The future of empowr: We need your vote By Johnny Cash on April 9, 2017 | |
The future of empowr: We need your vote Hello everyone, Throughout the history of the empowr project, about once every few years, together we’ve engaged in important discussions that resulted in very big changes in empowr... … in everything from the product features, to the community policies and methods. Today, I believe, is another one of these days. We have a lot to talk about. And we’re going to need your input. My apologies to you, in advance, for the length of this post May I suggest taking a couple of coffee breaks in the middle of reading this, or complete it on different days, so that you can pay very close attention? When we’re done discussing this, I believe that much of what we do together here at empowr may be changing, dramatically, forever. To understand the direction we’re considering, we’ll need to first discuss a little bit of economic theory. I promise I’ll keep it simple and quick. Then, I’ll tell you a brief real-life story about someone famous you’ve probably heard of – a story that I think may surprise you. After that, with the economics and related story as a backdrop, we’ll discuss what those concepts might mean for our future here in the empowr community, the timing and the results we’re trying to achieve. And then, we’ll need your vote and your thoughts. Let’s get started First, let’s discuss some economic theory. It’ll be quick and painless, I promise. Most of us have heard of the economic theory of “Supply and Demand”. It suggests that the price of something is based on the combination of: … the supply (availability) of an item in the marketplace… … and the demand (how much it is desired) that it enjoys in the marketplace. Lately, economists have been having a hard time using this theory to explain why the cost of many items are falling dramatically. For example, the cost of electronics, such as cameras and computers, have been falling year over year, even as the demand for those products has increased significantly. The theory of supply and demand would have predicted that the price of those items would have increased dramatically as the demand for them exploded in recent years. This old theory is no longer convincingly explaining what’s happening with a growing portion of our economy. A different economic theory For decades now, many economists have been arguing that a different theory better explains how items find their pricing. The Labor Theory of Value argues that the economic value (or price) of a good or service is determined by adding up the total amount of socially necessary labor required to produce it. So, according to this economic theory, the price of a shirt is determined by how much labor when into making it.  Let’s say the shirt is handmade in Bangladesh by a young lady in a factory. The price that the shirt will sell for, will include the cost of paying that lady to make the shirt. The shirt is made of cotton, which the factory purchased from a local cotton provider. According to the theory, the price that the factory paid for the cotton was arrived at by calculating the cost of any human labor it took to pick and prepare the cotton, plus the cost of delivering it to the factory (which included paying a truck driver and warehouse worker). After the shirt was made, it was transported to New York City, where it was marketed to a retail store. Of course, the price of the shirt was increased to add in the labor cost of the people transporting the item to New York, along with the marketing and other people working to make the shirt available at the retail store. The retail clerk that works the cash register is also getting paid, and her salary must also work its way into the final price. But what about the general manager of the retail chain? She must also be paid. Perhaps she’s paid a lot because she has highly specialized skills? What determines the high salary of the general manager? Continuing with that same line of thinking, to arrive at a market price for the general manager, you need to look at the labor that went into her education, which means you need to add in her share of what her teachers got paid when she was at the university; the labor that went into producing the food she ate; and the labor that went into producing and providing her with an apartment while studying -- along any other costs it took to produce someone with her skills and capabilities. According to the Labor Theory of Value, the price of the shirt ultimately consists of what it took to pay the cotton farmers, the laborer in Bangladesh, the warehouse workers, the truck drivers, the marketing folks, the store general manager and the retail clerk, among others. According to the theory, if you add up all of that, you’ll arrive at approximately what the market will bear as far a price that the shirt will be sold for. You can see how it can be very complicated to calculate all of this. But just because it takes a lot to calculate something, doesn’t mean it’s not factual. Thankfully, the market does all of this for us “automatically”: We just compare prices and if we find a better price for the same thing, we buy it from the place selling it for less… … which means the more expensive shop will be forced to find a way to lower its price… … which means it will need to figure out how to provide the same product or service using less labor – or, it will not be able to competitively offer that item to customers. Summary: The Labor Theory of Value suggests that the price of a product or service is ultimately determined by the cost of all the labor that went into it (including the cost of labor that went into each component or aspect of it). Alright, that’s it! Didn’t I tell you that would be simple?  OK, now that we all understand the Labor Theory of Value, let’s change the subject for a moment. (Don’t worry, it will become clear why the information we just covered is useful to our discussion). I mentioned I would tell you a quick story about someone that I am sure you’ve heard of. His name is Karl Marx and he was an economist that lived about 150 years ago. 
