5 Things I Wish I’d Known at 20

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Recently my partners and I have been interviewing people in their early 20s for junior roles in our little organisation.  Gen Y is what the marketing people call them, I call them ‘reminders-of-the-inevitable-march-of-life-towards-death’…but Gen Y is probably catchier.  The shocking thing is these bright, keen, creative kids were born – wait for it – IN THE 90s!!!  OMG (as the kids say) my last post was about growing up in the 90s but most of them were barely conceived as the decade dawned!  I confess that when confronted with these whippersnappers I experience a mixed bag of emotions; nostalgia for the past, anxiety at how much of my life I’ve already lived and some small relief at how much I have left (touch wood).  But most of all I feel sorry for them, for they know not what they have, worse than that…they know nothing of any practical use at all.  So, here is a list of the five things I wish I’d known at 20:

1. You Don’t Need Something to ‘Fall Back On’ (Yet)

When I were a lad I was precocious little git, always playing the clown in class, the lead role in the school play and the horse’s arse in the church pantomime.  I loved attention so, naturally enough, I set my sights on becoming an actor.  When my parents, friends and teachers got over the shock that I wasn’t gay, just ‘arty’, they were all super supportive with one proviso; I must have something to ‘fall back on’, a skill or a qualification to maintain me if I’m not successful in my ambitions.  THIS IS BAD ADVICE.  If you want to do something and you have the talent, the passion, the work ethic and the opportunity to do it what more do you need?  Just DO IT!  If you don’t give that dream 100% of your attention when you are young, energetic and idealistic you will never make it.  You have the rest of your life to retrain and do something sensible, now is EXACTLY the time to put all your eggs in one basket and go for it.  My dad always admired British golfing legend Nick Faldo and would recount stories of how Nick practiced 12 hours a day until his fingers bled to become champ.  Well, the same is true of you so don’t get distracted.

2. Education is Academic

Don’t get me wrong, if there was one thing that I’d put all of the public purse into it would be education.  Educated people are healthier and thus less of a strain on the NHS, they are more employable so there’s less of a strain on the welfare system and they are mostly law abiding so less of a strain on the criminal justice system.  In fact there is no aspect of your life that a good basic education can’t improve.  But that’s a basic education, the 3 R’s if you will.  Beyond that, unless your dream job requires specific qualifications such as a doctor, lawyer or architect education is procrastination.  You could be DOING instead of writing about doing so get out there, start at the bottom and work your way up.  You’ll have more fun, less debt and you’ll get where you are going quicker.  I made the mistake of studying acting at university because my school instilled the idea that you’re not an actor until you have a certificate saying so.  Rubbish!  You are never an actor, you are always in the state of becoming an actor so get out there and make some money while you’re still young, good looking and too daft to know not to take your top off just because the director asks!

3. There is No ‘Career Path’

That is to say there is no right or wrong way of getting where you are going so don’t be too rigid or anxious about it.  Fortunes can change at a moments notice and opportunity often knocks right when you’re about to sit down for a bit of bathroom time.  All you need to do is be open to those opportunities and make sure those around you know that too.  I’m surprised and delighted to find myself running my own company in Singapore now but on the way I tried my hand at being all of the following:

  • A Student
  • A Labourer
  • A Runner
  • A Promo Producer
  • A Voice Over Artist
  • A Writer
  • A Presenter
  • A Scheduler
  • A Journalist
  • A Media Salesman
  • A Kitchen Salesman
  • An Account Manager
  • A Sales Manager
  • A General Manager (whatever that is)
  • An Entrepreneur (when you run out of other options)

And that was just in my 20s!  It doesn’t mater how many things you try, they’ll always lead to something else and that’s what keeps the journey fun and ultimately pushes you up to the next rung of the ladder.

