Personal Mission: To be of meaningful help to “my people” who I define as “over-educated Westerners.”
Business and Social Entrepreneur
- Founder and CEO of: Brooke Allen Information Systems, Inc., Bravo Alpha, Inc., MANE Fund Management, Inc.
- Co-Founder:, Education Technology Center, Inc., APL PI, Inc.
- Creator: No Shortage of Work
Manager – Head of the Quantitative Trading Group at Maple Securities, USA, Inc.
Author – Numerous short stories, two plays, and a book in progress.
Interests – Computer Programming, Amateur Radio, Travel, Networking
Family Man – Wife: Eve, Sons: Davis and Glen
STORIES FROM GERMANY
by: Brooke Allen
A Luftwaffe Airman’s Daughter
In 1980, my girlfriend and I were traveling on a rail pass. We left from Milan bound for Frankfurt only because that is where the train went.
A German businessman sat across from us and asked, “Where are you going?”
“Frankfurt.”
“Why? Frankfurt is so boring. You should go to Wiesbaden instead.”
We asked, “Why?”
“Because that is where we live and you will stay with us.”
His wife spoke English with a perfect British accent. It turned out her father had been in the Luftwaffe and had been shot down during the Battle of Britain. He became best friends with a prison guard, and after the war during the summers they would swap children. She grew up partially in England.
She said the difference between the treatment of prisoners by the British and the Germans was astonishing.
We all cried.
We were there having dinner with them because they had decided to make it a habit of being kind to strangers; which is not a bad policy even when the stranger had recently been trying to blow up your country.
An Unemployed German
In 2004, in Nuremberg, I met Kai, a very talented 51-year-old programmer who had been unemployed for 2 years, so my wife and I took him to dinner. His attitudes were self-defeating and I attacked every one of his beliefs:
“The economy is terrible.” So, are you just going to wait for it to improve?
“The government is incompetent.” Are you going to run for office and fix it?
“I’ve only had 2 interviews and they both ended abruptly when they learned my age.” People are prejudiced. Do you have a plan for how you are going to change them, or are you going to take a different approach?
“I don’t have a college degree.” That hasn’t stopped you for 30 years.
“Nobody cares.” There is a whole community of programmers just like you. Are you going to continue ignoring them or are you going to start caring about them and see if they care back?
“There is no work.” There is never a shortage of work even when there is a shortage of jobs. Find some work and do it even if you aren’t paid.
“I’ve built some amazing software on my own, but can’t sell it.” Are you going to learn to sell, partner with someone who can, or give up on doing what you want and start doing what other people want?
“There are no jobs in Germany.” You’re in the EU now so you can go where there are jobs.
“My English isn’t good enough.” Sure it is; I understand you perfectly. If you don’t understand me it isn’t because of your language skills, it is because of how you are thinking.
My wife kept kicking me under the table and whispered, “He just wants your sympathy.”
I said, “Perhaps, but it isn’t what he needs.”
We were living in London at the time and he even flew over to spend a weekend with me to get more of my abuse.
Soon he got unstuck and landed a job in Copenhagen (good pay, company apartment, flight home every other weekend) and a year later he moved to England for another job.
Kai and I have become good friends and my wife and I stayed with him outside London in November 2010.
He says he hates going back to Germany because too many people there think the way he used to.
(You can read Kai’s story in his own words HERE.)
Beautiful Women of the GDR.
I won a British Airways contest based on my social entrepreneurship site, No Shortage of Work, and the prize was airfare to anywhere BA flies. I put a notice on my profile on Europe’s equivalent of LinkedIn called Xing. Dozens of people said they would love to meet me in person so I flew into Frankfurt, then Cologne, and flew out of Hamburg and for 11 days I spent my time meeting people in person I’d only corresponded with before on Xing.
Although my sample size is very small, I have the following observation:
The most interesting, dynamic, interesting, hard-working, fearless, and interesting people I met were:
1) Female
2) Beautiful
3) From East Germany, but were now in the West.
4) Were born under Communism, but grew into adulthood after the fall of the Wall.
My sample size was small and I am partial to young beautiful women so perhaps that is why I find them more interesting than old male businessmen like me, but I still think there is something to this.
What do you think?
KARMA – THE ONLY CURRENCY THE FED CAN’T DEVALUE, AND THE IRS CAN’T TAX
The InterContinental Hotel Group (NYSE Ticker: IHG) is the largest hotel group in the world with seven brands (Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge, and Candlewood Suites). They claim more than 645,000 rooms in over 100 countries.
