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My Most Favouritist Place

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:22:59 GMT

You'd think that it would be Samoa. It's not - well not yet anyway! Ready for it? It's Mount Ruapehu.

As a child we visited Mt Ruapehu, the family staying at the Skotel a couple of times.

As a teenager I visited the Magic Mountain and appreciated the experience, perhaps getting in touch with the inner self (what on earth does that really mean anyway?), one of those almost spiritual mountain-top experiences, one could say!

When my children were young I bought time-share at Turangi and introduced them to snow-sports. Over the years we enjoyed National Park Ski Lodge, then rented and bought various properties in Raurimu, and Manunui, Taumarunui.

I was desperately keen to avoid watching my legs go in different directions so I avoided that 'crazy' sport skiing. However when snowboarding first came in, knowing that my feet were bolted together on one board, I got up the courage and bought the gear. So, I was one of New Zealand's early adopters and loved it from day one! Remember that young ones as you show off your snowboarding prowess! I spent way more than a decade encouraging others to enjoy the experience of Mt Ruapehu taking people to the mountain whenever I could.

It's a truly amazing mountain that serves up changeable weather, has height to get us above the clouds; or height to get us into the clouds; height enough to catch some wicked winds and storms; height enough to capture the snow; and height enough to give unbelievable runs from top to bottom. As I ~~sweat~~ swelter in Samoa's winter I am reminded of many very happy memories of times in the snow, and a raft of people experiences that will live long in my memories, now that I have "retired" from snowboarding.

Definitely my most favouritist place on earth!

Some photos for your enjoyment:

http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-late-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-early-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ruapehu-mid-morning.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-dusk.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-late-afternoon.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-midday.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-summer.jpg
http://www.dennis.co.nz/images/ngauruhoe-sunset.jpg

Some paintings for your further enjoyment:

Cecilia Choi, a Korean friend of mine first experienced Mt Ruapehu with her young family as a guest of ours.

An artist/teacher in her homeland, she undertook to develop a career as an artist in New Zealand too. The first work here is a rendering of Mt Egmont (Taranaki) and the second one is a commissioned work from the top of the Whakapapa skifield looking down over the Pinnacles to Mt Ngaruahoe. Nice.

Stirs your soul eh?

Observations on sin

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:21:27 GMT

I've observed a pattern in regards to sin (i.e. doing something wrong) and it's consequences. There's always a starting point; a clearly identifiable time and place in ones' life when it started.

Some of what follows is written clearly in the Good Book, and of course from a Christian perspective. Transpose sin for conscience or whatever your own value systems dicatate if you've got a problem with religious stuff. The principle however remains. If you don't accept that there is such a thing as right or wrong, then this post will challenge your values.

The idea that there is a God; that He is in charge; and that He sets rules for His creation is unpopular but a core tenet of the Christian faith. According to those rules, breaking them is a sinful act. He says listen and obey. If we do things our own way however, we sin and there are consequences. If he tells us not to steal and we do, there is a consequence - we will not be able to sleep easy at night; we'll more than likely have poor quality friends; we'll more than likely often get caught and will be forever broke as most thieves are. That's on top of the distance that we naturally create between us and our loving Creator when we do something wrong.

I explore the importance of firsts in three chapters of Lipstick on a Pig. Essentially firsts are important. The first time we breathe, talk, walk, drive a car, have sex, and when we encounter moral and religious issues.

Temptation to do wrong is universal. The challenge of Christ (Who is He and what am I to do about Him?) is also universal. How we each first respond sets a precedent that - short of repentance, stopping, turning around, and reversing our path - sets the journey we spend our life taking. I liken this thinking to the game of tennis on a string. The pole set in the ground has a steel spiral at the top with a tennis ball on a string. Hitting the ball one way sends the string up the spiral to win for one player. Hitting the ball the other way sends the ball down the spiral for the other player to win.

Our first choice on moral issues sets the direction. Short of a change somewhere along the lines, and interception of the course set, the destination is clear from the first point of impact. I've seen this many times while observing life. Unforgiveness towards a partner or parent always starts at one point in time. "I will never forgive him/her for what they have said or done!" is a typical scenario.

The die is cast. Unless one changes and forgives, this behaviour pattern will continue for life. The next time somebody does something similar, it is easy to hold the grudge. Same with stealing, violence, drug abuse and other anti-social behaviours. Do it once and it becomes a lot easier to do it again and then becomes an ingrained pattern of behaviour.

It's the same thing with God. When the challenge of Christ first comes to us, we make a decision. We either explore and seek His ways and His company, or we reject His calling. There isn't any fence sitting as far as I can see.

We had a young guy stealing from us recently and I watched in his eyes one night a man out of control. Even though he knew he was doing something wrong and even though he knew that logically it was not in his best interest to steal from the boss of a dream job, he did. He was out of control, possessed and I could see it in his eyes.

What caused this man to destroy his reputation; cause him to lose everything he valued such as his family and his job; for a few dollars for a beer or two or three? It wasn't the beer that caused him to steal. It wasn't the desire for money that drove him to sin. It was the pattern of behaviour going back to one point in time, who knows when, that he said "No!" to doing the right thing and chose to do wrong.

He'll pay the price of course, with broken relationships all around and time in jail.

The idea that he was out of control raises questions as to who was in control. Many would say that the young man was. They all say HE was the liar, cheat and thief. True, but I observed in this man demonic control. His choice was made years before that he would steal, and the entry of demons or spirits or whatever you want to call it occurred. I'm sure that he did not want to steal the night that he did. His mind would have been in a turmoil as he knew the risks. But I saw a man being controlled, compelled by something inside of him that drove him against his better judgement.

That's the price we pay when we first sin. As they say sin always takes you further, deeper, for longer and costs much more than we at first are led to believe. Adam and Eve found that out years ago. The guy who stole from us found it out or will be finding it out as he faces the judge next week.

So somewhere, sometime earlier in his life he chose the dark side. Today his life is a wreck. That's what pride eventually does to us.

But it happens to other more respectable characters too. Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens are not immune to the traps of sin either. I know of one man of excellent standing who never forgave his father for the pain he caused him as a child separating from his mother. Many decades later if you dig deep, he still suffers from a lifetime of unforgiveness. He turned down the offer that Christ gave him as a young man most likely because it would mean that he would have to forgive his father in order to receive Christ's forgiveness. Too proud to turn, the die was set. Sure it's never too late to repent, change course and admit wrong, but it would be a miracle if it happened now.

I've talked many times with another friend who admitted quite candidly about the time that her marriage ended - years before the separation and divorce. "Oh yes I know exactly when and where it happened" she admitted. Unforgiveness started at that point and the marriage was over from then.

The thing about dusting sin under the carpet is that the first time nobody knows (unless they were watching) but one day there will be too much dust under the carpet and somebody will trip and fall as a result of the pattern of behaviour.

The good thing about this all is that it is always possible to turn and set the ball in motion the good way. It doesn't matter if we are an inch away from losing the tennis ball game. At the point that we stop the ball and send it the other way, we'll win. In Christianese, it's never too late to humble ourself, repent, and turn to Christ.

Equally until our patch on earth is done, it's also possible for the saints to choose the dark side, even at the last minute. Dumb, I know, but we all have a free choice.

So being specific now . . . dealing with sin; dealing with Christ . . . if you've set your life on the wrong track sometime years ago, don't fool yourself. Now would be a very good time to set the ball in motion the other way.

I had a conversation with someone once - a common one in circles of Christian Apologetics. It went something like this."

"I hate Christians because they are so cock-sure of themselves. What right do they have to tell me what to do or think?"

"What say they are right and there is a God who has rules, absolutes, right and wrong?"

"Religion is [BS, nonsense or other expletives]. There is no God."

"You are absolutely sure about that?"

"Absolutely!"

"But you just said that you don't believe in absolutes."

[Stunned silence] "OK. Except for that one!"

If you're of the opinion that there is no such thing as absolutes (good or bad or a God to whom we are eventually accountable) then if you are intellectually honest, you must of course accept that this very belief of yours must be open to alternatives too. That means that there 'may' be a God and that there 'may' be right and wrong.

My advice - don't take the chance.

The Other Worlds

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:42:02 GMT

The other day while travelling somewhere in the car I asked a guy who works for me up here if had any understanding of the Global Economy. I may as well have been speaking Swahili!

He got the Global part, sort of, with a bit of prompting but the Economy thing was just another world and too hard to explain in a 1/2 hour car trip. He's typical of many here. They have as much of an idea about the other worlds as many have of their world of subsistence living in "Paradise".

There are two Samoa's and it's not American and Western Samoa I'm talking about. It's the people in Samoa and the ones outside.

Now don't get all huffetty with me when I talk about the Samoan brain drain OK? It's just a fact. Let's be honest about it - the good ones have gotten out. And the impact is way bigger on the country than New Zealand's brain drain in days gone past. There are not even 180,000 people in Samoa here and estimated to be more than 300,000 Samoans outside. That's a very big exodus over the years - and of course those that have now bred offshore.

Yes, yes, yes, I know there are exceptions but the constant challenge from the Samoan people's perspective is to get out of here. It always has been and unless things change very drastically it always will be. Families overseas are "So lucky!" they say here. "We have been selected for the ballot,* We are so lucky - can you sponsor me in to New Zealand?"

There are many empty houses in Samoa - especially some of the villages. "Oh that's Aunties' house. She's in Australia". or "I'm looking after Mum's house while she is in New Zealand". Even our own landlord is an absentee landlord. He is a retired pastor who lives in Wellington and has been coming "home" for decades - five of them to be precise!

While Samoa is "home" for many, the reality is that those with influence; those with power or money; those with talent or ability in some field or those who want to better themselves are all offshore. Think rugby, boxing, education, government, yes and of course labouring workers, South Auckland and the other things that are unPC to talk about.

So these two worlds . . . they look like this:

On one hand we have here a 36 year old man who wakes at sunrise, "borrows" 40 sene (cents) from his mother to go to work for a Palagi. He will usually not eat breakfast - there usually isn't any. He is the only one in his extended family who has a job - the rest are subsistence farmers. He won't have any lunch or money on him to buy lunch nine times out of ten - there usually isn't any. He wants to get paid daily because he needs it for smokes, food for his family, or the busfare, or nappies for his baby, or to pay back his brother or sister or mother who might have loaned him a buck or two. He is the only one who has a job so he has to buy everything for everybody else in the family - that's what Fa'a Samoa is - communal living at it's best (or worst, whichever way you approach it) and a lifestyle that Samoans the world over skite about, are proud about and will die for (even when they partake in the other life).

Then you have the Palagi life - the other life - comparatively wealthy, informed and with-it, with Ipods, cars, Facebook, healthy employment, food galore and an arrogance and independence that slips a few quid to family back home every now and then and sometimes doesn't even visit family ("because they always just expect things from me").

Ouch!

Those two worlds are miles and miles apart. They're not always divided in two countries either. There are many here who live the Palagi way with material possessions owned by an individual and private lockable houses with food in the cupboards. "I moved out of the village home and we rent in Apia now. We want some space of our own", one married couple shared with me. "Village life you know you can never own anything of your own and you can never have your own life" they explained.

Little more was said because I understood. "I know very well!" I thought. "Fa'a Samoa and the two worlds!"

I was brought up a classical musician. I learned music by reading the dots. Music came to me via Beethoven and Mozart and the Concert Programme (station) on the radio. Regee, Hip Hop and pop music was a different world. I never got that different world - the music and the people in the different world. Worlds apart!

I couldn't afford to buy lunches at school or travel the world until quite late in life. Even my friends came from the same side of the street - middle class New Zealand. On other side of the street there were families who travelled internationally, went to the snow for holidays, could afford a housekeeper, dining out, had a bach, two cars and a boat. They lived in another world.

On the political front there are those who know how the system works and benefit from it, generally well behind the scenes; and those who get caught up in playing the game of politics believing it all - some do it all very seriously too. Democracy is nothing to do with voting. It is about manipulation, power and money by a few behind the scenes. (Think Shadow Government and the global banking cartel). John Key would have changed the law and made a simple correction to the anti-smacking law if it was. Muldoon wouldn't have got pressurised by the scary International Monetary dudes in ~~white~~ black suits, matching suitcases and a private unmarked jet at the end of his career either if it was. He was told what to do. Helen wouldn't have had such a dream ride and done her business despite popular opinion if it was. Democracy is an excellent tool for those in the know, who play the game, and who are thus rewarded. The rest of us just see the news as they want to present it to us. The make-believe and the real world. Two worlds.

I've got mates who are into soccer. What a crazy game when people can talk about a nil-all scoreline favourably. Imagine rugby with a nil-all scoreline and saying it was a good game! The fun is all in the action for me - tries, conversions, great runs with the ball. We're in tWo camps on these sports, my mates and me. Two worlds a mile apart.

I chuckled to myself recently when Ian Wishart posted a link to "a longstanding environmentalist" who is just starting to see the real motivations and politics surrounding the global warming nonsense and how political many of the seemingly innoculous and trustworthy organisations now are.

What�s really disconcerting for me is that I am a longstanding environmentalist. As part of environmental groups I�ve helped to prevent nuclear waste from being dumped in the ocean, I�ve helped change emergency planning for nuclear reactors, and I�ve also helped develop biodiversity strategy. I�m as green as you can get. But what I am faced with now is environmental groups and major NGOs � Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, even the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds � which have allied themselves with the state. They talk about so-called denialists allying themselves with �Big Oil�, but they have fallen into the arms of big government. They�ve allied with disreputable prime ministers; they�ve allied with chief policy advisers who have never got anything right in their lives; they�ve allied themselves with scientific institutions that have never led on any of these environmental issues.
Peter Taylor

I knew over 20 years ago that global warming was a just a scare-tactic when I found a newspaper under the carpet of my grandmother's family home I was renovating. I still have the original newspaper - I even brought it to Samoa with me. It's a little yellow and the paper is a little crumbly with age but on Page 13 of the New Zealand Herald, Tuesday, April 9, 1957 (that date is correct - 1957, before I was born!) is an article entitled: MAN IS MAKING EARTH TOO WARM [BOLD ITALIC CAPS in the original]

Click image to zoom in or here for extreme closeup!

Sandwiched between articles entitled "PEKING-MOSCOW ALLIANCE REMAINS FIRM", "Eisenhower Sends Eden Personal Letter" and "No Progress in Canal Negotiations" the subtitle reads "Threat of Melting Polar Caps" and starts with "The levels of the oceans could rise 40 feet and flood vast areas of the earth in the next half century unless atmospheric temperatures were controlled, said a prominent physicist yesterday." It carries on with a short, two column article of the usual BS blah blah stuff.

Fifty three years later and the powers that be have ramped up the global warming rhetoric a thousand fold and many are still trying to work it all out. Global warming (or at least perceived weather trouble) has one of five planned "threats" for nigh on a hundred years to scare the population into Global Government submission. ** See my footnote for others.

Ho hum!

I live in a different world. I see things differently with eyes of ~~a conspiracist~~ reality. Too many others seem get sucked into playing games with "talking heads" and empty words, and believing the make-believe powermongers want me to believe. Two totally different worlds. One day, too late, many will no doubt find out that they've been duped.

Cathy O'Brien explained in way way too much detail in The Trance-Formation of America how the power-mongers live. I strongly recommend that you do not read either of her two books if you are squeemish or if you are not ready to take a major body blow to your understanding of the way things really are up the top. A mind-controlled sex slave from birth to Presidents and their spouses from Reagon to the Clintons and downwards, she was conditioned for Illuminati use and programmed under the massive top secret MK-Ultra programme. With outside help she broke free and survived, being one of the first to spill the beans on the other world. It's a world that will shock and destroy too many preconceptions for most people to be able to handle. To think that Presidents, CIA and others are part of a pure evil global reaching plan to bring about the New World Order and that they live like animals without conscience behind the scenes is a different world to that of 99.999% of the rest of us, but a real world none-the-less. The other world is one of literally unspeakable and unlimited wealth that brings with it pure unbridled power, but also pure evil.

This then raises the issue of the spiritual world - a different world from the bricks and mortar and the people and things that we live in and around and sometimes love. Dealing with the contest between good and evil must always bring us back to the spiritual whatever terms we use to explain it. The thought that there is another world of a spiritual nature is not unique to Christianity - many religions accept some form of spirituality to explain the two worlds of good and evil. Some balance them out - like the yin/yang does. Others fall more on opposite ends of the spectrum of Good and Evil competing - some, like Christian declaring that Christ conquers Satan, and others claiming that "Lucifer rulz". According to the Scriptures the physical and the conflict will pass, but the spiritual will remain. Faith and relationship with our Creator are the keys to participating in this world. Whatever the case these are very different worlds. News from the other world can be shocking.

Robert Kiyosaki talks with increasing concern about the global economy in his newsletters. I respect him. He's carved out a lovely niche with his latest venture - revealing the Conspiracy as he calls it but not quite naming names and going the whole hog. Very clever!

My point is that the tenor of his voice is changing from a cautious "be prepared" to one of "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! RED ALERT!" I think Robert is right, that there is serious trouble ahead, but I also think that the entire global economy is way more tightly managed by the banking cartel than he lets on. I encourage others to explore the role of all apparent leaders in political and big-business decision-making. Ask questions and follow the money.

I'm not naturally suspicious but his success on the back of the global banking cartel's activities is also a little too clever in fact for my liking. Some have poked a few questions his way in regards to his marketing and style, but I'd be asking questions too about his money-making capacity if he starts to shine too much. It is their style to "telegraph their punches".

Like my friend in Samoa, who knows not what a Global Economy is, there are many around the world who know little of the other worlds around them. I encourage readers to explore the other worlds. Sure, come to visit Samoa and meet the people who have nothing (and on the one hand take what you have and on the other give you all that they have) but also ask questions about the other worlds too and actively explore new territory.

You can't ask too many questions, unless you have a closed mind already. Join the other side of the street for a new experience. Who knows what good will come from it when you do? If it's Samoa, I'll see you ~~there~~ ~~anywhere~~ here!

* The ballot allows a limited number of families entry into New Zealand each year by agreement of both governments.

** David Bay is what I would call an ultra right wing conservative. He has some excellent insights into the misinformation process used by Illuminati and NWO supporters. His experience in high level US miltary has given him an excellent capacity to spot BS from a mile away. He says that he came to recognise early on that the US government routinely lies and misrepresents important facts to it's own people. His news and Christian commentary website Cutting Edge has been sounding a constant message of warning for many years. I've enjoyed a lot of his insights and learned a lot from him. In one of his early articles (http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n2193.cfm) he addressed the global warming issue as one of five planned "threats" to mankind. Readers of this website should understand that David writes from the perspective that:

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are genuine and are not a forgery as some claim. (I absolutely agree with him on this. Although the exact authorship cannot be guaranteed, the essence of the document is very real)
The Christian faith is a foundation for truth and understanding, and that reality can be and must be measured against Scripture. (I'm right with him on this too, but he's much more into the Churchy words than I could ever be!

