Is empowr the right place for you? By Johnny Cash on April 13, 2017 | |
Is empowr the right place for you?
In my last post we attempted to answer questions about cash outs.
I promised that, in the next 24 hours, you’d be seeing another post, as we move forward with the next stage. However, based on some responses, I can see that a few people may be confused about how empowr works. In this post, I will: 1. attempt to explain what I see as a major area of confusion 2. ask some citizens to consider whether it’s time for them to leave empowr Let’s get started. For this post, I’m going to use an example of a hypothetical country. (All the numbers mentioned are simply examples too). 1. A group of people are worried about where the world is headed They see that half the world is living for $2 or less per day, while the 8 richest people have as much wealth as the bottom half of the entire human race. They see that the problem is only getting worse, with more and more of the wealth going to the top people. They understand that the underlying reason is that there is a network effect in motion… … that is now accelerating (getting worse, faster) due to network technology. That means that, as time passes, the scales will continue to tilt… … ensuring that the rich will continue to get richer, and the poor will continue to get poorer. They worry that, as time passes and more people join the ranks of the poor… … that eventually the masses of people will have no choice but to rise up and destroy the very democracies that, in the last century… … at great expense to the human race (millions of lives & billions of dollars)… … the world had succeeded at establishing… … overcoming the fascist and communist governments that had created so much misery for people around the world. 2. They decide to form a new country They have some experience and understand what can be done with technology. Their idea is to use technology to create a better, more equitable and fair country… … where the hard-working people will be rewarded for their efforts… … but where new network-based mechanisms can be installed… … to ensure the network effect is working for the many, not just the few… … in order to stop half the country from becoming slaves to just a handful of citizens. Using nothing but a boat, a pump and their bare hands… … they start pumping dirt up from the bottom of the ocean… … to form an island in the southern Pacific Ocean, about 800 miles South East of Hawaii. It’s a long and laborious process. 3. As the years go by…. … and little by little… … a pile of dirt finally starts to appear on top of the ocean. 4. Some people hear about the project. A few even decide to move to the pile of dirt, to join them and help them dig. When their friends and family members ask why they would go to the trouble, they say: “It’s not every day that we hear about a group of people trying to create something as complicated as a country… … one that’s being built from the ground up to attack the growing inequality issue… … all the while saying NO to banks and investors so that the country can stay true to the reason it’s being built. I want to join them and help them succeed”. 5. Nearly 20 years after they started, an island country is starting to form They have a currency. A small economy has formed, with people buying and selling thing to each other. Despite the lack of infrastructure… … and with so many everyday things still missing… … more new citizens are arriving. They too, are concerned by what they’re seeing in their own countries and around the world.. … that is, growing inequality… … and are ready to help make a difference. Some volunteers are even acting as teachers, helping new citizens get situated and become productive in the economy. 6. The new country has revenues Some people that move to the new country, bring a little money with them (let’s call that money Euros) from their old country, which they are able to convert into the local currency. The new country uses that outside (Euro) capital to pay for things it cannot produce on its own; things like nuclear reactors (to create energy), water pumps (so citizens can have running water and sewage) and light bulbs (needed to light up the streets). But for the most part, the incredibly creative, motivated and hardworking people of the new country are able to build and maintain most of what they need… … without needing to go outside and purchase many things from the outside. 