Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

WorldClass Personal Brand Management

Personal Brand Management
by Kendell R. Lang


When talking about personal brand management, I am talking about my personal brand, my executive brand, my intellectual brand, my brand statement, and my personal value proposition. As a technologist, writer and change management specialist, there is a tried and true methodology which I've personally used many times in the past which I believe applies to this phase of my personal brand assessment.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, yes...the old SWOT analysis is an ideal way to understand your strengths and weaknesses, and where the opportunities and threats lie with regard to selling my, my brand.

In this post I'm talking about using the SWOT analysis to help me address the ever-present question of strengths and weaknesses, but if you think about it, it’s the perfect way to identify some very personal areas of opportunity.

Of course there is also the definition of insanity by trying to get a different result by doing the same thing. In this case I am seeking a specific outcome so I have to be willing to get outside my box and use proven tools in a new way. When I go about performing this self-analysis, the most difficult task is going to be realistically, as independently and as honestly as possible consider my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in light of my objectives, my experience, my circumstances, my sphere of influence, my chosen vertical market and the technical skills of my chosen profession.

I am thinking about this not purely from a competitive position, but I'm think about this as war. Psychological Warfare. The Art of War put into the form of a Thought War. In my personal brand continuum "space", who is vying for the same results, the same objective, the same partnership, the same engagement or the same job? I have to so fundamentally shift my thinking to be radically focused on and genuinely most interested in the needs of the target, partner or hiring company. What makes me stand out to solve their problems? Here’s how I am using the SWOT assessment process to define my personal brand and find my next book agent, production company, joint venture partner or maybe even a job :)

Strengths:
· What advantages do I have?
· What do I do better than anyone else?
· What unique or low-cost resources do I have to offer?
· What do others see as my strengths?
· How do I help close the sale or reduce overhead?

Weaknesses:
· What areas can I improve?
· What areas should I avoid?
· What do peers in my market see as weaknesses?
· Where do I fail when trying to close a sale or reduce costs?

Opportunities:
· What opportunities am I seeing?
· What interesting trends can I identify and take advantage of, such as changes in technology, regulations, social patterns, etc.?
· What is happening in my market that can promote new business development?

Threats:
· What obstacles do I face?
· What interesting trends can I identify which I should be worried about?
· Are the required specifications for my project, my venture, my job, products or services changing?
· Is changing technology threatening my personal brand position?
· Do I have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
· Could any of my weaknesses seriously threaten my business?

Once I actually complete my SWOT analysis I expect to have a clear picture of how I fit in my target market, my strengths and weaknesses, and what will differentiate me from the competition.

Now I can then get to work on distilling my findings into a succinct pitch that really shows my strengths and why someone will seek me out.

WorldClass Branding for Small Business

Realities of Online Brand Development and Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

 

 

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Cyndia Zwahlen writes;

The small business was funded in part by venture capitalist Peter Rogers and his Dry Creek Ventures, which targets clean energy, water and food businesses.

Such small local food outfits, especially those that are gentle on the environment, are key to the long-term health of the economy but need formal access to local investors to succeed, says social venture-capitalist and entrepreneur Woody Tasch.

Shifting capital to organic farmers, independent food entrepreneurs, farmers markets and restaurateurs will pay off in stronger local economies, a healthier environment and improved supplies of affordable, healthful food, Tasch said.

He founded Slow Money Alliance last year to spearhead the creation of regional networks of local investors that want to put their money into local enterprises.

"We've had the life sucked out of our society and economy by financial markets run amok and globalism run to extremes," Tasch said. Slow Money is "part of a network emerging of people who want to repair the damage."

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Journey of our Lifetimes - A Father's Encouragement

Journey of Our Lifetimes



Sometimes Together, Sometimes Apart
Memories, Transition & Change

To My Dearest Children,

As I’ve shared with you before, the reality of change is a constant in our lives, and as we embark on yet another new part of this “journey of a lifetime”, I want to share a few thoughts of encouragement and hope. While there has been unbelievable, almost unbearable amount of stress in the recent months, there is also intense joy and the opportunity to shape how we think about our circumstances.

Each of our lives is marked by transitions. Transitions are the markers by which we know change is either upon us, or coming. As I’ve done before, I again want to encourage you both to embrace change and learn how to think positively about transitions and to not have fear as you head into the unknown.

The home in San Bernardino where we lived from when you were born was a comfortable place where your Mom and I created many great memories of your earliest years. We loved to travel and used this home as a base from which to take some incredible journeys. Mom and I went on a delayed honeymoon to Australia when she was already pregnant with our baby boy. We ended up going on John and Shauna’s honeymoon to Europe when Mom was pregnant with our baby girl, and Grandma stayed in our home to take care of our boy. The time we spent together in the home were special moments of rocking you in the blue recliner, swimming with Pappa in the pool, riding the tractor around the deck with Grande’, playing with Midgy and Blacky and getting sticks of gum from George across the street. The imprinting of Sandy and Chrissy as nannies to you while your Mom went back to work was a large part of where you got rhythm and soul. We also experienced a transition and change in this home when we reached the decision to have Mom stop working so she could be home full time to raise you both. We started you traveling early from this home, including trips to Seattle for holidays, accompanying me on business trips and vacations where we took Grandma and Pappa to Hawaii where our baby boy took his first steps.

The first transition from one home to another in your young lives was the move from San Bernardino to Seattle when I was on contract for Weyerhaeuser. During that year, we packed up the whole house and moved into a little house in the woods on the land around the headquarters. It was tall pine trees, rainy and windy, with lots of visits to Grandma’s home for family gatherings at holidays, opening season for fishing, Propeller Club chow downs with Uncle Bill and Easter egg hunts with the cousins. We had rented out the house in San Bernardino, and moved back when my contract was done.

We got settled again in the home in San Bernardino and had gone through a lot of transitions during that year. When we got back into the one story rambler in Del Rosa Heights, there were great life events spent in a place that gave a framework for our memories. We have lots of pictures of a variety of events in that home, and they will always be etched in our memories. That home was the platform from which we created our memories and lived our dreams for that time in our lives. But we transitioned out of that home. The second transition in your young lives was the move from San Bernardino to San Diego.

When we started to see the decline of the area where we lived, and got tired of dealing with the commute for me to get to work, and were worried about the health impacts of living in smog all the time…we made a conscious choice to look for another place to live and we were just drawn to San Diego. We didn’t know anyone in San Diego; we had no family, no friends…just a few experiences of visiting San Diego and windsurfing in Mission Bay, bicycling around the Bay and Mom visiting the Jazzercise headquarters in Carlsbad.

It is hard to believe we bought the Lone Jack house in 1993. We moved in at the end of the year in December. In fact we flew up to Seattle for Christmas that year and came back after the New Year to start a new phase of our lives in a new town, a new home. We were excited to embark on a new phase of our lives, and we had many hopes for this new start. As you look at our family pictures from this time you can see the joy and excitement of going through all these new adventures.

Although you have a few formative memories of San Bernardino, the majority of your life memories are now firmly marked by the architecture of the home we shared together for almost 16 years. Most of your young life transitions have been supported and made safe by having this family dwelling. Your rooms were almost an extension of your personalities and knowing that you had that constant in your lives gave you incredible confidence and reassurance. As you have gone through various transitions, moving from pre-school to lower school, then graduating to middle school, and then moving into high school…each of those transitions was marked by some kind of change. Yet a constant throughout that time was our home. We used that home as a base camp from which to explore the world, literally and figuratively. We used that home as an Oasis to which we escaped and regrouped and regained our sense of balance. That home was the place where you temporarily transitioned from full time school at Santa Fe Christian and were blessed with probably the best three years of education when you had Mom as your teacher during the years where she home schooled you. I will never forget the times when Grandpa Ted was able to share those lesson times and how much he enjoyed just being around. Not only did our home protect us from physical storms, it also protected us from the storms in life: the school fights, the traumas of broken friendships, the final exams, the teenage years and the transition to young adulthood.