In essence the five threats that he mentions are:

Global Warming
Global Terrorism
Global War
Global Economic Disaster
Global Virus Pandemic

I ask myself as a check every now and then if any of these are promoted in the mainstream media in a manner that makes me want to support initiatives helpful to global NWO government. They all are. So until proven otherwise if it walks like a duck . . .

It's all about relationship

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:37:19 GMT

As 2009, comes to a close, I am preparing to depart from the country of my birth and the land I've called home for more than five decades. The following message is a reflective personal encouragement for my friends and readers to focus on their building and keeping relationships, for life is all about relationships.

Essentially, I am moving to another country because of relationships. I have developed a close relationship with one Samoan family in particular, but I have also built relationships with other Samoan people. As a Palagi it is easy to make friends over there and I enjoy working and living in this environment.

When I think back over the many hundreds, of people I have interacted with throughout New Zealand, for a guy who really struggled to interact socially for almost thirty years, I've come a long way in the last twenty or so. Sure, I've burnt a few relationships over the years, but there are many more that have brought a degree of godliness to the fore.

It's very easy to look at the ones that have gone bad and soured a little - friends who do the dirty on you . . . business people who cheat and lie to gain an advantage . . . people that you help who end up using you . . . people who do their own thing or miss the boat at your expense and end up destroying intimacy. I talked about this previously in the Post: People in Business.

I was saddened towards the end of this year when Iris went to work for an opposition company, actually an ex-staff member who I really think should have known better than to poach. The main reason given for the move was money - a pay rise from $42,000.00 to just $45,000.00. It hurt, but the sad thing is that a couple of relationships will never be the same again. Treasure relationships people - it's not worth destroying a friendship over money things.

It's not just greed that kills a relationship. Lack of wisdom can also do it. I've been working with one guy for over six months to print my book Lipstick on a Pig. He owes me a lot of money and we've had a deal off and on and off and on. Basically the guy keeps changing his mind and messing things up to the point that I just don't want to deal with him anymore. His problem? He's lost the plot with age. He should have retired years ago but hasn't. I've had others in business who were supposed to be partners and ended up trying to change the rules unilaterally.

A few years back I bought a property from a Maori couple in Raurimu and the vendors did the same thing - change the agreement unilaterally. In the end we just walked after having possession for almost a year and there is another family that can't keep a relationship. It is so easy to kill a relationship.

I know that relationships are definitely hard work to maintain, but it's worth the effort to push through day after day to make them work. They are just like a piano. A piano may have a hundred or more strings and 99 of them can be perfectly in tune but just one string out of tune can sour the entire music. Tune the piano, people!

I was saddened earlier this year when a moment or two after opening my mouth my ex wife's shrink took the liberty of informing me in no uncertain terms that I had a narcissistic personality disorder along with a few other priceless "sentiments". What we actually needed at the time was someone to listen and to help establish relationship, not some knee-jerk feministic fatalism. Assumptions made in the first few minutes of the first counseling session don't bode well for marriage counseling in my book. It's harder but far better to go for maintaining relationship than judgment. Of course if the shrink was right and I'm close to certifiable, then separation was definitely the best thing for both of us* but again, it's keeping and maintaining relationship that is the key, not whether someone is right/wrong or a goose!

I've taught my staff and anyone else who would listen the importance of maintaining relationship for years. I've written a chapter about it in my book Lipstick on a Pig but basically when a relationship sours, no contract or agreement is worth the paper it is written on.

One of our staff "packed a sad" on us part-way through the year and announced his resignation effective immediately. After a little encouragement from our Production Manager, he recognized that he may have been a little hasty but the damage had been done and you could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice, and motivation and productivity were low from then on. The desire to maintain relationship had gone. When he finally left it was no surprise, in fact a cloud lifted when it did finally happen. It's sad to lose any relationship - through hard times, pride, a difference of opinion or even just changed circumstances - so work hard to keep them alive.

I think of the people who have variously been on the receiving end of my words. I was brought up to judge and criticise as a default setting, so it has been hard work for me to learn to encourage, mentor and exhort others. I've had dozens of homestay students, boarders and foster children for in excess of twenty years and am pleased to say that a good many of them do and will look back at their times with me here in New Zealand and say that the relationship they had with me was special. Every one of them received my best while they were in my care, and many of them had life-changing experiences as a result.

I've managed to earn the respect of many, in different ways and at different times but some relationships are a little more special than others. Some who share the Christian faith and recognise the biblical components of my life are special. It's not that everybody will always be your friend, but we should always work hard to be a friend to others.

There's another relationship that is vital to our wellbeing and that's our relationship with our Creator. It's not politically correct to talk about God things much in New Zealand, but whether we like it or not someday we will all have to meet Him. It's far better to establish a relationship with Him now, than wait until it's too late and hear Him say "Sorry, he didn't bother with Me", and miss out on something special in both Heaven and Earth.

I had been a Christian for several years and desperately wanted to hear God speak to me. I asked my church leader at the time, "How do I hear God?" His reply . . . "It comes from relationship, Dennis". I've experienced the reality of this relationship and have taught it to all I meet.

Seek, foster, build and treasure this relationship people. It's as important as life and death itself.

This is me signing out for a while. I'll update The Samoa Story as I am able.

Hopefully I'll see you in Samoa once I've settled in!

* For the record, at the time I questioned the diagnosis, I backed myself and pretty much lost a marriage as a result. Sad!

Brendan Battles spamming again

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:14:40 GMT

This is sad. I have this morning received a series of spam emails from Brendan Battles*, one of which is even addressed to himself! Someone really ought to stop this guy - if nothing other than for his own sake.

Actually I really don't know if it is funny or sad when a known spammer spams himself but here it is. The following screenshots show an email addressed to "info@wdanz.org.nz" titled "Dear Brendan". From about May 2006 until October 2006, Brendan did some marketing work for one of my companies and at the same time he helped me get WDANZ up and running. He was very helpful and his ideas and support for the WDANZ idea was much appreciated. There was of course some pretty serious baggage associated with his name, but I'd given him my word so I stuck with him even though it caused some negative press for us. I did this because I try to make my word mean something and I'd watched Brendan get trashed unfairly by a previous employer who admitted (to me privately) that he lied to the press to protect his company image over Brendan.

During this time I setup the email address "brendan@wdanz.org.nz" for him which he was entitled to and did use during that time. In early July 2006, following feedback from some in the industry that we were a company, not an organisation we changed to using "brendan@wdanz.co.nz" and he stopped using this after the October 2006 Conference when we parted company. So the address he has used here (info@wdanz.org.nz) has been generated.

Brendan's modus operandii is to scrape data from multiple sources, such as Yellow Pages, IDG, Whitepages, Finda, the .nz Registry and websites. He also exchanges data with others in the business, merges data and sells it on CDRoms. He did it very successfully in the USA and started this in New Zealand in 2006 when he has with me. He is very skilled at manipulating large datasets and finding ways to "get around" anti-scraping devices used by online listing organisations.

Because of the way that he secures it the quality of his data is at the lower end of the spectrum. I would suggest that anyone wanting quality data or complete data sets would be better to pay the higher prices from Yellow Pages and their like. Brendan's attitude to complaints relating to quality is to offer more data free. In his position this is all he can do, because he can only scrape data from the sources available to him. Yellow Pages however has access to the data from source, and therefore can offer complete and accurate data.

From these screen shots (fullsize) you can see that:

I received five copies of the same email spam
All of them (except for the one addressed to himself) do not have a "title" field - a sure sign of spam. If I received five emails between 1.38am and 1.51am with a bunch of them in alphabetical order (info@) to which I have not have opted-in, that indicates a rather large spam broadcast last night methinks.
Four of them are addressed to info@" (Only one of them is a genuine web-based email address that could have been scraped. The others are guesses that have worked). This is again spam.
The one addressed to "dns@gokiwi.net" has been scraped from Registry data (the only place it is ever used). Go Kiwi Internet has never or would never opt-in to any list with Image Marketing Group.
"info@gokiwi.co.nz" has been created from attaching info to a scraped domain name. (This address has never been used) and the Domain Name is not used. It simply has a wildcard catching inbound e-mails for clients that may have guessed the domain.

Apart from the humour of watching the notorious spammer spam himself, I find the whole spamming thing with Brendan really quite sad. Brendan pushes the boundaries. I empathise with people who do push the boundaries because that's where progress comes from. I push the boundaries too and it's the attitude that makes an entrepreneur tick. We approach life positively and are just inherently built to ask the questions "Why not give it a go?" rather than sitting around saying "Why should I bother?".

The sad thing is that Brendan has a lot of experience in many areas of marketing and could make an excellent living without having to always work at the dodgy end of the market. Spamming like this is just going to cause the guy a heap more problems. He will think that he can get away with it. Maybe he can. He's already had to deal with the authorities over a previous spam job. He sneaked through that one - but one day they'll ping him. Personally I don't think it is worth it. The risk is w-a-a-a-y too high.

* Technically from "Simon"

Warning: XO, Ozone, Ormita etc

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:33:19 GMT

This is a public warning to my friends and colleagues with assets and involvement with XO Ltd, Ozone NZ, Barterzone & Ormita.

I have had extensive dealings with this network of companies, and am aware of many of their various interactions; quite a bit not pulicly known. This afternoon I have become aware of developments in the disputes with the above companies that now give me enough cause to alert people to the following facts. My personal commentary on the situation follows.

Facts

XO Ltd (the provider of the core software) is in dispute with the IRD with very large transactions relating to Ozone. I have seen enough to believe that large fraud has occurred but am not a forensic accountant nor lawyer, so I speak this as a lay personal opinion, conditional on a full hearing
There have been questions asked in regards to payment of the original license that Ozone secured from XO (via Sebby Woodhouse). Again I have seen and heard enough to be very interested in the answers to the questions: "Who bought what and what did they pay for it? Was the second transaction valid (i.e. undisputed, fully paid)? If they weren't completed correctly or if the account has not been conducted in accordance with XO rules where does that leave the Ozone license?"
I have observed changes to the Barterzone website this afternoon where the link to "Browse Member Directory" (an ASPX system) has changed from Ozone member directory to a PHP system (http://ozone.net.nz/XOB2B07/Home3/Login.aspx?url=Browse/Buy.aspx --> http://barterzone.co.nz/members/login.php). This indicates a major change - I would be asking what is happening behind the scenes. I think there is probably a lot more to this than a simple rebranding exercise.
I am aware that parties have been attempting to serve both Daniel Evans and Miriam (director and former directors of Ormita) with documents but have been unsuccessful thus far. What are those documents and why can they not be served?

I would obviously encourage business people to exercise extreme caution when conducting business with these companies and would encourage people to ask direct questions of the principals and their representatives.

I think that the proverbial is getting quite close to the fan, and wouldn't like to guess who is going to come out on top of this one.

Commentary

There is a long history of "interesting" behaviour with the network of New Zealand and Australian companies associated with the Ozone brand and their principals. From 2008 to January 2009, I conducted 100 hours of personal research into the health of the company that I invested into which became more of an analysis of the conduct of Daniel Evans as director, and chief strategist, and head poncho. I found that all roads led to confusion, except in Daniel's mind. I found him quite divisive and he oscillated between appearing to be a great open and honest businessman (some claim this is the consumate conman face to the man) and a fully demon-possessed maniac screaming profanities down the phone at me. It was an extraordinary experience which I blogged about at the time under the heading People in business.

I found him extremely good at manipulating people, when he used threats, bluff and what to me was excessive anger to attempt to control others - business people, staff and me. He had a group of loyal supporters that believed in him to the hilt in absolutely everything (even in the face of conflicting evidence and what was to me reason), but equally he had others out there who called him a crook, and worse and refused to see anything untoward as anything but deliberate fraud. He was also apparently behind an effort to undermine Go Kiwi Internet which I also blogged about then.

There was a litany of compliance issues in regards to his business dealings. Some were fairly serious and I still think that anyone who wants to dig will find a major hornets nest - if they are good and persistent I think that he could have some serious issues to sort out. Jail time is perfectly possible for some of what I saw. Daniel sees things differently of course, and hastened to rectify matters to get me and others off his back, claiming that they were just oversights and that "I know that some things might not be 100%", and that I was part of a cartel out to get him.

I wrote a private 14,000 word report that I distributed to shareholders of that failed company that effectively advised them that I believed that any company Daniel was involved with would always struggle because of the people-relationship and interpersonal issues that Daniel struggled with. I think this pattern of a trail of destruction is continuing. The jury is out on whether this is just as a result of Daniel's personal issues or whether there is a background of skullduggery but I don't have any doubt as to what the truth is over the past. I've made up my mind. What's happened since my report is however only heresay, because I am not actively researching the matters and actually don't want to.

In regards to Ozone, I liked the exchange in the days that Daniel ran it. It had a vibrancy and energy common with any good startup as well as being the underdog. The exchange went backwards under Sebby's watch and plateaued quite a bit with Patrick. I think it is a shame that there are legacy issues behind the scenes for the exchange. I'm not party to the inner workings of Ozone and I know full well how companies can legitimately buy and sell shares/assets and liabilities but I have questions as to the timing of the recent changes.

There are many other issues but any investigation has to start somewhere. I would encourage investigators to focus their research on the legitimacy and use of "rogue" Barter transactions and how this affects GST to the benefit of certain entities (in some multi-million dollar transactions), and the timing and circumstances of the transfer of shares in Ormita to and from Australia/NZ. Issues exist in my mind over the legitimacy of source code "sales" that enabled Daniel to effectively reproduce XO software after having been expelled as a director. These transactions have yet to be explained to my satisfaction and in time I think may come back to haunt Ormita and their offshoots. As I said there is a LOT more but others may follow it through.

I'll update matters when or if I have more information that directly affects parties involved. In the meantime - be careful and ask lots of questions.

UPDATE

I have received the following written responses from Patrick Howard, Barterzone. Barterzone is a simple rebranding exercise, with balances transfered from Ozone to Barterzone, and trade exchange remaining in the same ownership. One thing I was impressed with is that Patrick is showing all the signs of a guy who's onto it. It's not often that you can talk to a guy who listens, and even more impressive is a restructuring of commission rates as a result of a phone chat. I believe that commissions chargeable/payable on sale is a far easier way to do business. Another trade exchange I was involved with a few years ago structured their commissions this way and it worked well. It's better for the exchange, and the seller can budget the full amount of commissions at the point of sale. It is psychologically better as well, after all why would you want to charge people to spend/use something that is theirs anyway? If they don't have the cash for the fees at the time they want to spend (and let's face it most people are in trade exchanges because they are not cash-rich) it puts people off trading.

Given the rocky history of Ozone etc, a rebranding exercise makes good sense. If there have been problems with XO (and I know there have been) moving off the XO platform also makes sense. I'm sure that Patrick has done due diligence on stripping the asset of the exchange from the XO system onto his own. If I was XO I wouldn't be too happy and I do know that the matter will raise its head somewhere sometime in the future. Things are certainly interesting sometimes in business but good on Patrick if he can make it work!

My take on it is that after investing into the software and the infrastructure as he has, Barterzone probably has a pretty good chance of making a go of it. The build-up phase of a trade exchange is always associated with excitement, rapid growth and lots of goodwill. If the energy and investment that Patrick has put in over the last year or so remains for a good 2-3 years, I think Bartercard may have a serious competitor to deal with in New Zealand - for the first time in the more than 20 years that I've worked in this area. The hard part will be to push through into years two, three and four, cementing strong relationships and building the credibility that is so important to this line of business.

RECEIVED 18 January 2010:

There have been questions asked in regards to payment of the original license that Ozone secured from XO (via Seeby Woodhouse). Again I have seen and heard enough to be very interested in the answers to the questions: "Who bought what and what did they pay for it? Was the second transaction valid (i.e. undisputed, fully paid)? If they weren't completed correctly or if the account has not been conducted in accordance with XO rules where does that leave the Ozone license?"

In June 2007 I purchased the client base, goodwill and assets of Ozone from Seeby Woodhouse. I am not aware of the payment arrangements between Seeby and XO. My purchase from Seeby is subject to a confidentiality agreement. I have never signed any agreement with XO due to the terms and conditions of the agreement presented by XO being onerous to the point it would have been unprofitable to keep the exchange operating. I am happy to answer any ongoing questions by members of BarterZone (previously Ozone) provided they are not subject to confidentiality agreements.

I have observed changes to the BarterZone website this afternoon where the link to "Browse Member Directory" (an ASPX system) has changed from Ozone member directory to a PHP system (http://ozone.net.nz/XOB2B07/Home3/Login.aspx?url=Browse/Buy.aspx --> http://barterzone.co.nz/members/login.php). This indicates a major change - I would be asking what is happening behind the scenes. I think there is probably a lot more to this than a simple rebranding exercise.

The decision to move away from the XO platform was based on such things as:
- Having no signed agreement in place between XO and myself (due to the nature of the agreement offered by XO I was not prepared to sign this)

- Having been verbally told by XO that I have the exclusive use of the XO platform for New Zealand but finding out this is not the case. See http://nz.ormita.com/xob2b07/Home3/Login.aspx . From this link you will see that the XO platform that Ozone (now BarterZone) was using is in direct competition and the same platform as being used by Ormita. This creates a direct conflict of interest not only for current or potential new members but also for myself as the person responsible for the NZ exchange. It became apparent that there must be real serious issues within XO for another trade exchange operator to be a direct competitor to me AND using the exact same software platform. You will see at the bottom of the screen shot that it also says Software provided by XO Limited with a link to XO. So the question would have to be �what is going on� . XO has had months to serve an injunction on Ormita to stop using the XO platform but either does not the legal right to do so or some other reason?

- So to answer the question, yes, BarterZone had concerns on a number of levels with using the XO platform. To ensure the future safety of the members of Ozone I made the decision to create our own state of the art platform trade exchange software which has come at a substantial cost. I am now proud that current and future trade exchange members have an exchange that not only is modern but also has full transactional online and offline facilities to assist both individuals and business owners to conserve cash in every transaction and be able to keep a record of this in an easy to use website.

- On the 21/10/2009 all members of Ozone were notified of the new platform and name change as per the email below. The promotion was a huge success with hundreds of new members joining.

