Weekly Observations

A fascinating article I picked up when it was mentioned in the Fizzle.co podcast. The comments are as fascinating as the article. What is the real cause of a minimum wage job, is it just supply and demand ? Should we take more ownership for life, particularly when we’re young. Realising that actually it’s pretty hard starting out ? Are we blanketing millennials as having expectations that are just unrealistic ?

I met a really smart, well-qualified American this week, who kindly explained why he’s $200,000 in debt because he chose a good education.  One day, and he’s not sure when, when maybe he’s not earning the SE Asia salary, significantly below that of US levels, he  hopes to pay it all back.

I thought UK students had a hard time with their average £30-60,000 student loans, but this is just a ridiculous amount of debt to be in when you’re only just starting out on a career. Another fellow mentor I bumped into recently is off to Harvard, where the course fees alone are $100,000. Personally I don’t think its worth the three letters after his name.

So what’s the alternative ? Being an entrepreneur ? Those afraid of the above mentioned debt, who decide ( or are pressured ) into going into a solopreneur business as an alternative. Preyed on by the internet snake-oil sellers offering passive income by selling the expertise they can’t possibly have, because they’re just not old enough to have all that experience. They suddenly realise they are contractors not entrepreneurs and when the one client they have disappears, money runs out and they’re back to square one.

Its a sad state of affairs, and I sympathise.

I’ve spent more time on Netflix than  I do normally. My partner has been away, I needed something to do. Watching Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, a film on health, while drinking beer and eating junk because I’m tired.  I’m not setting a good example.

The interesting story is that losing all that weight, being a role model, then piling a chunk of it back on again while being caught by the media just made the eventual crash all the harder. You can’t lose weight, and guess what, the underlying depression, on your own. We need support by our wider community. Men particularly it would seem. Can we stop telling ourselves we need to ‘Man Up’ we are men, we just need a bit of help and support, It’s these dreadful stereotypes that have become my pet hate since reading the Samaritans report.

So while on my binge of diet based entertainment, last nights That Sugar Film an interesting look at ‘Calories are not the same’. My above mentioned binge on Coke of all things being the source of 7-10 spoons of sugar. Great for cleaning out the pipes, and a decidedly persistent dose of stomach upset. However, on the downside, it means that by the time the innards are sorted, you’re nothing short of addicted to the stuff, too tired to function and absolutely not picking up where you left off on exercise when you recover. In only a week, I put back my pizza belly and I was eating almost nothing else that could be described as ‘bad for me’.

Definitely worth watching what sugar can do to you. No surprise that my only only intake today was a green smoothie and fresh vegetable dinner.