This afternoon I had some free time between appointments so I stopped by a Chevy dealer to test drive an electric blue 2017 Chevy Volt.

My wife has owned a Prius for a few years, and I’ve also test driven the Lexus CT 100 hybrid, the Nissan Leaf, Tesla Sportster and the Cadillac ELS electric car.

My wife’s Prius is slow compared to the V-6 in my Toyota Avalon. This has been a common complaint of hybrid owners, we want something efficient, but we don’t want to give up speed. I liked the power of the Cadillac ELS and the Tesla, but I wouldn’t spend more than $50,000 on a car, even a really great car.

The Cadillac ELR is $65 to $75K. I loved driving it, it was super smooth and very fast… but not worth the 65K. The Tesla was even faster, I felt like my eyeballs were being pushed back into my skull, but over 100K for a car?

The 2017 Volt is a plug-in electric car with a gas generator. This means that on battery power alone you can drive 53 miles, but if you top off the gas tank you can drive over 400 miles.

If I owned a Volt I could plug it into my house electric and never use any gas, except for the occasional roadtrip. With a 400 mile range the Volt goes much farther than my Avalon on one tank of gas.

With a full electric car like the Tesla you have to charge up every 250 to 300 miles. This means that on a drive to Atlanta I would have to stop for an hour at a charging station to top off my Tesla, with the Volt I could gas up anywhere along the way. The range issue with full electrics will be solved when better battery technology comes out, but there is no telling when that will happen.

There are still far more gas stations than charging stations.

With a 400 mile range the 2017 Volt is the perfect compromise. Hook it up to your solar panels when you are just driving around town, gas it up for longer trips.

I drove the Volt on a combination of city streets and the highway and it was fast and sporty, similar to a car with a strong V-6 engine. It was smooth, comfortable, and exciting to drive. It felt very solid at highway speeds. The Volt felt very similar to the Cadillac ELR, and it probably shares many of the same components and technology.

I wanted to keep driving it, the test drive ended too soon! This is a car that I could drive to the grocery store and also drive to Atlanta. I loved it. It was not tinny and underpowered like the Prius.

In all fairness I haven’t driven the 2017 plug-in Prius yet, it might be very different than the 2010 model, but in a side by side hybrid comparison in Car and Driver magazine the Chevy won out over the Toyota, even though they have similar specs.

The new 2nd generation Chevy Volt costs $30,000. I could buy a used 1rst generation Volt from previous years, but the 1rst generation was slower with a smaller battery. In a couple years there will be used 2nd generation Volts on the used car market, probably for less than $20,000. I’ll find a used one then.

The kicker is that I’m going to be tempted to install some solar panels on my roof if I have a Volt in my driveway. What is the ROI on solar if you don’t have to gas up your car anymore, except for long trips? Gas companies should fear the Volt.

The Volt really is the car of the future, with the right price and the right performance. I hope Chevy sells a million of these cars! You don’t have to be a greenie to love the 2nd generation Volt, this is a great car for anyone.

-Benjamin T. Alexander

January 2017

UPDATE: I bought a used 2017 Volt in 2019, and drove it 30,000 miles per year selling solar! Still own it as of January 2022.

Recently I went to the store and bought 15 pairs of the exact same brand of black nylon dress socks and 15 pairs of the same white athletic socks.

Why own a bunch of different varieties of socks when they all basically do the same thing? Now I can reach in my sock drawer and always find a matching pair of white or black socks. When I buy new socks I’m getting exactly the same type.

If I lose 1 black sock it won’t matter, the remaining 29 socks still match each other.

I know, it seems really silly to write about socks, but why not make your life super simple by having little systems set up to remove complexity?

In other areas I’m looking for simplicity as well, eating one meal each day is an easy way to lower your calories and keep your weight down. My goal is to slim down to 170 lbs.

NOT using credit cards and tracking my total debt has helped me pay off over $170,oo0 since 2014. When I pay off my home next year I’ll set up a similar system for investing the extra.

