The running joke is, “How do you know a lawyer is lying?” I don’t know, how? “His lips are moving.” By and large a slam to lawyers but probably not unwarranted as birds of a feather are found to have common traits. Far be it associated with say, … doctors. I am not looking to start a row with all of those lined up with our judicial system. It was an ice breaker to slip into the deep and dark pool of lies.

We all live lies everyday. Undoubtedly we don’t know what lies we live. Quite often we don’t care what they are. We hold fast to our bias and often defend it to our deaths. We go around having a lie buried deep in the foundation our lives, so familiar are with it that we don’t even recognize the grief, discord or conflict it creates every day. It is so familiar we don’t even relate the consequence with it but each new circumstance we come into.

A very famous person once said, ” Seek the truth and the truth will set you free.” I believe this! I believe that most all of the troubles we encounter in our day is due to our adoption of falsehoods. I choose to believe things that are not founded. They are moving targets that set me up to fail every time I try to go forward.

I hear people say, “truth is relative” or “that is your truth or my truth”. I think anyone who truly cares to look at it with sincere interest will come to the conclusion that truth is definitely not relative and it rings the same each and everyone of us. Otherwise things like two people conversating, one in English and one is Russian would take place everyday with complete understanding. The fact that this does not happen ever, is because it is a completely false idea. It will never happen, to say that it does is not true. The same as if you took me up on a roof and threw me off. I would begin falling until I impacted whatever was below, most likely the ground. The observable reality of gravity is there, omnipresent and undeniable to reason. If I were to toss you over the edge, although you might have a different result, gravity will have its effect on you and you to will impact something below. Maybe I died from my sudden stop with the ground but you survived because you landed on the porch roof so much closer. Even the reverse outcome of my example does not undo the truth of gravity and its impact on us and repeatable reality of its existence.

Often time we want to believe things that are not true and call it dreaming. The little girl grows up timid and disadvantaged then along comes Prince Charming to rescue her from the previous life into a life with the beautiful aromas of roses, silk sheets, fine linen garments and the vision of a day with no strife, toil or effort ever needs be expended. Cute story we see just about everywhere we go. Especially children’s stories. Let me count the lies so easily believed.

1. That genies are real and Prince Charming has one. That is how he has all of this crap the give the Princess and save her from the life she had.
2. The idea that a life of luxury and laziness is a good and fulfilling life. Most of the unhappiest people I know are wealthy. They are bored and live unfulfilling lives. In my observations mostly because they can get whatever they want at any time and it doesn’t satisfy the mind but for a minute.
3. That anyone is deserving of such a windfall just for the sake of being born. Who is it that you are going to drop such a life on from your situation? No one of course! Just as no one is doing it for you. You want it go make it or get it.

This could become an thome quite easily. I’ll sum it up this way. In my experience I believe that the truth does set us free if we care to give up on the false ideals we hold for ourselves. “I deserve it”, “I can get something for free”, “There are easy ways to wealth”. These are all false and will lead me into misery. Seeking truth though is exceedingly difficult because of my affinity for lies or falsehoods. “I like my beliefs, no matter how absurd they might seem to another”. Boys can never be girls. Therefore I give you this tip that has had tremendous results in my life. Seek out the falsehood or lies in you life. These are easy to find. You know them intimately. Take every belief you have and test it for evidence of repeatability. Just like gravity, you will find, the truth is linear. One leaves the roof and straight to the ground. Doesn’t matter who, where or when the result is the same. On the other hand lies are circular. If you find yourself going in circles then you’ve realized a lie. Somewhere in your process a falsehood has brought you back to a place you were before so that you do not move forward.

As I have said, I believe that truth is linear and it will move us forward. If we are not finding the progress we want or progress in general we are living a lie. If you find that you are regularly experiencing the same problems or troubles then you have a lie in you process. Seek it out and it will crumble and leave you with the truth you don’t want to hear. That you had a moment of stupidity and let a lie ruin every day until now. But know this once you swallow the hard part of knowing how dumb you are and get to the place were you find the value of being the “Slayer of Lies”; your life becomes a force with which to be recconed! You become a person of confidence, understanding, strength and determination. Especially when you see how easily they die. They almost kill themselves!

Go be murderous today. Kill all the lies you can find and live large.

Greg

Last week I came at you with Momentum and how it might work for you, this week I want to touch on discipline as its cohort. Maybe even predecessor! Mainly because if you can not maintain the minimum amount of self discipline to do the minimum necessary to achieve the least bit of momentum you will not go far at all.

I am not referring to discipline in the direction that some might go, that of punishment or consequence. What I am speaking of is one’s ability to understand that the mind of the human is ultimately LAZY. If left alone will absolutely develop the attitude, “why if I don’t have to”. The most unsuccessful people have this mantra. I understand this completely, life is far to easy now a days. It does not take much effort to have a house, be clothed and eat. For some their parents are still doing it, but I not writing them, I am writing you.

Make great efforts to understand that you have an industrious brain and a lazy brain. As a species we are not different this way. Realize that not seeing, doing and having is all a process of the lazy brain. Remarkably, if someone has done it you can too! ?Even more remarkably, if it hasn’t been done and you can dream it you can do it! These are the greatest gifts bestowed upon us, imagination, creativity, ability and insight. All unique to the human being. Only you can build what you dream. Take that dream and apply your gifts and watch things unfold.