If I take the time to join their “Priority Club Rewards” program, I get exclusive benefits like a free newspaper once a week. After I accumulate 20,000 points I get additional goodies such as Priority Check-In and a special phone number so I can wait less time on hold. Points are easy to accumulate because many of their rooms cost more for one night than I spent for an entire semester’s college tuition.
As a Club member, they would begin collecting information about me and my preferences so they can tailor an experience just for me. They promise not to release that information to anyone – not even me.
I never bothered joining. Unlike many, I can afford their rooms without going into debt to the credit card company. The issue is time, not money – my life is too short, and I don’t want to spend my time with them.
Instead, I belong to a different club, one with more space than InterContinental in more than twice as many countries. And my club is adding 14,000 members and 4,000 rooms a week.
And every one of those rooms is free.
My club is run by the Couch Surfing Collective. Although membership is free, four years ago I chose to donate about $20 and they verified that I was who I said I was, and I lived where I said I lived.
Couch Surfing members don’t have membership cards but rather online profiles that can be seen by all 1.8 million members. Other members write references, which can be positive, neutral, or negative – and all references appear on your profile, whether you like it or not.
Right now, I have over 70 positive references (and no neutral or negative ones), and therefore strangers all over the world will welcome me into their homes without any money changing hands. But if I stop Read more…
ALLEN FAMILY HOLIDAY GREETINGS CARD FOR 2008.
SUGGEST YOUR OWN CAPTIONS
“I would go back to the drawing board if it hadn’t been repossessed last week.”
“Given the economy, and now that you have written the proof that two can live as cheaply as one, I guess I will marry you.”
This cartoon was suggested by Brooke Allen, illustrated by Alicia Reeves, and published in the November 21, 2008 on-line edition of Science Careers Magazine in the story
Finance’s Quant(um) Mechanics
GREATEST GENERATION 2.0 - The New York Times publishes a letter.
Paul Krugman wrote a piece in the New York Times in which he wonders if Congress will vote on a stimulus package to head off the Great Depression II.
Some believe that it was World War 2 that got us out of the depression because it was the greatest stimulus spending package of all.
I disagree. I believe it was my father’s generation, the Greatest Generation that fought the War and that got us out of the Great Depression.
People got us our of our predicimanet, not policies.
The NY Times published my letter.
Recently, I reprinted the letter and illustrated it with stamps from my collection. The top contains U. S. stamps, and I notice they feature leaders and statesmen. The 3 cent stamp to the right commemorates the National Recovery Act of 1933, and it shows a woman, a businessman, a factory worker (whith a hammer over his shoulder), and a farmer with a sickle, all walking side by side. There was no inflation during the depression (in fact, there was deflation.)
By way of contrast, Germany had rampant inflation. All the German stamps in my collection are uncancelled. By the time a postage stamp made it to the post office it was worthless. The left-most stamp is for 10 marks, the rightmost 20 billion! Eventually it took a strong leader to get the economy under control… and we see who that was.
PERSISTENCE
© 2009 Brooke Allen
brooke@brookeallen.net www.BrookeAllen.net
Originally published in International FamilyMagazine
Republished in Folks Magazine on 11/7/09.
I was working as a computer programmer at Rutgers University when I saw the perfect job advertised by American Airlines. It had everything that I wanted: interesting work, decent pay, and free travel everywhere American flew.
I sent a letter outlining my skills, and offered to write a resume if they found me interesting. They did not request a resume, but they did call me in for an interview. I thought that it went very well.
A month later, a “thanks but no thanks” letter arrived.
This was disappointing. I called Walter, the hiring manager and asked what was wrong, and why I didn’t get the offer. He said it was just a matter of competition; there was someone better.
I asked what I could have done to be better than the competition. He said it wasn’t likely there was anything I could have done. The person they hired came from the software vendor who had been servicing their account for years. He already knew their needs better than anyone else could have.
“So, why did you interview me?”
“Because the Human Resources department requires that we run an ad and interview three people before we make an offer.”
That made sense.
At the university, I wrote a computer column for a monthly newsletter. Every few weeks I would put out a document about some programming technique or software package.
I put Walter on the distribution list for all my publications. Then I forgot all about him.
Six months later he called me.
“I have a job for you.”
“Great.”
“There is only one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Get me off that damn mailing list.”
“No problem. I can start in two weeks.”
“We can’t move that fast. It will take six weeks minimum.”
“Why?”
“We have to run and ad and interview three people. But the job is yours.”
If you don’t get what you want, don’t forget to ask why.
THINGS VS. PEOPLE
© 2009 Brooke Allen
brooke@brooketallen.com www.BrookeAllen.net
Originally published October, 2009, in International Family Magazine
Republished in Folks Magazine on 10/24/09.
