It all starts when we are very young.  It’s a process, and it has been working effectively in organized society for thousands of years.  We are processed with a mixture of religion and patriotism that keeps the social fabric intact.  Religion and patriotism are the ties that bind.  They are meant to supersede not only family and friendships, but our very instinct to survive.  The process ingrains the fundamental values that social order depends on, not the least of which – when called upon – is self-sacrifice.  Heroes are honored and sainted, and they are used as paragons of behavior.  Follow their lead, and you too will be worthy.  Repeat after me …

Some societies reference patriotism above religion and vice versa.  In most cases it’s easy to recognize what a particular society is selling the hardest – the flag or the cross?  I’ll go with two newsworthy examples: Russia is currently selling patriotism [effectively] and Iraq is forever selling religion [ineffectively].  While patriotic ethnic cleansing is all the rage in Eastern Europe, sectarian violence has a grip on the Mideast.  You’ll need a scorecard to keep track of the carnage, but I’m putting my money on ethnic patriotism for the next decade – unless, of course, a billion Hindus decide to start really smacking some Sunni Muslims around [while the Sunnis are busy eradicating the Shias] – then we’ll have a real ballgame in the Mideast.

But that’s not what this posting is all about.  It’s simply about all the constant complaining that’s going on.  It’s an emotionally devastating pandemic, and it’s crushing our spirit.

Partisanship is nothing new.  But our non-stop partisan complaining and vilification have been amplified beyond reason.  And while it all seems to start in Washington DC, social media has allowed it to permeate every corner of our world.  Twitter is toxic.

The simple reality [or at least my version of simple reality for the purpose of this posting] is that our very mortal leaders are ostensibly, but not really, elected by flawed and often ignorant constituents in an enfeebled system.  It is the best of all possible worlds, but that does not make it any less dyspeptic.  Eventually, this habitual bad temper takes its toll, and we have become as fractured as the system.

Our expectations are beyond reason.  Our leaders are being held to unreasonable standards, and this contrarian posturing seeps into every aspect of our lives.  Nothing is good enough anymore.  Everything is a conspiracy.  No one is merely mistaken, they are malicious and evil.  In general, marketers have us convinced that no one is happy enough, so everyone is either complaining, consuming too much, or being anesthetized against the horror of their lackluster predicament.  It’s almost comical.

I was reading about how upset a whole town in Pennsylvania is about our failure to find a suitable ‘American’ solution in Iraq.  Already the chorus has begun that we wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives for nothing.  In their ‘America,’ sacrifice is only worthwhile when we are victorious [or at least sanctimoniously right].  Well, it just doesn’t always work out that way.  It’s time we accept that America’s world dominance is not only a patriotic illusion, but an unhealthy prospect for the world [and us].

I’m neither Democrat nor Republican, liberal nor conservative.  From my perspective, Bush and Obama are part of a glitched system that produces the same outcome.  We naively overstate their significance.  They are just ambitious men with often debilitating flaws, not the least of which is hubris.  They screw up – we all do.  This is unavoidable.  But they do not drive the system, the system drives them.  At times, it makes heroes of them [like my personal favorite, Winston Churchill], while most of the time they are merely grist for the mill [like poor Jimmy Carter].

In government, policy is fluid because it has to be.  We live in a dynamic world, nothing is static.  By the end of the week, Iran might be our new ally.  And don’t forget that Stalin got us through WWII.  Today’s friend is tomorrow’s mortal enemy, and the clock is ticking on China.  So, try to keep up and shut up.

As for your tiresome and sophomoric political opinion, you most likely don’t know the difference between a Sunni and Shia Muslim, and you sure as hell couldn’t find Turkmenistan without Google Maps, so quiet down.  You probably don’t know the fundamental difference between communism and socialism, and I doubt you have any idea what is going on in Africa, so let it be.  Domestically, you are possibly oblivious to the fact that at 40% we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world [even Sweden is only at 22%].  So kindly stay away from economics and domestic policy.  Do you remember when interest rates were over 10%?  Maybe you do, but do you remember how our economy was doing when they were that high?  Clueless, I bet.  So, stop promoting and repeating ignorant populist views.  And for those of you that do know the difference, do something constructive with that knowledge.