Few people had more impact on billions of people’s lives than Marx did. His economic theories formed the basis of Marxism and communism which, as it turned out, had some very serious flaws in them. It was 1858, and Karl Marx was a wanted man in Germany. He was living in London, working for the New York Tribune in the daytime. Marx wrote: “At nighttime, I’m working like a madman right through the night, so that I’ll at least have the outlines clear before the crash”. He’s referring to the crash of capitalism that he (incorrectly, obviously) predicted would be happening at any moment. He was busy frantically filling 8 notebooks in German; free-flowing observations, thought experiments and notes-to-self. These 8 notebooks were later purchased by the Soviet Union and were not read by anyone in Western Europe until the late 1960s. Not read in English until 1973. the ideas (called the Fragment on Machines) are a complete departure from classic Marxism. Of course Marxism has proven to be an inferior approach to organizing people and economies than capitalism is… … as evidenced by the misery that Marxism brought onto the people of one nation after another in the last century, all while many of the democratic and capitalist western countries thrived. In Fragment on Machines, Marx made several observations that were discarded by Marxists who saw no value in them; those thoughts flew in the face of everything Marx had previously written. Indeed, many scholars that read his Fragment on Machines concluded: “These writings challenge every serious interpretation of Marx yet conceived”. (Perhaps this explains why the Soviet Union bought up the Fragment on Machines notebooks and, basically, buried them for a century). Fragment on Machines starts with the observation that as largescale industry develops, it changes the relationship between worker and machine. In early industry, there was a person, a tool worked by hand, and a product. As time passes, instead of a simple tool, the worker gradually inserts a more complex tool into the equation that allows the person to ultimately step to the side of the production process… … instead of being its chief actor. Marx imagines a future economy in which the main role of machines is to produce, and the main role of people becomes to supervise the machines. An example he uses: The ‘self-acting’ cotton-spinning machine: Instead of the person doing the work, this “new at the time” machine did the work, with the person stepping to the side and merely supervising the machine. He then drops this bombshell prediction: People will keep improving the machines. The machines will keep getting better and better. People will learn the latest information and knowledge about the machine and its latest improvements… … and will use that knowledge to produce even better machines… … which will take more and more work away from humans. And that knowledge is inherently “social”. It will basically belong to everyone, as it will be hard (for the owners of the innovations) to stop it from spreading to other people through law or by using force. Therefore, over time, as knowledge and information make every machine better and better… … human labor will become a smaller and smaller portion of what it takes to produce a product… ... until that portion is zero or near-zero. Well, unlike some of Marx’s other predictions, this prediction seems to have been incredibly accurate, if you think about it: We are literally now entering an era where machines (software-driven hardware including robots) are already doing more and more of the work… … and are expected to take nearly 100% of the human labor out of the process for millions of jobs that people are currently doing. From factory workers, to driving jobs, to sales people, to doctors… … software and robots are predicted to continue to eat up, or even fully replace, many or most of today’s most common jobs. OK, so do you remember the Labor Theory of Value that we discussed before this little story about Marx? As you recall, the theory suggested that the price of something is determined by how much human labor goes into it. But if Marx continues to be right with this prediction… … (that machines will keep improving, and the result will be that less and less human labor will be required in the production of everything)…. … As the human labor portion of everything continues on its way to zero %… … then the Labor Theory of Value tells us that the price of everything is headed to zero. In other words, as computers, software and robots become better and better at replacing humans… … meaning the labor portion of everything heads towards zero…. … everything will become free or nearly free. