What's Your Intention This Year?

Happy New Year everyone! It has been an amazing year hasn't it? Bumpy? Yes. It seems as if the world is coming apart at the seams and now we have lost Sean Connery.

But, it is clear to me, if you analyze the news—real news from international sources, not the news we get here in The U.S.A.—we will not be facing an economic recovery any time soon. How can I predict such things? Well The United States is no longer independent of the worlds problems. We are a finely woven tapestry of nations strung together by various socioeconomic and political tides that affect all of us.

If there is an economic problem in Europe, it is just a matter of time before it lands on our shores as well. Article: Europe leaders warn of a difficult 2012

Government austerity has undermined growth
and caused a great deal of anger around Europe.
Photo belongs to AP and BBC.

The riots in Greece over food prices and austerity measures from government pensions will be happening here as well...just a matter of time. More war will break out so we'll need to send more troops. Gold prices will rise even higher along with copper, silver and other raw and precious materials, unemployment will continue to get worse and housing prices will drop.

These predictions are possibilities based on the available facts and events at hand, not theories.

"But Brad, how can you be so sure?"

It is how Keynesian Economics works. Just in case you do not know this, Keynesian Economics is the basis of our economic system here in the United States. More taxes, more printing of money and injecting it into the economy and...sadly, more war. We use a blended version here in the USA, but either way, the rest of the Industrialized Nations have adopted our fiat money system. And when the system has reached critical mass, chaos becomes the norm as government officials sit with economists and try to figure out how to stop the financial meltdown. Prices fluctuate. Hyper-Inflation and deflation go hand in hand as Velocity can no longer be predicted. Banks fail. Businesses fail. Police start ticketing people for little things. Tolls go up. Real estate taxes go up. And good money withdrawals from the system waiting for it to stabilize.

As the Fed prints, prints, prints and spends, spends, spends, it's way out of this mess, your dollars, especially the one you have saved in your 401Ks, pensions and mutual funds will become worth-less, less, and less. Why else do you think people who make over $150,000 a year are struggling? Now imagine how hard it is for people making $8 an hour? It is IMPOSSIBLE to live when the value of every dollar you save gets destroyed. It is a form of stealing.

John Maynard Keynes himself ABANDONED his own work at the end of his life stating that it would cause the economic collapse of any nation that adopted his ideas. But as Richard Maybury pointed out in his newsletters and books, a recession is actually a sustained depression, CAUSED by government intervention and meddling.

So until we get leaders in office that get this, our future will be incredibly bumpy for the next 5 to 10 years.

So what do you do? I say use the spiritual story of Trust in God, BUT Tie Up Your Camel...which is about taking as much responsibility as you can and let the rest go so you can enjoy life. In other worlds, after you prepare for life, stop worrying.

Ups and downs are a part of life. It is how we learn. Why else are you alive, living in a physical body, in the country you are in and the family you have been born into? You think that is some sort of accident? You are here to learn. And I hate to say it, stop with New Years Resolutions...it's like trying to fix symptoms instead of tackling the problem head on.

Instead, prepare for the worst, fix what you can, pay off all debts and stock up on what you think you will need. THEN take a look at my list of cool ideas it just might be time to do.

Brad's Cool List of Things To Do in 2012:

1) Start a Business on a shoe string budget

A friend of mine started a company with $50...he now bills out
over $5 million a year!!!

2) Save Money by moving in with Family

Suck it up, your family loves you despite what your therapist has you believe.

3) Spend some time with that friend you've been meaning to visit
Don't be cheap...bring a bottle of wine, or a DVD of some movie they said they loved but never bought.

4) Commit to volunteering once a week

Nothing makes you feel like you are alive like giving back to life like serving those less fortunate.

BTW: That goes for those of you who are volunteering too much.

Ask yourself "from what you are trying to escape?"

5) Cook a big dinner and invite neighbors over

Even the ones you don't like.

6) Take in a seminar on something you have always wanted to do

Like how to write a book or public speaking or how to start a business in your home.

7) Forgive your enemies ...but more importantly, forgive yourself

8) Get off the computer and go outside...

If missing your "friends" status update will traumatize you, you may need to get a life. They aren't going anywhere. IF you miss someone's updated status, I am sure your life will be fulfilled without it.