Deleting Facebook and ignoring Twitter helped me regain my time back. If you want to interact with me you actually have to write an email or pick up the phone! These posts upload to Twitter, but I never look at the feed.

EVERYTHING in Balloon Distractions is geared towards earning my family an income without having to slave away at a job 40 hours per week. Last week I spent about 15 hours running that business. There are many systems built into BD, from scheduling and billing to managing and motivating our teams.

My LIFE business is similar to BD, there are tons of systems in place to run your business, motivate your team, and increase your income.

I tend to buy used Toyotas for less than $12,000, normally with 70,000 miles or more on the odometer. My (paid off) Avalon currently has 187,000 miles on it. It runs great.

It is possible to remove all complexity and chaos from your life? Probably not.

You have to finds systems that work for you and your situation.

If you have some complexity in your life, even in your sock drawer, think about how you can do something small that removes that complexity.

Hope that helps!

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 2017

There is a sad reality show somewhere on cable that features people who hoard junk in their home. Each episode features a new hoarder, one had thousands of newspapers stacked floor to ceiling in every room of his home, another episode featured a woman whose dirty dishes sat for months in her sink, with rodents and insects running all over her home. The worst cases are the animal hoarders who keep adopting animals until the county agents come in and shut them down.

Hoarders are an extreme example of what happens when we fill our lives with useless stuff, hanging onto things we don’t need, in some cases not even realizing why we do it. People without hope sometimes try to fill that void with things they purchase, in some cases racking up needless debt buying things that only make them worse.

At one point in my journey as an entrepreneur I had a fancy office with desks and chairs and a huge conference table, along with 2 staffers, a fish tank and a storage room filled with $20,000 in balloon inventory. I also owned a rental property in Tampa with an endless revolving door of deadbeat tenants. At home I had a motorcycle in my garage and a 120 gallon fish tank in my living room.

My life was chock-full of stuff, stuff that was costing me money and time to maintain it, feed it, pay it, fix it, etc. I also carried too much debt, all that STUFF in my life was an expensive distraction from my goals and objectives.

So I got rid of it. I called my landlord and got out of my lease early. I took digital pictures of all my office furniture and sold it on Craigslist. I sold the fish tanks, the old motorcycle, even the rental property. When my two employees eventually moved on I did not replace them, I used technology to do their jobs in the most efficient way possible, instantly removing $4,000 in costs from my balance sheet each month.

I cleaned up my home office and installed a bookshelf, then went through my garage and began getting rid of all the stuff I no longer needed, either in the trash, to Goodwill or sold online. My home office today it is clean, uncluttered and organized. My bookshelf contains my personal library of books on success, faith, finances, history, and many biographies of people who have done amazing things, from Churchill to Gandhi.

The next part in my journey towards simplicity was my Facebook account. I had started it in 2006, with connections to almost 2,000 people I barely knew. Instead of working on my next book I was wasting time scrolling through a newsfeed containing information that was never going to help me reach my goals. Social networking had become social NOT working.

I hit the delete button, and suddenly I had vast blocks of time back. My smartphone once again became a simple device for calls, texts, and GPS. My phone was no longer an addictive screen that I would stare at for hours just to see pictures of an entrée that my schoolmate from college was eating for lunch somewhere in Cleveland.

Once you identify exactly WHO you want to be and WHERE you want to go it makes sense to get rid of all the things in your life that are standing in your way of reaching your goals and objectives. That old motorcycle rusting in my garage was not going to help me pay off debt, complete my next book, or grow my business. I sold it because later on I can buy a much better (and newer) motorcycle, with cash.

Writing my next book was more important to me than scrolling through a pointless newsfeed, cleaning a fish tank, or fixing my rental property every time a tenant moved out and trashed the place.

Writing a book was a part of my dreams and goals, my fish tank was not!

New technology can help you embrace simplicity, you can take a roomful of vinyl records and upload them to a tiny device, or download a book and eliminate the need to cut down trees for paper, but technology can also bring unwelcome complexity into your life.

If you spend more time on social media then you do interacting with your spouse this is a problem. Technology can serve to connect people, but this is not always a good thing for society, especially when those connections are negative, illegal or downright deviant in nature.