That physical structure, more than just the structure of a house, but a home saw you both through a wide array of challenging life transitions, and you have come through all of them with your “selves” intact and ready to take on the next challenge. Although no where near the tragedy of losing your Mom in 2007, you have had exposure to other losses, including the loss of Blackie, the loss of Grandma Doris in 1990, the death of my cousins Donnie in 1992 and Stacey in 2002, the death of Grandpa Ted in 1999, and the passing of Pappa in 2003. Because you were so young, the impact of these losses were much less significant for you.

The transition of losing Mom over two and a half years ago now, marked yet another huge milestone for each of us. That was a transition and change that was out of order in the expected sequence of life. It just shouldn’t have been Mom’s time to go. Yet we trust in God’s timing for this change. Each of us has been changed in different ways and we are each working through what all this change means in our lives…but we were blessed to have been able to do that from the comfort of the home where we shared so much. Now that home is no longer ours. We have transitioned into a new home with many open questions swirling around us. As we struggle to figure out what this next phase of “normal” looks like, we are all about to face yet another transition which is going to require us to accept change and figure out how to think appropriately about what all this means.

As both of you experienced your first two years of college on a journey which took you away from home into the dorms at your respective universities, I can’t help but remind you about the physical framework around what you experienced. You took bits and pieces of your rooms and transplanting them into temporary housing were you figured out how to create a new sense of “place” in someplace that became your transitional home. How you thought about that change was in large part what shaped your experience for the first two years. With the financial uncertainties staring us in the face, I want to encourage you to shape your thinking about our current circumstances with optimism for all the great memories you have created in those first two years. It is okay to have reservations about what might be coming, and you will also need to figure out how to think about all this with an expanded knowledge of money, relationships and everything else life is throwing at us. The sadness can and does co-exist with the joy and excitement.

I want you both to always embrace any change in your life with a sense of optimism and excitement, knowing that we will always have each other, unconditionally loved, no questions asked and without judgment. That is the strangeness of unconditional love, that you can experience it, lose it, be overwhelmed by it and be in it all while keeping your perspective that whatever it is…it is just as integral a part of your life as your blood. You cannot live without it and you will always need it.

I am blessed to have shepherded you for this part of your journey. I hope to be a continuing resource and cheerleader for you as you experience more, different and new changes, and I will do my best to be available for as long as God intends.

As for me, I’m sure of one thing: No matter what happens in the future, regardless of the physical location where we happen to reside, you and your Mom will always remain inside me. Our lives together fill a very important part of my heart, and nothing will ever change what we have been blessed to share together during the time Mom was with us. We are now filling our lives with new memories, and they are being done around a series of “firsts” without Mom. Hard to believe I’m still saying that after two and a half years.

There will no doubt be additional transitions in my life, such as starting a new job (hopefully very soon) or deciding to risk exploring new relationships again. The relationship with a woman in my life has been an important one, and I am sure that you know there will never be a substitute for your Mom. Your Mom will always hold a special place in my heart, irreplaceable.

I want you to always remember that the way I can explain that to you is because of the way I’ve felt about both of you as you came into my life. When I married your Mom, I couldn’t imagine loving anyone any more than how I loved her. Of course I still loved my parents and sisters and extended family, but there was a whole new part of my heart that opened up to allow for a special and unique place where only your Mom could fit. That place became very large over the 21 years we were together, 19 of it married.

During our first year of marriage, our son was born and an entirely new place in my heart showed up, a special reserved place that was totally and completely about loving my son. It expanded my heart in a way that I hadn’t imagined I could love so much more, but it was a unique space and a unique love that was and is reserved only for my son. Just like with your Mom, the place for loving my son has continued to grow and deepen as the years have filled our lives with so much. Now that love is allowing for a transition for a young man to forge into the world as a well-equipped, free-thinking man. That love allows for the space to also provide room for the additions in his life of a life partner who will expand his heart in much the same way as Mom shaped mine. I imagine that there will be several relationships through which God will allow my son to grow, love, learn, and hurt before he will find that special love of his life. Eventually I know that God will bless my son with that life partner and that all our hearts will expand to not only accept that woman in my son's life into our family circle, but also the addition of his own children. I am excited in anticipation of all these great transitions, and will always wish that Mom could be with us to experience these life changes.

Then it happened again, along came my daughter. Another expansion took place in my heart and a whole new space opened up for a love which is now exclusively used to love my precious daughter. All of the unique experiences marked by the special bond of a father-daughter relationship have continued to blossom. I have faced the transition of having her affections shifted to another man, and had to bear from a distance the challenges of not being able to mend a broken heart or fix a relationship. This was a difficult change for sure, but I’m grateful that you continue to grow and mature in a way that is thoughtful and respectful. I don’t feel like you’re shutting anyone out for new relationships at the expense of existing love relationships, but that you, like my son, are figuring out what it means to create a whole new place in your heart for someone new. There is a whole new dynamic in your thinking and relationships which required all of us to change to accommodate this new phase of life. You continue to be challenged by some of your friends have not been taught how to deal with, expect or manage this aspect of their lives, so they’ve gotten stuck in what they thought their relationship should be with you instead of giving you the room to expand your heart and include them in the new growth areas of your heart. I am proud of you for sticking with it, for being a role model and for believing they will come to understand this in time. I know it has been painful, but that is part of what continues to mature and shape you as a leader.

Right now it seems hard to imagine going through another courtship like I’ve just been through, but I trust that in whatever years I may continue to be blessed with life that I will again find someone who will expand a whole new part of my heart. I hope that in my courtship you have seen a good role model. I hope you have felt that I treated this aspect of my life the way I should.

I don’t know what the future holds. The future might include the possibility of buying a new home down the road. The condo for now is a good transitional landing place for which we are truly blessed. I may need to go through a transition myself which may include moving to another home, maybe a villa in Tuscany or a penthouse condo above Pike Place Market in Seattle. It may be driven by the need to accept employment somewhere other than San Diego due to the current economic circumstances.

Whatever our ultimate physical location is, we will always carry the memories of our past residences with us wherever transitions and change take us. These are the bricks and mortar that surrounded us, but part of the tools we utilize, certainly not a reflection of who we are. I am so proud of who you both have become. You are my solid foundation in a world of chaos. Houses and money burn, but you two are eternally my kids.

Here’s part of why I’m writing this to you both. Though we have little choice in most of the transitions in our lives, I am so proud of how both of you are dealing with ongoing tough transitions. I thank God that we had the foundation He provided where we have stood together amidst a heavy storm and weathered the loss of Mom in a way that is honoring both to her and to God. We have sorrow for sure, but we have hope and confidence in our eternal destiny, and for that I will always be grateful. Although I’ve been through most of the life transitions you’re about to experience, you both already know what took me decades to learn. Life is about brief joys, those saturated moments and places etched in our hearts where we stand, shaky but upright, and find that overall we have a pretty good balance.

When you feel like that balance is teetering, always know that you can come to me for a hug, a conversation, my perspective, a glass of wine or just to cry together to reset your frame of reference and regain your balance.

Always remember how deeply I love you both,

Dad

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Encouragement to Keep Writing!

Perseverance is Key
Encouragement to Keep Writing
by

For the writer in all of us we are inspired to write our thoughts on paper and express them to others. In some cases we keep a journal or a notebook of our thoughts and inspirations.  I write this blog to try and keep a clear thought pattern as I process a variety of ideas and issues in my mind. I am the future of myself, I am the writer and the future is mine.


I'm not going to worry about the rejection, I've had plenty of that. They say there are 99 “no’s” to every “yes” so I am looking forward to getting the rest of the “no” out of the way so I can get to a “yes”.  I am continuing to plug away at my regular job while I get my writing in as I can. I won’t give up and I will persevere.  I've learned that most authors who do it full time now had regular jobs once in their lifetime and they had the same dreams I do now. They didn’t give up and kept plugging away.

I won’t forget the Stephanie Meyer is a home-maker and Suze Orman used to wait tables. I see famous authors now and in the past who were teachers, consultants, garbage collectors and every other kind of career.