7. The country is generating more cash than it spends Thankfully, the government’s employees have all signed up to work for very little money, because they all truly believe in the country’s mission and reason for existence. The government is also able to keep its costs low because those same government employees are willing to work double shifts. Some act as construction workers in one of their shifts… … followed by another role in their 2nd shift – working as police, judges, garbage collectors, and/or office clerks. Because of its low cost structure, the country has more Euros coming into it from the outside, than it is spending. Let’s say that “profit” amount is $100,000 (in Euros). The government is eager to distribute that extra cash to its people, which is the spirit of why the country was founded in the first place. After discussing the opportunity with its citizens, the country decides to provide that cash as rewards to its citizens for doing certain types of activities that would most help the community. The activity that makes the most sense to reward, seems to be the providing (selling) of items of value (products) to each other – in order to accelerate the growth of the local economy. 8. Together, the citizens of the country rise to the occasion In one month, they successfully sell $50,000 in products to each other! That means that citizens (buyers) pay $50,000 (in local currency) for all the stuff they buy. And of course the citizens (sellers) receive $50,000 (in the local currency) for the stuff they sold. (To be more precise, the government collects a tax of 10% on sales -- or $5,000 – but we’ll ignore that in this example, to keep the math simple). 9. The country distributes the “reward” Euros to its citizens As mentioned above, the country has $100,000 (in Euros) to distribute, so it is easily able to provide $75,000 to the sellers (as a reward for selling $50,000 to each other)… … which means it can provide sellers a reward of $1.50 (in Euros) for each $1 (in local currency) of products they sold! To be clear, for each $1 of goods the sellers sold, they have already received $1 in local currency, which they can spend locally. So the $1.50 (in Euros) that the country rewarded them, for each $1 they sold… … is IN ADDITION to the $1 in local currency they have already been paid by the buyer. Think of this addition as an extra bonus or stimulus package -- a way for the government or community to say, to its citizens, Thank You for their support and efforts to make the country better. Now, the country still has an extra $25,000 in Euros that it has not yet distributed. Remember, it had a total of $100,000 to distribute, of which it distributed $75,000 to sellers. So it still has $25,000 more that it could distribute. With those extra Euros, perhaps the country can pay some citizens that attempted to sell something, but failed? The logic with that is that at least they are trying (and it really wants to distribute that extra $25,000 due to its mission). After all, those non-sellers successfully got out of bed many times during that month (an average of 10 days per citizen). Many of them even opened stores and put things on their shelf, even though none of those things actually sold. So perhaps these people just needed to be encouraged. And that’s why the $25,000 is distributed to them… Let’s call that $25,000 “encouragement funds”. When the government has extra funds to distribute, it must make tough decisions on how to best reward its citizens. As you can imagine, this can be a difficult process because the government wants nothing more than for ALL its country citizens to be happy and prosperous… … as evidenced by the nearly 20 years they have invested to make this country a reality. If citizens are not happy, that would suggest that they have wasted much of their lives… … at great expense to their families and, in many cases, their health. 10. The citizens work harder, and the economy grows A few months later, the local economy has grown from $50,000 to $1,000,000… … meaning that the citizens of the country are providing $1M in products to each other… … which means that they are also receiving $1M in products from each other. The people of the country celebrate their victory: They had set out to build an economy, starting with nothing. They are so excited to see that their hard work is paying off! In addition, they enjoyed $1M in products that they were able to buy (from each other) with their local currency. And the country’s (Euros) profits have grown too! The country has been able to increase its Euro “profits” from $100,000 to $200,000! Of course the country is eager to distribute this profit to its citizens again. This time, in addition to the $1 each citizen received (from buyers) for each $1 they sold, citizens are given $0.20 (in Euros) by the government. (Remember, there were $1,000,000 in sales, and $200,000 in Euro profits – so that’s $0.20 that can be distributed as a reward, on average, for every $1 in sales). A few citizens are not happy. They had grown accustomed to receiving $1 (from the buyer) plus $1.50 (in Euros) from the government (for a total of $2.50) for each $1 they sold.
In addition, this time every penny needs to go to the successful sellers.
