relocating expats find places to rent, and occasionally to buy. This is an extremely competitive sector with a lot of overhead. I split off from a partnership which wasn't working well for me, and set up my own company in 2008. It was hit hard by COVID in 2020 with the flight bans and then recession. Based in Bangkok (BKK) website is www.kkBkk.com . It is database driven. Thailand has lacked a good Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and I have a plan for how it could work, but I would need a good partner for that. I already have the domain ThaiMLS.com 2000-date: www.thailandpi.com -- Thailand Private Investigations. This business was critical in bringing in cash to support my other business ventures. After 2008, I became picky about clients, especially as regards investigating girlfriends and husbands in the nightlife, because it's not a healthy business, staying out so late. Other kinds of investigations are okay. However, it's not the kind of business which scales up well. Its main importance is that it helped me survive financially. 2003-2004: www.ThaiEnglish.com -- language translation and interpreters. I started this but around 2004 turned it over to my partners who ran it. Very labor and quality control intensive. The internet has changed a lot since then, especially the improved quality of machine translations. There is other potential for this domain name, and I have some good additional domain names, too, for other languages, when I considered taking our standard operating procedures and applying them to additional languages for an internet business. If interested, please ask. 2003-2006: www.ThailandCompany.com -- I helped expats set up a company, office, and so on, until the coup in 2006 when a lot of laws and regulations changed. Also, this business consumed too much of my time, as it was very difficult to find staff who could do this business well. It still has an old fossil website, since I just didn't take it down. The upside is that I met a lot of very interesting entrepreneurs and learned a lot about business, but this is a business for somebody specialized in that realm, not a sideline if you want to do a good job for clients. After 2006, I pretty much have lived on real estate and private investigations. I would like to get into solar photovoltaic electrical systems, solar houses, solar hot water, and clean and sustainable energy, but have no seriously interested partners with the money necessary to start up. I also tried getting into import-export but that got bogged down in staff shortcomings in establishing relationships with manufacturers, shipping details, and followups to push things through to completion. The dependence on me for so many details and prodding things along was disappointing. When I had other real money to make immediately in other businesses, I came out dropping the difficulties of the import-export business at that time, but then didn't return to complete this. I diverted staff to other business, and when some departed, I sometimes welcomed the reduction in overhead. I have some other business ideas and good domain names for them, but haven't developed them yet, including: MedicalVacations.com -- medical treatments overseas at better rates and in uplifting places SidelineNews.com -- citizen reporting GPSgypsy.com (add 2 y's to GPS and you get GyPSy) -- I have a registered trademark on this, and ideas on how to provide much better guidance and information for travelers, but this would require a good team. ... and some other ideas (with good domain names) which I could discuss with somebody who would be reliable ... If interested, please contact me. mark-prado.com > ProjectsIf you choose to submit feedback, then I wish to thank you in advance. After you click on Submit, the page will jump to the top.
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