I asked Patrick for clarification of the above (I wanted clarification of the phrases "name change" and "new members joining") and received confirmation from Patrick on 21 January 2010 that it is in fact just a name change/rebranding exercise:

To confirm when the new BarterZone platform was launched all the members balances were transferred across being credits and debits. Therefore all member benefits have been retained.

On a side note, I have taken your advice on board and we are adopting a policy of only charging fees to the seller ( not the buyer). This is a major move for BarterZone and will work to the benefit of all members and the exchange overall.

Therefore the structure will look somewhat like this:

Joining Fee (FREE - for the personal and traders accounts)
Monthly Fees (FREE - for the personal and traders accounts)
Transaction Fees 6% to the seller only / Buyer Free

If this is for real, that's a real competitor in the trade exchange marketplace at 6%. If Patrick can survive on 6% long-term (Ozone started at 1% for life and then changed the rules several times thereafter and conveniently "forgot" it's initial promise to us all as greed and mismanagement took over) then Barterzone's fee structure is very compelling. This is even better than the old-school top Bartercard traders (who negotiated a supposedly-secret-but-not-so-secret deal to pay only fees on sale only) who paid effectively 6.5%.

At 6%, I can see many traders switching their preferred currency from Bartercard to Barterzone. Once the momentum gets up, and the word gets around, things could get interesting. From Bartercard's perspective I would find it hard to counter this one. With a new owner/software/brand that offers HALF the fee rate, the only thing they've really got is to hit their members with the risk of a new exchange, but put half the fees and painless entry on the table to a typical "trader" and Barterzone might be causing some hurt to Bartercard pretty soon.

I think this is a good move on Patrick's part. What he's doing is geting a better grip on the membership vs currency vs exchange thing. As a trader, barter of any sort offers me both a currency and a marketing opportunity. TradeMe is strong in marketing but just deals in cash. Bartercard, Ozone and others do offer me a mix of marketing and a currency.

The thing is that sometimes I may want marketing, but many times I just want a currency that I can use. Bartercard doesn't "get" this distinction and is stuck on the Membership thing and thus the constant high fees and associated stress. Once I've had the introduction to another member, why on earth would I want to pay massive fees on subsequent trading? Barterzone's 6% is still more than the Credit Card rates but only just and is therefore much more like a currency.

The next phase for Patrick and Barterzone, and he should be aware of this being involved in the Internet, is that you make a bigger business by branding and influencing, rather than owning and controlling. Google understood this and I presented this concept well under the Web Thought Leadership presentations. When Patrick can find a way to "monetise the currency" - i.e. zero fees and receive commercial benefit around the edges - THEN he will make a statement! We'll all be using Barterzones rather than NZDs and USDs.

I'm doing this to some extent in Samoa with the local villagers where we provide food, clothing and other goods donated to us equal to a set "unit of measure" - six pounds of flour = a quarter of a day's wages for a family, sort of thing. The currency doesn't matter - it's simply like a tool to do the job and we manage and provide the currency to leverage greater exposure, influence and profit. In the case of Samoa it more people involved and more tourism, but it could be one website = one fax machine = one day's labour = [or whatever].

With the manipulation of the global monetary system by the central banking cartel, alternative currencies will become far more prevalent (and valuable) as thinking people wake up to how the global elite are playing with us. Patrick's mid-term goal should be to get trade volume in the exchange and then he should aim get the fees right down to zero and monetise his business in other ways. This would cement his position as a Thought Leader (first trade exchange in the world to go "zero fees") and removes the influencec of competition. At zero fees he can ask anything of me and I'll join. Even at 6%, I'll hold off because I can get what he offers in other ways without the 6% - but it is tempting!

Now for those of you who can't get the idea of how to run or monetise a zero fees trade exchange, book your flight to Samoa and visit me - I'll show you how to build a multimillion dollar resort in multiple villages, with no capital, in the middle of Tsunami Ground Zero for people who have nothing and yet give you everything! It's an unfolding story - The Samoa Story, in fact.

On another note, I notice that Daniel has been effective in selling Ormita licences, and I continue to receive marketing info letting me know who their new staff members are. I shudder at the thought of more people getting their fingers burnt and their lives messed up but one can't solve all the world's problems despite my best efforts!

Real power is not 87.4%

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:36:41 GMT

It was Sue Bradford's last day in parliament today. She'll always be remembered for S59. A recent referendum in New Zealand returned a whopping 87.4% vote in favour of decriminalising smacking. The Prime Minister John Key ignored the result - worse than that, he actually determined before the vote results were in, that he wouldn't change the law. Here's the background to why, and what the 87.4% can do to get him to change the law and an assessment of the real role that Sue played in the "smacking debate".

Passions ran high on the topic of smacking with one politician (Sue Bradford) taking the lead role in the media and politics on the issue. She is widely held out to be the acrchitect and driver of the push to criminalise smacking. I don't believe that to be the case - she was just the front person. I'll explain why at the end of this post. Opposition to Sue's bill was vocal and ranged from the far right and across the political spectrum.

A vote of anything where 87.4% of a poll or referendum vote in one way could indicate several things . . .

a leading question (one that skews the voting toward a preferred result)
a low voter turnout (that reduces the validity of the data gathered) or
a groundswell of public opinion captured relatively accurately

The question in the referendum was actually simple and clear. The parliamentary clerks who worked with Larry Baldock to tweak the wording are no fools. Sure, there were some non-sensical claims to try and discredit the referendum by those who sought to keep the new law, but no-one who wanted change found the question confusing at all! Turnout was exceptionally high for a single referendum so the third option above must be true. New Zealand people wanted smacking decriminalised and large numbers of people actually bothered enough to tell the politicians this.

So why did John Key deliberately ignore the masses in what would normally be political suicide? I mean it would have been soooo simple just to say - "OK, I respect 87.4% of you. It's quite clear what you all want - a law change. We'll listen to you and the law will be gone by ~~lunchtime~~ within 100 days!" But he didn't and the reason why he disn't is simple. He went where the power is. The real power is not 87.4% of the population.

There is a widely held belief that the voter holds the power in a democracy. This is a fallacy deliberately perpetuated by the people who DO hold the power. Politics is a game of smoke, mirrors and make-believe and this is one of the reasons that I believe democracy is an inherently evil structure. As Shakespeare and many others have alluded to more eloquently than me, people come on the stage for a season and "do their stuff", making a lot of noise, gaining attention, fame and a degree of influence. But politicians are actually beholden to the real power-brokers behind the scenes and in time (like Sue) they all move on.

The general population is mesmerised by the so called issues of the day, and gets caught up in the arguments, conflicts, political, financial and philosophical nothings that the mainstream media dish up for us. Behind the scenes though deals are already done. Decisions are already made. Bigger issues are being brewed, managed and decided well out of the glare of the public eye.

On changing the smacking law, John Key knows that Larry (Baldock) is a "nice guy". They entered parliament together, even respect and like each other but John is PM and Larry is out. Larry, even with 87.4% has no power over John. John has assessed (No, actually I believe has actually said . . . ) that the "other guys" will make more trouble for him than the 87.4% of nice guys. THAT "possums", is the "key" to understanding John Key and why he didn't just change the law!

If I was John Key, and I wanted to stay as PM more than one term, I too would have sweet-talked the public, and not changed the law either. The "other guys" are nasty, committed and will fight to the death. They have generations of commitment and have the support of people in very powerful places - not just in New Zealand - but to the depths of the United Nations and the globalisation movement (yes, this is the stuff that conspiracies are made of).

To the well-meaning people supporting Larry Baldock and his new referendum to make a referendum compulsory - forget it. You have already won the moral victory but you just don't have the power and being Mr & Mrs nice guy about it, you never will! If I was John Key I would be secretly hoping that Larry will actually do another referendum, because that would tie Larry up for another year or two and I would then have the 87.4% all busy doing silly stuff again while I could do real deals with the powerful others. Sorry to be so brutal about it Larry!

The March people are going to have a go at rallying behind democracy on 21st November 2009, in Auckland. These guys are good guys I'm sure and I say to them go for it - keep the issue alive, but you have to get real - a march of even 1,000,000 people is not going to change things unless you can generate power. You've already got more than 1,000,000 people on a referendum already! What are you going to achieve? A march is just noise. A referendum is more noise. Letter writing or questions in the house are just more noise. There's nothing wrong with noise, but noise will simply never change the law. Power does, and big money is always behind real power.

So here is my advice to the people who DO want the law changed. Get serious and fight in the ring - not the side shows. The ring is the private office of John Key that is open to the business leaders and international moneymen (and ladies) that really have the power and who actually make the decisions.

To Larry Baldock, first, I respect your commitment and work over the anti-smacking thing. You have achieved a major battle victory in the hearts and minds of Kiwis that will outlast the anti-smacking issue itself. Congratulations. I respect your passion to change society. You are an honest and humble man but it is beholden to you, as the moral leader of the decriminalisation of smacking to front up and get serious.

All you have to do is to walk into John's office and tell him that the gloves are off and that the war is just beginning. Then tell him that you will hit him were it hurts and that you and your people are much more committed and more powerful and way more influential than the "others".

But are you really ready to get down and dirty and make John more afraid of you than Sue and her cohorts? I suspect that you are not. So does John - so far anyway - and that's why he hasn't changed the law. Change that Larry, and John will change the law before your eyes and you will be a real force in central New Zealand politics (in or out of parliament) as long as you live!

Now - to Sue Bradford. Sue has retired from politics now, but John still won't change his mind. The issue has nothing to do with Sue and never has. One minute Sue was there poking her head and her mantra into every camera she could find, the next, she's out but the dynamics in the smacking debate are just the same! And the reason? Sue was just the front person.

The deal-makers and power-brokers are always behind the scenes with anything that involves power and money. Prime Minister Robert Muldoon as with any small country leader was beholden to the global elite. In fact I know that toward the end of his reign his resistance to co-operating with the international bankers in some dastardly plots caused him personal anguish. Following politicians obliged, to the detrament of the country but the point is that all politicians are only front people.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, while a strong political leader in her own way was ultimately a front person for international interests. Her team of like-minded (mainly women) cohorts developed very powerful influencers in virtually every area of New Zealand society - from education to the arts, religion to finances and more. Her real power came from much more than her charismatic leadership - for decades she knew and worked with those with real power.

So, good work Sue. Your days on the national political stage appear to be over but others will always be there to take up the cause.

To those interested in the truth, always dig deeper. Continually ask probing questions especially if your understanding comes from the noisy sources - polticians, sales people, the constant babble in the media "talking heads" and know-it-alls who are fullof themselves and their own agendas.

Rarely is anything as it seems in such quarters.

Samoa after the Tsunami

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:01:36 GMT

Samoa is a land of contrasts: the haves (people in positions of influence) and the have nots, Tsunami victims and those who escaped what they call locally "The Wave". It has devastated their tourism industry but after falling in love with them following a recent holiday there, I have a vision for this tiny South Pacific nation.

It takes a good five days to slow down and absorb the culture and begin to understand the people. It's an amazing place. While not quite accurate to say that you would fall in love with it like you would do with New Zealand, there are aspects of Samoa that are very lovable - the people are the ones that really make it.

In the last five years or so, the country has been moving itself out of its third world status and has been upgrading its infrastructure - roading, communications, utilities and so on to embrace more of the western ways. Roads are now very drivable - they weren't a few years ago. Broadband exists in Apia and environs although it is still extraordinarily expensive. Cellphone coverage is good and ubiquitous.

The mainstay of the economy is aid-money (through ex-pat family support or aid agencies), although tourism has been growing as an income earner. It has been joked that their main export is their people (!) - they have a quota system to restrain immigration but those with contacts will better themselves off-shore, mainly New Zealand but also Australia and other English speaking countries.

The tourist resorts are definitely worthy of a visit, and people outside of the main tourist/business centres are generally happy, friendly and ultra-relaxed. Speed, efficiency, business and modern widgets are not of interest to these easy-going people who live in the constant heat just South of the Equator.

The recent Tsunami has effectively killed tourism. While not a particulalry politically correct thing to say, it has however been a godsend for the country and a Government that is known for leveraging goodwill for the country's own benefit. Awaiting an audience with the Deputy Prime Minister after me was a representative from a large New Zealand construction company that "wanted to give us money", one of many companies organisations and people that just wanted to help. I saw no starvation nor mistreatment or ugly politics and I have it on good authority that the current leaders are honest, progressive people who have and do work hard for their country.

Sure, the local paper ran one sensationalist story about a mother who claimed that he kids were "crying out desperately for water" a week after the Tsunami, when there was not place on earth that had a greater density of aid workers distributing water, Those around me from the UN relief teams laughed it off as the sensationalism it was. The Kiwis dispensing medication grizzled that they were prohibited from giving medication to the populace and that it had to be distributed via the local Matai (chief). Big deal! This is just a cultural difference to be worked with, not fought against. Sure I heard of an Aids official leaving in disgust after being unsuccessful in trying to promoting the subtle message of promiscuity under the cloak of a UN anti-Aids solgan. Aids? In Samoa? I don't think so.

I have had a long relationship with Greg Cassagrande, a successful American businessman who established the micro-finance organisation South Pacific Business Development Foundation SPDB. We have helped him for almost 10 years now, and his organisation has enjoyed good support from the Samoan authorities - and he has been able to loan $20m WST to women who have used it to establish businesses and supplement their family income. An amazing story in itself of how micro-finance can make a big difference in an essentially poor country.

Advised before going of a propensity for corruption and nepotism, I have seen another side of this issue that makes me caution against pointing a finger of blame too viciously. Essentially the Samoan culture is one of very relaxed approach to things and is also built upon strong family ties. While Tsunami restoration work at an infrastructure level was undertaken by the central government with support of the UN, Red Cross, and many others, on a property by property basis, restoration work was essentially family based. If family helped, work was undertaken immediately whereas on a property next door there may be no action happening and maybe not even planned to occur. People, families and companies with "get-up-and-go" businesslike attitude did and do well because they are in the minority. If they become the rich-and-famous of their culture as a result and their neighbour next door sits around all day enjoying the sunshine, then quite frankly, that's just they way that life works!

My holiday there was planned prior to the Tsunami and as an IT savvy visitor I struggled to learn about Samoa on the web prior to visiting. I was therefore fortuitously already prepared to advise the Government on their Internet strategy when I was there and recently was privileged to have given them the following advice:

Samoa has a massive challenge to rebuild its tourism industry.

(Visitor cancellation numbers are currently astronomical and with global sensationalist journalism along the lines of "Paradise Lost!" Samoa is now perceived as a country totally destroyed by the Tsunami. It's not, and with only 10% of its total accommodation affected it is very ready for business outside of Ground Zero, but perception though is everything and no amount of positive advertising will turn the tide in a hurry.) It could be forever known as the small tiny South Pacific nation that was wiped out in the Tsunami or it has another alternative . . .

Samoa has an enormous opportunity now to leverage the enourmous goodwill out there at the momemnt via the Internet and reinvent itself. The Tsunami in Asia was distributed across many nations. The Samoan Tsunami however predominantly affected only one nation, with a large base of generally intelligent, educated, Internet connected ex-pats who are able and willing to help.

My vision for Samoa is that it builds a reputation for understanding the importance of engaging with the world - where the people are - on the Internet. Just as twenty years ago Ireland reinvented itself as an IT nation from nothing when people in power established a vision and pushed through with it, so too one small poor South Pacific nation that was hit by a Tsunami can potentially be held up as an example of the positives that can occur by engaging creatively and passionately with the world with a united message through Social Media and Internet Marketing.

Establishing the vision would take four stages:

Scoping. Establishing the strategy to take the country forward. Identifying the message, the objectives, resourcing and so on.
Building a strong professional base to work from. The world is a discerning audience and will know intuitively if a country is serious about its web presence.
Engaging Influencers. Working with key bloggers, influencers, and Internet Marketers who have the resources and where-withall to help with a global strategy, and
Implementation. Developing a Samoan Web Ambassador programme and bringing people who can and will bring others so that the country achieves its goals of visitor numbers and public perception.

Even though the country internally has high Internet costs, with very low internal Internet takeup/usage if it has progressive forward thinking leadership it could easily capitalise on external goodwill to achieve a marketing miracle. As with anything it would take strong leadership, a clearly imparted vision, some concerted hard work and commitment, but as I have said to the Samoan people - "It CAN be done!"

It would be exciting to see a country work together with its ex-pats, global supporters and achieve a goal like this. Go fot it!! Samoa.

Samoa Stories

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:22:07 GMT

I dispatched three stories this week from Samoa for New Zealand Christian newspaper Challenge Weekly. Here they are with pictures:

Fusi - a village protected

In broken but animated English, children from the Samoan village of Fusi all clamour to say the same thing: "The island saved us from the Tsunami!"

One by one, they share how grateful they are that their village on the south side of the main Samoan island Upolu is tucked away behind an idyllic little island that broke the power of the Tsunami and was therefore spared.

Just a few kilometres away to the East, taking the full brunt of the wave, Coconut Beach resort was devastated; Maninoa was levelled; upmarket resort Sinalei lost its wharf, bar and sustained damage to its beach fales (beach hut accommodation) and to the West villages suffered too.

The village Matai (chief) Alo Tagiata and his wife Miriama are now open to ideas for tourism, possibly looking at Eco-Tourism to the island with dugout canoe tours. They currently support themselves with a taxi business and a plantation "up in the hills".

Photo: A grateful Tagiata family, from left to right: Sanifili, Misiona, Tai, Miriama, Miracle, Uilisese, Koli (Alo's brother), Alo (Village chief)

Getting back to normal

Greg Cassagrande, an internationally recognised leader in micro-finance pleads with the world to help those directly and indirectly impacted by the Tsunami in Samoa to get back to normal quickly.

"A critical part of effective recovery is getting people back into meaningful work as soon as possible" he says in Apia after having just flown in from the United States to help.

"Obviously Samoa is in crisis-mode at the moment with some very urgent need for some of our women directly affected, but it is still business as usual for thousands of others we help out week after week and we must make sure that everyone has support to rebuild their lives"

"We are currently working with the government and there are lots of ways to help people back into a livelihood including work for cash schemes, small business loans and so on.

"People wishing to help may do so on our website www.spbd.ws - with a cash donation, or even an interest free loan is just as valuable because of the immediate need we have here".

Cassagrande, a successful American businessman based his family in Devonport, Auckland for several years and established the South Pacific Business Development Foundation (www.SPBD.ws) in 2000. Since then his organisation has provided in excess of $20m (NZD $10.8m) in short-term loans to Samoan women generally used as a kick-start to the needy to run their own businesses.

