The Big Thing People Are Missing

My weird journey through life has led me to North Carolina, and most of the people I interact with on a day to day level have lived a much different life than I have.  They're good people, but most have worked normal jobs, often one job for decades.  Most of these people are older than me, and grew up in the Industrial Age that was still dominant in our society when I was a kid.  Many of the civic leaders here in this area, and many other small cities, towns, and rural areas are still lamenting the farm economy that has changed drastically in their lives, and the factories which have shut down in their communities.  This part of North Carolina I live in now was a major player in tobacco, textiles, furniture building, and what NASCAR racing.  Those industries, except NASCAR, have largely moved their factories overseas.  The leaders, both local and statewide, are working hard to bring back good paying factory jobs. 

And that's the point I'm getting at today.  We used to live in a nation where the huge middle class worked at factories in their area.  That was the end of the industrial age.  To paraphrase internet expert and entrepreneur Seth Godin, "People used to be able make above average pay for average work, those days are over."  But a huge number of people in this country, many in leadership roles, are clinging to the memories of the world they grew up in.  They're not adapting to the world we're in now.  Right now, we're in a long, weird transition phase between the Industrial Age and the Information Age.  Old business models and social constructions are imploding as technology opens up opportunities for other business models and social constructs.  On one hand, most of the people around here have smart phones.  But I don't know anyone else around here who publishes a blog.  I can't afford a smart phone right now, but I publish two blogs and am starting another one soon.  My
point here is that everyday people start using the technology that's helping to change our world so dramatically, but most use it only as a consumer.  These technologies are changing the very way we communicate, which is leading to an incredible amount of opportunities in business, social movements, and other aspects of society.  But most people are so used to the status quo, that they stick to their old way of working, but with quicker communication.  Meanwhile, the future is being built by people looking at the possibilities that technology makes possible, and figuring out new ways to do things. 

As an example, how do you watch TV and movies these days?  Do you go to the theater to see every new movie that interests you?  Do you set aside a couple hours on Monday night to watch Dancing With The Stars?  Or do you record shows on a DVR and watch them when you have the time?  When's the last time you went to the video store and rented a VHS movie to watch that night?  Or do your kids watch movies on tablets in the back seat of your car while you shuttle them to baseball and dance practice? 

I'll be honest, I was pretty much a Luddite from the mid-1990's until 2008.  I was a taxi driver for much of that time, and I hated the continual change of technology.  I didn't keep up with what was happening and I didn't learn new technology as it became available.  Then, the taxi industry collapsed in California, years before Uber came into the picture.  I wound up in a small town in North Carolina wondering what had happened.  I'm a writer at heart, and I looked for ways to make money with writing.  But the whole writing world had completely changed because of technology and the social changes that went along with that technology.  So I started a blog, mostly just to vent.  That began a long process of self education about how to work in this technological world we now live in.  I started writing again using the internet and other tools now available.  I still don't make a living with my writing, but I'm heading in that direction.  I built a following online, quite by accident at first, and began to build my own little (very little) publishing empire point down the road, I should be able to make a decent living on the  from the platform I'm now building.

My point is this: Are you still clinging to the notion of the Indutrial Age world you grew up in?  Are you still looking for a job where someone pays you a lot of money and gives you benefits for doing what they tell you all day?  Or are you adapting and learning about this new, rapidly changing world, and charting your own course into the future?  Very few of the old factory jobs will ever come back.  Today's world belongs to those people who are willing to take risks and try new things as the opportunities arise.  Are you prepared to work in the world that's evolving now?























point is that peo

What Would You Do If You Won The Lottery

In the clip above, we see a guy pretending to be homeless, but instead of asking for money with his sign, he's trying to give people a dollar.  He obviously is doing this in a pretty upscale area, and the reactions might surprise you.  If I won the lottery, this is one of the many weird things I would actually do.  When I was homeless and panhandling, I actually did do this a couple of times.  Basically people would drive up and start talking to me as they waited for the stop light.  Both times, the guys said something about not having any money to give me, but wished me good luck.  Then they talked about the personal stuff that was dragging them down.  So I reached into my pocket, got a dollar, and said, "Here, I'll give you a dollar.  Good luck man."  The were surprised, but both took the dollar, laughed, and drove off.  I always wanted to stand at a panhandling spot all day long and just hand out dollar bills to the people who drove by.  I learned there's a point where panhandling can turn into performance art.  Plus, it's just fun to freak people out a little sometimes. 