4. Money Will Come

I think the single worst side effect of our current capitalist system is ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ and it’s never worse than in your 20s.  Like puberty, career success develops at different speeds for different people but at that age you are forever chasing the magic figure that you think all your friends are earning.  Tip: Your friends aren’t earning as much as they say they are.  In fact, if you take 10k off what they tell you you’ll be nearer the mark.  When I started work it was as a runner in the broadcast industry, a position that is notoriously underpaid so of course I didn’t earn as much as some of my graduate friends but by the time we reached our 30s I reckon most of our salaries had evened out and if not?  Well, the irony is once you reach your 30s it doesn’t really matter what you earn compared to your friends as long as you enjoy what you’re doing, and if you enjoy what you’re doing you’ll probably earn more because you excel at it.  The moral of the story?  If you want to be successful, do what you love.

5. Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Okay, this one’s much easier said than done but if I’d known then what I know now I think I might have managed it.  Firstly, if you feel restless, dissatisfied and sometimes even a little angry at the world you may be having a quarterlife crisis or you may be properly depressed.  I spent most of my 20’s that way without realizing it and it ruined, in hindsight, some incredible opportunities for me.  The problem is when you are depressed in your 20s no one believes you.  They say things like “What have you got to depressed about? You’re just starting out in the world, you’ve got no kids, no mortgage to pay, in fact I’d give my right arm to be your age again!”  All wonderful sentiments but completely disconnected to the reality of being cast adrift in the world without a clue who you are or what you want to do with your life.  I found a dozen sessions with a therapist (following two years of heavy smoking and drinking culminating in a meltdown outside Liverpool Street Station!) sorted me right out and ensured I entered my 30s with an entirely different attitude.  I didn’t tell anyone about it at the time of course – not very British is it? – but depression is an illness and therapy is the best cure.  Think about it, you wouldn’t suffer a decade long headache because you were too embarrassed to take an aspirin would you?!

So, if I had known all this at 20 what might I have done differently?  I think I’d have taken more risks out of school rather than blindly following the well worn path to uni and a job in an office.  I’d get on a cruise ship, serve G&T’s to old ladies and see the world.  I’d stick it out with my band for a year just to see if we could get a bottom-of-the-bill slot at Reading to tell my grandkids about one day.  I’d get an agent and just BE an actor rather than pontificate about it.

Incidentally, many years ago my band Quarterlife Crisis actually wrote and recorded a song on this subject (we were ahead of our time).  I still think we could have made it, which doesn’t bode well for my midlife crisis, but judge for yourself by listening to the track below:

Rock on!

When Britain Was Last Great!

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This week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my favourite band of the 1990’s, Terrorvision, have released their first new album for 10 years.  This momentous news set me off on a trip down memory lane to the time when I believe Britain was last able to hold it’s head up high and call itself Great!

For Brits the 1990’s didn’t actually start until 1994 when Oasis released their first single, Supersonic, kicking off the Britpop movement and everything that followed including Brit-Lit, Brit-Art, Cool Britannia and, of course, Girl Power.  At the time I wasn’t consciously a Britpop fan, I was part of a far more exclusive movement known to virtually no-one as Brit-Rock that worshipped the likes of Terrorvision, The Wildhearts, Therapy?, Skunk Anansie, Joyrider, Baby Chaos, Feeder and 3 Colours Red.  Back then I remember going to a gig virtually every weekend and emerging sweat soaked and shivering into the Charing Cross Road and a throng of white-vested revellers who were waiting to get into G.A.Y at London’s legendary Astoria.  Me and the boys would stagger, blindly from the venue towards the station hoping we would have enough time to purchase a Double Whopper with Cheese before the last train home but we’d often-as-not miss it and be forced to stand, in the freezing cold until the next day’s trains began running…ah, happy days :-)

I realise of course that every generation thinks they had it best, even people who grew up during the war, and that’s apparently something to do with the way your brain develops during those impressionable teenage years.  Nonetheless, I am convinced the 90s was the best time to grow up in Britain and I’d like to tell you why…

1. Music
We made GREAT music in the 90s, whether you were into Britpop or rock those tunes were made to last and it’s a rare occasion that I can get through the whole of Oasis’s “Whatever”, Blur’s “This Is A Low” or Terrorvision’s “Some People Say” without shedding a tear or ten.

2. Trainspotting
Okay, it may not have been the second coming of the British film industry as some had hoped but this film, the performances in it, the book it was based on, the soundtrack and the overall aesthetic brought us international acclaim from critics and audiences alike.  And if I absolutely HAD to sleep with a man…I would still choose Ewan McGregor!

