Revenge of the Gamer

The essence of business is fulfilling a need people have before they know they have it.  Those able to do this become very successful not because of any specific industry or product, but because of their ability to reinvent themselves.  How do they do this?  By forecasting the future.  Not with a crystal ball, but with a keen understanding of emerging technology and trends.

What do I mean by that?  Consider the iPod.  Before it existing a few people had MP3 players, but they were a very niche product.  Most people still used portal CD players, because it was a hassle to convert your music to MP3s and then transfer them to the device.  I remember having one that held about 20 songs and had no screen so I had no idea what I was about to hear until I hit next track.

Then the iPod came out.  It revoluntionized the portable music player overnight.  The tagline ’1000 Songs in your Pocket’ really got people’s attention.  With the addition of iTunes it was really easy to get music onto the device and quickly find whatever you wanted to hear.  People loved it.  They still do.  Apple made it because they understood emerging technology.  They knew where to find all the components they’d need and assembled them  into something no one had ever seen.  As of October  2011 Apple has sold over 300,000,000 iPods.  One for almost every citizen of the United States.  All because they identified a need and filled it.

Apple’s advent of the iPod taught me two very painful lessons.  First, I should have dumped that $8000 into Apple stock (today that would be worth just over half a million dollars).  And second I should never have bought a Zune. 

I watched as the company everybody loved to hate(myself definitely included) conquered the music world.   It really got me thinking especially as I saw how everyone around me fell in love with their iPods.  I kept an eye on Apple because I wanted to see what they did next.  When they came out with the iPhone in 2007 I waited to see how everyone reacted.  People loved it.  Despite the $500 price tag Apple was selling them as fast as they could be manufactured.

I saw my first one in 2008 when my Apple fangirl friend (you so were Megan) showed me hers.  I was floored.  It was a phone, a camera, a GPS, an iPod and you could download apps for it?  Three days later I bought my first Apple product for $199.  The iPhone was the first pocket computer that felt real to me.  It was also the first phone I’d ever actually liked. 

The part that most blew me away was the app store.  The fact that I could buy thousands upon thousands of apps, some of which changed my life in unexpected ways. 

I remember thinking ‘man, the people who make these apps are probably making a fortune’.  And they were.  The developers of apps like Angry Birds and Goodreader became unexpected millionaires in a few short months.  That really started the wheels turning.  I even considered and then discarded the idea of becoming a developer.

Doing so  would have required buying a Mac.  Even if I could have afforded it I’d always been a PC guy.  I didn’t know anything about Macs or OS X.  So I reluctantly resigned myself to working collections for a local credit union for the forseeable future.  Until something caught my attention in a way I couldn’t ignore.

The iPad.

When I’d first heard about the device I’d dismissed the iPad as a big iPhone without the phone or camera.  But then I held one for the first time.  I was shocked to realize that this device was going to change everything.  I was witnessing what I call the VHS Moment, when a new technology arises that will erradicate an existing one.  Within a decade I knew everyone would have a tablet computer.

Laptops and desktops were a dying breed. I saw this a a clarity and certainty I hadn’t felt since I’d first discovered the web back in 1994.   All I had to do was see how kids and teenagers reacted to touch screens.  They loved their iPhones (and by that point their Androids).  They would embrace the iPad in the same way.

It helped me finally understand how people like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates had made their respective fortunes.  They risked everything to pursue their vision of the future.  Not blidly though.  They did it with an understanding of what people were going to want before they wanted it. 

To use a football metaphor they didn’t run to where the ball was.  They ran to where it was going. 

The iPad and iPhone are still in their infancy.  Smartphones and tablets will come down in price and increase in functionality.  All sorts of features we haven’t even conceived of will be added.  These devices will transform our world.  Within two decades every person in every nation will own one or both.

The visionaries of this decade will be standing in the end zone waiting to score a touchdown.

In March of 2011 I read a book that changed my life forever.  It’s called Getting Things Done by a guy named David Allen.  It taught me to manage my life in a way I never would have thought possible.  By following David’s system I learned to track literally everything.  Every project, every ‘someday I’d like to do X’, every birthday and every calendar event.  From my grocery list to my iPad applications I know exactly what next action to take to finish that project.

That was ten months ago.  In that time I’ve accomplished more than I ever would have thought possible and for the first time in my life I realize that I really can do anything I set my mind to.  From roleplaying games to novels to software if I can dream it up I can make it happen.

Part of what makes this possible is an app called Omnifocus, which David Allen had a hand in making.  I have it on my iPad, iPhone and Macbook, which means that no matter where I am if I have a good idea it isn’t lost.  I’ll often jot something down on the iPhone and then flesh the idea out later on the iPad or Mac.

This has lead to enormous emotional freedom.  Do you know that nagging feeling that there is something you should be doing but aren’t? The sense that there are a whole bunch of committments you’ve taken on, but you can’t quite remember what they are?  I don’t experience that any more.  I know what I need to do on any given day.  I know what committments I’ve taken on and when they are due.

I’m no longer tha guy who makes promises and flakes out on them.  I’m the guy who gets shit done.  If I agree to take on a project I make it happen and it feels damn good.  Being on top of things really does wonders for your confidence.  It cuts down on your anxiety in ways you don’t fully understand until the stress that is always lurking in the corners of your mind is gone.

This freedom means that you suddenly have the emotional energy to focus on long term goals.  You can stop worrying about the things you should be doing and start thinking about the things you want to do.  So if you’re reading this I urge you to take a look at David’s book.  You’ll be glad you did.