Starting with insight take a good look at your self and ask, “Does my life run me or do I run my life?” If life is dealing you cards you don’t like you need to become the dealer. If life is delivering peanuts you need to become the peanut magnate. You have the ability to use your insight to scrutinize the outcomes in your day and determine if it was the result of a conscience act on your part or an haphazard event that just came you way.

Discipline is therefore conducting yourself in such a way that haphazard events are the least part of your life and what you see instead is well designed, well thought out and poorly executed ideas about your dreams manifesting real tangible results that you can manipulate, manage and improve. Discipline is believing that there is value in applying your gifts to an effort inside of you industrious mind that will improve your everyday life and cause you to want more.

Discipline starts with losing the victim mentality and realizing, “I can change this situation in which I find myself “. You do have to accept where you are at this very moment but you do not have to accept it again tomorrow. Where you find yourself right now is the result of all of the choices you have made to date. If you are not wise, you chose not to be. If you are not skilled, you chose not to be. If you are not confident, you chose not to be. If you are lazy, you chose to be. If you are capable, you chose to be. If you are going to ……, you are choosing to be!

Discipline works by practicing, training and failure. Like riding the momentum bike, it’s not about crashing; it’s about getting up and back on. This is discipline, understanding the value of continuing. Value is the core of your belief system, if you do not value it enough it will fade. Believe in yourself, make choices that create different outcomes tomorrow. In a nut shell discipline is the act of choosing different ways of doing life that produce different outcomes. Thereby learning the cause and effect of actions and how to better apply the effort next time. Once you see that life is a choice and currently it is the choices you make and making different choices gives you different outcomes. Keep doing this until you get the outcome you seek! Simple as that.

Go and be great,

Greg

It’s another Tuesday where I “get” to write you again! There’s nothing like be able to engage in the things that bring your passion, joy and interests together! Last week we lamented ‘starting again’, rarely if ever does one have momentum from the beginning. It is rather something that builds as you build. Like the bicycle analogy, at first when you get going that little bit of momentum propels you forward; that is until you crash. If you pick yourself back up and go again you begin to realize, that the scary speed of momentum is actually your friend. It is good for you and you need it to succeed. Once you grasp the least bit of the dynamics of balance you realize you can direct a whole lot of the power of momentum. I believe so it goes with life.

In my time here on this planet I have observed so many of us that get going on that bike and crash what seems like every time they try to go somewhere. For some this becomes normal and they crash regularly for the rest of their lives. Every time they get something decent they ruin it or waste it. Others who crash regularly at the beginning just give up and walk everywhere. The momentum of the bike is not worth getting beyond the crash phase, even though they can see others whizzing around ‘killing it’ in life. They come up with excused why they are not doing it. I don’t want to make today’s rambling about choices, but please go off and consider the choices you make everyday that limit, ruin, waste or stop your momentum. Make new ones, you’ve got it in you and there are people out there who believe in you! I’m one of them.

This is about momentum, realizing it, understanding it and using it. It is a pretty big deal. Most people don’t realize what it takes to get something started or for that matter keep it going. Being a ‘car guy’, I’m going to use this analogy as metaphor and vice versa. Perhaps you’ve noticed those large trucks barreling down the highway next to you as you pass them by. I know some of you are oblivious to everything except where you’re going but for those who have taken note, did you notice that when they start out you can run walk faster than it moves in first gear? Have you noticed how when you come to a hill that they slow down tremendously given the incline of that hill? What most of you probably don’t know is that those truck engines have about three time the power of an average car. On the other hand they move approximately twenty time the weight! The one principal that makes these ratios work is momentum. An object set in motion tends to stay in motion, thank Mr Newton! It’s not really important to understand engine, gearing of transmissions or the like to understand the principal of motion in your life and how to gain more of it. Look around if another is doing it or has done it you can too!

Back to the truck. If that truck was allowed to reach a speed of say one hundred miles per hour it would produce enough momentum to make it’s way much farther up that hill before it slowed down to the “crawl” speeds with which we are familiar. It takes a lot less energy to get that truck from seventy mph to one hundred mph than it does to “crawl” the distance differential of the two speeds. Meaning getting to one hundred to climb a hill is better than staying at seventy. Why don’t we do things that way? We should every chance we get! What’s the problem? In some cases like the truck example it would be those who like to control everything applying their might to keep themselves ‘safe’ (an argument for another day). Suffice it to say: government regulations or over reach. Another limitation is the environments in which we find ourselves. On a curvy road through the mountains is not the place to take eighty thousand pounds into pell mell lest we want to crash the whole enchilada. Another reason might be education or brainwashing. Depending upon your experience in school you can pick your term. Point being that you are limited to what you believe. Some of us are limited to what we were taught and others are limited to what we can learn. I’m thinking your getting the idea, momentum is useful and dangerous at the same time. I am pretty sure that all of us know the experience on a bike or skate board where we got going so fast that we thought the wheels were going to come off and we ‘chickened out’ and went for the brakes. There are various reasons for not building momentum, figure out what your reasons are and make an adjustment, you need one hundred when you can get it.

