Each year when Spring rolls around and the Masters tournament looms, it makes me remeniss about what to this day was the single best moment of my life.  Of course I have the day each of our two children were born, and my wedding, but as far as a ‘moment’, what took place in 1997 could never be topped.  It feels kind of strange to put the details together of a personal story, but in these trying times, with millions of people losing their jobs, and 401Ks, I think it serves as a good message for overcoming a difficult time, and how sometimes it just takes a little luck, and your life can change for the better.

I played baseball at Xavier University here in Cincinnati, and came in as a freshman from a small highschool in Indiana in the fall of 1995.  I of course had no idea if I would play, or how I would do, but as an 18 year old, baseball was the most important part of my life by far.  I was lucky enough to start about half of the games my freshman year in the outfield.  I didn’t do anything special, but it was productive.  I vividly remember driving back home for the summer and knowing that two ouf our starting outfielders were graduating that I would be a full time starter going forward.  I couldn’t wait to get back to school and start fall practice my sophomore year.

Things changed after only one practice.  Yes, the two seniors graduated, but two freshman came in.  One ended up playing in the Major Leagues for two different teams, and the other was a 6′ 4″ switch hitter with an unreal throwing arm.  I quickly realized that me being in the starting lineup wasn’t going to be a given.  There was no doubt in my mind that these two guys had better skills than I did.

When I came back after Christmas break and we started getting ready for the season, I was absolutely horrible.  It was laffable how poorly I was hitting the ball, people go through slumps, but WOW was I bad.  We made our annual spring trip to Jacksonville to play 15 games and I played sparingly.  It was very difficult to swallow, but its not like I thought I wasn’t getting a fair shake by the coach, there were simply better players than me.

Around mid March, my parents came down to watch a weekend series at Xavier.  In a double header on Saturday, I didn’t even get off the bench.  That night at dinner, I told my parents that I wanted to transfer.  I still loved baseball, and enjoyed Xavier, but was competitive, and wanted to go somewhere where I would play.  My parents were a bit shell shocked as they had no idea I was feeling that way.   It was a horrible feeling to try to come to grips that I wasn’t good enough to play at Xavier.

The next Tuesday came along, and we played Kentucky at home.  In the first inning, our left fielder, Matt Watson, who has played with both the Mets and Athletics, had a line drive hit to him.  He dove and jammed his finger and he ended up breaking it.  I came in for him, and happened to go 3-4.  The next day was another 3-4 with a home run.

That weekend, we had our biggest conference rival, Virginia Tech coming into town, for a three game series on Saturday and Sunday.  After practice on Friday, Coach Morrey said to us that these three games would be the most important games ever played on our home field.  Obviously I was excited, as I was going to the on the field and part of it.  Once again, my parents made the drive down to Cincinnati.  We split the games on Saturday, and I had another good day hitting with a couple home runs.  The winner of the Sunday game would put that team on top of the Atlantic 10.

We had a back and forth game on Sunday, and were down by three in the bottom of the 9th.  We mounted a comeback, and I came up with runners on first and second with two outs, with us down by two runs.  I was down to my last strike and things weren’t looking good.  I got a high fastball, and hit it to left center field.  I was caught up in the moment, but as I was rounding first base I saw it clear the fence for a home run and we won the game.  I have never, and will never, experience the kind of euphoria felt at that moment.  The team came out of the dugout, we had a huge pile on the field, it was incredible.  When I saw my parents afterward, my Mom was sobbing, and I think its the only time in my life that I saw my Dad shed a tear.  It was as if I was having an out of body experience.

That afternoon we went to a restaurant and watched Tiger Woods win his first Masters, which has turned out to be a watershed moment in the sports world.

In the end, the people who cared about Xavier Baseball at that time, were probably limited to the guys on our team and our families, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal.  However, for me, it was the watershed moment of my life.  I went on to start every game the rest of my career, and was named captain of the team.  If I would have left Xavier, its doubtful I would have met my wife, or remained good friends with the teammates I spent four years with at Xavier.  I certainly would not be living in Cincinnati today. That one single moment, taught me that you can come out of tough times on top.  I actually think about that day probably more than I should 12 years later, but for me it is less about the fact that I hit a ball over a fence, and more about the pure unadulturated joy that I had at that moment, and sharing it with my family.

