The Last Christmas With Sexy Hot Russian Babes!? Vladimir Putin and WWIII With Russia?

ENTRY: Dec. 13, 2017 5 am. 

I'm in the territory formerly known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, affectionately known as Soviet Russia; today? The Russian Federation. 

I wake up early again just like every day. It is very cold. Is this all a dream? I am in the Russian Republic, captivated at a 5-Star hotel in Sochi Russia named "Отель Арфа-Парк." (That's Arfa Park Hotel for all you illiterates.) And there are beautiful women everywhere, and the food is free. I am here at the world famous "Sochi International Film Festival & Awards" event. 

It is the best film festival in all of Russia! (https://www.facebook.com/SochiFilmAwards/)

Oh, and did I say that the Arfa Park Hotel is a really nice luxury hotel?

On the way to some film screenings, yesterday, one of the Russian film directors asked how I liked Sochi. I said, "The people are friendly. Russia is really nice."

"Sochi isn't Russia. You need to go to Moscow." He said as he demonically laughed with his friends. I felt a tinge of danger in Moscow.... It must be different... Why? Because if I were sitting in my hotel here in Sochi, and you didn't tell me where I was, I couldn't really tell it apart from a top hotel in Hawaii, or Thailand, London or Tokyo.

With Tim

Yesterday, I sat and had dinner with four young Russians who live outside of Russia. I talked and ate with Tim (I think his real name is Timovenitch) and Yuri (Yuri is his real name) and Dennis (I won't even attempt to tell you what his real name is) and an awesome Russian babe named Larisa... (I'll try to get a picture of Larisa today... That is, if my smartphone doesn't melt while attempting to take her photo.)

These four people are all about 25 ~ 30-years-old. They are all extremely intelligent and fluent bi-linguals - two of them tri-linguals. As is often the case when meeting foreigners, for a moment, we talked the boring subject of politics.

After just a few minutes, I realized that these people were far and away much more knowledgeable (and realistic) than many of my Super-Hero comic-book reading, TV watching countrymen. 

I was relieved and pleasantly surprised.

Later, I'd talk to my world-traveler, Jet-Setter American movie director friend Stephen David Brooks, who succinctly summed it up, "Yes. It would seem that the more one travels, the more the realization that people all over the world are basically the same. It's the governments that mess things up."

He's right. And that was the crux of the message from the young Russians who have traveled and now live in foreign countries.

What do I want to say here? In a nutshell. I want to say that there is no way we should ever have a war with the Russians. 

EVIDENCE #1: Look at this photo: This is a photo of a red carpet cinema event for the Sochi Film Festival just like we have in Hollywood. But! With a huge difference. Just look at those two walking up there! We can't go to war with these people! In America, we have Disneyland and everything, but in Russia, they have the real fricking Snow White and Cinderella* living there! I wouldn't be surprised to find out that A.A. Milne's "Hundred Acre Wood" is actually named "Hundred Hectare People's Community Forest" and is really located somewhere near Kursk and that Winnie the Pooh actually holds a Russian passport and his real last name is Poohkovik! 

What kind of savage animals could bomb Snow White or Cinderella? Not me. Could we ever even conceive of droning Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy at Disneyland? No way! (*In America, that Snow White & Cinderella at Disneyland isn't the real Snow White or Cinderella, they are SAG-AFTRA models/dancers. In Russia, they have the real thing.)

There are Coca-Cola signs everywhere here in Russia. This is at some little Mom and Pop owned diner down the street from the hotel. All the stores sell this stuff... Judging from that, the war was over a long time ago.

Holy Balaclava! Hot Russian babe and bottle of vodka? Could there possibly be any two better reasons against war than that? "Hot Russian babe + bottle of vodka." Case rests, your honor.

Basic reasons to never have a war with the Russians:

1) Basically, they are just like us.

2) There are lots of hot babes. 

3) They seem to be pretty tolerant of religion and I gather mostly Christians as I am seeing Christmas shit everywhere.

Christmas tree in hotel lobby. Cute girl waves from behind the counter.

4) They have, McDonald's, Burger King, Coca Cola as well as giant-assed Snickers bars, Kit Kat, M&Ms and all sorts of the same stuff we have.

Yes. That's what you think it is.

5) They have gone Japan crazy too. They even have Karaoke. Yes. You read that correctly: THE RUSSIANS HAVE KARAOKE TOO! 