My advice is to turn it way down.  I just can’t listen to one more ignorant complaint.  Your constant whining is unbearable, and your pill popping solutions are pathetic.  Whatever it is that you are pissed about, keep it to yourself.  And, by the way, if you really hate the uber-rich so much, stop fawning over them and maybe they will go away [or at least stop being so annoying with their vanity and conspicuous consumption].

But, most of all, stop complaining about your own abysmal personal predicament.  We all understand someone is sick and dying, while someone else is broke or depressed, but that’s life.  Unhappiness is part of life.  Failure is part of life.  And, yes, death is inevitable.  But joy is also part of life.  Why not skip your misery and bring a little joy into the world?  You only get one life – do you really want to spend it complaining?

The gift of life comes wrapped in free will.  Use it wisely or lose it.

The years click by.  I’m sitting here trying to remember being a kid.  From what I recollect, I was a happy kid.  I wonder if those who knew me then would depict me that way?  Regardless, I’m glad that’s how I remember my childhood.

I’m 60 now, and the past hasn’t changed – it’s still happy.  Fate may eventually have its way with me, but it’s already so far in the hole that it’s going to have to really give me a beating just to get back to even [not that I doubt its capacity to destroy on a whim].

My father always told me that my beating was coming.  Of course, there were times he wanted to be the delivery man, but he knew that I would get mine eventually.  When he met my future in-laws, all he did was laugh and say, “oh yah, you’ll get yours – in spades.”  Whenever I would trip and fall, all he’d want to know was “how’d that feel?”  He always took pleasure in the vagaries of life slapping me around.  He wanted me ready for the inevitable shit storm.  He always knew it was lurking right around the corner.  Only a fool wouldn’t be ready for the challenge.  He made sure I was ready.

He did a great job.  I hope my kids end up as happy with their life as I have.

That’s about it for me as this Father’s Day approaches.  I simply had a father who wanted me to be my own man.  Social status meant less than nothing to him.  In fact, any recognition of the sort was an insult [mostly sought for and fawned over by sycophants and fools].  Fame and wealth were not the measure of man in his book.  A big bank account didn’t make a man smart.  Notoriety did not make a man significant.  Independence, virility, and athleticism – those were the low class values he pounded into me.  The key to enjoying life was simple: walk your own road for better or worse, and when the bill comes due – pay it.

Take one more selfie and we’ll have to shoot you.

The earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and there was no life on it for the first 2 billion years.  Man has been around for a mere 50,000 of those 4.5 billion years – that’s about 800 generations.  The first 650 generations were spent as cave dwellers, and nearly all the manufactured products and technology that we use today were produced by the last 5-7 generations.  We humans are but a speck.

I write because it helps me think.  I imagine I have endless meetings for the same reason.  In most cases, I choose the appropriate audience for my meandering, and sometimes they even feign interest.  I write my blog for a specific audience as well – my children’s children.

I often wish that I had a journal or notes from my father.  I wish I knew what he was thinking.  He wrote very little down, and most of that was on the back of envelopes or napkins.  He was a brilliant and instinctive merchant.

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult. – Hippocrates.

I’m hoping that somewhere down the line, one of my grandchildren will gather in my perspective and enjoy it.  If nothing else, I want them to know just how much I enjoyed the journey, and that every day was a challenge and a delight.  I don’t think I’ll need to alert them of all the pain and suffering we all encounter, that will come their way as fate chooses.  I write to them simply to illuminate and elucidate [my life].

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. – Benjamin Disraeli

The gift of life is about all that is good and all that is bad, and fate is a capricious bastard at best.  But, for me, fate has been kind, so I best not tempt it.  Like an angry woman, it can be relentless in its retribution.

