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Leading an Economic
Counter-Insurgency
July 15, 2008
General David Petraeus would be a rock star in
the business world today. He is a man that knows how to turn the worst
situation into a success relatively quickly. Gen. Petraeus took over command
of the Iraq war at the start of 2007, and led what was called "the surge" of
troops into Iraq. Most fully expected the General and his strategy to fail
miserably. Most were wrong. A "surge" is needed in business to get our
economic woes turned around.
Think back to January of 2007. The Democrats had just taken control of
Congress, and they put heavy pressure on President Bush to get out of Iraq.
The war had become extremely unpopular, and we were losing 30-40 soldiers
every month. The consensus was the U.S. should never have invaded Iraq, and
had now lost the war. It felt like Vietnam all over again.
Instead of urging retreat, Gen. Petraeus drew up the surge strategy to win
the war. I don't know about you, but I was skeptical at the time. The one
thing the General had going for him was that he knew he was right, and
passionately believed our troops would prevail if given the right orders. He
believed to his core he could turn the horrible mess around. A little more
than 18 months later there is no one who can deny our brave men and women in
uniform have soundly beaten the terrorists in Iraq. Thanks to the General,
and his ability to go against what was popular, we are close to actually
saying mission accomplished. For real this time.
It was General Petraeus' maverick thinking that turned a complete military
debacle into a success. Even if you didn't agree with going to war, you have
to believe once there it is better to win than lose. The General went
directly against what nearly everyone in the government and the military
thought was the best course. He took a massive risk, not only with his
military career, but more importantly with the lives of U.S. soldiers. The
risk paid off, and General Petraeus is regarded as a modern-day U.S. Grant.
Who will be the generals to solve our faltering economy? Who will be the
maverick thinkers that can pull us out of the mess we're in today? Is there
a new Steve Jobs or Bill Gates out there? Is there a new Warren Buffet with
great new ideas that will spur on new industries, and revitalize others?
We cannot rely on the government. They create problems, they don't solve
them. All the government will do is tax the success of the men and women who
drag the economy back from the brink. However, we control who runs the
government, so our job as citizens is to be sure our leaders get out of the
way and allow new ideas and businesses to flourish.
I believe the new generals of business will be the many creative people who
are working daily to find new, cheap, and clean forms of energy. Their
efforts will change the way we power our cars, homes, businesses,
everything. We are on the verge of an energy revolution that will change all
our lives significantly for the better.
The technology new energy develops will likely overlap into virtually every
industry, such as manufacturing, transportation, electronics, bio tech, and
health sciences. As with the computer revolution in the 1990's many other
creative individuals will take the foundation built by new energy, and
create fantastic new products. Think of the ways new energy will change
computers, televisions, cell phones, etc. There is limitless potential.
For instance, all over the internet you can find something called an HHO
Generator for automobiles. There are many variations to be found, but
basically an HHO generator is a container filled with water that has either
two small sheets of metal or two coiled wires that dip into the water. The
wires are connected to a power source in your car's engine, and a vacuum
hose runs from the jar to your engine's manifold intake.
When you start your car the metal coils are charged with electricity which
then causes a reaction in the water resulting in the production of HHO
(hydrogen and oxygen) gas. This gas will burn just like gasoline vapors. The
hose running to your manifold intake then mixes this HHO with the gasoline
vapors your engine burns. The result, if done correctly, is an increase in
gas mileage of roughly 40-50 percent.
Believe it or not it actually works. I've done it myself on my SUV, and went
from 15 MPG to 27 MPG. At $4.10 per gallon that's quite a savings. I like my
big SUV, and now it is cheaper to run. In addition, the HHO Generator
actually reduces the emissions from the engine because when HHO is burned
the byproduct is only water.
This is not a new idea. This technology has been around since the 1870's,
and has been used to power low heat blow torches. No one has used it for
assisting in powering an automobile engine because until recent years gas
prices were relatively cheap.
This is a perfect example of using maverick thinking to solve a problem
using technology already available. HHO Generators are not a long-term
solution, but they could help us reduce oil consumption, and keep us from
going broke on fuel prices until new fuel technology takes hold. Regular
people in their garages have discovered HHO technology, and it is spreading
across the internet.
Like General Petraeus saved the U.S. from losing the war in Iraq, and drove
down U.S. casualties, we need new leaders in industry to lead us through our
current economic quagmire. Those leaders are out there. Please stand up with
me. |
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