There was no cash remaining for “encouragement funds” that could be distributed to support the citizens that were trying but not succeeding. 11. The economy continues to grow A few months later, the local economy has grown to $10,000,000 … meaning that the citizens of the country are providing $10M in products to each other… … and also receiving $10M in products from each other! Many citizens celebrate again. Some recall how many years it took just to earn the right to call what they had built, a pile of dirt. But now, citizens enjoyed $10M in products! In addition, the country’s Euro “profits” have also grown: The country has been able to increase its Euro “profits” to $300,000! This time, in addition to the $1 each citizen is receiving for each $1 they sold, they are also rewarded with $0.03 (in Euros). (With $10,000,000 in sales, and $300,000 in Euro profits –that’s $0.03 that can be distributed as a reward, on average, for every $1 in sales). Some people are really not happy. A few had become quite accustomed to the extra Euro bonus on top of their selling earnings, seeing those funds as a basic “right” that they are entitled to. OK, wait…. What was that?!? Only a $0.03 (Euro) reward for every $1 they sold - in addition to the $1 they received from the buyer? Who can ever be happy in this new country? Let’s take a look at another real country, say, the United States. When someone sells something for $1 in the U.S., and receives $1, they don’t even think about the government throwing in some Euros rewards too. They are happy with the $1 they earned, because they can turn around and spend that $1 on other things in the economy. (There are a lot of things for sale in the U.S. economy – that they can buy with their local money). But how does that relate to empowr? It very much relates. If you cannot sell products in empowr, without requiring an additional $X in “Euro” awards from the government (in addition to the empowr earnings you gained from the sale)… … then selling products in empowr (today, at this moment) may no longer be for you. “But I have out-of-pocket costs!”
· -- I need to acquire products from “abroad”. I need those “Euros”. · -- And I need to pay “Euros” for shipping. True, understood. And very much appreciated. But that doesn’t change the math one little bit. In other words, just because you need to pay for the product, or have shipping costs, doesn’t cause money to magically fall out of the sky into empowr’s bank account -- that it can then use to reward you. So, what can be done? Here’s what we can do: We can continue to work our butts off, to build the empowr economy, until virtually everything you want or need is available for purchase in the empowr marketplace. And that’s exactly our plan: A. We can launch Services, so that we can provide services to each other. Providing services to each other can often be done, with less (or in many cases, with little to no) out-of-pocket “Euro” costs. And with lots of services soon becoming available, that means that you’ll be able to buy a lot more with your empowr earnings. B. We can launch a new earning “empowr transporter” role. That will help sellers cut their shipping costs… … which means more products will become available for you to purchase with your empowr earnings. It also represents a new way for empowr citizens to earn (both empowr earnings and AMCOs). C. We can launch product Sharing Now, instead of selling (and saying Goodbye to your products permanently) you can earn recurring revenue from your goods – by Sharing them. And yes, some of you have security concerns: “What happens if my item is damaged?” This is fully addressed by the platform, as you will soon learn. When people Share products, that means that you can Use their products (paying with your empowr earnings). D. We can open up our platform to thousands of application developers to create hundreds of new ways for empowr citizens to earn… … and for others to receive products and services in exchange for their empowr earnings. This means that soon, you (whether you’re an application developer or not) can use your mind and ideas to create opportunities for yourself and others. E. After those things are live (in just the coming days and weeks) we can continue to work our butts off, reporting and fixing bugs and issues, and building missing features. F. And when we’re done with that, we can continue to innovate & invent… and optimize & improve, like we always have. G. And in the meantime, we can ensure that community members get a piece of the country – ownership in empowr… … because isn’t that why empowr was founded in the first place? Not good enough for you? Not worth your time and effort? I can respect that. Of course we are not where we want to be. Not even close. Look: When empowr started, it was not even a pile of dirt in the ocean. Nearly 20 years later, we invented many of the things that enable social media. This happened not by using a massive R & D (Research and Development) budget… … but by the sheer willpower of citizens (employees, success coaches and citizens) working for mostly nothing for most of that time. Blood, sweat and tears is how the empowr platform has been built, brick by brick. Remember, AMCO cash outs didn’t even exist a year ago! The bottom line is that, believe it or not, everything happening here is good news: Your success is overwhelming the stimulus (or outside capital) available to us. In reality, the stimulus (or outside capital) is going up nicely. But our economy is growing at even faster pace. The amount of products, services and other things that you can get with your empowr earnings are not only growing...