When I was 16, my dad told me to get in the car – we were going for a ride. We drove to Bolek’s Foreign Car Service. My dad told Bolek that his son needed to learn how to work and he would drop me there every Saturday morning. He told Bolek that I wasn’t worth anything so he shouldn’t pay me anything. He gave Bolek $100 as an advance against any damage I might do. Then he drove off.
Over the next year I learned to get my hands dirty, how to use tools, and how things worked.
- – -
When my dad had a problem, we went to visit Frank at Frank’s hardware store.
Frank was a problem solver and his store was a huge collection of tools and parts for solving problems.
“Looks like this is a job for a ¾ inch bit and a stove bolt.” “I’d use a rubber coupling and a hose clamp.” “An arc welder is better for that than acetylene.”
- – -
Decades later, I became a dad too.
- – -
I sat next to a four-year-old girl at a neighbor’s dinner table.
“I hate broccoli. How come I never get what I want? I hate you.” She began pounding the table and crying.
While her parents were in the kitchen making her French fries, I turned to her and asked, “Wow. How do you do that?”
Her crying stopped abruptly and she gave me a sly smile. “You want to yell and make a lot of noise. Don’t stop. It really helps if you can cry.”
“But, why do I want to do that?”
“Because that way you get what you want.”
—
A young boy was given a present by his divorced dad at Cub Scout camp.
“But mommy gave me two presents, and both of them were nicer than this.” He wrinkled his nose.
The dad frowned, “You don’t think this is the only thing I got you, do you?” That afternoon, the father left the camp to go shopping.
- – -
I sat on the abandoned lifeguard chair as I watched a young girl run across the sand.
She twisted her ankle and fell in a heap.
She began crying hysterically.
Suddenly she stopped, stood, and looked around. Her father was far away; out of earshot.
She collapsed again and bawled even louder.
She stood again. Her father had wandered off so she resumed joyfully running down the beach.
- – -
Today, I can tell you what everything in a hardware store is used for.
But I am terrible at getting other people to do what I want.
Teach your children to manipulate things, not people.
(And the best way to teach them not to manipulate people is to not let them manipulate you.)
CRIME PREVENTION
© 2009 Brooke Allen
brooke@brookeallen.net www.BrookeAllen.net
Originally published September, 2009 in International Family Magazine
A week after I moved to Manhattan, I went to a street fair and found there a policeman with a big sign: HELP US PREVENT CRIME
I approached, “I’m game. How can I help you prevent crime?”
He said, “By putting three locks on your door.”
“But I already have two locks on my door, and I find it really annoying. How does having three prevent crime?”
“Years ago, everyone had one lock, so we told them to get two. Now everyone has two, so you need three.”
“But how does having three prevent crime?”
“The thing is, crooks are lazy… if they weren’t they’d get jobs. Your goal is to make your door harder to break into than the next one.”
“But that doesn’t prevent crime. It just gets my neighbor broken into instead of me.”
He laughed, “What do you care?”
A girl moved in across the hall a few months later. She did not have a phone and frequently asked to borrow mine, so I began leaving my door open. She reciprocated, and soon a bunch of us on the floor did. Our tiny apartments became less claustrophobic. Friendlier too…
There were break-ins in our building. But not on our floor – even though none of us bought that third lock. Perhaps it was because we were looking out for each other.
It takes community to prevent crime, and communities are made from open doors, not locked ones.
Putting more locks on your door prevents crime just like stuffing your face prevents hunger.
BAD OWNERS – THE FLY IN OUR SOUP
© 2010 Brooke Allen
brooke@brookeallen.net www.BrookeAllen.net
Originally published in International Family Magazine
Shareholders have a problem – themselves.
My friend asked me when his mutual funds would rebound, and I asked him why he cares. He said, “Because if they are not going to rebound, I am going to sell.”
I asked him what he would do if he found a fly in his soup. “I’d want to talk to the waiter.” And if the waiter said it wasn’t his problem? “Then I would want to speak to the chef.” And if the chef said he couldn’t do anything about it? “I’d demand to speak to the manager.” And if the manager did nothing? “I’d want to speak to the owner.”
My friend would want to talk to the owner about the fly, but I would want to talk to the owner about what it means to be an owner.
Over the decades, as a trader and market maker, I’ve been the shareholder of record for billions of shares of common stock, and I have started a few corporations under my own name. While legally, the two forms of ownership are the same, there is a world of difference.
As owner, I know that the customer is a king who can fire me for any reason or no reason, yet my creditors and vendors must still be paid and the taxman must get his due. My employees must keep the customers happy, and my managers must keep the employees happy. I must not only keep an eye on the till, I must save for the rainy day. And when it pours, I will need to dip into those savings to keep the operation running while the customers stay at home. If I want everyone to be loyal to me during good times, I must be loyal to them all the time. I had better believe in my product, or I shall find all this hard to do and sleep soundly, too.