So... if you won a big lottery prize, let's say a multi-million dollar prize, what would you do?  I actually developed a workshop about 25 years ago when my sister had a big decision to make about college.  Over the years I've honed that workshop, and recently I actually presented the idea to my pastor at church to see if I could give the workshop, for free, to anyone at church who was interested.  He said the idea had merit, but since it wasn't a faith based workshop, decided it wasn't the right fit for church.  I've been debating about giving the workshop in this area.  My workshop is much more detailed, but the underlying idea is: What would you do if you won the lottery?

Let's start with the basics.  Most people would pay off their outstanding bills.  Then they might pay off their house, or buy a nice house if they didn't own one.  Then they'd either pay off their car or buy a new one (or two).  Some people would give gifts to family members, and maybe good friends.  Others might put some money away for retirement or for the kids' college fund.  Let's say you've done all that, and still had several million dollars left over.  THEN what would you do?  Seriously, think about it for a minute.  What WOULD you do?  Travel?  If so, to where?  Would you get the whole family together for a big reunion?  Or would you keep your crazy family apart and visit them individually?  Would you collect something?  Cars?  Art?  Nick Cannon's old shoes?  If you don't know who Nick Cannon is, Google "Nick Cannon, shoes" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Would you buy a vacation house?  Would you drink yourself into oblivion (and debt) like so many lottery winners and inheritance recipients do?  Once you had all the stuff you think you want, how would you spend your time?  Would you wander around and give $100 bills to the homeless?  Would you support one cause or another?  Would you feel obligated to give something back to the world?  I'm serious... think about this for a few minutes.  If you won a big lottery prize, paid off debts, bought a bunch of stuff, traveled a bunch, and donated to some worthy charity, what would you do to pass the time after that?

I bet something popped in your head.  It may have even surprised you.  Think about that for another minute.  Here's the kicker question.  Whatever you would do in that situation... why aren't you doing it right now?  Sure, maybe you can't do it to the same degree as you could being a multi-millionaire, but you can probably spend some portion of your time doing the things that a "millionaire you" would do.  Would you volunteer somewhere?  Would you find a job you really loved?  Would you start your own business, or maybe a non-profit organization?  Would you go back to school?

If you actually won the lottery, after all the initial spending, you would find a way, hopefully a productive way, to spend your time.  So what's keeping you from doing that right now?   

Mass Shootings and Mental Illness

Slightly Not Safe For Work, this clip contains some bleeped out cuss words. 

Of course, we all wish that we could make mass shootings, like the latest one in Roseburg, Oregon, stop happening.  One faction yells for gun control.  Yet, the horrible massacres are perpetrated by a tiny, tiny fraction of the gun owning community.  If these people didn't have access to guns, they would likely find another way to cause damage, injury, and deaths.  The Boston Marathon bombing was done with two pressure cooker bombs, but no one is trying to outlaw pressure cookers.  The next thing you hear after a mass shooting is that we need to do something about the mentally ill.  There are millions of people dealing with some form of mental illness in the U.S., but very, very few of them are perpetrators of mass shootings.  As several people have pointed out, mentally ill people are much more likely to be the victims of gun violence than the perpetrators of it.  I've been debating whether I should write about this issue, but then I found this clip and realized John Oliver did a brilliant job of talking about the issue already.  This video sums up the subject well, watch it if you're interested. 

The Amazing Stories of Feral Children

This You Tube clip briefly describes 10 different cases of children who somehow survived conditions unimaginable to most of us.  Most of these cases have some documentation, but there are those that question these stories as well.

Last night I was flipping channels and came across a show called Raised Wild.  That episode was about a boy named John in Uganda who fled his abusive father at age four, sometime after his mother died of a snake bite.  Just past the age of a toddler, John ran into the jungle seeking safety, which is the exact opposite of how most of us think of the jungle.  According to his story, monkeys called vervets came to his aid, handing him food and leaves containing water.  John was found by a man about three years later, and brought out of the jungle into society.  He somehow survived for three years, without humans, with the help of the monkey troupe.  He was slowly rehabilitated back into society by an amazing teacher named Daisy, who went to great lengths to show John affection, teach him human ways, and eventually teach him to speak.  In the show I saw, John is now 27, and living a fairly normal life. 

