Author Archives: Jon Lowder

Lewisville Businessman Selected to Participate in Vonage IPO

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That headline sounds impressive right?  Until you consider that all Vonage customers who meet certain criteria are invited to participate in Vonage’s IPO.

This morning the "Lewisville Businessman" mentioned in the headline, that would be moi, had a voice mail from the Vonage folks re. the IPO.  The message pointed me to www.vonageipo.com to see if I qualified for inclusion in the IPO.  So I visited the page and clicked on the button to register and was directed to this page which listed the following criteria I need to meet to participate in the IPO:

  • You opened an account with Vonage on or prior to December 15, 2005.
  • You have maintained your Vonage account in good standing through February 1, 2006.
  • You are a U.S. citizen.
  • You will be a U.S. resident as of the date of the consummation of Vonages initial public offering.
  • You have a valid U.S. social security number.
  • You are a natural person. No entities, such as companies and trusts, are eligible to participate.

                Other conditions to participation also may apply.

The one about being a "natural person" worries me because, you know, sometimes I get that "not-so-natural" feeling…but I digress.  This is my first opportunity to participate in an IPO which means I’m a little worried about Vonage’s future.  I mean if they want me then there has to be something wrong, right?

***Update 5/31/06*** I’m very glad I didn’t go for this deal.  Here’s a NY Times article that describes the IPO as disastrous.   Here’s an excerpt:

Vonage,
tarred by a disastrous initial public offering last week, is scrambling
to reassure investors. The company, which provides Internet phone
service, said yesterday that it would reimburse the bankers who handled
the sale if any Vonage customers refused to pay for shares that were
allotted to them.

Vonage gave its customers a chance to
buy as much as 15 percent of the 31.25 million shares that were offered
last week. About 10,000 of the company’s 1.6 million customers
ultimately received shares, which were sold at $17 each, according to a
person briefed on the deal. Customers had until yesterday to open an
account with a specified broker and pay for their shares.

Some
customers who participated in the "directed share program" were
reluctant to pay for their shares after the stock fell. The shares have
lost more than 26 percent of their value since their debut last
Wednesday. They fell 52 cents, to $12.50 yesterday.

   

Profit vs. Non-Profit

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David Boyd has this from Walter Williams:

One of the wonderful things about free markets is that the path to
greater wealth comes not from looting, plundering and enslaving one’s
fellow man, as it has throughout most of human history, but by serving
and pleasing him. Many of the wonderful achievements of the 20th
century were the result of the pursuit of profits. Unfortunately,
demagoguery has led to profits becoming a dirty word. Nonprofit is seen
as more righteous, particularly when people pompously stand before us
and declare, “We’re a nonprofit organization.”



Profit is cast in a poor light because people don’t understand the role
of profits. Profit is a payment to entrepreneurs just as wages are
payments to labor, interest to capital and rent to land. In order to
earn profits in free markets, entrepreneurs must identify and satisfy
human wants in a way that economizes on society’s scarce resources.


As you may know I do most of my work with non-profits and here is what I can tell you about them: the good ones behave just like well-run, for-profit companies.  If they think of themselves as existing for a “higher purpose” and justify their existence in that light then they are doomed.  If, on the other hand, they view their members or constituents as customers and view their existence as serving those customers then they are most likely going to succeed.

Luck or God?

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There’s an interesting post on Freakonomics call "Luckonomics, Anyone?" in which Stephen Dubner says:

In the vast majority of the “success literature” I’ve read (including
rags-to-riches autobiographies as well as the biographies of
politicians, athletes, businesspeople, etc.) and the vast, vast majority
of the media appearances and lectures I’ve seen by successful people,
luck is almost never mentioned as a major contributor. It’s always
dedication, hard work, brilliance, grace under pressure, etc.

He goes on to say that he’s been encouraged recently to read articles in which luck is recognized as a large factor in some person’s or entity’s success.  I’ll throw my hat in the ring with Mr. Dubner and say that I firmly believe that luck, both good and bad, is a huge component of everyone’s life. 