As owner, I must put the interests of all those with claims senior to mine ahead of my own, and only afterward will I receive what is left over. I must bear risk when it needs to be borne, and I can’t bail just because I don’t like watching my net worth decline. I must be responsible and not self-centered. (And, if I have deep pockets, I can afford to be.) After all this, a sane market might reward me for being responsible, fearless, and not greedy, but only if I actually am. Still, there are no guarantees, for time and chance happeneth to us all.
I asked my friend why he owns stocks, and he said, “Because, in the long run, stocks perform best so that is where I keep my retirement savings.” I’ve been to business school too, and I’ve heard this claim before, but for the life of me, I can’t think of a reason it must be true. Besides, stocks represent ownership, and an investment in ownership is different from saving. Savings are what the owner liquidates to keep the company going during hard times. If the owner liquidates his firm to protect his savings, the business is in trouble.
I asked my friend if he is an owner of General Motors and, upon reflection, he realized that he is through his various funds. I asked if he drives a GM car, and he said he thought their products were terrible.
Imagine my friend complains about the fly to the restaurant manager, who researches the situation, and announces that, in fact, my friend is on of the owners; apparently my friend’s broker had purchased stock in the restaurant. When asked what he will do, my friend says, “I will sell my ownership immediately.” If my friend, who only cares about return on his investment, sells to someone with a passion for good food, and a respect for the customer, then that restaurant may one day be a place where you and I would like to eat. Until then, we best stay away. Likewise, we best avoid GM cars until its owners care more about their products (and us) than their portfolio.
You might want to test the thesis that a diversified portfolio of common shares does, in fact, perform well in the long run, in which case you should buy, hold, and see what happens. But, be aware that market prices are determined by the fear and greed of your fellow shareholders, and little else.
But, if you want to be rewarded for being an owner in more than name only, you must be in a position to act like one: be fearless and put the interests of the customers above your own.
Don’t assume I’m talking about others. If you have money in the stock market, I’m talking about you, my friend.
WHAT AM I?
© 2009 Brooke Allen
brooke@brookeallen.net www.BrookeAllen.net
Originally published August, 2009, in International Family Magazine
My friend in college, Debra, asked me, “What are you?”
I did not understand the question.
“What are you? How hard can that be? I’m Jewish, what are you?”
I said I was not religious.
“Neither am I. Just tell me what you are?”
I had not been raised with a religion… in fact; it had not been mentioned, kind of like sushi. I was 25 before I had even heard of sushi.
I asked my parents, “What am I?”
My mom said, “Brooke.” She laughed.
“I know that, but what am I relative to you?”
“Our son.”
“But what religion am I?”
“We don’t know. You haven’t told us.”
“How can I not even know what religion I am?”
“That is a personal choice – you will need to make it yourself. Or not.”
This was frustrating, “Ok, let’s make it simple. How about race? I’m not Black, right?”
My mom said, “I wouldn’t be too sure. There was a lot of fooling around going on. Everyone did it; don’t let them tell you otherwise.”
It was like sparring with a judo master who fades from every thrust.
In total exasperation, I said, “Look, my girlfriend is Jewish, and she wants to know what I am. Let’s start there… I’m not Jewish, right?”
My father became serious, “Do you want me to tell you what I want you to be?”
“Yes.” That would be a start.
“When they come to round up the Jews, I want you to be Jewish.”
__________________________________________________________
My friend in graduate school, Mona Hakim, was born in Bethlehem. When she was young, her family moved to Lebanon to avoid threats against her father’s life. She was going to the American University of Beirut when the civil war started.
She told me that your identity card had your religion printed right on it. Thugs would stop your car, and if you were the wrong religion for that part of town, they would chop your head off and place it on a fence post. Muslims did it. Christians did it.
Some people began blackening out their religion on the ID card. That worked for a while. How could you kill someone if you didn’t know what they were?
It didn’t take long for the thugs to think up an answer. If you were Muslim, and you weren’t proud of it, you deserved to die. Christians felt the same about Christians. They couldn’t agree on much, but they did agree on that one thing… don’t say what you are, and we’ll kill you.
That is when she decided she had to get out of there.
I asked her, “So, what are you?”
She said, “I’m not telling you. I’m through with that shit.”
Turns out, she was Mona – good enough for me.
If you conclude that your problems are caused by members of another group, you had better make sure you are not one of them.
If those others are humans, then you are either one of them, or you are inhuman.
