martin zeman's blog

“One man’s transparency is another’s humiliation.” Gerry Adams

I really like Clook, the hosting provider we used for elexu. They have an excellent customer service but there is something really special about them – their commitment to transparency.

Every hosting provider has, once in a while, a problem that affects their services. They all jump on the problem trying to sort it out as soon as possible but while a typical provider hopes that the smallest number of their clients will notice the disruption Clook proactively emails all their clients (not just the ones complaining) and informs them about the issue.

The majority of their clients probably wouldn’t have noticed the problem had the email not been sent. If asked whether they would like to be notified about problems the obvious response of hosting customers would surely be yes but every such email is a prompt that makes a customer think whether they should stay or go to a different provider.

Smart clients know that problems happen everywhere and realize that it is better to know about them rather than live in a sweet ignorance. But still for companies the decision to be so transparent is anything but easy and demonstrates strong integrity.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Clook.

From the perspective of a typical company such transparency looks like an unnecessary risk but Clook see it differently and I share their view. In today’s world when customers have thanks to Twitter such a big power to determine the success of companies, transparency is the safest strategy.

“Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back”. Josiah Stamp

Do you know where new money comes from? If you think (as I did) that only Bank of England can generate new money, then:

1. you are wrong, and
2. you might find this article interesting.

The truth is new money is generated by private banks when they make loans to people. When you are getting a mortgage for example a bank doesn’t give you money from other people’s saving accounts – no – they just conjure the money up out of nowhere and make them appear on your account. Pretty funny, isn’t it? True they will make them disappear again when you pay the mortgage back but the interest will remain and it will end up in their pockets. True magicians – making money out of nothing.

Another brilliant trick of the banks is taking these conjured up money and re-lending them circa fifty times. Imagine that a bank generates £100,000 on your account, you send it to a person that’s selling you a flat. From their bank’s perspective it looks like a deposit. There are rules for banks to maintain minimal reserves for all deposits. Let’s say it’s 2%, that means that the £100,000 deposit enables the flat owner’s bank to make a new loan of £98,000 to someone else. This money eventually ends up in another bank which then makes a little bit smaller loan etc., etc. Until there is circa £5,000,000 of debt. No one cares these money are only virtual and are backed up by only £2,040 in Bank of England. Now it’s much easier to understand why banks are so wealthy and why we are in such a huge debt.

Positive Money is an organization that is campaigning for a legislative change to prevent private banks from generating new money. A similar law, Bank Charter Act, has been introduced in 1844, it made it illegal for banks to print bank notes. Unfortunately this law doesn’t apply to electronic money and because nowadays electronic money accounts for about 97% of all money, it’s quite a big issue.

What really surprised me was when Andrew Jackson, the Head of Research at Positive Money, said that a lot of bankers they talked to were not aware of the situation themselves. The key aim of Positive Money is to educate. Educate public, educate bankers and educate politicians. If you want to learn more about the problem and the proposed solution I encourage you to check out their website and then support their campaign and spread the word.

I had a great colleague – she is excellent at work but not enjoying it that much, often feeling bored. On the other hand she always lights up when she is talking about her nights out, what and how much she drank, how smashed she got and how awful she felt the following day. It seems to me like all she talks about is drinking .

It seemed ridiculous to me and to tease her I declared a launch of a global campaign called “Drinking is not cool”. Our marketing strategy relies purely on word-of-mouth and although it creates a great buzz – the number of active members remains stable – i.e. one (update: I wrote this article a couple of months ago and now it actually seems like there are some new comers to the club – welcome Rachel, Samson and James).

The original strategy was not to drink any alcohol for a month. But – firstly, it has been scientifically proven that small amount of alcohol is healthy, and secondly I was just about to attend my high school reunion. So I modified the strategy – instead of no alcohol I set a maximum of two drinks a night and to make up for that I changed the one month period to indefinite one.