Photo: Greg Cassagrande, founder of Samoan micro-finance organization SPBD

Rebuilding lives after "The Wave"

The Tsunami has profoundly affected the entire 180,000 population of Samoa. Referring to it as simply "The Wave", no local is short of a story to recount about their recent natural disaster.

The earthquake - "It was STRONG . . . It went on for a long time". Of the ensuing Tsunami - "my whole village has gone, my home is gone". Then of course the serious loss of life. It seems that everyone here has lost a mother, father, brother, sister, aunty, cousin, extended family member or knows someone who has.

International help has arrived in force and authorities are working with a myriad of NGOs all keen to lend their assistance where needed.

Photo: Early morning volunteers boarding a Field Assessment Unit in Apia, one of three teams destined for the disaster zone with Government assistance questionnaires]

Roads are now fully cleared and in the worst affected areas, brand spanking new power poles seem to have simply sprung forth from what otherwise looks like a wasteland. Hundreds of piles of debris pepper the land as graders, diggers and bulldozers have been tidying up and landscaping the hot dusty beachfront properties.

Photo: Grader completes South coast road cleanup outside buildings that remained structurally sound

Extended family members from around the world have returned to help rebuild their family homes. Combing through sand for broken glass outside the beach resort of Sinalei, one ex-pat Samoan says "I've come up here from New Zealand to help my aunty rebuild the resort and get them back in business as soon as possible. We Samoans are all about family".

Photo: New Zealanders make their presence felt in Lalomanu, ground zero on the South East coast

With tourism cancellations following the Tsunami affecting the entire country, the Samoan government is keen to see tourism recommence quickly. Only 10% of Samoa's total accommodation capacity has been affected although this did include the most pristine southern beaches. These resorts are already setting their scheduled opening dates, even those totally demolished and the universal sentiment in the nation is that Samoa is resilient and will rebuild.

Rachel Understands

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:01:40 GMT

Prolific New Zealand author Rachel McAlpine shows a good understanding of the way things work on the web with her recent email promo.

Received at 1.14am NZTime:

FREE GIFT TO 5 WHO COMMENT ON TODAY'S BLOG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contented online courses in web content: what's new? http://www.contented.com/contented/?p=827 Today's blog post spells out the differences between the new Diploma and the old courses. New courses, new format, new system for managers to monitor staff progress... Please visit the blog now, because... The first 5 people to comment on the latest entry will get a free course. It's a good way to sample the goods!

Essentially Rachel is leveraging her assets (online training courses) to obtain content, build a sense of community and in time backlinks. She'll do well with building networking this way. All she needs to do is pick up a few influentuial bloggers who will link back to her and "Bob's your uncle" she's streets ahead of the others who have simply paid Google to advertise their offering.

In my presentation and e-book Web Thought Leadership I teach that web thought leaders use networking to gain centres of influence and gain traction in the web world. The fact that I've spent quality time writing about her recent offering here is testament to the principle of giver's gain. She gives me something for my time - and in return she gets kudos and increased exposure.

Well done Rachel.

Unfortunately for me her email arrived in the middle of the night many hours after others had already commented on her blog, so I will naturally miss out on any of her freebees, but the principle remains the same - give people something of value and encourage them to help you in return. This is the way the world works. Rather than own and control, we gain influence through helping others.

In fact a far better way that Rachel could have created value would have been to seek comments and blog posts without a tight timeframe and involve others in the assessment process. This would give people like me time to think things through, create far greater lasting value blog posts and backlinks, and avoid timezone/notification issues.

The next stage for Rachel and Alice could be to move into some form of affiliate marketing by giving me a reason to actively promote their materials and offering, rather than just rave about them in a blog post - then they would really have my attention.

Digital resources are an excellent way to create value. Productisation is the monetisation of knowledge. We take knowledge, create a product (be it a membership system, e-book, or in Rachel's case a training programme) and make money from it. McDonalds does it offline, taking an infinite array of ingredients from around the world, an enormous amount of experience in meeting people's culinary expectations, an excellent understanding of human nature, and producing a Bic Mac.

Businesses wanting to make it on the web must embrace new ways of thinking and doing business. Get creative in your own business. Create products like Rachel has, market them online creatively, understanding the principle of creating centres of influence and with viral replication; you too can become a web thought leader!

Make sure you get your copy of web thought leadership today.

6-6-6 is not always evil

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:45:17 GMT

In biblical speak, the mark of the beast is represented by the number 666. There is however another 6-6-6 that can help business people understand the natural growth phases of a new business. 6 months, 6 months, 6 months. Here is a chart I developed in 2005 to eplain the phenomenon that I'd seen in my own and others' business ventures.

Click the image for full-size view

Everyone has a value in business. It's the financial value that we place on ourselves - $20k pa, $50k per year, or $5m pa if you happen to run the largest Telco in the country!

Whatever this value is, establishing a new business always requires something outside of this desired income to establish. Except for perhaps pornography, ammunitions or carbon emissions trading schemes that all seem to be golden geese, most of us will invest into a business for the first 6 months and have a return less than our "worth" - for a period.

In the second period (usually in the order of six months) it is normal to run at a break even. This may not be a breakeven in terms of the accountant or taxman, but will be in terms of the value that we are worth.

In the third 6 month period we will start to "make hay" and generally this profit above "what we are worth" equals the investment we made in the first 6 month period.

There are other factors that can influence these timeframes, such as luck, or experience, skill or previously established systems such as franchises, but the principles remain the same - we invest, breakeven and profit.

I am surprised at how often the six month period actually matches reality in a wide variety of industries, different personalities and levels of business - so much so that I would go as far as to call it a reliable RULE OF THUMB.

At the end of the 18 month 6-6-6 period we are usually clobbered with taxation, but that is another story!

Good luck with your own 6-6-6 "beast".

Gamble big or Fai fai lemu

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:27:25 GMT

There are two ways to tackle a big project - Go for broke, or Fai fai lemu (take it easy). It impacts on Web Development work but also on life in general.

I used to go for broke in everything - running 100 miles an hour. It got me a lot of bruises, ricks and pains when snowboarding and is the main reason I retired from the sport (my brain still wanted to go 100 miles and hour, but my body said "Not any more!").

Now there's nothing wrong with giving it everything we've got but I've noticed that the other way, taking things step by step seems to last a little longer and creates less of a wake. I have achieved a mass of experiences by running hard, and this has contributed well to my overall understanding of the world, and how I fit into it. The point is not that going for broke is necessarily wrong, it's that taking a measured approach to a project, challenge or problem creates a depth of understanding and a natural, more solid growth.

I am a trained teacher. I also love efficiency. So I am always looking for an efficient way to get to the point that learning occurs - what the psychiatrists call the "Ah-hah!" factor. I set up and ran a business teaching people to snowboard at Mt Ruapehu a few years back. While others were out there going for broke, and literally breaking bones, and their pride left right and centre, I developed a unique snowboard teaching technique. One based on the key aspect to boarding - balance - and taking things step by step.

I simply taught balance by getting the student to jump back and forward in a one spot - as I gently pushed them off balance. Just teaching them to maintain their balance set them up for very solid learning. Sure they felt stupid jumping and hopping back and forward, but I was imprinting into their brain that they were a part of the snowboard and it was part of them.

Then I would teach them to jump and turn, slide a metre or so down a gentle slope and then jump and turn to a stop - all the while maintaining their balance. While this felt silly to them for the first ten minutes or so, taking it easy to get started meant that nine times out of ten they would be away laughing in an hour or two and totally confident hours, sometimes days ahead of the others who just took off down the mountain and tried to do all the balancing with their knees, or ankles. My students wiped out one tenth of the time of others who charged in there and went for broke.

I based my teaching style on a good understanding of where the learning best occurred - the brain and took it easy step by step. It worked well.

The same thing applies to building a relationship. While it is not a popular thing to talk about with sexual immorality abounding nowadays, a relationship and intimacy is best built up over time, rather than jumping into the sack on the first date. Don't shoot the messenger over this one please guys. I didn't write the rules - I'm just stating the facts as I have learned them to be!

In the web development industry we get approached by idiots and optimists all the time thinking that if they think big, spend a whole bunch of money, and go-for-broke that they will have the next big thing and make a mint. Many of them also want the web developer to cough up their time and money and go into partnership with them too! Put this another way - "I've got the bright idea; you do all the work; and we'll share the gazillions that we'll make together!"

OK, now some people do have very good ideas and can be worthy of an investment but most are dreamers who have an idea but no where-withall to push through and make it happen, market it well, manage a decent business and so on.

Contrary to many who sell big projects then get themselves caught in a big pickle, my advice to all and sundry in my industry (and has been since 1999) is to take it easy and work a larger development through stages. Get the basic website up and running, then plug in an additional module or two and then e-commerce, and then social media and then affiliate systems and so on.

Many clients like this idea because it reduces the size of the up-front commitment, the initial complexity and potential problems. It gives them a chance to build a relationship with their developer, and also gives them a greater understanding of what is ahead for them in the second and subsequent stages.

Fai fai lemu, to you too now!

Forty Valuable Lessons Learned

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:47:42 GMT

In 1999 I was approached by a gentleman active in the Pro-Life movement who wanted help and guidance in developing a website. I took a senior role in a large project spanning four years, eventually writing half a million words, 1,000 pages and raising $150,000.00 in the process. Here are 40 lessons I learned from spearheading this project.

His intent was to help stop abortions. As a Christian, and as a father who had lost twin boys in the womb some years earlier, I had a natural leaning toward valuing life (what I found out during the project put me more in the "pro-life camp" than the pro-choice camp), but I disliked the strong emotional bias from both sides of the abortion debate, so the project interested me.

My advice was to develop a website that shared facts, case studies, commentaries and stories in a neutral but authoritative manner, allowing the facts to speak for themselves, and trusting that if people wanted to know the truth that they would work it out from the facts rather than being forced by either side to accept one or the other stance.

We developed expertise in dealing with contentious issues, finding ways to avoid making definitive statements, but rather presenting issues for what they were.

The project was a massive undertaking and was a test of faith - literally, as I came to see the project as a Christian ministry. While there were more than just me on the team, I was the driver and leader of the project.

The following are 40 lessons that I learned from spearheading the life.org.nz project. Many of these points relate to the challenge of outworking a Christian faith in the face of adversity, but others relate more to the personal development that occured during the project.

The leadership and core vision from time to time (also ascribed to God's prompting) flowed out of a deep personal need, a time of searching, recognising that things were not right, or could be better, and a desire to do His will
Any problem often became the key to the solution when we turned it over to Him
The answer to the personal need was our human creativity but that was blessed by the Lord
We have to start with what we have
We have to work from where we are, today and day by day
Not everything turned out the way we expected and some things we still don't understand, but the work was eventually done
We never gave up, worked as a team and supported each other. When one was down the others carried us. When two were down one carried the others
We were taught to "share the vision, share the vision and share the vision". When we did this, the doors opened
The provisioning went to the wire several times and finances arrived at the 11th hour, sometimes just past the deadline
The Lord has control of the Keepers of the Forest. We have the divine authority to ask unbelievers for Kingdom work. (This concept comes from the Old Testament where a supportive outsider - a King - with the means to support Nehemaiah arranged for his resources to be made available for the task undertaken)
We required enormous patience to complete the work
It was hard work, with many challenges, and joys, both valley and mountain top experiences
We moved only in total unity. We all delayed moving forward unless we were in unity
We proclaimed the work His at all times. (This was an important point in that while we never mentioned God, the Bible or anything religious on the website, the people always believed that the work was being undertaken for the Lord)
In times of apparent conflict and tension, we commenced a meeting in prayer and He enabled unity and under strong effective leadership we developed a sense of teamwork against all apparent odds
We placed the project in a Charitable Trust to be accountable to more than ourselves. Three individuals working for a common cause and structure
We obtained maximum tax advantage with IRD Donee status
We delegated work to the area of strength
We worked ourselves out of a job, moving through stages and training others to carry the load
We aimed to meet the needs of others, working for the greater good, rather than ourselves
We required constant faith, which was constantly and repeatedly tested - the greatest area of personal and corporate challenge
We learnt a lesson in the folly of presumption when delegating responsibility for a critical component to others without first seeking the Lord. Taking the easy way out lacked faith, but in repentance however we reclaimed His blessing and retuned to the correct and previously agreed operational structure
Total obedience in faith brought forth completion of the task
The message needs to be respected, regardless of the messenger
Avoid being pushed into decisions - seek the peace of the Holy Spirit before during and after decision-making
The Lord gave confirmation of relationships and roles as they developed
The original vision grew in depth and matured over time, but the vision never changed, we remained faithful to it and the work was done
We were effective at taking the opportunities as they arose, and this enabled faster progress and in the end in some ways this enabled us to achieve more than we had originally envisioned
We chose to pay the personal price unhesitatingly - taking one for the team when needed - but set ourselves a fair remuneration
Our fear of "missing the blessing" helped us to stay on track
Avoid pride but take credit where credit is due
We placed the work under the prayer covering of specialist prayer warriors and attribute a lot of the success to this prayer
Upon completion a spiritual load was lifted from us all personally
Prior to the completion of the work we experienced serious spiritual pressure
Undertaking His work required bravery and courage
Completion of the work is only the beginning
It took time for others to understand the vision. Many needed time to mull over our vision and come to terms with it. Some, even our financial supporters never did.
There are substantial resources available to us if we only know how to unlock them
It is critical to understand our funders values, motives and own personal needs in order to build a two-way relationship. Everyone is different and this was hard work but critical
In the process of completing the work there have been countless blessings, personal growth and relationships developed

All in all it was an unforgettable experience.

Intelligent Investment Advice

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:29:55 GMT

OK, OK, I know what you're thinking . . . "Pas possible!", but it was a pleasure to meet an intelligent Investment Advisor last week, in Christchurch of all places.

The guy's name is Peter Flannery and he runs an Investment advisory business (The Financial Freedom Coach), that has morphed into a private Investment Training programme. More about that later.

Go Kiwi Internet's Christchurch web development Agent, Rob Laidlaw invited me to speak at their annual conference and over 40 people were entertained (some may say spell-bound") for half an hour by a Computer geek North of the Bombays.

That's a mission in itself. From my experience, anyone heading to the South Island better have a decent pedigree, a pretty strong introduction or deliver the goods, or they'll get the cold shoulder quick smart! They're quite a parochial lot down there, but Rob has a pretty good standing in these guys' midst, so the introduction was appreciated and I was welcomed almost as a local by all I met.

To be honest, shares, stocks, investments and markets are not really my scene, so I was only really partly interested in his business. I'd checked out his website and determined that he needed help in that department. I always get suspicious when people want show me how to make more money. Ninety nine times out of a hundred it's them getting rich off me, rather than the other way round but I did see a few things that he'd mentioned, such as the quality of investment (i.e. the underlying value of the company on offer) and a mention or two about well-rounded living caught my eye too.

The conference was fine. Some good words of advice all round and I seemed to warm to his business, his style, the quality of his advice, and also the quality of his clients. These dudes were not your everyday plodders, They had a touch of class about them. They were thinkers, and had some get-up-and-go. Peter works hard to get them to be accountable and they seemed to appreciate that.

His programme teaches a balance portfolios of property, shares in companies that have inherent value (aside from the stock value) and investing into business. He has multiple tiers of membership depending on your commitment but I never got into the actual membership details. From what I've gleaned it's worthy of a look if you're developing a portfolio and want some solid advice. He's a family man and strikes me as a pretty level headed dude, if slightly off the mainstream investment advisor. Actually I think that is probably why he's giving that good advice!

It was a good experience and pleasure to be part of it.

I found out one of the reasons that I had time for Peter after the event when chatting about global currencies. He's obviously up with the play on the Federal Reserve - "don't get me started on the Fed" he says, rolling his eyes. Eustace Mullins has the best wrap-up of the people and circumstances that brought about the biggest con in financial history that I know of, and I'll slip a summary of the Federal Reserve into my conspiracy corner sometime. The guts of it is that the money system has been manipulated by private interests (the central banking cartel run from the City of London) since they created the Federal Reserve in 1913.

An investment advisor and financial coach that knows and understands how things REALLY work rather than just falling for media hype and sales BS really has to be someone to listen to in my books.

You get my Go for it awardfor today, Peter!!

That's what mates are for

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:56:58 GMT

I recently heard of a business deal where a couple of mates from high school days helped each other out in business. Now that's what mates are for! We should all learn from this one.

Go Kiwi Internet has done quite a bit of business for Rent-a-Dent, the iconic New Zealand rental car company that set the industry aflame 20 odd years ago when it took on the big-boy incumbents at the time. It's a bit of a "dicky" name now but boy it worked well in the early days and now has a pretty loyal following.

I was chatting to their new GM recently and he mentioned that he was using a recruitment company to do some placements for various jobs around the country. Now my own experiences of rectruitment companies has been, how do you put it . . errr . . . less than ideal, so the first thing that crossed my mind was "Why the **** would anyone pay a recruitment company?" especially in a tight job market where there seems to me to be great people lined up and waiting for a good job all around the country.

Enquiring as to the cost, he informed me that it was being done "gratis" (i.e. at no charge). Always a man for a deal, this really got me curious. Why on earth would this crowd do it for nothing? There's got to be a bit of backscratching or a payoff, or backhander, or something in it for them surely? I was curious. Could there be a story here? It wasn't that I thought there was anything shonky going on, it just interested me that a recruitment company would do something for nothing.

Sure enough they did. It turned out the GM and the guy from the recruitment company went to the same high school together - Kelston Boys High, in West Auckland. (Actually that makes three of us because I was there too, although maybe a year or two ahead of these guys).

That guy turned out to be Craig Parsons from CPU Recruitment, and I had a chat with him to work out what made him tick and what he got out of helping the company that his mate worked for. I would have thought that most people would have milked it for all it's worth - you know, something along the lines of "Hey, mate I'm in charge here and I'll give you a scoop" sort of thing. But no, this was genuine mate helping out mate!

Craig's been in the business for years and reckons that his company is pretty on-to-it - good candidates, efficient operation and pretty successful. They have strengths in IT recruitment and more recently in refrigeration/engineering recruitment.

Craig obviously isn't one to take advantage of his mates. He's helping a mate, who is helping his employer, who then gives me a heads up, so that I can chip in what I can do. This story is worthy of a blog post, surely?

But it goes further than that. Whenever I talk to someone I check out their website. First, I'm usually online when I'm on the phone so I can do this easily and secondly as I have taught my staff for ten years - EVERYBODY needs help with their website.

