A couple of weeks ago, graffiti artisit David Choe learned that he is set to make a reported $200 million when Facebook makes its IPO. How is he making $200 million from this you ask? In 2005, when Choe was offered either a few thousand dollars in cash or the equivalent in shares of Facebook stock for painting the offices of the Palo Alto, California headquarters, he took the shares. Choe, who didn’t even think Facebook was a good idea at the time, still took the stock in the company, turning out to be probably the smartest business decision he’s ever made.
Choe was also quoted saying that he was offered oral sex every single day for the rest of his life for $2 million, after the news of his recent wealth got out. What is he going to do now that he will become a millionaire 200 times over? The same thing he’s always been doing – paint. “I did everything I wanted to do when I had nothing. I’m still going to do whatever I want, except more people are just going to bother me now,” said Choe.
If you have heard of Choe before, its because he’s not just a random graffiti artist. He did the album art for the Jay-Z, Linkin Park collaboration “Collision Corse” back in 2004 and also painted a picture of Barack Obama for the White House. This is an incredible story of how pursuing your dreams, and not worrying about how much money you make, can ultimately lead you to making more money than you ever imagined.
Choe is really talented, by the way. Check out this video of him messing around with Zuckerberg and turning Mark’s “art” into something pretty cool:
[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfV665kWoSg[/youtube]
via The Telegraph, ZeeNews
