Why It's Kind to Call a Boomer Clueless

This is my opinion, but it's growing tiresome when you hear this same garbage rhetoric spouted out in boardrooms and office meetings. "The millennials are lazy and entitled. They should get another job if they don't like it. They are so whiny. They are sensitive and need to man up." The thing is I honestly think that Boomers have no idea why this is so infuriating.

Before you claim "Not All Boomers" please go to this thread and correct some of your peers. Correct Your Own, Before You Correct Me. 

Let's throw down some statistics for you.

Baby Boomer own 53% of all wealth in the U.S. while millennials control 5%. This is the first time in history since this data has been collected where this massive gap exists. Also, remember that Mark Zuckerberg holds 2% of that 5%.

Now before you claim that it's because millennials are lazy and need to work harder. You need to realize that the majority of wealth is held in real estate. This is simple to do when you could buy a single-family home for $89,500 in 1989. Buy a few of them and you have quite a nice retirement and income from rentals. Today that same single-family home is $329,000. That's a 268% Increase!! Rent wasn't any better, you could rent a place for $424 a month in 1989 which is $1098 today.

Maybe we should go to school and get better jobs?

Oh, wait, we did, the millennials are the most educated generation in history, and we've got the debt to prove it. That same education that we took on your advice that cost you $6,207 a year, cost us $22,000.

During this 200%+ increase in housing and education. We experienced extreme inflation across all goods and services. During this same time, the average income of someone with a Doctorate's Degree went from $57,000 to $97,000, a 70% increase. The minimum wage went from $3.80 to $7.25 in 2009 a 91% increase.

So, before you start to chastise your son or daughter for living in your basement, escaping through video games. Before you bring up participation trophies that your generation provided that make us weak. Before you tell us to "go get another job or career if we don't like it". Before you tell us to "man up or buck up". Before you call us "bitter, whiny, or mean-spirited" for speaking against this insult to injury.

Realize one thing, that the term clueless is far better than exploitative and opportunistic. If you know about these statistics and you still call us lazy, useless, stupid, wastes of space. Then you, my friend are an exploitative opportunistic bastard.

Farewell Underground

It saddens me to say this, but I need to focus. I've spent the last year and a half fumbling around and trying to carve out space for myself and define who I am exactly. I've explored the nightlife Raves, Clubs and Shows. I find a lot of pleasure there, but sadly nothing of substance. The art world is inspiring and fun, but you can't feed and cloth your children on inspiration. Writing feeds the soul, but alas not the body. What I truly want and what I've been doing have come to an impasse. I've had my fun and it's time to get sober and realize that life is not simply doing what you want all the time. I have a lot of making up to do and I need to focus on the important things in my life. My relationship with girlfriend and our children. There is no better honor than that of being called Father and that proceeds anything I can do for society and the culture of Salt Lake. The only conclusion I can come to is I need to step away from the scene and almost everything I've been working on. I need to focus on the good things in my life and one day when I've finally been able to solve the issues I face I may return and work on the bigger issues we all face and creating a better culture that is celebrated instead of frowned upon. The simplest way I can put this is with my unique talents and abilities, with my needs and desires the art world cannot afford me. I'm going to rejoin the corporate machine. I have waved the white flag and I'm submitting to the system we live in.

Thank you to all those that welcomed me into your community. I will truly miss each and every one of you. I know we will cross paths from time to time, but our interactions are going to become far less frequent. Raise your glass with me once more "To good nights and better tomorrows" With that I bid you farewell. You will always be in my heart and I hope I will be in yours.

If you are interested I have a few communities and shows I'm looking for someone to take the lead on. Message me privately and let's work out the details.

I Love You All

Quitting Day 221 (What Do You Want)

Wow, I was in a dark space writing yesterday. I've been considering a lot of things and been trying to figure out what to do with my future. I stepped out of the flow and guess what it caused pain. No surprise there right. My predictions seem to get in the way, but my mindfulness tends to lead me to be penny less. It seems as if I'm in a no-win situation. So, here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to go over everything in my life and the options I have with each. This sounds like I'm getting out of the flow and predicting again, but what I'm going to do is be mindful and say what I want to happen in each.

My Children 

Options

1. Give former full custody and leave
2. Give former weekdays and become a weekend warrior
3. Keep my boys 50% of the time 

These are my options and when I ask myself what I want it's easy. I want them 50% of the time and I want to return to the days I could provide for them with ease. Where I could simply go shopping and buy whatever I wanted to buy for them. 