I coach many a young person to look at their business endeavor along these lines. A skateboard, a bicycle, a car, a pick up, a commercial truck, an airplane or a ship. Each is capable of only a certain amount of momentum. If you’re in a business analogous to a skateboard, say a paper route, cashier at food chain, any thing at Wally world, you will not gain enough momentum to stay ahead of inflation. These types of jobs are for children learning what it means to work. It’s a place to get pocket money for time with friends and maybe save up for something like a car. The nicer things in life are higher up. Most jobs equate to a car, where most people are comfortable. As I say, most people are trying to get the most out of doing the least. A car suits that example, you can imagine a guy with a 2000 Honda Accord vs a guy with a 2025 Mercedes. Regardless of the man it’s still a car with its limited momentum ability. I am certain you will find that if you can get yourself to the pickup truck analogy you will learn that it is far easier to use momentum. I believe that is why more Americans drive them than anything else. Just another reason we are the wealthiest. For those of you who go beyond this you understand the power of numbers, moving eighty thousand pounds vs four is why you want it. In the same distance you accomplish twenty times the work. And so on it goes all the up to the ship example.

The question isn’t can I do it? The question isn’t can I launch a space ship? The question you want to always put to yourself is, “how can I get from where I am to a better place”. Then do whatever it is you think it will take regardless. Go fail miserably in your attempt, you will learn and the next time you probably won’t crash your bike! You are looking to gain momentum in, experience, knowledge, understanding, effort and skill. You will crash them all if you are doing it well! No crashes means you are doing nothing! Let me say that again, crashes are evidence that you are going and growing. The goal is to get so skilled at crashing that you can do it with minimal loss of momentum. What you don’t know is holding you back, go get experience and learn what it is today and make momentum you best friend!

Glory to all of you in this great republic,

Greg

It’s been sometime since my last post here, I’m trying to regain my mind’s eye of my mission and what it is that I’m doing here. The passions from the initial vision and quickening have faded, I find myself old and tired. Not convinced of the value at times. I am however convinced that there are those of you out there that need what I have to share and offer! My resolve to see this through is growing each and every day. My strength in my belief of what this could mean is developing. I know not what comes but here I go!

Sometimes getting started is simple, you have nothing else in your way you have nothing else on your plate and you have nothing to do except what’s in front of you, but then there are those times when you really want to do something, your vision is clear, your passion is high and you really have the idea that it’s the thing to do. But! There’s so much in your way, so much taking your time, so much distracting you, that getting started is a stumbling, lumbering, broken, jumbled and just the most difficult effort to continue. Such has been my life for the last four years since I started this; I’ve been busy with my multiple businesses, family and life in general. Just when I think I can pick it up and go, a deluge of other responsibilities storms and rains upon me to where I’m completely soaked with things that take me away. I painted this vision first in January of 2021 on the heels of the riots in Portland which to my amazement were still going on at that time . I could see plainly the need to develop some sort of help for business people that were being overrun and surreptitiously undermined by their own government. I thought I could pick up this side hustle, working in my free time, building into some things of value. Couple of problems though; I didn’t understand the time commitment was specific, how much my current responsibilities were going to drag me through the ringer and give me less time to even think about what was going on here .

Now of course to the most casual observer of you, will recognize these as excuses. I do too. The reality is, as much as you’d really like to do something, your previous obligations have everything to do with your ability to move forward. Kind of the idea that you can’t get there from here. You’ve got to go by way of some other place before you can get there. I’ve known these things for a long time but for a dreamer who has nothing but the highest hopes for tomorrow; all things seem possible. Which brings us here to today and getting starting again.

Since my last post back in May, I’ve had the busiest, most stressful work filled days of my life. Quite possibly, I’m older now and my perspective is cloudy, perhaps I’ve had more stressful days when I was younger and able to handle them better. In any case, it’s a new year, the old years laid to rest and with it a lot of my previous responsibilities. I’ve sold a few businesses, bought out a few partners and relieve myself of almost all of my obligations and now I’m faced with the reality of having very little to do. Which gives me no excuse not to dive into this head long and began to plow forward as I’ve done with so many things.

I suspect most of you know the feeling of building the interest, the courage, the vision, and the will to get started on something that is much bigger than yourself or even just something you’ve never done before. Here I am again trying to build up all of those emotions that motivate people to accomplish great things when I’m tired, rundown and not too certain of the value proposition. Although I have great confirmation throughout other parts of my life that this endeavor is not only greatly needed by our community and others as well; I too shall perish without a significant mission. Therefore it must be! So here it is, I’m getting started again. This shall be a new first post and should become a continuous line of posting every Tuesday for years to come. I know even before this hour that it should have been fairly easy for me to make 52 posts a year. It dismays me greatly to look back and see that in these years I struggled to be able to do that. A person only has so much time and energy to dedicated to the work effort, passion or not, and other things need to maintain precedent. So I’ll not beat myself up with what I could have done or should have done or didn’t do and focus on what I can do and the opportunities that lie ahead of me.