I receive 4 newspapers every morning, at least I’m scheduled to, but I have a fickle delivery service, so every morning is a crapshoot.  This morning I found the NY Times, Naples Daily News, and USA Today at the end of my driveway waiting for me, but the Wall Street Journal was not to be found.  So it goes.  I subscribe to these four papers for perspective, even if it just the perusal of their front page.  It’s just not a perspective you can gain online.

“We live,” Carl Sagan once said, “on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of billions of other galaxies. … That is a perspective on human life and our culture that’s well worth pondering.”

Mr. Sagan certainly recognized how important it was to step back every once in a while and chuckle at our vanity and folly.  We comically aggrandize all that we do, placing significance on the most bizarre beliefs and pursuits.  How many Twitter followers do you have?  How tall are you?  How big is your … ?  [You can fill in anything you want from your house to your bank account to your car to your audience to your business to your dick to your …]

The stars tell a story that help to put our insignificant little lives in perspective, but they also never fail to reenforce the magic that the gift of life truly is.  It’s a dichotomy that pervades every part of our lives from good to evil, love to hate, courage to fear, building to destroying, generosity to greed, success to failure, joy to pain, and life to death.

At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly. – Mason Cooley

I see people praying to a dead man on a cross while dutifully filling up the coffers of his marketers with hard-earned money to pay off seemingly endless pedophile claims.  Absurd?  Only to a certain degree, but when you consider people’s loneliness, ignorance, and fear, it becomes almost reasonable.  I see people killing because they were told to.  “This is today’s enemy.”  They get the memo, and then they go out and kill with some of the most sophisticated, resourceful, and imaginative means one could imagine.  Absurd?  Only to a certain degree, but when you consider how crazy the enemy actually is, it becomes a necessity.  I get it.  You’d think we could get beyond kill or be killed, but we haven’t.  We are animals, and it is survival of the fittest.  Deal with it.

But it is the folly of it all that I am measuring my day by today.  It’s just one of those days.

So, for those of you that revel in your wealth, power, notoriety, popularity, undeniable beauty, wit, style, talent, impeccable taste, or intelligence – get over yourself.  You’ll be dead and forgotten soon enough.  And for those of you that are worried about that pimple on your face this morning – get a life.  Your worries are but a trifle.  Go live your life.

This morning I got up at 6:30AM and started filling in the dash on my tombstone, as I have every day for 60 years now.  One of these days, I won’t.  That will be that.  The point is that every day we fill in that dash between being born and being dead, and every day we need to make it count.  And it better count to you.  It’s your life.  Don’t let them fool you into believing it’s their life.  We all need to find what makes that dash significant to us.  For me, it is simply building.  But, in the end, it is all folly …

… but it’s the best of all possible worlds.

Wikipedia:  The phrase “the best of all possible worlds” was coined by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil.  The claim that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds is the central argument in Leibniz’s theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil.

Among his many philosophical interests and concerns, Leibniz took on this question of theodicy: If God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient, how do we account for the suffering and injustice that exist in the world?  Historically, attempts to answer the question have been made using various arguments, for example, by explaining away evil or reconciling evil with good.

For Leibniz, an additional central concern is the matter of reconciling human freedom [indeed, God’s own freedom] with the determinism inherent in his own theory of the universe.  Leibniz’ solution casts God as a kind of “optimizer” of the collection of all original possibilities: Since He is good and omnipotent, and since He chose this world out of all possibilities, this world must be good—in fact, this world is the best of all possible worlds.

On the one hand, this view might help us rationalize some of what we experience: Imagine that all the world is made of good and evil.  The best possible world would have the most good and the least evil.  Courage is better than no courage.  It might be observed, then, that without evil to challenge us, there can be no courage.  Since evil brings out the best aspects of humanity, evil is regarded as necessary.  So in creating this world God made some evil to make the best of all possible worlds.  On the other hand, the theory explains evil not by denying it or even rationalizing it—but simply by declaring it to be part of the optimum combination of elements that comprise the best possible Godly choice.  Leibniz thus does not claim that the world is overall very good, but that because of the necessary interconnections of goods and evils, God, though omnipotent, could not improve it in one way without making it worse in some other way.

