Social Networks Rule The World

Facebook Connect. Remember that phrase. It's going to change the way people connect across all social networking platforms.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, says FB Connect is a way to extend its brand across other applications by letting people use their FB username and password instead of needing to put up yet another profile.

It underscores the extreme importance social networking will have in our lives. It also underscores the fact that those who ignore this development will fall behind (yes, I am talking to my fellow baby boomers). In fact ignoring social networking has already caused business folks to fall behind.

I am astounded at the amount of time other less boomerish people spend on connecting via the internet. I spend an hour a day and think that's a lot! Still I have "met" people and because I see their faces and look at their photos and postings I know more about them than the customers I talked to for twenty years in a previous life. What richer relationships we could have had...it was a different time.

We will see regional networking grow as well. echaincommunity is a perfect example. Based in Atlanta echain owner Carrie Podber developed a brilliant site that combines virtual networking with face to face introductions and events. It's the absolute best of both worlds for those living and working in Atlanta. Carrie's on to something. Watch her fabulous idea spread.

Regardless if you network locally or across the world it's imperative that anyone serious about operating in the business/global world jumps in with both feet. There's no worse feeling than the remorse of "I wish...".

G8 Focuses On Important Issues

OMFG. Seriously.

According to The New York Times yesterday the G8 agreed to check all ipods and other MP3 players for illegal downloads at customs. Since teenagers' devices contain roughly 50% illegal material the agents should be very busy.

We didn't get a plan to stop the genocide in Darfur. We didn't get a plan to wean ourselves off oil. We didn't get a plan to deal with world-wide hunger. We did get a plan to halve the carbon output by 2050. They will all be dead by then so no real courage there.

Why are the G8 even interested in something so low level? I guess they had to do something while they were there besides eat and take photos.

OMFG. Seriously.

Cheaper Is Not The Answer For Addicts

I spend every Wednesday evening from 7 to 8 at a meeting for parents of young adults with substance abuse problems. The stories are emotional and it is literally a safety net for parents who have felt isolated during the struggle to 1) keep their children alive and 2) teach them how to live without the drugs and/or alcohol that runs their lives.

I am luckily not in the group whose children switched to heroin from oxycontin because it was cheaper. Being unable to purchase the drugs needed to keep the addiction going may have forced these kids to seek treatment before putting needles in their arms. Plus it is estimated that addicts spend 90% of their day thinking about their next fix.

Listening to Al Gore on Meet the Press yesterday it occurred to me that his radical goal of becoming oil free in ten years is similar to the radical goals addicts must make. In order to break addiction you have to give it up. No alcoholic can have champagne for New Year's. No pot head can simply reduce his bong use to mornings only. Getting cheaper drugs doesn't work. It just extends the agony.

It's the same with using oil for energy. We spend too much time figuring out how much gasoline to buy or what thermostat setting is best, where to find the cheapest energy, how to afford it based on the number of hours worked/miles driven/number of drivers.

The best way to become an ex-addict is the radical way: Give It Up. It's painful in the beginning. Relapses occur. Some don't make it. But for those who do the outcome is joyous and without fail the addict says s/he never wants to feel like that again.

If we can expect this from 15 to 25 year olds we ought to expect it from ourselves.

When Does It Become A Conspiracy?

I am not generally a conspiracy theorist. It takes too much time physically and mentally. I did detect a pattern yesterday that could almost send me over the edge.

Have you noticed that as manufacturing jobs (laborers and management) have declined so has financial help for college? At the very time young people are being turned away for jobs because their grandmas got them college loans particularly in the community college sector are nearly impossible to get. While I do not espouse the "you can't afford to go to college" theory at all it can be exceedingly difficult to work enough to take more than a class or two a semester.

Big deal. But that's not the whole pattern. If you can't get a job and you can't afford post-secondary training what's left? Assuming you're not in prison it's the military. If young people had no alternative and started joining the service Congress and the President would not have to do the dirty work of reinstituting the draft. Whew! Win-win for some. Lose big time for others.

Tell me I have too much time on my hands. Otherwise we are seeing America's future fight silly wars and "third world" countries turn out the scientists and engineers who will really run the world.

You're Always On...