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking about a future of total abundance for humankind… … where everything you want or need, is available to you for free or nearly free. And if everything becomes free or near-free, then most people won’t need to work for money, because money will have little value (since, well, everything will be free). Perhaps people may work for reasons other than making money, such as to have a sense of purpose, feel challenged and/or exercise their creativity. (It’s also easy to imagine how a future like this might result in the reduction or elimination of war; as people or countries won’t need to fight for resources. Resources will be available to everyone for free or nearly free). Massive new technology breakthroughs, that support this conclusion, are headed our way If you’re paying attention to the world of technology lately, you’ve already noticed that a few massive waves of technology are on the way… … movements that seem to completely support the future we’ve been discussing: · -- 3D Printing will make it so that you can simply download the blueprint for any product, and print it out at your home · -- Nanotechnology will make it so that the supplies (materials) used by those 3-D printers are abundant and cheap · -- Solar technology, among other green technologies – is getting better and cheaper… ... making it so that energy will be abundant, and humans won’t need to fight for fossil fuels... ... or burn them to create energy, which is hurting our planet. Did you know? The amount of solar energy hitting the earth in just 8 minutes, is enough to fuel humankind’s entire ANNUAL energy consumption? If we could harness about one thousandth (1 / 1,000) of one single percent (1%) of the sun’s energy that’s hitting the earth, humankind would need no other energy source. And the price of solar and wind harvesting technology are dropping exponentially, just like what we’ve seen with the cost of computer chips over the last few decades. Which means that, soon, each of us will easily be able to harvest the power we use, and possibly sell some of the energy back to the energy companies – or even share it with our neighbors. (The sharing of energy with our circle of trust is something that I predict we will discuss and execute on together in about 2 years from now, as the price of energy harvesting technologies comes down to what a smartphone costs today). · -- And with the massive emerging “Internet of Things” (IOT) (http://www.empowr.com/socnet/EmailStat.aspx?lit=5&me=-j-fnR2Vi3LyWhjbH32DEECSaUr7Cqfb3jk-2FoBYmUjQnkgDD-LFhZ4aRqjeB9IvXUH-kGytDp.NeCneumZX0j1nSRav23ZcZYVQal0EDSFj2lBE6hs1Ag9aP7tgRfxVsp2IFA6Q254UYcKcyfFUf7yvwPVq4VYKIU2l494gJwoUvZCEWaWOkRwB2Fva2tp&fan=F1Qw1zM6IEk%3d&opg=http%3a%2f%2ftime.com%2f539%2fthe-next-big-thing-for-tech-the-internet-of-everything%2f&vet=720&dt=040917&mlid=9614919683&tmpID=5528988&linkname=Link3&eaid=npXjf9qVYI4NpGyHQ1OyMA%3d%3d&rt=1) every object -- even a cheap can of soup or carton of milk -- will be equipped with a communicating chip, hooked up to the Internet. Everything you own, even your pieces of clothing, will be able tell you relevant information such as where they’re located, what the temperature is, if they’re expiring or damaged, and even order their own replacement, disposal or recycling. Therefore, soup -- and literally ALL other products -- are going to become exponentially more of “knowledge and information” based products… … meaning labor will continue to become responsible for a smaller and smaller portion of their price. Just about everything -- including their parts and materials, and the energy they require -- will be made or managed by software-driven hardware and robots… … as well as delivered, maintained and recycled by robots. Yes, even the robots will be designed, made, serviced, improved and recycled by robots. If humans are needed for any portion of the process, humans (or robots) will quickly figure out how to replace even those portions using software and robots. Humans can instead focus on what they want to do (to uplift themselves and others) instead of doing mostly what they must do to survive. By the way, if this future is hard to imagine, that’s reasonable and simply OK. Someone living just a few decades (or, imagine, 100 years) ago wouldn’t be able to imagine the world as it is today. But thanks to software, a relatively recent invention, every field of research, and every industry, is about to be (and IS being!) eaten up by software... ... and the effects of each of these exponentially improving areas are about to multiply by each other... ... to create more massive change than humankind has ever experienced in such a short period of time. ---------------------- OK, thanks for staying with me. Now that we’ve taken a glimpse at where the world is headed... ... next, we’ll want to put our heads together to figure out how that glimpse may apply to what we’re doing together here, right now, at empowr. This is the perfect moment to take a break, grab some coffee…. give your brain a break. When you’re ready, come on back and let’s get started again. Welcome back. In summary, I believe that, together, we’ve just had a glimpse of the future. In the future everything we want or need, will be in our hands very quickly for virtually free We’re talking about abundance for humanity. OK, well, that may be a glimpse of the future… … but I’m wondering… … does that sound too futuristic… … as in -- NOT something we can achieve here at empowr, anytime soon, with our current resources? Maybe so. Let’s break it down to its parts, so we can accurately answer that question. First, let’s start with putting our vision into one simple statement: Everything we want or need for Free or for doing what people are already doing for free and while we’re dreaming, we might as well add the following word: Fast (as in, “in your hands in as little as one hour”) After all, who can resist getting what they want – fast – (as in, almost as soon as they think about it) for free? So, the idea we want to break down into smaller parts… … is how we might be able to provide to our citizens: Everything, Fast & Free Let’s start with analyzing the word “Everything”: Everything Just a few months ago, together we decided to focus on ramping up our marketplace. We discussed the importance of everyone listing products, to boost the empowr economy. In that short period of time, together we have witnessed the number of products being listed daily, weekly and monthly grow over 100 fold – or 10,000%. Congratulations on that, by the way! It seems like every time we put our minds