Sometimes I don't feel like writing, but I do it anyway. Sometimes I may be scared to write, but I do it anyway. Sometimes I wonder whether what I have to say is providing value, but I write it anyway. I just keep writing and I trust that I will find that what I am writing is getting better and better.

When I have a thought I try and write it out.  I do my research on whatever topic I'm working on and follow through being true to my idea. I study other works and read other authors to appreciate other styles and enhance my knowledge of the world through other author’s lives.

I am only writing what I know about.  That keeps me out of trouble most of the time. Well so to speak. I study life around me and what I see as stories in my world.  I don’t talk myself out of writing; thinking no one will ever read it. I forge ahead and write and stay positive. It can have a twist but will still be in my world.

So I hold to this virtual notebook and take it with me on my journey of a lifetime as a writer. I don’t give up, I study life, I research and above all things I keep writing. I will find my unique story and the world will find it with me. If I write about it well, people will read it and appreciate it as a unique contribution. I keep on writing and I don’t give up.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

High Oxygen Social Networking Software Service Raises the Bar on social network broadcasting


Internet Marketing for Small Businesses - Discover Local Online Marketing

Internet Marketing for Small Businesses
Discover Local Online Marketing

by

When others are running for cover, trying to figure out how to lose less than their competitors, now is the perfect time to ramp up your marketing efforts and go grab market share.  In order to do that, you need a WorldClass Search Engine Optimization Strategy.  There has never been a better time to get involved in online marketing, especially from a local marketing perspective. Businesses both small and large are moving away from traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, newspapers and magazines and turning to the Internet. Why? Because worldclass internet marketing with a local focus, geographically specific to your target audience has a far more effective way of reaching your target audience.  A local internet marketing strategy can be much less costly than traditional alternatives.  Consider these statistics from Forrester Research:


Over 80% of internet traffic begins at the search engine
73% of users perform searches several times a week.
81% of users begin their internet experience at the search engine.

Search engines, if you have strategically positioned your website for locally optimized results, reach valuable, motivated, and ready customers who are within reach of your geographic location. To capitalize on search as a marketing tool, marketers should shift acquisition email and ad dollars to search and use an outsourcer firm with a proven track record and no setup fees.

Local Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing for an offline business is no different than proper, quality marketing in the offline world, just in a digital format. More than ever consumers are making online searches with a local geographical focus in order to locate a product or services. Local Search Marketing is a more powerful way to focus your online marketing efforts to reach people in your community or a specific geographical area. Search engine users prefer to buy and work with local companies to whom they can physically visit.

Even traditional printed Yellow Pages are shifting their focus to local online marketing.  If not for this new strategic direction they would be dying off as more people begin to use the internet and search engines to look for and find local goods and services. There are five primary search companies, Google, Yahoo! MSN, Ask and AOL.  Each of them has become much more aware of this transition and have developed specific tools for businesses to get discovered locally through online searches.

You Must Be Discovered Locally

I fully understand the incredible power of local search marketing and I have created a unique marketing approach to fit most budgets.  You can check out my website at http://www.kendelllang.com/ or email me at kendell.lang@gmail.com and you can also call me directly to schedule an appointment at 760.445.3315.


Why is Social Networking Important To Me?


Saturday, November 7, 2009

Eye of the Hurricane II by Kendell Lang

EYE OF THE HURRICANE II
by
Kendell Lang, New Media Consultant

Back in September I wrote, "the Banking system is Under water; according to the FDIC website, we have already seen more than THREE times as many banks Fail this year, than the last 10 years put together.  Some industry analysts are predicting more than 200 bank failures in 2009. Does that seem like a reasonable number?"

When I wrote that article in September the list was 94 failed banks.  Anybody keeping track?  Guess what? Since that article 84 more banks failed!   CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE LIST OF 178 BANKS CLOSED IN 2009.  We only have to see 22 more banks fail to hit the predictions and we are definitely on that pace.

Did you know:
  • On Friday, November 6, 2009, the FDIC announced the closure of 5 banks.
  • United Commercial Bank, San Francisco, CA was closed by the California Department of Financial Institutions, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver.
  • United Commercial Bank  was not just another local bank, it had total assets of $11.2 billion and total deposits of approximately $7.5 billion.



    • Click the FDIC logo to go to the Press Release
  • No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed. All deposit accounts, excluding certain brokered deposits, have been transferred to East West Bank, Pasadena, CA ("assuming institution") and will be available immediately. The former United Commercial Bank locations will reopen as branches of East West Bank.
  • Gateway Bank of St. Louis, Prosperan Bank of MN, Home Federal Savings Bank of MI and United Security Bank of GA were also closed and taken over by the FDIC on Friday.
Here's why I believe regional banks are failing. While larger financial institutions have received aid from the federal government, local and regional banks have found themselves left adrift. Nothing has changed in the fundamentals. Like their larger counterparts, many of these banks made risky loans to individuals and real estate developers during the boom years and are now facing large numbers of defaults as the Second Great Depression drags on.

Rising unemployment (THE HIGHEST SINCE 1983) has made it difficult for many individuals to keep up with expenses, and businesses are feeling the crunch of consumers’ reduced spending power. As a result, regional banks are left holding loans their customers can’t repay.

Problem banks list LOOMS LARGE! The FDIC keeps a list of “problem banks,” though it does not disclose the names to the general public out of fear that depositors at those institutions may prompt a “run on the bank.”  In June, the agency said 416 banks were at risk of failure — the highest level in 15 years!

Federal coffers running dry. An average of 11 banks have failed per month this year, and the federal coffer is thinning under the massive strain. The fund now stands at $7.5 billion, down significantly from $45 billion a year ago.  Folks...this is UNSUSTAINABLE!!!

So is our media asleep at the wheel or what? Why aren't we hearing about the most recent bank closures? The FDIC is shutting banks every Friday as part of a recurring theme to shut them down after close of business on Friday, and then re-open them on the following Monday under the control of some other bank. The dirth of any decent news coverage is irresponsible. I am wondering how long the FDIC's funding can support the losses. What's happening to our economy is unnerving, and banks are at the center of the crisis. The problem is...through all the economic stimilus, the root problem has not been solved and the banks continue to operate (and fold) acting as if everything is "business as usual."

This is not business as usual and we will pay the piper.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Controlling Your Personal Brand - Managing Your Online Reputation

Personal Brand Management
by
Kendell Lang, New Media Consultant

I am going to outline the facets of your “personal brand” and that often overlooked aspect of our relationships with others, your reputation.  Does your reputation stand to scrutiny when you’re not around. What do people say about you when you aren’t around? Or more importantly, what does your boss, current (or future) client, or other key stakeholders and partners say about you when you aren’t around? In a compensation review meeting when promotions to key positions are being discussed are you being considered?


The things that people say about you when you are not around is usually called your reputation. The way people think about you is not something you can control.  What you can control is your conduct, including the information that people can find about you and on which they will form an opinion leading to their perception of your reputation. A better way to think about reputation is that it’s your "personal brand.” Personal Brand Management is one of the biggest factors in your ultimate success on the job, with clients and around your community. Here’s the good news: for the most part, YOU completely control the information flow! Here’s the challenge – to control it appropriately, you may need some essential business coaching, to learn some essential facets of personal brand marketing, reputation management and talent management (a.k.a. “human resource management”).


Three things make up your personal brand – your experience (i.e. what you’ve done in the past), your skills (i.e. what you are capable and comfortable doing), and your attitude (i.e. how you conduct yourself, particularly under stress). These are the things that others remember and discuss when the conversation becomes about you, without you. However, having a great personal brand may not be enough by itself – like any developing brand, marketing yourself is required. Key stakeholders need to know your skills, experiences, and attitudes…so check out your reputation by starting with evaluating your online personal brand. What does a search on Google for your name yield?  Is it correct, is it what you want other people to know about you, is it formatted the way you want to be viewed?

