Speaking from personal experience, if you’re a non-US citizen and don’t have a social security number, you might run into a lot of challenges. A lot of government agencies and private bureaus aren’t cross-trained to private the information you need in many cases, so you might also be unintentionally misinformed.

1) Get a US Visa: (eg. TN/E2/EB-5) – Involves following their instructions on http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1326.html
2) Get an I94 when entering the border to US, typically from US Customs and Border Protection (insist on this being completed and don’t enter your country of origin without this supporting document)
3) Get a US mailing address and I was told the city must match the city where you’ll visit a Social Security Address.  Since I tried to get one in New York and was making a trip over to California, I had to immediately use a hotel address I was staying at in New York and then call the Social Security Office in New York later with my reference number to use my California address.
4) With your US Visa and I94, go to the Social Security Number (SSN) office with the US visa, an I94 and proof of address
5) Wait about 4 weeks for the SSN to arrive in the mail
6) Open a US bank account (you might need an SSN to get one unless you physically go in or have ANOTHER US signer on the account)
7)
a) Use the SSN to get a secured card (even a brand new secured card might be denied so you need to build a banking relationship). These secured cards cost up to $30/year and claim to report to the 3 big credit bureaus: Transunion, Equifax, and Experian
b) Optionally, get secured line of credits through your same banking relationship (You are basically paying interest for the privilege of eventually getting credit)
8.) Ensure the bank guarantees approval on the secured card (eg. Wells Fargo can do this. Capital One told me they can’t.).  The minimum deposit is $300.
9) Generate history on this SSN by paying off your secured card. Eventually, banks claim you’ll automatically be offered a non-secured card after successful payment history
10) Use a non-secured card and gradually increase its limit with good payment history.

I hope this post is useful for others who follow in my footsteps. There is a lot of misinformation out there but this is what I found works.

P.S. you can get around some requirements and get corporate credit with a US corporate tax ID to apply for credit (eg. getting a US cell phone with T-Mobile; however, other carriers like AT&T may not budge)

Disclaimer: Don’t use this as legal advice and do your own due diligence

It’s important to Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) because most people are more effective focusing on one simple task rather than multi-task. Two big sources of the trade deficit are

1) imports of ENERGY and
2) GOODS from Asia.

Indebted nations like the US can’t realistically beat Asia on cost. Therefore, indebted nations should subsidize specific proposals that lower energy dependence (eg. companies like Tesla) and increase tariffs on undesirable energy.

With most employees, you have to create near a recipe book to ensure there is no possibility for error and create a tome of standard operating procedures (SOPs).

When hiring, or considering potential partners, if you hear language like “I’ll try,” indirect answers to questions, or long, drawn out answers, you should place a yellow flag.

The vast majority of people fall into the camp of requiring extremely specific instructions. Only people who have absolutely mastered a task and have a demonstrated track record, should be allowed more open discretion. By providing discretion, humans will react predictably to incentives.

To be open to discretion, employees need to consider other people’s interests/goals. Many people are so wrapped up in their own worlds that they don’t consider other people’s interests. This is why only a small group of people are good deal-makers. You must be able to understand the perspective of all stakeholders to arrive at a satisfactory outcome.

The following is now my go to line:

To be honest, I only like in-person meetings if they’re an absolute must or when there is a clear deadline or deal to tackle. I’m sure you’re a nice person . However, from a great deal of empirical data, email/phone is far more productive to assess new deals.

At the same time, I definitely found industry events useful, especially in finding new opportunities, and strengthening relationships with existing partners.

A chess player who tries their best with brute force by working hard/long hours on learning the game through practice will not necessarily going to be a grand master.

A chess player who has the most intelligence about the game will not necessarily become a grand master.

A chess player who executes the optimal strategies with consistency is a more likely candidate to become a grand master.

Results tend to be more moderate than expectations. People tend to believe or lean more towards extremities.

What does this mean?

• This is why some investors use strategies designed to take advantage of mean reversion–the tendency towards a price to revert to a historical average.
• This is why people sell insurance because it makes sense, over a big enough sample of people, to cover the risk of extremities by studying the mean reversion tendencies of many behaviors. People demand insurance to be able to sleep at night and know they are covered in an extreme event.  Insurance makes sense for most individuals because they may not otherwise be able to cover a significant tail risk scenario. However, if someone knows that the odds are not stacked against them and they have sufficient resources, insurance may not make sense.

How do we stop this?  MORE REGULATION. MORE LEGISLATION. We need legislation that makes it illegal to run a deficit. No excuses.

There should be no excuses. We need a small government with less socialist policy.  Capitalism and free markets can help take care of the rest.