I’d like to add, however, that I think that if you were to read interviews with many people they will attribute their success to God, Yahweh, Allah, etc.  I think they would argue that good fortune bestowed by God is not the same as good luck, or that bad luck is not equivalent to God’s wrath because the faithful basically believe that God has an active hand in their lives.  Personally I subscribe to the weather theory;  that God had an active hand in our creation, including our capacity for critical thinking and that the rest has been left up to us.

That means I do believe in luck. If my house is struck by lightning do I blame God?  No, it just so happened that my house was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If I’m watching a baseball game and a screaming foul ball misses my head by inches but brains the minister sitting behind me do I credit God’s guiding hand?  No, I just got lucky that I was sitting in my seat and not in the seat behind me. After all if God’s hand guided the ball away from my head that means that it also guided it to hit the minister which really doesn’t make a lot of sense.

When I was a teenager I used to watch the news and see the video of mass starvation in Ethiopia and wonder, "Why would God allow that to happen?" and I’d also wonder at why I was born and raised in a rich country, never missing a meal in my life and surrounded by caring and thoughtful people.  Why wasn’t I born in Ethiopia, surrounded by starving and desperate people?  I just couldn’t buy the idea that God intentionally put children in that spot.  I still don’t buy it.

So what I do think is this: God created this universe and everything in it.  God gave human beings the ability, the right, to be free and to think for themselves and with it the responsibility to manage their little corner of the universe.  Luck, good and bad, is a result of the trials that God built into the universal order. Bad weather, bad people, bad decisions, etc. are an intentional aspect of God’s creation. It is our test to see how we use our tools, our rights, to respond to our good or bad luck, and our "grade" will help determine where we’ll eventually go when we move into the next realm. 

If you are a fortunate one do you endeavor to share your good fortune?  If you are an unfortunate one do you exact revenge on the more fortunate, or do you endeavor to change your fortunes?  Personally I feel I’ve been very fortunate in this life (one longtime friend says there must be something called "Lowder Luck" because I tend to get very lucky breaks very often) but I worry that I have not done enough to share my good fortunes.  Perhaps it is time to change that.

North Carolina’s Part-Time Citizen Legislature

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The Raleigh News & Observer has an interesting article (found via Ed Cone) about North Carolina’s traditional part-time legislature.  The basic thrust of the article is that most of the people serving North Carolina are retired, self-employed or independently wealthy due to the fact that the legislators aren’t paid much and the job requires an almost full-time commitment that precludes your average person from serving.  There’s some mention of creating a “professional” legislature with full-time pay, but others argue that the legislature should remain as it is.  Some of the interviewees also say that they worry that there are not enough young people in the body which might skew the body’s deliberation.

One of the points the article makes that I find to be totally irrelevant is this:

It’s noteworthy who does not serve in the legislature:

North Carolina has more than 120,000 store sales clerks and 107,000 retail cashiers — but none in the General Assembly.

There are no lawmakers who make their living as food preparers, freight haulers, assemblers, office clerks, truck drivers, registered nurses, customer service representatives or waitresses — the rest of the state’s most common jobs.

The point of a representative democracy is not that it literally have a representative from every walk of life, but that it enable people from every walk of life to choose who represents them.  If the person chosen to represent them does not satisfy their needs then they are free to choose a replacement during the next election.

It is also highlighted in the article that the percentage of black and hispanic representatives is lower than their respective percentages of the population.  This is an old saw in politics and feeds into the whole gerrymandering debate, but again it really is irrelevant.  No matter our color our vote still counts the same whether we are black or white, rich or poor.  Sure each person’s individual influence varies outside of the voting booth, but inside it we are equal and we have the same opportunity to choose our representative in the government.  Does that mean we will always get what we want?  No, but that’s not what a representative democracy is all about.  It’s about our ability to SAY who we want not our ability to GET who we want.