3. Hi-Fidelity by Nick Hornby
This book introduced an entire generation of ‘lads’ to literature which is why it was sometimes referred to as lad-lit but it sparked a publishing phenomenon and made me feel a whole lot better about being so anal over my CD collection.  Speaking of which, I miss CD’s too but that’s for another post…

4. Lad’s Mags (& Ladettes)
Long before Loaded, FHM, Maxim and the like turned into not-so-soft porn rags they were actually fairly witty and smart reads featuring, briefly, some women of note who, as well as looking good, had something to say.  Unfortunately because these women had, y’know, a personality they were branded with the slightly derogatory term ‘Ladette’ but I’d still have a drink with Sarah Cox, Zoe Ball and Gail Porter any day of the week.  Well, maybe not Gail Porter cos…y’know…

5. Girl Power
Yes it was contrived and no it didn’t mean anything of substance but if you’re going to create a slogan to sell records then why not make it a positive message for young women, eh?  Rihanna could learn a thing or two!

6. Pickled Sharks or The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
No I didn’t get it either… I went to see it… I still didn’t get it… BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER!  Britart was cool and by extension so were we.  Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, they were all arseholes but they were the most creative, innovative and alternative arseholes in the world at that time and by Jove they were British!!

7. The Word
Genuinely live and genuinely dangerous, The Word was a late night Channel 4 TV Show custom built for the post-pub crowd featuring acerbic hosts, interesting guests and awesome music including Nirvana and Oasis’s British TV debuts and a legendary L7 performance plus vomit inducing segment “The Hopefuls”…and you thought the X-Factor contestants were desperate!

8. Tony Blair & Cool Britannia
I wasn’t quite old enough to vote during the 1997 election and, to be honest, didn’t much care about it but I did like the fact that this Tony Blair was young, good looking and (smirk) radical!  He could have been our Kennedy but now…now he seems to have turned into his own caricature, looking more devilish by the day.

9. Optimism
The net result of all this creativity in music, films, literature and the arts was optimism.  In the 90s I felt like I could be anything, not just because I was young and naïve but because lots of Britons just a few years older than me were out there being SOMEthing, I’m not sure that’s so true now.  Without an industrial sector and excluding finance the only thing Britain has left in abundance is creativity so I hope we recognise and reward it because from Shakespeare to Adele it’s what makes Britain GREAT!

There you have it, I’m sure I’ve missed out a ton of your favourites but I’m going to blame that on the brain cells I destroyed drinking White Lightning in Tugmutton Common from 1994 – 1998!  If you’d like to jog my memory I’d love to hear from you so drop me a comment below and all the best, Nx.

P.S. If you’re wondering why it’s not a Top 10 that’s because my other favourite thing of the 90s was Friends.  Yeah, yeah, I know I’m supposed to say Seinfeld but balls to the hipsters! I loved Friends and even got the box set for my birthday last year but it’s not British and thus did not make the list.

To breed or not to breed…what a question!

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In the last four months or so four of my close friends have had babies and in the next two months another couple are set to pop, which gets a man to thinking – should I be having babies too?

I never wanted kids, I don’t know why exactly, I don’t dislike them I always just imagined what more I could achieve if the time and energy I spent on kids were ploughed into something else, something that not everybody can do.  You see having kids is often regarded as an achievement and, for some couples that struggle to conceive, it is.  But, if the majority of people on the planet end up becoming parents how much of an achievement is it really?  Typically we human beings celebrate extraordinary feats of artistic, sporting or political success; rare triumphs that take years of practice and discipline on top of a natural born talent – but getting sprogged up?  British teenagers manage that all the time through a complete lack of practice and zero discipline!

No, the achievement is in raising kids and, unfortunately, you don’t know how well you’ve done for about 20 years when you can finally sit down with your son or daughter, over a pint, and know whether or not they’re the type of person you’d actually choose to have a pint with.  That seems like a huge gamble to me.  I mean what other task of that magnitude would you undertake with absolutely no skills, qualifications or experience?  You wouldn’t decide one day to just design and erect a building, brick by brick, over 20 years as a monument to your name hoping it will stand up straight would you?