My mother always said there are two different sets of manners: One for home and one for everywhere else. I could pick up chicken with my fingers at home but used a fork and knife at a restaurant. I could wear a plaid shirt and striped shorts at home but I matched when I went to church. I could respond to any conversation at the breakfast table but I kept my opinions to myself when sitting with the adults at Grandma's Sunday dinner.

This is exponentially more important when waiting for a news segment to start no matter how close you are to the interviewer. It's hard to believe Jesse Jackson's mother didn't teach him that.

That sounds harsh - even to me. His mother probably did. What may have happened is Jackson became so insulated he forgot. It's a dangerous place as he has learned to his chagrin. I do not care about his opinions or his language. He's entitled to them. It is still America.

There are a couple lessons in this debacle. One is that outside our homes we are always on. Even social networking requires better manners than what might happen face to face. The second is the more you have to lose the more you will lose!

Don't let the virtual world lull you into complacency. My mother also always said a person's reputation took years to build and seconds to lose.

Sad Sorry State of Affairs

So we can't find anything humorous about Barack Obama. Is it political correctness as some have asserted? Could be. So many people still believe Obama is Muslim that even satire is disavowed. Sad.

Some people say he's just not funny. A guy who is so stuffy and elitist that nothing about him is subject to poking fun? I can think of a million. His ears look like they were donated by Ross Perot. He hired staff to run the recycling program on his campaign. Are they the same people who are recycling his speeches? Alcoholic drink of choice - wine. Add a letter and the same word can be used to describe his left wing followers. Not funny? Sorry.

Maybe he doesn't believe it's okay to laugh considering our current State of Affairs.

Until we can laugh at the carbon footprint of Obama's traveling organic diet or the way he gets so self-involved that he forgets why he's giving a speech or how Jesse Jackson's comments sound like something Hillary would say to Bill we will not really embrace him. Inside jokes and poking fun are generally reserved for people we feel we know.

Wish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Were As Innocent As They Sound

I do not want to hear a single syllable about reducing social programs. Not a damned one.

I, my children and my children’s children are all going to be paying for Iraq, global warming and the failure to address energy demands. Now on top of it we are all going to pay for the bailout of the mortgage banks that double dipped by having stockholders and government oversight.

The libertarian side of me says “Sucks to be you!” but I am told at least 150 banks will collapse in the next year and a crumbling financial structure will destroy our economy. So like Bear Stearns the government is stepping in which means it sucks to be me.

Add up every social program. Hunt out the welfare queens and the Medicaid freeloaders. Tell college students how much we wish they were engineers and scientists but there’s no money for loans. Cut off Head Start for those lazy parents who won’t teach their own preschoolers. Slow the pace of our transportation infrastructure rebuilding – we’re worth less anyway according to EPA.

There is no way the cost of these programs which make lives better is more than the cost of bailing out banks and government officials that can’t be bothered to be accountable. Eventually all sins come due. There must be a lot of people who are relieved they won’t be around when it happens.

Today We Are Worth Less

You and I are worth less today than we were a month ago. Not to each other. Not to our customers. We're worth less to the government.

Our value as citizens has declined $900,000 from $7.8M to $6.9M. How could that be and who decided we were worth $7.8M to start with? I don't know. I only know what it means.

When the government plans pollution control laws it divides the cost of the regulation by the value of a person. Then we know the number of people it saves and can determine if it's worth it or not.

For example, in order to save 5000 people from harm including death, the EPA proposes a regulation that turns out to cost $35B. Is it worth it? No because that would be $7M per person and we are only worth $6.9M. Last month we would have been covered.

I understand the inherent dislike of regulation by business owners. Sheesh do we have to save the world?! Still I wonder about those 5000 people who would have been protected by EPA. Hope the industry being regulated is far away from me.

Refusing To Pass The Torch Can Cause A Big Burn

Jesse Jackson wished he could turn Barack Obama into a eunuch - show him who the real alpha male was. Oops. Obama's immediate "of course I accept his apology" made it even worse as Jackson ran around to every news show available to try to keep himself relevant even as his own son threw him under the bus (that seems to be happening a lot lately).

It's a modern tale of leaders failing to give way gracefully to new leadership. It's holding onto old ideas that don't work in today's world. It's resentment over the ease in which a new charismatic leader might become far more than an icon.

It's easy to fall into that trap. The business owner who won't turn the company over to the next generation. The older athlete who dopes up to stay competitive. The child actor who becomes a tabloid story.