I thought when Federal investigators spent millions of dollars and years going after Barry Bonds, that Bonds would be the “poster boy” for the late 90s steroid era in baseball.  Now, with the Sports Illustrated report that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003,  Alex has been thrown through the ringer the last two weeks, and seems to have done a pretty miserable job of trying to explain himself.  Here you have a guy who had already signed a
ten year contract in excess of $252,000,000.00, but he is going to play
‘amature hour’ and inject himself with a strange steroid that he
doesn’t even know how to use?  When your body is worth a quarter of a
billion dollars, I am pretty damn sure you are going to research what
you are putting into it.

He now tries to act contrite and say how sorry he
is to everyone he let down, to me, that couldn’t be further from the
truth.  He is sorry that this story has come to light.  He is sorry about the reaction, but what he should be, is enraged at Gene Orza and Donald Fehr and the baseball players union for the fact that Sports Illustrated got their hands on these test results.

The entire reason the drug test in question was institued was to get an anonymous look at baseball to see if there actually was a steroid problem, no punishments would be handed down, it was more of a census.  There were 1,200 players to be tested and if the tests results came back to show that more than 5% of Major League Baseball tested positive for steroids, they would implement a random drug testing program.  The results were coded so that two documents would be needed to determine the names.  The players seemed to know that the tests were coming and if so desired, had plenty of time to get the drugs out of their system.  Much to baseball’s chagrin, 104 players tested positive.  The Players Union is said to have notified all of those players, which included Rodriguez.  However, instead of then destroying these documents and protecting these players’ privacy, as promised, the records were kept, and were seized when a Federal investigation began into San Francisco’s BALCO labs.

So here we are, six years later and Alex Rodriguez has been thrown under the bus in front of the entire country.  Alex was one one of the 104 who tested positive, but the only one to be tarred and feathered in the court of public opinion.  Sure, his name probably carries the most cache’, but would it be right to throw out the other 103 names?  In my opinion, absolutely not.  Maybe this is happening behind the scenes, but Donald Fehr should be in full damage control mode to the members of the players union.  How they could trust anything coming out of his mouth going forward is beyond me.

Make no mistake about it, A-Rod cheated, and taking performancing drugs is wrong, but we are talking about an era where it is possible and probable that 50% of baseball were taking some sort of banned substances.  Major League Baseball cleaned up their act in 2005 when they started dolling out suspensions for positive tests, so for the most part the problem is in the past.  I am confident that most baseball fans are sick of hearing about the past, and would like to talk about what happens on the field, instead of this horrible act with completely false stories and excuses.

It is highly doutful that Rodriguez will take any legal action against the union, due to the negative publicity that would come with it, but the union is getting off much to easy in this situation.  They betrayed a tremendous amount of people and violated their privacy and should be repremanded for it.

Watching the footage yesterday of the US Airways crash into the Hudson river was simply amazing.  New York is going through a terrible time as of late.  The financial markets are a mess, Broadway shows are shutting down left and right, and overall the city seems to be in a dark malaise.  A plane crash you would think would just be one more horrible thing to add to the list, but I take it as the exact opposite.

How you could land a plane filled with 155 people in a river and come away with no serious injuries is nothing short of a miracle.  The response team of the Coast Guard and NYC water taxis was incredible.  The knowledge and skill of the pilot, Mr. Sullenberger, in such a crisis situation is beyond commendable.  I just can’t get enough of reading about this unbelievable event.

I was trying to come up with a better possible place to put a plane down in water on short notice and I’m convinced this was the best place on the globe.  I can’t imagine the response time if that were to happen on the Ohio river here in Cincinnati, it would take well over an hour to evacuate everyone, that is if the plane was still above water.

New York is an exciting, vibrant and tough city.  What took place yesterday is further indication of that.  The Big Apple deserves a pat on the back for yesterday’s heroics, it could have been a horrific tragedy at a time where the city and country as a whole is already reeling.  Instead, I believe it shows our resolve in tough situations, and maybe wishfully thinking, can be a spring board to our recovery.