My Girlfriend 

Options

1. Leave her 
2. Keep going the way we are 
3. Propose marriage 
4. Be in an open relationship

This one is a little more difficult when I ask myself what I want. You see I was in a long-term relationship only a year and a half ago. I enjoyed being single, not because I enjoyed sleeping around, but I enjoyed the freedom of being selfish and only thinking of myself and what I wanted. I know my girlfriend deserves marriage and commitment. I know that's what she desires or claims to desire, but what do I really want. I ask myself and it becomes clear I want a combination of options. I want what we first had when we started dating. You see neither of us had committed to the other and we made it very clear that we didn't want a relationship. Now, I'm not saying that is what I want. Not at all. What I want is an open relationship where we both are free to explore, but neither of us chooses to do so. I want a relationship where our individual desires are more important than the relationship. This may not be a reasonable request and would it work? I'm not sure, but it's what I truly want. I guess it goes back to not wanting to be needed, but wanting to be wanted. The strain in our relationship lately I believe comes from my needing her support monetarily. She has been the support in order for me to pursue my dreams. I've seen the stress this has caused and it is pushing us apart. She is unable to support us completely and I understand this and don't expect otherwise from her. I believe what I want and what she wants is to be able to return to individuals with the same goal in mind. We have become too intertwined. I'm only stating what I want here, the solution will have to present itself because I have no idea how to obtain it. I'll have to leave this one in the hands of the unseen. For now, I know I want her, but I want to not need her and I don't want her to be required to be with me. I want her to choose to be with me. 

Work

Options

1. Keep producing shows
2. Develop my apps
3. Start working as a business consultant 
4. Go back to school 
5. Keep trying to sell CRM systems
6. Keep trying to sell Branding & Marketing 
7. Continue at Chruch & State Academy 
8. Start selling a friends product 
9. Go work construction 
10. Find a regular job 

So many options. How does one choose between them? This one is almost impossible. You see because the first two are affected greatly by this. How do you make a decision on what to do for work without trying to predict the future? I love producing shows. My passion is there, but the money is not. I believe developing the apps I have will have a positive effect on the World. That's a prediction and not allowed here. I enjoy the concepts of creating the apps, but I don't know how to effectively make a living doing so. I enjoy solving problems and that is what a business consultant does. If I do this I could keep selling CRM systems, Branding, and Marketing. I could also start selling the product my friend wants me to sell. I actually enjoy doing these things because I believe in the products. My issue is I don't know an effective way to generate leads. Construction would be nice because it's mindless and natural exercise. Not completely mindless, but I can leave it at work and not bring it home. I would love to go back to school and learn. I enjoy learning new concepts and exploring the studies of others. I just don't think this would take care of any short-term problems. Find a regular job. I really don't want that. I don't like the inflexibility of schedule and the idea of not creating. Alright so in a perfect world where I get everything I want. I would be the superhero that is a business consultant by day, produces shows at night and attends school in a third dimension that doesn't have time limits. Shit, I don't know what to do here. I think this may be the real issue I have. I need to figure out what the hell I want to be. I also forgot to mention writing and blogging. No wonder I feel overwhelmed I'm taking on more than I can handle.  

Conclusion 

Now what? I think it's clear I need to decide on what to do for money. Oh boy, it always comes back to money. I need to get over my past with money. I need to become friends with one I once deemed my enemy. I need to love money for what she can do. She can be an energy of creation. A force to provide my children shelter, food, and clothing. Life is far more entertaining with her than without her. Alright, the next step is determined I want money. Above everything else, money is what I want. I want to be free of debt. I want the freedom that money provides. I want to look at a nice car and have the ability to purchase it, but choose to invest that money in building a better future instead. I want to be able to change people's lives if I deem their ideas worthy. Here we go let's get that money train rolling, but be mindful to make the money in a way I deem entertaining. I'm going to blog and write as a hobby. I'm going to start a consulting business and limit the number of shows I work on. I will work on apps part-time. I'm going to keep doing these until one becomes my money maker and then I will drop the others. 

After Speaking to My Mentor

I need to focus. The biggest issue I face is short-term needs. Housing, food, clothing, and entertainment for my family. With this in mind, I'm going to hyper-focus on CRM systems. It's currently the most promising and I can really get behind it. I will focus on CRM so much that I'll become the local expert. I may revisit all the other things, but for now I'm going to be the CRM king of Salt Lake City.  