6) Oh, and speaking of Christmas... Just another BIG reason we can never go to war with the Russian people and that they are just like us; Not only have they have imported all the things we love in the west: Junk food, junk culture and they have Christmas commercialism and giving presents too (or were they first?) But not only THAT, ladies and gentlemen, probably the worst thing that they ever imported from the west, and you'll be able to relate to the untold suffering this has brought upon those poor Russian brothers and sisters of ours, is that at Christmas, they have to suffer listening to that God-damned Wham song "Last Christmas" over and over just like we do!!!! Hell on earth. 

What hath we wrought???????

My friends, we must make forever lasting peace with these good Russian people.... Not only do they eat Whoppers, Big Macs with fries, eat shit like Snickers bars and drink Coca-cola, they must endure listening to Wham every Christmas like we do in the west!!!!

We simply cannot make war on these wonderful people. They listen to Wham's "Last Christmas"!!!!??? Haven't we made these people suffer enough?

Russian beauty singing in front of a bar that offers Karaoke. She was so sweet and nice. Maybe I'll go there tonight and sing Russian Karaoke songs?

NOTE: Some of you alert readers might be saying, "Wait a minute! Mike mentioned Valdimir Putin in the title of this article!" Some might remember my post from last week: The Russian Embassy, Vladimir Putin, Natasha and Me - Another True Story (https://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.ru/2017/12/the-russian-embassy-vladimir-putin.html)

I wrote: 

"In September, I went to Raindance Film Festival in London and met my hero Johnny Rotten, former lead vocalist of the Sex Pistols... 

Now, in December, I am going to Russia. Can I meet my other hero, Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation? I think so. Yes! 

My wife said, "That's crazy. You can't compare a punk like Johnny Rotten to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia!" 

She's right, I suppose. Johnny Rotten has been famous for 40 years!"

So, I have been trying to arrange to meet Putin every day since I've been here. I have even learned the phrase in Russian, "I want to meet Vladimir Putin." "Я хочу встретиться с Владимиром Путиным." (YA khochu vstretit'sya s Vladimirom Putinym.)

You probably won't believe me, but my friends who know me well will not be too surprised that I am walking around and saying to people I meet "I want to meet Vladimir Putin" (besides "Good morning" = "Doubra utroa.")

Some Russians laugh. Others just look at me funny.

BUT! Yesterday, one guy told me his best friend is a friend of Putin's... See? Now I am only two or three people away from meeting Vlad and drinking vodka shots with the dude for world peace!

I have 4 more days in Russia to meet Valdimir Putin....Destiny will not be denied!

POST NOTE: Just now, at breakfast, I asked some people if it were possible for me to drink vodka with the Russian Mafia. The security guys all seem like they could be mafia, but if they are, they are strangely missing tattoos. He told me, "No. They are not mafia. But they are all ex-KGB agents. The boss is a formerly high ranking Russian General who won one of Russia's highest military honors."

He pointed me to the guy.... Aha! So that's why he is wearing a suit with a giant red star medal on it! 

I think I can go drinking vodka with these guys tonight. Now I know someone who has met or may even know know Putin personally... The trail grows warmer!

Stay tuned. 

Moving to Japan? Beware of the Culture Shock! Oh, and the Tentacles!

I have a friend whose son is moving to Japan. We've been having some correspondence and I really want to help my friend's son get acclimated and become successful in the Land of the Rising Sun (Gee, does that mean I have to immediately take him out every night getting so drunk we can barely walk home and have him start smoking two packs of cigarettes everyday within the first two days? No! That can wait at least a week or two!)

Seriously, I want to help any way I can so I thought I should bring up a nasty subject and that is about Culture Shock.

Here's what I wrote to my friend:

Culture shock can really screw people up. Years ago, I was the liasion between foreigners and the Japanese management for a big company in Tokyo. We had about 480 foreign staff. From that experience, I've seen people just totally and completely fall apart. Really.

It really hits people when they become ill with the flu or something. It happened to me!

I got the flu one time and was sick as a dog... All I wanted was to have for breakfast two eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice... That's not asking a lot, is it? Well, in Japan, it was... 

I got the two eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice, but it's not the same in Japan as it is in the United States. I know that this is difficult to understand, but trust me, there is no restaurant or person in this country that can make bacon and eggs like mom can... For one, mom isn't here in Japan and for two, even the bacon and the eggs, toast and juice are different.

