Long View Advice

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Let’s see how well I follow a friend’s bit of advice. Steve Smolinsky (excellent corporate consultant and accidental chronicler of travel and culture) visited Whidbey for a few days and pointed out that I should give my most prominent projects their own posts instead of lumping them all into one. My life and workday may have them all jumbled together, but maybe my readers would be happy to read deeper. A wise man is he, even if he does try to carry firewood past paranoid TSA screeners. This weekend isn’t nearly as jumbled as the rest because it is the culmination of a five year project. Twelve Months at Double Bluff, a photo essay of Whidbey’s nature premiered last night at Raven Rocks Gallery. An evening of wine and cheese and friends is followed by this post which will be followed by me hanging out at the gallery for the afternoon. Local artist on display. It took me a long time to get here. And that’s true of much of what I do. Art reflects life.

I take on long projects. I take on big projects. Think about it. I bicycled across America and walked across Scotland. (I can hear Steve now. You’re diffusing!) So, when I decided to photograph Whidbey Island I knew it wouldn’t be just a random series of photos. A proper Trimbath project has a structure and a theme while also maintaining fluidity. At least that’s my goal. Eight years ago I started my series of Twelve Month series. I visit a place a few times a month for twelve months in a row. I fell into the habit by running out of inspiration for finding new adventures and found a new type of adventure. Instead of trying to simply see and visit every corner of the world I started to experience and sense specific places. Most guidebooks guide people to a place for a sunny summer Saturday. I witnessed that and also had the contrast of a mellow mid-winter Monday. It is the difference between a one-night stand and a long-term relationship, or so I’ve heard.

One lake didn’t define a mountain range, so I visited three in the Cascades: Barclay on the wet west side, Valhalla at the high and dry divide, and Merritt on the dry east side. Whidbey may be an island, but it is longer than the Cascades are wide. (Books available on amazon.) I knew a proper portrayal would require more places; so, I picked five: Cultus Bay at the southern tip, Admiralty Head at the mid-latitude, Deception Pass at the northern tip, with Double Bluff and Penn Cove nicely filling the gaps. At each place I’ve learned things that weren’t obvious for the first few months. (Patricia Duff wrote a marvelous article describing the project.) I’ve also learned things that weren’t obvious for the first few years. Each place has its own palette. To some extent the geology tints the plants that grow in those soils and the animals that camouflage themselves amongst the plants. The land defines its inhabitants.

Long term projects are somewhat out of fashion in today’s world. I know that I am producing a five year project that has five long chapters broken up into twelve paragraphs each; but, I also know that people viewing (and hopefully buying) my art see individual photos. A few times I’ve been touched by people who grouped images that represented the commonality of a place, whether they knew it or not. A certain corporate coach may point out that creating one thing when people are buying something else may be a bad business model. Maybe. But most art is created for one reason and appreciated for other reasons. The artist’s inspiration does not have to coincide with patrons’ appreciations, though without sufficient monetary compensation the artistic expression necessarily stops. I see the impermanence of our constructions. Someone else sees an appealing pattern that they can’t describe. Unintended consequences permeate the experience.

So why do it? Why document something that hasn’t been documented? The Cascades have plenty of adventurers and the Seattle area has plenty of writers. If none of them have chronicled Washington’s year-long wilderness why should I? Maybe they know something I don’t. Whidbey has so many artists that it has layers of studio tours. None of them consciously compiled their images into year-long treatises. Why should I? Maybe they know that most people only care about one image at a time. I have to agree that the patron most likely to buy many images from a series would be someone enamored with the island and photography, maybe a corporate client that has the wall space and regional identity to accommodate more than an image or two. Fortunately, I understand both worlds, the small house that only has room for one or a few, and the corporate world that needs to create ambiance across an entire wing of a building.

Innovation helps. Just because something hasn’t been done is sometimes the very reason to do it. Inventions wouldn’t exist otherwise. Maybe my Twelve Month format will begin a trend. I’d welcome such a trend. (Innovation is one reason I have some of the images printed on translucent satins. Houses are built with more windows than walls. Sometimes the light is appreciated more than the view and a translucent window hanging is a way to improve the view without losing the light.)

Our lives are scattered and our attention spans are shortened. As Steve and others have pointed out, sixteen projects is a lot of projects for one person. Trust me, I’ll winnow them down when a select few begin paying my bills. Until then, hello Rule of 7. I edit my YouTube videos (tetrimbath) down by a factor of eight or more because I know that I don’t want to watch the tiny screen for too long.

Yet I maintain a long term view whether that is in investing (LTBH), Langley’s Renaissance, our technological advances and cultural shifts, or the planet’s climate. My recent financial turmoil hasn’t significantly changed my opinion of long term investing, though the possible causes of my turmoil have diminished my trust in certain institutions. Current hardships and chaos are examples of pervasive transitions, but they are unsustainable and therefore temporary. Every increase in our awareness of them increases the chance that we’ll positively influence our future.

Increasing our awareness of our situation is a major inspiration for me. I don’t take pretty pictures to sell to people purely for profit. I sell the photos to pay for the photos and my bills: value received for value delivered. My identity is not based on being a photographer or a writer. My passions are people and ideas. My photos and words are ways for me to bring people and ideas together – for people to see the beauty that exists around us every day, not just on the primo opportunities when the lighting is exquisite and the subject is iconic. I rely on my camera, my intuition, and serendipity rather than Photoshop and technical expertise. (Though we can all thank Joe and Nancy at Fine Balance Imaging for removing the dust spots from my photos. I’m not very good at keeping my equipment clean.) I don’t move things. I don’t use a flash. I accept what the world provides and present it without artifice. The world doesn’t need makeup to look amazing.

Personal perspective produces a wider range of impressions than any contrived production. Standing one way over a beached jellyfish creates an image that mimics the universe. Wait a while and find another one that creates its own smile.

Time reveals many aspects and insights.

My exhibit of Twelve Months at Double Bluff is on display (and for sale) at Raven Rocks throughout September. In October will be the first time when all five years of photos will be on display (and for sale) in one physical place at one time. The Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour is October 6th & 7th. And of course, you can always view all of the photos from Whidbey and the Cascades on my online gallery. (Which is where you can even customize your order to the point of making cards or other more convenient art.)

So, Steve, how well did I follow your advice? I may have touched on a few other things a bit, but hey, that’s the way my world works. I mean, I didn’t even mention the consulting or the teaching or my home being for sale or my job search status or the fact that I’m going dancing tonight at the return of Janice Eklund’s Second Saturday dances. And then there’s the work I’m doing with NRM and WCLT and Sandra and and and . . .

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Operators Are Standing By

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Operators are standing by. Two phone numbers. No waiting, at least right now. I have a lot of lines in the water and I’m waiting for action on many of them. Jobs, projects, clients, students, real estate agents, patrons, are all possible reasons behind the next ring of the phone. I’m even waiting for a call from the power company for a free fridge. Let me check – nope, the phone isn’t ringing as I type. Waiting isn’t easy. Anticipation can make a person eager, but my current financial situation makes me anxious. But I also know that one, two, or three of the right phone calls (or emails) could make life much better financially and reduce an immense amount of stress. So I wait.

