Ideas for Humanity with Mr. Fookes

Intro

Long distance relationships are for anyone willing to take the dive into uncertainty. They take an incredible amount of disclosure and courage. You could argue any LDR requires more trust between the two agreeing parties compared to your more traditional dating episodes.

I have been involved this lovely girl depicted below. While we haven’t agreed a definitive time since we started dating, Minna may debate me on this, but we have been together for about 1 year. I personally have learned a tremendous amount about these long distance commitments and what it takes to make it work. This is article 1 of 30 debuting this calendar year. I hope you enjoy. 

Here’s the 30 second backstory… 

Minna is from Seinajoki, Finland. We met at Old Key Lime House in Lake Worth, Florida. She was here on a internship and we  connected almost immediately. In March 2011,  3 months after Minna went back home to Finland, and after a little pleading, she agreed to let me come see her the following month in April. We continued to do very well together. Minna came back to Florida 32 days later on May 16th — her birthday. Both of us traveled one additional time to each other’s home country to spend as much time together as possible. Since meeting we’ve spent about 8 months physically in the same zip code. At times it has been trying, however, our relationship together is an amazing accomplishment. If you’re reading this and you are in the same situation —- curious as to how a LDR may work —- I’ll do my best to provide some assistance with several real world examples.   

The first law of long distance relationships: Always speak your mind. 

Many of us are not open enough in our relationships. Communication is key, even more so for any LDR. Though, keep in mind, there’s many aspects of communication. Transparency is one of them. Emotions, specifically negative ones, build up over time. That is why it’s so important to express those feelings. Share whatever may be upsetting you or causing any distress. By simply being open with your counterpart you manufacture a stronger bond between you both. Don’t hold anything back. You learn faster by putting all those good and bad emotions on the conversation table. Same goes for the other side of the coin. Share everything that you enjoy. The little things you appreciate in your relationship.

Oh, yeah. That bond developed through consistent open dialogue becomes an unbreakable force keeping you two safe. Traditional relationship folk are going to be jealous over the rough patches that the two of you will easily be capable of triumphing again-and-again. It’s quite awesome.

It is preferable, however, to have as much face time as possible. Pick your poison, ladies and gentlemen. Skype? Google Hangout? We’re guilty of not skyping frequently— twice a week is my personal goal. Seeing each other during any conversation makes it less possible for miscommunications that come with text. Believe me that can happen a lot. 

There’s more to come. Hopefully the succeeding posts will be in thematical order. By the way, Minna, I love you. Thanks to everyone else for reading. Have you ever been in a relationship? I’d love to read about it in the comment section below! 

Your idea isn’t required to be perfect. No entrepreneur starts a company with the ideal product. Great authors, after all, revise their book after publication numerous times. So delaying your product until it’s ready for market is just another way of saying “I’ll never get to it.” Check out what to do below.

Step 1: Write down a few names for your new founded company on a napkin or smartphone. Once you feel good about a brand name hop onto Go Daddy. You’re looking pay $10-$20. 

Step 2: Find an outlet for your product or service. Go check out Shopify’s website. They offer a fantastic online store building tool. It’s more personalized than eBay and it’s totally free for 30 days. 

Step 3: Learn about generating automated income. Nothing goes on autopilot overnight, folks. Head over to Amazon and pick up my all-time favorite business read The 4-Hour Work Week for less than $13.

Step 4: Accept transactions. Go to Square, PayPal or Chase to begin accepting payments online or in person. Free

Step 5: Adapt and evolve in the market place. Study your customers needs and you’ll be wealthy in knowledge and continuously develop a plan action. Free

Step 6: Be transparent. That’s your best marketing tactic. Show everyone what you do and how you do it — you will accumulate a loyal following to your brand. Free

Step 7: Study your competition and look for opportunities to shine. Steal market share. Free

Step 8: Give yourself $66 for 3 hours it will take to set this up.

Get started. 

As of this writing, friends, I will be taking this web portal a little more seriously. By “more seriously,” I mean frequent posting. The articles will be more-or-less the same. One major change, however, will be bite sized submissions by yours truly. Use this article as a model. No one enjoys sifting through paragraphs on a blog to sample a conclusion on a topic they’ve Googled —- a few dear and loyal readers have given me this feedback. That is why I revamped the interface of my blog to a grid-styled layout that’s easier for you to get the information you desire. Thus marking the 3rd overhaul of Mrfookes.com — tender loving care goes a long way. 