And of course a large part of it is out of your control.  As soon as your baby is old enough to go to school or preschool or kindergarten or whatever you call it they are spending more time with external elements than they are with you.  Who knows what kind of bad habit’s they’ll pick up?  So much of life is down to chance and the kids your kid ends up sitting next to at story time will have an enormous impact on the rest of his or her life.  Look at me, I have friends I have known since the first day of infant school, thankfully they are mostly intelligent, considerate, respectable people but they just as easily might not have been.

Last summer I travelled back to the UK to meet up with some of those friends who couldn’t make it to my wedding in Singapore six months prior.  Many of them were proudly showing off their baby bumps or those of their partners.  It was wonderful and strange to see them entering this next era of their lives together – partly because they seem to have got pregnant en masse – but I couldn’t help asking some of them, was it planned?  Are you happy?  Is this what you really want?  They agreed unanimously and enthusiastically that is was but, be honest, is anyone ever really going to admit to you that they don’t want their kid, that they regret it and wish they could just turn back the clock?  Of course not.

Don’t get me wrong, I believed every one of them and am delighted on their behalf.  At Christmas I went back again and met some of the rugrats, little beauties every last one.  But there must be some parents out there thinking to them selves “This isn’t me, I shouldn’t have done this.”  We can’t all be cutout for it surely?

As it happens most of my friends and family think I’d make a good dad, I certainly had an excellent role model for it and I think if/when it happens I’ll throw myself in to it with gusto.  The new dads I spoke to at Christmas were elated, relishing their new role as provider and guardian, despite the tears and the terrible, yellow poo (what IS that?)!  And aside from all my bluster I’m starting to think that if I don’t have a kid I may miss out on one of the most enjoyable and enriching experiences a person can have.  I guess I just want to make sure that it is absolutely mine and Mrs Lore’s decision, not one arrived at because “Well, we’ve been married a while so…”

There is one wild card of course – biology.  As a man, you are told from the age of about 11 that pregnancy is the worst possible consequence of sex so you spend the next 20 years doing everything in your power to prevent it.  Then, as nature would have it, when you finally push through that psychological roadblock, you might find you can’t get pregnant when you want to.  I think that’s another reason why I don’t want to put all my eggs in the baby basket; I need to know that children are not the only way to an enjoyable and enriching life.

Luckily Mrs Lore and I are blessed to be part of a big family already with five siblings and nine nieces and nephews between us so, as it’s Chinese New Year this weekend, here’s a pic of the Singaporean side all in auspicious red – can you spot me?

Ziggy’s 65…in Earth Years!

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It was on this day, January 8th 1947, that my creative hero and inspiration was born in Brixton, South London. His parents named him David Robert Jones but he rechristened himself in 1965 with a name that evoked the sex and danger of one of his heroes, Mick Jagger. I’d like to say a personal thank you and wish a very happy 65th birthday to the legendary chameleon of rock David Bowie and pay tribute with this list of my Top 5 Bowie tracks.*

1. Heroes (Album Version)

Inspired by the sight of young lovers kissing beneath the Berlin Wall near Hansa Studios in 1977 the emotional crux of this song comes more than two-thirds through the 6’ 10” album version when Bowie sings the following verse with heartbreaking intensity:

I, I can remember
Standing by the wall
And the guns, shot above our heads
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall
And the shame, was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, forever and ever
We can be Heroes, just for one day

Often cut down on radio it is worth immersing yourself in the full-length version so you feel the full impact when David jumps an octave at 3’ 16” and assaults you with his desperate pleading vocals. Remember we can all be Heroes, even if it’s just for one day.

2. Five Years

From the apocalyptic opening drumbeat to Bowie’s final, throat shredding screams this song opens the legendary Ziggy Stardust album with vigour! What it must have been like to hear this for the first time in 1972 I can only imagine but hearing this for the first time 20-odd years later blew me a way and still does. This song is about the end of the world Five Years from now and imagines the reactions of people as they hear the news, it also gave rise to my favourite lyric of all time:

It was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor…

That doesn’t mean much to many people but as a former drama student and continual fantasist it means the world to me.

