Nature's Natural Nuance

It was a beautiful winter day yesterday, and for Michigan, warm. 39 degrees with plenty of snow. So I went with my friend Catherine and her dog Lebowski to Maybury State Park in Northville, MI for a romp through the trails. Almost 1000 acres of rolling hills and mature forests. Figured a robust one-hour walk should do us.



Apparently the state park had their funding cut - none of the trails were groomed, like they have been every year since I've been going there for the past twenty years. So we followed footprints and talked non-stop, Lebowski peeing on every third rock or tree.


And with Catherine an hour seems like twenty minutes. She's a very interesting person. At about an hour and a half I started looking around and realized I kinda sorta knew where we were, but not for certain. I checked my watch - 2:30p, so we had plenty of daylight.


At two hours, walking through a foot of snow, ducking under tree branches, I couldn't stop laughing. Every "Mother Macree" from Catherine made me laugh. And now Lebowski was still lifting his leg on the rocks and trees but he had nothing left. And I realized in this over-connected, wired for everything, networked-each-second world, we were lost. No humans, no technology, just snow, trees, and our companionship.


It felt great. And humbling. Nature in charge. So I pulled out a couple granola bars I had, we sat down on a tree branch (too deep in the forest for any benches), and ate our granola, Lebowski on Catherine's lap. Lebowski got his share.


And then we got up and headed off again. A couple trails travelled twice. Looking at the sun for direction, we went intuitively on our way, and eventually picked up a trail I knew. And eventually saw other people. We sat on a bench, relaxing after our 3-hour adventure. When you see an 8-year old girl in a pink 'Hello Kitty' coat you know you're back in civilization.


Catherine travels well. At our deepest lostness, nary a complaint. She was fun. And she wasn't going to need to go to Bally's after. Lebowski had a ball, probably slept like a log last night.
Legs still humming, I relished the retreat deep into nowhere.

Another Practice Run...

A first 'pre-date' get-together for a coffee.

That moment, when your drinks are done, the bill's paid, and you both know there won't be a second get-together.

You then start noticing all the other people in the restaurant. Focus shifts.


Polite wistfulness, brave smiles.

And you get up and leave together, as single as when you came in.

Oz is Alive and Well...

...and located at ACN. I was introduced to the company by a friend of mine. Their HQ used to be here in Farmington Hills, MI, so I knew of them for years. They moved to North Carolina a year or two ago.


Telecommunications products and services through multi-level marketing. My friend, his wife, and three other guys met at a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant with a 'Top ACN Guy' who moved here from the East Coast to build up a Michigan team. It's interesting that they don't have a team already here, since their HQ was in Michigan for ten years. I know not one person who uses ACN products or services...


This morning I attended a training/recruiting meeting of 80-100 people in a very nice Marriott meeting room. ACN people were walking all around in their ill-fitting suits, front and back of the room.


The meeting started off with brand-new ACN recruits who are doing wildly well. All seven of them. They had put on suits for the occasion, too, although you could tell several were not regular suit-wearers. I could almost see the tags still sewn into the sleeves.


Then the Top ACN Guy we met at the restaurant got up and boy what a great speaker. Truly. Self-effacing, smart, funny, touching. His suit fit well, he got people laughing loudly, clapping, ooh-ahhing. He was very good.


He went into a lot of detail, but always lingering behind the PowerPoint slides was the smell of "this is easy and very very profitable". Say it loud, preacher. We want to believe!


You don't need a degree. You don't need any experience. Just $499, plus a $100 phone, plus personally paying for a trip to San Diego, CA for training, and you are in business, my friend! Oh, and friends and family. Or, people who you know that would like a chance to make more money.

You do know people who would like to make more money easily, right?


Get rich quick. You coax a group of friends and family to come to your house one evening, say, 20-30 people, and the recruiting begins. If your friends and family ask you what's it about, you tell them you are evaluating an opportunity in technology and you'd like them to help you evaluate it. If they ask you what kind of opportunity, you are to say "I don't know". Don't lose them coming by giving them info - let the top guy fill them in once they're in your living room.


The Top ACN Guy explained we didn't have to do anything. He would come personally and do the deal. You pretty much had to open your living room up, along with a box of crackers and Cheez-Whiz (not food, this is business), put the soft music on, get rid of the dog and the kids, have plenty of pens and applications, and 'Top Guy' would do the rest.


And remember, turn the soft music back on after the presentation. Very important. Many recruits have been lost by forgetting to put the music back on. More than likely someone will fill in the silence with "I'm not interested", or "my brother-in-law lost his house with this".

We were told that's not the kind of response you want at the end of the presentation. The music will help, and if someone says no, get their coat and nicely escort them out the door.


Top Guy came to the right state. People in Michigan would stand in a mile-long line for a $40,000 job with benefits, and ACN is saying you have three people working under you, and in months you'll be getting a monthly check for between $3,000 - $7,000. And some ACNer's are getting a $200,000 check a MONTH! That's, let's see...that's... a lot of money a year!


My friend signed up, the two guys that were with me signed up. It's a billion-dollar private company. Attorneys general from several states supposedly support it.


And the clincher. In March, 2009, Donald Trump (who, we were told, tried to buy the company - he was told no thanks and nicely escorted out the door) is going to have the ACN products and services featured on his TV show "The Apprentice". We were told he has an audience of 28 million people.


That's a whole lot more people, in a lot more states, who will be off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of...

Taking a Macro Look in these Micro Times

What if what's happening now - this crumbling, chaotic, continuing catastrophe - is not that at all, but on course with America's evolutionary path?


We are of course, a very young nation, compared to just about everyone else (Zimbabwe aside). But we've been on course every century to move ourselves forward. And there's a pattern if you go 30,000 feet above and look down on the runway of our legacy.


In the 18th century, we created a new nation, shaking off the bonds ruled by royalty. The common man was able to exercise his rights as an individual.


In the 19th century, we re-created our vision through the Civil War, dividing the country, then coming back stronger, and more in line with our original concept of the rights of man.


In the 20th century, we created ourselves as a world power for the first time, following World War II. No more isolationism. We became one of the nations to be reckoned with, a world symbol of democracy, a striking alternative to other forms of government.


And now in the 21st century, we're in the midst of a re-creation. We are so divided as a country, so out of whack with how business is conducted, how money is managed, how property is sold, that we need to re-create many of the underpinnings of our American society.


For the past four American centuries there's been a cycle: Creation, Re-creation, Creation, Re-creation. Every time a person/company/country evolves, it can be a painful process.


But we have to remember, this isn't the first time. We've done it many times before, and we're still standing.


And evolving.