Recently, I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated! It’s a state that I periodically go through as I wrestle with what’s happening in my life. So in the end, I packed my bag, kissed my wife good-bye and headed off into the country for a night and a time to get my head in the right place. No, I wasn’t leaving home….I was just needing to get a fresh sense of vision.
So what was frustrating me? Everything! You turn on the television and it pumps out endless amounts of problems; terrorism, race riots, wars, virus break-outs, droughts, floods, earthquakes…..and the list goes on and on.
The biggest problem that I see in the world right now is not all those terrible issues but something much more insidious. Right now, there is lack of vision of where we are going as a species.
Where are the leaders that stand up and put the seemingly impossible before us so that we all respond by saying "we can do it!" JFK said the following in his speech about man going to the moon…
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ...
What an incredible sense of vision that galvanised an entire country into action. Sure, there was a cost but he was making this speech in the middle of the cold war and dealing with issues like the Cuban Missile Crisis!
I like the fact that he stated that it would be difficult. Why should we be told that everything should be easy? I like a challenge and believe you can only have real victory when you’ve overcome adversity.
So where are the leaders like JFK that say, “I’ve had enough! I’m not going to run the country via an opinion poll but by the ‘content of my character’?”
Aren’t you tired of billions of dollars being wasted, being stolen or being completely mismanaged? We’ve just had a new class of destroyers being built in Australia that has had a near billion dollar over-run in the budget for a project that was supposed to cost $7.2 billion. For a start, $7.2 billion seems to me like a lot of money and secondly, how in the heck did they have such a massive overspend????
A few years ago I fired my accountant that did my personal tax. Why? Because it worked out that he was charging me the equivalent of $30 per line item in my bank statements….it was gross over charging. Where’s the leader that stands up and fires the shipping company that’s building the destroyers, demands reparations for delays and uses the money more effectively….maybe build a centre for science that’s funded, like, forever!
The challenges that we now face are not just American, Australian, European or any other region. Our species is now faced by global issues and what's amazing is that the average person is seeing themselves more as a global citizen rather than a citizen of a single country. Our leaders just need to catchup with what the globalisation that the Internet has really fostered. Individuals have broken down barriers between nations and cultures that are leaders are still yet to embrace.
What we really need are new leaders that can stand up and lead other leaders around the world in a common direction…this is no small task to ask. So where are these leaders? Most of us couldn’t even say who the Secretary-General of the United Nations is…..so it’s unlikely to be Ban Ki-moon that issues a “call to action”.
If humanity is to explore the solar system and beyond then we need the world to invest in that future. If we are to solve poverty and hunger then we need to world to work on that. How about disease that knows no international boundaries? We need to all work on that one as well. But what we need more than anything is some real leaders to stand up and point the way….heck, I’ll follow!
As a planet, we are faced with the very real problem of climate change. I’m not wanting to debate whether it is caused by man or not….the fact is, we are having massive extremes in weather. You only have to look at the droughts in Australia, floods in Texas and the retreat in the glaciers worldwide to know somethings up. So where is the leader that says, “Let’s stop debating and get some action that will assist those in need?”
I’m tired of half the world fighting obesity while the other half fights malnutrition. What is it that motivates a person to blow themselves up and a nation to execute rehabilitated prisoners? what I really desire is to turn my television on and be swamped with positive news about; new cancer drugs, AIDS has been solved, poverty addressed, diseases erradicated and rockets soaring to the moon. Let's demand with the flick of a switch that our media focuses on the good not the bad.
I look at the current self-absorbed generation that is constantly staring at their smart phones and say to them…go and do some time in the equivalent of the peace-corps! See what you can do to help your fellow man rather than complain that it’s taking 2 seconds for a signal to bounce of a satellite and get routed halfway around the world to the device in your pocket. The problem is that there aren’t any leaders for this generation pointing a direction for them to rally behind.
Sure, these are the big problems but how out the domain industry issues? There is still a lack of transparency in why we get paid what we get paid, no organisation that verifies statistics, a single dominant advertising network, advertisers that pay pennies for traffic that earns thousands of dollars to name but a few! The question I’m asking is, “Who’s working on fixing these problems?”
These are the questions drive me nuts….so that’s why I went away for some serious thinking time. What I was looking for was not an evolution in the domain industry but a revolution! There are so many ways that we can monetise valuable traffic that it makes my head spin but there are some very real problems to overcome.
For example, would you rather your cash paid every month for traffic or ten times what you normally get paid with a 120 day delay? For many domainers with mortgages they would instantly say, “pay now please” but how about those that can afford to wait for the long-term? Is there a way of effectively funding both groups?
How can we get conversion rate reporting rather than just clicks? This is the core value of quality traffic….how many people actually buy from being routed via a domain?
So after returning from my time away I have about 20 pages of notes and brimming full of ideas. So the next stage is testing, implementation and then again more testing. What I really want to get my teeth stuck into is some of the global problems…..and I’ll continue doing my bit by donating some of my time to a local charity. You have to start somewhere!
If you’re as tired as I am about the state of the world and our industry then please comment. If you’re one of the potential leaders that has a vision then scream it from the mountain tops as I’d love to hear about it.
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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.
Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.