Now Craig's website needs urgent attention - it's invisible to Search Engines (It's an OK design that he likes but its a full Flash website with no HTML, no search phrases in the Title, and no Meta Description - ouch!!). A WDANZ member Designer Websites has just moved in to the same building as him, and I was happy to recommend Emma to him. He'll be sorted now with someone he can trust.

Now that's what mates are for.

How about stopping for a minute to work out which of your mates you can help today . . . ?

The Tall Poppy Syndrome

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:02:40 GMT

If there's one thing that cheeses me right off about Godzone, it is that nasty little evil beast lurking beneath the surface of all true-blooded kiwis, just waiting top rear its ugly face in a nano second - The Tall Poppy Syndrome.

The Tall Poppy Syndrome (a.k.a. the devil in disguise) is a trait of New Zealand culture that goes back generations. Exerting social pressure on its victims, it tempts the unsuspecting into thinking that "nobody else has a right to succeed, certainly not more than me, anyway!"

When a sportsman starts to achieve more than his teammates, the jealousy gets hold of us and we'll pull him back to size - our size that is - with negative remarks, jokes, put downs and other immature behaviour that attempts to belittle. Same thing with the successful in business, or the good looking, or anything where someone is successful really.

It drives me mad. How dare we knock some other dude because he's got more talent, or opportunity, or a better work ethic or attitude than we do? Actually it doesn't drive me mad, it makes me livid!

I've spent a lifetime teaching (I was a professionally trained teacher in my early career), mentoring, coaching and motivating others to achieve, and it is a real joy to see others get their act together, spread their wings and fly in business, or sport, or missionary work or whatever their passion happens to be. One of the reasons I'm so motivated to do what I do is because I had a noticeable lack of "positives" in my formative years, and so I know the value that a good, timely, motivating word can have.

In the last year or two I have been spending a lot of time encouraging my friends, staff and colleagues to "back themselves" and "Go for it!!". The slogan I use in the Internet UNMASKED!! books is "Go For it!!" The message I give to my staff is "You can do it!" and then I try to support hem so that they can. Yeah, sure occasionally someone drops the ball but I'd far prefer to have a team of people around me who are committed, thinking, caring, motivated people and the occasional "oops" every now and then, than a team of pencil-pushers, robots and goons who are just waiting for the end of the week, and are looking around for a better job.

Two new arrivals to our team testify to this positive supportive environment - Harpreet Kaur, our new Accounts/Systems girl at Go Kiwi Internet, and Rob Laidlaw, Go Kiwi Internet's latest appointed Christchurch web design Agency.

Harpreet considers the work atmosphere we've created a real breath of fresh air. She hails from India, which is a cutthroat work environment with employers squeezing their employees and employees responding in kind, just "doing the job".

Rob has a lot of business and work experience and loves our positive team atmosphere and the support that we give our people.

Both of our new friends have every opportunity in their own fields to be a Tall Poppy and I for one want to see them do really well for themselves. When they do shine in the sun, if they cast a little shadow on some other neck of the woods, good job - I for one will be trying not to cut them down in size.

FUM - Fresh Unique Meaningful

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:59:01 GMT

FUM is a word (more accurately an Acronym) that I developed to describe the three reasons why Search Engines love blogs. I say that "Search Engines love FUM" - Fresh, Unique, Meaningful content.

Yes of course they also love old established data and lots of links and so on too, but they love FUM!

Fresh - as in not stale leftovers from a by-gone era. Information placed on the Internet recently
Unique, as in original ideas and words, not copied or plagiarised
Meaningful, as in containing something that has some degree of interest, rich with appropriate key words and phrases

In January 2008, I commenced a blog VICTUS IN AMBITUS and ran it for a few months. I wrote and published around 800 words three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After three months, I found out that Google was crawling and indexing the blog/website every hour. In fact one test I did, Google had indexed 36 minutes after I published it, and was consistently spidering the blog within an hour of publication!

The lesson is that FUM absolutely rocks. To get the world's most powerful most popular Search Engine to dance to my tune was simple - FUM.

Just a word of warning though, if you want to use the phrase FUM, just don't use the associated adjective form of it (fummer). Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers is fine. FUM and FUMming is fine but fummer isn't very nice! You don't need to look it up in the Urban Dictionary. I already have.

FUM is a noun, period - Fresh Unique Meangingful content.

Problems are Opportunities

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:04:33 GMT

A problem is a solution waiting to be found. Put another way; a problem is just an answer upside down or in disguise. The bigger the problem; the bigger the opportunity, and every opportunity can be a business.

Motivational speakers, successful business people, business coaches, entrepreneurs and optimists all look at a downturn in the economy as an opportunity to upskill, retrain, shift their business focus and launch new businesses.

It is always at the point of turmoil that opportunity most presents itself. This is where people have the greatest need. An unexpected rain shower will create a sudden business opportunity for an umbrella vendor. A traffic jam creates a captive market for the radio stations, roadside vendors or breakdown operators. This list goes on. The principle being that a challenge, a problem, crisis or any other adversity, can be the making of a person who is creative and takes positive action.

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins compared eleven ultra-successful companies with other companies in the same industry, in the same timeframe, with the same opportunities that didn't shine. Apart from good business practices which he details quite clearly, he and his research team identified that a positive, creative, constructive attitude in the face of adversity was a key factor in the truly great companies pulling through and riding over the challenge.

This requires way more than just positive thinking and will-power. This is truly believing that a problem is an opportunity, and a big problem creates a golden opportunity in business.

Over the years I have helped hundreds of businesses (actually thousands) with their various IT needs - hardware, software and in the last decade the Internet. The people who stand out in my mind are not the losers that stood back and said "Oh dear, oh dear, business is bad!" It's actually not those optimists who always put a positive spin on everything all the time, despite reality. It's the ones who have faced a serious issue, problem or changing circumstances that they tackled creatively, maybe with a few sleepless nights, but some deep thinking that when applied gave them a unique differentiator in business and set them apart in their industry.

Those are the little gold nuggets in my client base, gems in an otherwise pretty mediocre New Zealand business community. Some Kiwis, when their back was to the wall, are renowned at doing this and have conquered the world. Why not apply your creative juices to your current business challenges too and use the wave of adversity to lift you above the rest?

Sloppy Global Warming Journalism

Wed, 06 May 2009 22:24:32 GMT

As a self-confessed conspiracy theorist, I often wonder when the majority of the population will wake up and smell the roses. At what point will others realise that the mainstream media are pawns in a game of BS, lies and dishonesty to scare monger us into the New World Order submission. Last Sunday's "documentary" presented by John Hudson contained enough bias to cause me to make a formal complaint to TVNZ - the first time ever.

One wonders what an hour of my time finding out how to complain, writing and then blogging about it will achieve but sometimes you've just got to act. I was an inch away from complaining about John Campbell's extraordinary beatup of Brian Tamaki (Destiny Church) a couple of elections ago, but instead just stopped watching TV3. I had nothing against the guy until I saw his immature and senseless attack I put up with his idiosyncrasies. This wasn't as satisfying as laying a complaint but it achieved the desired result - I was no longer offended by him!

Public TV is bound by the Free To Air Television Code of Broadcasting Practice. It's not a problem to put something controversial on TV but it has to meet certain standards. Sunday's programme was just sloppy journalism designed to perpetuate the Global warming nonsense for the ones behind the scenes who benefit (read: the power and money boys).

This is the complaint:

TVNZ
PO Box 3819
Auckland

FORMAL COMPLAINT

I watched last week's TVNZ Sunday programme, specifically the segment on climate change/global warming and I wish to make a formal complaint on the grounds of accuracy, fairness and balance. It was a disgraceful piece of biased journalism.

John Hudson claimed in the documentary that Takuu, is being overrun by the ocean because of rising sea levels attributed to human-caused global warming. This is nonsense and totally unjustified scare mongering in a contentious issue.

The documentary made scant mention of a plethora of contrary scientific views and presented biased information that deliberately perpetuated the misleading global warming hoax.

For the record, the cause of Takuu sinking is changing earth movements and volcanic activity in the region - and NOT global warming.

You should present this contentious issue in a balanced manner. Try interviewing Ian Wishart, author of AIR CON and asking decent questions that seek an honest answer. While this will likely offend your obvious political agenda to push the global warming mantra, your watching audience will double - I'm sure.

I'll eat my hat if Ian ever gets a decent whack at mainstream exposure. Their only approach to people who actually let the facts be the story has to be to ignore them, and carry on their own business of story-telling for profit, because otherwise they'll get exposed for who they really are.

We just have to push through the constant mass media negativity and enjoy the good things in life!

UPDATE

TVNZ have kindly responded to the abovementioned formal complaint, formally. Essentially they say "We got it right - CO2 is increasing and the earth is warming and all as a result of mankind - Gareth Morgan says. And we said it was a contentious issue so it was balanced journalism." Their response can be read here: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4.

Poor things. They really haven't done the research have they? The sad thing is that even a quick read of Ian Wishart's book Air Con is unlikely to change their minds, after all it would be political suicide to take TVNZ back into winebox territory and fight the establishment again.

I do appreciate that they at least responded, even if they had to by law. At least somebody took the time to scribble together an answer. Thanks guys.

I'll keep on watching you, even if you are on a different page from me!

The personality of a paper bag

Mon, 04 May 2009 22:05:57 GMT

On the order of impact, personal experience beats words by a long shot, but words are a still a powerful way to convey the meaning from out of our experiences. I recently established that a young American web developer I was talking to about emmigrating to New Zealand had a sense of humour - he burst out laughing when I used the phrase "has a personality of a paper bag" in conversation.

Well done, my recently acquired American friend - you have done several things right. First you bothered to phone me from the USA to ask my opinion on job prospects and immigration matters. Secondly you make me feel good by laughing at something I say, and thirdly, you want to emmigrate to New Zealand. Good move! Apart from my belief that it is my God-given duty to encourage and support any American that wants to get out of their rat-race, it's obviously good for New Zealand because they are clearly the smarter ones.

. . . personality of a paper bag!

As a salesman, author and mentor/teacher I live and die by my use of words. I try to choose words carefully in speech and also in writing. We've lost a couple of clients recently because in part I've said or done something that caused them offence in days or months, sometimes years gone by. While I'm usually pretty good at helping people and they usually recognise my efforts, you just can't please some people, and it usually all comes back to misunderstanding or miscommunication - basically the use or misuse of words.

I enjoy capturing little turns of phrase that capture the reader's attention. The phrase that "someone has the personality of a paper bag" gets us chuckling or smiling at least. The natural and unforced alliteration with three "P's" (Yes, three P's - Personality . . . Pa - Per) also makes it sound sweet to listen to. The comparison of an inanimate object with someone's personality, (something normally so emotionally charged) is a kind of shock to the system and snaps to our attention.

I use the phrase "" in the opening Chapter of my book Lipstick on a Pig when I discuss the stereotypical computer salesman from a decade or so ago:

The stereotypical experience in those days was to walk into a computer shop and be greeted by a greasy long-haired teenage geek with two-inch thick glasses and the personality of a paper-bag.

Ahh what a word-picture!

My book title too, is another example of a clever combination of words. Who on earth would think to put lipstick onto a pig? I first heard the phrase "Lipstick on a Pig" a couple of years ago when Dick Brunton shared it in relation to authenticity in marketing - one of his hot-buttons. I knew instantly that this was the title I was looking for to the book I was writing at the time. These combinations of words convey meaning in excess of their raw value and have a multiplying effect on the recipient.

In teaching sales techniques to staff, I sometimes use an example of an lovely interaction with a client of mine. He stood at the door of my office and was stunned when I asked him what discount he wanted off his website. They guy was already committed to purchasing; he had agreed in principle and appeared very happy with our offering and thought it was a joke at first. "No, I'm deadly serious", I said. "What discount would you like?"

. . . a smile on your dial!

They guy was in total shock and once he came to the realisation that I was serious asked me why I asked him. "It is simple", I replied. "I just want you to walk out of my office with a Smile on your Dial!" For the record, he suggested some smallish discount which I happily gave him and he phoned me later in the day chuckling about how I had made his day, and that he REALLY DID walk out of my office with a smile on his dial.

The lesson in a sales sense is that we made the guy feel special, but in a linguistic sense, he had captured the phrase "Smile on your dial" and will always remember us (or me) as the guy who put a "smile on his dial". The same impact happened when speaking to my American friend, when I used the phrase the "personality of a paper bag". They guy won't forget me or our conversation unless he gets Alzheimer's.

A few years back when the Women's ~~enslavement~~ Liberation Movement got their message into the mainstream media they too used a similar phrase: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle!" Billiant! The core feminist message is actually bollocks in my books, but the phrase is just priceless, and conveys the literary splendour and simplicity that tends to only come from very talented top-end marketing gurus. These are professionals with an evil genius at boiling their message down to a simple catchy phrase. "A woman's choice" is another of the same ilk, but that's too contentious a subject to discuss here for the moment!

A web developer I know talked to me recently about his desire to achieve visual splendour in his work! What lovely words they are!

For just a little extra effort, we can all spice up our language and make memories for others.

The chicken or the web?

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:01:27 GMT

Which came first? The chicken or the web?

It's settled. The chicken definitely came long before the web, but my oh my, how things have been changing while the roosters have been crowing . . . the web now always comes first and everything else follows. Or it should, if you want to stay in business!

I spent an interesting couple of hours with a reputable marketing company recently. I won't name them, because it might shame them, and I want to be seen to help people understand the web, not knock anyone for not knowing it all. Some say I can take the latter role mentioned there quite comfortably!

So one of our clients is paying them a handsome retainer for their services. I've got no problem with that if that's the way they want to conduct their business but it struck me a bit odd that people would pay you just to be there and not have to actually DO anything much, but anyway . . . to the point. These were nice guys but they really hadn't "got" the web thing. Without putting words into their mouths, essentially they explained that they were a "big picture company covering all advertising mediums of which the web is just one".

Sorry guys, you're still stuck in chicken country on this one.

The web IS IT now!

The web IS IT now!

In the last couple of years, there has been a subtle but fundamental shift in the way businesses are being forced to view their web presence. In the early days of the Internet, a website was an electronic brochure that was just there as an apendix to offline marketing efforts.

A TV advertisement would trail a small website address. Business cards gave the web address and not much more. A Yellow Pages paper advert occasionally had a website listed on it. The more savvy operators may have encouraged clients or prospects to view their website on an answerphone message or message on hold.

This has now changed. The web IS IT. Forget the newspapers - they've been struggling for years. Forget the Yellow Pages book. My estimate is that more than half of their clients have halved their adverts in the last two years and will do so again in the next two years. Advertising drops in radio, TV, have hammered the people who have ~~creamed it for years~~ umm, provided those services.

There now seem to be more billboards advertising well, billboard advertising than billboards advertising something else. Am I right in that it's getting harder to find just one of those Tui adverts in the street now, but I can get dozens of them off their website, and even post my own suggestions to them on the web, and get the latest ones emailed to me as the come off their ~~press~~. ~~word processor~~, ~~computer~~, umm website.

When Queen Vic was informed regarding her countries "second placing" in the Americas Cup, she learned the harsh reality. "There is no second place Ma'am!" Likewise with the web. If you're not on it you simply don't exist. If you web presence is thin, out-of-date, ineffective or in trouble, you are an also-ran.

You get the point. We Google everything now. We buy from ~~Ferrit and~~ TradeMe and, well Trademe. Except for my 75 year old mother we do it all online. Even my father who is knocking 80 has what he calls his "mistress" all dressed up under covers in his backroom. (Apparently it costs a mint; it's got a floppy something; other more experienced guys are always encouraging him to trade it in on a new one and it takes all his time and attention when turned on).

But it's not just all web and nothing else. The art in marketing a business now is not just to throw the baby out with the bathwater and follow the crowd. The art now is to understand that the times, they ~~are a-changing~~ have changed, and to work with the new technology and systems creatively, as we should always do, bringing the timeless principles of marketing and applying them creatively to the new ways of doing things.

This means that instead of apportioning a certain percentage of our marketing funds to the web and apportioning the rest to traditional media, we recognise that THE WEB IS IT.

We will then find ways to use off-line and traditional marketing tools to help build our web presence.

Instead of finding ways to fight the trends and resisting the way things are, we get creative to use printed materials to achieve online purposes. We use radio to feed web-based viral marketing campaigns. We utilise TV for building and reinforcing our web-based campaigns and services.

That chicken had a good number of years head start on the web from the garden of Eden to now (or somewhere halfway between the primordial sludge to the monkey if you're into that Evolution ~~baloney~~ stuff), but there's no question of it now - in the last couple of years, the web's been turning that old Road Runner into a burnt offering.

The web wins now.

Brendan Battles

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:36:12 GMT

A story about Brendan Battles (Computerworld) caught my attention recently and if it is true (which is quite possible), is quite sad. Apparently Brendan is up to his old tricks again and has been involved in spamming - this time using SMS - text spam.

I know Brendan probably more than anyone else in New Zealand because in mid 2006 I was involved in helping him to stay in New Zealand, effectively sponsoring him into the country around the time that Computerworld wrote about Brendan.

Brendan was looking for work and had a deadline before his visa expired. One of my companies employed him (actually NOT WDANZ, as Computerworld incorrectly headlined) and got to know him very well while I was setting up WDANZ. In the process of checking his past, I spoke to previous employers, researched his past business activities and got to know his side of the story. There is ALWAYS another side of the story, and the truth is often somewhere between two conflicting stories.

Essentially a lot of the 2006 hoo-ha was a media beatup, creating a story based on incorrect and partial information, and twisting facts to make a good read. Don't get me started on THAT subject! My book "Lipstick on a Pig" covers that subject well with over 80 chapters revealing home truths that the mainstream media and culture of the day don't want us to know.

There are a couple of points to take from this recent story though.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story

The first thing to note is that it is put together by Juha Saarinen, author of the original Computerworld beat-up that "exposed" Brendan in 2006. This first article talked about "Brendan Battles, notorious spammer", and the thrust of the article was that Computerworld had tracked him down and "found Brendan" (Original Story). Juha made a big thing out of the fact that Brendan tried to deny who he was; tried to hide his identity and wouldn't cooperate. Juha didn't quite tell the full story and got an "interesting angle" on the facts.

According to Brendan, Juha phoned him and asked him aggressively "Are you Brendan Battles the notorious American spammer?" to which Brendan replied "No!" Well of course he would say that wouldn't anyone? If he had said yes, the journo would have said, "Brendan Battles now admits to being a notorious spammer!"