Look at your goals, figure out where you want to go, and chuck out anything in your life that is not helping you get there!

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 4, 2017

The picture above is from a few years ago, I was running a couple miles each day and boxing as well. I got down to 170 pounds and I felt great, except for the daily pain in my ankles and knees from all that running, even at the lower weight.

Running is not sustainable, it tears up your body. When I see people in their 50’s and 60’s running the Boston marathon I don’t know how they do it.

The scale is just one metric for measuring your health, you also want to consider how you feel and how your clothing fits. If I slim down running and then need knee surgery I’ll put the weight back on.

In doing a bit of casual research I’ve come across the “one meal per day” method of caloric control. I’m also walking and swimming in cold water. I’m looking for a sustainable plan that I can incorporate into my life for the long term.

Our ancestors, who were hunting and gathering nomads during millions of years of biological evolution, did not have the luxury of eating 2 or three meals per day. There were days when the hunt was unsuccessful and they didn’t eat at all. Eating one meal today is not that hard to do, and it allows your insulin levels to drop to lower levels.

I know, there are a ton of experts who will tell me that my metabolism will slow down to zero, and I have to eat 16 small meals per day, etc. Truth is I will never have the time nor the inclination to eat multiple small meals. Most of the people who advocate multiple meals tend to be body builders who want to put on muscle.

One meal per day (normally around 4PM) is very simple. I eat a normal meal in the middle of the day, that’s it. If there are days when I eat a little more, like when I’m invited to an event or dinner, I don’t sweat it. If I’m going somewhere for dinner I don’t eat anything else that day.

The body does not start to burn body fat for energy until you’ve been fasting at least 16 hours. There are also some interesting connections between your blood sugar and the production on insulin in your system, the guy in this video lost over 145 pounds:

Eating once per day allows your body to tap into your stored body fat.

Here is another video from Joe:

I’m going to try one meal per day for a few weeks and track my results.

-Benjamin T. Alexander

January 2017

My wife was asleep on the couch next to me as 2017 rang in last night.

Florida goes nuts with fireworks on December 31 and July 4rth, so my neighborhood sounded like a benevolent warzone starting around 11PM and lasting past midnight. I was surprised that the artillery bombardment did not wake my wife, she can sleep through anything.

Home is the best place to be on New Year’s, rather than out on the highways playing vehicle tag with cops and drunks.

Many positive things happened in my personal life and in my business in 2016, but I’m not sure I can say the same about the world. There was too much hate last year; too many mass shootings, terror attacks, and violent confrontations between civilians and police.

Too much hate, too much fear all around.

The election was ugly and crass, one might think in the modern era that the KKK was no longer relevant, but that tiny group of chuckleheads in our country got a ton of attention. In both Balloon Distractions and Life Leadership (aka LIFE) I work with some pretty diverse groups. I can see how certain groups are different, but I can’t fathom hating people, then getting out there and waving a flag to advertise my hate at a political rally.

We need more love and compassion in 2017, we need to invite more people into our homes and get to know them as human beings rather than as a “people”.

My goal in 2017 is to love people MORE, to emulate Christ as much as I can as a fallen sinner in a fallen world. If everyone had that goal when they woke up in the morning imagine how the entire world would be transformed in a just a few weeks.

You can love people in your business.

In LIFE we help people get rid of debt, improve their marriage, and learn how to be better parents. In Balloon Distractions we help people earn a better income part-time, while also bringing JOY to every child who gets a balloon. 2 different ventures, but similar goals.

In a few weeks I’m circling through Atlanta, Louisville, Little Rock and Houston. During that time I’ll work with folks in Balloon Distractions as well as LIFE, helping people earn more income, become better leaders, and move their team forward in 2017.

Many of our Balloon Distractions leaders and trainers are using the LIFE material to pay off debt and improve their relationships. I want everyone to benefit from their association with me and my companies. Some people will become students of the material and transform their lives, others will not.