I suspect everyone in similar situations thinks that they too have waited long enough. Waiting is almost always necessary. Except for precipitous events like the lottery, everything takes time. Job applications must be reviewed, then followed by interviews, then followed by internal and external discussions, and finally arriving at an offer that leads to the first day of work. Then there’s the wait for the first paycheck. When I started at Boeing I had to wait so long that I ran out of money and ate old cinnamon rolls that I stretched out over meals for weeks. It probably wouldn’t have worked except for the massive dose of preservatives that were in store-bought pastries in 1980.

Friends point out that I’ve never really retired despite having reached that goal in 1998. I’ve been working at my business and art ever since, waiting for that success to arrive, first as a backup to my retirement plan, second as the primary way of life since my portfolio succumbed to my Triple Whammy. It has been a very active version of waiting that now means working almost every day (My Rule Of 7).

I haven’t followed the political debates or the conventions, except what I see on Google News, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Much of the debate isn’t really debate. Much of the discussion is merely declaration. Almost all of it describes initiatives that will take years to create an effect in individuals’ lives. My money is running out now. My bills are due now. My health insurance goes up this month. (From last year to this year I am about 2% older but my insurance just went up 10%. I don’t even use it because the deductible is too high.) Waiting for the government’s good news is not an option.

My personal good news is that I have been working all these years. I’ve built a business that provides a lot of opportunities and potential revenue streams. Someone asked me if I built that. It took me a while to realize he was keying off a political commentary. The only person that can take sole credit for building their entire life is someone that was miraculously born without parents and raised themself from whatever they found in the forest or field. Even Romulus and Remus needed help from a wolf.

The waiting is tied to those things that are out of my control. Jobs wait on people who are hiring. Projects wait on collaborators (though I do have a few action items there). Clients call at their convenience, which is appropriate because the focus is on their life and projects. Students can call to register, but really all I can do is wait and welcome them when they show up for the classes (Social Media For Artists – September 15th). Real estate agents will call when they have a buyer. (Home For Sale Alas) Patrons can call to buy my art whenever they are comfortable (but come on by to the premiere of Twelve Months At Double Bluff this Friday at Raven Rocks Gallery).  Maybe I could be more aggressive, but I’m not a hard seller. Every time the phone rings I guess which one it will be. The political pollsters get a short, but polite, response. Friends are definitely welcomed. Life is more important than business, but those pesky bills do swing that balance.

The maddening calls are the ones when I answer and there’s nobody there. Someone from an 877 area code has been calling almost every day, but they don’t respond when I answer the phone. I hope it isn’t the free fridge people. (The local power company replaces fridges for free if the fridge is over 25 years old. I’m waiting for them to call and schedule the delivery.)

As an optimist I know that every moment holds the possibility of the turn to a better life. Even as an investor I know that any moment a press release could be released that announced magnificent news that skyrockets a stock, especially for small companies where I invest. (Come on MVIS. Come on DNDN.) Optimism is one way to hold a head high. One day I had a sore neck and a wise health care provider pointed out it was probably because I’ve been holding my head up for so long through force of will that my neck muscles are tired. I can believe that. But if I don’t keep my head up I may not see opportunity stroll by.

Earlier this week I posted “Operators Are Standing By” as my facebook status. It was an interesting exercise to read the responses. One person even included a reference to my eBay poster sale (Pixar’s Little Green Men). I posted it as an invitation to a friend to call, but it inspired others’ responses and my introspections.

Operators Are Standing By made me realize how much we rely on each other, how much we are intertwined, the ways we move forward by working with each other, and how much time is spent waiting. A business or an organization doesn’t exist without people as advocates, employees, recipients, or customers. Operators Are Standing By is another way of saying communications are welcome. Living isn’t a solo event. A business or community won’t survive if it only includes one person. Goods need to be bought by someone. Services need to be performed for someone. Even buying and selling stocks involves other people selling and buying stocks, even if they are invisible behind the internet.

It’s a gorgeous September mid-morning. Maybe a call will come in, but I can’t put my life on hold while I wait for the ring. I’ve missed my exercises amidst the chaos of the last few days. I think I’ll go for a run to re-invigorate myself before I launch into a few things that need to be done. There are people waiting for me to call them with information and results. Oh, and if you call while I’m out, leave a message. An operator is standing by, thanks to technology.

PS Another wise friend pointed out that I should focus each post on one business venture. That sounds like a good idea; especially, now that I’ve passed along this insight. Let’s see, I have at least 16 projects. Posting two a week means eight weeks of posts just to describe what I’m working on. Where to begin?

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Two Guys Walk Around Langley

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Vacilando, that’s a word most Americans don’t hear every day. It describes traveling for the traveling. And yet, travel right and arrive somewhere fascinating. I’ve had destinations and goals, but traveling through life has been equally fascinating. Where is it going, and what’s going to happen along the way?

I am not conversant in Spanish. I keep forgetting the word for beer. My friend Brian is the one with the vocabulary that includes multi-syllabic elements of Spanish philosophy. He runs a family owned herbal apothecary in downtown Ballard (Dandelion Botanical), but before that he lived on a boat and had a lot more free time. Back then, so did I. Once a month we would take urban walks through Seattle’s neighborhoods just for the sake of discovering the unlikely while talking about how we’d solve the world’s, or at least our own, problems. He called the walks vacilandos. Okay by me. The name isn’t as important as the experience.  I believe him and wrote about them in the early incarnation of this blog (Vacilando). We even produced a manuscript of our travels and observations. Fancy neighborhoods are really owned by the housekeepers and the landscapers. The people doing the work are the ones that enjoy the views and are surrounded by the elegance of the unoccupied second, third or forgotten house. (How many houses do you own?)

It has been years since our last vacilando. Their business is growing and consuming his time. He moved off the boat that was beautifully situated on Lake Union in downtown Seattle. I moved to Whidbey and have been scrambling for the last year to recover from my financial turmoil.

I liked the book idea but in today’s electronic environment I realized that there were other options. Video came to mind. With today’s gas and ferry fees local came to mind. Brian was busy, but another friend was available and interested. Wynn Allen (cohort in Madrona Workshop Troupe, the producer of self-publishing workshops) is also an actor and a neighbor. So, we grabbed my trusty point and shoot, found a nice enough day, and walked around one of our favorite towns: Langley, WA – the Village by the Sea. After a fun day and a lot of newbie mistakes we produced a YouTube video called “Two Guys Walk Around Langley“.  There are other videos out there, many of which are aimed at convincing the wives to take a vacation. We decided the guys needed a slightly different perspective. If it helped, great. If not, well, it was fun and didn’t cost much.

That was months ago. Since then we’ve also made videos of Coupeville and Port Townsend. (Do you want us to come to your town? Give us a call.) We’ll keep doing this even though we don’t know where it will lead.