It’s been over six months now and I must say that I can not speak highly enough of it – I used to have really severe hangovers on the days following my nights out. I used to wake up around noon feeling sick for the rest of the day. That’s gone now and that’s the biggest reward for me. People often muse about the money I must have saved but for me that’s just a small bonus. I hadn’t been spending too much on drinking before anyway, avoiding shots and preferring to get home by tube rather than by taxi.

Warning: Reducing drinking is not for everyone, it can lead to a sharp conflict with the reality with far-reaching consequences. The less you drink, the less fun you seem to have in pubs. Others are discussing things you don’t find interesting and they are laughing at stuff you don’t find funny. Are you wondering how come I haven’t returned to drinking because of this? Well, I can’t go back – my brain is convinced that what happens under the influence of alcohol is not a true reality and however nice it looks, it’s fake – it seems like I live my own personal Matrix from which there is no way back – the red pill has absorbed long ago.

PS: As for the rules I am not too strict about them, sometimes when I have a really good time I even have three beers. A small flexibility makes a big difference when aiming for consistency.

Working on elexu gives me a great opportunity to discover some great organisations with a similar mission to ours – empowering people. I am often speechless when I see what amazing things are going on that I (and majority of people) don’t know about.

Old Vic New Voices is a programme of a popular London theatre Old Vic (you will surely know Kevin Spacey who is an Artistic Director there).

The mission of New Voices is to support emerging theatre talent and to open theatre to new and diverse audiences. One of their most exciting projects are The 24 Hours Plays. I got a chance to experience it live.

To explain the New Voices 24 Hours Plays in one sentence I would say it’s an X-Factor for young theatre artists. Actors, playwrights, directors and producers go through an auditioning process hoping to get selected among circa 50 artists to take part in the actual 24 hours experience. 24 hours doesn’t mean anything else than to write, cast, rehearse and perform a play within 24 hours (actually there are seven plays as the artists get split into teams of 7-8 and each play is about 10 minutes long). It is impressive that Steve Winter, who is heading the project, personally watches auditions of all the candidates which means some 1500 monologues within two weeks.

The following video shows perfectly the atmosphere of those 24 hours. This one is from 2010 but on the night of the plays we got to see a similar video for the actual year. The video had been shot and edited in the 24 hours prior to that moment which is a great achievement considering there were some shots from the late afternoon rehearsals. I really liked the combination of film followed by a live performance.

24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices 2010 from Old Vic New Voices on Vimeo.

I think the whole concept is just amazing – the time constraint adds nicely to the excitement – if they only had 24 hours anything could happen. Also the fact that audience comprises mainly of friends and family (the theatre was absolutely packed) creates a very special and warm atmosphere.

The best testament of the project’s impact are the achievements of the past participants – many of them has gone on to work in West End shows or in television. One could argue that when they chose the most talented artists there is no wonder they are successful but then look at X-Factor, how many finalists survive a following season? The 24 Hours event is one of many steps on those artists’ journeys but it’s a big one.

Eleven years ago, young and talented team Spectrum Praha got promoted to the top softball competition in Czech Republic. The first few years they were fighting hard against relegation, then came several long years (I think four of them) when they always ended up in the fourth place. For the first time it was a success but with every other fourth place the feeling of disappointment from missing out on a medal grew.

Then there came another leap and a period when Spectrum kept occupying the second place. Once again it was a great success for the first time but gradually it became more and more frustrating. This year the team finally won the desired title after beating its nemesis from Chomutov in just three matches in best-out-of-five-matches finals.

What I found interesting were comments from softball community – people said: “What a surprise” but they meant it sarcastically, they said it was quite clear in advance Spectrum would win. While Spectrum was the strongest team on the paper this year, you could have said that about them for the last couple of years. In my eyes, and I am sure neither in the eyes of the players from Spectrum, it makes the victory any smaller – it is a huge victory and great success. And do you know what was the main cause for the vitory?

Determination and perseverance. The commitment of the players and coaches. To commiting most of their free time to softball year after year. Even after not that successful seasons throwing themselves into yet another season with the same passion and vigour.