My wife Nicole is due to have our second child this weekend, so it will be a great Christmas for us.  Obviously I am excited to see the baby, but as much as I hate to admit it, I wish we could just flip a switch and the little guy would be in our arms, as the whole process of child birth is a bit much for me.

Six months ago, one of my good friends and co-workers, Steve Spiegla and his wife had a baby.  He was born at the same hospital as our 1st son, Charlie.  When Nicole and I visited them and walked into the maternity ward, I noticed that I was sweating and felt like I was going to pass out. It was like I returned to the scene of a crime.

That is a slight exaggeration, but I’ll go on record as saying I have NEVER felt more useless or worthless than watching my wife go through 20 hours of labor.  Sure, men have egos, some more than others, but during childbirth, they seem to disappear.  Telling Nicole to “breathe” isn’t exactly doing much, other than making her want to punch me in the face.  What a woman’s body goes through over the course of nine months and childbirth is astonishing, and almost unbelievable.  Charlie was born healthy and everything turned out and Nicole was fine, but its a scary process.  Without a doubt I earned a new respect for women after going through that three years ago.

My poor wife has been close to miserable for a month.  I came into our bedroom last week, and noticed her sleeping in what I considered to be a ‘coffin’.  She laid in bed and put pillows around the entire perimeter of her body.  According to her, that is the only way she can be comfortable.  She says that she now feels about 11 months pregnant.  I have to help her off the couch, and I notice she has taken over my wardrobe of sweats and t-shirts.

I’ve heard some men say they feel useless on their wedding day, as really the day is built for the bride.  That may be true, but the bride isn’t going through excruciating pain, like with childbirth, so childbirth gets my vote

So, I guess this is a thanks for the last nine months and a good luck to Nicole.  I’ll be there rooting you on, regarless of my worth.

The web has, without question, changed the lives of probably billions of people.  I came out of college at a perfect time to try to capitalize on this new marketplace, and it has been a blessing for myself and my family.  Anyone can start an online business, and unfortunately, thats where it seems all the small business is heading right now.

As the years go by, besides the web, it seems the ‘real world’ is becoming more and more full of corporations, and its rather disturbing.  For an example, just take a look at the way restaurants are going.  This May, we drove from Sarasota all the way up to Cincinnati.  Without fail, every single exit has the exact same chain restaurants for that stretch of 1,000 miles.  I remember thinking to myself while driving, ‘what kind of food is Georgia known for?’  After driving through the entire state, it appers that McDonalds and Subway are their speciality.

It isn’t just restaurants, two privately owned hardware stores here in Cincinnati that I used to go to have closed down within the last year.  They just cannot compete with the giant corporations of Lowe’s and Home Depot.  Before, you could walk into your local hardware store, and someone would be right there to help you find what you are looking for.  Now you have to go to this humongous warehouse and do a few laps around the place to find someone who can answer a question for you.

Sporting good stores are the same thing.  When I was ten years old, I vividly remember my dad getting me a specific Wilson A2000 baseball glove that he had to drive 30 miles to a small place in East Chicago, Indiana, AP Davis, to pick it up.  That place has since closed down as there is now a Dick’s Sporting Goods in every town.

Disney confronted this same subject with their movie Wall-e this summer, saying in the future, there will be only one store at which to shop, Buy & Large.  I’m not saying we are to that point, but the direction we are heading in is alarming.

On the flip side, the conglomerates have yet to push out the ‘little guy’ on the web.  In a sense, that is what we built our Text Link Ads business on.  Our goal was (is) to provide a service to web based businesses that gives them the opportunity to drive relevant traffic to theie website as well as rank well in the major search engines when someone is searching for their respective products or services.  When you break it down, it seems rather simple.

Using the example of the Wilson A200 baseball glove, just look at the search results.  The first page is loaded with small web based business who have worked hard to market their sites, and are put on an equal playing field with the big guys and are able to compete.  We have friends who have made great livings for themselves by jumping on an idea and starting an ecommerce store, so the opportunities are there fore everyone.