While this blog is mostly about unlocking your potential as a human being, these cases of feral children show a different side of that potential.  Most of these children, first and foremost, survived tremendous abuse at the hands of their family or caretakers.  As a result, they were taken in by a variety of animals, and given support that their human interactions lacked.  Most of these stories do not end as well as John's.  But the fact that these children survived at all is a testament to the human spirit, or perhaps, the animal spirit locked deep inside each human.  Some people we look up to because of their achievements, others for their dedication to a worthy cause.  But others, like these children, we can find hope in their ability to adapt and survive in incredible, and often terrible, circumstances.

A Storm of Storms

I got home from an appointment this afternoon and turned on the TV.  I immediately heard a news flash about the shooting at a community college in Oregon.  As I write this, President Obama is holding a news conference about this tragedy.  Across the country, thousands of people, maybe millions, are worrying about a shooting happening where they live.  A lot of people really live in fear of this type of shooting, although the chances of actually being in one are very low.  Just for the record, I grew up around guns, and firmly believe in gun ownership.  But we need to find some way to try and eliminate this type of tragedy.  Shooting deaths are a social storm we are all trying to figure out how to deal with or eliminate if possible.  But no one can predict where and when the next mass shooting will be.  This is a type of uncertainty that we have to live with today.

After watching the news flash about the shooting this afternoon, I turned on The Weather Channel.  They were reporting about Hurricane Joaquin, at the time a Category 3 hurricane hovering over the Bahamas.  When I first heard of this storm a few days ago, it was "tropical depression 11."  At that time, the meteorologists predicted it MIGHT turn into a tropical storm before heading northeast into the Atlantic and not causing any harm to the U.S..  Now, as I write this, Joaquin is a Category 4 hurricane, and will head in the general direction of my home in central North Carolina tomorrow.  It might veer east, farther into the Atlantic.  But three of the latest computer models have the storm heading right to this part of NC.  Even if Joaquin never makes landfall, we are supposed to have a minimum of three to six inches of rain here, a week when we've already had flooding in the metro area.  We could possibly have as much as 20 inches of rain, and we could possibly get hit head on by the storm.  Even with satellites and all of today's technology, no one can predict exactly where Hurricane Joaquin is going, and where it will make landfall on the East Coast.  This is another type of uncertainty we just have to live with today.

After watching those two channels this afternoon, I turned on CNBC, the main business channel.  The Dow Jones average was down over 200 points at one time today.  A dozen of the Dow stocks are in "bear market territory."  That means those stocks are down 20% or more from the highs of the past 12 months.  Nearly every day lately the stock market goes up or down more than 100 points.  The seasoned traders don't know what's going on.  Legendary investor Carl Icahn just made a video this week warning of hard financial times ahead.  He's a billionaire who spent his own money to produce a high quality video to warn people, both professional investors and average Americans, that we are in scary economic times.  We could be heading into another recession, or we could be in a time of restructuring where the markets are finding a new normal.  No one can predict exactly where the stock market, or other financial instruments, will be a few months or years from now.  This is yet another type of uncertainty we just have to live with today.

You see the theme I'm getting at?  We are in a period of great change in human society, and uncertainty is a big part of the equation.  It's a storm of storms.  Things are changing in all kinds of arenas.  Part of coping with this era of rapid change is dealing with a high level of uncertainty.  So... how are you at dealing with uncertainty?  What can you do?  How can you better prepare yourself to weather the myriad of societal storms happening right now? 

Let's stick to the storm analogy.  How do you prepare for a big storm?  You stock up on supplies you might need.  You think of the worst case scenario, and make a plan in case it happens.  Then you hunker down and deal with whatever life throws at you.  The best thing to remember about storms of any kind is that they are temporary.  Remember the old adage, "This too shall pass." 

Another thing about storms is that they create opportunities.  Downed trees provide work for wood cutters and utility workers.  Financial storms provide lots of opportunities to buy things at a discount.  A "storm" in a certain industry opens up many new opportunities for entrepreneurs.  It's no secret that many businesses are started during recessions and depressions or paradigm shifts in that industry.  The key here is learning to deal with uncertainty in a rational and thoughtful way, instead of freaking out like so many people do.  So... what opportunities do you see in the many storms we face today?