This sort of internal “reputation management and personal brand marketing” is essential in your career, especially if you’re seeking a career change or in fact re-entering the workforce from a layoff, as a Mom returning to work, or establishing new independent career goals. If in fact your career change results, like so many of these actually do, in reliance on decision makers and stakeholders you don’t actually know (for example future clients or employers learning about you on the Internet), your personal brand and reputation management actions require a degree of Internet Information Marketing and Management skills. This is to ensure you come across the way you desire when people search for you, or your services, on the Internet, in social media channels, or through business and information directories.


If one needs to treat ones self on the web as a brand, then how do I manage my Brand, reputation, build a trusted profile, keep it alive?  You need professional assistance to do Career Management, Personal Brand Managemnt, Reputation Management. Are you prepared to manage twitter, facebook, flickr, delicious, linkedin, tweety, blog and do your job?

There is a streamlined approach to dealing with all this, so for more information regarding personal online marketing, personal brand management and reputation management, please contact Kendell Lang at 760.445.3315 or kendell.lang@gmail.com.

Book Proposal Query Letter - Copyrighted Author Submission

Query Letter Book Proposal
(c) Copyright 2009, Kendell Lang, All Rights Reserved

Dear Publisher:

I am ready to submit a detailed book proposal for "Gardner's of Eden: Quest for the God Particle" so I look forward to hearing back from you once you've had a chance to review this proposal.

BOOK TITLE                                                                                     

Gardner's of Eden: Quest for the God Particle


BOOK SUMMARY                                                                           


Logline: All secret societies have a beginning. This is the original secret society from which all others were born.

Before the Seven Society, the Skull and Bones or Scroll and Key, before the Japanese Yakuza, the Italian or Russian Mafia, before the Priory of Sion, the Illuminati, Opus Dei, the Knights Templar or the Free Mason Society, and...even before the Nine Unknown, a more ancient secret society had been formed.

The Gardner's of Eden.

This is the predecessor to all secret societies. Initiated shortly after the birth of creation itself, this group was genetically programmed to protect and hide a world-changing secret.

Many prophecies talk about world-ending scenarios, but this secret holds the key to the beginning of eternity. A secret that God himself did not want revealed.

Throughout the ages a select group of guardians has been tasked to protect the Garden of Eden and to keep secret the location of the sacred Tree of Life. Unlike Ponce de León's quest for the Fountain of Youth, historical documentation and current scientific research point to the existence of the ultimate fountain of youth. The facts being revealed in this story are historically validated, independently researched and independently verifiable.

THE PROBLEM: Programmed Cell Death ("PCD")                             

Let's put this first into a simple context to which everyone can relate. Salmon. Everyone knows what happens to salmon...they live for 4 years in the ocean, find their way back up to the stream where they were spawned, lay their eggs and die. They die from programmed cell death...PCD. If you catch salmon right after they spawn... you find they have huge adrenal glands, peptic ulcers, and kidney lesions, their immune systems have collapsed... and they have stupendously high glucocorticoid concentrations in their bloodstreams. When salmon spawn, regulation of their glucocorticoid secretion breaks down... But is the glucocorticoid excess really responsible for their death? Yep. Take a salmon right after spawning, remove its adrenals, and it will live for a year afterward.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? Not quite so. Human beings go through a much more complex programmed cell death, but this too has been the subject of much research. For those who believe in the Bible it provides both an answer to human death, and eternal life...if you eat from the Tree of Life, you live forever. Something in the fruit of the tree of life reverses the curse of death.

There is a genetic code that triggers PCD and a theoretical equal and opposite genetic code that switches off PCD. It is the potential to reverse the genetic code of PCD that has led to the quest for the "God particle."

From a scientific perspective Programmed Cell Death ("PCD") - is the deliberate suicide of an unwanted cell in a multicellular organism, also known as Phenoptosis (pheno - showing or displaying a type, ptosis - programmed death) signifies the programmed death of an organism, ie that its biology includes features that under certain circumstances will cause it to degenerate and die off. Phenoptosis is a common feature of living beings, whose ramifications for humans is still being explored. What was once thought to be a simplistic linear genetic pathway to cellular death has now evolved into a much more highly evolved understanding of an intertwined complex systems structure, with the ultimate code still yet to be unlocked.

Billions of dollars have been spent searching for the key to unlock this mystery, and the public presentation of what is being done from a research perspective is a very different story from the reality of the lengths and depths that corporate profiteers will go to gain control of the secret.

THE QUEST: Search for God Particle                                                

Two parallel tubes one hundred meters below Geneva's western suburbs carry high-energy particles, protons, in opposite directions around the tunnel at close to the speed of light. In a dimly lit tunnel that runs in a circle for 27km (17 miles), at the foot of the Jura Mountains, where Switzerland meets France, is a laboratory so vast it boggles the mind. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an impossibly complicated machine that smashes atomic particles together at super-fast speeds.

The belief is that this science has the potential to unlock the secrets of the Universe. By recreating the searing-hot conditions believed to have been necessary to have accounted for the Big Bang, Jacard Rouseau intends to disprove the existence of the "God particle." What he is about to discover... gives new dimensions to science that could unravel the very framework of organized religion.

Zachariah Madison was very clear about the implications for the value of his stock in Viagitas. If there truly is a fruit which contains a formula by which PCD can be forever wiped out, think about the ramifications! The economic value for this formula would dwarf the current value of the top 1000 wealthiest pharmaceutical companies, and in fact would likely wipe them off the map in terms of why they would even need to exist any longer. Could the existence of this fruit be true? The scientific community is driving research at a level that is making astonishing strides towards understanding the mechanisms of PCD, and ultimately how to retard and potentially reverse or eliminate PCD altogether. Man becomes god and reverses the curse of death, that's what they're really after. The Quest for Immortality. But what if this offer of access to this fabled tree of life is for real? Is it possible that Jake really found it?

The public debate about stem cell research and cloning is just a shadow of the real debate and the real battles going on far below the public radar screen. This truly is a question about eternity, regardless of your fundamental belief system...and people are killing to control it.

THE CONSPIRACY                                                                        

This secret society, the Gardner's, is convinced that man, regardless of advances in science and technology should not be allowed to succeed in discovering the formula to eradicate PCD. They believe there is a spiritual destiny where God is in control of the finite lifespan of Mother Earth, and that until God's ultimate plan to forever solve the battle between good and evil, the search for the fountain of youth or the cure to PCD will be ongoing. They believe that God has tasked them with keeping secret the location of the Garden of Eden and its' precious grove containing the Tree of Life, and that the very success of God's ultimate plan rests on their ability to protect this secret.

Jake Backster is convinced that his years of investment in Life Science companies have been for naught. Although fame and fortune have come his way because of his success in a variety of biotechnology innovations, he just can't let go of the idea that there's something very simple that he's missed all these years. Even though Jake is an avowed Agnostic, he has uncovered a mystery which has led him to the conclusion that there is no other possibility than that the Garden of Eden exists and the Tree of Life inside that Garden holds the key for which he's been searching. Jake is the master of alliances and double cross. His ability to enlist what would otherwise be mortal enemies is part of his chameleon character. He also possesses a unique ability to move through political networks which give him access to resources not usually available. He is going to have to work fast to pull off the perfect plan.

Given enough time and enough diligence, every conspiracy can be uncovered, and that has been the quest on which Jake now finds himself. To uncover the hidden location of the Garden of Eden and find the Tree of Life. The Gardner's of Eden have been protecting that location since the beginning of recorded time. This secret society has been tasked with protecting the hidden location of the Garden of Eden, and to keep safe the location of the tree of life.

THE HEROINE: Archeologist Heroine                                                

As a staunch believer in the historical validity of the Bible, Michelle is convinced that the Garden of Eden still exists. Her theology is now on a collision course with her profession.

If the Garden truly exists, does her professional responsibility take a back seat to her personal beliefs? Should the existence of the Garden be revealed? What does she know about the Garden of Eden? The only thing she can glean from the Bible concerning the Garden of Eden's location is found in Genesis 2:10-14;
"A river watering the garden flowed from Eden;
from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The name of the first is the Pishon;
it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where
there is gold...The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through
the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris;
it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."