God put me on this planet to help lead people to the truth, but he also gave them free will to decide whether to follow the truth or not. In 2017 I’m going to have to become a better leader, a better communicator, and a better human of compassion.

These are not “New Year’s resolutions”, I’ve been listening to audios and reading deeply for the past 3 years, with a long term goal of becoming a better human being, and a more effective entrepreneur. It’s been a long road, there are many miles still to go.

I hope you have a great 2017, this is a year when you can read and learn and progress along a better path for yourself.

2017 is a blank canvas; you can paint the same exact picture as 2016, or you can toss out your old paints and try something totally different.

-Benjamin T. Alexander

January 1, 2017

I was at the local Goodwill perusing used stuff with my daughter and I picked up a paperback copy of River of Doubt, a book about Teddy Roosevelt’s expedition to the Amazon River basin after he left the presidency in 1913.

Riveting stuff.

The book is written by Candice Millard, who wrote for National Geographic magazine.

It’s interesting how primitive and dangerous everything was just over a century ago. The privations and death that Roosevelt’s expedition encounter would be non-issues today, from snakebites and piranha attacks to typhoid and attacks by native tribes.

I’m reading The Book of Joy, written by Douglas Abrams. The book details a week of discussions between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama.

How’s that for contrasting subjects?

The human brain thrives on variety and new information. Reading diverse books creates new synaptic connections and stimulates the mind. You never know when some small tidbit in an obscure book will help you make a connection later on.

The more I learn the more I realize that everything is connected, everything is linked.

I remember returning to college after living in Taiwan back in 1995. I was struck by how what I had seen on the streets and read about in the newspaper was connected to much of the economics theory that my professors were teaching. For the students around me, those who had yet to enter the real world, I’m sure the theories were not as real.

It’s important to form your worldview not just from books and videos, but also from getting out in the world and interacting with people.

Happy Reading!

Benjamin T. Alexander

December 2016

The link below is an interactive chart that projects the GDP growth of the USA vs. China.

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-us-vs-china-economy/

I found it while researching my next book. Thought someone out there might appreciate this.

-Benjamin T. Alexander

November 2016

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet weighs in on the election, click on the link to see his 20 minute interview on CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/11/investing/warren-buffett-donald-trump-stock/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

I love the way Buffet thinks, he’s got 85 years of wisdom and business experience under his belt. This interview is worth watching, especially if you were not happy about the election results.

Buffet really sees our economy through a long term lens, not just as an observer but as an active investor for the past 7 decades!

Warren Buffet is a national treasure, I hope this guy lives to be 120 years old!

We’ve been building Balloon Distractions for 13 years. Over the years we’ve designed online systems to run everything from billing to training to scheduling. Through trial and error we’ve worked out 99% of the kinks, especially in the first few years, and now everything tends to run smoothly.

I’m still making small adjustments to our systems, just last week I was updating our trainer’s manual. In addition to being the founder of BD I’m also the regional leader for Tampa Bay, so I’m involved in the business at the most basic level.

I’m filling a restaurant booking tonight.

At this point Balloon Distractions has been through the deep recession of 2008,  some people have come and go, and we’ve seen clients go bankrupt (Bennigan’s). I’ve had critics roast me on YouTube and in the Tampa Bay Times. I was even rejected by the investors on Shark Tank, in front of 10 million television viewers.

Yet here we are at the end of 2016, still profitable, still a national enterprise.

Two years ago my wife and I started building a compensated community with Life Leadership. I began using the leadership and financial concepts from the LIFE business to improve Balloon Distractions.

Today I’m proud to tell you that we have paid off over $166,000 in debt since 2014. LESS debt is always a plus, no matter what kind of business you own!

Both ventures are profitable, we were able to build our LIFE team pretty fast because the systems had already been built. With LIFE I can do business in 15 countries, with a wide array of educational programs that will teach you how be a better leader, fix your marriage, be a better parent, go debt free, and even deepen your faith.

The LIFE products are reasonable, I spent $100 on the Financial Fitness Program and paid off $166K in debt… that’s a great return on my investment.

—————

The demographics in LIFE and BD are quite different.