3. Life On Mars

Inspired by Frank Sinatra’s My Way this sweeping ballad from the 1971 Hunky Dory album (which also included Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes) has to be listened to in private lest you find yourself blubbering on public transport as I frequently do. The lyrics appear to be meaningless having been, literally, cut together from scraps of newspaper clippings in a technique pioneered by beat writer William S. Boroughs BUT my personal take is that it’s the story of a girl with an inquiring mind hoping and praying that there is more to life than what she’s seen so far. My favourite ‘meaningless’ lyric is this:

It’s on Amerika’s tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
‘Cause Lennon’s on sale again

Make of that what you will…

When Bowie played this on the Reality tour in 2003 I must confess to breaking down like a tweenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert but ask yourself, when was the last time a piece of music did that to you?

4. Fame

Those that know me know my other musical passion apart from Bowie is The Beatles so when I discovered that John Lennon and David Bowie got together to pen this hit you can imagine my excitement, but it nearly didn’t happen…

According to David’s long time producer and former bassist Tony Visconti, the first time John and David met was extremely awkward. Despite being fueled by “the twin pillars of rock ‘n’ roll camaraderie – Cognac and coke” (and I don’t think he means cola!) the two megastars were painfully shy in each other’s company and the whole event was a bit of a bust. Visconti was understandably disappointed so finished what he could on the Young Americans album in New York before returning to the UK to mix it. Whilst he was away Lennon and Bowie tried again and this time sparks flew resulting in the funked out Fame with acoustic guitar and backing vocals by Lennon. When David excitedly told Visconti about the collaboration over the phone the producer was furious telling David, “I would’ve happily paid to fly over on Concorde just to be in that session”.

The lyrics of the song are about the distance between the fantasy and reality of fame and one particularly relevant line refers to David’s dire financial situation at the time:

Fame, what you need you have to borrow.

5. All The Young Dudes

Written by David but originally recorded by Mott The Hoople this is the ultimate 70’s youth anthem drawing a line between the hippie generation and them with the lyric:

My brother’s back at home,
With his Beatles and his Stones,
We never got it off on that revolution stuff,
What a drag, too many snags!

However, the line I find myself shouting in the shower is this:

The television man is crazy,
Saying we’re juvenile delinquent wrecks,
Man I don’t need TV when I got T-Rex

I couldn’t possibly agree more, why does anyone need TV when they’ve got T-Rex…and David Bowie of course? David did a storming rendition of this at Wembley in 2003 and I was lucky enough to get hold of a bootleg recording from the exact night I was there. I believe this is pretty rare so do enjoy and please go out and discover more of David’s work he really is a genius and a British national treasure.

Oh, and I lest I get in trouble with music fans a very happy birthday to another musical genius, Elvis Presley would have been 77 today!

* David Bowie fans are a particularly avid bunch and as such I fully expect to be called out on the factual accuracy of some of these stories. All I can say in my defense is that, having been a fan for some seventeen years, I have read a great deal about Bowie and his collaborators and have combined that knowledge in good faith to produce this blog. If you know different please do let me know in the comments section, just don’t be a smug git about it!

Turn On, Tune In, Start Up

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Some months ago my friend and blogging muse Mr Shev wrote a blog entitled Working for The Man about the relative pros and cons of running your own business.  Well, as someone who is now 15-months into running mine I’d like to add some more personal insights to his excellent post in case any of you are thinking of embarking on your own venture in 2012.

Starting Up

My last job, before launching this venture, was a pretty sweet gig.  I was sent to Singapore to open the Asian arm of a niche b2b publisher.  I had a decent package, total independence (my boss was over 7,000km away in London), and a small staff – I was essentially running my own business but with all the benefits of sick pay, holiday pay, share options and insurance.  So why rock the boat?

There was, of course, more than one reason; I felt the particular niche I was serving was going down the pan (and have since been proved right) and I didn’t feel I was getting enough support from the team back in London but the main reason was that I had met two extraordinary people with whom I felt so much more could be achieved and for this I can take no credit.