Here’s one place that it’s led. This morning someone attached this comment to the video.
“You two are just wonderfully informative, thought provoking, and such a gifted duo! Also, crazy! LOL Thanks to you two my husband and I are thinking of moving there! Looks like a lovely place. Hopefully, we can meet you for a helpful tour soon. Thanks for the video.”
Well, shucks. That’s a nice way to start the morning. Give us a call.

My financial turmoil means my destinations and goals have to be flexible or at least include a significant detour. Living a frugal life for a few decades means I am aware of my values and my resources. They are what got me here. Understanding them makes it easier to realize that my situation is a consequence of bad luck and timing rather than a major character flaw. It is too easy to obsessively look for flaws when unemployment and unprofitable ventures have become too common.

I can make videos like this because I know that I have sufficient time, energy, skill, and support to take that first step. Taking the first step makes it easier to take the second step, and to do so with less stumbling. Maybe we’ll get better equipment some day. Maybe someone will pay us to do this on a regular basis. Anything can happen on a vacilando.

Much of my life has been led by intuition. I aimed at a career where I’d work on the next generation space shuttle. The first one launched as I was becoming an aerospace engineer. It was obvious that we’d need something better within my lifetime. I wanted to work on it. Maybe I should have been more explicit. I got to work on it, but we decided not to build it. The work was fascinating, but paper studies don’t colonize space, and careers based on innovative designs can become dead ends if the designs never become products. (2011 My Space Remorse)

In my twenties I never expected to retire before I was forty, yet that happened. I never expected to have almost all of it deflate, yet that has happened. I don’t know what to expect but I do know that, in the words of Douglas Adams,
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

Time ensures that life is lived whether goals or destinations are involved. I maintain dreams of goals and destinations but I also maintain flexibility. That may be particularly valuable in these economic and turbulent times.

Two guys walking around Seattle resulted in two other people considering moving to Langley (as my home is for sale, and so is Wynn’s.) That is probably just one of many consequences. Any action, even small ones (Butterfly Wings), can cause significant detours through magnificent experiences.

What else will transpire from two guys walking around Langley?

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Scattered Routine

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Routines change. Years of blogging have engrained a Wednesday schedule. That won’t work today. There’s too much going on, and that is good even if it is exhausting. In times like these, when there’s not enough, too much is better than too little. That should change too as I step towards enough.

Wednesdays usually start with breakfast while watching The Daily Show online and checking for jobs. Then the main event was launching into the blog, spreading the news via social media, and getting a run in before lunch. Simple and nice. Today is more complex.

Today includes some eagerly anticipated events that overrule routine. But I had to write something so I did two things.
1) I posted to facebook.
“Busy day ahead. So many things going on that my brain’s aswirl. (Blogging, key interview, collaborations, uninstall art, pick up new art, drive up and down the island – will I have any energy left for dancing at Bayview?) Think I’ll start the day with a cup of tea at South Whidbey Commons. Maybe I’ll see you there.”
2) I decided to start the blog now and chronicle the day. It is an example of what life is like as an entrepreneur presented with opportunities during uncertain financial times.

It begins at home. Breakfast, shower, then catch up on drewslist and jobs while watching The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Sitting at home and trying to time the trip to a job interview would be a constant look at the clock and repeated calculations of how long it will take to get there. Skip that. The interview is in Langley. Langley’s a fine place to hang out, and I need to make a deposit at the bank. (Consultations happen. Yeah!) To the Commons I go! But first pack the car with everything needed for every chore of the day, from resumes to empty portfolios to bags of recycling to to dance shoes to checks and such that need to be deposited.

The car hadn’t moved in days. And yes, there were cobwebs across the windshield again. (Cobwebs In The Car)

Langley is as sweet as ever. Dropping by early made it easy to double-check my interview time. Early is also quiet time in Langley and the time for catching up with friends. Maybe it is because of my blog, or maybe it is a common topic, but before my second sip of tea (Thank you South Whidbey Commons for good tea, nice ambience, and free wi-fi) I’d been in two conversations about money, 401Ks, and fundraising. Whether it is for a charity or an individual, there’s a balancing act to asking for money without sounding desperate or unenthusiastic. “Hi, I’m a vital organization that is really healthy, but we really need your donations because we want to keep the lights on next year too.” They ask more than once because they must, and because they know that most will say no, but probably enough will say yes. That sounds familiar. Let me check my list of collaborations that may eventually bear significant financial fruit. Oh yeah, some of them may, but because they haven’t yet despite months of activity, I am interviewing for a job. Luckily, it’s a job I like and never imagined would become available. Discretion means I won’t say more about it until I can tell you what happened. And yes, you know you’ll hear, or read about it here.

It is easy to imagine someone eagerly anticipating a job because of the paycheck. That’s definitely a major enticement, but there are other incentives. A job brings a new routine and much less uncertainty. When I had a full time job it was so busy that many meetings were “walk and talks” as I traveled between yet more meetings. But there was a focus to the day that was more bounded than my typical day as an entrepreneur. Analyzing data, planning and tracking budgets, drawing up strategic plans, and managing personnel issues were diverse tasks throughout a day; but, they weren’t nearly as diverse as switching between art creation, financial management, web site maintenance, marketing campaigns, organizing workshops, installing wi-fi or projectors, sending out thank-yous, and meeting with a string of collaborators who all have different projects, agendas, timings, requirements for discretion, and personalities. My procedural clutch gets used a lot. The bridge between the left and right sides of my brain gets a lot of traffic.

The Commons demonstrates my point. Sitting there blogging while waiting for the interview I also had tangential conversations about my self-publishing classes (thanks for the referrals) and collaborations in a new art form (Trends In Images).

My tea cup is almost empty. I’ll bus my table and then go for a walk through Langley to see what’s happening. Construction is in progress. The Village By The Sea refreshes itself.

Interview time! Excellent job. Helping a community retain its character while invigorating its economy is something too few small towns have managed. It is a treat to contribute to small town life. The interview was like going on a first date with nine people though.

But, hey, there’s time to catch my breath afterwards, right? Nope. My next meeting was in the neighboring restaurant and my collaborator was early. The good news was that we’re making progress and interest remains high. The bad news was that his funding source is in hiatus as it answers questions posed by the SEC. Oops. Well, it was a nice time and day for lunch.

Well, there’ll be time to catch my breath before the next meeting. Oops, hold it. There’s a message via facebook chat. Give me ten minutes, okay? Yes! Her various collaborations are stacking up too.

Almost an hour later and we’ve managed to sketch out some very appealing possibilities that don’t require drastic funding or dramatic machinations. The nice thing is that they fit in around the part time job I hope to get.

So here it is, a marvelous sunny summer day, I’m in long pants, and it is time to jump in the car to pick up my art. This might get sweaty. Minimal collaborations for a while but a fair amount of driving involved. Just to keep it interesting, one of my collaborators wants to include one of the people printing my photos. Is this a web or a network, or both? Add something to the day’s to-do list.

Oh wait a minute or five. I don’t have to jump up. Sit inside the library with its free wi-fi and air conditioning. Relax.