Passing the torch can be painful especially when you refuse to do it. So the next time you hear yourself saying "No" or "We have always done that" or "There isn't anyone qualified enough" or "I want to cut...off" look at your hands and make sure they aren't getting scorched.

Whiners and The Whiny People Who Don't Like Them

I'm of two minds when it comes to Phil Gramm's comments yesterday.

First, it was politically stupid. I have been poor and it's not a mental state. Perhaps Gramm has never been without necessary money. It's hard to be empathetic without shared experience.

Lesson #1: Never discuss issues with people when you have no anedotal experience to share.

Second, it was a betrayal of John McCain who asked Dr. Gramm to be his surrogate. No, not the first comments (see Lesson #1). When McCain denounced Gramm's comments (threw him under the bus actually but I digress) Gramm dug his heels in and reiterated his position.

Lesson #2: Never use a surrogate when s/he refuses to promote your agenda.

Lesson #2a: Choose credible surrogates. Most working class folk don't care about PhDs in economics. They deal with concrete problems not abstract ideas.

Third, there is truth in Gramm's remarks. Otherwise this story wouldn't have hit every network and cable news show. Why do grown people whine? It's a throwback to childhood when it often worked. People who have seen their income reduced by 10% because of gasoline prices, worry about heating their homes this winter if they can keep a home to heat, face much higher food costs are not in control of what's happening to them. They are being buffeted by the global economy, poor energy policies and devastating weather that has destroyed millions of acres of crops. No one is really hearing them and so they get louder and whinier in the hopes someone will.

Lesson #3: Make sure you listen to the people in your world personally and privately.

Unless you are Tom Hanks in Castaway or are a sole proprietor with no employees politics will creep in. Make sure you're the one sending the right message.

Communication Breakdown

I'm a boomer. Not the fun got to experience Woodstock boomer. Not the one Dennis Hopper is talking to on commercials. I'm about ten years too late for all that. Still I started in the business world when sales orders came through the mail, compiling data for the annual sales meeting took three weeks and a secretary typed my letters.

I really liked the idea of futuristic technology. You know, a phone in my car, handheld devices that could hold twenty pages of information, watching live video on my computer.

The next twenty-five years have changed business in ways no one could really fathom. Gathering data is an every day possibility and gathering it for an annual meeting takes very little time. I long ago lost my secretary. And the phone? It keeps everyone available 24/7. Yahoo.

I am caught in the social networking area because most of my friends from high school and college haven't discovered Facebook yet so I am not having as much fun as other, younger people. It's incredibly important to integrate this knowledge in order to help my business succeed. I know that even as I believe it to be hard.

So when I look at the presidential candidates from the very narrow view of technology and understanding how business uses it for success I have two choices.

The person who raised millions using the internet.
The person who can't use a computer at all.

I wish it was a harder decision.

The Paradox

Delta Airlines is leaving my hometown airport. Sixty-three years of service to Atlanta and Cincinnati and the world beyond is over. I know. It's a global economy. There's a huge demand for oil world-wide and there aren't enough passengers in Toledo to pay the necessary price to keep the jets landing.

Yes I can go to Detroit. They won't stop the flights there. It costs twice as much to drive there and parking is at least twice as much. Still, if I need to be somewhere I will gladly do it.

The internet has made the world flat. No matter how rural or removed from civilization the web provides access to the rest of the world. Want to watch animals on an African preserve? Need help with your, er, I mean your kid's homework? Made a bucket list of exotic destinations? Interested in attending a national political convention? The internet has made all this possible. Who hasn't used the virtual world to plan for real world adventures?

Here's the paradox. The world is flat but it is becoming too expensive to travel across it. Don't have an airport nearby and have to add $100 each way to get to one? (And that's after spending three times what it did last year for a flight.) Commuting to work an hour each way? Drive forty miles to get to Whole Foods? We all need vacations, jobs and food so what are the solutions?

It's hard sometimes for big city dwellers to imagine dealing with these dilemmas. Unless of course you depend on suburban and rural folks because you own a travel agency, desperately need to retain skilled workers, sell organic groceries or whatever your particular situation.

The global economy is more than a trendy catch phrase when talking about cheap imports or outsourcing to India or the increasing cost of gasoline. It is a profound change in how we do business...how you do business.