Lessons from Kaki King.. and others....

I have been thinking about a general principle that has come into my life several times in the past few weeks. It has to do with significant. Most of the time we feel we are far more significant that we really are. I'm going to paraphrase the conversation that started this line of thought. 

I was watching TED Talks, a great set of programs if you have never heard of it. This specific TED Talk was a performance by a petite, introverted, Finger style guitarist names Kaki King (if you don't know her Google it, it will amaze you. She is the first female on Rolling Stones "Guitar God" List. I'm listening to her as I write this). She talked about her place in the universe. She first laid out the concept of time running infinitely in both directions. How every moment was insignificant within this spectrum. But if every moment was equally insignificant, then every moment was equally significant. Her final statement was "Therefore this music will be the most significant music in your life, at this moment".

This fundamental concept has  worked in the shadows of several conversations over the last few weeks. More than likely this is the product of my Reticular Activating Systems, but let's say it is more than that. We think the universe is approximately 18 Billion years old. Now like the world is flat theory of old, this may prove to be untrue, but it us our current paradigm. So our entire life passes as a moment in the history of time. Each day we spend on this earth is even less significant. Each hour, minute, and second progressively less significant.  But each unit of time is unique to us. There will only be one. If we do not use it we cannot store it for another time. What we did with it becomes part of  history, even if we did nothing. 

That makes it the most significant moment of our life, at that time. Kaki was right. So  the question is; do we live like it is the most significant moment at the time? Do we realize how truly unique each moment is?

This bring me to list written by Andy Rooney, that I cannot verify, but hey it was on the internet so it has to be true....right..... here is a sample:

1.       That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

2.       That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with. 

3.       That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

4.       That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

5.       That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

6.       That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

7.       That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

8.       That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

9.       That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

The life lesson that come from this list is that life's little moments are important. We spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the big moments that lay ahead and very little time appreciating the little moments in front of us.

Is this the most significant moment in your life right now? What did you do with it?

How do We Help the Less Fortunate?

I am always concerned about the right way to help those less fortunate. The conundrum centers around the old adage of giving fish verse teaching to fish. First of all, there is the perception of wealthy. A couple of interesting data points on that issue:

Wealth is not liquid. It is generally determined by the markets desire to own verses scarcity. I diamond has little intrinsic value outside of its ability as a tool. The real value is determined by the disposable income of the buyer and the scarcity of the object. The same is true of stocks and bonds, or art. You cannot redistribute this type of wealth because it loses its value once you eliminate the buyers ability to buy. The same might be true of a large ocean transport. They can cost tens to hundreds of millions to build. But if we assume no one has the cash to buy it (we are redistributing wealth and cash is wealth) then the wealth value drops to almost nothing. Wealth isn't so much redistributed as evaporated.

What is wealth (top 1%) and who are they? The top 1% includes anyone with net assets of $800,000 or more.(a) There are about 47 million people in the world who meet this classification. There are eighteen million in the United State. Switzerland has the highest density. There are a couple of things to take under consideration. First, it is assets, not income. Young professionals may have a household income of over $200,000 per year, but very few assets. Older people, especially those who have saved wisely for retirement, may have little income, but a lot of assets. For retirement planning it takes about two million dollars in assets to generate $80,000 a year in income. The second considerations is cost of living. A  millionaire in Cape town will live much better than a millionaire in Paris.... By the way, to classify in the top 10%, your assets only have to be greater than $77,000.

So we can conclude that redistribution of wealth would be both hard to identify and hard to implement.

Let's say we find a way to redistribute some wealth without demotivating innovation. We find that fine balance that takes cash from the rich who have excess, but not from the middle class that just needs it to assure their futures. Also, we can't take too much via businesses, because businesses don't print cash, they get it from their customers. Taking too much from businesses will only cause inflation of prices as the business passes it on. Once we have the money, what do we do with it?

Second there is the methodology for helping. Well the "give a man a fish" approach won't work. We all know that. We have seen it over and over. Our entitlement system is living proof. A small per cent will learn to fish while they eat their first fish, but most will procrastinate as long as there is another fish. I have thought and written about the impact of advanced technology on the lower class. It's a train wreck waiting to happen. Most technology advancements displace low level jobs because those jobs are simple and repetitive. They are the exact jobs that the lower class is prepared to work.