I Love You All

Quitting Day 220 (Where is it)

Do you ever get that feeling like you forgot something important? The anxiety builds and builds as you struggle to remember what it was. It becomes harder to breathe and you are absolutely useless. Even the idea of cleaning your room seems tiresome. This is how I've been feeling lately. I know I'm made for great things. I know my mind is unique and full of ideas that could change the world. I inspire many with my words and my writing. I'm capable of piecing together complex systems of social events. But, something keeps nagging at me. Like a scream from far away barely audible with the distance. Something bad is happening and I won't be able to get there in time. I feel an impending doom. A dark cloud lingers overhead. There is noise all around me, but I hear nothing.

I feel like sleeping constantly, but get upset with myself when I don't accomplish my goals. I've tried setting small goals. Such as fold the laundry or do the dishes. Even these tasks seem daunting and pointless. I feel as if I'm living in a world of gray and the colors are never coming back. That the longer I stay in this place the more I'll lose. The happiness I appear to have is for the benefits of others. I mask my deep sadness with a smile. I know they feel it. I've become the energy drain. A black hole where dreams go to die. The ones that hold to me do so with the false promise of better tomorrows. Everyone around me becomes ill, tired and complacent. They listen to my blabbering mind full of nonsense and improbabilities.

I've gone to far. I fear I will never know happiness again. Joy as foreign as the distant star. I can see it, but alas I will never hold it. It fills me with a dark painful stomach ache watching as those that love me most suffer, because they are trying to make me happy. I see them fighting the useless fight of helping me find purpose in a pointless, hopeless world. I fear this battle has been lost my friends and family. You show me happiness, joy and purpose and I in turn provide depression, darkness and agony. I'm slowing eating away at all the energy around me. I'm pulling you down into my depths and I hate myself even more for doing so.

I use to think I had finally found the key. I loved me and the person I was. I enjoyed the company I kept and what I was doing. Now none of that seems to matter. My efforts have been in vain. I've lost ambition and I find that I'm self sabotaging everything I work on. I know the plans and ideas are good if executed, but when it comes time to execute I'm pushed into darkness. Sometimes it feels as if blowing out the candle on my flame is the only reasonable idea. I should kill my dreams and slip into a darkness where no one will find me. Better they think I'm dead and gone than to have them worry for my withering mind. As always those it would hurt most to leave behind are what keep me tethered to this reality. They are my life line. The only reason I remain. They appear to love me, but I can't help but think I'm causing more harm than good in their worlds. I feel they would have a brighter future without me in it.

So here I sit lost, lonely and forlorn. I have no idea where to step next. The darkness is blocking my path and I fear the next step will drop me off a cliff, so why, oh why do I keep walking forward into the darkness. The light I once knew is gone and I pray that those that believe in me hold on, but at the same time I wish they would let me go. You see I've been dead for years now. I don't actually exist in this reality. I am but an echo that once was called Jacob. This echo without an end. Stuck in a dark ball walking in place.

You are probably waiting for the optimist to kick in? Sorry, but I don't know where it is.

I love you all

Quitting Day 209 (A Dreamer's Curse)

I recently wrote a line in a poem that really sticks out "Life without limits will leave you limited". The reason this sticks out is that I'm an idealist and I often do not see limits. This is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is I can dream big, really big. The issue is I often find myself dreaming so much that I'm not paying attention to what I need now. My whole life has always seemed like success and everything I need is simply waiting around the corner and I need to find a way to make ends meet until I turn that corner to my new life.

We see a brilliant beautiful future and we are unable to look away. As many call it the default world we live in is depressing. We've tasted or seen a vision of what this world could be and it sucks all ambition to work. You spend your hours, days and weeks trying to figure out how to bring this vision into reality.You find purpose, but you lose the will to survive the daily grind. I can see why so many dreamers become homeless and babbling men on street corners.

I've never been good at balance and this is causing a stress in my life that may break between my current needs and my dreams. On one side are my boys that need a home, food, clothing entertainment and education. On the other are my spirit, passion, heart and light. I feel this war will end and either way, I lose.

Now is the time. The pressure is building. I'm on the tightrope and I'm going to fall. I don't know which side to fall on and I don't know if I have control over which.