Selfishly, I hope the trend reverses with the brick and mortar businesses.  Small business, and entrepeneurship is what this country is all about.  You can be in Manhattan and eat at a different privately owned restaurant every day for something like 10 years.  My wife and I have a place on Anna Maria Island in Florida.  It has beautiful beaches and weather.  However, if someone asks about the place, the first thing I always point to is the fact that an ordinance prevents anyone from building anything higher than the tallest palm trees, and there is not a single chain restaurant on the entire island.  Which means it is not infested with one high rise condo after another or a Starbucks on every corner.  Everyone to a person, thinks that is a crazy thing in this day and age.

Walking into a small restaurant or shop where the you feel like you know the owners are the types of things that help to bring together a community.  The way things have gone in the last 15 years, it is pulling in the opposite direction.  Hopefully the current financial downturn will cause a shift in this direction, as its obvious that big business didn’t have all the answers.

At the end of the day, when my kids have grown, I hope they can grab a burger at the the neighborhood hangout that isn’t a Red Robin, and small business is still alive on main street, and not just on the internet.

Update:  I think USA Today read this entry :

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-12-11-anna-maria-island_N.htm

Unlike similar sunset celebrations in Florida tourist meccas such as Key West, there are no rowdy crowds, wall-to-wall bars or panhandlers. Also absent on Anna Maria are high-rise condos and chain hotels. You’ll have to drive off-island for a McDonald’s or Starbucks fix.

I am well aware that we have too many financial problems to list in this country right now, and saying that the Blackberry generation ruined the market was over the top, but I strongly believe that it has played a major role into the events that have transpired over the last six months.  Even before you bring technology into the equation, the stock market is a vastly different place than it was 30 or even 20 years ago.  At that time, the majority of workers in the United States relied on pensions for their retirements.  As we have shifted away from pensions to the now standard 401K vehicles, there has been a cosmic shift in the percentage of people in this country whose financial lives are directly tied to the financial markets.

Until the internet boom, people received their investment statements in the mail every month, some people every quarter.  Now it has come to the point where one click of a button on your phone and you can get up to the minute stock quotes.  With the plethora of cable channels dedicated to the markets, you can watch coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The media has always been big on trying to put fear into the public, which in my opinion as a lot to do with why we got into the war in Iraq, but that is another post for another day.  The bankruptcy of Leman Brothers on September 15 and subsequent coverage created a fear in this country, unlike anything I have ever seen.  It is difficult to have a conversation with anyone out there without the economy being brought up.  It is being constantly beaten into our brains.  Last week, I was at the grocery store, and for some reason I hear over the loudspeaker, “Times are tough, in this difficult economy, you can find deals at Kroger”.  You simply cannot escape the negativity.

This fear causes people to make irrational decisions.  So many people have just taken their losses and gotten out of the market, taking 40%+ losses on their retirement savings, saying they will get back in when the market stabilizes.  So when it goes back up 20%, you will jump back in and just sacrifice all those losses?  Fear isn’t just a problem for the everyday investor, more and more companies are laying off workers, and much of the time you hear the team ‘precautionary’.  I’ve heard this time and time again, companies are letting people go because they are afraid of what MIGHT be down the road.  Its a self-fulfilling prophecy that is taking over our country.

The technology boom of the last 10-15 years has been truly amazing, almost another industrial revolution, and it has changed the way we live our lives.  I’m rather confident that the volumns of the Encyclopedia Brittanica on people’s bookselves aren’t being utlizied as much with the birth of the internet.  Through social media platforms, you can keep in touch with just about anyone you have ever crossed paths with.  The fact that I haven’t gone to a mall for Christmas shopping in five years due to ecommerce is something nobody could have fathomed twenty years ago, so I don’t want to be perceived as saying that technology is a bad thing, but I do believe isn’t all good either.

I’ve read plenty of articles that say we need to get out and work harder and do more to take it upon ourselves to restore this economy.  While I can agree with that to a certain extent, I also think that everyone needs to take a step back and understand that we still live in the greatest country in the world and buying into the information overload that is upon us right now is adding on to this snowball that has been created.  Times are tough, it is going to take some time to get through it, but the ‘hype’ that has been forced upon us since September is quickly making matters much worse.

I had hoped to get this post out there much earlier, but after some extreme traveling over the last 10 days, I finally had a chance to get it out there.