I Forgot Im a Blogger

Yeah, I know, I got to whining in that last post.  After I wrote that post, a few things came to mind.  First, the nature of my life right now, having no "real" job, gives me time to consume a lot more news and books than most people with busier lives can.  I went off in that post about how I don't have anyone to talk to who reads similar books or listens to all the You Tube speeches and talks that I do.  After writing that post, I realized, "Oh yeah... I'm a blogger,  part of my role is to find out stuff that other people haven't heard of, and let them know about it."  If you all read the same books I do, and consumed all the other info I do, then there wouldn't be much point in me blogging. 

Another point I ranted about ( a little) is that many people in North Carolina, especially civic leaders, are way behind the times, and are looking for Industrial Age answers to Information Age problems.  Again, most people don't consume the same info that I do, and part of my role is to find new info and share it.  At the same time, most people I know have smart phones, and I don't.  So I'm behind the times in that way.  So I'll try to stop whining and get back to trying to bring all of you a variety of information that will interest you, inform you, and hopefully help you to use a greater part of your potential as a human being.

Should You Watch The News

This post was inspired by a conversation with some church members last night while we were at a function to cook dinner for a children's charity.  I don't mean to call anyone out, the conversation just surprised me.  I go to a fairly small Methodist church that has an incredibly active membership.  They do a lot of good work on many fronts to help people in our region and in other parts of the world.  Last night, while standing around watching one of our members grill burgers at this event, several of us were talking about a variety of things.  The subject of watching the news came up.  I think what spurred it was talk about a horrible truck crash that happened last week in our area.  One of the people said he doesn't watch the news... at all... because, "there's nothing good on the news."  To my surprise, most of the people standing there agreed.  Most of them, it seems, don't watch the news.

Now I understand how people can be turned off by all the negativity on both local and national TV news.  I understand how the persistent negativity actually stresses some people out because they feel overwhelmed, and sometimes really fearful, about all the bad things happening in this world.  But we are in a period of time where the world is changing rapidly and dramatically on virtually every level.  If you want to be functional in today's world, you have to have some sense of what's going on.  One thing that really bugs me about North Carolina is that the local, regional, and state leaders seem to still be operating from a 20th century, industrial age, point of view.  They seem to make decisions based on the way things worked 40 or 50 years ago.  Because of this, they are spending millions of dollars to try and get a major auto manufacturing plant to locate somewhere in NC to put people a few thousand people back to work.  But they're not spending a similar amount of money to encourage 21st century entrepreneurship, which has an even greater chance of creating a large number of good jobs here.  Teacher pay in NC is 42nd in the nation, according to a ranking I heard the other day, so education is not a major priority here.  The energy lobbies here are fighting solar and wind farms.  The list of old ideas goes on and on.  To top it off, a recent news report said unemployment is starting to edge higher in the state, which seemed to baffle everyone.

Could this reluctance to embrace today's world and today's technology be happening in part because so many people here simply don't watch the news?  I, personally, watch several TV news programs each day, and am always reading books and listening to online speeches and talks about the future of business, technology, communication, and society in general.  Few, if any, of the people I talk to day to day, do the same.  They are simply not aware that there is a brain drain in this country, where the smartest people coming out of college are heading to the U.S.'s mega-cities.  No one I know here is aware of the growth of mega-regions around this country and the world, which are simultaneously killing off many former industrial small cities and towns, including the region where I now live.  In effect, most of the communities in this U.S. are being run by the intellectual "2nd and 3rd string," as the smartest people migrate to the best jobs in big cities.  No one I deal with daily is familiar with professor Richard Florida's concept of "the Creative Class," the documented theory that today's best tech people and entrepreneurs are clustering in areas of "Technology, Talent, and Tolerance," as Florida puts it.  It's no news flash that the American South is not the most tolerant place, as the recent rebel flag controversy points out.  But these days, tolerance of fringe groups of people is not just a cultural issue, it's an economic development issue with huge ramifications. 

I keep my mouth shut most of the time with the people I interact with day to day, because they just don't spend the time I do learning about future trends.  But these trends to affect all of our daily lives.  Maybe watching and clicking on, and reading, and listening to various news sources is one of the ways people everywhere can begin to improve their own regions.  How much do you pay attention to what's happening in the world today?  Does an avoidance of news affect your life in a negative way?  I'll let you ponder that idea today.