Polls: Education & Career

I have known my friend Rich since 3rd grade. We grew up together but took different career paths. I went to college and got a degree in business. I got an alright job, but nothing to get excited about. Rich screwed around. He took the first job that was offered to him as a favor from a friend. He hated it and complained every day. By his own admission, he was terrible and close to being fired a few times. He did the bare minimum and cut corners whenever possible. He was also one foot out the door always. Then a different company was in desperate need of a logistics manager, and they did not know his work ethic. All they knew was he had enough experience, and he knew all the lingo to ace the job interview. By his own admission, he conned them into believing he was something he isn't.
I was happy 4 him. I believed he would straighten up, and it would be good for him. He didn't change and was a terrible manager, his words. He would talk badly about his employees to me and curse them for doing things he would do himself. He would hide and sleep on the job or get caught up on Netflix, or take an hour of work and turn it into his whole day. Still, he complained constantly and talked about how bad the company is. He felt justified because they were terrible in his eyes. He also constantly complained about leaving.
Now, he has lucked into the same opportunity. A new company is looking for a senior logistics manager, and he fits their needs based on his experience and his LinkedIn profile, which is made entirely of lies. He was just talking about quitting and, and now he is acting like he is a prestigious senior manager. He admits that this is undeserving, but he will still expect me to make a big deal of it and take him out for a drink. I don't think he at all deserves this, and I am kind of disgusted that he keeps lucking into these promotions. But what are my options? Do I have to just pretend to be happy for him, or can I get away with just a congratulations and drop it?

a little known fact is English got simpler during imperialism to accommodate their new serfs. over 90% of middle English words went extinct

I don't know if I should because going public means I have to be held highly accountable to regulators and shareholders, in exchange for theoretically unlimited funding and less responsibilities lol. I know that for a pre-revenue deep tech startup (or even one with some revenue), it'd be extremely difficult to go IPO prematurely but by merging with SPAC, I can do it much faster and easier. Also at least in Canada, there's 2 stock exchanges where they allow smaller and earlier stage startups to join, with much less requirements than say the main ones in Toronto or Montreal.

I'm fully aware that merging with such a shell company also means they'll have control over aspects of my startup that I'd retain had I not merged, and while I'm against merging and acquisitions generally that's an exception. Only agreeing to do this because most sources of funding are gatekept to more mature startups and/or don't provide that much money, which my startup would need to truly take off. I did consider going to angel investors, but the ones I found required startups to make 10x the investment within 5 years, while only providing at most a few dozen grand.

I can't even pay 1 full time employee with that, let alone a small team of them; realistically, I'd need a small investment in 6 or even 7 figures, so sadly only going IPO prematurely is realistic. The startup I'm in is automation, which includes AI, but also goes beyond it with stuff like robotics, IoT, MR, etc as I'm wise enough to know the generative AI bubble that began in late 2022 is eventually gonna burst by the end of this decade. I'm also fully aware that going public means certain investment firms like Blackrock and Vanguard are gonna try to force pushing their agendas down my throat, which I'm prepared for by not giving a fuck about them.

The salary is 425k base pay per year. It requires living in Dubai. The work is 2 months on 2 months off so you get 6 months off per year.

The catch however that during the 2 months on you could be anywhere in the world during those 2 months and you could spend the entire 2 months travelling. During the travel you get travel pay of 500 dollars per day of travel on top of your 350k base pay. Also, The work is 12 hours a day 4 days on 4 days off during the 2 months.

Even though it is a tough 2 months on you still get 6 months off per year with a base pay of 425k per year

County Government EMS Department:

Private EMS Service:

Including your native tongue, how many languages can you speak, at least reasonably well?

Out of interest in international politics and foreign policy he learned native level Mandarin (Chinese) and Russia

I should've done a better job investing. I would've been worth over $1 million by 36, I probably have close to a $750,000 net worth now though. So like I don't "need" to be here, but I don't know what to do. :/