We started the pig roast weekend off right with going golfing Friday morning.  The weather was supposed to be dicey, so all of us had quite a few layers on.  It ended up being a perfect day with temperatures in the 60s.  Those great conditions deteriorated completely by nightfall.  It began raining around 6 pm on Friday and didn’t stop until it turned into snow on Sunday.  We actually thought ahead and set up a few pop-up tents to protect ourselves from the elements.  The 86 pound guest of honor was dropped off Friday afternoon, and we put him on ice in my son’s old baby pool.  By 10 pm, we had nine guys who were at least as insane as myself who were ready and willing to brave the elements and help cook the pig.  We spent an hour or so stuffing the pig and getting it set up on the spit.  A friend of mine works in surgical sales.  I had no clue that this would qualify as experience to sew up the cavity of a pig, but Tim took care of it in no time.

We ended up getting her on the fire by midnight.  Many people would use a covered smoker for a pig roast, but we thought it would be fun to try to ‘rough it’ so to speak, so I picked up a manual rotisserie spit from eBay.  It seemed like it would work fine, we would have to make a quarter rotation every 15 minues.It seemed easy enough, but more on that later.

A quick note on the wardrobe, in my 32 years on this earth, that was the first time I have donned camouflage anything.  I figured that would be the appropriate attire for roasting a pig, and the crew seemed to get a chuckle out of it.

We set up the pit with charcoal along each of the sides with drip pans in the middle to try to prevent any flare ups as it cooked.  After two hours or so, we all seemed to be feeling pretty good about ourselves.  Everything had pretty much gone as planned at that point.  We ran into a couple of bumps, but we were mopping the beast every half hour or so, and things were looking good.  The party started to thin out around 4 am.  Some guys had gone home, a few others were getting some sleep in tents in my backyard.  At 4:30 I felt like I needed to get an hour or so of sleep.  I wasn’t as manly as some of the other guys, so I went into my house and was going to sleep on my couch.  I set the alarm for 6:00, thinking that 90 minutes of sleep would be a good thing after some adult beverages and sitting in the 40 degree rain all night.

What seemed like five minutes after lying down, my phone rang.  I popped up, assuming it was my alarm.  I looked down and it was 5:15 and it was one of my guys who was down by the fire.

“Bill, we have a problem, the spit broke, and the pig is down in the fire, you better get down here quick.”

For some reason, the first thought in my head was, ‘How am I going to be able to get in touch with 50 people and tell them the party is canceled?’  Now, I’m pretty sure, people would still come over even if the pig was slightly burned, but out of a dead sleep, I thought the world was ending.

When I got down to the fire, we had to survey the situation and wake up the guys on the sleep shift.  It appeared that the spit snapped in half and the pig had jack knifed and the back of it was down into the drip pan.  The spit was supposed to be able to withstand 120 pounds, so we couldn’t figure could how this could have happened, especially after five hours of cooking.  We attempted some ingenuity and used some cinder blocks to attempt to prop up the center of it, so it would be able to stay somewhat flat in the pit.  The problem was that we would no longer be able to turn the pig without physically picking it up.  Picking up 86 lbs of dead weight, especially when quite hot, isn’t the easiest task.

We made due with what we had to work with and finished the job around 10:30 am.  The actual party didn’t begin until 3:00 that afternoon, so we had plenty of time to do the carving and get things cleaned up.

Overall, for the first attempt,it was a good time, we had a nice crowd that afternoon, and the guys who helped out overnight had plenty of war stories to pass around.

I did learn plenty of lessons, and for the next pig roast, I would do a few things differently:

The party needs to be earlier in the year.  The wind, rain, sleet and snow are not very enjoyable while cooking.  I would also start the pig around dawn, not at midnight.  My wife was hesitant about any children seeing the pig,  I understand that, but when having a pig roast, its a must to have the pig as the centerpiece of the party, and see the guys working on it.  With the fact that the party was starting four hours after the pig was finished, it turns into a standard run of the mill dinner party.  Along the same lines, when the troopers who helped out cooking don’t get much if any sleep, it makes it pretty tough to enjoy the party the next night.  I was witness two of the guys passed out on the couch by 8 pm.