This year my Year in Review is considerably less structured.  I have no report card, no set of goals I set for myself in January.  Yet ironically this year I was more organized and I accomplished more than I ever have in my life.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In January I began pouring effort into publishing Shattered Gods.  I knew it was an ambitious goal.  I wanted to create an entire roleplaying game and bring it to market.  It’s something I’ve talked about doing for the entirety of my adult life, yet I’ve never come even close to realizing that dream.  This year I finally changed that.

I created a website, started a campaign and began building the engine.  It was slow going, but within a few months the framework for a real role-playing game began to emerge.  For the first time I really believed I was going to succeed and my enthusiasm was infectious.  Many of my friends got onboard and have helped bring Shattered Gods to life.  They helped create maps, game mechanics, classes and to brainstorm parts of the world.

The result is that twelve months later the game is nearly finished.  I’ve hired an editor to get the manuscript ready and a layout artist to create the PDF version of the game I will eventually sell.  I’ve even signed up to run the game at Dundracon, where I will debut Shattered Gods to the world.  It is a heady feeling.  Fifteen years of false starts have finally paid off and I believe 2012 will be a year of great success as a result.

Shattered Gods was not the only massive project I focused on this year.  I also developed Evil Dice- an app for the iPhone and iPad.  As of this writing the app is not yet in the store, but man is it getting close.  I’ve hired a game tester to put the alpha version through its paces, and with her help the app is nearly ready for release.  Once it hits the app store I plan to pay a pair of developers I’ve met to port it to Droid.

How can I afford to do this?  Because I no longer work in collections at Redwood Credit Union.  This brings me to the other massive project I focused on this year.

I created Sly Fox Applications, my app development company.  My little sister designed my logo, I created a website and I was off and running.  In July I joined BNI (Business Network International).  I learned how to create and manage a business, and I landed my first pair of clients.  More importantly I learned to advertise, which led to an incredible opportunity.

In October I posted an ad on Craigslist for Sly Fox and later that very same day I received a call from a company called PBHS.  They wanted to interview me for an iOS development position.  I agreed and three weeks later I took a job as a software engineer.  Since then I have been creating an iPad application for them called iConsult, which will be tested in a trial hosted by Johns Hopkins university. I’ve spent 50+ hours a week programming and my skills have increased dramatically in a very short time.

I am finally living my dream.  I LOVE developing software, but for PBHS and for Sly Fox.  I also feel an extreme sense of validation.  You see back in 2010 I took a gigantic risk.  I bought an iPad and a MacBook and decided to learn iOS programming.  I dumped a huge number of hours and capital into learning iOS, because I believed it was the hottest new technology and that I’d be able to make a fortune if I could develop apps for it.

I was right.  I’m making great money at PBHS and Sly Fox is earning me a steady second income.  That’s BEFORE my apps hit the store.  In 2012 all the work I’ve poured into role-playing aides will pay off.  I will finally bring some apps to market and if I am right I will make a small fortune doing it.  I think I’ve hit on a goldmine and I plan to milk it for all it’s worth.

I am more confident than I have ever been, both in my abilities and in my future.

Part of this confidence has come from Toastmasters.  In the thirteen months I’ve been going I have won Best Speaker for 11 of the 15 speeches I’ve delivered.  I have learned how to enthrall a room and instead of fearing public speaking I have grown to love it.  This will serve me well.  Earlier I mentioned Dundracron.  I am delivering a seminar for gamers there, a seminar that I have prepared using skills I learned in Toastmasters.

Things are going great on the relationship front as well.  Amelia and I have been dating for nearly two years and I believe I have finally found the woman I was meant to be with.  Not only is she amazingly supportive, but she balances me in ways I can barely express.  She makes me want to be a better person.  I love you Amelia.

Wow.  I look back over what I’ve written and can’t help but feel a great sense of pride.  Three years ago I was a lazy stoner who spent his time playing video games.  Today I am a driven entrepreneur who is living his dreams.  It’s such a massive difference.

I can’t wait to see where the future takes me…

 

Life is fleeting.  I was reminded of this yesterday while taking out the trash.  I heard a strange buzzing and glanced up to see a dragonfly struggling futilely.  He’d been caught in an enormous spiderweb strung between an apple tree and the neighbor’s house.
As a I watched a large spider scuttled down the web and perched on the dragonfly’s back.  The dragonfly beat it’s wings franctically, but to no avail.  In moments it was wrapped in thick, sticky webbing.  There was no escape. 

The moment was both surreal and horrifying.  I stood mesmerized, unable to look away as the spider claimed its prey.  It affected me deeply and I replayed the scene over and over in my head for the rest of the day.

Life is fleeting.  It can end at any time and no amount of planning or preparation can change that.   We can die in a car accident, of heart failure or in countless other ways. 

That got me thinking about a quote I’d recently heard at Toastmasters.  It is not the years in your life that matter.  It is the life in your years.

Putting the two together triggered what we buddhists call a samadhi.  It’s an Indian word that translates roughly as ‘Aha!’.  It is a moment of profound spiritual discovery that helps us understand ourselves and our place in the world.

The uncertainty of my own mortality prompted a very interesting realization.  If I can die at any time then every moment is precious.  Each moment could be my last, so I should treat it as if that’s exactly what it is.

What does this mean from a practical standpoint?  How does one live every moment of their life as if it were there last?  These are not easy questions and I spent the better part of yesterday struggling for answers.

The first thing I realized is that we must not wait for happiness.  If something is making us miserable we need to change it.  It might be a job we hate, a bad relationship or simply being overweight.  Regardless, we owe it to ourselves to change it right now. 

Each moment you spend miserable is a moment you will never get back.  It is a moment that has taken you closer to death.  It is a part of your journey that you have wasted.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t believe we should dwell on the past or beat ourselves up for having gotten ourselves into a bad situation.  We can’t control the past, so there is no sense punishing ourselves for past decisions.