For those of you who are faced with similar situations I encourage you to do the same. Look ahead, opportunities are available in abundance! I taught my children when they were younger to look at their life from three perspectives. Past present and future (Obligations Responsibilities Dreams). Obligations being commitments from our past. Being people which with we have previously engaged on a level of personal involvement. The need for the human spirit to be faithful to the persons with which we’ve made profound connections and what it takes to maintain those connections. Marriage, child bearing, friendships and community. Responsibilities represent things in the present, more current things. As an example each day you have the responsibility to go to work whether it’s to support yourself or your family; you have the responsibility to go to work. Other examples of responsibilities would be make your bed, clean the house you live in, eat breakfast, pack of lunch to go, put gas in your car or answer a phone call or reply to a text. Dreams on the other hand are future oriented. “I’d like to go to Africa on vacation. I’d like to go camping this weekend. One day I’d like to own…” All of the things that cause you to muster the gumption to go to work and earn.

What I intended to illustrated for them in this previous description is a priority structure as well as a mental organizational structure for how decide how to handle the affairs of their lives. If we started off today at zero, with no obligations, responsibilities or dreams. One would only have dreams of the future. If you moved off and act in a manner to make that dream come to fruition you will have created and obligation. Once you made that decision and acted upon it, you’ve just created your first obligation that will have responsibilities.

Obligations. Let’ say that you started a business as the venue that you will use to fulfill your dreams. A business at the very least is an obligation to oneself. No one makes the decision to start a business to fulfill one’s dreams with a light hearted commitment. Hard work should never be haphazardly wasted. This new commitment to oneself is an historical precedent that should by and large rule over your life. Few exceptions applied. Perhaps a family member is ill and requires your attention. Although you take time to attend that member when necessary all other times are dedicated to the obligation to yourself. We all must work to support ourselves regardless of our circumstances. An obligation is the requirement to do what’s necessary, when it is necessary realizing that these obligations are the building blocks of our foundation and the support structure of all we build into our life going forward. If you choose not fully invest in these, then too all that you build from here will be sketchy and unsuitable for the work that you lay upon it. I have found in all of my experiences throughout all of my life that I am much more satisfied with the outcome of what I have chosen to do when I do what I said I would do in all of my relationships.

Responsibilities. I really like this methodology as it makes decision making extremely simple in my everyday life. Largely a part of the reason why this project hasn’t been more than it is; is because it hasn’t been the best time for me and my decision making revolving around my obligations and responsibilities up to this point have got me to where I am today. I am a sum total of my choices wherever I find myself. Therefore, today I find myself set up somewhat perfectly to be involved here again. As I look over my responsibilities each day I first consider which ones relate to obligations. These are priority number one items. This means they come before other things within reason. Getting grandma to the grocery store is paramount unless the neighbor needs a ride to the emergency room and I’m the only person at hand. Questions that arise to help me plan my day; what things are imminent, do I need to do it at a particular time, are others involved and require coordination, can it wait until tomorrow or another day where it can be scheduled. These responsibilities I handle organize and schedule first; one thing I’d like to comment here is that if you develop a process in your life similar to mine you will find that these obligations are generally easier to do and more rewarding when you haven’t ignored them. Next, I assess immediate responsibilities like work, does my vehicle need fuel, do children need to go to school, do I need to go pick something up for the day’s work or what is the first thing on my To Do list. Another comment I’d like to make here is that no matter how you do it you should keep a To Do list. It’s a plan for responsibilities you’ve identified that don’t necessarily have a timeline but at the very least have a priority structure. Example: You must put fuel in the car before you can take the children to school lest you find yourself on the side of the road. Mostly, the thing to remember is that decisions involving responsibilities is that responsibilities associated with obligations come first in your consideration and almost always first on your priority list. Never trump an obligation, it will certainly come back to haunt you if neglected. If an obligation rears its head the responsibility is clear and goes to the top of the priority list of things to do. Once you’ve handled all of your current responsibilities and you have time left you dream

Dreams . Dreams are not only fundamental, they are instrumental! Without dreams you will have no vision, no hope and no desire for a better future. You must dream , you must dream often and you must dream big! You must find a way to share your dreams with like minded people so that your dreams will never die. Their encouragement will breath life into your dreams. I encourage you immensely to learn to ENTERTAIN yourself with your dreaming. Give up the social media, the idiot box and even reading unless you have developed the skill of dreaming. Take your free time and teach your brain to seek out the things that thrill you, that provoke your imagination , and cause you to wonder carelessly! One of the reasons that this project has been placed where it has, is that I live my dream. Does that mean that my life is perfect, the best it could be or even desirable from the outside looking? No, on the contrary what it means is that from the inside looking out; I don’t know how I could have done better. All of my days I wake up to toil and have turned everything into what I could have possibly made them! Have I made mistakes and have those mistakes hampered the outcome or diminished the possibilities? Absolutely! But here I am the better person for it; I have learned and grown along the way, which makes me a better person for it today. We all experience life this way. The question isn’t, “Did you hit the target?” It’s, “Did you aim high enough?” Every success is marked by a series of failures. No one rides a bike without first crashing, so it goes . The better you get at failing the better you get at succeeding until one day you realize that whether a failure or a success; it’s brought you to this day . If you’re good at dreaming, you’ll see that your failures are attempts at riding a bike. The bike which you now ride with considerable skill. I spend a copious amounts of time each day, building my dreams, envisioning in my mind the glorious outcome of these machinations. These glorious outcomes amazingly overcome the insignificant discouragements of my failures! Teach yourself to dream, dream often, dream big!!! It’s the most powerful tool of hope you can develop!