Really. They are. You have a very hard time finding a restaurant in Japan (that's not inside a major hotel) that  makes bacon and eggs like you get in the states (even inside a major hotel, I think you have trouble...) In Japan, they don't know how to cook an egg over-easy or over-medium; In Japan, the toast is sliced massively thick (or too thin) and they often cut the crusts off (Sure, Wonder Bread sucks, but when you're sick and longing for home style food, it sounds "Wonder-ful" (Sorry for the pun!)); and the bacon? Nope. No way. There is no such thing as a slice of crispy bacon in all of Japan... I know. I checked...

Hell, the bacon is different so it's even hard to make bacon at your Japanese apartment that is like the bacon mom makes! 

And juice? You kiddin' me? My episode was in the late 1970s so it is much better now. Back in the late 1970s there was no such thing as what Americans call "juice" - meaning something like 100% fresh squeezed or even concentrate - back then "juice", in Japan, meant something like Fanta Orange Juice.

Really. All I WANTED WAS A SIMPLE GLASS OF JUICE AND THEY BROUGHT ME SOMETHING LIKE FANTA ORANGE! THAT'S NOT JUICE!  I wanted to scream! :-@ #$!!@| :-@ !!!!Z>?}! How hard could it be to get a simple glass of juice?

Well, in 1979 Japan, impossible!

"You're sick and want eggs and bacon just like mom made for breakfast? You poor baby... Well, we don't have that, but how about some nice tentacles, instead?"

That seemingly benign episode of the flu with no eggs and bacon like mom makes set me off on a deep Culture Shock experience too! 

When living in Japan if Culture Shock sets in - then if the person doesn't come out of it relatively quickly - I've seen them fall into serious clinical depression. If that happens, they are finished.... I've seen that happen more times than I can count...

One time, there was a guy who came here from Iowa (or was it Illinois?) and within 3 weeks, he was in serious depression and we had to send him back to the USA. Why? When he got here, he thought he was going to see a Japan that had Samurai and geisha running around (no joke) and so, when he arrived, and saw a big city and business people in suits, it freaked him out.

You can't make this stuff up. I remember seeing my face in his one morning when he was bursting at the seems and complaining about not being able to get a decent steak and eggs breakfast in Tokyo and insisting that I take him to a McDonald's (there were only a few in 1984) so that he could at least get some pancakes. he said he wanted a "Home cooked meal!" I wondered what kind of home he was from if McDonald's pancakes were his idea of "home-cooked"!

Your son won't be that bad, of course (I trust). But I HIGHLY recommend that he familiarize himself with Culture Shock, what it is and its symptoms, so he can expect it and know what's happening when it comes and be more able to deal with it. I knew about it so I think that helped me from not becoming more of a psychotic than I already am.

Heck, I have a friend whose younger brother came here and he lived with Japanese people all his life... He even had a Japanese mom! And he had seriously bad culture shock for at least three months.... And I know he was so incapacitated and depressed that he missed work for several weeks. I don't know what happened to him.

You son (and dear reader) will be better off if he understands that he will have Culture Shock like everyone else does.... In fact, if he understands it and expects it, it might bounce off him like rain on a duck!

And that was basically the letter. 

I hope my friend's son come to Japan and does well. I love this place and have never regretted moving here. 

If you decide to come to Japan to live please do yourself a favor and at least get a cursory understanding of Culture Shock and be ready for it when it comes. That way, you'll understand what is happening and it will just be another part of the experience.

For a humorous article on the same subject, may I recommend this? Five Things They Never Tell You About Living in Japan

Dinner is served!

Dedicated to my friends, Mark Davis and Shea Davis

Random Thoughts on Monday Morning: Toilet Paper, McDonald's, Coffee, David Bowie - Can You Find the Correlation?....

Thought #1: Toilet paper. 

It's strange, but I often think about toilet paper. I think many Japanese people might. I know people in Greece and Venezuela are thinking about it all the time, especially right now.

Did you know that, even today, many Japanese people are hoarding toilet paper? My evidence is anecdotal, for sure, but I know three families who have a few months of toilet paper stored up. 

We are one of them. There must be many many more.

Remember when I told you that Japanese people hoard toilet paper because there have been several times in modern history when it was completely gone for months on end? Yes, in 1979, when there was an oil shock, I have heard many stories from Japanese people that toilet paper was a commodity that could not be found anywhere. And that situation lasted for months. People were using old newspapers for the duties.