What we can do is resolve to change our future.  To do that we first need to understand what it is we are looking for.  What is it that we don’t currently have that will increase our happiness?

To answer this question I looked to the Eight-Fold Path, one of the cornerstones of Zen Buddhism.  The first part is right view, which simply means seeing the world as it is rather than how we wish it to be.  In understanding my own mortality that was exactly what I was attempting to do. 

The second tenet is right intention.  It means do the right things for the right reasons.  What is right?  Each person must decide for themselves.  It is a commitment to moral and ethical improvement. 

How well was I doing here?  I’d like to think I’m a good person, but no one is perfect.  Where could I improve?  I realize something profoud.  My speechs to Toastmasters have taught a handful of people how badly we as a society are being taken advantage of by our leaders.  Many thanked me and several said I need to get the word out to more people.

I realized they’re right.  I have a responsibility to share that knowledge.  It is the right thing to do.  I need to teach others what’s wrong with our government and how we might fix it.  I can help them to help themselves.  So I’ve decided to put more focus in that area.  More on that in future blog posts.

The next part of the path is right speech.  It teaches that we should avoid lying, avoid swearing and try not to say harmful things to others.  So how did I measure up here?

The lying part isn’t much of an issue, but I swear far more than I should.  I’ve decided to try to clean up my speech, though I know it won’t be easy.  This is doubly important if I want to have a child someday. 

The other part of right speech is not saying harmful things to others.  I’m generally a pretty nice guy, but I did find an area I could improve.  When I get together with the guys we tend to rib on each other.  This is done in jest, but I realize that some of what I say probably hurts other’s feelings.  It’s not funny and I shouldn’t do it.

The next part of the path is right action.  It says we should avoid stealing or harming others.  I feel like I’ve done very well in this area.  When I was younger I was a major klepto.  I stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from a variety of stores.

Today I realize how wrong that was, and I would never dream of stealing.  I also avoid harming others and in fact do what I can to help.  In joining BNI I’ve really taken the Giver’s Gain philosophy to heart.  If I help others it will come back to help me.  Call it karma or reciprosity or whatever you want.  It works.

The next part is right living.  This is the big one, at least for me.  I used to think that right living just meant having a job that allowed you to sleep at night.  This tenet was the reason I left the mortgage industry, because I quite literally couldn’t sleep because of the harm I was doing.

Through reflection I’ve come to a deeper understanding.  Killing bunnies (or people), selling bad mortgages and beating people for a living are obviously bad choices for your spiritual harmony.  I understand that part.  What I didn’t get was that you should be passionate about what you do.

Right living isn’t just avoiding things you hate.  It’s about doing things you love.  If you were wealthy what would you do for a living?  For me the answer is developing software and writing fiction.  I love doing both.  I need to pursue my passions.

The good news is that’s exactly what I’m doing.   I’ve Started Sly Fox Applications and will be debuting my Shattered Gods roleplaying game at Dundracon in February. I’ve found what I’m passionate about, but I still have one more step to take.

I need to quit my day job and make software development and writing my primary occupation.  I’ve begun working on a roadmap to get there and I think once I do so I’ll be much happier.  I owe it to myself to do what I love for a living.

The next part of the path is right effort.  This is by far the hardest, because it takes the most work.  In a nutshell it says when you know something is bad for you stop doing it.  If you know something is healthy start doing it.

I’m fat because I eat too much fast food.  Right living gives a very simple answer.   Stop eating fast food.  That’s easier said than done.  It means breaking long ingrained habits, but I know I have to do this.  So I’ve resolved to start eating healthier.

This is very similar to when I resolved to start working out.  The good news is that habit stuck and I have been working out six days a week for nearly two years.  If I can find the willpower to do something similar with my diet I’ll look and feel better.  It’s the healthy thing to do.  It’s the right thing to do.   Now I just need to do it.

The seventh aspect of the eight-fold path is right mindfulness.  This simply means being aware of your actions and biases.  If you see a latino or a pregnant teenager does your mind immediately begin forming preconceptions?  Right mindfulness teaches you to watch this sort of behavior and try to eliminate it. 

I’ve lived in five states.  I’ve been poor and I’ve been wealthy.  This has taught me empathy for others and I strive to see from their point of view as often as possible.  Still, there is always room for improvement.  This is something I should be mindful of.

The last aspect is right concentration, also called meditation.  For many years I meditated daily.  Not surprisingly I was the most grounded and focused during that time.  I have since let my practice atrophy, and one of the things I can do to immediately improve my life is picking it up again.

It’s hard, but it’s worth it.  Meditation is work, just like working out or tending to your diet.  It has tangible benefits which increase the longer you do it.  In addition to starting a diet I need to begin meditating again.  Soon.

A wise friend once told me that there are three pillars to human well being.  Mental, physical and spiritual.  I have been tending to the mental, but both the physical and spiritual need improvement.   I can benefit greatly from doing so.

Well, that brings us full circle.  I spent a lot of time this weekend contemplating life.  I’ve come up with some good ideas.  Now I just need to follow through with them, because tomorrow may be too late.

Life is fleeting.  I need to treasure each moment.  That means making continuous improvements to my life, which I know I am capable of.  I’ve made an excellent beginning over the last couple of years, but I need to do more.  I cannot allow myself to become complacent or stagnant, because life is a journey.  Time never stops moving.

How ironic that I needed a dragonfly and a spider to teach me that.