Meeting Jim and Simon changed my life, I would have left my old job eventually and I’m fairly confident I would have started a much smaller business as a freelance something-or-other but our combined skillset meant we had the opportunity to create something special.  So we pontificated over many, many, MANY pints and eventually decided we had a robust enough concept to take to market.  We formulated a business plan on the back of a fabled fag packet, finally found a name that hadn’t already been registered on the Internet and agreed a date to quit our jobs.  This all happened between January and June 2010.

Now, bear in mind that when it came to quitting time we still had no money, no customers, we didn’t want an investor, we were just clinging on to what we thought was a good idea.  Luckily (depending on your point of view) we were all single without mortgages or a family to support, but it’s still a scary prospect – you’re essentially saying to the rest of the working world “Fuck you!  We can do better!!” without any actual proof that you can.  Our respective bosses went ape of course but we served out our notices like gentlemen and on October 4th 2010 I wandered over to Jim’s house around 10am, set my Mac up on his ironing board and started calling my, limited, contacts.

Fast forward to a year-and-a-bit later and we have a team of six with two more on the way, a modest office in the CBD and a stable of multi-national clients, so what have we learned along the way?  I shall take Mr Shev’s lead and address his three key categories of Money, Time and Freedom.

Early days - Simon at the legendary ironing board desk!

Money

Every one of us took a pay cut to get this thing started; sure we have more responsibility now, we work longer hours and we do it all for less.  Less cash, less benefits, less free time, less sleep.  Starting your own business is a LONG game, you are building something that someone might one day want to buy and THAT is when you get yours; in the meantime everything goes back into the business.   Oh, and I continue to be shocked at what it costs to keep this thing up and running which is why, below, you’ll find a handy cut-out-and-keep list of fixed monthly costs, just remember – this doesn’t even include ad-hoc expenses ;-)

  • Salaries
  • CPF (like a pension contribution)
  • Office Rent
  • Corporate Secretarial Service
  • Corporate Accountancy Service
  • Communications (mobile, fixed line, internet)
  • Health Insurance
  • Travel Insurance
  • Employers Liability Insurance
  • Public Liability Insurance
  • Key Man Insurance
  • Printer Cartridges (We could pay another salary for what we spend on these!)

Beethoven once said, “The amount of money one needs is terrifying.” even more so when running a business.  This is why, as Mr Shev so rightly pointed out, at first you will take work from anyone, anywhere no matter how small, nasty, demeaning, boring or badly paying – because you GOTZ to get paid!  It’s true you no-longer work for The Man, you now work for ‘The Men’ a.k.a. your clients, but unlike your old boss your clients don’t necessarily understand the intricacies of your job and thus will subject you to a Spanish-style inquisition about every line item on your quote before insisting that you deliver the entire project at half the price by lunchtime!  To be fair most see reason if you take the time educate them on the process but, and this is one of the hardest lessons we’ve had to learn, if they steadfastly refuse to respect or appreciate the service you provide then you have obligation to say thanks but no thanks.  Eventually you’ll end up with a stable of clients who value what you do and work in partnership with you to achieve the best possible result.

Time

Once you start your own business, you’ll be amazed how many of your corporate contacts call you up to express their admiration and share their desire to follow in your footsteps but, and here’s the rub, they all want to know the secret of how to do it without sacrificing their corporate comforts.  The secret is, there is no secret.  work/LIFE balance becomes WORK/life balance.  You are in earlier than everyone else, leave later than everyone else and are on 24-hour call for your clients and staff.  And don’t kid yourself that you won’t mind because it’s all for your own good, it will hurt just as much as if your boss was telling you to do it and when you have to explain your absence at family occasions to your loved ones it will feel worse still because, at the end of the day, it’s your choice not to be there!

It’s difficult to find an upside to this because you really are at the beck and call of your customers and you must force yourself to feel grateful because the only thing worse than having customers is not having customers.  You just need to keep looking at that picture of your dream house (in Margaret River) and reminding yourself that it’ll all be worth it in the long run.