Brendan's response was not meaning "No you've got the wrong guy", but "No I'm not a NOTORIUS anything!"

I have never seen Brendan deny who he is or what he has done in business. I too would have answered the same way. I would be thinking "Who the h*ll do you think you are talking to me like that?" As Brendan says - "I came to New Zealand because I love the country and want to live and work here. I used my real name. I'm not hiding. Where's the coverup?"

And then the point about refusing to anwer questions - well, according to Brendan, he said the opposite to what Computerworld claimed. In fact he WAS happy to answer any question they wanted to ask him, but the interview would be conducted professionally where Computerworld would put written questions to Brendan and he would be happy to answer them.

I was even party to such conversations myself and witnessed the distorting of facts in order to juice-up and create a story. In another Computerworld article, Paul Brislen wrote "Battles attended a meeting at Computerworld's request, but called off the interview, refusing to allow it to be recorded." Implying that Brendan would not cooperate is extreme journalistic license. I introduced Brendan to Computerworld and witnessed Brendan make it perfectly clear that he WOULD answer questions but only in a professional situation, with written questions and written answers - not recorded in a casual off-the-cuff meeting like Computerworld wanted, just in order to "catch" him out. I'm actually with Brendan on this one.

I could go on and on about the whole thing revealing lots more "BS" but I won't. I did an analysis of the orginal articles at the time and published it privately for WDANZ members, and from memory there were half a dozen misrepresentations including a couple of outright lies, but this is how some journalists work . . . a story that has a bit of scandal sells better than one that is otherwise flat. I'm very cautious to just lapping up any story when it comes to journalists, especially those with a track record of having an agenda!

SMS/TXT Spam

With the introduction of the Anti-Spam act (actually called the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 UEMA), spamming is now illegal in New Zealand, and I would hope that if Brendan has broken the law, that the authorities act and that he pays the appropriate penalty if convicted.

The authorities are no fools. Obviously they will act on complaints from the public and then they will work with facts, seeking proof of illegal activities while investigating. I assume that with volume SMS messages they are likely to have had a complaint or two and will be on the case, one way or the other in due course.

They have strong relationships with law enforcement agencies in many countries and have the power to seize equipment, subpoena witnesses and generally do whatever is necessary to get to the bottom of the matter. I'm sure that they will and Brendan deserves everything they throw at him if he has broken the law.

My relationship with Brendan

I worked closely with Brendan during quite a challenging time in business. I found him to be a very talented individual with a depth of business and marketing experience that Kiwi business people lacked. He did have a pattern in business and personal life of "boom and bust" where he would put in extraordinary hours and commitment, and then burnout, or cool-off.

When I established WDANZ I appreciated Brendan's support and guidance. It is pretty much true to say that WDANZ wouldn't exist without his support behind the scenes. We got a bit of stick from some quarters because of his involvement working for me, but I am a man of my word and even if there was negative press, I knew about his past, had given him my word, and we pushed through with the working relationship as agreed. I explained this in more detail at the time (PDF).

Brendan and I went our separate ways in late 2006 after he spoke at the WDANZ conference, and I've had nothing much to do with him since. A few people keep me informed of what he has been up to, and he was a client of a guy I did some business with in 2008.

Yes, he most certainly did have a colourful career that included spamming in the early days. He was at one time listed as the eighth most prolific spammer world-wide and yes on one campaign I understand that there were a gazillion million emails sent in one day, but he had a lot of experience in many forms of marketing aside from what he insisted was in the early days perfectly legal "E-Mail marketing". Some of the companies (and countries) he worked for, and the projects he worked on would surprise many. He is definitely not your stereotypical spammer, an incorrigible evil greedy slimey greasy-heared geek with two inch thick glasses and the personality of a paper bag that delights in hacking into others' computers to break laws all over the world to make a personal fortune!

Like a lot of energetic talented people, I think that he struggles to recognise where the boundaries are but there is no excuse for not knowing the Anti-spam Act. As the DIA constantly say, it's a very simple piece of legislation to read. You just can't send unsolicited commercial messages by electronic means - end of story!

If Brendan has pushed the boundaries too far this time and has been SMS spamming, I will be sad for the guy, because with his past he's a marked man, and there are some who will really enjoy bringing him down.

Despite what Computerworld said in 2006, up until this story, I am pretty sure that Brendan has been "clean" since he came to New Zealand and it is sad if this story runs true, but the long arm of the law will be handling this one.

As they say, watch this space!

Seeing red over 2talk & Action

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:38:29 GMT

I'll admit it - days after the fireworks and I'm still fuming about it . . . VOIP. I got one put over on me recently with a guy from Action, a 2Talk reseller.

Go Kiwi Internet is a busy little business with pretty solid phone usage. In the last year or so we've been looking at VOIP (that's using the Internet for our phone service) and with the move to Porana Rd, the time was right for Go Kiwi Internet to splash out on an 8 line ATA and VOIP from supposedly 2talk.

The plus is that with this setup we can have up to 8 phone lines (all DDIs actually) that run off our Orcon naked DSL. No PABX. No Telecom. Less tolls. Easy to move the business in a year or so when we've outgrown the existing premises - just unplug the router, relocate and plug in DSL and phones at the new place. Sounds sweet on the surface, but the wheels fell off a bit after the deed was done . . .

I've spoken to probably 4 or 5 different VOIP gurus in the last year, but none of them phoned me back when I asked for help and was ready to buy. One of the referrals I had was based in Hamilton and I couldn't find the business cards of the guys that I'd spoken to previously. So, I contacted a mate of mine in the telecommunications field and asked for a tip on who's up with the play on VOIP.

Here we go . . .

The cutover on the primary line was screwed up and didn't go live as planned, so our main line was either dead, or answerphone for a day or so. Telecom probably got their knickers in a twist over losing a couple of dozen numbers and made it hard for the guy, but at the end of the day that wasn't too much of a killer. Not good but hey that's life!

The installation was a week or so longer than expected BUT once again the job was good enough at the end of the day. The guy admitted that he wasn't a networking guru and he did get the thing installed. The broadband worked at dialup speed and had to be rebooted every hour or so but it was working eventually when the new guy sorted it out.

But lo-and-behold we find out a week later that in fact this guy transferred the numbers from Telecom to his own account, effectively rendering himself the legal owner of all our nationwide phone numbers!

Surely this cannot be? I've owned the number 09 489-2222 for some 20 years and Go Kiwi Internet has used it since around 1999, so how can a tin-pot little VOIP operator and reseller of 2talk end up owning some twenty or so of our numbers?

It goes like this . . . When you "port" a phone number away from Telecom, you need to supply three things:

The exact name on your Telecom Account
Your Telecom Account number, and
The phone number(s) you want ported away

Armed with this information anybody can port the number(s) to another provider. The new provider works under the instruction of THEIR customer, and the new owner of the number(s) is whoever the instructor says it is. In our case, the legal owner changed from Go Kiwi Internet Ltd to this guy's company. BINGO - telephone number theft in an instant (well 5 days for the porting delay actually).

Now before anyone gets all defensive over this, I cannot read the mind of another person. I can't say that this guy deliberately set out to steal the numbers, but that is what effectively happened, regardless of what he might have intended to do. And he did use this power to cut off service until the account was fully paid, so it wasn't just a minor technical error either.

I know this to be fully real, serious and not just a fantasy, because I contacted everyone involved in the process to try to gain back control of the numbers:

Telecom - I contacted Telecom and asked that the numbers be ported back to them forthwith. "Sorry, this cannot be done", they said. "We do not have an interconnection agreement with 2talk. Even if we wanted to re-port them we can't", they said. Weird, but who was I to argue that they MUST take the business back!
Call Plus - 2talk use CallPlus as their upstream provider. "Go and see 2talk", Call Plus say. Effectively, "We don't want to know about it".
2talk - Effectively: "Sorry you don't own those numbers - someone else does. We can only take instructions from the legal owner, and that's not you!"

Here's the exact words from 2talk:

I've spoken with our management, and it was decided that, from 2talk's point of view the numbers are owned by the person who has the account that the numbers are on, and changes to the numbers and the account cannot be made without the consent of the account holder (this includes the call forward you requested).

Our recommended approach is to create your own 2talk account and request that the numbers be ported to your account using the standard porting process (http://blog.2talk.co.nz/porting.html). As with all ports you will need to provide the Name on the account, and the account number, these you will need to get off Mike.

So a nasty little Catch 22. Now you can see why I was seeing red over it all.

In the end we paid the guy all money due to him; he authorised 2talk to change the account name to us; and we employed a different contractor to come in and sort out the mess. A young guy called Phil (from c-talk) happened to phone up in the middle of this saga and offer his services. He's got the account now.

In the early days of Domain Names before the SRS, Go Kiwi Internet did the exact same thing with Domain Names. We registered them in our own name and then transferred them to the client once the account was paid or on request. The difference was that we put this all clearly in writing BEFORE the deed was done and we did things differently if the client requested this. This guy did this without our knowledge or approval. If he did put it in writing, there's no way that we would have agreed to it!

The lessons learned:

Don't trust referrals just because they come from a mate. If you want to remain a mate, ~~don't refer idiots~~ make sure you can rely on your referrals to provide a decent service.

Giving your Telecom account details to a third party is a security issue. Monitor closely the porting of numbers away from Telecom and ensure that your new provider is straight-up during the transfer.

Don't expect 2talk to take responsibility for their reseller's business practices. When push comes to shove, they consider their resellers to be their customers. Their resellers' customers come second - no matter if there have been shenanigans going on.

If you are going to do something like take ownership of a client's phone numbers, do it with their knowledge and approval, not behind their back.

Moving forward

I think that 2talk have problems. This time round they've just lost one client and have got some minor bad press from the dubious actions of one of their resellers. Their GM told me by phone that they would need to get legal advice before they can/could act to reinstate ownership and control of numbers to a "rightful" owner.

If they've got other dealers besides this guy who are doing the same thing, then one day it will blow up in their face with someone more influential than me. Then they also have the issue of how to rectify errors, deliberate ones like this person did to us, or with less obvious problems or where there is a dispute.

I think that he dropped the ball big-time with our account. First off, the new guy got a referral from me for a 20+ site VOIP installation that was sitting there waiting for him - as I said to him, after my job is all done and dusted.

Secondly, it's hard to build a business by word-of-mouth or referral if you don't or can't keep a decent relationship with your clients.

As always, this post is open to a right of reply from any of those mentioned.**

UPDATE

20 April 2008
Oh dear, Oh dear. I've just been informed that this guy is probably a bankrupt and may even be under investigation for fraud . Ouch!! (UPDATE: Actually trading while insolvent)

According to the Insolvency Office a bankrupt must have their permission to work in a business owned by a close relative. Guess whether this guy has their permission to work for his wife's company or not - one that he just resigned a Directorship from. You got it - nope!

They say that a leopard never changes it's spots. While I don't agree with that saying fully (because one CAN grow up and choose to do the right thing) it does appear that there may be a pattern of naughtiness with this guy.

If he deserves it, I hope that they "bag" him. If he's innocent then I'll be the first to tell it like it is, but in the meantime my advice is the same as before - be very careful when doing business with him.

And as for 2Talk . . . do they not even do credit checks on their resellers? In this case they've got a bankrupt, running a business under his wife's name without the knowledge or approval of the authorities, who "acquires" a couple of dozen of his customers' phone numbers in his own name.

Sorry 2Talk, I think that you've really got to do better than that in this day and age!

UPDATE

4 September 2009
** As always, there are two sides to any story. The person involved has since contacted me and requested that this blog post be taken down, that he was sorry for any past business dealings that may have gone wrong, and offered to rectify any outstanding matters. Great - I've given him the opportunity to do so. Amazing what a public blog will do.

At my invitation he has furnished me with a reply that included a fair amount of self justification and accusation but in essence claimed that:

He has been totally misjudged in his motives - Yes, he did transfer of the phone numbers in question to his own account but such a move was known to us and authorised by us. Furthermore that this is standard practice and easy to do
Yes, he is a bankrupt as a result of some difficulties in the past but he was hard done by the authorities at the time
Yes, he has recently pleaded guilty to trading while bankrupt but explains this by saying that he wasn't given clear enough instructions on what constituted an "arms length" relationship in the first place, and he fully intends to seek a Ministerial Inquiry into the handling of his case
Any claim of improprierty on his part is a clear case of the "pot calling the kettle black" and that a Christian like me should really be extending him forgiveness, not whacking into him [and reading between the lines negatively affecting his current business activities]

As one who has been up and down in business over the years myself, I can readily empathise with a guy in a tough situation but business is all about people - building and keeping relationships. I think that he has a rather strange way of doing things in this department. I can see that we'll just have to agree to disagree over some things.

Even though he may have no wish to "ever deal with [me] again in [his] life" and that he "would not recommend Dennis or any of his people to anyone", as I said above, if he's done the crime, then he should do the time. Once he's out of his bankruptcy of course he's perfectly entitled to do business whereever and whenever he wants. When that happens, good luck to him.

Some of us are just born to lead

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:17:55 GMT

Hi-yo, Silver, away! (so saith The Lone Ranger).

Since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, whenever he gets hoisted onto my shoulders, this little fella (Tyrell) puts a smile on his dial.

It seems like the younger they are the easier they are to be kept happy. Snapped here recently, at just 13 months, Ty is itching to get his step-grandad horsing around.

Some of us are just born to lead . . .

. . . the rest of us just carry the load.

Make sure that you enjoy your day today no matter whether you are riding high, or you are the one carrying the load - this happy little kid always does, and so too does the ~~donkey~~ horse!

Steelers muscle a sixth Superbowl

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:40:38 GMT

I watched the Steelers muscle their way to a record breaking six Superbowl win earlier today.

It's always nice to see a first. I was also privileged to watch the first game of gridiron at North Harbour stadium a few years ago, the first time I'd seen American Football. I laughed my head off straight the whole game!

Having experienced only rugby before, I was in for a culture shock with this crazy game. First of all they dress up all panzy-like, then line up and stick their bums in the air. They attack the guys who DON'T have the ball. They blow the whistle and stop the game after the first play; don't pass the ball; can't be bothered touching down and just run over the tryline; swap their whole teams whenever they lose possession (S-A-D!!!) and have more refs than players who all seem to want to interrupt the game by throwing silly little flags onto the field! The end result is that it takes four hours to get through 60 minutes of action.

Back then I struggled to comprehend the game, but have since taken the time to learn the rules, and it's actually quite a game when you get into it. Good international rugby is definitely more exciting to watch but I will say that with something like 67 cameras filming the Superbowl, you always get a good shot, and you need the various replays to get the best out of it.

The game was the Steelers all the way in the first half, sealed by the first 100 yard intercept in Superbowl history (great to watch) dotting down in the corner for a touchdown. The second half started again with the Steelers playing just one notch above the Cardinals, but the fourth quarter really came to life with the Cardinals finally waking up and giving it all. With two minutes to go, it was not looking good for the Steelers, and the play (and the lead) see-sawed until the gritty Steelers pulled off an amazing touchdown, executed within an inch, and seconds from disaster.

A great game to watch - thanks guys!

People in business

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:23:00 GMT

I've just completed a 14,000 word private report to shareholders on a company I invested into a few years ago, Ormita Australia Ltd. It took out just over 100 hours out of my pretty busy life to attend a Special Shareholders Meeting meeting (in Wellington), then do a lot of research and write up my takings.

It was a very interesting experience, possibly a total waste of time, but something that I felt needed to be done. The sort of thing that you do, because if you don't, nobody else will do it, and people could suffer down the track as a result if you don't. I found some scary things!

Basically to me, the company pretty much looks in deep doo-doo because of a director who is arguably a pretty loose cannon. He thinks he's on firm ground in virtually everything he's said and done, but I have my doubts and am pretty sure there is stuff just waiting to come out and catch up with them all. They're certainly facing legal action just around about the time they are trying to launch their new brand, and the director actually seems to want litigation (as he says, so I can sue the a*** off them). Crazy!

One of the big lessons I learned from the experience was the importance of doing things right, legally that is, in terms of company law, shareholders meetings and at the companies office. With Go Kiwi Internet in growth mode and more people getting involved in its finances and running of the company, this was a timely reminder for me to make sure things are done right. There's nothing seriously wrong in anything we've done but you can't be too careful in these things as I've found with researching Ormita.

The other thing that was reinforced for me in the process was the importance of people in business. Without people, we don't have a business. Business is always people doing business with people. The director of Ormita really has difficulties with people, and is a dead-cert conflict creator, so the business will always suffer with conflict as a result, until he moderates his approach and learns to deal with people. You can never please all the people all the time, but you really can't expect to run a successful business if you do your own thing and don't work constructively with others. I actually like the guy. I know that he's got some "issues" but he's fine to talk to once he has calmed down and stops threatening to sue you. Most people will take it the wrong way however and he seems to make a habit of blowing relationships.

I find it interesting that just at the very time that I delve into Ormita's business dealings, that I've simultaneously been in discussions with Bartercard, their direct opposition. You couldn't get a more different style if you tried. We had some issues with Bartercard staff not honouring an agreement we had with them from a few years ago and I took the matter up with the head of ponch of Bartercard, a guy Paul Bolte.

Straight-up, no hassle, he simply says to me, "If we've got an agreement with you, we'll honour it. Send me a copy" which I did. Now I've yet to get an apology from them and the matter isn't properly sorted out yet, but the difference in style between the two organisations is remarkable. My prediction is that Bartercard will go from strength to strength with that integrity in leadership, and Ormita will go . . . well, it might be gone by lunchtime, so-to-speak!

Another thing is that it is so easy to get into a conflict situation when you stand up and tell it the way it is. When there are factions and people who have agendas, and positions to justify, and there are porkies and white lies and games being played instead of being open and honest about things, the situation can get pretty messy. It was like trying to be the referee in a boxing match where both fighters have no hesitation to whack the referee if they want to!

Sad, but at the end of the day there are people out there who, in the Ormita directors own words "hate me" and who think that I've made a fool of myself by shooting straight. As I said, I guess you can't please them all the time.

So remember - it is people who make a business what it is, not just systems.

Called Out

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:33:08 GMT

Reflections on leaving the 'Institutionalised Church'

Abstract
Being called out of the mainstream institutionalised Church has been a challenging experience, requiring deeper levels of personal faith. The experience has necessitated coping with hurt, criticism and antagonism.