In August of 2010 I made a horrifying realization.  I’d allowed my social skills to atrophy to the point where I avoided conversations.  I was terrified to speak in public, and did my best to escape notice wherever possible.  I skipped picnics, potlucks and work functions…instead staying home alone or hanging out with my friend Jeff.

I was becoming a hermit and it terrified me.  So I posed my MCCC Challenge to myself.  I resolved that I would improve things, rediscovering the outgoing Chris who’d gone missing in 2007 or so.  That was just over a year ago, so I’ve decided to post the results of my challenge.    

Shortly after making that post a co-worker of mine, Nora Guy, made a Facebook post about wanting to check out Toastmasters.  For those unfamiliar with the group it was nothing to do with toast.  It teaches people to master public speaking and leadership.

Nora and I checked out a couple of clubs and in October of 2010 we joined Toastmasters Club #182.  This was immensely challenging for both of us, because it meant getting up in front of 30+ strangers and speaking off the cuff without knowing ahead of time what the topic was about.  It meant getting over my social anxiety and showing up at a public event every week.

Roughly a year later I can’t even begin to express the impact this group has had on my life.  Since joining I have become a more powerful speaker than I’d ever dreamed possible.

I’ve given 10 speeches in front of nearly 30 people, and I’ve received a Best Speaker ribbon for eight of them. When I speak I no longer mumble.  I no longer hem or haw or meander.  I command attention.  I hold audiences in the palm of my hand.

 

Toastmasters has changed everything.  I’ve learned that public speaking is an art, and I’ve become proficient at it.  In another year or two I will have mastered it, and I firmly believe that I can become a professional speaker.

It has given me tremendous confidence.  I no longer fear public speaking.  I don’t avoid eye contact.  I no longer run from social events.  Quite the opposite.  I actually look forward to them.  So much so that at a recent RCU staff meeting I stood up and spoke in front of 200+ people.

in July I joined another social organization called Business Network International.  I meet and network with 30+ people each week, which includes standing up and giving a 60 second presentation about my business.  Today I had to take it a step further and give a 10 minute presentation.  You know what?  I knocked it out of the park.

After the meeting nearly everyone congratulated me.  Several said it was the best presentation they’d ever seen.  We had a visitor from another chapter who told me she’s seen hundreds of presentations, but none had affected her like mine.

I would never have had the courage to join BNI were it not for Toastmasters, and I cannot over-emphasize how amazing the organization is.  It’s given me courage, confidence and eloquence and it can do the same for anyone who joins. 

So to sum things up- I’d say I blew away my MCCC Challenge.  I’ve become more confident than I’ve ever been.  I am a better speaker than I’ve ever been.  You know what the best part is?  I’m just getting started!

I started Revenge of the Gamer in 2009 with a very specific purpose.  I wanted to use it to chronicle my development as a writer, and as a gathering place for my fiction.  Those readers who still poke their head in from time to time have probably noticed that those updates have all but stopped.  So I figured it was past time that I caught you up on what’s going on with my writing. 

These days the vast majority of my writing time is spent putting together the Shattered Gods RPG.  While most of the game isn’t technically fiction it is still a creative endeavor.  I’m fleshing out an entire fantasy world, while simultaneously creating a set of rules to allow people to create their own adventures.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been writing much fiction.  I have.  I’ve just been posting it over there.  I haven’t belted out as much as I’d like, but it’s certainly better than nothing.  The bad news is that these stories are all either novellas or short stories, and none are intended for publication.  I’m writing them to flesh out the world, and to give prospective players a better idea of what the whole thing is about.

So why the switch?  In previous posts I was gung-ho about writing and publishing novels, yet no novel ever materialized.  Well other than Yuri Silvertongue & the Violet Spire, but that’s fan fiction really.  It was never meant for publication either.

Nothing has changed.  I still want to publish novels, but my path towards that goal has shifted dramatically.  I came to several realizations that forced me to reassess what I was doing.

The first major hurdle was how to get the novel published.  Even if I wrote an amazing book (and that’s doubtful at this stage) it’s insanely challenging to find an agent.  Once you find an agent  it’s like winning the lottery to have that agent find a publisher who wants it.

After talking to Brandon Sanderson and reading an interview by Patrick Rothfuss I realized that I needed another game plan.  Traditional publishing was definitely out.  So I cooked up one of my Evil Schemes ™.  I decided that the best way to publish my novel would be self-publishing, but to do that I first needed a captive audience.

In order to build one I decided to (finally) publish my roleplaying game Shattered Gods.  If people played and liked it then they were much more likely to buy a novel set in the same game world.  Plus the scheme had the added benefit of helping a game I’ve worked on since I was 18 finally see the light of day.

Unfortunately I soon realized that publishing the RPG would be just as challenging as publishing the novel.  There are a sea of roleplaying games out there, and getting people to notice mine would be like getting them to see a specific grain of sand on a very large beach.

So I cooked up another scheme.  If I created an application for the iPad and iPhone to y run pen & paper RPGs thousands of gamers would download it.  If Shattered Gods was the only game available for this application it would expose it to those gamers.

Yes, I realize my Evil Scheme™ is convoluted.  I have to publish an app, publish a roleplaying game and only then will I be able to peddle my novels to a captive audience.  The upside, though, is that I get an app and a roleplaying game out of the deal. 

So where am I at in this scheme?  Well I’m about to start the final phase of beta testing for Evil Dice, the app that I created.  I’m damn proud of it.  I just finished re-skining the entire thing, and am adding the last couple of features that allow characters to quickly and easily generate a character.  My goal is to have it in the app store by October 1st.

I’ve set similar deadlines in the past, but all were unrealisitic.  This one is different.  For the first time I have a short, definitive list of the features that need to be included before the app is complete.  I can actually see the finish line!