Getting started again is recognizing your past failures don’t need to be your future. That the good reasons for the failures of your past were lessons developing the current skills that will produce your glorious future! Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, sit down and make a great investment in your dream building! Reassess your obligations, prioritize your responsibilities and go kick some ass! This world is here for you to rule!

Peace and prosperity to you all!

Greg

In today’s day and age, this concept is lost. Power couples now refer more to the criminal element. John and Abigail, Jahan and Mumtaz, George and Martha, Johnny and June or Paul and Joanne come to mind as couples who killed it in life! If you look at each of these couples story you will see the pattern of how him making her special, her realizing the value of being special and feeding his frenzy made him the most powerful man in his world and her the most powerful woman. You see a man’s reach only goes so far, if he’s doing it for himself it becomes pointless and mundane. Eventually he lays himself to waste like Kobain or so many others. When a couple shares the majesty of reciprocity in a relationship the world is their oyster. You may say that, “I understand you opinion, but it’s still just your opinion.” Fair enough but give it a look before I label you pinhead. The reason these couples are famous and popular isn’t because they all left behind a Taj Mahal. It’s because their stories are inspiring, motivating, encouraging; they speak to each of us human beings at a spiritual level if not cellular base. It is who the living desire and choose to become.

The couples mentioned above dedicated their entire lives to each other and their battle. Together they made their mark on the world and we hold them in high esteem for who they chose to be. George Washington the greatest American hero who ever lived could not possibly be the man he was without the love and support of Martha. We know this because he always went home, wrote excessively about home and his dreams for his home. He gave Martha a house and she made it home. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have perhaps the most succinct quote about the perspective. He is quoted as saying, “Why would I settle for hamburger when I have steak at home.” Again recognition of home, a place where the two are one. Perhaps one of the greatest sentiments of losing this connection is Taj Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. He was so blessed by her life with him at her passing upon giving birth to their 14th child, he built one of the Seven Wonders of the World as her final resting place, I mean the man carried on for a dozen years after her passing with this testament. Research the name he gave her.

If a girl allows a boy to make her special she will share the greatest gift! If a boy brings his thunder before a girl and makes her special and she encourages the noise and adds to it before long he is a storm to be reconned with. His thunder will become accurate lighting and everything in his path will be theirs. For boys who choose to go it alone there is little but boredom, despair and apathy. For girls who choose to go it alone there is little but loneliness and bitterness. For girls and boys who do not understand this they will remain another POP (pinhead on the planet), really not contributing much for the sake of humanity. The greatest contributors are those who choose to be as great as they can be together and feed each other what they each were made to have. He was made for her and she was made for him, it is natural and powerful. Be THAT couple.

Let’s face it her and him with this understanding and mindset are unstoppable. Don’t delude yourselves, her and her are only a thing until him and him are sick of them and want their babies. History repeats itself because of who we are as people. The human beings prosper for a time until men desire each other, then debauchery prevails, then pedophilia gains traction, then reigns until a few good men lay waste to the whole thing and it starts all over again. They always consume themselves whereas power couples build each other and those around them.

Go become a power couple today and do the world around you a favor, do yourselves a favor, Be Great!

Dedicated to Jon and Mel

Greg

If you’re like me, the time being an entrepreneur is mostly exciting and hope filled, anticipating all of the things that might be to come of your efforts. The freedom, the glory and of course the satisfaction of “look what I did” but if you’ve been doing it for any amount of time you have those days. You know, the one when you meet that dirty rat.

Today I’m going to tell you a story about my friend Jon. Jon has been my friend for a lot of years. In the beginning we believed, like any true adult that friends are people who want to be close to others for what the others allow them to be and give. Our friendship started off very, shall I say ‘antagonistic’, to be dramatic. You see, Jon was a modern progressive thinker. The old school laws, rules and ways are antiquated and that there is a better way of doing things. Maybe you are too, deep deep left. The new blue. Not in any way dipping into communism like some we see today. More sex, drugs and rock n roll, hippie type. After all he has lived in both People’s Republics, The Borough and California.

To succinctly illustrate our divergence, in times past one might have heard me say something stupid like, I’m so conservative you need to turn right at George Washington. I was very confident that the Republican party was saving America with it’s status quo agenda and the Democrats were wrecking the country.

When I met Jon he was sold out, deeply embedded. I on the other hand had a “reconning” and was flying at mach away from it all. So much so he asked me one evening after the Obama-McCain debate, “what are you an anarchist?”. You see, 911 did me in. I had believed in our system and the people in it were like me. Honest, interested hard working “Americans”. The lies, the treachery and death did me in. Being an architectural student and contractor was all it took to see the ilk.

After that DC became more of a fixation. At the time I was rearing children, like most of you WORKING for a living. Too busy to do much anything else. Over those years since the anger has been brewing and the desire to do something about it growing.

Covid is where I saw the change in Jon, but his direction chosen was markedly different than mine. He immediately abstained. He was done with his people and didn’t even want to talk about it anymore. Couldn’t get a word out of him. But these five year since, we now talk about what might come of what is going on out there.