While it has been a grieving process, it has been a healthy and enlightening one, opening opportunities in ministry, and giving greater understanding of the bigger picture of the Lord's work with His people on earth. Christians can have a condescending attitude toward those who have "left" the Church, or to the institutionalised Church if they have left. We need to have greater understanding and acceptance of the "others".

Background

In thirty years of Christian faith, I have experienced a wide range of Churches, and various expressions of faith. Initially converted in Mt Eden Lutheran Church, my first experiences of Church life and worship were fully liturgical services, the average age of the congregation probably in the late fifties. Hymns and liturgy were the order of the day, although the "happy-clappy" songs (condescendingly referred to as spiritual nursery-rhymes by an Elder there) were permitted for the youth on Sunday evening services once or twice a month. The gospel of Grace was strong however, with solid bible teaching and a good community spirit.

I moved to Valley Road Baptist when David and Dale Garratt were introducing dance into worship. Undergoing formal training in dance was a new experience for a guy with two left feet, and raising hands and running around with ribbons was a personal challenge to a very shy, insecure young man. At that time David's worship leadership was particularly well received - sensitive, confident, creative, but also real.

Since those early days, I have attended and committed to churches from various other denominations - Presbyterian, Baptist, Destiny, Christian City, City Impact, and for over ten years, Takapuna AOG, now renamed Harbourside Church.

Being Called Out

The call to move away from an Institutionalised Church was against my will. I was an active and committed member of TAOG, for many years, and had spent a year or two away from the church for various reasons. Having newly married, my wife and I were in the process of returning and recommitting to Takapuna, when a sequence of strange events drew me to the point of recognition that the Lord was "closing the door" on our intentions.

Listening to His leading (one that was against my wife's wishes, and my natural assumption), I stopped one day; counted ten specific individual events and circumstances from the preceding few months; and accepted the leading of the Holy Spirit in the matter. I prayed, "Lord, this doesn't make sense to me, and I don't want this, but I believe that for some reason you don't want me to push on here with commitment to this church, so I'm will be obedient to what I believe you want from me".

Then the challenge began. If recommitting to church membership and submission to the church I knew and loved was not His calling, what was?

Key Scripture

For years I had subscribed to the teaching that a Christian should be actively part of a Church for their own well-being. I had heard preached many times, and believed, that backsliding starts with a drop-off in church attendance. The picture often used was that just as a coal removed from the fire will quickly die, so too will a Christian lose their faith if they didn't attend church. Regular Sunday morning attendance was used as a key indicator in the commitment levels and therefore spiritual health of a parishioner, even to the point that in some churches I attended, the Pastor maintained attendance rolls.

The Scripture most used by leadership and well meaning advisors to ensure regular church attendance is in Hebrews 10:25a:

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another

In believing that the Lord was calling me to "leave" the Institutionalised Church, I had to wrestle with this Scripture to the point that I could reconcile my belief in the Lord's calling with the traditional interpretation and expectations.

'Church' Theology

While I was confident that I had heard from the Lord in the matter, I did not know WHY I was called to move away.

Over a period of time, I assumed that there must be an alternative - I thought that perhaps I was called to become involved in the House Church movement.

In researching the matter, talking to House Church leaders, activists and Small Church proponents, it became clear to me that the meetings referred to by the writer of Hebrews could only have been small, home based groups, with a totally different practice, format, structure, purpose and "heart" to that of the traditional Institutionalised Church.

While I had been exposed to years of teaching that we, as the body of believers, ARE the church, the traditions and social expectations built up and reinforced around the Church (as an organization based upon a particular leader, denomination or building) were I found, definitely extra-biblical.

I have always been one to seek the truth, and have therefore always had an aversion to what I call Churchianity. I define this as that subtle peer pressure - the Christian cultural pressure that requires conformity, and to be accepted.

I see Jesus constantly reaching outside the social and cultural norms to perform socially unacceptable tasks given Him by the Father. Likewise, while I worshipped and committed to Churches and denominations with varying degrees of Churchianity, I did so in the belief that Hebrews 10:25 required it of me.

My independence of thought and behaviour (a form of self-belief) was integral to my conversion. My understanding that Christ came to me, and "saved" me, rather than this event occurring as an act of my own will or intellect, enabled me to see that attendance at a particular Church, on a particular day was a matter of choice, rather than a requirement for salvation.

This theological perspective, that our faith is in God's hands, rather than our own actions, enabled me to miss Church some days and be free to take my family snowboarding or camping as they grew up. It also meant that Church attendance was to me a privilege and a joy, as it was a result of the choice of the will, rather than me fulfilling a requirement.

Typical Responses

Ceasing active Church activities, and Church attendance engendered a range of responses. The new Pastor at TAOG specifically asked me not to pollute the well - by seeking to preach to his flock to leave. I agreed and have worked hard not to share in depth with his people.

My wife was particularly challenged. She certainly did not share the calling to move away, and saw it as a strong negative. While eventually accepting that this was my new direction, it is still an area where we have a difference of opinion.

Others have trotted out clichéd responses along the various lines that it's not good for every man to do what he thinks is good in his own eyes, or the need for unity, or the subject of the spirit of rebellion.

People within the traditional Church system almost to a man, view non-Church attendance as an area of sin, a failing, something that needs to be repented of, and that things are right when the backslider is brought back into the fold. This subtle thought is always there as a pressure whenever the subject is raised, with friends or strangers.

The mainstream thinking is that if you are not attending and committed to a Church, then you have backslidden, or have sin or rebellion in your life. It is a similar social expectation to the ones that if someone is in a wheelchair, that the person is less intelligent than we are, or that they are inherently unhappy with their lot, or that they need to be shouted at. When we have worked with the handicapped we come to understand that these people can be perfectly happy, intelligent and can hear the same as a non-handicapped person.

Likewise its only when we have come to understand that it is perfectly possible to be a true believer, and a wholesome active committed Christian without attending and committing to a traditional Church, that responses to such a Christian are healthy and natural.

Outsiders' Attitudes

In researching the "church outside the Church" and in meeting with various types of believers, I note two distinct channels of believers:

a) Those who have moved away from the Church because of theological persuasions
b) Those who have moved away through adversity, tension or friction

The first group have the attitude that the New Testament church has morphed into something outside God's original purpose. They see the form and shape and function of the Church as it has grown - first with the Catholic Church and secondly with the various Protestant iterations - as performing an institutionalised role, when in fact the Lord is seeking a smaller more intimate relationship role from His people.

While it can be dangerous to generalise, and there are always exceptions to any rule, these people generally view the Church as a wrong model, inefficient, misguided and sometimes evil. Their belief is that the small church, the alternative church, the emerging church, the house church and similar models are the biblical ideal. They often refer back to the shape of the New Testament as detailed in the book of Acts as their ideal model.

The second group of people are ones who have been hurt in various ways by the Church, or by the leaders or people within the Church. Whether they feel ripped off, have witnessed hypocrisy or something untoward, had a theological disagreement, been treated badly personally or have just become saddened or embittered, the general space they are in is that "the Church has failed them" in some way.

People in the second category, usually need time to work through their issues. They are often the sensitive ones, the opinionated ones, the challenging ones, with leadership potential, sometimes with character flaws that need "working on". Their responses to situations can be seen to be rebellious or self-centred. It is easy for those within the Church to write off or explain away their move away with blame.

My heart is for understanding and reconciliation between those within the institutionalised Church and those outside. From outside the institutionalized Church, it hurts me to see people within judge and view those outside as oddballs or strangers or backsliders. From outside, it hurts me to see others "bag", criticise or unduly knock the institutionalised Church.

While I accept that it will be very unlikely that any full "reconciliation" will occur, I do see a need for learning and understanding to occur and attitudes to soften toward each other.

Consequences

The consequences of responding to what I believed was the Lord's leading have been huge. First, as with any challenge, I have had to press in to the Lord. If He wanted me out, there had to be a reason. I was effectively alone for a period, and that required me to enter into a good dose of relationship building with Him. What did He want from me? How would I spend the Sunday time? What about financial giving, and accountability? What and where would I build relationships? What was His role for me in ministry or leadership?

My ministry has effectively turned from a healthy "black and white" two dimensional image into a full-colour three-dimensional one. Over three years, I have developed relationships, friendships, ministries and opportunities that I would never have been able to think of, let alone undertake from within the institutionalised Church.

I am now in a position to help others far more meaningfully in my daily walk than previously. Even though I have always integrated my faith in business, my ministry is now integrated far more tightly into my daily walk than previously.

My faith is much deeper on a day-by-day basis than before. Instead of simply existing each day, I have undertaken an increased level of responsibility for my own spiritual well-being, and that of my family. In some ways this is like coming out from under a cloud, into the sunshine.

I have become more responsible for establishing biblical truth. Theology in its deeper forms has always been a struggle for me, but I now mix with a range of people who are strong in this area. I have a bigger view of the Lord's work on earth, as I mix with people from many different denominations and streams. I don't agree with everything everyone says, but I am more able to accept people for who they are and their God-given role in life.

Opportunities

I have also found myself tapping into a never-ending well of wisdom - through the work of the Holy Spirit. Increasingly I am learning that we are all ministers - our work on earth can be unlimited if we simply make ourselves available to Him.

Listening to the Lord and His guidance every minute of the day, then sharing it in faith enables me to tell my wife, children, friends, colleagues and others what the Pastor will be talking about on the coming Sunday!

While previously opportunities were effectively filtered through the Church I attended, now opportunities in ministry are natural and frequent. I am finding that increased responsibility goes hand in hand with increased opportunity. Each one creates and works in with the other, and I view this as healthy.

Purpose

The institutionalised Church is definitely less than perfect, with its inefficiency, division, and failings in many areas. But I cannot say that anyone should or should not attend an institutionalized Church. I can only speak for myself, having been specifically called out. I have developed my own opinions on the future of the church and my own role.

While I continue to process things daily, and to plan ahead in the natural, the whole purpose of my calling out is in the Lord's hands. I still slip into church services now and then. I still participate in mainstream Church activities. I have friends both inside and outside.

To those who are challenged in some way, especially when considering "leaving" the Church (or why others have "left" the Church), my advice is to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and be obedient to that still small voice. At the end of the day, the Lord will be talking to each of us about our own responses to His 'Rhema' word. He will not be discussing the details of someone else who or why they are inside or outside of the Church, nor about the Church itself.

I believe that we should all turn our eyes upon Jesus, and accept our brothers and sisters in Christ as brothers and sisters, regardless of their current Church attendance status. The world will be a better place and the Lord will be glorified more as a result.

Bless you.

When learning occurs

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:13:08 GMT

There's a magic moment in learning that they call the Ah-hah! moment. It's that moment when, as they say, "the penny drops", or the "lights come on".

As a trained educator, I've always sought to go for the "Ah-hah! Moment" whenever I am sharing other people, but most people are self-centric in their teaching and just don't know how to teach. I mean R E A L L Y teach!

A mate of mine a while back gave me a tip in relation to teaching that was a pretty good "one-liner" about learning. He said something along the lines of:

I hear and I forget;
I see and I remember;
I do and I understand.

Wise words.

Now he didn't use English because that wasn't his natural language, and he lived half a century before JC graced the earth. He's my mate, only because he and I are pretty much on the same page with many of life's stories, and I reckon that if he and I were alive in the same town, we'd have a hoot philosophising together and doing all that intellectual stuff that kindred spirits do.

The guts of it this . . .

Most people try to teach by talking. They spiel it out of their mouth and expect others to miraculously hear everything they say, then understand everything they just said, simply because they said it.

Well most of the time it just doesn't work like that especially with me. For a start, I've got slow ears - yup I meant that one - SLOW EARS. I can hear a pin drop at 50 yards. I can differentiate the unique sound of a French Horn in an orchestral masterpiece. I had perfect pitch when I was playing it professionally, but to pick out the words of someone at a party with background noise, is way too hard. Then to take those sounds and convert them into meaning, it takes my brain TIME. That's what I call slow ears.

But draw me a picture and speak in the big-picture, then I'm right with you. I see and I remember.

Go one step further, and give that piece of paper and pen to me and let me do the drawing - ahhhhhh! Now I'll really understand.

A US educator Edgar Dale, developed a cone of experience that put verbal experience at the top of a pyramid. Since then it has been butchered and copied and developed ad hoc to help make the point.

Sure there is a time and a place for every type of teaching (and yes I know that Will Thalheimer has questioned the source data for this graph) but whoever kindly helped us with this lovely sky-blue pictorial representation of the above teaching has my vote:

Good debtor management

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:10:21 GMT

A good mate of mine did some business with one of my companies recently and gave me a good lesson in taking control of debtors. He charged me $8.00 interest on a pokey little account that was only a month or so overdue.

When I found the statement I was fuming. I thought "Up you mate" then had second thoughts - in fact this was a smart business move. I would have thought that the number of beers and meals at the Lonestar and so on would have balanced a bill not getting paid like this. But after getting off my horse, indignation aside, I realised that he had a point, and I've learned a good lesson. I'll be doing it too from now on. Only I'll be warning our clients beforehand so that they don't get all huffety like I did. And my mate will be buying ME the beer next time we catch up!

The point is, that not only is he simply doing what his terms and conditions say that he can do, he's stupid NOT to do this. Otherwise he's just funding my business and that's not fair or just. He's also making it quite clear that he's a professional, who won't be mucked around.

The chances are that people like that are better to deal with than the others, just the same as you usually trust a mechanic who has a clean workshop more than one who works in a total pigsty.

Now the only thing this dude did wrong was that his team sent the bill to me, not to my accounts people. Fatal mistake. First, I never pay anybody anything so of course it didn't get paid - other people do it for me, usually only when they get hassled enough. Secondly I only stumbled upon his second statement a week or so after his girl sent it into my massive black hole of a mailbox with some 47,000 emails - half of them unread!

The point remains however - he's got his interest money, and he'll DEFINITELY get paid on time - if we ever do another business deal, that is!

Internet UNMASKED!! Roadshow

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:25:46 GMT

The Roadshow for Internet UNMASKED!! is all go for November . . .

Queenstown - 7 November
Invercargill - 10 November
Dunedin - 12 November
Timaru - 14 November
Nelson - 17 November
Whangarei - 20 November
Palmerston North - 24 November
Wanganui - 25 November
New Plymouth - 26 November
Hamilton - 27 November

I'll be on the road for most of the month meeting and greeting web developers local businesses. I look forward to it.

Labelled Conservative

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:46:30 GMT

After 50 years of ~~living~~ survival, I've finally completed an online quiz to determine my political colours. . .

Strongly Conservative.

While sniffing around the Libertarianz website I noticed the words "Take the World's Smallest Political Quiz and buzzed through the little thing to get my political label.

For a guy who can pontificate on anything he wants, as long as its on his own terms, I found the process of selecting Yes/No/Maybe quite restricting, but the end summary was clearly accurate. I am exactly what they said about Conservatives:

. . . they tend to favor economic freedom, but frequently support laws to restrict personal behavior that violates "traditional values." They oppose excessive government control of business, while endorsing government action to defend morality and the traditional family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong military, oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market economy, and endorse strong law enforcement.

So, there you have it . . . now the challenge is on to find a political party with Conservative values that I can trust to put my vote behind.

DomainMasters

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:30:57 GMT

I've been a central figure in a recent website development project - DomainMasters™. We flicked the switch and made it live last night, and yes, on time and on budget.

This has been a project brewing for a few years, and actively ever since we set up WDANZ in fact and it's been a hoot seeing it come to fruition. The website is a portal - servicing the .nz Domain Name aftermarket. Put simply it is a Domain Name listing service, where Domain Name investors (Domainers) can list the Domain Names they have for sale. Appraisals and other services will come along in due course.

Domaining (as it is called in the industry) is a funny business. It suits only spome people but can be a real fun business for others - like me. Most people in the IT industry have a few good names tucked away but up until now, there has been nowhere decent to list them. If we do things properly Domainmasters™ will build the acceptance of Dmaining and help mainstream the sale and purchase of good used Domain Names.

I got started in 1999, picking up a few good names in the early years of the Internet, and built systems around securing good generic names. I sold my portfolio a while back but still sell Domain Names on commission and am active in the domaining world.

I think WDANZ has a real opportunity to make a difference with DomainMasters. It will help our members. It will help the Domaining community and will help the hundreds, probably many thousands of smaller investors list and turnover their stock. It's worked well for the overseas dot-COM markets, so I'm really looking forward to taking DomainMasters™ to the next level.

At launch we had 3681 listings, with a total asking price of $16 million and a realistic value more like $11 million. As more Domainers come aboard, I would expect the numbers to double and when marketing kicks in (in the new year) we're all thinking that there should be really good numbers listed before long.

Kwik-Az Updating CMS

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:17:23 GMT

Development of the K5 Content Management System for Go Kiwi Internet has now reached the important milestone, moving from a Beta release to full version.

The team are excited with their nationwide roll-out of a stable, in-house CMS solution. The system is now in use by over 100 websites, and working like a charm - it's simple, fast, easy-to-use, reliable and powerful.

Rent-a-Dent rollout

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:13:07 GMT

Go Kiwi Internet has completed development of 26 branch websites of the New Zealand Rental Car agency Rent-a-Dent.

These guys wanted to lift their Internet profile substantially and we've developed a strong Search Engine Optimisation strategy, professional photography, YouTube videos and a fresh approach to marketing in their competitive industry.

This work involved corporate training for them in Tauranga and in Christchurch with a launch of all new websites
on the evening of 30 Spetember. I don't think that it would be that common to launch so many commercial websites on one day, and it has to be a fairly impressive task for one small development company to knock that many up in only 8 weeks, especially when it involved video, professional photography and training at both ends of the country!

Digital Development Forum

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:09:10 GMT

On Tuesday 23rd September I attended the Digital Development Forum in Wellington and participated in discussions to find ways to bring co-operation and collaboartion. The DDF is an initiative supported by the Government to replace the now defunct ICT-New Zealand. While most of us wonder how it will work and what it will achieve, if it achieves its aim to bring umberlla support to the IT Industry, I'm all for it. For years I've been encouraging those in the industry to work with others, rather than protect their own patch. I've written a blog post on the subject of collaboration and gave 130+ complementary copies of the Internet UNMASKED!! book to the delegates on behalf of WDANZ.

In attendance were 150 heads of New Zealand based ICT groups and associations including WDANZ.

Fran Wilde convened the event under the direction of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology David Cunliffe, who attended, spoke, and answered questions from the floor. Judith Tizard (Minister of Consumer Affairs, Minister Responsible for Archives New Zealand, Minister Responsible for the National Library, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Associate Minister of Commerce and more) also attended and supported the Minister.