Okay folks, thanks for staying with today’s whirlwind tour of my life. Here we go again.

Welcome to Fine Balance Imaging, the printers of my photos, and the repository of photographic and graphic illustration knowledge; which is why one of my collaborators wants to hire them to help teach a weekend intensive workshop. Stay tuned because Joe said yes. Prints are in the car. (They are translucent satins that work well in windows and are archival quality.) The workshop emails will percolate out later. More emails will be launched as follow ups for the interview. But now, it is time to jump in the car and drive an hour to take down art that didn’t sell. So it goes.

It goes and I went. I went up to the other end of the island to retrieve photos that received months of compliments and no sales. Thanks to Karen at Wind and Tide for trying. We spent less time talking about the art than we did with trying to figure out the economy. We didn’t make much sense of it either; but, we did wonder whether it, and our sales, were being held hostage by the political gamers.

At least the ride to Oak Harbor gave me the excuse to drop in on Gerry Oak Gallery, a place I’ve heard about but never visited. It is a nice collection of talent and diversity. Maybe someday my art and I will be there.

Almost all of the driving is over. I’m at the dance, typing these few words while sitting in the car. The music has started but many of the dancers aren’t here yet. I’m going to sit here, try to catch my breath yet again, and then do something that isn’t networking or business. There’s got to be life in life.

Just past 8:30 and home again. And continuing to play out different answers to the questions asked during the interview. Did I tell them how I’d stick with the job? I only apply if I think I can see it through. Ah, but would that attempt at keeping it light be mis-interpreted? Like I said above, it’s just like any first date. What could I have done different? How long before they call? Will they call?

The car’s unpacked. The groceries are in the fridge. The art is back in my studio/office/spare bedroom. I’m still wearing long pants, which is a rare thing (unless I have a job or interview of course.) It’s time to unwind and herd the bits of my day into their respective cubbyholes. There are even photos of the dance to upload. I didn’t dance enough.

The day had no routine, and while this one was longer than most, its random nature is very familiar. Why would I want a job? In addition to what it says on my resume “A satisfying job that helps make the world a better place.“, and paying my bills, there is an anticipation of a routine. Even the most chaotic job I’ve had at least had boundaries that contained the chaos. Everything accomplished was directed towards a common goal, and that the effort was be positively reinforced with a variety of compensations beyond a paycheck. The life of an entrepreneur has no such assurances. There are always great potentials and opportunities, and they may be realized, but much of that life is based on hope and influenced heavily by luck. A job with irregular hours that can “take over a life” actually sounds more restful than a day like today. Stay tuned and see what happens to my routine.

PS As I typed this just before 9pm, the phone rang with a call from another collaborator wanting to schedule a meeting. Sure. At least as far as I can tell, I’ve got time, but my routine may change.

PPS A note about blogging versus twitter. Yes, I could’ve done this all on twitter, but sometimes a story shouldn’t be fragmented. The whole tells a different tale.

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My Jobs Report Month 12

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

I’m still unemployed. That’s not quite right because I’ve employed myself. I still haven’t found a job, except clients are signing up more frequently and I give myself a list of jobs everyday. I haven’t staunched the money flow, and that’s true; and I have the dwindling net worth to prove it. And yet I have hope.

Twelve months ago I began applying for jobs. I’ve been looking for over a year. Early in 2011 one of my largest holdings began a long slide. AMSC dropped 80%. I had a portfolio that I hoped was diversified and the companies were progressing, but the stocks were not except for AMSC and DNDN. As AMSC got bad news and fell I began talking about getting a job but didn’t do much about it. If a sweet job delivered itself I probably would’ve said yes, but I waited on DNDN.

Dendreon’s prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge, was approved by the FDA, was beginning to treat patients, and seemed to work better than expected. There were rumblings about the treatment’s acceptance because of reimbursement issues, but fundamentally the technology was sound and they would meet an unmet need. DNDN was trading at about $44, somewhat above its price from right after the approval but before they’d made any money. By August of 2011 they were on track to make hundreds of millions a year. At that rate DNDN could easily see a 20% or 40% rise within a few months. That exceeded my yearly credit card rate so I lived in optimism with a hint of caution and told myself to not fall into fear. The August earnings report could raise the price enough that selling a few hundred shares would clear my credit card debt and provide me with decades of frugal living expenses.

Dendreon made hundreds of millions, but only 80% of what the financial community expected. They missed earnings by 20%. The stock dropped 80%. (Triple Whammy) With AMSC down, DNDN down, and the others not rising to replace them (Hey MVIS, any time now) I had to scramble. (Tactical Scrambling) By the end of August I was sending out resumes regularly knowing that it might take months to find a job. But hey, even 20% of my original portfolio value gave me about a two year cushion. If I found a good job within three months things would be alright, or at least right enough. DNDN dropped another 50%. My cushion isn’t very cushy, and twelve months of using it to pay bills has left it very thin. I never expected the job search to take this long or for the stocks to remain depressed even as the companies grow their revenues by 60% a year. My credit card debt has swelled.

There is some good news. Prior to my last report (My Jobs Report Month 11) I’d only had two interviews. Both were for part-time jobs. One would only give me the job if I gave up applying for a full time job. The other was more accommodating, and I think I made the short list, but not the shortest list. The day I posted that report I received two calls for interviews. Two days later I heard good news from another application. Since then I’ve heard from another job or two. I even have an interview for a sweet job next week. Only one of the interviews was for a full time job. Fortunately, I live a frugal life and a part time job can go a long way. My next interview is for a job that pays enough to either make the mortgage payment or everything else. Any extra money will go to buying the luxury of paying down credit card debt.

People are finding jobs. Every job that I apply for and don’t get is probably another person moving out of unemployment because even if they were employed their departure opened another job. Eventually someone gets to pay the bills again. I will celebrate that, even if it isn’t me.

As I’ve written before, one of the aspects of this blog is to point out the reality behind the statistics. If I get a job, especially a sweet one, I will celebrate; but jobs aren’t equal. Most of the jobs I’ve heard back from are part time. Many of the jobs I apply for barely pay more than I made for pushing a broom in a steel mill outside Pittsburgh in 1977. I believe we’ve had a bit of inflation between 1977 and 2012. A part time job that pays half my bills would be a blessing, but I’ll have to continue searching for another equally large source of funds. People may have lost a job during the Great Recession, but they may have to gain back two or three to recover their finances. An unemployed aerospace engineer may get a job with the ferry system but he has to take a 50% hourly cut and only get 50% of full time hours. That 25% of his old salary may be a living wage, but it doesn’t allow nearly as much for savings, emergencies, or simple things like replacing old cars.

I am fortunate. My frugality means a reasonable part time job dramatically improves my situation. I am also aware of the value of a pleasant work environment. That steel mill job paid well because it was dangerous. Office environments can be toxic even if they keep the air clean. My portfolio is significantly reduced. Almost all of my DNDN is gone. But I continue to hold many shares of a half dozen other companies that are making progress despite low share prices. If someone buys my home for the asking price I can quickly become debt-free and have about a year’s living expenses too. My financial scenarios are definitely mixed.