Look, there are people in wheelchairs and laying in hospital beds who rely on the Internet and their Social Network for a sense of connection to real people. They cannot go outside. Some operate the internet with voice commands because they cannot move from the neck down. Without it, they would truly be alone.

If you are not one of these people, shut the computer off and get some fresh air.

9) Watch less Television

Want to kill productivity and add to your procrastination?
(Note to Self: Stop watching The Twilight Zone all day)

10) Laugh more

This may require you to actively seek out funny comedies, positive friends and choosing to smile instead of frowning. And remember, there are people out there who actually like being miserable. Ignore them.

11) Read a book on a subject you can't stand
Like economics. Or read my book. I read 30 books and interviewed hundreds so you don't have to.

12) Make a commitment to be more positive

This is about emotional control...do some research on Emotional IQ studies.
Tony Robbins has some great stuff on it in Awaken The Giant Within.(note to self: be more positive in 2012)

13) Try Reverse Mentorship

I tell people in my corporate programs to do this and I am passing it on to you. Whether you like it or not, younger generations are on the cutting edge of more than technology... they are on the cutting edge of methodologies, invention and thinking. Notice it is the youth who are at the forefront of those global protests?

Commit to having coffee once a month with someone younger than you to pick their brain and listen to trends and changes. Do it before you are out of a job. 

14) Make love more often

Notice I didn't say have more sex, although that will be the end result of your attempts at romance. Try it. It isn't always about you all the time.

And last but not least...

15) Spend more time with yourself communing with God

Whatever your belief —TM, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Jedi, or Ancient Aliens, do SOMETHING this year on a consistent basis that connects to your belief in God or a higher power. You will be richer in spirit for it, less angry and less of a jerk.

It's worked wonders on me;-) LOL. Although some people would disagree with that one.

And on a side note, people who meditate on a consistent basis age slower. Just an FYI for the ladies.

I hope that helps. I will commit this year to being more funny, less serious, and to blog more. We have some pretty cool things happening here at Brad Szollose Worldwide and I'll share those wins as much as I can.

Thank you all for following my blog, videos and meanderings on Facebook and Twitter. To a 2012 of personal prosperity and spiritual growth. Ignore the negative, accentuate the positive, listen to your inner nudges and take action.

The very best to all of you this year...

Brad Szollose

Brad is the award winning, international bestselling author of Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia: Multigenerational Management Ideas That Are Changing The Way We Run Things ISBN-13: 978-1608320554

"I just had my mind blown..." - A.S., Vistage, New York

Have Laptop. Will Travel.

"....how will you manage productivity or necessary face time or even morale when your staff is spread out over five continents? Technology is the answer— or rather, those who can handle the technology and people at the same time are. Perhaps those who were raised on this technology would be the managers best able to understand its potential? Or its reach?

Back in 2007, to get a greater grasp of Gen Y, I decided to do some research that was off the beaten path. I took a flight from LaGuardia Airport, New York, to Madison, Wisconsin, to attend the third annual Games + Learning + Society conference, or GLS 3.0, a three-day get together of the best innovations and discussions between academia and game designers. The key discussion was about how to create teaching games that could be used in the classroom—from kindergarten to college.

This may sound like silly nonsense until you begin to realize that every computer’s graphical user interface is based on the intuitive design learned from the use of gaming technology. From your ATM to your MacBook or PC, from your iPhone to your cable television remote and onscreen interface— all have been designed and influenced by the video game interface. It is information architecture at its best.

Now here’s an idea of how gaming technology will be applied to the future of teaching. Imagine taking a city-planning and economics course in college using a Sim City– style simulator to track taxation, capital improvements, bureaucracy overhead, and labor factors within the model.

This type of simulation along with task-and-reward model is already being utilized in more progressive schools and is the central ideology of the GLS conference. How can games be used to teach or to implement dangerous tasks, or, in general, be integrated into our everyday life?

Self-running simulations and simulators all come under the heading of Serious Games, and it is changing the way we work. Remote robotic units can be sent into extremely dangerous situations and locales: a battlefield, a bomb disarming, and a scientific analysis of volcanoes, or the surface of Mars. If you think this is some future you will never see in your lifetime, think again; remote surgery is already being performed using this type of technology right now."