All of this to give you back story on my good friend, actually one of my best friends. A real adult! Jon is an entrepreneur like most of us, he’s in the services side of the economy. Like all of you reliant upon the production side. Thank you for your services!! In any case from time to time he is in need of a plumber and when he is it is not a cheerful moment. Especially when the reason you need a plumber cuts into your revenue stream. Think, “the smell is from toilet water running through your building not the pipe intended.”

Down stream complaining upstream about odors is cause for immediate action. He’s been here before, he’s got hours not days to find the problem, get the plumber (hopefully not tomorrow), have the repairs done and be ready for the next customer. It is definitely a tense and dismal time. You know you’re going to pay the question is how much and how long will it last.

Focused and intent he sets about the mission to make remedy no matter what. Enter the dirty rat. Usually a customer who left some despicable thing somewhere it shouldn’t be, that was near impossible to see, festering in the damp, growing all sorts of evil, wafting such fragrant aromas. But to his elation, and I do literal elation, he found a dirty rat. A dead one. A bloated and a stinkin’. The joy of such a find! If you’ve been looking down the barrel of that gun just to find a bang flag pop out, you know what we’re talking about. The relief over whelms the disgusting things by leaps and bounds. A free plastic bag from the grocery store and some deodorant and we’re off an running.

To all of my entrepreneur family out there here’s hoping your next foray into detraction from you business fit into a free plastic bag and a little deodorant will save the day!

Go, be good, and know. We producers appreciate you servicers, we need you. Servicers please realize producing here keeps your businesses viable. Be local, buy local as much as you can. Wealth comes from production, we all serve production in some way.

Greg

It is an interesting world we live in today. I hear a lot of cheers for the current administration in DC and what they are doing all over my haunts on the internet. As I write this, I am sitting in a beach side condo on the Big Island enjoying a getaway for some relaxation. Yesterday, Jan connected with some old acquaintances we hadn’t seen for some time who live here now. Originally from CA and now retired here. They regaled us with the benefits of living here and how much cheaper it is than the left coast.

Irony I would call it as we paid $25 the other day for a very bad Mexican watermelon. His accounting seems to add up to me though. It’s mostly about taxes and the breaks one receives for being old like we are. Problem though is that I read that as little by little dumping the bill in some form of credit on the younger people. Nothing is free! If you are realizing a reduction of costs associated with the government then you are being subsidized by your peers or your children.

Perhaps you’ve heard the analogy of the frog and the lobster? You drop lobster into boiling water which kills them instantly, otherwise when the water gets too warm they will crawl out of the pot. With frogs, you put them in a pot and slowly increase the temperature until it is too late; they’re cooked. If you drop them into boiling water they will immediately jump right back out. Slowly though, they enjoy the water until all is lost.

This is the nature and culture of the American at present. We’re in the slowly boiling pot. One day it will be too late. I ring this bell with hopes of opening some eyes to this reality.

Examples of this are all about if we care to look. Example: the other day I ordered some door hinges for a project at the house. By practice and intention I avoid shopping at any multi national enterprise or BOX stores. I was searching for double swing hinges, you know, like the ones you see in western movies on the saloon doors. Sure enough none are made here or anywhere else in the developed world except for good ‘ole Cathay. Not only was it difficult to find them, it was difficult to find them outside of that southern rain forest company. None of the descriptions are complete or accurate. Which means you don’t know what you are buying but hey they’re cheap. I decide to buy them from Wallyworld which is preferred over that rain forest company.

Come to find out not only is it made in Cathay but is also located in Cathay and will ship from Cathay. None of which is obvious from Wally’s website. Likely if I ordered from them more often I would be abreast of such things, fortunately I do not, so I am not. In any case I discover this because of the great delay in its arrival which goads me into checking the delivery tracking info. First location listed Guongdong.

The screwing is so seamless now that these big corporations don’t even inventory the crap like they used too. Somehow now an individual item can make to the US of A; product, handling, shipping and tax all for less than $39.95! There is a real problem here! Read it like this if you’re like me and give a shit.

If I want to buy a cheap house where I live I need to make $120,000.00 a year to be able to afford a mortgage with 15% down. Mind you, that would be difficult to do where I live on the coast, much easier in Wyoming and other places I know. In any case that works out to be $1.77 a minute, if it took me 15 minutes to go the post office to retrieve it that would cost me about $26.55. That’s just to pick it up! (Includes wages, $75G car, gas and maintenance)’

That my friends is evidence of a boiling frog, along with the underhanded info about where it is presently. We have big problems on the horizon. We need to start making better economic decisions for ourselves and stop making ones that benefit the Fortunate 500. Companies stripping the wealth from the small business and working class. You can’t even begin to explain to me the benefits of getting a forty dollar hinge from China, when I can’t go down the road 15 minutes for anything at half that cost!

We need to turn off the stove and stop boiling ourselves! Be local, buy local. It’s a choice. Please decide to do it with every purchase. Vote with your dollars. Whenever possible pay the higher price and buy from a guy you can see, talk too or read about who he is. We need to get out from under these mega matrix companies and go back to the nature of the human being, relationships. Stop the siphoning of our wealth to tall glass Manhattan bankers.