The exact identities of the Pishon and Havilah rivers is unknown, but the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are well known. If the Tigris and Euphrates mentioned there are the same rivers by those names today, that would put the Garden of Eden somewhere in the middle east, likely in Iraq.
People have searched for the Garden of Eden for centuries to no avail. There are various locations that people claim to be the original location of the Garden of Eden, but one thing Michelle is sure about, they haven't found it yet.

What happened to the Garden of Eden? The Bible does not specifically say. If it exists, do the cherubim's still guard and protect access to the tree of life? Who are the cherubim's and are they truly the guardian's of this eternal secret? The existence of Cherubims has been documented throughout the ages, including during the time of Noah, Moses and at the crucifixion of Christ. All through Israel's history of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Tabernacle, two giant Cherubims guarded the holiest of holies containing the Ark of the Covenant.

Michelle is at the right place at the wrong time...Iraq is not the place to be for a brunette, tiger-eyed female who looks like she just finished a photo shoot for the next Laura Croft movie. The dichotomy of a sexy archeologist would be trouble on any continent, but Michelle's about to find out what Shiria law is all about.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR                                                                    



What Qualifies Me? I am a technical entrepreneur with deep industry knowledge providing verifiable science and research to give validity to my writings. I have been published in numerous industry and trade association publications and technical white papers. I am currently writing two other books, non-fiction titled "HyperDistribution: How to Market to Young Adults" and another titled "Journey of a Lifetime: Young Adult Travel Adventures". I am a subject matter expert in software development, online marketing and have obtained industry recognition for Search Engine Optimization, including having written extensively about search engine ranking. I am credited with coining the phrase "hyperdistribution" which is a new online method of marketing which is described in detail in my proposal and the subject of one of my other non-fiction books. I have authored numerous internal company publications, dozens of business plans, executive summaries for successful investor offerings and numerous policy manuals. I have written for numerous websites, including writing the website www.pattilang.com, a six year journey chronicling my late wife's battle against brain cancer. I have also written the website content for www.JourneyofaLifetime.com. I am a published author for a cookbook titled, "Cicciotti's Kitchen" Italian Family Favorites, featuring Gaetano Cicciotti.

One of the key elements to consider when evaluating whether to represent me and this book is the subject matter expertise I bring to the table. As a seasoned entrepreneur with direct industry experience in the areas covered by this book, I bring credibility to the information provided. The immersive style of scientific detail and a penchant for facts which can all be independently verified gives an unusually reality that stands up to the most critical reader. There is also the considerable momentum the author can contribute to the overall marketing of the book through a comprehensive distribution strategy which supports and enhances all the traditional book distribution opportunities. In addition to developing traditional and interesting publicity hooks and novel selling approaches, the author is uniquely qualified to bring about a new distribution method for this guidebook, including;
  • HyperDistribution (peer-to-peer platform networking)
  • DVD Distribution
  • Broadband and Viral Distribution
  • Search Engine Distribution
TARGET AUDIENCE                                                                           

The market for action adventure fiction novels is mature and sophisticated. Finding a quality piece of work that can pass the test of this discerning audience is certainly the opportunity.


The reader's of New York Times Best-Selling adventure authors is a highly prized demographic.

Angels and Demons meets Tom Clancy meets Doomsday thriller where biblical myths collide with biotechnology and scientific advances, where a normal guy superhero stands between special ops supermen and their limitless funders who provide more high tech weapons than a Chronicles of Riddick flick.

The audience is going to find a premise that is simultaneously plausible, historically and scientifically valid and yet edge-of-the-seat thriller fantastic.

COMPETING TITLES                                                                        

This list of titles and authors in the action adventure novel and intelligence thrillers arena is long and distinguished. This adventure thriller is characterized by action, fast pace, plot twists and a resourceful heroine who must overcome overwhelming odds to outwit more-powerful and better-equipped villains. My writing includes suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers used to keep readers engaged. This story winds through a fascinatingly complex transformation through a dramatic rendering of reality, science, psychology, and political intrigue all woven together in new ways for a sensory-starved audience.

The Gardner's of Eden is different because the author is different. The story is honed from personal experience, personal knowledge and from personal tragedy. Each chapter weaves a plausible, unique and compelling story, all immersively tied to the visual anchors of validating almost every component of the story easily navigated by searching the web. For those reader's who were mesmerized by the likes of Tom Clancy, James Rollins, Michael Crichton, Nelson DeMille, Dan Brown or James Clavell, the Gardner's of Eden will insure that a new and vibrant writer has joined the ranks of this celebrated list.

The Gardner's of Eden is part of an emerging genre of web-supported reality novels where readers can visit actual locations, confirm scientific reports and verify corporate investments in life science technologies that are current and compelling. There are signs of this emerging market trend to focus on reality-based novels, for example:
  • Tom Clancy - the Hunt for Red October (shockingly detailed and accurate with what was supposed to be classified information at the time), Red Storm Rising, Debt of Honor, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games and The Sum of All Fears.
  • James Rollins - the Sigma Series (Sandstorm, Map of Bones, Black Order, The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle and The Doomsday Key), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
  • Dan Brown - Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol.
  • Nelson DeMille - By the Rivers of Babylon, Mayday, Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Night Fall, Wild Fire and The Gate House.
Yet none of these authors have fully delivered on the online integration of story elements. While there was illustrated version of the Da Vinci Code, and an illustrated coffee table guidebook to the locations and artworks, it really didn't hit the high mark of total online integration. This is more than just a special movie tie-in version of the novel. What I am proposing to deliver is essentially a digital online book that has almost every major piece of technical or scientific information hyper-linked for easy and immediate resourcing.

SPECIAL MARKETING                                                                   

Embedded Advertising is becoming more and more sophisticated. Theatrical release of the most recent James Bond movie embedded everything from Omega watch advertising to Ford. The restaurant chain Cheesecake Factory now embeds advertising from sponsors in their menus! I am proposing a novel approach to partner with our publisher and to obtain upfront embedded advertising from select Product Sponsors.


Because this is a global thriller encouraging travel and accommodations, seven main Product Sponsorship areas of focus (not including ancillary product placements) are priorities for this book: Airlines, Hotels, Rental Cars, Search Engines, Computers, Beverages and Clothing. Please see the Product Partners section for more details about each of these opportunities.

In addition to the Product Sponsorship, we are working with a highly specialized Media Services organization which is helping us prepare a sophisticated and comprehensive viral and hyper distribution marketing strategy.

Most 18-year-old students, our Digital Youth, entering the graduating class of 2010 this fall were born in 1990. They grew up with a cell phone in one hand, a mouse in the other and a computer screen as part of their worldview. They learned to surf the internet as they learned to read. While they were still in their cribs, the 20th century started to close as the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet bloc disintegrated, and frequent traditional wars in Latin America gave way to the uncontrolled terrors of the Middle East. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead. This year's entering students form a generation that has always been 'connected' and is used to things happening in 'real time,' like live satellite coverage of revolutions and wars, instant messaging and movies on demand. They expect solutions for every problem, from baldness to diseased organs. To the chagrin of traditional media outlets, they've developed their own generational means of communication. If you don't know how to reach this audience through podcasting or webisodes, you'll never understand how this next generation of readers is going to find and read works of interest.

HyperDistribution: a distribution channel utilizing a variety of peer-to-peer technologies which is even more efficient at reaching a target audience than any single method of channel distribution such as print, email, video, social networking, direct mail, network and online broadcasting. If you don't know what HyperDistribution is, then you don't know about YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. If you've never checked out online content forums and social media sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Newsvine, then you'll need to explore those to understand what's going on.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this Book Proposal.



I wait in eager anticipation for your call.


Best personal regards,


Kendell Lang


"THE MAN IS BECOME AS ONE OF US ... now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever: ... he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life"...."And on either side of the river there was the Tree of Life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations...Blessed are they that do His Commandments that they might have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City," Genesis 3:22,24; Revelation 22:2,14.