- Excerpted from Liquid Leadership, page 73

This type of work is no longer in the realm of science fiction. It is fact. so when you decide to head back to college to upgrade those Boomer skills ask yourself "will what I am pursuing be obsolete...replaced by a machine, an interface or an open source website?"

We are in an age when everything will be shaken up...

"Riding the Wave of Radical Disruption
During the Industrial Revolution, profession after profession shifted completely or, in many cases, was completely wiped out due to new ways of working and the technological influences of new inventions.

Case in point: With the invention of photography, an artist’s responsibility shifted. Before photography, an artist’s “job” was part historian, part archivist— an illustrator of our day-to-day existence, sketching history in stunning, realistic portrayals as it was happening. But as the camera took over their jobs, artists began to paint in a new way, and thus Impressionism was born. The change didn’t kill portrait painting or archival quality sketches. It only opened up what being an artist meant. Seurat, Gauguin, Matisse, Caisson, Van Gogh, Modigliani, and Toulouse Lautrec opened the doors for the likes of Picasso, Dali, and Pollack. 

I am sure the transition was scary, but it was necessary.

It wasn’t just artists and craftsmen who felt the impact of the technological explosions of the Industrial Revolution. Horse-and-buggy companies such as Studebaker transitioned nicely into automobile manufacturers, while those that resisted watched their market shrink, eventually driving them out of business. The new era was forcing changes regardless of who was on board.

A similar shakeup is happening today as we transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Just as electricity in the home and office changed not only how we worked, but also when and where we worked— marking the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of high-rise buildings and elevators into our working lives—the technology of the Information Revolution will do the same. Digital pictures of people working in cubicles will be soooo twentieth century."

— Liquid Leadership, page 250

We are becoming a constantly on the go culture...no longer defined by a physical location, but by our laptops and WiFi connection. Scary but exciting at the same time.


Thanks for reading,

Brad Szollose

The Future of Television

My wife and I used to have a Friday night ritual: she would order the best Chinese food in Manhattan from Charlie Mom and we would plop down on our living room couch and watch The SciFi Channel 'til midnight.

Back in those days SciFi had a show on called Farscape starting at 9:00 PM followed by Stargate SG1 (based on the movie Stargate with James Spader). They would repeat the same 2 shows over and over 'til 1:00 AM. Now I know some of you are rolling your eyes "Great, another science fiction geek talking about some nerdy show." and THAT would be your big mistake.

So... "what's the big deal Brad, it was just a television show?"

Let me explain: I live in Manhattan. The heart of New York City. I stayed home on a Friday night to watch what most would consider a stupid science fiction show. But the reason I liked Farscape was because it was a damn good show, and it was neatly scheduled at the end of the week. So, every Friday I could have some alone time with my wife...we could catch up on our day, watch some silly TV that allowed us to escape for a few hours from the hustle bustle of New York City and then lazily fall asleep.

And I wasn't the only person rescheduling my life for this...millions were tuning in on Fridays to watch Farscape, SciFi number one rated show.

But for some weird reason, after a multitude of programming glitches, they canceled it in the middle of the 4th season!!! No reruns. No reasoning. No explanation. That's right, they canceled their cash cow because (they claim) it was too expensive to produce!

You can get the complete story at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farscape 

Ratings were not the issue, after all, a regular person doesn't choose to watch Science Fiction. This is a niche channel. If execs at the top believe their channel could get the same ratings as say CBS on a Monday night, they are delusional.

The SCiFi Channel shut up the Farscape fans with a 2 night 4 hour follow up to the series called Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. 

But my point to this article is that when leaders at the very top of an organization are disconnected from their customers, they can make some pretty erratic decisions. Their actions reflect their hubris: they do not respect their customers.

And because of that, SciFi lost my loyalty

Look, television runs like any other business and since I know it so well, I use it as an example in my books and lectures. And like any other business it works on a model: create a captive audience, give them great content and try to sell 'em something while you have their attention. Television believe it or not is not about the shows...it is about trapping a captive audience in front of the screen so advertisers can run commercials.