Here, I think, is the hard lesson. It is a not so quick an answer. We have to elevate the lower class to have both a positive attitude toward and training in technology jobs. How do you elevate someone's attitude? Our attitude is more positive toward something that we are more comfortable with and understand. By increasing our exposure to different aspects of technology at a very young age, it loses its mystic.   The UK has made it mandatory to teach children to code as early as age five. The idea is to get them comfortable with technology early enough to stimulate interest. They make a game out of it so it doesn't seem all techy and scientific. By the time they graduate it will be as common to them and reading and writing.I think the key is mandatory, because people will not do it of their own volition. I mean if they would, they would already be doing it, right.

Zack Simms is a Columbia School drop out that now teaches programming to over 26 million students at a time. Seriously, he really does. He found that most of his peers didn't have the fundamental computer skills to effectively work in industry, himself included. He first got a friend to help write a program to help him learn programming. This was so successful that other people wanted to use it. CodeAcademy  now has 26 million students from over 100 countries, learning six different program languages. CodeAcademy is only three years old.

At the Davos Conference they talked about 8.4 million jobs left unfilled in technology because of a lack of skills. Technology jobs run the gamut of aptitude. Some are creative like digital art. Some are more hands on like hardware maintenance. Others require planning, programming, installing. Maybe it requires only an high level of technology understanding as in customer service or sales. You don't have to be a geek or a nerd. You can be yourself.

The way to redistribute wealth is to find a way for the lower class to create their own wealth. We might have to give them fish for a while, but I would suggest that we simultaneously nurture them into fishing for themselves. Life is much more enjoyable when a person feels independent and self reliant. Waiting for the government to determine your fish allocation, knowing your life depends on it, is a form of slavery. But knowing you have the skills to catch fish in any pond is freedom.

As more and more simple jobs like lawn care, cleaning, ground transportation, Fast Food Restaurants give way to technology, the lower class has to find a new way of making a living. Building and maintaining the very machines that took these jobs is the best answer. Start them young and when the time is right they will forge their own path.

(a) Wealth report by the charity Oxfam

Life Turns and Sprints Away

I run across a number of quotes that I think are worth remembering, not so much, because they are motivational, but because they are true. They remind me of basic truths that I must learn to live by.

I think of motivation as the match used to start a campfire. Once the match is applied, it takes effort and fuel to keep the fire going. The match is destroyed and no longer serves a purpose. Of course, you can start a fire without a match it’s more difficult and typically takes much longer. Motivational speakers don’t motivate they provide the match. Each of us must provide the effort and fuel for motivation to take place. The quote may serve as a catalyst for action, but it’s just a catalyst. It’s not a substitute for sustained effort.  

The quote I have been thinking about lately is "Life turns and sprints away, and what could you do but follow? “. It is from Dante "Gluefingers" Lavelli. Lavelli lived between 1923 and 2009. He originally played football for Ohio State but had to leave early to join the Army during WWII. We went ashore in France just after D-Day and fought in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. On Christmas day of 1946 he caught the winning pass for the AAFC championship in New York City. He is now in the NFL Football Hall of Fame. He spent his years after football as the owner of a small furniture store in Rocky River Ohio.

Lavelli got an opportunity to play football at Ohio State, he followed. WWII started and life changed. Lavelli was drafted into the Army and left football behind. The war ended and life changed. Lavelli was back playing football but not as a college graduate. Lavellie went back to Ohio State between football seasons to earn his degree. Football ended for Lavelli and life changed again. Now he was a small business entrepreneur. Each time “life turns and sprints away” Lavelli followed. He didn’t hang on to the past hoping to prolong it’s existence. Good, bad or indifferent he embraced the future. Given a choice I’m sure he prefered Ohio States campus to the the French battlefield Ardennes. 19,000 soldiers died in less then 45 days. He didn’t live in the horror of those 45 days. He found a way to move on.

Just as I am sure he preferred the hurrah's of winning NFL Championships to the daily grind of keeping a small business running in Rocky River. He won seven championships as a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. But it was the furniture store that fed and housed his wife and three children.

The great truth in this quote is not it’s ability to light a match under my performance, but to clarify a simple truth. “Life turns and sprints away”, what else can I do but follow. When I chose to not follow it simply leaves me behind.