That’s not to say that  believe I’ll actually hit the October 1st deadline.  Programming always takes longer than I assume it will.  But even if I miss the deadline it should only be by a couple of weeks, which I can live with.  Either way Evil Dice will be in the app store soon, and that’s a huge feather in my cap.

Development of Shattered Gods has gone amazingly well too.  I’ve been running a playtest campaign since January, which has really helped to flesh out both the system and the world.  I don’t have a solid date on when it will be finished, but I’m hoping it will be done by the end of the year.

Ideally I will debut the game at Dundracon, the largest gaming convention in my area.  I’ve spoken to my playtesters and it sounds like they’d all be willing to go.  I’ve also been practicing several speeches (thank you Toastmasters) that I can present at the con.  I’ll be running an Evil GM’s workshop to help people improve their games, and I’ll be using my software to do  it.

Hopefully this nets me some publicity, and after that it’s just a matter of time.  People will start picking up the app.  Some of them will pick up the roleplaying game.  Then, once I have a solid market, I can finally start getting novels out there.

So now you know my Evil Scheme™!  Wish me luck =)

Think back to your childhood.  How much was the first movie ticket you purchased?  How about a tank of gas on your first car?  How much do those things cost today?  Prices have risen on everything from homes to cars to groceries.  The question is why? We’ve all heard the word inflation, but what does it mean?  How does it happen?  

The textbook definition is ‘an increase in the money supply’, but that doesn’t mean much to most people.  What does this increase in the money supply do?  Why does it raise prices?

Let’s say there are 1 trillion dollars in circulation.  You get paid $50,000 a year.  If the Federal Reserve puts another trillion dollars into circulation your $50,000 is now worth about $25,000.  This isn’t immediately apparent though.  It takes years for the new money to cycle through the economy, cleverly disguising the money the FED created.  This is why I call inflation the hidden tax.

If the government increased our taxes by 50% we’d revolt.  But if they devalue our currency by printing the money we won’t even be aware of it for several years.  When we finally figure it out most of us don’t know why our currency is worth less, and even if we did the politicians who allowed it are long gone.

We’ve all heard the story of the frog.  If you place him in a pot of boiling water he will jump out.  But if you place him in warm water and slowly raise the temperature he will sit there until he dies.   Inflation is slowly raising the temperature of the water.  We’re the frog.

.

The Consumer Price Index

The government isn’t as inept as most people assume.  They know that if they abuse inflation the people will revolt.  So they created something called the Consumer Price Index or CPI to track inflation, thus reassuring the people there was no cause for alarm.

This index showed inflation happening at a controlled rate, with wages increasing at roughly the same pace.  It cost more to buy things, but people were paid more to compensate.  This process is something youremployer calls a ‘cost of living increase’.  It would be a beautiful system if it worked, but unfortunately the Consumer Price Index is a bald faced lie.

Why do I say that?  The CPI excludes price increases in food, because the government considers food too volatile to track.  It excludes energy (gasoline, natural gas and electricity) because of spikes in price due to natural disasters or embargoes.  The CPI became even less accurate  in 1983.

 

 

Look at the chart above.  Notice anything about the year 1983?  During the 70s and early 80s we experienced  record inflation, and yet it plumetted from that point forward.  Did our fiscal policy change dramatically?  Did we suddenly restore sanity to the government?  Nope.  In 1983 the government removed housing from the CPI, which is why inflation appeared to decrease. 

Let that sink in for a moment.  The numbers the government use to track inflation don’t take into account the price of your home, your groceries, your PG&E bill or filling up your gas tank.  That’s ludicrous.  If you remove all those things what are they tracking? 

At the end of the Clinton administration gas was $1.46 a gallon.  The national average as of August 1st 2011 is $3.74 a gallon.  Fuel prices have over doubled in the last decade and the government doesn’t include that in their official inflation numbers.

Housing prices are just as bad.  The average price for a home in 2000 was $207,000.  The average today is $272,000.  That’s a 40% increase in the last decade after three straight years of decreasing home values.  Yet the government doesn’t call it inflation.

It’s not hard to understand why.  If you add energy costs, housing prices and food into the CPI it turns out we’ve experienced over 100% inflation since 2000.  Our currency is worth less than half of what it was a decade ago.  During that same time period wages stagnated, and in some cases even decreased.

Yet most of us remain blissfully unaware.  Those few who do pay attention are mollified by the government’s CPI numbers.  Yet their lie is exposed when you compare the dollar to other major world currencies.

 .

Global Currencies

I went to high school in Syracuse, New York.  Being close to Canada it wasn’t uncommon for Canadian quarters to turn up in American cash registers.  Most stores wouldn’t take them, because a Canadian dollar was only worth about 70 cents.  Today that trend was reversed.  The US dollar is worth 103 Canadian cents. 

This slide in value is true for every major currency from the Euro to the Yen.  Our official inflation numbers are garbage, and that lie becomes crystal clear when you look at the dollar versus these other global currencies.  Take a look at the next chart.  The first column shows how much someone would have to pay in another currency to purchase $1 back in 2000.  The second shows those same comparisons in 2011:

 

                                                2000                       2011

Euro                                       1.08                        .67

Canadian Dollar                 1.37                        1.03

Japanese Yen                    120                         1.03

 . 

Conclusion

Inflation has sent the U.S. dollar is in a tailspin.  Every day it’s worth less forcing the average american to work harder.  Jobs are more difficult than ever to find, and those you can find often pay less than they did a decade ago.

So what do we do?  How do we reverse course and win the class war being waged against us?

