# Fiction: Possible mecahnism for a lay person to make direct contact with powerful billionaire. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078 "2017-11-08T23:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/21 "2017-11-09T07:01:47Z")
Several ideas I liked, The rare blood match or organ donor thing I think I could carry, another one was in the second post I could have my guy be a boat mechanic working on the billionaires yacht. I need to make a connection with a social media mogul or someone closely associated to him and then for some reason spend several hours together chatting, long enough for them to become interested in a concept. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/22 "2017-11-09T09:32:38Z")
My mother is vague friends with a guy, who, while not quite a billionaire, ‘collects castles’, owning multiple historic castles in England and Scotland, they met because he’s also interested in rare pheasants, which my Mum breeds. In fact, she’s met multiple very wealthy people through a shared interest in exotic animals. Come to that, animal nuts in general come at all wealth levels; I briefly worked at a horse rescue in the fundraising department, and there were some very wealthy people involved, largely as donors, who also occasionally showed up, chatted to the horsey people and got hands on. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/23 "2017-11-09T10:26:41Z")
Question: is the layperson TRYING to make contact with the billionaire, or is this just a random encounter? If an unplanned event, along **Bayard’s** lines counts, there’s actually one particularly dramatic incident in particular from recent memory…that of[Gander, Newfoundland, Population 10,000](http://endeavorstudios.com/michaelwalsh/Between_Takeoff_and_Landing/History.html), where 38 airliners with over 6,656 passengers had to make an unplanned landing when US airspace was closed on 9/11. > [@](#): > > Many of us spent our time bringing people home so they could get a shower or, once the rain started on the third day, driving them to the mall or sight seeing to relieve their boredom. The diversity of the people who have been in my car and in my shower over the past few days is pretty wild. […] There was a King from the Middle East here. A British MP. The Mayor of Frankfurt Germany, etc. There were also immigrants from all over the world, some of whom didn’t have two pennies to rub together. They all slept side by side in schools and church halls. […]One woman here gave a driving tour to a fellow from the US. When she brought him back to his gymnasium cot, they exchanged cards. She looked at his and said, “So you work with Best Western?” He replied, “No, I own Best Western”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/24 "2017-11-09T10:36:14Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > How famous is your billionaire (in the sense that he’d be recognized instantly)? Would he be the type who might just like to get away from it all and go get a taco or something without being followed by an entourage? If so, maybe your character could meet him someplace like that. (Is it a romance? If so, maybe he/she gets into some amusing bit of trouble and the billionaire helps him/her out.) The billionaire could be in a place where interrupting someone in his personal time is seen as uncouth and have decided to just go for a walk or a cup of coffee by himself; the other guy is, like the billionaire, from one where people consider it normal to interrupt someone who’s in his personal time. The VIP areas of music festivals are more expensive than general entrance and have shorter bathroom lines, seats and their own bar; they’re also not so expensive that Joe Normal will need to put his house into hock to get there. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/25 "2017-11-09T11:06:39Z")
Are you familiar with the concept of six degrees of seperation? If you look hard enough, you’ll find that you know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows the billionaire. I’m nobody, and I could probably get something on Bill Gates’ desk if I really, really wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/26 "2017-11-09T11:35:03Z")
A guy I worked with was a huge collector of Rupert the Bear stuff. He put a rare item up for sale and the guy who came to buy it was Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones. Not quite a billionaire, but esoteric interests can attract all sorts. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/27 "2017-11-09T11:36:36Z")
Billionaire wrecks his car near ordinary person’s house. Ordinary person hobbles billionaire in a bed, calls him a dirty bird, and keeps telling him very vague things about the importance of crowd-sourcing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/28 "2017-11-09T12:00:33Z")
Isn’t the cute story making the rounds this week that Barack Obama himself had to show up at the courthouse like anybody else would, for jury duty? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/29 "2017-11-09T12:51:05Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Isn’t the cute story making the rounds this week that Barack Obama himself had to show up at the courthouse like anybody else would, for jury duty? This crossed my mind the minute I heard he had reported. Waiting in a jury room would be the ideal circumstance. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/30 "2017-11-09T12:52:42Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Are you familiar with the concept of six degrees of seperation? If you look hard enough, you’ll find that you know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows the billionaire. I’m nobody, and I could probably get something on Bill Gates’ desk if I really, really wanted to. ``` This was my original plan but I wasn't doing a good job carrying it into the story. ``` ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/31 "2017-11-09T12:56:27Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Question: is the layperson TRYING to make contact with the billionaire, or is this just a random encounter? > > If an unplanned event, along **Bayard’s** lines counts, there’s actually one particularly dramatic incident in particular from recent memory…that of[Gander, Newfoundland, Population 10,000](http://endeavorstudios.com/michaelwalsh/Between_Takeoff_and_Landing/History.html), where 38 airliners with over 6,656 passengers had to make an unplanned landing when US airspace was closed on 9/11. He has a few specific people on his list he is trying to connect with. A random encounter with someone who has that connection might work. Degrees of separation, method ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/32 "2017-11-09T13:04:08Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Happy NaNoWriMo, **HoneyBadger**! Thank You, are you participating? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/33 "2017-11-09T13:11:36Z")
A huge part of my story is based on advocacy, one skill set advocating another skill set. Maybe playing this angle into a degrees of separation method might work and establish some proof of concept in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/34 "2017-11-09T13:12:30Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > He has a few specific people on his list he is trying to connect with. I’d expect that by necessity most very rich and famous people have employees who’s full time job is shielding them from the endless stream of people with Big Ideas That They _Need_ To Hear. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/35 "2017-11-09T13:17:49Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Thank You, are you participating? In a slightly non-traditional way. I have been knee-deep in revisions on my current novel all year, so my NaNo goal is to finish revisions and start distributing copies for beta by the end of November. It’s… well, it’s going. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/36 "2017-11-09T13:18:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Billionaire wrecks his car near ordinary person’s house. Ordinary person hobbles billionaire in a bed, calls him a dirty bird, and keeps telling him very vague things about the importance of crowd-sourcing. Ignoring the miserable aspect of hobbling the person, this actually sounds like a good way for something like this to happen. Good guy billionaire has a brain fart and swerves off the road and does some property damage and rings the door bell because they want to make it right. Something someone said upthread reminded me of another thing. A b-list celeb (but most people are probably familiar with her) is from my home town. Apparently when she’s back home, she works out at the local exercise place. Seems this would be a good way to get in touch with someone. If she’s ‘humble’ enough to ask you how to work the coffee machine (which is how my mom learned that she works out there), you could probably ask her a question. Of course, a b-list celeb using a one day pass at a local workout spot, probably isn’t the powerful billionaire you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/37 "2017-11-09T13:22:42Z")
I have met a bunch of really rich people. It isn’t that difficult if you hang around the right places. Billionaires have to do everyday stuff like everyone else and most of them don’t have presidential levels of security. I used to work for Bose and met Dr. Bose himself when he was sitting at the next table in the corporate cafeteria. He was a billionaire before he died and very hands on and accessible. I have a childhood friend that is a Hollywood special effects wizard that is now VP of special effects for Fox. He has worked directly with James Cameron and Steven Spielberg among countless movie stars. I could just call him if I wanted access to someone. That may not count because it requires a connection but it is just chance. I agree the most mundane way to meet really rich people is just to be a charter airline pilot or a high-end personal driver. Only certain types of people use those services and it is inevitable that some clients will be famous and/or extremely wealthy. Even being a doorman in an exclusive Manhattan apartment building would do it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/38 "2017-11-09T14:10:00Z")
A relative of mine had Ross Perot call him out of the blue one day, back when Perot was a big name. He was an amateur inventor, and one of his patents caught Perot’s eye. Unfortunately, it was a good but entirely theoretical idea, so the whole thing led nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/39 "2017-11-09T14:34:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’d expect that by necessity most very rich and famous people have employees who’s full time job is shielding them from the endless stream of people with Big Ideas That They _Need_ To Hear. Which means the gatekeepers are in a prime position to have access to the billionaire. So I would suggest personal driver/bodyguard/secretary/accountant/lawyer/mistress/drug dealer. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078/40 "2017-11-09T15:38:03Z")
> [@Scribble](#): > > Do your tycoons have kids? People who work as teachers, tutorsor, or babysitters in the right neighborhoods can end up in contact with high-profile parents pretty easily. Tutor is the one I was going to mention. One of my close friends tutors SAT and, okay, this isn’t quite Gates-level, but he tutored one of the kids from the Johnsonville sausage family and got flown out there on a private plane once a week. (Actually, looking it up, the family is worth over a billion dollars, so it’s far higher up there than I thought.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiction-possible-mecahnism-for-a-lay-person-to-make-direct-contact-with-powerful-billionaire/801078.md?page=3)