My business is getting busier. I can’t remember the last time I took a day off. (My Rule Of 7) Income isn’t coming out of it yet, but some should be available after this big push for my next exhibit. (The premiere of Twelve Months at Double Bluff will be hosted by Raven Rocks Gallery in September. It is the culmination of a five year project photographing the overlooked everyday nature of Whidbey Island.)  The shows at Raven Rocks and the subsequent Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour are major events in my art business calendar. (You can also see and buy via the online galleries too.) I’m definitely heartened by the increasing number of people that are hiring me as a consultant or paying me as an instructor or speaker. My business is a healthy way to make money and have a positive impact on the world. It fits in nicely with a part time job. Others aren’t so fortunate enough to have years of effort behind their sudden need for finding income.

I take less for granted than I did before. Words of encouragement are nice. Connections have been appreciated. Incidental supplies like a bit of lumber to repair a deck, or some potting soil for some vigorous plants, even having dinner at my house instead of asking me to drive and dine out are all worth more than they may seem. I’m still learning to get comfortable accepting money for non-art and non-consulting things, but I do appreciate the help.

There are still days when I lay my head on the desk as I try to figure out how to pay bills. Mondays near the end of the month are the worst. But paydays, whether from sweet jobs in my community, enjoyable consulting jobs, passive sales of books and photos, and maybe even a recovered portfolio may finally arrive and add up to be enough for now, and then to build back to enough for a future.

Stay tuned.
Oh yeah, and I’m continuing the Find A Friend A Job category. Feel free to nominate yourself for an interview. Here’s Jennifer Hopper’s.

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Butterfly Wings

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Thanks to Wynn Allen for reinforcing the power of butterfly wings. Fans of chaos theory know the reference. In a chaotic system it is possible for something as seemingly inconsequential as the flap of a butterfly’s wings to ripple and resonate and amplify and cause monstrously consequential hurricanes. Chaos theory doesn’t try to predict the impact of a butterfly flapping east instead of west, but it does attempt to explain the predictability of some systems. The more an expert learns, the more likely they are to know when the rules break down and when any estimate becomes nothing more than a guess. That’s true in weather, investing, and much of life. That’s also where optimists find hope and a source for solutions.

I have great sympathy for weather forecasters. We expect a scientific prediction of the highs and the lows, whether it is going to rain or snow, whether it will be windy or calm. Until the last hundred years the best guesses were the home barometer and sailors’ rules of thumb.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,
        Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
It turns out that much of that weather lore eventually has proved to have a scientific explanation. For a while it seemed like the meteorologists would find a reason for everything and they’d be able to eventually publish a year’s weather, just like the Farmer’s Almanac. Such predictability reaches back to when we thought the world was a mechanistic wonder. Know enough about the machine and be able to predict its every movement. The weather doesn’t work that way. Small differences in our understanding of today’s conditions can result in large differences in the forecast for next week. Better data makes for better predictions, which is why east coast weather is easier to predict than west coast weather. A forecaster in Pittsburgh can check thousands of weather stations across a continent. A forecaster in Seattle only has a few ships, planes, and buoys delivering data. But even perfect data isn’t enough. Any forecast beyond five days is basically guesses based on historical climate and climate is currently rewriting history. (Cliff Mass’ excellent weather blog describes many of these aspects.)

Before science the world was mysterious. With science it began to make sense and we extrapolated to expect everything to be predicted. The world seemed deterministic. It was supposed that with knowledge about every particle’s position and momentum it would be possible to predict the future of everything. Free will was gone. As science has advanced, the people at the leading edges of research find the feathered boundaries of the unknown and unexpected. It is sad to see them faulted for their admission of imperfection without being given credit for the vast areas encompassed by the expanded borders. They become the subjects of jokes because an experiment went awry or because last year’s explanation is refuted by this week’s discovery. Scientific honesty and humility is taken as as sign of weakness and incompetence. Maybe that’s because more of the population is learning through the Information Age that the world isn’t as simple as we would like and they want someone to blame. A desire for certainty is one reason for a retreat to dogma.

Rationally we know the world is complex. Mathematically it would appear that any system that is dynamic, non-linear, coupled, and with too many unknowns can not be predicted. We don’t know that a hurricane was caused by a butterfly’s wings, but we also can’t disprove it.

The stock market is complex. Some claim that it is predictable and that it operates on cause and effect, yet it is also recognized that emotions of fear and greed play major roles. My investment philosophy and strategy is based on trusting the trends of product development and revenue growth to be larger than the chaotic variations that tend to operate within shorter periods. Daily, or even quarterly, ups and downs can become insignificant when compared to the years or decades of growth that companies can experience. It is commonly known as Long Term Buy and Hold (LTBH).

Oh well, so much for that strategy. The aberrant behaviour in some stocks, particularly DNDN, run counter to that trend – at least for now. As the company’s technology and revenues have progressed the stock has gone down. Some see influences larger than butterfly wings at work. Conspiracy theorists have an ample supply of causes for the contrary effects. I haven’t seen proof, but I admit that financial deregulation and an SEC that is either lax or overwhelmed could provide motivations and incentives that appeal to unethical or immoral individuals. I doubt that flash crashes are natural. The amount of money being spent to trim milliseconds from trade executions is proof of how far some will legally go to make money without concern for value or consequences. (Check out Wired Magazine’s Raging Bulls article – How Wall Street Got Addicted to Light-Speed Trading.) It isn’t hard to imagine others finding ways that are more devious and less reliant on obvious massive infrastructure. Sadly, such numbers games cripple innovation and solutions just as we need them.

I’d be more philosophical about the stock market if my investments could ride through such turmoil and undue influences (Turtle Investing) but having my stocks fall without other significant sources of revenue means I am selling cheap stock and rapidly diminishing my portfolio. At this rate I have less than a year’s living expenses remaining. (Anyone want to buy my home or hire me?)

And yet I maintain optimism. For every butterfly that caused a hurricane there may be just as many that kept things calm. Butterfly wings can be positive things. That’s one reason why I do things like make videos of local tourist towns (Two Guys Walk Around Langley, Coupeville, Port Townsend), give talks, produce art, participate in at least a half dozen collaborations (unpaid), and write this blog. My world has not been acting as I expect. I thought I had a good plan. I still think I did and do, but I will admit to imperfection. Of course, maybe I just had bad timing. Maybe some butterfly flapped its wings without knowing what it would do to me. Conversely, maybe some small thing I do will have positive consequences far beyond my expectations that maintains and sustains a thriving lifestyle for me. Maybe some other butterfly has already flapped its wings and the good news is rippling my way. It is a chaotic world. There’s no way to know.

My garden attracts hummingbirds. Maybe I should plant something that attracts butterflies.

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Busy Busy Busy

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

How are you? Busy. What are you doing? Scrambling. Is that working for you? Stay tuned. Some small businesses I know are busier than they’ve ever been. Life is getting busy. Friends have less time to chat. I’m working almost every day. It’s summer and I don’t think I’ll manage to get to hike until after Labor Day. With all of that busy-ness it would seem that people could take more time from their business. I asked a few the taboo question. How is the money side of things? The answer explains why few are booking vacations. But, eventually all of that effort will pay off, right?