Freedom

Hmmm, this is really my end goal but freedom within the context of starting your own business?  It depends how you look at it, freelancers appear to have the most freedom as they have only themselves to worry about and their expenses tend not to be fixed so their income can fluctuate as needed.  Many of the freelancers we work with do six-months-on then six-months-off or divide their time between countries, which is certainly some people’s idea of freedom.  If you are working at a business you love, not the kind you build to sell but one that you’d happily work at until your dying day, then you’ve already achieved freedom of a sort – for what is freedom but the ability to spend your time doing what you enjoy most?  However, building a business and being responsible for all the salaries, sick pay and paternity leave (a new obstacle we recently hurdled!) can actually make you feel imprisoned but I am doing it to achieve my financial and creative freedom sooner rather than later in life.  When you start out on your own it is important to decide which of these three paths you want to go down as they will have very different impacts on your lifestyle.

Future

I fear I have made this journey sound more like a uphill struggle but the good news is it does get better.  Only 15-months in and the hard work is already paying off.  We’re now able to employ more people and spread the load, provide a better working environment for everyone and do a little more managing and a little less doing.  There’s still a long way to go but we’ve survived that first year, which is more than 49% of start-ups manage to do.  In fact we’ve more than survived, we’re thriving and despite the late nights, early starts and non-existent weekends it does give you a sense of accomplishment, pride and self-determination that few other people will ever experience.  Your future is in your hands, nobody else’s.  You don’t have to wait for a position to open above you, or win approval from the board.  You hopefully don’t have to work your entire lifelong or work at a job you hate (although there are days…).  You are the master of your own destiny and that really is the single best reason I can think of to get up in the morning.  Would I do it again?  All I’ll say is that hopefully I won’t have to, see you in Margaret River!

The Cult of Apple

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If you’ve read any of my recent posts you’ll know I’ve been on the road a bit lately and my most recent trip was to Hong Kong where, thanks to a favourable exchange rate and a complete lack of will power, I finally purchased an iPad.  I say ‘finally’ because I have been molesting my friends’ devices for some time but, like a melon in a supermarket, you can only touch for so long before you are obliged to buy so I headed off to Wan Chai Computer Centre in search of the best deal.

As I said, the exchange rate was favourable and I managed to cut a decent enough deal on a 16Gb Wi-fi only edition plus a free case. (Tip: If you already own an iPhone don’t buy the 3G version, just switch on your iPhone’s Personal Hotspot setting and your iPad can piggy back on the connection).  That night I plugged it in, loaded it up and dreamt of a fun-filled flight home!

The following day, after checking in at Hong Kong International, Mrs Lore and I made our way to the gate via the security screening.  As is custom I removed my belt and shoes from my person and my MacBook from my bag…and my iPhone…and my new iPad!  The guy next to me remarked, dryly, that my tray looked like an Apple Store and that’s when iRealized; subtly, slyly, stylishly, over the last eight years Steve Jobs has inducted me into the Cult of Apple.

It Started With An iPod

Like many people my first introduction to Apple was through the iPod, a gift from my lovely ex-girlfriend around 2003.  I was, like everybody, seduced by its beauty, awed by its ability and floored by its functionality and it wasn’t long before I bought my first iMac off eBay in Bondi Blue (just LOOK at it – swoon).  By 2006 I was getting itchy for something new, I loved the portability of my iPod but despite the handle on my iMac it wasn’t practical to take it on the bus so I went large and bought myself a MacBook; a gorgeous, glossy white 13.3 inches of form and functionality that serves me still…as a back up.  You see, once you go Mac you don’t go back, you just go on and on buying ever smaller, ever faster, ever-sexier versions of the same devices – even if you don’t need them (and I did NOT need to buy that MacBook Pro)!  This is why, in the last eight years, I have slavishly bought the following Apple hardware products (let’s not even talk about what I’ve spent in the iTunes and App Stores):

  • iPod Classic (2003)
  • iMac (2004)
  • MacBook (2006)
  • iPod 30Gb (2008)
  • iPhone 3G (2009)
  • Apple TV (2009)
  • iPhone 4 (2010)
  • MacBook Pro (2011)
  • iPad 2 (2011)

It’s a cult and at its head is/was the legendary, pioneering genius Steve Jobs – the only head of a tech firm whose annual keynote address is downloaded and watched by millions of devoted fan boys (and girls) like me.  As the Elvis of Silicon Valley one can’t help thinking that his untimely death will propel him into the pantheon of pop-culture icons.  Like Elvis he was a star, like Kurt a rebel and like John an inspiration, I hope his legacy is respected and his work continues to enrich the lives of millions – even if it is costing me a fortune!!