to something, we always – ALWAYS – accomplish it. Sometimes it may take a try or two… a failure or two before we get there…. But we never quit and we keep trying, until we succeed. Congrats mighty, mighty empowr community! Now, imagine that instead of the massive number of products we’re listing being sold, and taken out of the community forever… … imagine if, instead, we could easily earn by “sharing” them. Sharing? What does that mean? What would that look like? Let’s use an example. Imagine a tool like, say, this drill:  Did you know that the typical drill is purchased and then, over its lifetime, used for an average of less than 15 minutes? (That’s a fact) Most of the time, the purchaser needed it for something quick, then threw it in the garage or closet, for it to be hardly ever seen or used again. Sound familiar? Now, imagine, if instead of listing a drill to sell on empowr, you instead had the option to “Share” it with someone. Imagine instead of selling it for, say, $30, you “Share” it for $3/day. It would only take 10 days of sharing it, for you to capture the same earnings. Every day after the first 10 days would represent profits. If, over the drill’s lifetime, you were able to share it 50 (or even 100 or more) days, you would end up making 5 (or 10 times or more) the amount you would have earned by selling it. It would make more sense for you to share it -- instead of sell it -- wouldn’t it? But what about the customer (the buyer)? If you were the buyer, and you needed a drill for just a few hours, it would make more sense to just “use” it for $3/day -- instead of purchasing it for $30, wouldn’t it? You, too, would be ten times better off, wouldn’t you (because paying $3 is ten times better than paying $30)? In addition, you wouldn’t have to fill up your limited closet or garage space with even more stuff you likely won’t be needing for a while. Now imagine: … If together, many or most of us here at empowr, shared hundreds or even thousands of different types of products. Imagine how much better off we would be as “Sharers” instead of Sellers… … and “Users” instead of Buyers. Oh, and how much better would planet earth do... ... if factories ate up less of the planet’s natural resources, because they’re making less things that are hardly ever utilized to their full capacity?  The first suggestion I am making is that, together, we add the opportunity for everyone to Share and Use, along with the current capabilities of Selling and Buying. But wait. Did we forget something? How will delivery work (that is, transportation of the product from Sharer to User, and back again)? In other words, if I click to “Use” the drill, how will the “Sharer” get it to me? Perhaps I can go pick it up. Or, perhaps the Sharer will be willing to deliver it to me. Or, perhaps together we can create a new way to easily earn in empowr, which we might call the “Transporter”. Imagine as soon as someone clicks to “Buy” or “Use” a product, empowr transporters in the area are notified of the opportunity… … and specifically told where they need to pick up the item (Point A),… … where they need to drop it off (Point B)… … how long that delivery should take (in minutes) given current traffic levels on the current fastest route from Point A to Point B… … and how much they’ll earn if they choose to capture the opportunity for themselves. Do you like that idea? You have been reporting that, as Sellers, one of your top concerns – or “pain points” – is the hassle and cost of shipping the items that you sell. Imagine if at the very moment you sell (or share) something, by simply pressing a “Transport” button, an empowr transporter will be on the way. Imagine that you’ll hardly need to wrap or package the item. Imagine that the transporter shows up really fast – in just minutes… … so you don’t even need to think about or deal with scheduling, or making sure you’re home at some exact future moment. Just press the “Transport” button wherever you are, and the transporter will quickly show up, take the item from you, and deliver it. Now, imagine that the price of transport, for you, is virtually free. In other words, imagine if empowr pays for transport so that you (or the “buyer” or “user”) don’t need to. In fact, let’s say that a transport would cost only $1, to ensure that there does exist a tiny cost (in order to reduce waste -- so that people might be less likely to abuse a free service like this). Sounds fair, no? But also imagine that you receive a whole bunch of free transports every month with your Silver, Gold or Platinum daily earning options that many of you are already enjoying. But I digress. Let’s get back to our vision of the future: Everything, Fast & Free Instead of millions of products being listed for sale, and then quickly leaving empowr as soon as they’re purchased – which is what’s currently happening… … imagine if most of those things don’t leave the empowr ecosystem – because now they’ll be “shared and used” instead of “sold and bought”. That would mean that the millions of products that are currently being listed would quickly accumulate to become tens of millions… … and then hundreds of millions of available products in the marketplace… … because after a product leaves the marketplace (to be used by someone) it would now come right back to the marketplace, when the “user” is done with it. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense that, with so many products being listed (that now wouldn’t permanently leave empowr)… … that soon virtually everything you can imagine wanting or needing, will be available for “use”? And what about those things that are not available in the short-term? Imagine if empowr reveals a sorted daily list of the things that people have been searching for – things they want to “use” – but that were not currently available. The people looking to earn by “Sharing” would be able to earn more, by quickly offering those products – perhaps at premium prices given the lack of competition. It’s easy to see how, within just a few months, just about everything you want or need, might be available to you to use. Wait. What? It seems like the Everything part of our “Everything, Fast & Free” vision might just be very doable – with our current level of resources! ------------------ OK, maybe so…. but how about the Fast part of “Everything, Fast & Free”? Fast Well, what if the new “empowr transporters” earn bonuses, when they do their work fast? And what if they earn even more transport opportunities when they are “fast” or “super-fast”? In other words, what if, together, we decide to reward transporters that are rated the best by their customers, and can get the items from Point A to Point B most quickly? Do you think we can satisfy the Fast part of our “Everything, Fast & Free” vision? My opinion, if you care to know, is a big, fat YES. ---------------- OK, but let’s move on to (what might seem like it would be) the hardest part. I mean, what about the Free part of “Everything, Fast & Free”? Free On the surface, this challenge sounds really, really hard. Well, we just talked about making transportation free (or virtually free, by pricing transports at only $1). But what about the cost of “Using” any product? Well, if the cost of using the drill (from our earlier example) is, say, $3 per day… … but everyone can earn that $3 just for doing the (social networking) things they’re all already doing for free on Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere... ... doesn’t that therefore make using the item virtually free? Look, after deep analysis, we’ve come to believe that we… … you, I and others already here in the empowr community… … now have everything we need to fast-forward into the future… … and (assuming we had all the software we needed to enable all of this)…. … could soon offer “Everything, Fast & Free” for our community members to enjoy. By the way…. When I say we “could soon offer”, I DON’T mean “in just a few years”. By soon, I mean RIGHT NOW. Pssst. May I share a secret with you? Well, then, come a little closer so I can whisper something in your ear. Given that we live in a highly competitive world, dominated by powerful tech giants, empowr has been very quietly and secretly working on this future for quite a while… … in the hopes that -- after you’re shown the evidence, from the economic theory to all the product, policy and other details --… … that you too will believe in this future, will see the logic in it, and will give us “two thumbs up” to charge forward into what it takes to enable that future. Now, to be clear, if you don’t believe in this vision, we can and we will stop working on it immediately. You have got my word on that. But we wanted to make most of the progress before discussing it, so that -- if you decided that Everything, Fast & Free is the correct future we’re headed for, and you believe we should commit ourselves to that vision immediately… … we wouldn’t be sharing our vision and strategy with competitors too long before we’re just about to launch. Ladies and gentlemen… …. my dear, mighty brother and sisters in arms… … my fellow revolutionaries that, for months or for years, have sacrificed much to enable empowr to exist and progress… … I am beyond delighted to have the opportunity to now tell you that: We are in the final testing phase for EVERYTHING it takes to launch and manage the future described above. Once you understand all of what will be entailed… … if and only if you give us the thumbs up… … we can begin rolling this vision out, one important platform at a time… … starting in the coming days. Change can be difficult Convincing all empowr employees and engineers to add to their currently workload, to work on this vision, wasn’t easy. Why? Because they’re all already overworked (and underpaid). But after carefully considering all the facts, discussing the obstacles, and crunching the numbers… … they agreed that this -- Everything, Fast & Free -- can and must be accomplished. A few have actually said goodbye to most friends and family members, before getting busy working nights and weekends to make this a reality.
But empowr employees are not the only ones that will need to sacrifice and face change. If you agree that this is a future that, together we should work towards, YOU will also be challenged. Remember, all new complicated software has issues, bugs and missing features. Like all big software rollouts in our past, there will be frustrations. But, like we’ve always done, we will report those issues. We will work overtime to fix the bugs, and to design and build what’s missing. We won’t stop until everyone’s satisfied. But first… First, we need to hear from you. If most of you are not wholeheartedly bought in, we need to pull the plug and stop this push. After all, without you – the empowr community of citizens -- empowr has (and is) nothing. Before you make your decision, here are some of the details you’ll want to consider:
A. Removing bidding from Daily Goals Many of you have reported that it’s hard to hit your Daily Goals, because of the amount of bids required. As part of this push, we are suggesting the removal of bidding from the Daily Goals requirements. Of course if you do bid or buy – and now, “Use” – something, that will continue to count towards closing the loop with people in your circle of trust. But by not being forced to bid and buy, we’ll have a lot less Unpaid Items… … which means less cost for buyers… ... and we’ll have less frustration for sellers, who are (rightfully) complaining about having so many unpaid items. And not requiring all that bidding should also mean that, when you actually want to buy something, it’s more likely to be available in the marketplace… … because other buyers (people that may not have even wanted the item in the first place, but were only bidding / buying to hit their Daily Goal) won’t have inadvertently blocked you from buying it. B. Cash outs (AMCOs) for Transporters Another huge pain point you’ve communicated, is the amount of time and out-of-pocket cash that the shipping of items requires from you. To attack this pain-point, we’re suggesting launching what’s internally become known as “ETL” – which stands for “empowr transport layer” – but you’ll probably get to know it as the new earning role called the empowr “transporter”. Playing the biggest part in the “Everything, Fast & Free” vision will be the empowr transporters, and we want to ensure everyone has both the opportunity and desire to try their hand at transporting. Therefore, we feel that Transporters should be among the largest earners of AMCO cash outs… … and that they should be paid as quickly as possible (at end of the month, as opposed to the following month) so that they have the money for gasoline that they’ll need. By the way, in the interest of not making this blog post even longer than it already is, more details on the transporter role… … as well as for every other new feature mentioned in this blog post … … will be soon coming your way, if most community members vote to move forward with “Everything, Fast & Free”. C. Cash outs (AMCOs) for Service providers As part of this effort, we believe that everyone should be able to earn AMCO cash outs from the Services they provide. Why? Service providers are basically product providers that are also transporters. Think about it: If I offer to wash your car, I will need to first transport my body and washing tools to where your car is… … and then, of course, my product is, basically, your clean car. So, it’s time for Service providers to also earn AMCO cash outs. D. Sharing, Transporting and Servicing should all count towards your listing goal Currently, each time you successfully sell a product, it counts towards your listing portion of your Daily Goal. Now, we’re suggesting that each time you successfully Transport something… … or provide a Service to someone… …or simply Share something with someone (meaning they pay you to “use” a product of yours)… … that the “event” should count as a Listing towards your Daily Goals… … making it much easier to hit your listing goal. Think about it: By providing value to the community… … as measured by your selling or sharing a product, service or transportation to the community… … you equally gain access to the products, services and transportations that the community is providing. That just makes good sense, no? E. Let’s change the name of “List” in the Daily Goals area to “Provide”. To hit your Daily Goal, you’ll now want to only Share, Post and Provide. (IE: No more Bidding required) To enable this, first let’s making listing products and services 100 times easier! Here’s how: Simply search for a product or service like what you want to offer… … then click a new “List it” button – to instantly – magically -- list the same product or service into the marketplace… … using the same photos, title and descriptions used by the original listing. And since you’re utilizing a previously moderated listing that’s been approved, your listing will be automatically approved. Hot stuff! In fact, as soon as you give us the thumbs up on this new “Everything, Fast & Free” vision, we’ll give you a new “Hot stuff” page where you can see all the most popular services and products being listed in empowr… … and directly on that page you can simply click the “List it” button to have the same item listed with zero effort. Now, you should be able to list 10 or 20 or more new products or services in less than 5 mins. So, now that listing things is much less of a challenge, let’s set the focus of our Daily Goals to Providing. In other words, we suggest that simply listing a product or service shouldn’t count towards the Daily Goal. Instead, let’s focus on how many times we successfully provided value to another empowr citizen – by selling, sharing, servicing or transporting. Let’s set the Daily Goal target (for Provides) to 2 per day…. … except for new citizens that are still learning and trying to get accustomed to everything. IE: Perhaps let’s set the goal to 1 for Orange Power User citizens – to give them more time to list their items, close loops and then sell, share, service or transport things successfully. F. Success coaching is as valuable as selling, sharing, providing a service or transportation We’re suggesting that successful success coaching should count as Providing (previously known as “listings”): That is, when a success coach hits ALL four (4) of their goals: 1. Quality of their communications with their students 2. Speed of their responses 3. Success level of their students 4. Happiness level of their students ... we think their work deserves to be viewed as an “economy builder” activity – the same as sellers, sharers, service providers and transporters… … and therefore, their work should count as Provides. Details to come. In addition, we believe that the successful success coaches (again, measured by whether they are hitting all of their Quality, Speed, Success and Happiness goals) should earn free transport credits too. Good time to become a success coach, eh? Go here to learn how ... and if you're ready to start your training, go here -------------- OK, it’s time to take another break. Go give your mind a little rest. And maybe give your body some more caffeine? (You’ll want to be fully alert for this next part). Just come on back when you’re ready… … I promise that we’ll be waiting for you right here, patiently. ;) We're back. Please grab a seat, if you’re not already sitting down. Are you ready for this? G. Hundreds of new and different earning opportunities As part of this new “Everything, Fast & Free” vision, we believe there should be hundreds or even thousands of new ways for everyone to earn… … so the word “Everything” would also apply to the number of (different) ways to earn on empowr. Do you have ideas, as far as new earning roles that should be made available to citizens? If so, empowr has been preparing to provide you up to $1,000,000… … to help your idea take off and succeed. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you That’s $1 million, in AID, to help you get your idea launched and successful. AID = Application Innovation Dollars Here’s how it works: Let’s say that you have an idea… … and want to launch the ability for empowr citizens to earn by, say, offering home-cooked meals to each other… … or house-cleaning services… … or gardening services… … or baby-sitting … … or playing games of skill … … or renting out a spare room in their house… … or a farmer’s market… … parking cars… … gig buddy… … life coaching… … soccer or guitar lessons… … accounting or setting budget services… … investment controller… … organizing parties… … or dog-owner social network… … or performing handyman or other tasks around the house… … or car repair… … or driving each other around (like Uber or Lyft)… … or performing or providing some other product or service. We’ll help your idea take off, by helping your app or website gets lots of eyeballs (users… empowr citizens) – for free. In addition, if you qualify, we’ll start you off with $25,000 (in empowr earnings) that you can utilize to pay empowr citizens for working within the role(s) you offer. As your idea begins to take off, we’ll then give you $50,000 more in AID. What we’ll want to see, as a condition to providing you with more and more funds, is that you’re getting better and better at empowering empowr citizens… … and enabling opportunities for them to earn. We’ll also want to see that your app or website’s earnings are growing… … which means that you’re beginning to show that people are liking what you’re offering… … so much so, that they’re willing to spend their earnings in your application or website… ... which means that your app or website is beginning to look like it will eventually sustain itself and become self-sufficient. In other words, we’ll look for evidence that you’re working towards building a long-term viable and successful app or website… … one that will be around for the long-term, so you can continue to work to improve how it serves the empowr community. After ensuring you’re providing opportunities to empowr citizens and growing your own revenue too, after you consume those initial funds, we’ll give you $100,000 more… … then $200,000 more; and so on and so forth, until you’re off and running – up to $1,000,000 in empowr AID… … so that you don’t need to think about getting investor capital, and can make your dreams a reality much more easily. We are challenging everyone to think about how they can help citizens improve their lives by offering them new, innovative earning roles. Your app can be a mobile app, a desktop app, or even a website. Do it your way. And when you’re a mega success, you’re app and company will belong to you. You don’t need to give empowr any shares or a piece of your company. Your success is yours and you deserve it. When empowr’s citizens like you succeed, empowr is accomplishing its mission. Are you an application developer? Well, then, what are you waiting for? Virtually everything is provided for you! Go here to get started or learn more Are you NOT an application developer? You can simply look online for tons and tons of apps already built, that can be yours for cheap. For example, if there’s an app out there that you like, simply Google their name, and add the word “clone”… … and you just might find a bunch of competitors that have copied the app and will sell it to you for almost nothing. For example, Google “Uber clone” or “AirBnB clone”, and you’ll notice a bunch of copycat already-built products that are available for you to purchase for almost nothing. Simply plug them into empowr’s simple APIs (you’ll need a software developer for just a few hours to do that)… …. and your app can grow and benefit from everything empowr offers it, including: · -- the empowr community features and social network feed stories · -- viral growth of empowr citizens (user traffic) · -- the ability to (one-click) collect revenues from empowr citizens (who may be willing to pay for your app upfront and/or via in-app purchases) · -- cash outs for you · -- scalable global customer service · -- customer arbitration, dispute and refund management · -- virtual currency and micro-billing · -- revenue collection via credit card and PayPal · -- reputation management · -- empowr transport layer (fast and near-free shipping) … and much, much more. Need more ideas? Simply Google for ideas – here’s an interesting list: http://www.empowr.com/socnet/EmailStat.aspx?lit=5&me=-j-fnR2Vi3LyWhjbH32DEECSaUr7Cqfb3jk-2FoBYmUjQnkgDD-LFhZ4aRqjeB9IvXUH-kGytDp.NeCneumZXyijnGWyOXV0WELA-jHVlyYVac9vRAXFFQfOA8zTtNdD5FZiFMPpHJgoUggqpd0tcB2Wbt-iXgzAjtmuG0uHIq1QKLcgrVs3r1LJ2oqPdPS0&fan=F1Qw1zM6IEk%3d&opg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ideaswatch.com%2fstartup-ideas%2fapp&vet=720&dt=040917&mlid=9614919683&tmpID=5528988&linkname=Link9&eaid=npXjf9qVYI4NpGyHQ1OyMA%3d%3d&rt=1 H. Larger potential ownership in empowr If together we approve this new vision and approach… … to thank you for your upcoming sacrifices and to help you become a larger owner of empowr… … we suggest that you earn triple the number of “stock option points” in the next 90 days – which is the most