BTW, I think this argument holds true with regards to age as well.  I know quite a few retirees who are younger at heart than any 30-something I’ve ever met.  Hell, most of us thirty-somethings are too worn out by our everyday lives (i.e. kids) to feel anything but broken-down and old.  If my old-codger of a rep isn’t doing what I like I’ll just vote against her next time.

And for the record I am completely opposed to a full-time, professional legislature.  There’s enough corruption with them working part time…imagine what some of these jokers could do if they had all year to do it!

About Disney

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Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics fame recently posted about his family’s experience at Disney.  He makes some valid points about the “Disney experience” i.e. you end up spending a lot of time standing in line and it’s expensive.  As I posted before we just did the Disney thing last week and although we didn’t experience many long lines, the benefit of visiting at a non-peak time of year and early in the week, I can definitely vouch that it IS expensive.

Levitt also asks two questions:

1) Why is demand for Disneyworld so great?

2) Why do they make you stick your fingers into some machine when entering Disneyworld? What is the point?

My take is that although Disneyworld is expensive and puts you through a lot of waiting they do the basics well:  the place is much cleaner than your average theme park, the staff tends to be more pleasant than at your average theme park, the food is definitely better than at other theme parks and they offer more than roller coasters and spinning rides with their “multimedia” experiences.  They also have an inherent marketing advantage with their cartoons, movies, networks, etc.

Yet with all that I don’t think we’ll go back until it’s time for the grandkids.  There really isn’t a lot of stuff for the kids once they get into the teen years (my oldest two definitely found the shows to be a little cheesey on this trip and they’re just 12 and 13) and as an adult I have to say you tend to suffer through the experience for the sake of the kids.

As for the finger thing I found out the hard way that they use the finger scanner to tie you to a specific access card.  I don’t know if they use fingerprints or some other biometric but I know it definitely works since I mixed up my daughter’s card with mine and they had to re-code my card to let me in.

The paranoid part of my brain also thinks maybe the Bush administration has something to do with it…nah.

Wannabe Congressional Spam

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I received an email from “Blake for Congress” on April 24.  I didn’t know I received it because I’m just now getting around to cleaning out my email after my long trip to Orlando.  What bugs me about this email is:

  1. It made it through my gmail spam filter.
  2. I don’t live in Blake’s district (the 6th).
  3. They’ve invited me to host a tea or barbeque to introduce Rory to my friends.  Why would I willingly invite a politician into my home…I don’t think I could buy enough disinfectant to undo the damage.
  4. They use the pronouns “we” and “our” a lot, which implies I’m somehow part of their team.  Here’s an example: “Volunteer to Help. Rory isn’t going to win this election. We are going to win this election.
    Sign up to help. This is our year.
    We will do this…     Remember, this is our year. We will do this.” I hate the use of the presumptive sale, especially with something like this.  Did they mean to sound like an Amway salesman or was it just an unfortunate consequence of their incredibly lame copywriting skills?

If this is the best they can do I don’t give this guy much of a chance against his opponent. 

Stuff, Lots and Lots of Stuff

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Having taken a rather long reading and writing sabbatical due to a very busy work schedule I haven’t had the chance to keep up with much of what’s going on in the world or to share some goings-on from my teenie little corner of the universe.  So I have a few observations to share:

We Americans can be some goofy MFers.  I mean this whole brouhaha about the Star Spangled Banner being sung in Spanish is really kind of funny.  After all as far back as 1919 it was done in Spanish and the State Department currently has four Spanish versions on its website. Oh and in 1861 it was translated into German and into Yiddish in 1947.  But forget that, does singing it in Spanish, or any other language for that matter, change its meaning?

Of course the roots of this are in the debate about immigrants making the effort to assimilate into the "English" speaking culture of America.  I agree that the effort needs to be made, but we need to keep in mind that this problem is as old as America.  First generation Italian immigrants went throught the same process a couple of generations back and what happened?  Their children all spoke English because they needed to in order to succeed.  I can almost guarantee the same will happen with the current wave of Hispanic immigrants.

