Chad Blodgett

With our move to a new home in a new development we have to do the landscaping. My brother-in-law is a landscape architect and recommend that I use Google sketchup to draw up the plans. I have to say that I have loved using it! It is surprisingly simple to use and very intuitive. Google has also done a great job at providing training resources on line to help newbies like myself. After I get my yard in I think I will explore sketchups ability (and my ability) to design products that I think would be cool!

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I’ve heard a lot about this book from friends that I do business with. They rave about it. Many of the people I associate with own their own businesses (like myself) and so they have said, “read this book, and free yourself up.”

I am excited. I have read the authors blog, and I have read the cover “escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich.” What is the new rich? From what little I have read, it is those that value freedom and mobility over having things (material things).

This should be good….here we go, Chapter 1.

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As you know, each year we host a Holiday Challenge where various companies compete agaist each other to lose weight. We love doing this challenge over the holiday season to help the thousands of employees maintain or lose weight during the most difficult time of year.

Each of the years we’ve been on the news for this great event. This year it was a live event and so they featured us several times during a two hour period. Utah County Government were the winners this year. They lost over 380 pounds!

Here is the video coverage…enjoy!

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I was in Idaho Falls on business last year and took the opportunity to visit Rexburg Idaho again. I went to school there for a year at Ricks College (now known as BYU-Idaho).

I took my wife and boys to one of the old Pizza joints that we loved, Craigo’s.

While there I read their “Pizza Trivia” table top display…

1. Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza a day, or 350 slices per second
2. The average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year

Craigo’s then asks, “Have you met your quota?”

Is there any wonder why we have an obesity epidemic?

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Filipino American Ryan Patricio, 17, of Temecula, CA, 1st place Single Hand 3×3x3 Solve (World Record Holder), 2nd place 4×4x4 Solve, 2nd place 3×3x3 Solve, 2006 US National Rubik’s Cube Championship, San Francisco, CA. August 6, 2006.

All I can say is… Dang!

Watch the video here

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I was sent this Dilbert Cartoon by a friend. The sad part is that I have run into many senior level managers that have this attitude. Click on the image to read the comic.

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My oldest son turned 4 this week. We had a transformer themed party that was a lot of fun. He got some great gifts from friends and family and felt the love we all have for him.

I was most excited about the present that I got him. His first putter. I went to Uinta Golf with an old junior putter of mine and had them cut the shaft so it would fit his little body. We went to the practice green to putt around and Clayton loved it. We’ve got to work on his stance and stroke, but it is the first step.

Of all the sports out there, there isn’t a better one for closing deals. Here’s why…

1. Golf is the only sport where you can suck and its ok - everyone does. Think about it - if you invited a potential partner, investor or client to play basketball and he couldn’t even dribble or shoot - deals off. But in Golf, “It’s all good!”
2. Speed of play: in golf you aren’t panting, sweating (too much), or constantly on offense or defense. There is time to talk, discuss and negotiate deals.
3. Not too close: It’s not so good to have your potential clients’ face rub up against your sweaty back.
4. Outdoors: Studies show that fresh air and warm sun bring out the good in people. The healthy air puts people in better moods to help close deals
5. Team play: There are many corporate tournaments available at local courses - and you get pampered. It’s easier to pamper your client in golf then another sport.

“I want them to close $100-million deals,” says Ron Stone, the IBM senior marketing manager who organized his teams recent seminar, “and a lot of ‘deals’ are going to get done on a golf course.”

What do you think about Golf and business? I know there are some out there that want to change the official business sport to basketball. Not gunna happen.

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There is no question in my mind about the answer to this question, however Steve Ballmer seems a little behind.

This post just about sums up his intelligence.

What’s funny is Microsoft is currently looking to buy a 5% stake in Facebook for an amount that would value Facebook at over $10 billion! That makes Steve Ballmer’s comments even more confusing.

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Leaper Footwear LLC is suing Nike and Apple for a patent infringement on their Nike+Ipod product.I hate reading things like this. If there really is an infringement then I can see the need to sue, but patents are usually easy to get around - since the implementation of a patent is what is valuable, not the idea.

The implementation of Leapers patent has to be identical to Apple’s implementation or Leaper has no case. It would have been so much more pleasing to see that, prior to the release of the Nike+Ipod product, that this Utah company was able to make a deal with Apple to use parts of their patent.

I’m all about companies being deal makers. If you can’t cut a deal then you shouldn’t be in business. Enough of this “Lawsuits are my business model” mentality.

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Dad, Devin and I had an idea this year - we would track all of our rounds of golf that we played together and then rank the three of us against each other to reveal who the real best player in the family is. We call it the “Blodgett World Rankings in Golf.”

When the three of us play together - it is considered a “Major” tournament and so it is weighted heavier then rounds where just two of the three play with each other (rounds where there is less then two representatives from the Blodgett tour don’t count for the rankings).

This year there were 4 majors (the 4th will be played at Talons Cove on Oct 13th) and several minors. My Dad and Devin have each won one major out right, and the third major was a tie between my dad and I.