exciting and rewarding part of any big software launch. As a reminder, your stock option points are calculated by taking the number of Daily Goals you’ve hit (ever) and multiplying it by the number of sales you’ve had. To see your (or someone else’s) numbers, simply scroll up to the top of your or their profile, and you’ll see a circle at the top right. Learn more about it here So, if you hit your Daily Goals 30 times in the next 90 days… … and successfully provide 20 sales, transports or services in that timeframe: You would normally take that 20 and multiply it by the 30… … to arrive at 600 points. But now -- instead of earning 600 points for those activities during the next 90 days, you’ll earn three (3) times that number – or 1,800 points. The next 90 days represents the largest opportunity you’ve ever had to potentially own a bigger piece of empowr. Even more for high achievers In the next 90 days (April, May and June) – if you hit 80% or more of the possible Daily Goals in that period (there’s exactly 90 days remaining in April, May and June) – including today, April 2nd… … empowr will double that final (already tripled) number. That means that you could earn 6 times more potential empowr ownership by hitting your Daily Goals at least 80% of the time, in the next 90 days. Keep in mind that, with these stock option points, as detailed earlier, you’re taking a chance on the empowr community of citizens, success coaches and employees -- betting that, together, we will succeed. I hope you’re as excited about the changes described above… … and the impact those things can have on the empowr community (and the value of the empowr platform – which will translates into the value of empowr ownership). I mean, can you imagine the onslaught of new citizens, into empowr, in the coming months as they begin to hear that (along with earning in so many new ways)… … that they can gain access to everything, fast & free just by being an empowr citizen… ... which beats paying Amazon (or other ecommerce companies) full price to buy things… … then waiting 2 days for shipping (but only if they’ve paid $100 / year for Amazon Prime’s free shipping). Now, as soon as they think of something, they can press a button and it will magically appear in their hand, in as little as one hour. Everything, Fast & free is a game-changer on a global scale Who, on this planet, wouldn’t want to have more things, fast and for free? And therefore, as empowr continues to push forward and succeed… … we would love to see more and more potential ownership fall into the hands of our hard-working community members (citizens and success coaches)… … who deserve great personal success and wealth just as much as empowr employees do. History tell us that, ultimately, the biggest winners in tech companies have always been the people that get their hands on stock options (company ownership) before everyone else pours in. In summary, to maximize your ownership potential, for your sake, as well as the sake of the mission, please, please, please – do everything you can to hit your new, simplified, Daily Goals as many times as possible in the next 90 days. OK, I realize I've given you a lot to think about, so we better wrap up and let you think. We have tried to find the most optimal juncture between: 1. where we think where the world and technology are headed… … which is a world where practically everything becomes accessible fast and virtually free… … based on the Labor Theory of Value... ... and the evidence we’re already witnessing, which is that software and hardware are gobbling up parts of (or entire) human jobs... ... and that gobbling up process is growing exponentially. ... AND… 2. Many of the pain points you’re currently experiencing in empowr, including:
The hassle of packaging and shipping empowr transporters to the rescue! Near-eliminating the cost of shipping empowr transporters to the rescue! Earn much more revenue for your products With Sharing, you can earn recurring (repeating) revenue from the things you list, as opposed to selling each item once and it’s gone forever. Don’t have products to sell? With Services and Transporting, now you no longer need to just sell products to hit goals and earn AMCO cash outs. Eliminate the hassle of listing products and services See a service or product that someone else is offering – that you think you can offer too? With only one single click, now you’re offering it too. Much larger variety of products available to you (as a buyer) Imagine having ten, fifty or even one hundred times the variety of products for you to access, as a buyer, in the empowr marketplace. When everyone shares, that’s what happens. Much lower cost of products you want At the same time, imagine the cost of accessing the products you want dropping by as much as 90 or 95%? That’s what Sharing enables! Literally hundreds of new ways for you to earn Now everyone can dream up new ways for you to earn -- and empowr will support your success with $1M in AID. Too hard to hit daily goals Dropping the requirement to bid, hitting Daily Goals gets much easier Timing Only if you give us the go-ahead… … we will be ready to start rolling out all the above… … one after another… … beginning in the coming days. We’ll be sure to give you all the details about all the new features… … as well as provide highly actionable tips for how to maximize your personal success in the new platform. But we can’t push forward-- and we won’t push forward -- without your full support. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Yours truly, - JC, Brian Woosley and all the other empowr employees committed to -- and thankful for -- the opportunity to work with you to enable opportunity, hope & influence for millions of people (more) ►
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