How could one of the world's top economies not have toilet paper? (Well, we have a problem with butter, so that may be a clue.... See: Economic Illiteracy and How Japan is Responsible for the Destruction of the Western Economies) 

Well, now, here is that "No Toilet Paper" threat in Greece (of all places). From Keep Talking Greece: "ND-candidate “sees” even toilet paper shortage, if SYRIZA wins the elections" 

"If SYRIZA wins the elections and forms a government on Monday Greeks will run will run out of toilet paper. This is what ND-candidate Sofia Voultepsi implied just 48 hours before the elections.

“Bank run” vs “toilet paper run”?"

Well, it looks like Syriza won the elections.  I figure that there is a toilet paper shortage coming all over Europe as EU bureaucrats are about to start shitting their pants because they are going to all be out of jobs soon enough. 

Good.

I mentioned this toilet paper shortage stuff to my friend Jeff Berwick and he tells me the exact same thing is going on in Venezuela; no toilet paper.

I suspect that this toilet paper problem is representative of a larger problem (of course) that has something to do with distribution, corruption (maybe) and government interference with the free market (of course). I mean, it's not like toilet paper is perishable, is it? How could there be a shortage (excepting that all of a sudden there are more people shitting their pants? There certainly is no sudden increase in the number of assholes....)

I think it is even weirder to have a toilet paper shortage in Japan because, as the Japanese are world famous for high-tech toilets, lots of people have toilets with washlets built in. We do. 

Why my wife wants to buy tons of toilet paper? We have a 1/2 year supply downstairs... No kidding. 

Thought #2: McDonald's. 

McDonald's is doing very badly in Japan: Plastics in food. human teeth in french fries... And it's not just Japan, in the UK a woman found "A worm in Chicken McNuggets."

That's disgusting, but the story is funny and shows how stupid people are. The woman was quoted as saying, "'I'm very fussy about what I eat and when I saw what was in the McNugget I went white."

She's fussy about what she eats, yet she was eating at McDonald's????

We live in a world with LOTS of stupid people.

Thought #3: Coffee

I used to eat McDonald's many years ago.... But stopped for my health about 15 years ago. I do like McDonald's coffee though. In fact, my favorite coffee is 7-11 coffee at ¥100 or McDonald's coffee at ¥120. I refuse to pay Starbucks ¥500 (about $5.00) for a cup of hot water and crushed coffee beans! 

7-11 is the best deal. But with McDonald's I can sit down inside. So that's good. I never eat the other McDonald's stuff.

But I no longer eat any fast food at all anymore. 

Thought #4: What Do These Things Have in Common?

Well, this is a stretch, but here goes....

Did you know that, in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan came in third on total medal count and gold medals after the USA and the Soviet Union? That's right; Japanese used to be an Olympic powerhouse.

No more. 

As the years went by, though, Japan became more and more inept at sports and fewer and fewer medals were to be had. Nowadays, if a Japanese athlete comes in fifth, it's big news. If they get a bronze or silver, they are superstars for life.

Well, as the medal count has consistently dropped over the years, in the early 90s (I think it was) a right wing commentator said something to the effect of, "The Japanese athletes no longer win as many medals today because Japan now has sit down western toilets instead of traditional squat toilets. Thus, Japanese kids no longer do squats at home so their athletic ability has declined." 

No kidding. (If anyone can remember the name of the guy who said this, remind me, will you, please?)

"But, Mike, what does that have to do with McDonald's?" 

Hold on, I'm getting there....

In 1971 when McDonald's first came to Japan, it was founded by a guy named Den Fujita. He opened his first McDonald's in a ritzy Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza, an upscale district in Tokyo, Japan. It was a smash success. 

At that time, Den Fujita was quoted as saying, "Americans are much bigger and stronger than the Japanese and the USA wins much more Olympic medals than Japan does because they eat things like McDonald's." 

He really did say that, and he was dead serious. 

I'm not making this stuff up.

You might remember when John Belushi set the world record in winning 8 Gold Medals at the 1975 Olympics?... He attributed his success to "Little Chocolate Donuts" being at his training table every morning. Can't argue with success.

So you see, I guess we can deduce from this that, because the Japanese no longer use squat toilets, they have lost lower body strength because they no longer do squats; in spite of the fact that they gained strength because they started eating more McDonald's.... 

Just like Americans and American athletes do.

So, now you know what the relationship between toilet paper and McDonald's in Japan is...

Sort of.

-------------

Silly joke I thought of when I was contemplating coffee yesterday in a coffee shop with my friend...

