One year ago today: August 23, 2019, why I don’t feel sorry.
Five years ago today: August 23, 2015, wait out the competition.
Nine years ago today: August 23, 2011, not another expert . . .
Random years ago today: August 23, 2008, Wallace’s Theorem.
I insist on a quiet morning, and to relax I’ll record the developments of the past two days, hopefully they represent advancements as well. Self-employment is the very definition of a successful musical career and things get intertwined over here in a hurry. So first, the song we’ve been kicking around. If I forgot to say, it’s a tune we’re writing that is mostly tacky pickup lines. It turns out the lines rarely rhyme and forget iambic pentameter. Here’s what we came up with while working a cryptogram late y’day.
There’s no morning photo, so here’s something from last week. This is a painted mural in downtown Lakeland, FL. It is flat, a 2-D cloth painting, including the girl. That reminds me, Reb went to see a 4-D movie, where the chairs bounce and such. She left early because she could not stop laughing. I must see this, because I believe a return to an era of real computer programming could turn these beginning ventures into something remarkable.
We also entered a convo about the changed business climate. The senseless shutdown (I say the exact same number and type of people will die no matter how they try to slow it down) has irreversibly altered the way it can be. I documented the change as overdue some decades back, that the entire “borrow” and “credit” business format was doomed to failure. For true success you need real equity—and you cannot even calculate that if you owe even one penny to the system. Why? Because the rules of borrowing are constantly changing. Seriously, there is nothing to stop a bank to whom you owe a penny from shutting you down.
I agree with Trump’s statements about over-regulation. Few laws touted to keep the public safe actually do so. It was ostly about centralizing power at the Federal level. The Reb’s point of view is that business cannot startup and operate without credit, but I say it got so bad that by 2000, it took a million dollars (most of it borrowed) to start the most basic of businesses with any hope of success. Even then, it was usually a corporate franchise, not a true backyard beginning.
And I say this jolt is a wake-up call. Too many small businesses, even the purportedly successful ones, were staying small. The rules of expansion somehow worked against most businesses from even opening a second location and the single shop owners I knew lived in a fairly constant state of tension over future earnings. That’s wrong and not the way America is supposed to be. The small start-up should be coddled, not crippled. It is plain wrong to tax a one-man business to bail out corporations.
The tie in here is the drop-shipping concept. I predict the aftermath of this shutdown fiasco, the resurgence to which Trump alludes, will take the form of more business beginnings which shirk borrowed startup capital. Too many got stung—I say those businesses that were permanently shuttered were the ones most reliant on credit and debt. The atmosphere got too thin. Even those shark tank shows that find a winner immediately set about getting rid of him, the idea man.
I say we can start just find on the money we can scrape together on our own. We’ll experience a huge initial drawdown but that is normal. I can budget for that same as anything else. As secretary, I again hold the reins and the use of credit for internal operations would be a hard sell on me. Her mission this week is to find product that can be sold competitively, something that will benefit from the more personal type of pitch we can self-generate. She’s an expert on pt health, for example. I agree, existing pet commericals are million-dollar productions involving professional pet models, but Ididn’t I just said something about that sort of thing. For those who respond to real pet videos and I happen to have some. I emphasize all this is not much more than first-round brainstorming.
Bob’s diner, Kansas.
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The afternoon was undecided, so we decided on a move at the Opry Mill Mall. The choice was “Sonic” but we go there late so I suggested the next movie in line. “Unhinged”. This movie is a must for violence freaks. Starring a newer, fatter, older Russell Crowe and nobody else, not that could act anyway. Don’t bother with this movie unless senseless violence and not much plot are your thing. It breaks no new ground other than some spectacular auto collisions. This photo shows the thanks I get for choosing the wrong movie.
There were plenty of other sub-messages. Like the single parent family scdn, where she tells the kid not to roll down the window and what does he do?. In my family, you made that kind of mistake once. There’s a dig at the American system, with clips about how if you are not rich and good looking, you are nobody. They must think it is better someplace else. And a swipe at institutionalized caring. They take the calls in order regardless of panic. “We have procedures.”
Wait for the DVD. “Unhinged” is violence for violence’s sense. A weak plot, the road rage dude who just got out of the loonie bin. We were on the verge of walking out several times, since once you get the pattern, there are no more surprises. It’s a string of terror movie cliches with second rate acting. We came home and I baked some potatoes. And gave the big dog a bath. It’s hard to decide which was more entertaining.
ADDENDUM
I got myself some admonishment by giving up my solo act. My retort is you can’t say I didn’t try over the past 50 some years. And that’s dedicated, applied effort. Nothing like grabbing the old guitar a couple times a week or useless rehearsal time. It’s more accurate to say I redirected the same effort into realms that produce a more instant results. It’s past the point where being out there is more important that quality. As for quality, I’m based in Polk County. My competition is 13 solo guitar players and a few combos, all playing the same material.