For those of you that need a little inspiration to reach for the stars, there’s always what that little Italian, Napoleon, had to say about his personal folly: “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

– The future is uncertain and the end is always near. Let it roll.
– Show me a man who never had a chance, and I’ll show you a man who never took a chance.
– Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.
– Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
– And she said, with a tear in her eye, “Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow.”
– I’ve been around the world and every man bleeds the same.

I take credit for the things I’ve done, but when the lights are dim, I’m not the only guilty one.

Posted by: Tony
Date: December 18, 2013
Draft: Two

The New Ecosystem

In the 1980’s, the consumer electronics industry underwent a seismic shift from the small undercapitalized audio premise to the expansive TV/Appliance superstore. The VCR was both the instigator and the fuel for this cataclysmic event. When the dust settled, the audio dealer was a relic. Today, we are witness to another seismic shift that I feel will prove to be just as dramatic. Apple’s remarkable and stunning rise is just the first shot fired.

A revolution is underway, and both the instigator and the fuel for this new cataclysmic event is technology integration. Pick any segment of its arsenal – from the internet, to cloud service providers, to audio/video streaming, to cloud storage, to smartphones, to video conferencing, to online learning, to virtual servers, to social networking, to online shopping, to big data analytics – you name it and technology integration’s new delivery system has enabled, transformed, and accelerated it. It is overwhelming, and I believe no one can harness and deliver it like we can.

The old Stereo Advantage provided our retail customers access to entertainment through a well-developed and easily understood matrix of products; while our Commercial Division provided a concierge approach to selling the same entertainment product awkwardly positioned for business use. Audio/Video provided a recognizable banner for product choices, and it led to a revolution in retail. Big Box retailers effectively combined disparate categories into an effective sales environment: blending home appliances with audio/video, car audio, computers, and software. Today. technology has rendered the old matrix unrecognizable, as it has blurred the lines that conveniently separated the categories that we once sold [and bought] with simplicity.

Our New Delivery Concept

Just as we ushered in a new era in consumer electronics retail with the Home Theater and SmartLink mall concepts in the early 90’s, we are now embarking on yet another game-changing enterprise. Our new Advantage Business Resources headquarters and concept store at the Walker Center will provide our commercial and government clients with the resources necessary for effective technology integration by developing system architecture specific to their needs. We will provide a unique and effective delivery model for the components, installation, programming, ongoing support, and service required to maximize the potential and effectiveness of their fully integrated technology wonderland.

Apple, no doubt, is a definitive resource in today’s new technology delivery model. They touch communication, entertainment, and compute in a very attractive integrated ecosystem which they deliver almost flawlessly. They provide niche products that have revolutionized how people view and access technology, but they are not a business solution [and they are certainly not an effective cloud service provider]. Facebook is no less an instigator, and while Google and Windows will wage their own private battle for our souls, not one of these enormously successful companies can deliver the whole package like we can, not even Amazon [who in just a few short years has overwhelmed the legacy delivery model].

Whether it is a business, institution, home, school, or government application of technology in this new ecosystem, there is only one company currently poised and equipped to provide a complete integration solution [including creating, installing, managing, and servicing it]. That company is Advantage Business Resources. This technology revolution offers us a future with an opportunity to dominate the new delivery model. It is a future I intend on building with you.

The proposed Advantage Business Resources center will be the local, national, and international delivery vehicle for technology integration to our commercial and government customers; and the Advantage Sales Group featuring all of our Advantage Business Resources’ offerings will be the international team for delivery to our clients, business partners, and associates.

I am looking forward to building this with everyone at the Advantage. There will certainly be an incredible opportunity at Advantage Business Resources for those that understand, believe, and create our new vision with energy and purpose.