Those are difficult questions to answer, and unfortunately beyond the scope of this speech.  I will leave you with a kernel of hope, however.  Our currency is based on the strength of our economy.  To stop the inflation we need to heal the economy.  It won’t be easy, but we can do it.

Keep an eye out for my final speech on the 2007 economic crash, entitled Ignore the Men Behind the Curtain.  I will tell you exactly how the rich sabotaged our economy, and more importantly how we can take it back from them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Madam Toastmaster.

 This is another speech that I am presenting to Toastmasters.  It is part of a series examining the financial crash of 2007.  How does college play into that?  Read on and find out!

.

I’d like a show of hands.  Who believes that going to a university is the best investment a high school graduate can make in their future?  Just about everyone, which is hardly surprising.  It’s what we’ve been taught since we were children.

In junior high our teachers warned us that if we didn’t get good grades we wouldn’t make it into college prep classes in high school.  If we didn’t make it into college prep classes, then we wouldn’t make it into college.  If we didn’t make it into college we would die penniless and alone in some ditch somewhere.

Were our teachers right?  Maybe when we were kids, but the same advice no longer applies to our children.  Going to college could be a mistake that haunts them for the rest of their lives.  That’s a pretty bold claim, but hear me out before you pass judgement. 

Let’s invent a fictional high school graduate we’ll call Alison. 

She graduated from a high school in San Diego with a good GPA.  Unlike most high school graduates Alison knows exactly what she wants to be- a lawyer.  She does her homework and figures out that she can go to Sonoma State University, after which she can attend Empire College.  These are both good schools and are far cheaper than most universities in California. 

Her annual costs at Sonoma State are just over $20,000 dollars, something her parents are unable to help with.  Alison covers the cost by taking out student loans, which SSU is more than happy to help her set up. 

She excels at school, avoiding parties and studying harder than any of her classmates.  Alison graduates with honors after four years- instead of the five that the average college graduate takes.  Her student loan debt is over $80,000 dollars, and thanks to the magic of compound interest it’s already beginning to grow.

Alison kicks butt and takes name at Empire College.  Her annual tuition is $12,792 and her books run another $3,400.  She eats frugally and gets a cheap apartment, which runs her $600 a month.  This puts Alison’s annual costs for law school at $23,500.  Fortunately she is able to get more student loans to cover the costs.

Eight years after graduating high school Alison has finally realized her dream- she is a lawyer.  Unfortunately she now owes over $190,000 in student loans.   These loans have an average interest rate of 6.8%, which puts her monthly payment at $1,238 if she pays them off over 30 years. 

Let’s assume Alison gets lucky and lands a well paying job right out of college.  She makes $60,000 a year, the average for a starting lawyer at a good firm. That works out to about $3,800 a month after taxes.  $1,238 goes to her loans, which means she’s living on about $2,500 a month.  It’s enough to get by, but Alison isn’t living in a mansion nor is she driving a Mercedes.

She will pay this same $1,238 each and every month until she is 56 years old.   By that time Alison will have paid over $445,000 for her education when you factor in interest.  It’s a steep price to pay, espcially since Alison did everything right at every step of the way.

.

The Road Less Traveled

Now lets take a look at another graduating senior who chooses a different route.  Joe decides to skip college, instead taking a job at his local Costco.  His starting salary is $10.50 an hour, or about $22,000 a year.  Within three years, however, Joe is making $17.50 an hour because Costco gives raises based on the number of hours an employee works.  Now he is making about $37,000 a year. 

By the time Joe is 26, the same age Alison graduates law school, he has earned $270,000 and is making $40,000 annually.  Alison earns a 50% higher salary, but after her student loan payment she is taking home less.

Joe has also been contributing 5% (which Costco matches) to his 401k.  By the time Alison pays off her student loan debt he will have accumulated a massive $1,800,000 for retirement. 

Joe also took out a 30 year loan on his home when he was 26, the same age Alison graduated from law school.  His home will be paid off right around the time she pays off her student loans. 

Her income is significantly higher, but factoring in his 401k and house she won’t accumulate more wealth than him until she is 64 years old.  

 

 and a more comprehensive comparison:

.

Worst Case Scenario

Now lets look at a few things that could have gone wrong for Alison.  What if she wasn’t able to get a job after graduation?  This situation is far more common than most people realize.  This is because many schools cheat when they publish their student job placement numbers. 

When Empire College says that 90% of it’s students land a job after graduation, they fail to mention what kind of job.  Are you working at McDonalds?  Great, you count as employed.  Some schools are even trickier.  They will actually hire graduates to do things like filing, then lay them off a few months later.  All to pad their job placement numbers.

Not finding a job isn’t the only pitfall that Alison avoided in our example above.  What if her mother had gotten sick during her senior year at Sonoma State?  What if she’d been a party animal and ended up flunking out of school?  What if she made it into law school, but dropped out after a year because it was too intense?

In any of these situations she is stuck with her accumulated student loan debt and has almost nothing to show for it.  What does Alison do then?  The smart thing would be to declare Bankruptcy right?  After all she has no income and more debt than many home owners.  That makes her the perfect candidate to wipe the slate clean through Bankruptcy.  

Here’s the problem.   She can’t. 

.

How Student Loan Debt played into the Financial Crash

For those wondering how this speech plays into my series on the Financial Crash of 07 you’re about to get your answer.

Alison can’t wipe out her student loan debt through Bankruptcy, because in 2005 George W. Bush passed the mis-named Consumer Protection Act that exempted student loans from being discharged through bankruptcy.  There is only one other form of debt that has this special immunity.  It’s called restitution, something convicted felons pay to their victims.

If Alison ends up waitressing for a living she still needs to pay back her student loan debt.  She will never escape it.  Ever.  If the banks need to garnish her social security check when she is 90 they will.  One way or another they’ll get their money.