And what about this whole oil thing?  Are we dense or just stupid? Gas is expensive now and everyone is jumping on some kind of reactionary bandwagon.  Windfall taxes?  So you want to penalize someone for doing their job and that will fix things how?  Will it reduce the price of gas?  Doubt it.  Will it make someone look good for the election?  Maybe, but I doubt it.  We Americans may be goofy but we can spot a pandering a-hole from a mile away.

Finally, the recent issue about American students not being able to find Louisiana is such a non-news item.  American students have always been bad with geography and just because a state was almost wiped from the map doesn’t mean they will know where it is.  Just watch Leno’s man-on-the-street items and you’ll see all the evidence you need.

If Disney World is any indication we Americans can be an incredibly lazy lot.  While I was visiting various Disney properties with the family earlier this week I noticed that lots of people who were perfectly capable of walking were renting those little electric scooter things.  I literally saw whole groups of people convoying on those things and I swear there were scooter jams all over the place.  Mix them with the strollers and legitimate wheelchairs and you had more traffic than the DC beltway.  No wonder we’re much less healthy than the British even though we spend more on healthcare than they do.

Working with unions sucks.  I was in Disney working a conference last week and as a result I was interacting on a limited basis with some union folks and I have to tell you that I find them harder to give instruction to than my pre-teens.  I mean if you don’t give these folks explicit instructions they can’t, or won’t, tie their own shoes.  I’d rather deal with middle-schoolers and those little monsters scare the bejeesus out of me.  Next year the conference will be in New York so I’m betting I’m gonna have all kinds of fun.

And before you accuse me of basing my opinion on a sole occurence I have to tell you that I had similar experiences at conferences in Chicago and Boston and in my earlier life I regularly worked with members of the postal workers’ unions.  The members themselves weren’t all bad, but they were a pain in the ass to deal with because of the union rules they had to follow.  Basically they can’t think for themselves and that’s antithetical to good business.

Sleeping in a hotel for 10 days sucks.  I don’t care how nice (or not) a room is, there’s nothing good about staying there 1 1/2 weeks.  I was never happier to get home than after my business trip/family vacation to Disney.

After being cut off from my online reading for a couple of weeks I now realize how much cool crap I find via blogs. Here’s just a few items I found in less than 10 minutes of reading my blog reader:

I’m sure there’s a lot more there, but I haven’t had time to find it and that ought to do it for this post.

Work Then Play

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Well, I’m officially coming off my longest break since starting this ol’ blog.  Last week was my client’s annual conference and I was responsible for the exhibit hall which meant I was responsible for all things related to the 50+ exhibitors and sponsors.  It was really my first time managing an exhibit/sponsor operation of this scale from end-to-end (I’ve done the sales side but not the logistics side before) and I have to send a big shout out to Michael Ferenc at Freeman Company who really helped me out.  If he hadn’t done such a good job my life would have been hell.  As it was I was literally buried for the last month and I’m just now coming up for air.

The conference was held at the Disney Coronado Springs resort so I had Celeste and the family fly down on Friday (my work ended on Saturday afternoon) and we did four Disney parks on Sunday and Monday.  Sunday was Animal Kingdom and Epcot and Monday was MGM and Magic Kingdom.  I turned off the phone and didn’t boot up the computer after Saturday so it was a great catch-up time with the family.  I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about but for now here’s a pic of everyone at Animal Kingdom:

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Holy Crap, I’m in First

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Forkballfirstcropped
This is very uncomfortable territory for me:  I’m in first place in Forkball, the fantasy baseball league in which I participate.  I haven’t sniffed anything near first in years so pardon me if I revel in my glory before I plummet to my usual, comfortable little corner in the basement.

As an aside I must say that any activity/hobby that causes me to utter the sentence "Man, with a WHIP like that my staff must really be doing something right" precludes me from ridiculing other peoples’ silly hobbies.  You know, things like birding, being a Civil War reenactor, or Trekie, or heaven forbid, a bottle collector.