A very broad section of the community was represented, including business, community, creative & cultural, education, local government and of course the ICT industry.

I attended and represented WDANZ at this event, attending the business group convened by Paul Winter, EMA (Central). WDANZ also donated a copy of the book Internet UNMASKED!! to every attendee, a retail value of over $5,000.00. This gesture was very well received by the delegates.

The Minister David Cunliffe has been seeking a single voice from the IT industry for a while. With the demise of ICT-New Zealand (an effort to bring very tight structural collaboration), it appears that the new initiative will have legs, probably because the individual organizations will remain separate entities under the constitution; the lessons from previous experiences; and the aim is to work together with existing organizations in their current structure.

The government's Digital Strategy 2.0 (http://www.digitalstrategy. govt.nz/Digital-Strategy-2/) aims to capitalise on the digital revolution currently under way.

As quoted by Computerworld (http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/A3031B45BA59015CCC2574CC00098EFC), Ernie Newman (TUANZ) suggested that the Digital Development Forum could democratise the Digital Strategy, making it "the nation's strategy not just the government's".

The minister said today that Forum membership is self-selecting. The Forum's job is to set the strategy for the Digital Development Council. Cabinet has approved seed funding, and wants to facilitate and provide policy levers to affect legislative change.

The minister emphasises that he is "passionate to ameliorate* the digital divide."

*Dictionary definition: [to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory; improve.]

The Forum divided into several groups based on sector type (Business, Community & Voluntary, Local Government, Education, ICT, and Creative & Cultural) and discussed the four "enablers" as they related to their own sector:

1. Connection
2. Confidence
3. Capability, and
4. Content

Each group at the Forum discussed these enablers, and the general feedback from attendees was that there is wide acceptance of the need and importance of collaboration.

Fran Wilde made mention that Kiwis tend to want to work in silos however they network well, with only two degrees of separation between anyone in New Zealand.

eHeath was a major sector not represented at the Forum, however it will be involved in the DDF shortly.

The new executive director is Paul Alexander, ex the Prime Minister's and Cabinet office.

David Cunliffe expects that the focus will be moving from how to obtain more bandwidth, to more on how to capitalise on increased bandwidth.

Judith Tizard talked about the difficulties of copyright issues and seeks suggestions and ideas from vested interests and copyright holders.

Lipstick On A Pig

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:19:25 GMT

The phrase "Lipstick on a pig" got some unexpected exposure with Senator Obama using the phrase in his electioneering.

In some ways it is a shame that my book Lipstick on a Pig is still in development as there could have been a bit of exposure out of it. As it happened, the interest blew over pretty quickly anyway. All that I got was a call from a local Wikipedia editor who wanted to know more about the phrase, to prevent the Wikipedia article getting dumped.

My book will end up in a slightly different form from that initially proposed. I guess that's the way writing goes! I will be using the core content from VICTUS IN AMBITUS as I've found out that the proposed format was less well received than the VICTUS IN AMBITUS blog posts.

The core content now has some 60,000 words. Surely there has to be a gem or two contained within that lot?

TGIF - PDF Newspaper

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:33:02 GMT

Ian Wishart, "journalist on the fringe" who abandoned work in the mainstream media after too many fights to try to speak the truth is an entrepreneur who has a record for shooting straight. Most of the time he's got my vote - certainly on the subject matter. He may be a little marginal in some of his approaches from my read of things, but generally his writing is definitely worthy of a read.

He has established a new weekly publication TGIF (short for Thank God It's Friday, no doubt) to join his monthly print production Investigate Magazine. He has kindly forwarded me a complementary copy - thank you Ian.

I'm totally confused about the format and the whole TGIF concept. While I have a lot of time for his journalistic integrity, commitment to investigation and outright bravery, plus his propensity to shoot straight, I think he's really got it horribly wrong on this one. Having established dozens of new ventures since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I of all people know how hard it can be to trail-blaze, and I really would love to encourage him in his new venture. But I can't see it working for him

I think his book Eve's Bite has some very strong points and is definitely worthy of the read. His latest offering Absolute Power, while pertty obvious effort to pull Helen Clark down, was quite revealing in the details of a string of her skullduggery and political deceptions. Investigate of course has been a great read since its inception.

The problems I see is the format - an 8.5Mb full-colour PDF in A3/tabloid format. It just doesn't work for me.

My take on the offering:

At three dollars, the price is fine - no worries there. I toyed with the idea of subscribing at the time he mentioned what he was going to do with TGIF but it just didn't have the pizazz for me to do it then.
It's too big. I have an ADSL2 connection from Orcon and GMail. clearing my email on a Saturday morning I had to download it before reading it. Anything more than 3-4 seconds and I'm sorry, but I've got to come back to it to read it. I'm just not going to sit there waiting for 8.5Mb just to skim through something like news - even if I think it might tickle my fancy.
The content was fine - believable and interesting with a tinge of scandal on the front page.
It's too late. I already have Whaleoil and David Farrar's Kiwiblog and on my Google Reader so there is little value sending me selected articles again. I'd already seen five out of the first fourteen stories elsewhere which meant that even though another nine stories were new to me, there was a big drop for me in perceived value in reading it. Investigate, however - now that's a different story - it really has my interest and the wow-factor. I think he'd be better doing a mini-Investigate every week or fortnight and keeping the wow-factor there. THEN I would push through any pain-barrier to read it.
The real killer though is that it's just too hard to read. On a computer screen I'm set up for and used to reading web pages, ezines and RSS feeds - not large format PDFs. I just don't like horizontal scrolling and zooming in and out I have to do to to read something in a PDF. Even though I use 20 inch monitors, I usually print out anything more than a simple page or so of data to read. To get something readable from TGIF however I needed to print twenty pages at A3. Adobe PDF reader on a fairly decent commercial Xerox printer crashed several times, partly printed, and took way too long.

So what's this all about? A new way of doing things?

In his editorial Ian says:

Why a digital newspeper?
Quite simply because we believe this is where all our competitors will be, ten years from now. The existing online model is flawed because it is not entirely reader friendly. Website technology is not as clean and easy to navigate as a newspaper, and even on current broadband speeds it can be time-consuming.

Now I'm totally confused. I agree with everything he's trying to do, but by my reckoning he's ended failing to meet his own objectives. In the time it took to download the PDF I had actually read half a dozen or more blog posts in Google Reader. In the time it took me to open the PDF resize it and scroll left right, up and down, zoom in and out I could have easily read a couple of ezines with news summaries, clicked through to the associated blog post or news website page, on the articles I was interested in and been done with the news section of my day.

Sorry Ian, while I salute you for your entrepreneurial endeavours, and the desire to be ahead of the rest, it's really got to get a lot more user friendly than this. For your new business' sake I really wish that I'm wrong on this, but downloadable PDFs in a large format on the screen do not work well - at least for me.

I am reminded of a saying I've heard and use frequently when people come up with a crazy idea - "Just because we CAN do it doesn't mean that we SHOULD do it".

The first edition of TGIF is available free. Subscriptions are available from www.tgifedition.com

Gifted Education Political Meeting

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:27:39 GMT

I attended a meeting hosted by the Gifted Education Centre Friday 20th June and was quite impressed. Not particulary looking forward to a bunch of politicians talking in election year, I only really attended to support my wife's interests, but I found several politicians who had gone out of their way to learn about that really challenging subject - Gifted Education.

I've written an Open Letter to the candidates who attended, thanking them and encouraging them to dig deeper as they learn more about it.

The big take-homes from the meeting for me were:

As at 20 June 2008, no party has a Gifted Education policy, other than the Government, whose Minister of Education appeared to have a very thin understanding of GAT issues, and defended their mainstreaming policy to the hilt. Act apparently has had a long-standing Educational policy along the lines of "parents should be able to choose", but nothing specifically regarding Gifted.
It seems that politicians will always be politicians. Some of them couldn't help but politick amongst themselves even outside of Parliament, and this was a totally inappropriate setting to do this. Why they have to do that beggars belief, actually. All it does is alienate good people who might otherwise have listened to them.
There is a very serious divide between those "in the know" (i.e. the teachers and parents of the Gifted) and the politicians. The Gifted Education sector really has got some serious work to do if things are going to improve. It was quite remarkable to see on the night how poles apart the two sectors appeared to be.

Attending were the main political parties Education porfolio representatives:

Rodney Hide (ACT),
Chris Carter (Labour, Minister of Education),
Keith Locke (Greens, standing in for Metiria Turei),
Dale Jones (NZ First),
Wayne Mapp (National, standing in for Anne Tolley) and
Judy Turner (United Future).

The meeting commenced with each politician giving a quick speech outlining their party policies. Rodney Hide and Dale Jones shared how they had recently spent time learning about the unique challenges of working with Gifted children. Top marks to you both for making the effort to get to grips with the subject. I was genuinely impressed with this effort and also your forthrightness in fessing up that your learning was recent.

Judy Turner and Chris Carter both shared a bit from their own past experiences, Judy as a classroom teacher assistant involved in acceleration programmes and Chris, as Minister of Education, having just spent time with the North Shore secondary school principals.

Wayne Mapp (filling in for his absent colleague) was brave enough to confess that he had just established that National ~~again~~ didn't have a policy on the subject "at this stage". Keith Locke spoke in a form that I found hard to understand or follow. Sorry, Keith! I did actually try to stay with you, but you lost me.

There were essentially only a few areas of discussion:

Firstly, funding of course has always been an issue in Education. Everybody thinks that there is never enough government funding in their own sector. I recall a slogan when I was a teacher in training. This was when Defence seemed to be ~~slightly~~ quite a bit more important than Education. It went something along the lines that "It would be a cold day in hell when schools got all the money they wanted and the airforce had to run a cake-stall to buy a new bomber".

Secondly, the issues of freedom of choice and user-pays, by way of vouchers or other similar ideas contrasted with Chris Carter's strong defence of the centralised government owned school system. Rodney Hide would be happy to see total freedom of choice, whereas it appears that the Minister is determined to protect and reinforce the current status quo with a strong government monopoly. Having witnessed over the last decade or two the increase in power of the MOE and ERO, the closing out (and sometimes closing down) of alternative eduction options, such as homeschooling and religious schools, it is clear that the Governement is concerned about the potential to undermine the state system and is therefore determined to mainstream at all costs.

Thirdly, funding aside, there was an interesting question asked by Dale Jones, never really given an opportunity to be answered where he genuinely wanted to know what the parents and teachers of the Gifted actually wanted. Simply more money? More One-Day schools? Better mainstream teacher training or what? This is an important question to answer, as politicians can easily ignore causes that do not have a strong message.

While it was great to see a hundred plus people who cared enough to attend, and it was a positive initiative, I think the GAT community actually fumbled a good opportunity. Moderation of the meeting was very light, whereas strong leadership with tighter structure and prepared direct questions could have achieved a lot more. As long as there is a lack of co-ordinated meaningful or an authoritative message that gets through to the people who allocate funding and determine policy, the Gifted teaching community will continue to struggle to gain influence and resourcing.

While there is of course always a philosphical basis for all decisions, I've observed that politicians generally make choices first based upon their own interests, chief among them being elected (or re-elected), then whether or not they believe in a given cause personally, then lastly (sadly) whether something is fair, proper or right.

A leader in the Gifted community (not named here deliberately!) mused with me on the night along the lines that it was a sad state of affairs when the Minister of Education struggles to understand the difference between Gifted, Bright or Talented. True, but the idea that the Minister should know everything and care about Gifted as much as the current poltical hot-topics is naive. It takes two to tango. The Gifted teaching advocates need to do just as the Maori activists, Homosexual lobby and Conservationists have done for years. They look to the long term - five, ten, twenty years out. They work strategically to place their people in positions of influence, and work to bring their issues to the forefront of public attention. By doing so, they exert subtle (and subtle overt) political pressure to cause the government to think their way.

The challenge to the Gifted community is not just to fight for a bigger slice of the pie. It is to find ways to get their message through in a compelling way that makes sense to those who make the decisions. Resourcing will always follow the good ideas, especially the ones where decision-makers can gain "political capital". While it is a challenge, this first necessitates a strong and coherent message. Having watched the Gifted Education field from the outside for a while, I struggle to hear a clear message that says anything other than "We need more money". Dale Jones had a good question. The politicians in five, or ten years will be asking the same question too.

It's time for a clear coherent and unified message from leaders with vision - well-spoken, intelligent, passionate, clear-thinking, creative-gifted people who can think beyond the next funding round, and communicate a clear compelling message.

To the Gifted Education Centre - well done for putting the meeting on.

To the politicians who attended - well done for fronting up and tackling the issues as you did, and of course to the other attendees for making the night work.

Open Letter - Gifted Education Mtg

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:18:56 GMT

Thank you Rodney Hide, Chris Carter, Keith Locke, Dale Jones, Wayne Mapp and Judy Turner for fronting up.

It was good to hear from you all, actually no matter your opinions, policy, or current lack of policy in this area!

Thank you especially Rodney and Dale for sharing with us your recent learning about working with the Gifted. Even though I am an ex-teacher, I too have only relatively recently come to see some of the unique challenges that Giftedness poses to parents, teachers of the Gifted and of course the Gifted themselves.

It is absolutely clear to me that while mainstreaming as a policy may have benefits, that this simply DOES NOT WORK FOR ALL Gifted students. Minister, I think you really need to listen to these people. They are not just a "lobby group" as you called them. Like you, they may be proud of certain things that the state school system achieves, but if they have Gifted children with special needs that your department is clearly not meeting, then you must surely at least listen to them in order to have any credibility as a leader.

To all of you, I encourage you to dig deeper in this subject. As there are long-term implications of working with the Gifted, I think that you can all make a real difference for better or worse in the community.

Specifically, I say to you . . .

Rodney, apart from you, only the Minister provided me with something to read and take away. Your policies are strong and clear and it is always good to see someone bring some humour into their politicking. You do it well. Your brochure is easy to read, and speaking to us at a personal level about your recent learning of Giftedness and teaching the Gifted, gave me encouragement that perhaps a politician can hear and understand the people! Thank you.

Keith, I'm sorry. I tried to follow you but you really lost me. I don't know if I was dreaming or in a daze, but I scratched my head after you'd spoken and said to myself, "What did he actually say?" If you have any notes, I'd be interested in having another go at understanding what you had to say, but . . .

Chris, as Minister of a portfolio that appears to have a strongly disenfranchised sector within it, you were in a no-win situation, but I think you misread the night and handled it all the wrong way. You certainly have things in your portfolio that you can be proud of, but Gifted Education in New Zealand is definitely not one of them! I understand that New Zealand was one of the last countries in the world to recognise the unique challenges of teaching the Gifted and even now there I hear strong sounds that this sector is not being adequately addressed.

I started working in the educational field 30 years ago and nothing has ever been any different - everybody always wants more money, but as I mentioned above there appears to be serious problems in this sector. People just want to be heard. Of course they will be disappointed if their slice of the pie is small but really, I think that you really need make positive steps to explore the issues of Gifted teaching and listen to the people who know.

Dale, I was really impressed that you visited a one day school classroom on Friday. That was cool! Your question at the meeting along the lines of "What do you people actually want?" is refreshing. It's not really the sort of question that you'd expect from a politician, but it is the key to the whole thing, as I've explained on my blog. I think the Gifted Teaching community needs to give you and your colleagues a clear message in reply.

Wayne, it was good that you could step in for your absent colleague. Please take the message back to her that there were over 100 people at the meeting with some fairly strong views about the current government and MOE policies. If you inherit the benches of power later this year, it would be sad if she continued to marginalise this sector.

Judy, your empathy based on your personal experiences was refreshing. Please continue to push through and speak with these teachers and advocates. As I see it, dealing with educating the Gifted is a challenge, but its important and rewarding.

Thank you also, to the Gifted Education Centre for hosting the meeting.

Dennis A. Smith
Auckland,
21 June 2008

Collaboration

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:24:01 GMT

A core tenant of the investment of my time and money into WDANZ was that by working with others in the industry, we can achieve more than by going it alone.

Collaboration does not necessarily need to result in the loss of our own identity. One large web development company who has yet to join WDANZ considers us to be a threat to their own "patch" - because we both conduct Seminars nationwide.Their role in the industry will always be "just another web development company trying to sell their wares" no matter how big or successful they get. People tell me that they attend their events and realise that of course they are being sold to, but there never seems to be much goodwill.

However, our members who attend and participate with other WDANZ members in WDANZ events will always be seen as the thought leaders, the guys that can be trusted, the ones to call on first, the good guys - because they are seen to be collaborating with others.

Another web development company that also runs seminars works with and alongside WDANZ and other WDANZ members. They gain great goodwill through their desire to collaborate with others, and the customers know it. The difference is the old-school closed mindset of "Me, me, me, Mine, mine, mine" and the more effective mindset that it's "We, we, we, Ours, ours, ours". It takes a brave man to open his business up and work with others, but these people are the winners in my mind - no matter who has the bigger market share or made the most money in the last financial year.

New Zealand is a land of contrasts - from the beach to the snow; the sporting to the creative: the nature to commerce; and the generous to the possessive. Our homes, shools, businesses and communities are brim-full of talent, creativity, ideas and potential.

But we've got a real problem . . .

Our Kiwi culture honours individualism and independence, largely to the detriment of collaboration and co-operation.

We demonstrate to our children that mediocrity is the norm - by either knocking success or envisaging that success is "up there on a pedestal" and therefore only in reach of the lucky few.

The cost to this is that our creative genius can become introverted and our insecurity can cripple us - individually, corporately, and as a nation.

I'm an indendent, self-centred, and insecure guy who has chosen to step out and try to help others. Yes at times there are knocks as people don't, won't or can't share the vision to work with others. Thinking and working collaboratively is also hard work and needs perseverance, resolve, time and effort, but the rewards are there for those who do find ways to work with others.

On the first meeting of the first day of the first WDANZ roadshow, I met with three web developers in Napier (of all places!). They all sat in the same room, having never met each other before, and I introduced myself to them all, and them to each other. The first guy, introduced himself as a very junior developer, but with an interest and expertise in graphics. The third guy introduced himself, representing the largest and established web development house in town, who by the way, was always looking for good graphics designers!

This same scenario has played itself out throughout the country and still does today as people get out of their own little worlds and embrace working with others to mutual benefit. Just as two oxen evenly yoked can pull many times more than the sum of each individual animal, so too can businesses who find ways to collaborate.

While collaboration, co-operation, co-opetition or whatever you want to call it doesn't come naturally to the typical Kiwi businessman, it is an increasing necessity in today's business environment. Let's kill the egos, get creative, and find ways to work together.