Nor would Alison be their only victim.  In June of 2010 student loan debt eclipsed America’s credit card debt.  There is now over $1 trillion dollars in student loan debt, versus about $800 billion in credit cards.  The banks are making a killing on student loan debt.  They love it, because unlike home loans, car loans or credit cards you can never escape it.

.

Worthless Education

I used law school in my example, because it’s a profession everyone knows to be lucrative.  But what if Alison had gotten a liberal arts or history degree?  What if she majored in political science or economics? How would she have paid back her loans?

The bottom fell out of our economy in 2007.  Graduating students are entering quite literally the worst job market in living memory.  It is nearly impossible for someone with one of the degrees I just mentioned to land a job, and if they do they certainly aren’t going to be making much doing it.

Especially if that degree comes from a school like The Univeristy of Phoenix or ITT Technical Institute.  These schools exist to make money, and the education they claim to offer is worthless.  It will not prepare students for the workforce, but it will saddle them with a lifetime of debt.

Not only is this practice legal, but it’s subsidized by the government.  If you can’t pay back the debt the banks don’t need to worry.  Taxpayers will pick up the tab.

.

Conclusion

Thirty years ago college made sense.  You went to school, graduated and found yourself a job.  Your student loans were managable, and you could count on paying them off with whatever job you landed. 

That’s simply not true any more.

Tuition costs have risen an average of 6% per year since the year 2000.  That means that a college education that cost $40,000 in 2000 will cost $75,600 now.  Tuition has nearly doubled while wages have remained stagnant and millions of jobs have been outsourced.

The banks are collecting money from tens of millions of students who can never escape their debt.  Most will never find a job in a field relevant to the degrees that they have sold their futures to obtain.  Those that do will spend long decades paying their student loans back.

Now that you are aware of these facts I have to ask, would you answer the question I posed at the beginning of my speech differently?  Do you still believe college is the best option for high school students? 

Ladies and gentlemen.  Madam Toastmaster.

This is another speech I’m delivering for Toastmasters…

Our next speaker recently delivered a speech entitled Bank is a Four Letter Word, which examined the 2007 Financial Crash.  Due to the topic’s complex nature several Toastmasters requested that he expand the speech into a series.  Tonight he will be giving the first speech in that new series

Here to present The Greatest Heist in American History is our very own Chris Fox.

. 

In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.  It’s stated purpose was to create a regulatory body to prevent the cycle of booms and busts plaguing the U. S. economy.  Wilson proudly announced that the age of recessions and depressions had ended.  With the creation of the Federal Reserve we no longer needed to worry about economic instability.  

Less than a decade later  Woodrow Wilson uttered the following quote.

“I am a most unhappy man for I have unwittingly ruined my country. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

Why did his opinion change so drastically?  Because he recognized the monster he had created. 

You see the Federal Reserve is about as federal as Federal Express.  The organization is made up of private banks that have absolutely nothing to do with the federal government.  In signing the Federal Reserve act President Wilson took the power to issue currency from Congress and gave it into the hands of for profit banks.  Why is that bad?

Because the FED charges the United States interest for every dollar it prints.  That’s right.  We pay them for the right to use our own currency, and the more currency in circulation the more money they make.  Sounds pretty shady doesn’t it?  It gets worse. 

The newly founded Federal Reserve realized there was only one way they could guarantee that United States citizens would pay this hidden tax.  They had to create a means of collecting money from every man, woman and child in the country.

In the same year that the Federal Reserve was created the bankers convinced congress to ratify the sixteenth amendment of the Constitution.  This amendment is something all of us recognize, because it’s been around for our entire lives.  It’s call the Federal Income Tax.

Prior to the sixteenth amendment congress was only allowed to create taxes to pay for a specific purpose, like a war or a dam.  Once that purpose was fulfilled the tax ended.  The Federal Income Tax was the first permanent tax.

It is the reason one out of every three dollars you earn is given to the federal government.  You don’t take home your first dollar until May 1st in any given year.  The first four months of income belong to the government.  And, unbeknownst to most of us, a large portion of that money is handed over to the Federal Reserve’s member banks.  

It doesn’t stop there.  How many of you remember the $700 billion TARP bailout that was passed in 2007?  Most people don’t understand how the bailout worked, but they know there was something horribly wrong about saving banks drowning in their own bad debts. 

If they knew the truth they’d be furious.  Maybe even furious enough to turn off Dancing with the Stars or their local baseball game long enough to demand change.

Here’s how the bailout worked.  The Federal Reserve used something called the FED discount window to loan $700 billion dollars to the banks at .25% interest.  They claimed that without this money the banks would fail and our enonomy would implode.  But what did the banks do with this money?  They certainly didn’t lend it back to main street America as they promised.  Instead they used it to buy U.S. treasuries which paid 4%.  

Let that sink in for a moment.

We loaned them $700 billion dollars, but instead of paying interest like any of us would if we took out a loan they got paid 3.75% interest to borrow this money.  That’s $26 billion dollars a year in interest for taking our tax dollars.

This is why bank profits are higher than ever despite unemployment being at a record high.  This is why their executives pay themselves insane bonuses despite the fact that one in six children is on welfare.

The madness doesn’t stop here either.

The Federal Reserve has never been audited.  They’ve issued over $9 trillion dollars in what they term ‘off balance-sheet assets’, and we have no idea who they’ve given all this money to.  It could be China or India or any number of foreign corporations.  We simply have no idea.