Question: "What do you call David Bowie when he is sitting in a coffee shop?"

Answer: "Ziggy Starbucks."*

* Apologies to Ziggy Starbux of "Roxy Suicide."

Thanks to Jeff Berwick and James Santagata

Minimum Wages Should Be $50 an Hour? Minimum Wage to the Moon, I Say!

I laugh at this minimum wage nonsense in the USA. 

It seems that in many areas in the USA, voters approved of a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour. 

I won't go into the many arguments for this because they are all nonsense. But I will say that if government interfering with voluntary contracts in private businesses is the answer to fixing the economy, why don't they just raise the minimum wage to $500 dollars and hour? Hell, why stop at $500? Let's go to $10,000 an hour and we can all be paid like big company CEOs.

We'll be rich!

Well, the one argument that pro-minimum wage hike proponents like to make is that "they did studies and found that (for example) McDonald's could raise their prices on hamburgers (say) $0.30 a piece and it wouldn't hurt sales." Now that is interesting! McDonald's is a for profit company run by some pretty smart business people (I think). I'd reckon that if they could have raised prices $0.30 a piece, thereby increasing profits, they would have done that long ago... 

Ya think?

Now that they have raised the minimum wage, many establishments are following Japan's lead in employing robots. Japan uses robots because Japan has a labor shortage. The USA industries will do this because, well, putting pickles on a burger isn't exactly skilled labor.

Hi! May I take your order, please!

Now, people stateside are complaining about the robots. I read one comment on Facebook where a guy wrote, "What happens if the robots make humans obsolete?"

I laughed. He is joking, right? I hope he was joking! Hasn't this joke been told for over 100 years? Hasn't everyone seen Chaplin's "Modern Times"?

Alas, in today's USA, I suspect the guy who thinks "robots will make humans obsolete" is was dead serious.

People worrying about robots and technology making humans obsolete is an old story that's been going on since the start of the Industrial Revolution. 

Hilarious. Japan leads the world in robot technology and instituting robots at the workplace to do jobs better, cheaper, faster and more reliably than humans. Are humans obsolete in Japan? Are robots taking human jobs? Well, in the last figures released, unemployment in Japan was virtually non-existent at 3.6%. Please refer to: Japan Unemployment Rate 

Unemployment Rate in Japan increased to 3.60 percent in September of 2014 from 3.50 percent in August of 2014. 

So much for robots putting us out of work, eh? I wrote on Facebook and asked the guy if he hadn't heard that cotton used to be picked by hand.

Here's a comic I made (well, I added the text is all) just to rabble-rouse and laugh at the "human versus robot counter revolution" that's coming! 

Imagine all these minimum wage workers fighting back against high technology taking their jobs!

Think Arnie Schwartzneggar can get the lead role as the unemployed revolutionary leader in the Hollywood film? Ha! Ha! Ha!

---------------

There's a robot sushi near my house. The place is super clean, super cheap and great for the price.... The only humans there are cleaning tables and sitting people. I hear there are a couple in the kitchen putting sliced fish on robot made rice balls... I'll take photos next time.

How New Companies Can Succeed in Japan - And How They Fail

Many new companies, especially in IT, think that to make it in Japan, all they need to do is release a Japanese language version of their product... They couldn't be further from the truth. Japan is an entirely different animal.

To succeed in Japan, of course a company needs a Japanese version of their product, but just that won't do the trick. They'll need experienced, well-connected PR and Marketing in Japan or the best solution is a Japanese subsidiary. 

On top of that, the new company product/service will probably only have one chance to do their initial product/service release right in the Japanese market. Their first release is their Golden Chance in Japan.... It could also be their only chance in Japan. 

If a company blows their initial release of the product/service in this country, the company will most probably not succeed here. Ever. No matter how much money is spent on PR and advertising. 

Many before who have made this mistake have tried to recover and failed; even ones with multi-million dollar budgets. A good case in point is Pepsi Cola. Pepsi spent tens of millions of dollars and twenty years for terrible results.


Now, they've finally gotten smart and tied up with a Japanese beverage maker so their prospects are better... Why didn't they do that from the start? Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and many others did. 

Why did Pepsi even bother to try to reinvent the wheel?

How to correctly handle a new product or service release in Japan?

A new company/product/service will need to appoint somebody in Japan to handle PR for them in Japan - or set up a subsidiary - and work with that company to make a plan. 