Fountain of Eternal Youth

Thursday, November 5, 2009

CONCLUSION IS AN ILLUSION

CONCLUSION IS AN ILLUSION


If there could be such a thing as a good day to die, this would be it. Particularly for someone so full of life, always a ray of sunshine…the counter statement of the heavens to open the tear ducts of the angels and pour forth their sorrow to see a sister in Christ lay down her life without angst or anger, but in peace amid the storm. It is befitting that the soul of Mother Nature would become gray and mourns the passing of one of her sweetest inhabitants. The world is full of people passing time, and people die every day, but this day is different because this person is different. Because we know our rewards will be different in heaven, it’s logical to assume that special lives deserve special note and will not pass without reverberations through the fabric of our lives.

How did it come to this? Where in the world would you go to prepare yourself for something like this? For all the marvels of modern medicine, and despite the compassion and caring concern of Hospice workers, going through this has been worse than being on death row. Without committing any crime, without deserving such an unjust end, the sentence of death is not even accompanied by a date certain for closure. Even death row inmates are at least given the courtesy of a last meal and a date when they will transition to the afterlife. The cruelty of the death sentence imposed by cancer can only be described as horrific. To endure such a fate without complaint is a testimony to my wife’s faith and trust in her Lord and Savior.

I do not understand the necessity for someone to go through what she is enduring. How does this shape her character? How does this bring her closer to Christ? What is it in this experience that glorifies God? All of a sudden the attraction of why people would contact Kevorkian to assist in transition becomes crystal clear. It is an unfathomable option until you yourself sit by the bedside of your spouse and watch day after day as her body eats in on itself. But then you see her going through all this without one complaint, without anger, absent any questions of “why me?” and you start to understand the depth of her trust in God. Not some untested hypothetical book knowledge, but deeply honed love, trust and faith which is carrying her through this trial. This is her cross and this is her test which qualifies her to hear those sweet words of welcome which don’t even need to be written.

There are definitions for some things which you just shouldn’t have to learn, like terminal agitation or terminal secretions…hideous words from which you only cringe more when you actually understand the definition.

The beauty of the human condition and our ability to experience the greatest depth of relationships in life is dependent upon our willingness to experience the wretched despair and indescribable grief of losing the love of your life. The experience of my wife being taken out of this life is equally opposite in dark magnitude as was the radiance of her love expressions during our sweetest times together. I chose to remember the sweetness.

Throughout this tapestry of chaos and pain in losing the love of my life, there is an amazing thread being woven in God's amazing plan, an incredible symmetry of balance and purpose where we are given glimpses of the nature of God. Beautiful and simple, majestic and complex; just a pure revelation for me tonight which was both perfect in timing and substance. What an amazing thing this conversation was that I just had. Before I share the details of this gift, you need to have just a little more background.

Angie (name changed)...what a project she was. She was on my daughter Kjersti's soccer team a few years back, a talented athlete. We had the opportunity to get to know her and her family through our association on the soccer field. What started out as rides to soccer games turned into a friendship that revealed a dark and tormented young soul. Someone hiding behind gothic rage to try and blend in with the youth of today. So tormented that her mother didn't know what to do with her. Her friends were afraid for her, and Kjersti worried for her. Small signs turned into huge warning flags...long sleeve sweatshirts in the dead heat of summer, when lifted would reveal the scars of self-cutting. Angie hated herself so much and hated her life so much that she would cut herself just so she would know whether she was alive or not. Her senses so deadened that she didn't know whether her emotional pain was real or not, so she had to inflict physical pain on herself to create some sense of reality. A latchkey kid from a divorced family, an older sister who was an over-achiever, vegetarian going to Berkeley and seemingly had her act together. Angie struggled with the simplest things, and yet wrestled in very obvious ways with some of the most profound issues of life; why am I here...what is my purpose, does my life matter, what does it matter whether I live or die, will anyone notice if I'm gone?

In the midst of this turmoil God placed our family with a plan in mind. Kjersti was a teammate and friend to Angie. Patti and I coached, mentored and encouraged Kjersti to pray for Angie, be a friend to Angie and help Angie realize there was a purpose for her life. More than anyone, Patti prayed for Angie, prayed for her situation, prayed for her mother, prayed for her father and prayed that Kjersti would be used by God to reach Angie. We reached out to Angie on many occasions, letting her know we were there for her in whatever way we could be. We invited her to our home, Kjersti invited her to attend church...Patti reached out to her Mom. Patti never judged, she just let Angie's Mom know she was available...and several times Angie's Mom would call Patti at wits end, crying and at a loss, not knowing what to do or how to deal with Angie. Patti was always there, always listened, always encouraged...and always prayed.

We lost touch with Angie for some time...until tonight. I get a phone call, and a shaky voice on the other end of the phone asks, "is Mrs. Lang there?" I wasn't quite sure, but I thought I recognized Angie's voice. I told her this was Mr. Lang and asked her what I could do for her. She proceeded to tell me that she was Angie, that she used to play soccer with Kjersti and she wasn't sure whether I remembered her or not. I assured her that I did remember her and knew exactly who she was. Angie said she was just wondering if she could talk with Mrs. Lang. I thought for a moment, and wasn't sure exactly what to do, so I just told her the truth. "Angie honey...I'm so sorry you hadn't heard the news, but my wife, Patti, Mrs. Lang...passed away six weeks ago. I'm so sorry to tell you this on the phone, I know that has to be such a shock, I'm sorry." Crying on the other end of the phone. "Mr. Lang, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." I say, "it's alright Angie, you had no way to know, I'm just sorry you had to hear from me this way." Angie says, "I'm so sorry for Kjersti, how is she doing?" I let her know, "Kjersti is doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances, it's really hard to lose your Mom. She has a strong faith and she knows where her Mom is."

Angie says, "I always knew that about your family. You were always so kind to me, and I'm going through a program right now that I wanted you to know about. I'm in a Christian school program that is really helping me, and I wanted to know if it would be okay if I came to visit you when I'm done with the program in about five months or so?" I told her we'd love to see her, and that we'd continue praying for her. "Mr. Lang, I'm a Christian now and as part of my program I was encouraged to contact people who influenced my life, and that is why I called to talk with Patti. I just love your family and want to thank you for being there for me. I just always knew you were strong Christians and I really want to stay in touch with you."

"Angie, I can't tell you how happy that makes me" I say as the tears are streaming down my face. "Really, it may not sound like it, but I'm really quite happy that you called and I know it would mean a lot to Patti to know you called because you thought of her. It is very special to me to know you thought about her, and I'll be sure to let Kjersti know." Angie says, "Mr. Lang, I do daily devs now...so I'll pray for you and Kjersti."

After making sure Angie promised to keep in touch and let us know when she'd finished her program, I hung up the phone and just wept. I wept because I miss my Patti, but more than that I wept because God knew I needed a boost, something to let me know there was more purpose in her life than I could possible imagine...something tangible for me to hang on to that let me know she had been used for His glory beyond what I could currently know. Just one life...just one young woman who was touched for the Kingdom. You never know who, where, when or why...but in this instance I thank God for giving me this glimpse, just one slice into the pie of heaven we are one day going to experience when all the Angie stories of our lives will fall into place. Patti touched many lives, most of all mine, but God knew I needed to hear this story tonight.

Chapter 7 - THE PLANNING

THE PLANNING


Plan the work…work the plan.

The First Law of Outcomes is quickly followed by the Second Law of Outcomes.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Chapter 6 - THE FORMULA

THE FORMULA


Every result happens because it was determined by some formula. This is one of those absolutes, like the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, immutable. In this situation, the logic of the formula is so simple as to be considered improbable. But in simplicity lies a certain perfection. Simplicity in the logic says; results come from choices made… based upon decisions influenced by our emotions… which come from feelings backed by our passions and convictions… which are underpinned by our beliefs… which are shaped by our thoughts… which are influenced by our inputs.

Said in reverse, you arrive at the formula for the First Law of Outcomes;

Inputs --> Thoughts --> Beliefs --> Convictions --> Emotions --> Decisions --> Results

Just as the First Law of Thermodynamics simply states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, the First Law of Outcomes describes that every human interaction can be explained by, or reduced to identifiable root causes. There is not an encounter that you or I have experienced that cannot be mapped to the First Law of Outcomes. Every successful psychological evaluation, every self-help guru, every talk show host, every third grade bully and every Nobel Prize winner can be evaluated and understood by this First Law of Outcomes.