... but they are now about to explode at an even faster rate... ... with all the new enablers that are launching in the coming days. That is exactly what success looks like, when an economy begins to succeed. (To those of you mostly measuring success by the amount of cash you can extract from the empowr economy, I understand that this may not be reassuring... ... but to those of you that primarily judge success here by empowr's viability and ability to satisfy its mission... ... so that it might actually be around to serve you and others in the long run... ... this is all simply proof that you are succeeding). Together, we’ve come a long way. But we’re also not where we want to be yet. A few of you are very quick to point out that we have issues, bugs and missing features. That’s great! It’s really good to hear that you care enough to use the products and notice these issues (most of which are painfully obvious to us). There are literally thousands of such issues. And we’re running as fast as we can to take care of them. But with a small staff… … purposely kept small so that funds can be pushed to you instead of more employees… … we can get less things done per month, than a company with a bigger staff (that has simply taken investor capital). Did you know that Facebook received over $1B from investors (that’s $1,000,000,000) before it became profitable and didn’t need more investor capital? As a result, Facebook gives you NOTHING… … and their 30,000 employees work for a salary… … and for a purpose (whether they realize it or not) of making about 5 people (but mostly 1 person) richer and richer: 
Good for him. Facebook provides a valuable product that benefits people and we wish them no harm. But if you think that empowr couldn’t EASILY do the same thing… … raise a ton of money, and turn its citizens all into slaves – getting them to spend all their time there, in order to create a handful of billionaires… … you’re dead wrong. So, your standing on the sidelines and yelling over and over again about this issue or that bug (that we already know about) is not always helpful. So, what IS helpful? Thank you for asking. 1. Actions speak louder than words. Stop complaining and get to work, helping where you can! Can you sell? Provide a service? Can you coach others? Share? Transport? 2. Can’t do any of that? Understood. Then LEAVE so that those of us that can, are able to focus on the things that you need fixed. Come back in a year or two and, I promise, we’ll still be here, and we’ll be better. We’ll be MUCH better. Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone that’s been around for a year or two. Or five years. Or ten years… or more. Ask them about what we are able to accomplish, starting with nothing. What’s it going to be? Can you focus? Or is this the end of the road for you, for now? In my last post… I attempted to make it clear that Sharing, Servicing and Transporting will go to the front of the AMCO line. Did you catch that? That means that, most likely, there will be no AMCOs for simply hitting your Daily Goals (like there wasn’t this month)… … and probably less or possibly even no cash for product sellers – because cash will need to go out to people Sharing products, Transporting and providing Services. For humanity’s sake, stop the complaining. If this is not the place for you, I can totally respect that. What I cannot respect is you staying here, and complaining, complaining, complaining… … because you’re not helping, and worse, you’re distracting the others that are trying very hard to stay positive and focused:  So, take a moment to ask yourself why you're here.
Take some time to think about that...
... and then... Please make your decision: 1. You can do this. 2. Or you cannot. Sticking around but continuing to complain – well, that’s just a “leave” decision without the courage to be decisive and make the decision. I’m sorry if I sound irritated, but I wouldn’t be doing my part if I wasn’t being honest with you. We’ve come too far to sit around and let a handful of people ruin the mood for those citizens that are very clear about the challenges… … and simply want the opportunity to work on them, without having their energy, optimism and time endlessly drained from the small group of complainers. Don’t these citizens deserve that? I mean haven’t they earned that right? Some of them have given everything they have to this project, and to you, our community, for half or more of their entire lives.
Again – trust me – we hear you. We hear your frustration and your paint points.
But now it’s time to make a decision for the benefit of the community. I’ll hold off announcing what’s next and moving forward until the people that cannot be here, do the right thing for themselves and the community, and depart. My respect, in advance, to those people, that raise their hand in the comments of this blog post, and say “I’m out. Goodbye”. Your actions are highly admirable and we look forward to seeing you again in, say, a year or two. You have got my word on behalf of the community, that we simply won’t stop until all the issues you’re aware of are overcome… … and the platform has become everything you believe it should be. Once the complaining has stopped, we’ll start moving forward again. (more) ►
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