Archive for January, 2009
January 26, 2009 1 Comment

Buddy, Can You Spare a Car?

For awhile there I thought the word for 2009 was going to be “frugality.”

Frugal.  Being thrifty.  Back to those values that our new president spoke about last Tuesday.  Values that are not new, but old.  Most people who had Depression-era parents (like me) knows “frugal.”

But after looking at the Hyundai commercials, I’m thinking of another word.

“Resigned.”

I mean, really.

Selling someone a car and then saying that if they get fired from their job you’ll take it back?

That doesn’t makes me want to go out and buy a Hyundai!  Sounds more like a death wish.  Oh, and by the way, isn’t it when you’re out of a job that you need a car the most!  To get to the next interview?  Now that’s a campaign.  Lose your job?  We’ll loan you a Hyundai for six weeks to help you find another.  But no.  We’ll take your money first.

I’m thinking of going to clients with “Hyundai campaigns …”

  • “Nike will sell you a Sasquatch driver … and if your leg gets cut off in the next six months, they’ll take it back.”
  • “Budweiser will sell you six pack of beer … and if you die of sclerosis of the liver in the next year … it’s free!
  • “Harvard will put your child through college … and if he/she ends up in jail for a year or more before they turn 25, you’ll get your book money back!”
  • “Come see the movie Revolutionary Road … and if within the next 60 days you become a depressed alcoholic and cheat on your wife … we’ll pay for therapy!”
January 19, 2009 No comments

He Had A Dream … What is Yours?

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

And what a day it is.  Hundreds of thousands decended on The Mall in my fair city — Washington DC — yesterday to celebrate in song the upcoming inauguration of this country’s first African American president.

What a dream.

So I ask all JuiceBar readers to do two simple things.  It requires no more than 30 minutes.

First, take 15 minutes out of your day and go to MLKOnline.  Watch the video of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”  If you’re a fan of radio (like me) or short on bandwidth simply close your eyes and click on the audio of his speech.

Imagine a world of the 1950s … of fire hoses, attack dogs, lynchings.  Of beatings.  Of hatred and bigotry.

Now think of today.  2009.  Today as the generation of Americans that came after the 1950s usher in a new era led by a black president.

All due in part because one man shared a dream with millions and millions of others, and together they were able to pass that dream on to a new generation.

Now take another 15 minutes.  Write down your dream.  Think of the wrongs that need to be righted.  Dream of what that world will be like.

And spend the rest of your life keeping that dream alive and passing it along to the next generation.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
January 1, 2009 No comments

2009: An opportunity taken … or squandered?

Hi there.

Hope you’re having (or had) a wonderful New Year’s Eve.  There’s a lot of talk about putting 2008 behind us.  Indeed, in the annals of “Auld Lang Syne” (arguably one of the world’s strangest song) our serenade to end 2008 was one of the most sincere in recent memory.

For most normal people — that is, if you are not a high-level senior executive of banks, insurance companies and auto companies making seven figure incomes while bankrupting your respective company —  2008 was a financial train wreck.

Owning a home and having a traditional 401k in 2008 was not quite the equivalent of living in downtown Manhattan on September 2001, nor was it like being on an island in the Indian Ocean on December 2004.  That said, in all three cases a significant portion of lifetime effort was swept away.

You may consider the various Bernie Madoffs of 2008 to be the equivalent of Osama Bin Laden except that that they stole wealth rather than innocent lives.  Or you may consider that 2008 was the violent correction that naturally takes place — just like a tsunami — when the basic forces of mother nature are denied over time.

In either case.  Poof!  There goes $6.9 trillion!  Trillion.  A THOUSAND billion.

Now we have talk of being prudent and frugal.  People discuss the novel idea of spending LESS than they make.  We’re going to increase transparency, enforce regulations, and make things more equitable.  We’re going to come together as a country and fix these seemingly intractable problems that face us.  And who can stop us?  We have Obama now.  Everything will be alright.

After September 11, 2001 we said we’d come together as a nation, put aside partisan differences, and start acting like a responsible, unified nation.  Everyone in the world was an American.

An global opportunity squandered.

Today in 2009 we have another opportunity to begin to get things right, this time with our fiscal and economic policies.  Everyone in the country seems to be behind a new administration’s call for change.

Let’s hope we can do better this time.

Happy New Year.