I was in Coupeville last night. It’s one of the main tourist towns on Whidbey. They’ve got a historic main street, an intriguing wharf, a quiet moorage, and occasional orcas. I was there for an interview. Nope, not a job interview. That saga continues. (My Jobs Report Month 11) I was there for a radio interview: Kathy Baxter’s “Spirit Talks on Whidbey” show on KWPA. We were going to talk about the consequences of downsizing on the economy and spirituality. I circled town three times hunting for parking and ended up a few blocks away at the local library, one of my frequent public speaking venues. The town was busy. A friend in retail taught me a metric. Watch for the shopping bags. Lots of bags = lots of spending. Lots of empty hands = lots of browsing. Browsing doesn’t pay the bills. There were a few bags, but not many. At least people were visiting and taking time off from their busy lives.

A couple of years ago business was dismal. Owners and employees had time to worry. Now they have less time to worry, but they don’t have money to spend, except on more inventory, supplies, or debt reduction. Something had to keep people afloat through those dismal years. I’m in the same situation. I’m busier than ever but none of the money this year has made it to me. My sales of photos and books, my consulting and speaking services, have all remained inside the bounds of my business’ checkbook. Each of my projects is investing in the next. A few sales paid for renting venues. The classes are paying for prints and materials. The exhibits will pay for the next round of publishing. And eventually there will be more than sufficient excess, the seemingly mythical thing called profit.

Surely my busy business friends were at least gaining some discretionary capital, but no. Many of them are working without paying themselves, hoping to build the business to the point where it can pay for their time plus a helper or two. They are booking record revenues, but are constrained by weak profit margins, and hampered by cash flow potholes. Too many of our phone calls happen on weekends or late at night. They’re working Sundays or staying up past midnight or both.

If scrambling had a sound effect it would probably be the messy sound of mud or gravel spinning-out from under a tire as a work truck gets traction. It could be the rough cough of an outboard before it catches and bites into the water. It is the noise that seems to signify nothing, but that is the overture and prelude to progress.

In my case, I am trying to start about 18 engines. I counted. Some stand alone. Some are tied to each other. Many of them are reaching culmination within the next few weeks and months. Yesterday I uploaded the most recent Two Guys video: Two Guys Walking Around Port Townsend.  I talked about Coupeville. Want to see the place? Earlier we did Two Guys Walk Around Coupeville. Before that we did Two Guys Walk Around Langley (the one on Whidbey, not the one with the CIA or the one in BC.) So far we do the videos for free and for fun, but also as exposure for ourselves and the places we enjoy. I’m blogging today because for the next two days I’ll be helping conduct a Self-publishing Weekend on Whidbey Workshop: From Writer to Author, self-empowerment through self-publishing. That puts me into the two weeks where I take down the existing photo exhibits in the Braeburn (Langley) and Wind and Tide (Oak Harbor) in preparation for installing my photo exhibit, Twelve Months at Double Bluff, at Raven Rocks Gallery (Greenbank) – with the possibility of a one day show that I just heard about at a dance last week.

Woven through that schedule are my ongoing projects (e.g. consulting, the book about Scotland, more classes, and volunteering) and a collection of collaborations which are wonderful ideas that all seem to have the common need for funding. (Yeah, I know, maybe kickstarter can help.) And I continue to apply for jobs, track my investments, keep my home ready for buyers, sell my collectibles, and somehow find time to go out and dance or stay home to sit on the deck with a glass of wine.

I handle so many different projects because the world is changing and I am in an unconventional situation. The rules are changing. We thought they were written in stone, but they was really just scratches in sand that are being washed away by rains and tides.

My projects haven’t funded my lifestyle yet, but my efforts have built a foundation and my energy is providing them momentum. Breakout friction is always higher than rolling friction. That first shove can take a lot of effort. After things start to move they can roll easily.

Our positive collected efforts may be in a similar situation. Whether it is a business or an advocacy or a personal project, the apparent lack of movement may only be temporary. People are busy. Energy is flowing. Things will eventually begin moving. We’ll have to keep pushing, but it will take less effort, and maybe we can catch our breath, and then we’ll notice that we’ll have to jump into the driver’s seat and start steering this thing. There’ll always be something to keep us at least a little busy.

Stay tuned to the adventure. Imagine my life as these projects break out singly, in series, or in parallel. The self-publishing workshop can go on the road (call us), I could get a commission to produce a Twelve Month study somewhere fun and exotic, consultations can happen anywhere, it would be fun if the Scotland book created a book tour of Scotland, and each of the quiet and discreet collaborations could find their funding and audience carrying me into fascinating futures. There’s no way to know where this will lead. Stay tuned.

And now it is time for me to plan one key activity. I think I can block out a four hour vacation sometime around lunch and before tonight’s event. Quick, while no one is looking.

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Shrinking House Dreams

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

It says it on the For Sale flyer, so it must be true. My home has 868 square feet. Imagine 868 square legs to go with them. The shoe budget would be immense. It would definitely be a mobile home though. It isn’t. My home is a traditionally built wood frame house that just happens to take up less than 1,000 square feet of land. Give me the chance and I’d take a smaller house and more land; but, of course I’d like to keep the view or improve it. Maybe my financial situation has re-tuned my ears to hear more about small houses, but it is more than that. The trend is real. A new American Dream is returning to an old fashioned idea, cottages, bungalows, cabins – with some new twists included.

Been there. Done that. I bought my first house at 28 because I should. A friend, their realtor, and a local banker agreed that I had enough for a down payment and my salary could handle the monthly bills. Buying the house was a mark of adulthood and an expectation of acceptance. I expected that my family would approve. I’d fit in because I was living responsibly, not like those frivolous renters who had no commitment to community. Within months I realized that by following everyone’s advice I’d managed to commit all of my discretionary spending to utility, interest, and insurance payments. Moving from a 600 square foot apartment to a 2,200 two-story house left about 1,600 square feet empty. At least the empty living room made a great dojo. I closed off the second floor and wondered why I didn’t feel the joy of home ownership. Well, the value went up $30,000 in the first three months, so that helped.

I bought because I should. The next house was because I got married and we moved. The next was because we wanted to try a different neighborhood and commute. All of those houses were between 2,200 square feet and 2,600 square feet. All of them were too big. None of them felt like home. I felt like they owned me instead of me owning them.

I now live in my home. Two bedrooms, one bath, living room, kitchen and closets take up less space than some McMansion master suites. I use it all and I could use less. I know others that already do.

The American Dream included buying as much house as possible, partly as a status symbol, but partly as an investment. The New American Dream I am hearing from friends is the dream of being debt-free and self-reliant. Shrink the house to fit the needs. Find enough land, not too much nor too little, for privacy, productivity (gardening), and play. I only know of one person shopping for 3,000 square feet of house on a half-acre of land. Several are looking for 400 square feet of house on acreage. The acreage varies with the climate because the size is determined by the productivity of the garden. Instead of a maxed-out mortgage they want a greatly increased sense of financial security.