A necessary part of any good plan of attack would be that the representatives in Japan arrange meetings with major media at least 1 - 2 weeks before Japanese release day, as pre-press release. This is critical.

If this sort of ground-work is not fully prepared by the company and their reps in Japan, I strongly suggest that the company postpone the release of the product/service (or fire their representatives and set up a competent company) and then get properly prepared. If this sort of pre-press release is done correctly, the Japanese media will then follow-up and prepare and study the circumstances of the product/service and company so that they may be able to publish and provide better information for the Japanese audience (don't forget that the Japanese media are competing with each other, too, to provide up-to-date concise information, so this has to be done. No short-cuts here). This is critical for the success of any new company in Japan.  

Even after years of repeated failures by various companies, to this very day, foreign companies come to Japan and repeat the mistakes Pepsi Cola and Seven-Up made decades ago. Some recent examples are Linkedin; E-Bay Japan, Paypal, and a few others. (I strongly suspect Sugarsync is about to make the same mistake too!)

Take, for example, Linked-in. Linked-in came out with a Japanese version quite a while back but no one here in Japan uses it because no one knows about it; they had no local representation; no pre-press release information. 

Kind of shocking, when you think about it; a supposedly forward thinking company coming to Japan and making such an amateurish mistake. 


E-bay is another example of a successful service in the west which came to Japan and completely flopped because of not having experienced people on the ground in Japan. Neither Linked-in nor E-bay Japan will probably ever recover... 


No, not probably... There's no way they will ever recover here.

Sad. Had they thought about what they were doing and not tripped over the half-dollar in order to pick up the penny, they probably could have partnered with a huge Japanese company - or set up a subsidiary - and been worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Japan alone by now. 


The situation today? I only know of one other person besides me who even knows that Linked-in has a Japanese version. People know what E-bay is, but prefer Yahoo Auctions by a laughable margin. 


Oh dear! Linked-in and E-bay blew it... and in the second largest market in the world. I wonder how this will affect their stock price? 

Why won't they recover? Well, because they already launched and flopped... They are not newsworthy, except as failures. If the Japanese want to read about failures, they'll read about their politicians. 

An example of a successful Japan launch recently was Evernote. The PR company which handles that was able to get Evernote into Sony so that Sony scanners come pre-installed with Evernote. 

A Japanese language release might have some sort of plan like this:

1) Setting the Key Concept for Japanese Market 

2) Arranging Press Releases for TV, Internet, Papers and Magazines promoting the URL and product/service

3) Press conference for Japanese Market 

4) Make a presentation to major Japanese companies in order to obtain a major Japanese corporation as partner for the Japan market

In Conclusion

Japan is the #2 market in the world... Being lazy and trying to break into this market without understanding the underlying differences between the Japanese psyche and the west is a sure fire recipe for failure.

Pepsi, along with many others, failed... And they spent tens of millions of dollars... Don't repeat these mistakes. Why not make a little effort and find the people who can help you? You do need Japanese representation here on the ground, in Japan, to make your product/service a success.


Remember that success is 80% preparation.

Many others have already shown you how to fail... Here is written the best way to succeed... Will you learn the lesson?

This article was written in consultation with Koji Kamibayashi (who founded TXBB and 4 years later set up IPO with annual sales of over $70 million USD and Tim Williams who founded Value Commerce (IPO with over $50 in sales annually). Thanks guys!

You are Your Own Brand - Do Quality Work or Don't Do it at All

In these days when the economy is bad and jobs are few and far between, I think it is always wise to remember the words taught to me by a great and extremely wealthy old friend;

"Remember, sometimes the jobs you reject are just as important as the jobs you accept."

These are wise words.

You are your own brand. You are the custodian of your work quality. Don't let that quality drop.

Whether you are working at a great enterprise, a new start-up, your magnum opus, or even at the counter of a fast food restaurant, always strive to do the best and highest quality work you can.

Never let a moment go to waste; strive for perfection.

As an aside, some might laugh and wonder how can one do perfection when working at a fast food restaurant? That's easy. Here's the words of Ray Kroc of McDonald's fame;

"If you have time to lean, you have time to clean."

Even at the slow times at the fast food counter, when others are standing around waiting, you should be using that time to set yourself apart from the rest: You should be cleaning. You should be looking for "what needs to be done" and do it before being told to do so. That's how to get promotions.

When it comes to your work quality, only you can decide what you can and cannot do. You are responsible for your results.