Steven Has Left The Building

I didn’t intend for this post to be a tribute to Steve Jobs but since it’s turned out that way I think I’ll leave it with a link to his stirring Stanford commencement address from 2005.  If you’ve never watched it, you must.  If you have watched it then maybe, like me, you’ll find it refreshing to watch again and use it as a yardstick for measuring your own achievements.

…Or, put another way, “Try not.  Do or do not, there is no try.” – Yoda

My First World Problems

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If you are familiar with the Internet, and the very fact that you are reading this means you have at least a passing knowledge, then it’s likely you have come across First World Problems a.k.a. White Whines.  These ‘memes’ are still-images of distraught people whose emotions seem entirely out of proportion with the problem expressed in the accompanying caption.  Please find an example I have constructed below.

I use this particular example because that’s exactly what has just happened to me; in two short years I’ve been downgraded from Elite Gold to Elite Silver to Bog Standard Bullshit Blue on Star World Alliance’s Kris Flyer scheme.  And it hurts.

Cue Dream Sequence

I remember, back in November 2009 I was still giddy about my upgrade from Blue to Elite Silver a year before.  I now had priority boarding, an extra 12kg of baggage and, most importantly of all, Elite Silver luggage tags that let everyone know I was a man of the world, an up-and-comer, one of the business elite.  Then one glorious morning it landed, with a whoosh and a thud on the mat behind our front door; a black and gold embossed envelope thick with promise and addressed to me.  I wondered aloud, in what I believe to be a uniquely British way, “What could it be?  I’m not expecting anything…”

I didn’t rip it open; it seemed inappropriate for such a regal looking package, so I used a butter knife in lieu of a letter opener.  Inside was another matte black envelope, I extracted it with breathless anticipation and lifted the flap to reveal gold writing.  It was a wonderfully heart-felt welcome message from the CEO of Star World Alliance, Jaan Albrecht, who seemed genuinely pleased that I had made it to the ranks of Elite Gold (no doubt we’d be bumping into each other in the lounge soon).  To ensure I felt like a valued member of the gang he’d included my brand new Elite Gold card and two, sparkly new Elite Gold luggage tags that I immediately fastened on to my mismatched bags tossing my old Silver ones aside like last year’s iPhone model – I could already feel myself changing.

For a year I enjoyed the high-life; lounge access for me and a friend, free bee hoon, beer and Wi-Fi plus a general sense of superiority over the cattle class plebs who were forced to herd on the terminal concourse until their gate was called.  It was wonderful and I should’ve known it was too good to last.  That July I handed in my resignation so my boss stopped sending me overseas as much, by October I had started my own company and all-expense-paid sales trips just weren’t an option anymore.  I hoped Star World wouldn’t notice, I thought Jaan and I were elite pals but alas no.

The Winter of My Discontent

There is no winter in Singapore but it still felt cold that day last November when I received another letter from Star World Alliance.  This time embossed in silver which, let’s be honest, would once have impressed me but not anymore.  Enclosed was my ‘new’ card, ha!  It didn’t feel new, it felt old, and grey and dull.  A friend told me it could still get me into the lounge I just couldn’t bring a guest.  I tried on my very next trip and was turned away like an underage kid trying to buy beer wearing his dad’s suit and his mum’s high-heels.  It was humiliating.

2011 wasn’t much better, I used what remaining points I had for my honeymoon in January and have had to rely on my new wife’s points since.  Honestly, what kind of man has to use his wife’s points to get around?!  I can’t even look at my account balance anymore…just as she can barely look at me.  I haven’t told her yet, about the arrival of the blue card; that cold, blue card, that worthless emblem of membership to the shuffling and mooing cattle class.

For All The Cows

Sometimes I find myself wandering towards the lounges at Changi Airport then, just before the escalators, I realise and I say to myself, that’s not for you Neal, that’s not your life anymore, then I turn away and allow myself to be herded toward the gate with all the other cows.