One of my favorite bloggers lives in a house that’s smaller than mine and sounds just as comfortable. I can’t find the exact numbers but I think Jeanne told me it is about half the size of my home. This is not an experimental existence. It isn’t something she’s trying on a whim. She’s lived there for years. One handy thing: when she remodels anything it changes everything. Complete renovations take far less money and time and yet have far greater consequences because it is like moving into a new home.

A couple of my friends independently took it one step further. They both built cabins (~ 140 square feet) on trailers. Brian built his with a shed roof and his renowned innovations. (Go check out his video tour.) It sits on a small plot he bought over on the dry side of the mountains. When the city gets to be too much he heads over there and recovers. He also plans to someday find acreage instead of a small town lot and settle where he can grow – whatever. Angela built a cabin, included some excellent craftsmanship and artistry, and tested it out by living in it for six months. Now it’s up for sale (asking $40,000 according to the sign in the window.) Brian would probably take half that because of some other motivations. (He’s busy running another business.) Both of them would also probably build another with the money from the first. Both of them produced livable accommodations for less than the price of a new car. It is easy imaging finding the right acreage for an extra $50,000. Prep the site. Build a storage building and a shop shed. Live debt free for less than half my remaining mortgage.

But that’s not small enough for some. Another friend, Jennifer, has been traveling around the county for months living out of a tear-drop trailer. Check out her travel log. She has to make adjustments, but every living situation does. She has to spend time carefully packing. I have to spend time maintaining a yard and a house. I can appreciate her situation. My bicycle ride across America (Just Keep Pedaling) and my walk across Scotland (soon to be a book) proved to me that I can survive for weeks with only the things that fit in panniers or a pack.

As the economy recovers many people will return to habits. I am encouraged by those that witnessed something else within that turmoil and are turning to other solutions. Debt-free is more appealing than a bonus room. A few chickens and acres of veggies that produce healthy and economical food are more appealing than meticulously maintaining lawns and flower beds that may only serve as visual reminders of chores. Simple living is appealing again. (Go check out the Simple Living forums for real-world examples and an opportunity for community.)

Trends can appear extreme and exclusive. Downsizing housing is a continuum. Many articles proclaim downsizing to include 1,500 square foot houses. Maybe that works best for some. A lot of the small house videos on YouTube are do-it-yourself projects, but there are plenty of builders working to small homes. Two local builders (that are too small to buy stock in) are Smart House and Green Pod, both out of Port Townsend. I get the impression Angela might became the Whidbey equivalent if she could get the funding. (Hey, anyone got some funding?)

As for me, well, these posts describe my financial history. Even back when I had over a million what I wanted was a small house on a big lot with nice views and a few outbuildings. Unfortunately, even if I sell my home for the asking price I won’t have enough to buy a cabin and the land. (Otherwise I might make Brian an offer on his cabin and property.) This could be taken one step further though. I know of two households that just moved onto the water. Living aboard a boat can happen, and if you think the price of houses dropped a lot you should see what happened to the price of boats. That would be a mobile house with real mobility. Of course, if I win the lottery I could do both. Hey, a guy can dream.

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Health And Wealth

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

I went to the hospital a couple of days ago. I’m fine. So is the person who broke a bone and who needed a ride. Pardon me if I don’t say who. Discretion is probably best. In a few weeks the bone will be better too. The experience was illustrative though. I’ve been avoiding hospitals and doctors for a few reasons. Thursday’s visit gave me two perspectives on the issue of wealth and health that may not sort themselves out until I write this post. Welcome to my processing.

Thursday was scheduled to be a rare day off. It is taking a lot of work to get ready for next week’s self-publishing workshop, next month’s gallery show, and at least a dozen other projects. The scrambling to find a way to pay the bills continues. The portfolio hasn’t recovered, the bills haven’t stopped, and the jobs haven’t arrived. In the meantime I am working hard at my business and buying lottery tickets. The phone rang at 5:30am. This was possibly good news. A small cadre of MVIS and DNDN shareholders have agreed to wake each other if our beleaguered stocks release stupendous news before the stock market opens. I answered and heard the request for something completely different. She needed someone to take her to the hospital. She was sure her arm wasn’t supposed to be that shape. For someone with a broken wrist she was amazingly calm and impressively aware of what needed to be done. Of course I said yes.

The local hospital isn’t very local. Whidbey is a long island and we both live near the southern tip. The hospital is a 45 minute drive. I drove through the mental and meteorological fog. She meditated. One of the handy things about small town emergency rooms is that there isn’t a line, or there wasn’t for us. The people were amazing. Everyone was professional yet relaxed. There was no freneticism. Everything was explained at a reasonable pace. Delays were measured in minutes, not hours. The patient was impressive too. She welcomed each new attendant as a friend, asked them how their day was going, how did they get to the island or this career; and then got to another pertinent question in the myriad of details wrapped around the mystery that lay within the morning’s medical issue. I stayed out of the way, took notes, watched and listened like a good chauffeur. The bone was reset, the split and sling were applied, the prescriptions written, and we were out the door in less than three hours. That’s the way this should work.

In the midst of it I realized that I probably would have been traumatized. I pay for my own health insurance and can only afford catastrophic care with a massive deductible. If I was laying there I would have seen four expert professionals working for three hours and using incredible equipment running up charges that could bankrupt me. Thanks to her employer she has excellent health care. At one point she even lamented that everyone should receive the same level of care with the freedom from worry that she had and that she knew would help her heal. I agree. I bemoan my health insurance which I can’t afford to use and which costs as much as I spend on food; and I feel for those worse off that can’t qualify or can’t afford the payments. I’ve considered stopping the payments myself. I fear bankruptcy more than I fear death.

Once upon a time I treated myself to more than regular doctor visits because I knew that health is more important than a lot of luxuries. Symptoms recognized early can save a lot of money by treating something when it is small rather than waiting until surgery or other drastic measures are necessary. I don’t visit my western care providers anymore. The story of my introduction to Oriental medicine is in an earlier post. That experience and insights from many friends in similar fields of study and practice have shown me ways to be healthier without prescription drugs or expensive testing procedures. It is amazing what a practitioner can do if they have the right touch and energy, an understanding of my lifestyle and options, and who knows how to communicate that. I feel healthier now than I have in years. Aches and pains exist, but they are so diminished that I frequently forget them. For a while they were ever-present to the point of incapacitating me for hours. Thank you Gan Mao Ling, tumeric, and a gluten-free diet. Oh yeah, and breathing. Proper breathing is amazing. Gotta do that more often.

My issue with health care costs is our issue with health care costs, merely made personal. Whether covered by my insurance, or by some corporation, or even by the government, all of those people should be paid for their work and expertise (and should get a tip for their excellent demeanor). The equipment must be bought and operated. The building must be built and maintained. Health is precious. It shouldn’t be a surprise that it costs so much.