I love you all 

Photo Credit

Night Light

Night Light 

I've stepped over the proverbial edge
The whipping cold winds leaving me bare
Like a tree naked for all to see
Were those leaves me anyway

Out here my blood bleeds up blotting out the stars
My efforts work only to consume my sanity
Tears are poison injected into my eyes
Nutrient-rich food spews from my mouth

My heart unable to accept love
My mind unable to accept fate
My body unable to accept defeat
My spirit unable to accept death

Comfort, a distant memory now turned idea
Purpose, a never-ending journey
Life, a torturing smothering blanket of needles
Enlightenment, waves growing stronger to drown my ambitions

The choice of sanity or mediocrity
To assimilate or to explode
To sleep standing up or to run
To bleed or to vomit

What was numb has become numb once more
Slipping the wool over my eyes to block my sight
Only this time I know what I'm doing
Yet I'm unable to stop its progression

I slip into a waking dream
Floating on the surface of reality
Unable to move, unable to speak
Thoughts pointless and unusable

I preach about love and unity
through peace and respect
Yet I sealed my cage
To play victim does not allow rage

The blindness born from my thoughts
Leaving me powerless without control
A stick tossed into the river of life
Without a paddle to steer

Guideless with a set direction
Mindful worry no need to hurry
I've pondered the darkness to long
I now sing a lonesome solemn song

Once I glimpsed a fire, a light
I offered it up to all for their delight
It twinkled and bounced with excitement
The fire burned brightest in darkness

So I sought out the cold black hell
What I found a dark wet lonely well
I struggled to stand to swim to its surface
Swallowed my light away with my curses

Freezing numb body I'm in
Cold wet hell I bought with my sin
The sin to dream bigger and to share
How could that happen why would I dare

I search for a glint a spark a light
You see mine left me while I slept in the night
Rally the volunteers the wise and the old
We will also need those young and so bold

I'm lost and drowning in this well
This perfectly crafted self-serving hell
I fastened each brick with my hands
I drilled this well with my arrogant demands

Life without limits may leave you limited
Dreams to big may leave you useless
Change the world it changes you
Please pull me from this insanity

Oh, how I wish someone could
Another step forward toward my waiting grave
I hope there I'll rest be less of a slave

Quitting Day 202 Please Steal or Help

I have been working on this idea for over 3 years now. It is the first step toward my ultimate goal. You see to achieve my goal society as a whole must change. They are nowhere near ready for the change to implement my main goal: resource-based economies. There are going to be many steps to reach this. This one is step one.

Now, I could hold this to myself and struggle along to find help building it, but the only reason I would do that is to become wealthy. Which would be nice, but my goal is far more important. So, I'm going to lay the plan out there for everyone to see and hopefully someone decides they want to work with me on it or steal it. Either way, I'm good I just want it to be created.

To explain I've narrowed down what people consider success in four categories: Health, Happiness, Wealth & Positive Impact on Others

If you have achieved all four of these categories you can easily say you are successful. Of these four which one is quantifiable? Which means, which one can you put a number to in order to prove it? If I ask you to prove that you are successful you will most likely start to tell me how much money or assets you have or tell me how much money you've made. Right? The reason for this is because it's quantifiable. It is the only way to prove to another you are successful, which also means it is the only way to prove to yourself that you are successful for sure without a doubt.

Here was the thought that created this idea. What if we made one of the others quantifiable?

What if you could look on your phone and see not only the total number but also your ranking on a worldwide scale and national scale for your positive impact on other people? What if we got 1% of the world to play this game? There focus may turn from money to positive impact. Let's say someone that has already clearly won the wealth game started playing this game because it actually created a challenge. What would be the worldwide implications?

Okay, I'm sure you are waiting for me to tell you in detail now how to create this game. You see the thing is I'm still just a man and I need to feed myself and my family, so I'm not going to tell you unless you want to work with me on it. I know I totally trolled you, but I'm sure you understand why. I have this plan laid out in detail. To make it happen I need the following and no worries I'm totally willing to share the windfall of this.

1-Someone who is good at writing plans, Specifically Business Plans and Proposals.

2-Investors or advisors to obtain investors. 10 mil plus

3-Backend developer

4-UX/UI Designer

If you know anyone that could help with this or if you are that person reach out to me via email strack.jake@gmail.com.

Let me see how this goes and if it doesn't work out or if I become financially sound I will release it because I do honestly believe it is far more important than me. Thanks for your time and sorry for the trick. Wish me luck or send me a quick message and call me a selfish prick :) Either way, I'm good.