In 2009 Congressman Alan Grayson confronted the FED on national television.  He asked them to account for these funds, to explain their activities.  Their response?  We are not legally obligated to tell the U.S. government how we spend its money.  They refused to tell us where our money is going, and Congress accepted their answer like a whipped dog.  How frightening is that?

A small minority have become disgustingly rich manipulating our currency, while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet.  It’s a horrible travesty, one everyone needs to know about.  Yet it won’t be discussed on the news.  It isn’t taught in schools.  Why?  Because the people making the money don’t want you to know the truth.

I will leave you this quote by Mayer Rothschild, the head of the banking cartel that dominated Europe for nearly three centuries. 

“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws” – Mayer Rothschild.

Ladies and Gentlemen.  Madam Toastmaster.

 

The following article is a written version of the speech I will be delivering at Toastmasters this evening.  Parts of it may sound odd as it is designed to be delivered to an audience and not read as text.  I hope it makes sense!

Have you ever spent hours pouring your heart into a speech only to fall flat on your face when you delivered it?  Instead of being captivated your audience was bored.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely had this happen.

I spent six or seven hours polishing my first speech, but when I stumbled away from the lectern in defeat I had no idea why I’d failed.  What could I have done differently?  What were my mistakes? 

It wasn’t until about two weeks ago that I finally found my answer.  It was located in a book called Winning Body Language by Mark Bowden.  This book had a profound impact on my speaking abilities, because it taught me not just how to use body language, but why it is so important.

The book begins by teaching something called the 55/38/7 rule, which was created by doctor Albert Mehrabian.  The rule states that 55% of communication is based on body language.  38% relies on voice tone.  Only a paltry 7% of your message comes from the actual words that you use.  If this rule is correct it means that a whopping 93% of communication is not what you say.  It’s how you say it.

How can you capitalize on this?  How do you tap into the power of body language when speaking?  To do that you have to understand both what your body is saying and what your audience is hearing. 

Most people envision the human brain as one complex structure, but it is actually broken into three ‘mini-brains’.  One of those mini-brains is called the lizard or animal brain, because it is the one that most closely resembles the brains of other mammals.

This mini-brain regulates your body’s involuntary responses such as breathing, heart rate and the flow of adrenaline.  It also assesses everything you see and hear, constantly searching for threats.  If it detects something dangerous this mini-brain alters your body chemistry so that you are prepared to deal with the threat.

It triggers the fight or flight response, flooding you with adrenaline so you can run or fight as needed.  This was a handy thing for primitive man, but in modern society it can often do more harm than good.  Your brain sees any unfamiliar or frightening situation as life threatening, even when there is no real danger to you.

Few things are frightening as standing in front of a group of people and delivering a speech.  When most people stand behind the lectern their bodies engage the fight or flight response.  They are flooded with adrenaline.  Their pulse quickens.  Their breaths become fast and shallow.  Thought becomes difficult and they assume an aggressive posture.

This is the kiss of death for anyone who wants to deliver a great speech, because of the animal brain I mentioned earlier.  Humans are a tribal species and we are always searching for a leader.  By standing at the front of the room you become the alpha for the duration of your speech.

The funny thing about humans is that they mirror their perceived alpha.  If you are nervous they are nervous.  If you are happy they are happy.  If you are utterly terrified they sense it and are not receptive to the message you wish to communicate.

It is vital that you be calm and relaxed, because if you are your audience will mirror that calm.  So how do you achieve this state?  How do you project a relaxed demeanor that your audience will pick up on?  The first ingredient is preparation.  If you know your material you’ll be more confident delivering it, and the audience will sense this.

You need to suppress the fight or flight response.  This is easier than you might think.  Oxygen naturally counteracts adrenaline, so deep breaths will help you remain calm.  So can certain gestures.

By making gestures in front of your belly you accomplish several things.  First, more of your body mass is in line with your center of gravity.  This dramatically affects your breathing.  You more efficiently process oxygen, which counteracts some of the adrenaline surging through your body.

It also carries a powerful signal that the animal brains in your audience will pick up on.  By making gestures in front of your belly you are drawing attention to your most vulnerable area.  Unlike your chest the belly has no protective ribcage making it highly succeptible to attack.

When your gestures draw attention to this vulnerable area you convince the animal brain that you are not a threat.  How could you be?  If you were you’d protect this area, not draw attention to it. 

Gestures like these relax your audience, which relaxes you.  This creates a self-perpetuating cycle you can leverage.  Your audience mirrors you, and you mirror them back.

Another tool you can use to your advantage is positioning.  Where you stand is far more important than most people realize, because humans are a territorial animal.  Don’t believe me?  Let me ask you this.  How would you feel if you walked into your cubicle at work tomorrow and a stranger was sitting in your chair going through your files?  Your immediate reaction would be hostile, because that person is invading your territory.

Let me demonstrate another example.  If I stand behind Mark while he is seated I am not only taller than him, but he can’t see me.  His animal brain is screaming that I am a threat, because he has no way of knowing what my intentions are.  He can’t see my body language and is in a very subservient position.  This will trigger a hostile reaction from him, so much so that he may completely ignore my message.

When you deliver a speech it’s important to stand back far enough that your audience can see your feet while maintaining eye contact.  If they can’t see your feet they are unable to predict your movements, and this makes them uncomfortable.  So take care with your positioning, because if you violate their personal space you do so at your own peril.

There are a half-dozen other quick tips I could give, but unfortunately my speech is limited to seven minutes so I need to wrap this up.  I will leave you with this.  When you are speaking stay calm.  Make gestures in front of your belly.  Be conscious of your breathing.  Don’t invade the your audience’s personal space.

Follow these rules and you will deliver confident speeches to a relaxed audience.  Ladies and gentlemen, madam toastmaster.