However, it was our maiden voyage, and all things considered, we did a fine job.  The food was edible, we have plenty of stories to talk about for years, and we were together with friends and family having a good time, and in the end that is what its all about.

People have different goals.  Some might want to play the guitar.  Others, maybe to run a marathon, or save up to by that dream house.  One of my goals is rather simple, Host a Pig Roast.  I have always enjoyed grilling, but now that we are back from New York, I wanted to take it to the next level and roast a pig, and I am going after it this weekend.

My wife is eight months pregnant, so I have accused her of being in the “nesting” phase for the baby.  As it turns out, I came to the realization that I have been nesting for the past two months for the arrival of the pig for the party.  Unfortunately, we have a lot of similarities.

She bought a crib for the baby’s arrival
I built a BBQ pit for the arrival of the swine.

She ordered a new stroller, car seat, etc.
I purchased 250 lbs of charcoal, some smoking wood, etc.

I’ll stop with the parallels as it is beginning to get disturbing.

The festivities begin for the boys tomorrow night.  We are going to play some cards and start prepping the beast at midnight, and putting him on the fire at 3 am.  The real party begins Saturday at 3:00 pm with wives and children.  We picked a great weekend as Saturday the weather calls for wind and snow.

The best part of it, is that I couldn’t care less about the weather, and I’m sure we will mess it up somehow, but nothing beats having a good time with friends and family.  I will post some pictures next week, and hopefully it will be a success!

There are three things I regret about college.

1. Not going somewhere that had big time college football
2. Never going on a true college spring break
3. Not going to Europe after graduation

Now I played baseball in college at Xavier University and we didn’t have a football team so that accounts for #1.  The baseball season was in full swing during spring break so that takes care of the second item, but I can’t use baseball as an excuse for #3.

I was able to go to Europe with six guys when I was 25,which included Jay Swansson and Patrick Gavin, the summer before the idea of Text Link Ads spawned. It was a great time, but going out of college is a great rite of passage for someone coming out of school and into the job market.  The life lessons and experiences are carried with you the rest of your life, which far outweigh the expense.

**As a disclaimer, yes, the economy is in the toilet and the dollar struggling against the euro, but hopefully that will be turned around by next May, when the next graduation class is ready.**

Going to another country is a lot like going to college.  I went to a  small high school in Indiana, with 110 students in my graduation class.  There were only three boys out of say 55, that went away to college.  Now there were many guys that went to the local community colleges, but only three that went away, which is pretty scary.  For me personally, it was a perfect way to grow into a man, and meet people from much different backgrounds.  It makes you realize that the world is slightly larger than the 50 mile radius you grew up in.  As I said, I grew up in Indiana and my roommates were from Wisconsin, Iowa and Pennsylvania, and we went to school in Ohio.  All of us are still good friends today.  Now mind you, I learned probably too much about turkey hunting and various other worthless items, but exposing yourself to different types of people does a lot on forming who you are as a person, and I feel better prepares you for the real world and work force.

I graduated from high school 13 years ago, and the numbers prove that a much higher percentage of kids are going to college, and being that way, a European adventure is the next step for getting someone ready for the ‘real world’.

Speaking from experience, it was incredible to see the difference in cultures of the countries, and the drastic difference in history.

When Americans want to see the history of our country, we turn to Washington D.C. or New York, but we are only roughly 230 years old.  When walking near the Vatican or the Coliseum, you get a true sense of history as those structures have been around nearly 2,000 years.  It gives you a great sense of appreciation as to what a small amount of time we have on this earth.  Below is a list of some of the lessons I have learned from the European cultures I have visited.

1. People are tremendously more laid back than Americans
2. Europeans seem to walk just about everywhere
3. They eat much less
4. They love to vacation, and make it a priority
5. They are very affectionate
6. They greatly respect history

On that first trip to Europe, we mainly visited Italy, Germany and Switzerland, so it isn’t at all fair to generalize all of those cultures into one, and some of those items listed are quite trivial, but it is an important life lesson to learn about and respect another culture from your own.  The “Go, Go, Go” attitude of Americans is laughed at in Europe.  People vacation for three weeks at a time, whereas here in the states, if you are gone for a long weekend you are glued to your Blackberry the entire time.