The gallery’s are starting to get big - the courses we play have begun to have to hire extra help to keep the fans in designated areas.

This year should be know as “the year of the Dadders” because he dominated. Some interesting stats about this year…

Worlds #1 Golfer: Dad
Rounds played: Dad 10, Devin 9, Chad 8.
Wins: Dad 7, Chad 3, Devin 2
Scoring Ave: Chad 82.7, Dad 83.2, Devin 85.5
Courses Played: Thanksgiving Point, Tri-City, Wasatch, Boundry Oaks, Deer Ridge, Talons Cove, Wente, and Contra Costa County Club.

With one more Major left for the year there is a battle for second place between Devin and I (dad has clinched 1st place). While Dad doesn’t need to even show - the purse is rather large for this final major and so he’ll be there.

We are hoping that next year we can add Brett, Dave, and Pete.

Anyway - this has been a lot of fun and something that keeps us interested. It turns our love of Golf into more of a competition…which Blodgetts just crave

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My brother-in-law, Luke (I would link to him but for some reason he hasn’t started a blog yet), sent me a “candidate match” test that he saw on CNN.com. This test asks you a few questions to see which presidential candidate you are in alignment with.

The one question that I had a hard time answering was about the current Income tax in America. The question asks what you would do - keep the current income tax structure, simplify it, or do something else, like a flat tax or the fair tax.

I had read a little bit about the Fair Tax and understood it as a consumption tax – meaning that you only pay taxes on the things you buy and not on your income. That was about all I knew so after a bit of research, here is what I found…

FairTax.org talks of how the fundamentals of taxation (even from the founding fathers) are…

• Only people pay taxes
• Consumption taxes are the oldest form of taxation for many good reasons.
• Consumption tax rates are self-limiting.
• Consumption taxes, throughout history, have enhanced civil liberties and more.
• Direct taxes (income taxes/poll taxes/head taxes), throughout history, have been the tools of tyranny.
• Uniformity of taxation wards off special interest manipulation.

From those above fundamentals, FairTax.org goes on to say that Fair Tax is an improvement from our current tax system in the following ways….

• The FairTax is revenue neutral at $0.23 out of every retail dollar spent.
• The fair tax is imposed on a base that is twice as large as the base of taxable income today Taxing on that base would
  generate about $2.6 trillion - $358 billion increase
• The FairTax lowers the lifetime tax burden for most Americans.
• This point was quite interesting – complete with very scientific studies. Check out this document for the details.
• The FairTax benefits retirees who depend mostly on Social Security.
• The FairTax preserves the overall progressivity of the federal tax burden.
• The FairTax dramatically improves the U.S. economy.
• Following the implementation of the FairTax plan, the higher take-home wage provides an immediate incentive for people to work more.
• The FairTax improves the international competitiveness of American producers.
• The FairTax taxes foreign-produced goods as U.S.-produced goods are taxed and exempts exports fully from taxation, thereby restoring a level playing field for U.S. and foreign-produced goods.
• The FairTax promotes home ownership better than the current system.
• While there were a lot of points for this argument, the main one was that homeowners would be making their entire house payment (interest and premium) on PRETAX dollars.
• The FairTax simplifies tax compliance, thereby reducing tax evasion.

From what I read this seems great – but why hasn’t it received more attention? What are the fatal flaws? Have other counrtries used this model of taxation? Has it worked well for them?

This article was very basic and helpful - but didn’t address any criticism of the idea - Wikipedia’s article was much better in that regard.

What do you think of the Fair Tax?

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My wife and I took our two boys to a new business here in Utah called Jump On It. We loved it and so did the kids.

Jump On It is a huge warehouse filled with trampolines that are so close together that you never have to touch the ground. You just bounce around the world, from trampoline to trampoline (they even have them on the walls). They have a few bouncy houses for little kids to play on, and a little toddler section filled with toys. They have dodge ball, basketball and other sports/aerobics to keep people entertained. You can even rent a snowboard-type-thing to practice tricks on the tramp.

I spoke with the owner for a bit about his business and his vision for future. It is interesting to compare his new business with Kangaroo Zoo (another new business that opened up a few months earlier about 2 miles apart). Kangaroo Zoo JUST has bouncy houses, but they have a ton of them - with a lot of variety (slides, inflatable obstacle courses, castles, etc.). The age demographics are obviously different (Kangaroo Zoo going for the younger crowd) however, when I asked my four year old son which place he liked better - he said Jump On It, which was a surprise to me.

Check them out and let me know your opinion.

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Whoa!! Its been a long time! Its been so long that it took me a while to figure out how to login to my blog.

Things have been busy since my last post: we launched Version 2.0 of WeightLossWars, I took my wife (left the kids) to Disney World, started another company (that I’ll blog about some other time), added several new clients to eHealthCompete, had two rounds of golf under par this summer, got the west nile (or so I think), having another baby boy in December, etc, etc, etc.

I’ll be back now…I swear

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I’m just happy to finally have some consistancy now in my exercise. You can click the graph to see my profile.

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