Here are rules that I use. I do not buy from any box store unless I can not find it from a local establishment or used already in my community. I avoid the most egregious, Amazon at all cost. Under no circumstances will I go there, same with Costco. Not because they are as bad as the former but they are a ‘sell out’ to the small businessman. If I have to I will go to Wally but only because they have brick and mortar which keeps some capital local. Not nearly enough but some. I look for any company that is regional to local. If they operate outside of my region I avoid. Understanding that you are not actually saving any money but selling yourself out. I want handmade things that will last my lifetime or a lot of years. I want to see my hard earned effort go into my neighborhood not a corporate stock ticker.

Don’t get me wrong, we do need the stock ticker but leave it to things like airlines, oil companies, mining or large manufacturing; otherwise we’re losing out by leaps and bounds, to kill the frog analogy.

Hey, go be great in that wonderful life you’ve been given!

Greg

As I look around I see that life is really good for a lot of people. I mean REALLY good! I remember being 30 and longing for so many things. Our furniture was used and old, our cars were old, our dishes were gifts, our TV was used, we did not have cell phones or computers, the newest things we had was clothing. Our house did not have half of the crap we have in it now. We were starting a family, building our own house and trying not to work too much. This is how life used to be, we didn’t have a lot of the things we have now mostly because it was not available.

I remember one time needing a tub faucet for our inspection and the inspector made me get one before he would let me move on. I went down to the hardware store and bought the only one they had. We didn’t like it but that’s just how it was. There was no mega box home store. There was no order it online. There was no other way. Period. So there you go. Moving on. Just live with it. It worked and well. What more could be expected?

Here we are today and every shade of paint has a name because if you don’t like Mountain Mist you can get Ocean Foam. You can’t tell them apart from the fact that you don’t like the sound of one and do like the other. There are in excess of fifty faucets of all different shapes and sized at any one of 5 stores in just about any town in America these days. If not, the one down the road 20 miles. “I think I’ll just pop over there now and pick one up!” We would never have done that back then. Even though gas was cheap it wasn’t free and 20 miles away was an event. You would plan a trip like that for a weekend. Not quite a vacation but certainly not within a Wednesday evening affair. And that was likely competing with tomorrow’s gas to get to work!

Life is really different now. The poorest of working people have so much more than we had then. There is so much more available. A person today can outfit an entire house for next to ‘free’ on CL or marketplace. People have so much stuff they can hardly get rid of it. A lot of it gets hauled to the dump because no one will come haul it off. Has any of this difference added up to The Better Life?

I think not. I think more stuff has gotten in the way of the things that are most valuable. Not in the way you might think, or maybe you do? All of this availability has seemingly made most people more entitled. Expectant. Deserving. Wanton. So much so that if it comes at a cost to another there is nary a consideration for the imposition. I want it and if you have a problem with the situation, “well, that’s YOUR problem.” On top of that is “I shouldn’t have to do what is needed to get it.” Including be appreciative of the person giving it away on marketplace by responding in a manner showing respect for the person wanting to help you along. I tell my wife now don’t put anything up on there, put it on the street. If its gone in two days great if not in the trash. I don’t want to make time for these people for any reason. I have too little time to give to those who actually do deserve my time and effort.

Something I’ve always done as an adult is look for good people and invest in their relationships. We are the do’ers, we are the inviters and the instigators. The more I have these experiences the more I realize that the quest for The Better Life is in seeking out more of those same kinds of people. Our communities have fallen into their living rooms, box stores and the internet. Mostly gone is the talking over the fence, sitting on front porches, block parties and card night.

We’re throwing away the crap that sucks our time. We’re inviting everyone who puts up a nice front. We’re going out and doing things that are not shopping. We are seeking people who want to be friends in The Better Life.

Please go be someone’s friend today and have The Better Life. The best life if one lived together.

Peace

Greg

A really good question! At least in my minds eye. Then one says, ” well, in what?” Then I would say, “does it matter?” Then that one says, “you’re talking silly” and walks away. I know this because I do it all the time. When I asked if someone is interested they thought I meant that I was asking if I could share something with them and see if I were aligned with them. When, what I asked, was if they were interested, they did answered. What I heard was no. Why? Because, ‘depends’ is not a response indicating an affirmative. If you’re qualifying everything with your current understanding and filters you will always have all of the same outcomes from your efforts. You must become interested in things outside of you current place in life to grow or get farther.

The older I’ve gotten I think the most discouraging thing I’ve learned is that 80% of everyone I have met are not interested in any thing beyond their immediate station AND to top it off they believe that everyone else is just the same. Of the 20% probably the smallest portion are interested beyond their personal space enough to recognize the value of the other people in their community. I think I see too that as we go online more and more things get more so this way.

The various places I have lived and the various times have yielded different results as well but by and large things are going ‘south’ as they say. I believe we must recognize that a family is a community and needs people actively engage in its physical well being, mental well being, emotional well being and especially our spiritual well being! People are created to relate, have relationships and life long bonds. I have found the most satisfying things I have in my life are memories shared with those who have been involved in the longest portions of my life. Each new person I meet, I anticipate them being the next long term relationship that is as rich or richer than those I have now.

It seems to me that each of us is so consumed in living, making a living or avoiding a catastrophe that we have the least bit of time to spend outside of these concerns. We’re hardly there for each other or not at all. We do ourselves in altogether. Not only are we consumed with toil everyday but we can’t even find the time to be a friend so that when we need one, we have one.