The people involved in Balloon Distractions tend to trend younger; both my daughters are involved, as well as many high school and college kids. The LIFE business trends towards people 30 and older. Our big focus with LIFE is to help people get out of debt, and help people secure a solid foundation for retirement.

Some people build a LIFE income because they want a hedge against being laid off from their corporate jobs. Getting fired at 55 years old can devastate your finances, especially if no one else wants to hire you.

Age discrimination in the workplace is real, employers are biased towards people under the age of 40. The corporate world has ZERO loyalty to people my age or older.

Will Social Insecurity be there for my generation? I’m not betting the farm on it. I can control my LIFE income by going out and building a larger team. I have ZERO control over the federal government, so I’m not counting on getting a dime from Uncle Sam when I retire.

This is why I’m amazed at all the people who are screaming and yelling about the elections. If you voted you did your part, if you knocked on doors and got other people to vote you did a little more… but beyond that?

I’m content to follow the national news, but NOT to let it dictate my destiny. If Clinton had won the election I would have done the same things this week: made phone calls, met up with clients, and grown my future.

YOU control your destiny, you are the captain of your ship.

If you feel locked in a job you can always start a business on the side and get out of that job. It might take some time, you might have to learn some new skills, but if you live anywhere in the United States you are free to pursue your fortune.

I haven’t had to answer to a boss since I was 29 years old, I’m 42 now.

YOU can build your life around what you want, but it might require you to reject that status quo and try something different.

If you have NO original ideas? Join a Direct Sales concept for $200 and build THAT.

I’m biased towards the LIFE business, but there are many networking concepts that you can check out and join.

My goal is to earn $200K a year and live on 33% of that, that will give my family long term security and allow us to save some money, travel, do cool stuff and buy some nice stuff with cash.

As we get closer to that goal I’ll continue to write about the journey,

Thanks for reading!

Benjamin T. Alexander

November 11, 2016

A graph is worth a thousand words:

Our GDP represents the totality of all the goods and services produced in our country in a single year. The United States has had the largest GDP on the planet since the end of the Civil War, almost $18 trillion dollars.

The total global GDP is $80 trillion, so our country alone represents 22% of the total economic output on the planet, yet Americans only represent 5% of the world’s population.

No matter who LEADS the United States our economy will still remain strong, but the biggest roadblock to our continued success is $18.9 trillion in federal debt.

If we GROW our economy faster we can pay down our national debt.

More business = more tax revenue.

Can Trump grow our economy faster?  Trump borrowed $14 million in real estate loans from his father back in the 1970’s and leveraged that into a net worth of $3.5 billion, mostly in real estate holdings. He also had big failures, but so has every entrepreneur who tried new ideas.

In his first press conference as president-elect he mentioned how the United States is an under performing asset.

What if he’s right about that?

If we pare down wasteful government spending and eliminate red tape perhaps we can build to a $25 trillion GDP. This prosperity would be good for everyone and every gender; young and old, Hispanic, Black, White and Asian.

During the Obama administration our economy grew at an annual rate of 2%, during Ronald Reagan’s 8 year term our GDP grew as much as 12% per year! Check this out:

Obama was trained as a lawyer, but how much does he really understand business?

How could Obama DOUBLE our national debt and enact provisions that penalize employers when they hire more than 50 employees? (Under the ACA)

The business of America is BUSINESS, and when business is doing well there are more jobs, more choices, more competition for your spending dollar and more prosperity overall.

In the last 8 years the pendulum swung to the left, now 60 million GOP voters have pushed that pendulum back over to the right. Trump said some awful things, he was crass, he was rude, and I don’t want him anywhere near my daughters…

BUT, for all the stupid things Trump said, I’m curious to see what he can do to grow our economy.

You can protest, you can burn effigies in the street, but business will continue on. You can build a business and participate (I own 2 profitable ventures) or you can complain from the sidelines and go broke.

The election is over, I’m out there today growing my team, growing my business, and paying off debt.

God Bless America!

Benjamin T. Alexander

November 10, 2016.