Every conflict in the history of time follows the formula. The Crusades were conducted all in the context of the inputs that a few men in power received, how they thought about that input, how they formulated their beliefs about those thoughts, what convictions they developed based on those beliefs, what emotions drove them forward to the decisions they reached, which led to the results that changed the face of the planet forever.

Chapter 5 - THE PLAYERS

THE PLAYERS


Relationships are what people are all about. Good, bad or indifferent, the players in our lives shape the history of our time on this planet.

more to come....stay tuned!

Chapter 4 - THE SETUP

THE SETUP


The perfect setup is the one where no one, not politicians, not lobbyists, not lawyers or human rights activists…no one, can imagine that the perfect set of circumstances will be brought into play where all the elements of the perfect plan will be played out with such precision that it would defy explanation. It would appear too grand, too contrived, too spectacular for any single person or entity to have orchestrated the perfect setup. Think about some of the great events that have marked time and space. The Cuban missile crisis, the falling of the Berlin wall, the implosion of the Savings and Loan Associations, the Stock Market crash, the Patriot Act, Sarbanes-Oxley. All seem to be driven by a confluence of factors that would defy control or influence by one individual. Yet that is the perfect setup. To have an event at the magnitude of a perfect economic storm, something that affects everyone, yet seems uncontrollable by the power of men. Just like a perfect storm, the perfect setup combines forces that are propelling and buffeting the outcome just like a series of interrelated and interconnected weather systems. The perfect setup will bring about seemingly unrelated disturbances, swift and global. As the clouds gather and the wind stiffens, the world sails onward in oblivion, with no apparent adjustment in course, full steam ahead. All without realizing that they’ve just experienced the perfect setup. While many are willing to imagine in detail what a perfect economic storm would look like, virtually none will forecast precisely when - or if - it will start. And so it remains a vague and distant possibility. Precisely the environment that supports the ability to achieve the perfect setup.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Chapter 3 - THE BACKGROUND

Chapter 3
THE BACKGROUND

To lay out the perfect plan, you have to understand a few things. First, it is all about relationships. Everything in life, no matter how you frame it, boils down to relationships. If you could take human nature out of whatever equation you’re dealing with, you could do it perfect every time. I could have been a multi-billionaire several times if it weren’t for human nature. Unfortunately, that’s not the world in which we live, so you have to deal with people. The beauty of the perfect plan is that I did it completely in isolation. If you bring one other person into the equation, it won’t be perfect. If you tell anyone about it, it will be foiled. One of the keys to the perfect plan is to create a vacuum from which it can be launched without any dependency on another human being.


That isn’t to say the perfect plan can’t include people, it just has to be done without them knowing about it. How perfect is that? Using peoples time, skills and motivations to help me accomplish the perfect plan. All without them knowing they are accomplishing a piece in a fabric of events woven together in a way that they fulfill their part of the plan just by going about their daily routine.

In my life, there have been many instances where human nature has failed me. I’m not interested in going down any path of psycho-babble analysis of my life, but it is interesting to see how various individuals have helped shape the perfect plan. The culmination of our character is significantly shaped by external influences, in most cases that is contact with other people. The contacts that most influenced my development of the perfect plan are an interesting sample of the broad spectrum of characters.

I find human nature fascinating, probably from the earliest experiences of seeing human failures and being impacted by poor choices. The perfect plan assumes that you can’t be impacted by other peoples choices, good or bad, so you have to anticipate at a level of 5th dimensional chess what possible alternatives could come from various influences. The beauty of the perfect plan is that it anticipates the incongruities of human nature and the absolute certainty that people will screw up.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Chapter 2 - THE MOTIVATIONS

THE MOTIVATIONS


The reason I can write this is because it was the perfect plan. Perfection is an interesting word, subject to definition. The perfect plan. You’ve always dreamed of it. The idea that sparks the imagination of probably every human being at one time or another. The single plan that if perfectly planned and perfectly executed would bring fame and fortune to the author. Probably every tree-fort gathering or slumber party conversation at some point or another has gotten around to talking about the perfect plan.

What is really interesting is the first place your mind went as your imagination was triggered from the paragraph above. You may have thought about it in the context of a great business idea or novel invention – the next pet rock. But the reality is most people went immediately to thinking about the perfect crime. There was no reference to anything positive or negative, just the perfect plan. What motivates the direction of our thinking is really the underlying story behind this story. The story I’m about to share is really about motivations and what drove me to conceive of the perfect plan, which put my path on an intersection with history.

What would drive a forty-two year old father of two great kids to spend time thinking about the perfect plan? By a normal worldview, I have achieved “success”. I have been married to a beautiful wife for 19 years. I have a beautiful home in one of the greatest cities in the United States. We have the obligatory two dogs, both with personalities that make them part of the family. We have a circle of friends with whom we have long and deep relationships, honed by years of both fun and crisis. We have a large back yard, swimming pool, and a home that lends itself to entertaining. Our kids attend a private Christian school in a beach town. My bank account has a few zeros at the end of a few numbers. I have established a reputation as a seasoned technology professional and have a backlog of organizations wanting me to help them design their strategic technology plans. We take great vacations to exotic places around the globe. Yet, there was something driving me to conceive the perfect plan. What would move someone who seemingly has everything to spend time and energy devising something that may or may not be possible? You might think it was finally coming to grips with mortality, going through a life-and-death situation can motivate you to think differently, but that wasn’t it. You might think it was wanting to leave a legacy, something that would mark my existence on this planet, but that wasn’t it. You might think it was finding my destiny, accomplishing something with purpose, but that wasn’t it.

There is absolutely no good reason for me to spend time crafting the perfect plan, but that is part of why it’s perfect. I didn’t need to do. I really didn’t have any motivation, so it couldn’t be traced back to me. It wouldn’t fit and therefore couldn’t be brought back to my doorstep. Most of what I’ve learned about institutions or organizations that try to protect their wealth or their constituents do so under the assumption that everyone has a motivation. For those in an organization trying to protect either their assets or their people, they rely on human nature to be predictable. They rely on the majority of the population being bound by some code of conduct, those over-arching boundaries that keep most of society within acceptable conduct. It is only the exceptions for which they can plan. They can only hope to anticipate the plan of their enemies by anticipating their motivations. They have to assume that human behavior is repeatable and predictable. They have to assume that profiling is a science that actually works, and they have to assume that the criminal intent is motivated by something that will ultimately cause it to be foiled, discovered or caught. Most criminals are stupid. There are very few criminals in the history of the world who demonstrated brilliance at their craft. They were generally always motivated by something that ultimately caused their demise. Something that caused their plan to be imperfect.

The beauty of the perfect plan is that none of those assumptions apply. I’m not motivated by money, I’ve got that. I’m not motivated by power, which holds no fascination. I’m not stupid, as you’ll discover. What is intriguing about the perfect plan is that it can’t be discovered, it can’t be thwarted and you’d never knew it happened unless I told you about it in this story. It is also really amazing to think that the perfect plan doesn’t have any repercussions. No one is hurt, now law is broken and nothing in my life changes. The only outcome of the perfect plan that you’re aware of is that I did it because I’m telling you about it.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Chapter 1 - PERFECTION

Chapter 1



PERFECTION

Perfection is an interesting word, conjuring up many thought images, and subject to a variety of intriguing interpretations. The very notion of perfection is classic: Ancient Greece considered perfection as something stable, achieved, and not subject to change. There is perfection in being all powerful; some would argue this as God, in whatever manner you chose to believe in a Supreme Being. There is perfection in being all knowing; from the context of a divine nature, as opposed to those who profess to be all knowing but fall markedly short. There is perfection in being everywhere; only possible if you believe in an all-powerful entity. There is perfection in being all good; although the conundrum of evil has motivated arguments that an omnipotent God could not possess this perfection. There is a strange perfection of being all evil; although the conundrum of good has motivated arguments that God could not possess this perfection. There is perfection of not being anywhere; an ability that so far has eluded me. There is the perfection of being all things to all people; a trait to which my wife aspires, or more succinctly to which she would have me aspire.