Besides discovering other cultures, it is also a great experience to learn about yourself and the friends you are with.  Each time I see one of those six guys that made the trip in 2001, we joke about the fun and crazy times we had over there.

I was lucky enough to go back with my wife, Nicole, in 2004.  We spent a solid two weeks backpacking and taking trains around Italy.  We would both consider it the best time we have ever had with each other.  It was before we had children, and I had basically no communication with work, so it was just the two of us with no distractions.  It was an amazing time that I am sure we will talk about until we are both old and gray.

My point to college grads is this, ‘The real world can wait’.  I have been fortunate enough to make the trip later in life, but it is ten times as difficult to do so.  It is probably the last time in your life where you don’t have a boss, a spouse, or children, so its the perfect chance to have the opportunity of a lifetime.

I will admit I didn’t follow our financial markets too closely until around June of 2007.  Prior to that time, I would passively see how things were coming along, but being in New York, and having close ties to the credit markets, caused me to start obsessively reading about the markets every single day since.  The biggest item I’ve learned is that nobody really has a clue what tomorrow holds!

I’m been blessed to be in a great position, started a solid company, worked hard to build it up, and took some risk off the table by selling TLA in November of 2006, and received a substantial payout for it.  However, today, the market is down almost 30% from its high in November of last year, so much for taking that risk off of the table.  Its not about me though, my portfolio has plenty of time to recover.  However, it is about my generation’s parents.  My parents are closing in on the age of 60, not a great time for your retirement fund to lose 30% of its value.  It is a major problem to all Americans, and certainly not just Wall Street.

Fear is spreading like wildfire across the markets, with unheard of sell-offs this past 30 days.  I think to the normal American, there is more anger than fear, but the combination of those two can be lethal.

There is no doubt that the problems started with greed, but to me, the problem is, that is what capitalism was built upon.  Greed is not necessarily a bad thing.  When we were growing Text Link Ads, I was constantly working my tail off to increase our revenues.  In all honesty, it wasn’t so we could make more money, it was the competition of it.  I wanted to build the best, most successful company.  That’s what this country was built upon, and why they call it the American Dream.  What we are learning now, unfortunately, is that we need to have some form of regulation in place to protect us from that same greed.

The lending practice over the last 5-10 years is astinine, people buying homes that they could not even come close to affording.  Lenders didn’t see this as a big risk, because home values were appreciating so quickly, that even if these people couldn’t afford their mortgage payments, they would be able to refinance and do it all over again.  When the housing market began to deteriorate in 2005, that plan of lax lending practices wasn’t looking so good.  It all started coming to a head about 15 months ago, and now for the last three weeks, we keep hearing the comparisons to The Great Depression.  So where do we go from here, and how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again?

1.  The constant comparisons of “Wall St.” vs. “Main St.” are becoming tiresome, as we are all to blame.  The average US salary is roughly $48,000.  That same average US citizen has over $10,000 in credit card debt.  The average downpayment on a home in 1989 was 20%.  Today, less than 20
years later, the average is 9%.  For first time home buyers, the
average downpayment is just over 2%.  We have turned into a society that requires instant gratification, and we are too quick to make purchases that are not within our means.  The same holds true to people not doing their homework before agreeing to these outrageous adjustable rate loans.

2.  The banking industry looked at itself and thought, ‘How can we make more money…provide more loans’.  Well in order to do so, they resorted to predatory tactics and attempted to confuse and manipulate a large part of the American public.  Now banks are stuck with trillions of dollars of bad loans, and we are seing large banks fail due to it.  People put so little money down on their homes that have decreased in value, that it actually might be their best option to just walk away, and that is just what people are doing.

It has gotten so bad that banks simply aren’t lending money to true eligible people and when credit markets aren’t flowing, all business will begin to suffer.  It is quickly becoming a world wide crisis.  I am hopeful that the $700B bailout package which the House passed October 3 will begin to help, but since its passing the markets have decreased by over 6%.

The simple fact of the matter is that this is going to be a long painful process.  We need to flush out all of these bad loans and get the system back in order.  Americans have always come together in tough times, and unfortunately, it appears that this one is going to be with us for awhile, so we all need to look in the mirror and do what we can to get our great country back on track!