Players came and went. There were probably over fifty players in the team over the ten years (I was lucky enough to be one of them) but only three of them made it through the whole ten-year journey. For them the victory surely is the sweetest of all. However, I believe the biggest share of success came from the commitment of the manager of the first team and a manager of the youth team, thanks to which the first team had a steady supply of talented young players. To motivate yourself and everyone around you for another season, especially if the one just gone hadn’t been that successful, is a very difficult task.

So what is my point? Success doesn’t happen over night – it is the determination and perseverance that build success. And that’s true in all areas of our lives not just in sports.

Another great example of this from a recent past is the Occupy Wall Street movement. Determination and perseverance rule the world of succes.

I have always felt that saying something obvious is a waste of time and that it’s perceived as a stupid show-off.

And? That’s obvious, why are you telling us?

Well I am not so sure it’s true anymore. Check out this awesome video from Derek Sivers.

Obvious to you. Amazing to others. from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

It happens to me often. I spend a long time thinking about a problem finding out a simple and elegant solution – from the past point of view it would have looked amazing but to my present self it is obvious – just a common sense.
Another great example is when I read books – something that looks like the greatest revelation at the moment of reading it seems obvious a minute later.

The challenge is that we often need to communicate to people who don’t have the knowledge we have, for them some things don’t look obvious so if we want them to understand us we need to state what seems obvious to us. The difficult part is to identify what is obvious to us and not obvious to others – this problem is called Curse of Knowledge (very well described in Made to Stick).

I guess it’s safer to state more rather than less. I need to practice that it’s not intuitive to me.

What do you think? Does it happen to you? Do you feel bored or offended when someone states something obvious? How would you go about distinguishing between what’s obvious to everyone and what’s obvious only to you?

We all want other people see the world as we see it. That’s the root of all arguments. We all want to feel being right.

I have learned that changing someone else’s view is extremely difficult often even impossible. People don’t like to change their opinions – it means admitting they were wrong in the first place. Some people are capable of the change, some people are not whatsoever, but no one really likes it.

The only person whose view you can easily change is you. Trying to change others is often just a wasted effort.

So how do you make people around you see the world as you do? Find people that already see the world the same way as you and spend more time with them. There are plenty of people like that out there – find them and you will feel much better understood and you will be happier.

Plus if you aspire to make the world a better place you are much more likely to get support and encouragement from these people. They understand how what you are doing it’s going to improve the world. It make sense to them because their world and your world are the same.

What is the root of the UK riots? Is it greed, ‘professional’ criminals, bad parenting or bad economy? Bit of everything, really – but I guess the determining factor is grim outlook for the future for a lot of people and especially youths.

Imagine you have just finished high school, you can’t go to university (it’s too expensive), you can’t go to work (no jobs for people without experience), money you get from the government are likely to shrink, so what do you do? Live off your parents, hang out with your friends who are exactly in the same situation. If you could at least hope it will get better, but how could you?

With governments having less money to spend and with companies cutting jobs down it’s hard to see the light ahead. But I believe there is a hope – all we need to do is to change the way governments and companies spend money.

Instead of spending money on big and costly projects in case of governments and means-to-an-end advertising in case of companies we should distribute the money among big number of small projects. Big investments come with big expectations which requires costly experts to deliver them.

Small projects on the other hand don’t require big investments therefore they don’t carry a high risk (respectively the risk is distributed among a high number of projects which makes it safer) but they represent a high opportunity for big success. Even if such a project is not successful in financial terms the experience it gives to people involved is extremely valuable and makes it worth it.

The difficult part is to show companies and organizations that it’s worth spending money that way. And that’s what we are going to do with elexu.

Check out Live UnLtd – they fund great ideas of young entrepreneurs. There are more companies and individuals with similar agenda. These people know how to use money efficiently – we need to discover them, give them funds and let them do their work.

Whenever I am landing at Prague airport I hear Czech national anthem in my head. It would be nice if they actually played it in the plane, wouldn’t it?