I know this is reading like an obituary. I don’t intend to discourage you. I want to lift you up and encourage you. Consider this if you will take some interest. You’re best moments that you can remember are??? Think on it. Was there someone else intimately involved. I think so. I can remember a long long time ago a bunch of us driving down Interstate 70 at midnight doing 100 miles an hour with our headlights off. Exciting yes, but most enjoyable is being able to sit and share it with Jeff who banged up a fender on his car. He’s still around. We still talk about it. We laugh and toast to a future with more of such memorable things. Sure I have memories with others who are not around, but I would trade them all for more with those who are around. They are so much richer.

Here is the encouragement I want to leave with you now. Become more interested in those who are in you life today. See if perhaps you can create a community of two that can share a memory for 40 years with laughter and love. Look to grumpy old Ethyl who lives next door and see if you can be a neighbor and turn her frown upside down and see if she can be your new friend. Invite someone over to play cards and find out what their dream might be.

You need it. Your community needs it. America needs it. We all do and unless you and I make that effort no one else will. Help you country today. Get interested in the people in your neighborhood and watch it do you some good!

Go please. Be great!

Greg

Or is it Living in a Dream? I watched last nights The Presidential Joint Congressional Address which it seems most Americans were encouraged and enjoyed! I for one found it somewhat uplifting. My problem is that I just don’t believe any of them anymore. I should say mostly. I mean it is difficult to believe them. On the one side I see stick-in-the-muds and the other I see groupies. Neither side actually acknowledging any good no matter where it come from! I mean honestly, who would not stand and applaud any young boy with brain cancer for receiving an honorarium acceptance into the Secret Service or another being acceptable to Westpoint. It seems I live in a dreamscape where all Americans are just people trying to live out a decent and respectable life without being bothered by others. I believed this to be the American Dream. I believed it was real.

Now that I am awake and realize that nothing could be further from the truth, I saw a room mostly full of children spatting ad nauseam. How did I get here? How did it happen? How have we become this lot of people? Where do we go from here?

One question I ask myself is am I truly awake? I mean how do I know. It kinda looks like this. One day I thought I was awake, President Regan was running the sh** show and was fixing things. As time went on I began to realize how crooked things were altogether and who were the players. I thought I was waking up. Along come 911 and bam, no you were asleep. Another wake up call seemingly perpetrated by outside sources. An alarm clock advising as to the reality of a world we live in. Almost 25 years later and the alarm clock is still ringing because its from within not without! My American Dream is being murdered in front of my eyes by corruption, selfishness, childishness and lack of leadership. Oh lord what shall I do, the priest is corrupt, the judge is corrupt, the court is corrupt and the king is corrupt, what shall I do?

Here I sit writing as a vent. I am quite upset. What can I do besides write and bitch? I have a life and I wish to live it but I see peril coming if I do not do something about the grifters. The life I dream of pursuing is being threatened by those who should not even have the power to get beyond their homes. At every turn I run into a ratio of 3 to 1 government employees who set up road block for to the one who earnestly helps me on my way. Most of these people have their dream in hand, a home, government paycheck with no signs of disruption and a rather lazy schedule comparatively. No one works less hours, does less constructive work and gets paid regardless of whether or not their effort has a beneficial product attached. A zero value proposition. I can’t compete with this.

I live in a dream that I will be able to pay employees the same wages for doing tremendously more benefit. It’s not happening. Even with the ridiculous cost of housing it is not possible. We build houses, houses for everyday people, the least expensive housing in our market area and my top paid employees can barely afford one of the mortgages. The rest of them a farts chance in a wind Wyoming wind storm.

I live in a dream thinking this is reversible. Why? Well if I raise all of their pay the cost of the house goes up and not a little. If I raised the wages of all of my peeps so that HALF of them could afford to buy I would be paying out of my pocket for that to happen. Why have a business? This is where we are. The system is corrupted beyond repair and no one I saw last night seems up for the job of fixing it. I applaud Trump for routing corruption and waste if that is truly what is happening. I believe to a large degree it is but no one is talking about how most of us are not doing anything of value!

Let me give you an example. People pay us to build houses. Building houses creates wealth in that there is a tangible product (asset) that is resultant. Now let’s take into consideration that approximately 20 to 35% of that house depending upon where we build it is government regulation that has no provable real benefit to anyone. Simply government mandates that are accepted as “the way it is” and move on. If each person was to individually assess the value of each mandate and choose to spend his or her money independently most of these mandated items would not exist. Additionally let’s take my accountant, his only purpose is to do for me what is way too complicated and involved for me to do myself and file tax documents. Every dime I pay him and the others like him are added to the cost of housing. Every fee I pay the municipality for no services is added to the cost of housing. If a house costs $300,000 and 20-35% is of no benefit then a buyer is overpaying anywhere from $60,000 to 100,000 in “no value” propositions. Forced contracts. No fix being discussed nor suggested.

I have a dream has become I live in a dream. Not reality. And this is the best country in the world? It still must be as everyone is still trying to get here. Evidence for sure. A friend of mine says, ” he who goes into the salt mine comes out salty”. The only solution I see to this dilemma is to give up my life and dream to go fix the problem, get salty. Dread. Not what I signed up for but if someone kills my dream in my reality then before long not having one is the same result and giving it up to save it for everyone else. Please wish me well.