Nothing makes sense, unless you know what to look for. Our system here in the United States works on ratings. How many people are watching at a given time of day. So every channel is hustling to attract viewers to their particular channel. Competition is stiff. From 8 PM to 11:00 PM is considered Prime Time viewing...at least it used to be. When ratings dip below a certain amount, a television show is in danger of being canceled...but this tactic seems to be arbitrary and unscientific...and old fashioned. The company that usually tracks viewership is the Nielsen Company. They measure and track everything from radio and television to book and magazine sales.

And here is where executives are making their big disconnect: there is a division in your audience right now. That division is between Baby Boomers (raised on TV...who like to sit down while being entertained) and Generation Y, who is NOT really watching television, (if they do watch TV, it is not at any specific time). This is the generation that likes their media on the go...to download their favorite TV show to watch on a bus or train or airplane. If they watch at all. They like interactivity and Reality TV, and UFC fight nights and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In other words, to attract Gen Y to your show, you've got to be over the top. But once a show is off, they shut off the TV and start using one or two of the 6 other devices they can use for entertainment.

Over the past 25 years our media habits have changed gradually without us knowing it - especially from generation to generation. My Dad's generation - The Depression Era and WWII generation - enjoy radio, newspapers, magazines, television, records, books and movies as their source for news and entertainment. Baby Boomers media habits are similar but center more around television, magazines, books, rock concerts and movie theaters. Generation X & Y on the other hand get their media news and entertainment from The Internet, DVDs, smartphones, video games, YouTube, Twitter, Hulu, and online games like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Television is very rarely on Generation Y's radar. You are more likely to see a 24 year old having a Rock Band party on Saturday night than inviting friends over to watch TV.

Ever wonder why reality shows like American Chopper, Dancing With The Stars and Ice Road Truckers are so popular? Or intense dramas like Sons of Anarchy, The Closer and Dexter? These shows are luring viewers because they are really well done. Who is taking the time to sit down and actually watch these shows for several hours at a time? Baby Boomers.

It makes no sense, but people have no time to actually sit down at a specific time of day. That is a last century model. People have more important things to do with their time. Our media needs to catch up with us and be available when the customer wants it...on demand. Those in charge of programming have to figure out what TV means in the 21st Century. Sure sporting events will always attract an audience that wants the game "live" in real time...but the rest needs to be delivered when the customer says so. Tivo, video on demand and Netflix have done excellent jobs at using technology to reach us.

Next, our ratings system needs to be changed. Shows need time to attract an audience. Remember, it took Seinfeld 3 years to get a decent audience. Today he wouldn't have lasted 3 episodes.

And finally, figure out if your channel is geared for Boomers, Gen Y or the WWII generation. MTV knows their audience. The History Channel knows their audience too...but, Ice Road Truckers could run on any network.

That's because the shows are brands...
NOT the channel.

If you disappoint your customer, we look elsewhere. Treat us well and you get our loyalty...loyalty Generation Y does not have. They have other cool things to do, watch or instant message on.

Over the years since The SciFi Channel canceled Farscape, they did bring us a few well made hits like Dune: the miniseries, Tin Man (a revisit to the Wizard of Oz) the New Dr. Who?, The Children of Dune, Firefly, even Stargate got better and better in the writing, and created 3 more spin offs.

And finally, a down and dirty, grittier revision of Battlestar Galactica (a.k.a. BSG). This is NOT the Battlestar Galactica of the Baby Boomers childhood with Lorne Green...this was an intense series about the possible end of the human race. They brought in Edward James Olmos to play Adama. Even non-science fiction types started watching it.

And then SciFi did it again. Weird gaps in programming. BSG would come on for 6 episodes then disappear for 4 months. No warning. No reruns, until a week before the new episodes. Then Canceled. A big miniseries finale to shut up the fans. BTW: Ratings for the show dropped because no on knew when it would be on (no one reads TV Guide anymore), once again, the fans suffered.

Last year The SciFi Channel decided they wanted to change their image because of the negative image of the science fiction geek. Whoever did this marketing survey should have been fired because the SciFi channel spent millions to relaunch as the meaningless SyFy Channel with the tag line "imagine greater." (yawn). They wanted to target 18 - 24 year old's when their audience is in their 40s. What a disconnect.

The only good thing they did do last year was create another gritty prequel to Battlestar Galactica called Caprica...but , and this is the stranger thing about this SyFy Channel...they never give reruns of any of their most popular shows? Why I ask? They only run reruns when attempting to get us excited about a new set of episodes. They are missing out on a huge untapped market.