There’s so much fun stuff to come. (I) can’t wait to dive into specific life hacks that helped me achieve really cool goals. 

Examples: 

- Travel around the world with, like, little or no cash. 

- Tackling technology startups. 

- Long distance relationship advice. Yes, they are possible.

- Experiments in the art of life management. Think about not having a cellphone for 30 days.

- Real-time documentation on the development of my new web series Future of Everything.

- Random knowledge.

Stay tuned. Ample amounts of original video content in the pipeline. 

My portable notebook lives entirely in the cloud. My modest book collection is nestled in electronic ink. My phone has more processing power than all of NASA’s computers in 1969. My next car will most likely collect “fuel” from the charging dock in my garage. The future looks exciting. I wish to further my involvement with tomorrow. 

I’m in early stages of launching my new company. Inspired by ideas from humanity, I think there’s a market for excelling our collective imagination. To begin our web, as we understand it today, can be broken down into 4 layers.

1. Information

2. Organization

3. E-Commerce

4. Social Media

5. ?

My guess is collaboration will be the next layer to blanket our interactions online. This will be perfected in a way not yet accomplished on the internet. The most valuable resource on the planet, I believe, is information. More specifically, though, feedback. There’s a shortage of feedback to be had online and, sadly, there is little value produced between users in current state of the web. Anything meaningful needs to be brought into the real world. That’s because ideas are easily visualized during “coffee house” interactions. 

How can we improve how we collaborate on ideas through the web?

Construct a platform that allows users to visually spectate the progress of ideas, problems and solutions. A place where anyone is enabled to provide valuable feedback and rank user contributions—- utilizing similar gaming mechanics found in popular check-in applications (see Foursquare). In this space people can buy, sell and exchange ideas. I think this will usher in a new marketplace for curating innovation. 

This is just a tiny peek into my untitled project. I will over the coming weeks update my blog with additional insights to my Future of Tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

Here’s 10 gift ideas ranging from free to 349.00 USD. Slightly more modest than last year’s list, this round promises to entice your wallet for the benefit of your loved ones.

1.  Kindle Family by Amazon – Give the gift of information and imagination to your friends, family and lucky colleagues. Starting at 79.00 USD.

2.  Olloclip by Olloclip – Bringing fisheye, wide angle and macro capabilities to your iPhone 4 and 4S. 69.00 USD. 

3. UP by  Jawbone – UP wakes you up in the morning with gentle vibrations and keeps you active throughout the day. This is the future of health management and offers an affordable entry at 99.00 USD.

4. Flat Pack by Hardgraft – Traveling light? Hardgraft has your back. This fancy handmade messenger bag offers a luxurious solution for your ultraportable and tablet. 268.00 USD.

5. Chromebook by Samsung – The perfect gift for your web-addict friends. Just 349.00 USD.

6.  Beklina Wood Tea Canister – There is no better way to keep your beloved tea of choice fresh for consumption. Asking 220.00 USD.

7.  inReach by Delorme – Text anywhere in the known world via satellite link. Pretty damn cool. 250.00 USD.

8.  Mutewatch by Mutewatch – Tap the hidden display to showcase the time. For your minimalistic friends. Asking 199.00 USD. 

9.  Lower East Side Speakers by Audyssey – From the audio engineers behind the booming sound at your local IMAX- this grand system is the perfect gift for your audiophile pals. 199.00 USD.

10. Square Reader by Square – Perfect for the small business in urgent need to be ushered into the 21st-plastic-century. Square is, by a large margin, the easiest credit card portal to utilize. Did I mention it is free?

There is something overly appealing about wrapping premium stitching and material around your body. I can admit that my passion for nice clothes has been consistent for the vast majority of my life. While I’m not willing to shell out tons of dough for über-end apparel, I have done my fair share of research and bargaining in shops throughout Japan, U.S., Argentina, and around Western Europe. For the record, I am not the most fashionable guy, nor do I have the authority to recommend the right stuff for your wardrobe. Being a simple guy, though, these brands offered me enough instinctive to remove the plastic in my wallet and into the hands of retail employees everywhere. Below you will find my top favorites in the past few years. Listed in no particular order.

Fred Perry makes some of the best apparel in the world. Prices tailored for the average Joe and Jane. Even Mr. Murray loves it.



Mixing Japanese culture with British design. That’s the SuperDry way.




Peak Performance. The North Face of Europe.




The Haglöfs brand is not easy to come by—- if you aren’t in Scandinavia. They produce the upmost premium lines for all outdoor activities.




Gap. The good ol’ American brand.