In a few days it will be three years since we set out with Iva from Czech Republic for our adventure abroad. According to our original plan we would have been packing and getting ready for our return home right now but the plan has changed and we are staying in London for the moment.

For a long time I did not feel in London at home – in the end I was going to be there only temporarily and so I felt that my home was still in Czech Republic. But after my return from New Zealand, I began to feel it differently. Before, I had thought that home can be just one place, one country, but now I feel at home everywhere – in the Czech Republic, in England, in New Zealand, Thailand, and even in places where I have never been to. The entire globe has become my home – there is no more abroad for me anymore. However, I will be forever proud that I am from the beautiful country in the heart of Europe and I will always be Czech.

Many Czechs are (or at least they claim they are) ashamed of Czech Republic – they see it as a country filled with corruption and full of neglectful, stupid and jealous people. They often say it’s bacause of our czech nature or because of the forty years of communism. But the question is not “Why?”, The question is “What to do about it?” We can change anything we want, we just need to realize that our country is not a gift for us but that it is our responsibility.

One of the benefits of living abroad is a realisation that people are the same everywhere and the feelings and problems are similar in all the countries. And it’s up to every one of us to shape our homes and our worlds.

Do you follow current events in North Africa and the Middle East? It struck me the other day that no one around me (including myself) really talks about it. We all seem to have our own problems to solve and then, why worry? Firstly there is not anything we can do about it (or is it? ) and secondly someone will surely sort it out. However if you like adventures, follow me into the world of Fantasy …

… How long has it been since you were here the last time? No worries, nothing has changed – here in Fantasy there is still anything possible – it’s just up to us, up to you.

Now, imagine that the revolutionary movements in Africa and the Middle East hit the countries so severely that oil production and oil exports collapsed completely. The world suddenly lost 40% of oil production.

Phew, it’s great that we make oil reserves then…

What? 65 percent of them are in Africa and the Middle East? Oops. This will make the price of petrol skyrocket again. If it’s more than £1.50 I am not buying it. What? 2 pounds? Holy *HIT.

Well let’s spend the weekend at home then. Let’s make at least a big shopping while we have the cheap petrol and then we will only make smaller shoppings walking to the shop.
Why is there such a big queue? And why does everyone have such a full shopping cart? And hey, why are the shelves empty? Excuse me, why don’t you refill the shelves? Sorry sir, the warehouse is empty, but don’t worry we will get supplies tomorrow morning as usual. We did not expect it to be so busy today, the marketing guys must have done something really awesome this time – there are surely massive bonuses waiting for them this year. Yeah, sure, can I talk to your manager, please? Surely, there she is with those two full shopping carts.

People, be human, we are hungry too, don’t be so greedy, share a bit. You can’t even eat so much food before it spoils anyway.That’s none of your business, sir, but if you want something I will sell it to you – what do you want – bread? Twenty pounds, please. What? Gimme, you profiteer, you vampire, you thief, you, you…

ATTENTION PLEASE!!! ATTENTION PLEASE!!! This is the British Army, please leave your carts and groceries where they are and make your way to the nearest exit immediately. An emergency state has been declared by the Queen an hour ago. Go home quietly and tune in to the television broadcast where you will be informed about food rations procedures and other necessary precautions. ATTENTION PLEASE!!! ATTENTION PLEASE!!! This is the…

Lucky we don’t live in the Fantasy, eh?

Warning: DO NOT PANIC! The article above is just a fiction (that means it’s just imaginary. Eh? It’s like Star Wars. Got it!) However, revolutions in Africa and the Middle East are 100% real and they affect us more than we realize.

PS: U.S. foreign policy makes much more sense from this point of view to me. I was wondering whether US government would get more supporters for a fight for maintaing the current standard of living than they do now for the fight for democracy and freedom somewhere in Africa or Asia. Anyway I wish all the best to the common people in Africa and the Middle East and hope they will be able to build strong and independent countries – even if (or maybe especially because) it means that we, in the West, will have to become less greedy and wasteful.