Before accepting any job, you must decide:

1) Will you make the effort? Will you dedicate to being the best?

2) Are your co-workers and the company good enough? (You know the old saying, "It's hard to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys.")

3) Are you being given the proper tools and budget to get the job done and get it done right?

These are critical questions. If you answered "No!" to any of the above, you shouldn't take that job.

If you can't be your best and cannot dedicate to that worthy goal, then remember,  "Sometimes the jobs you reject are just as important as the jobs you accept."

Never have your name associated with poor quality.

US Gold Medalist Cynically Cashes in for McDonald's: More Crass Commercialism at the Olympics!

I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you to see the height of cynicism and crass commercialism at the Olympics! Shocked!

Today, there is a story that perfectly focuses on Olympic cynicism and grotesque commercialism that I'd like to share with you. This is such blatant commercialism and cashing in that I can't believe that more people don't immediately recognize it for what it is.... Of course, the mass media won't say anything... They WANT you to buy McDonald's and poison yourselves... After all, if McDonald's does well, the mass media keeps an advertising sponsor...


Line up for the slaughter you people-cows.... Read on...


I've placed a few posts about how the Olympics are just a scam and just another way the government rips the people off to line the pockets of their corporate friends and donors to their political aspirations.... 


The Olympics are nothing of the sort. They are big business. They use nationalism and tribalism to sell you product... And the government allows them to take your tax money to build facilities that put the taxpayer and their children and their children's children on the hook for payments for decades! The worst part of it all is that many people actually go out and cheer this madness and thin this is some sort or charity promoting goodwill amongst nations! Extraordinary!


Please refer Bread and Circuses: Olympic Games are a Scam to Take Yours and Your Children's Money Away!

They say the Olympics are a massive money making opportunity. They are for land developers, real estate agents, advertising agencies, the IOC, etc. For you? They stick you with a massive tax bill. For example, the Vancouver Olympics was such a massive burden and loss of public monies that the citizens of Vancouver and their children will be paying the bill for the next 30 years. 

See brilliant short commentary video here. 

Also, in Banzai 7 Goes to the Fraud-Lympics in London I made a very cynical stab at professional Olympic athletes doing what they do for money and not for love of country:

EXTRA POINTS! Fun Olympic quiz!

Question: When that athlete crosses the finish line first for Olympic gold what is the first thing that come into their mind?

(Pick one):

A: "I did it for my country and people who I don't even know and will never ever meet."

or

B: "Alright! Now I get that juicy sports sponsor contract and millions of dollars... I'm rich!"

Correct answer: "Alright! Now I get that juicy sports sponsor contract and millions of dollars... I'm rich!"


A few good folks took umbrage at that comment, but I stand by it... Especially since I am speaking of USA athletes... And lookie at what we have here! 


The very top banner on Yahoo says,  U.S. swimmer's insane postrace meal

Ricky Berens shares a photo of the massive 3,330-calorie meal he ordered to celebrate a gold medal.

Yeah, right. An athlete wins the gold medal and then he celebrates by eating at McDonald's?! Oh, yes. I believe that. I think the last time I went to a celebrating where the person being celebrated wanted to go to McDonald's was when my son was in kindergarten and his friend celebrated their birthday party at McDonald's! 


Go click the link and it goes to a page that is a thinly veiled glorification of McDonald's food. Now, call me a skeptic, but I don't believe for a second that an Olympic athlete eats McDonald's "food" with any regularity. And I don't believe that any athlete would celebrate by eating crap like that. I don't believe any adult in the western world would celebrate anything by going to McDonald's!


What could possibly be the reason for this? What's that you say? McDonald's is a sponsor of the Olympics? Really? What a coincidence... I wonder if our star athlete smells a juicy contract with McDonald's after the Olympics? 


Nah... They'd never do that, right? This couldn't have been pre-planned!?


But wait a minute again! There's a photo of the athlete's McDonald's meal (taken on a crap camera) yet it says, "Copyright Ricky Berens." (It has his copyright mark on the bottom left!) Say it ain't so, Joe! That means that when our star athlete was taking the picture, he was already thinking of getting royalties for the photo! Brilliant!


Of course he did! He, like all Olympic athletes do what they do for money... Joe-blow average dumb sports fan stands there cheering all the while he is getting raped and doesn't even realize it.


Would you like fries with your overflowing cynicism?


But don't worry about it... Go out and have a Big Mac. Go team!

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