We talked about that as we walked over to the pharmacy. We’re both old enough to remember simpler times. Doctors did make house calls. More things happened in their office instead of treatment rooms. Fewer people were involved. Setting a bone probably took one doctor, one nurse, some relatively effective pain medication and a bit of effort from all.

Four people weren’t much of a crowd, and the three hours were efficiently filled, but a lot of what transpired was caveats and contingencies. Most of the discussion was about the possible complications and ramifications. Tests were necessary, and also meant that less was left to judgment. It all meant better care for my friend the impressive patient, but I felt that a lot of the time and energy were there to protect the doctors, nurses, and the hospital from lawyers and insurance companies.

Broken joints take extra care. I’m glad she got that. I’m glad everything popped back into place. It doesn’t always happen that way, which is why there are so many tests, cautions, and conversations about consequences.

Yet, I wonder. If the physicians were allowed to use their judgment, could a doctor and a nurse and a good x-ray have done just as good a job in one hour instead of three? If so, then it isn’t the cost of the health care as much as it is the cost of – what – not trusting a professional’s judgement and expertise? Doctors are humans and humans make mistakes. There are people in every profession that must be penalized for mistreating others. But, if we trusted the majority more, if they weren’t socially and financially vilified for mistakes, would that give us a healthier health care system that didn’t erect such high barriers based on wealth? It is possible that my insurance is expensive and I fear medically-induced bankruptcy because our institutions don’t respect and support our health-care providers.

Western healthcare threatens my wealth at $3,600 per year in premiums for treatments that I can’t afford because of my deductible for coverage that I carry in case some car accident throws me into the emergency room unconscious and subsequently bankrupt. Eastern healthcare has improved my health, and while money is so tight that I can’t afford those treatments either, I know that I’ll go there for one-tenth the price and potentially a greater benefit.

Ah, and here the process that you have witnessed has produced the insight I was after. I trust both western and eastern physicians. But it is the western systems and institutions that I distrust. And if I review this recent experience I wonder how much wealth is being generated for those who benefit from the distrust. It may not be healthy for me to think that someone is out there getting wealthy because they want me to distrust the people I trust.

I think it is time to take a break, get up and stretch, have a cup of tea, and go help a friend who might have some two-handed household chores. Thanks for listening.

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Evolution Of Empire

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Trends fascinate me. The other night I watched a movie, called “Something Ventured“, about the rise of venture capital and Silicon Valley. Before the end of the movie thoughts of much larger trends extended back thousands of years and ahead a few generations. The men in the movie tapped into and helped steer a trend that had incredible consequences – especially incredible when viewed from when they started. Understanding that trend led to great investment wealth. But I think they were part of a much larger trend that may be leading to a different kind of wealth.

The story in Something Ventured is basically what happens when eight disaffected employees leave their unsupportive company and start something new. They and people they encountered began to see the value in investing in innovation. Except for Genentech, almost every company they successfully invested in were in computer hardware or software. The stories of Apple, Cisco, Intel, et al will be legendary; or, at least as legendary as the stories from people like Edison, Carnegie, Rockefeller, et al. In my mind, they are all part of one phase of a larger trend.

They built empires, but empires are nothing new. Rapid, unprecedented expansion is nothing new. But the subject of the expansion continues to change.

Empires began as geography. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Mongols, the Chinese all were defined by rapid expansion across each of their known worlds. They acquired geography for glory, resources, and power that was frequently channelled to royalty. Trickle down existed then too, but it didn’t make it past the dukes and earls and such. Even there the titles were tied to land. Eventually each empire became unsustainable. The two main exceptions are China, which some could say is in danger of implosion; and US, which is spending more than it makes. One difference is that China and the US funnel those proceeds of geography across a greater populace than just royalty.

Skip up to the Renaissance and empires begin to get built around money. Businesses and corporations are formed to make money. They aren’t burdened by the responsibilities of governments. They can focus on narrower goals, maximize their potential, and create great wealth for their shareholders. The Dutch East India Company got things started, though I suspect the Medici acted as a transition between power based on land and power based on profit. Since then investing has been about trying to find the next profitable thing with a major variant being each investor’s balance of risk versus reward. The stories we hear and tell are about the explosive growth companies. The common knowledge within investors though is that almost every company eventually fails or fades. The ones that survive usually maintain a name but radically redefine their business.

Mini-empires are being constructed from social capital and explosive growth is called going viral. Now that much of the world is electronically networked, thousands of celebrities are created more quickly than they can react. They don’t need land or money. All they need is a meme, or a video, or a blog. There’s no reason for me to list them. You’re on the internet. You probably have a unique list of subscriptions. I’ve been watching the rise and path of Hannah Hart, otherwise known as MyHarto on YouTube. She is like Julie from the movie Julie & Julia (the story of a blogger who is inflicted with fame) but Hannah adds a lot more alcohol in her series “My Drunk Kitchen.” Watch for the fun, not for information. Social media is unpredictable, but the cost is so low that almost anyone can jump in. No royal decree or incorporation required. (Check out my YouTube channel to see what one or two guys can do for free. tetrimbath) Each of these celebrity arcs is essentially unsustainable despite the resilience of Justin Beiber. If you don’t know who he is you just proved the limits of celebrity. The wealth generated is less tangible (though you can check your Klout score), but eagerly sought. It is in demand.

From land and royalty, to wealth for shareholders, to accolades for crowds of celebrities the trend is to less tangible rewards spread more pervasively. What’s an investor to do? Modern investing didn’t exist when royalty ruled. The primary way to make money from social media is through advertising or by becoming one of the celebrities. Will what we know as investing turn out to be just a phase that civilization had to go through on the way to maturity?

What trend would be even less tangible and more pervasive? The only things that come to mind are the movements towards community and common consciousness. The Occupy Movement acts from a community that is evolving a mission and goal by consensus. The self-help movement advocates compassion, meditation, self-realization and seems to be forming itself into more substantial community than the predecessor communes of the 60s. The hippies have grown up. They and their kids are redefining dreams using those lessons learned. I’m doing that too, though my dreams are currently restrained by a mortgage. (Hey, want to buy a nice little homewith a big view and a neighborhood marina?)

a short walk from my house

Many are searching for lives that are more connected to each other than to currencies.

Change is accelerating. That’s well known. The speed of change usually refers to technological change. I think societal change is accelerating as well. Technological change was from stone to bronze to steel to silicon to what, graphene or quanta? Societal change seems to be from massive tangible assets providing power to a monarch to massive abstract wealth distributed amongst shareholders to massive acclaim across many creative or lucky contributors to what, massive community that embraces all or a tap into the common galactic consciousness? That may not help my portfolio but that does sound very profitable.

Maybe I look for that because my stock portfolio is so deflated. But I think that if we had a compassionate, mutually supportive community that continued to innovate we would have evolved into an empire to be proud of.

Despite my guess at a trend, it is also good to remember that we never completely abandon our past. Otherwise my personal geography (my home) and the money associated with it (its market value and my mortgage) wouldn’t have existed to inspire this post.

Stay tuned.

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