Our Native Resources and Offerings

The key resource for Advantage Business Resources is our Advantage Global Network, which is comprised of 4 unique service offerings:

• Advantage Global Management. Business service offerings. Our backend support of the various G8 entities has positioned us to realize the opportunities as a fully functional support resource for a variety of business operations.
• c1 Search. Personnel service offerings. Temporary and contract staff augmentation solutions and permanent placement.
• c1 Services. Professional and managed service offerings.
• c1Secure. Cloud service offerings, including an incredible array of offerings from the Autonomic Resources Oven.

According to one estimate, organizations around the world may outsource $483B in business and IT services in 2013. That so many organizations are willing to invest so much is a testament to the effectiveness of outsourcing as a service delivery model.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) vendors are seeking to capitalize on cloud computing’s ability to enhance traditional business models and support new ones. Conceivably, one or more vendors [like The Advantage Global Network] may combine BPO with cloud computing horsepower to offer clients the ability to essentially outsource an entire business function in one fell swoop. This is what The Advantage Global Network hopes to enable with the entire array of G8 service offerings at our disposal.

We believe that this Advantage Global Network identification will also create an opportunity to identify and promote all of our world class resources for new partnerships such as Wellingtin Resources and for our various sales staffs throughout the Advantage Global Network.

TW&Co and Giancarlo’s have several significant offerings to contribute to Advantage Business Resources.

• Corporate Gift Giving.
• Executive Gift Giving Registry.
• Corporate Shopping Events.
• Corporate Meetings, Banquets, and Events.
• Corporate Catering.
• The Catalog.

Some of the resources we are contemplating including atAdvantage Business Resources are from our Electronics Division:

• Advantage Technology Integrators.
• Mobotix and Security.
• Advantage Trade Group [along with ASI, embroidery, and screen printing].
• The Commercial Division.

Over the past thirty years our retail and commercial customers have come to recognize us as the premier merchant in WNY, nevertheless, we need to stay relevant. Today’s technology offers us even more opportunities for our preeminent consultative sales. If we provide the type of product and services that our commercial customers need in this new age of technology, we will remain the most relevant merchant in our market. It is up to us to integrate IT technology with relevant business services. Furthermore, we have to make it universally accessible. Whether it’s in their office or online – it’s up to us to seamlessly integrate their access to all of their information and operation resources. No one is better equipped to provide the myriad of expertise necessary to deliver the whole package.Advantage Business Resources is our magic sauce.

I am confident that 2014 will be a remarkable and transformative year for everyone at the Advantage.

Be big, be a builder.

Sincerely,
Tony

Mission Statement: Advantage Business Resources will provide our commercial and government clients with the resources necessary for effective technology integration by developing system architecture specific to their needs. We will provide the components, installation, programming, ongoing support, and services required to maximize the potential and effectiveness of their fully integrated system.

I received a text message yesterday that my Aunt Ida passed away.  It was my 60th birthday, and already a day ripe for reflection.  At dinner with my kids, I spent the entire time telling stories of my Aunt Ida and Uncle Lou.  I have my favorite tales [which I’m certain I embellish], and they frame the love I had for both of them.

My Aunt Ida was my father’s older sister, and he always kept that in mind.  Looking back, I think he always listened to her [although I doubt you could find anyone to testify that he listened to anyone].  But my Aunt Ida was no one to mess with, especially when I was a little kid.  Frankly, she scared me.  Back then it was my Uncle Lou who I gravitated to.

I have two distinct pictures in mind of my Uncle Lou.  The first is him leaning back in his recliner after Sunday dinner, and the second is him pulling up the driveway with his grandson Ronnie in his little Fiat convertible.  If ever there was a more universally loved guy than my Uncle Lou, I never met him.  He was a perfect compliment to his sisters, Aunt Sally and Aunt Ann, who, along with Lou, were probably the three most enjoyable people any of us knew.  And while there seemed to be Battaglias all over Thunder Bay, it was my Aunt Ann who drew them all together.  It was an extended family that grew up together, and, from time to time, I got to share in their restive spirit.  My ‘Battaglia’ cousins Leon, Larry, Gary, Louis, Ronnie, and Maria were all larger than life to me.