Look it's simple: give us Boomers gritty shows, middle aged sitcoms and the occasional odd ball idea and we will watch...and you will have a hit. Why do you think Modern Family, Burn Notice and Fringe are so popular? BOOMERS who watch TV...on a television set!!! Hell we'll even sit down and watch a family show with our kids...like Glee or 90210. But please, learn about your audience!!! If your audience is made up of Boomers, give em middle aged dramas and comedies we can relate to. If you're audience is Gen Y, give 'em outrageous reality shows like Jackass, Gossip Girl and another Keeping Up with the Kardashians styled show.

Know your audience...oh, and Boomers like reruns. Especially when it comes to science fiction and Julia Roberts. Conan O'Brien is a Gen X & Y brand...no mystery why his show bombed in a Boomer time slot.


Thank you again, sorry for the rant;-) LOL...

Brad Szollose

What Happened to The Future?

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene A. Cernan makes a short
checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early part of
the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow
landing site. Courtesy of NASA Image of The Day.

Most Boomers remember this from our childhood: We were promised that in the year 2000, technology was supposed to solve everything.

By now I was supposed to be living in a domed city on the moon and flying to work with a jet pack.

I point this out in Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia on page 1...

"Imagine a little boy sitting on the floor of his family’s living room, watching television. He is fascinated by a live broadcast—in black and white, of course; the flickering image on the screen is of a man in a space suit, descending a ladder. Anyone alive today knows that image: the first man landing on the moon. It was 1969, and two men were actually standing on another world more than 250,000 miles away. It was the beginning of a new era.

Imagine being that young boy. Everything in his world promised a future where men and women could travel to the farthest corners of the galaxy. This wasn’t science fiction or an overactive imagination; all across America, television shows and the media were all telling him, This is going to happen. His toys were about the future. Theaters were putting out a barrage of movies to tell him about the future: The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Omega Man, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green (was Charlton Heston busy back then or what?). There were British shows too, like Dr. Who, Space: 1999, and UFO. Eventually, THX-1138, Star Trek, and Star Wars would also make it to the big screen.

In the future, the young boy would be able to work in a domed city on the moon, use a flying car or a jet pack to fly to work, and have a business meeting in a floating satellite encircling Earth. His teachers were telling him so. His parents were telling him. Even his scoutmaster was telling him. There was proof—now “astronaut” was a job title, and there he was, driving a jeep on the moon.

This future was going to happen . . . it was real . . . it was just a matter of time.

Well, if you haven’t guessed it by now, that little boy was me. And if you were anything like me, by the time you grew into adulthood, a tiny part of you still expected that future they promised—a world where technology would be the support structure, seamlessly integrated into our lives. By the year 2000, technology was going to solve all our problems. We were also warned about the future. If we didn’t keep up, we would be feeling a sense of overwhelming anxiety, what Alvin and Heidi Toffler called “future shock.”

Currently our country is going through a bumpy ride.  Our economy barely has a pulse...(even after Black Friday and the Christmas rush), our school system needs an overhaul, geopolitics are heating up, and Baby Boomers are wondering: What the Hell Happened?

Plain and simple, Generation Y is the generation that was actually prepared for the future, whereas us Baby Boomers were told about the future, and what to prepare for. If you think Gen Y is about to grow up, have kids and get a mortgage, you are mistaken. They have a skill set that most corporations are in desperate need of...and the idea of working their way up the corporate ladder is a strange paradigm to them. Instead, they believe in running the company before the age of 30 while skipping the entire linear idea of a career.

If you need to understand how to survive and remain employable, I suggest you pick up my book. If you don't want to take the plunge just yet, here is a FREE chapter for you to ponder your future: Just click on the image and download the PDF.

Now I want you to understand, I am not trying to promote me, me, me...I am a Boomer, and what I am trying to do is get the word out through my writing. The entire reason I wrote Liquid Leadership was I started to realize that my fellow Boomers had no idea that there was a storm coming. A storm that if they did not keep up, would leave them out of a job.

Please let me know if my work is relevant to you, and what needs more. I encourage all your stories from the front lines of leadership. After all, leadership is about adapting to change.

Thank you,

Brad Szollose