The perfection in anything, in any one, should be measured by the Laws of Nature, which are marked off by certain definite boundaries. In the case of virtue, a character trait assumed to be part of perfection, we have learned from history that its limit of perfection is the fact that it has no limit. It is impossible to attain perfection since perfection is not marked off by limits. When you come up against the limit of virtue…which is the absence of a limit, how then can one argue for the perfection of human nature? Perhaps the answer lies in its very growth in goodness, something my father once told me about “the process” of perfection.

The perfect Father

The role of our parents; father and mother….arguably the most influential roles in the shaping of our characters, defines to a large extent our definition and therefore the possibility of perfection. In trying to evaluate the attributes of the perfect father, you can expect that a perfect father is one who teaches their son how to become young man, their young man how to become an adult man and their adult man how to be a good father and husband. Along the way, they are supposed to also teach their daughter how a real man is supposed to be, and how a husband is really supposed to treat a wife. Father’s dispense sage advice to their children on all the issues that arise during their growth from the time they are infants until they are adults. Along the way fathers help guide their children through the tough decisions and the life challenges that arise. Father’s treat the mothers of their children properly and give them respect, again modeling correct behavior for their children. While modeling this behavior a father must still assure their wife of her value, beauty and constant wonder.

As far as I can ascertain, this world has yet to produce a man who has been a perfect father, husband, leader, provider etc, so when we examine the majority of fathers we find a collection of men with lives full of broken relationships, failed attempts, should have/could have/would have, and inconsistent actions. Due to divorce, abandonment (both literal and emotional), lack of concern, and general apathy, today’s world is rarely comprised of ideal marriages, complete families and solid relationships. So, we have to realize that no father is perfect. A part of evaluating perfection must include some reflections on how our relationship with our fathers, and how a father’s relationship with his family, could or should be better and different. A good father is really simply a man trying to be a better, more responsible man today then he was yesterday, while maintaining or improving the quality of the relationships that already exist in his life.

The belief that there should be a perfect father has moved some to seek a role model of “the perfect father” which can be filled by an influential man in our lives. Those influential men may be teachers, coaches, friends fathers, street thugs, or hoods. We must always remind ourselves that not all influences are good influences, just a substitute for desired perfection that doesn’t exist. My point here is that a man may become a surrogate father for people without officially getting the title, or without having the actual character traits desired by the one seeking that perfect father. This implies a duty of all men to be a good influence in the lives of anyone, rightly or wrongly, who may cleave to them.

The real question is that no matter how far a man may be from the ideal father, or role model, is there a perfect father? Is the ideal that there is always someone to whom you can always go to for direction, reassurance, and support? Is there truly an ideal father? Is there a good father? Is there a father that sacrifices and gives his all?

The perfect Home

The beauty about the innocence of childhood is the ability to hold on to the notion that the home in which you were raised was perfect. The perfect father, the perfect mother, the perfect home. Three bedrooms, two baths, 2.5 kids and all the amenities that constitute the accommodations for the perfect Nielson Ratings Home.

The perfect diamond

This whole thing started with just a little diamond. And finding that diamond was a process in itself. Pliny, the early Roman historian, said, "A damas (diamond) is the most valuable -- not only of precious stones, but of all things in the world." Diamonds are probably the most controlled precious stones in the world. Now, I have been around diamonds for a number of years. And I can tell you that my friends who have this insane passion for the incredibly boring game of baseball will tell you that a “perfect” diamond is 90 feet by 90 feet. But, for the type of diamond I was looking for, my baseball knowledge didn’t help me. I was in a whole new league. When I first began to look for the perfect diamond, I was a diamond rookie. Fifteen years of research later, I was a veteran.

As some of you may know, when you look for a diamond, you become quickly educated. Immediately, you will learn about the four C’s: carat, cut, clarity, and color. Personally, I like to add an extra C, which stands for cost. I was looking for the perfect diamond with just the right combination of the four C’s and, of course, the perfect diamond would also be the most costly.

When I went on my first research expedition, I told my guide that I was looking for the “perfect” diamond. And his response surprised me. He said, “You don’t really want the ‘perfect’ diamond.” I replied, “Yes, I do! I want a diamond that is perfect.” He said, “Well if you find a perfect diamond, then it would be best to lock it up and put it in a safety deposit box.” And then he explained to me, “‘perfect diamonds are too precious to be out in the open. They should not be exposed to the elements where they could get banged up or damaged. A “perfect” diamond is to be locked up and kept in a safe place.”

I was shocked. It seemed like such a waste that a diamond like that is so perfect, so pure, and so holy, that it could not interact with the world. You see in the Jewelry industry, perfect diamonds are too holy to be exposed to the world. In the context of the perfect plan, how interesting that the perfect diamond would be, for all intents-and-purposes, out of circulation.

A flawless diamond, not to be confused with the perfect diamond, contains no tiny cracks, pinpoints of carbon, foreign bits of other minerals, nor impurities of any kind which will reduce the cost of a diamond. Flawless stones are far from common, but they are not impossible to obtain. A quality jewelry store may have a good selection of flawless diamonds of various sizes and colors, but a perfect diamond is much more elusive.


The perfect thief

Kazuo is an expert professional safecracker, trained in numerous martial arts and the ancient study of the Samurai Warrior. He specializes in high-profile diamond jobs. After having spent many years in a Korean prison, he has a very concrete picture of what he wants out of life - including a showpiece wife (blonde of course), a custom home fully adorned with Winchester bronze statues and all things cowboy, and probably a few kids to complete the package. His is a contradiction in culture clash, not sure whether to maintain the roots of his Samurai heart, align himself with the lines of the Cosa Nostra, or give in to the guttural belching of the Western movie heroes who make up so much of his perception about the perfect life in the U.S. “I wear the finest Italian suits when I’m not wearing my blue jeans. I wear the best X-metal shades money can buy. I own cars in towns were it’s not even practical to drive. I'm a thief! You got a problem with that?" As soon as he is able to assemble the pieces of this perfect life, by means of his chosen profession, he intends to retire and become a model citizen. In an effort to accelerate this process, he signs on to take down a huge score for a big-time Yakuza boss. Unfortunately, Kazuo's obsession for his version of the American Dream allows him to overlook his natural wariness and mistrust, when making the deal for his final job. None of the participants in this sub-plot realizes the piece they play in the perfect plan.

The perfect world

Whatever your perception is about the perfect world…one thing I know for sure, this ain’t it. This world is about as far from perfect as one could imagine. So how could you begin to fit the concept of a perfect world in the perfect plan? The reality is that everyone, in their heart of hearts, believes there has got to be more to life than just this world. What would be the point if there wasn’t something better to look forward to? To understand the possibility of a perfect world, you have to have a frame of reference, some context within which the realm of possibility can be constructed to hold a set of ideals which plausibly allow you to formulate beliefs about why we are here. In order to put context around this story, you have to come to grips with the duality of a supreme force. Yin and Yang, Beginning and End, Good and Evil. Before the Japanese Yakuza, the Italian or Russian Mafia, before the Free Mason Society, the Illuminati or the Knights Templar…a more ancient society had been born. At the very birth of creation itself, one group had been destined to search throughout the ages and discover the secret location to the sacred Tree of Life. Unlike Ponce de León’s quest for the Fountain of Youth, historical documentation and current scientific research point to the existence of the ultimate fountain of youth. Whether you believe in the Bible or not, the facts are historical indisputable and independently verifiable. Everything you are about to read can be independently researched and validated.

The perfect Christian

In order to find God, perfection in itself, soul must purify itself of all foreign elements (Plato) and thus come to resemble or imitate the divine archetype. develops the original insight that perfection lies in progress itself, but in reality the concept of a perfect Christian is as oxymoronic as military intelligence or...

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