One night at dinner at my Aunt Ida’s, my father started picking on my Uncle Lou because he had on his favorite old shirt which was, by then, left hanging by a thread.  He kept saying ”Lou, why don’t you throw that damn thing out?”  But no one could ignore my father better than my Uncle Lou, his best friend and partner in everything he did.  Eventually, the frustration of no reaction compelled my father to reach over and rip the pocket off the shirt.  The shirt ended up shredded.  It was the only time I saw my Uncle Lou really mad.  Sometimes I think all my dad wanted to do was aggravate Lou [and I’m sure that’s exactly how my Uncle saw it].

After they sold Twin Fair, my Uncle Lou retired young.  I think he was most happy just driving around with his grandkids, playing gin rummy, or helping someone out.  He was the guy who would always help out.  He’d just show up.  But my father was always working him to get back into business with him.  He’d cajole him into taking a Valu store or something like that, but it was only his son’s Valu Liquor store that he’d enjoy running.  My brother-in-law Frank and my cousin Lou opened a Valu liquor store that my father was convinced was the start of a family and friends chain of liquor stores.  It was actually a great idea.  One night, after my Uncle Lou closed up the store, he was rushed to the hospital.  The next morning, in a haze, he kept telling my father to make sure they didn’t throw the garbage out at the liquor store.  My father thought he was just a little off because he was sedated, but my uncle use to leave the safe open at night and hide the day’s deposit in a brown paper bag in the garbage.  It was his favorite ruse [and I have to admit one I used quite often in the early days of the Stereo Advantage].  Frank and Lou did some dumpster diving that morning, and the night’s deposit was safely recovered.

Whenever I hear “only the good die young,” I can’t help but think of my Uncle Lou.  My Uncle Lou died young, and it changed my aunt forever.  Her kids were grown.  My cousin Maria, who was like an older sister to me, was in college, and the boys were married and raising families.  I think this is when my Aunt became a full time grandma, and she filled the role marvelously.

She became my advocate and defender as I briefly entered the family business.  One day we were having lunch at the snack bar of the Big R, and I started kidding her that she was in love.  And although I knew she would never love anyone other than my Uncle Lou, she had found a nice companion in Steve [a gentle soul, but, admittedly, sort of a noodge].  I started telling her I knew she was getting married, and she started crying.  She hugged me and said, “I knew you would know.”  It was the closest I ever felt to her [and you should know that I am crying like a baby right now].  From that moment on all, I could recognize was the love in my Aunt Ida.

Although I drove her nuts as a kid, she watched over me with the love of a mother.  My mother died when I was nine, and my aunt insisted that my father move down the street from her so that she could help raise me.  His plan was to buy the Williamsville Inn and take up residence there.  It was a plan that only I endorsed [while everyone else told him he was crazy].  My Aunt Ida provided the discipline and security that a wayward kid like me needed [but never appreciated until I had children of my own].  I can’t even imagine where I’d be without my Aunt Ida.

She had a little dog named Tammy that really didn’t like anyone that came to the door.  It would always nip at my father’s ankles, and one day he belted it pretty hard.  After that, every time my dad would show up at my aunt’s, the dog would see him and piss the floor.  My aunt could never figure it out.  For as tough as my father thought he was, he was always being yelled at by his mother and older sister.  Looking back, it’s quite comical.  Basically, he was still their Little Tony.

The women that raised me are now all gone.  I am a motherless child, but fortunate to have had their love.  My Aunt Ida knew me best and knew what was best for me.  She was the port in the storm, and I will love her forever.  She lives on in my children.  Her spirit is irrepressible.

I will fly home Friday to share in the joyful remembrance that is the Battaglia way.  For as Ragusa as she was, she truly became a Battaglia.