“I’ve been out there so long looking and it feels like a TOTAL waste of time!”  That’s my oldest son Devin’s quote to me after spending day-after-day and week-after-week, searching for a job.

He’s one of what economists call “jobless youths” who go to college and live at home; still depending on mom and dad to get by.  My telling him, “I’ve been working since I was 14 years old” falls on deaf ears, and like many Americans feel about their representatives, makes me seem totally out of touch with my 19 year old son. “You just don’t get it dad. It’s different now!”

I’m sure he’s right… but I’m also sure he’s wrong!  Frankly, it’s not all that different.  Jimmy Carter was President when I was his age. We had one of the worst economic downturns ending in 1980 with 13.5% inflation (the highest in modern history), over 7% unemployment (actually seems pretty good considering today’s 9.7%) and close to double-digit interest rates.

George Bernard Shaw said, “When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work”.  In 1976 when I was 18, if I wanted a car, then I had to pay for it! If I was gonna put gas in the car, my dad didn’t hand me five bucks to fill up at the pump! ($5… can you even remember those days?)  If I wanted a phone in my room to call my girlfriend, he took the $15 a month from me to pay for the extra line.  Truth be told… I bought my son his first car. Nope..not a used one, brand new off the lot! Who pays for his gas to get to school or go see his friends?  Yep! I do! Who pays the line for his iPhone and brother & sister’s too?  Yep…you guessed it.

Fact is, I tell him when he complains how tough it is out there (and I do not minimize how hard it is) that because of that…you have to work that much harder at finding a job than everyone else! Isn’t that a basic rule?  In tough times… the tough survive, right?

Truth is, it’s my fault!  I remember when I was 19 saying, “I’ll never be as tough on my kids as my dad was on me.” Oops! I think I was wrong and my dad was right. If only he was alive to read this he’d call me and say, “I told you so.”  Now I try to instill the same values in my son but frankly, I ruined it for him by giving him way too much, way too soon. Whatever they’ve wanted, they got.  All of sudden, our children are being tossed into a world they’ve never even imagined existed.  I’m actually sorry I tried to make things so easy for my kids. My mom and dad were right… I’d pay for that mistake someday… and pay indeed I am!

The big question looking at the big picture though is, “Have we not created the same expectations within the very fiber of our culture and society? If someone doesn’t have… do they simply expect someone else to supply it?  I make no political statement here; I simply ask the question.

As for my simple advice for all the youth of today…

“Be not a victim… be victorious!

By Robert Lawrence, President/CEO

I’ve been an Apple fan for almost three years, since I bought my first iPhone and Macbook Pro.  Without getting into the typical PC-Mac war I see so often in blogs, it’s just a matter of personal choice.  For me, Apple is just best at designing sexy, intuitive products with a cool interface that yields a more enjoyable overall experience. If you know me at all…you know that I am big on the “experience” that any brand should bring to the table.

I’m not in the game of trying to get you to switch to the iPhone; frankly, I don’t really care.  The whole point tough, is that Apple pre sold 600,000 units of the iPhone 4.0 on day one!  What is more impressive is that the figure represents consumers who purchased them sight unseen; without so much as a demo or an ability to see a non-working model. WOW!  Now that’s BRANDING!

Why?  Because a brand is “A PROMISE, BASED ON A RELATIONSHIP, WRAPPED IN AN EXPERIENCE!” Apple is King when it comes to using the formula. The relationship is so deep… the promise so trusted… the experience so wonderful… that the consumer literally becomes addicted and not only buys them sight unseen, but has to have it before anyone else. I mean will a week or two later really make a difference? The power of the Apple brand says, “yes…it does make a difference!”

I am going to keep this really short because with 600,000 units sold you get the point!  Apple and AT&T sold so many pre order iPhone 4s that they had server trouble and ran out after only one day; the busiest day in AT&T’s history.

The joke lately is that Steve jobs can just about throw up onto his fan base’s hands, and they would pay to have him do it! But maybe it’s not a joke. Remember – sight unseen – 600,000 units!

What are you doing to create a brand that perfectly follows the formula? Build a PROMISE, based on a marriage-like RELATIONSHIP, and then create an addictive EXPERIENCE.

By Robert Lawrence, President/CEO

I have two teen age sons 18 and 16, and one preteen daughter who just turned 12 this past Saturday. I would have to admit that I’ve been pretty tough on my kids; no doubt tougher on my sons than my daughter.  If you have teenage boys maybe you know why it can be a real battle.

To open up on an even more personal level… in retrospect, maybe I have been too tough; especially with my 16 year old boy who is truly a wonderful young man but who has butted heads with me often over the last two years.

Is it my fault?  Probably so. My expectations have always been high; average has never been good enough – even when sometimes average was probably the best he could do. I am prayerful he will come to understand my fatherly intent as he gets older.

Of this though, I am certain… I may not have always been right but everything I pushed him toward has only been in an effort to benefit his future. I never tried to force him to do something that would benefit me.

Today though, I see that Laurence Sunderland has been shopping a reality TV show about his daughter Abby’s recent failed solo sailing attempt around the world, and that perhaps the entire journey was planned for monetary purpose more than anything.

Trying to be as non judgmental as possible… WTH!!  I can only say that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell, that I would ever let my 16 year old daughter embark on such an adventure. I mean my oldest son, who is actually almost 19, made a trek from San Diego to Lake Tahoe and back Friday night by himself and I thought I was going to pass out from fear and anxiety until he arrived back home 6:30 Saturday morning!

I have to give him credit though; he was very understanding and called me every hour from the road to update me on his excursion! Imagine sending your 16 year old daughter on a small boat to sail 24,000 miles around the globe, alone. It is beyond my comprehension.  I don’t care how much she may have begged to do it to compete with her older brother who completed the journey when he was 17.

To just think that not only did her dad approve but according to some reports, it may have been something he actually arranged to make money for himself, raises the question…”Is this child abuse?”  At the least it seems like child exploitation!

Maybe I’m old fashioned. Isn’t a father supposed to protect his children at all cost? Isn’t his job to provide food, shelter, clothing, education, and to teach them the best he can, and perhaps more than anything…to simply protect them from possible harm?

I’m baffled that it’s even legal to allow a minor to embark on such an endeavor and that child services won’t be there to whisk her off to safety at the dock. I really want to know what you think on this? Is this Ok? Maybe it really is just me.

As the General Manager of WPIX TV used to say every night at 11pm in his editorial, “What’s your opinion… we’d like to know.”