Ian King

This is not a dress rehearsal  

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…(and it’s definitely not ‘scare tactics’)

Someone suggested in a response to a recent FB page that I was engaging in ‘scare tactics’. That post was not about scare tactics. I have no reason to use ‘tactics’. I am simply reaching out and giving you an opportunity to manage life moving forwards in a period that you may not be ready for, with strategies that I have been developing for the last fifteen years.

Let me explain

Growing up in a household where the dominant economic belief was that ‘the sky was falling’, that the stock market would crash at any movement. As I learnt more about history I understood why. My grandfather was a young father with little children when the 1930s Great Depression hit. That would have left scars.

But only scars for one generation or an 80-year cycle. In the same way as a Great World War – it’s when those who remember them pass, and those who do not remember them shape up for another one, that history repeats itself And I suggest history – the 1930s – is about to repeat itself.

I spend most of my life going contrary to the negative outlook on the economy of my upbringing. And this bullish approach served me well, giving a degree of financial success.

However later in life I began to wonder what it took to indicate a Depression, because I had been very aggressive in my investing, and I realized that if I took this highly leveraged approach into a major downturn or Depression I would be smashed. And after spending my early years listening to stories about economic depressions, I had no excuse for totally ignoring the lessons of my upbringing.

I had become a student of money and business in the early 1990s when I had the hard realization that I had nothing to show for my financial position other than the warm feeling of being successful and highly paid in my profession.

However in the early 2000s, in particular post the September 11 2001 Twin Towers events, I asked different questions – what would it take to create a financial depression and what were the signs?

From the research into the subject of economic depressions, in 2003 I began teaching my inner circle about the 2007/2008 dates for a economic downturn. This information saved me financially, and also served my coaches. My colleagues and acquaintances who didn’t want to heed my advice paid the price during what was called the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ (GFC).

My study in the early 2000s let me to the belief that a larger economic shock was going to hit the world in about 2016.

And that’s were we are today. On the brink of 2016. With the definite signs of a meltdown showing, we may be months, and if not just years away, from experiencing massive financial changes in our lives, in our cultures, and in a way that could significantly affect our daily life.

I don’t need to be right, but if I am on track, and you ignored this heads up because you thought it was ‘scare tactics’, I look forward to swapping notes in about 5 years time. Maybe some of you do need to be scared now!

I have been reaching out more this year to those outside my inner circle. Has it been effective? Not really, most think I am crazy. That’s okay. In retrospect they can review their initial conclusions, and I will look back as say I did what I could to give a warning.

Even those who have shown interest in this more recent reaching out have shown inadequate responses and actions. All I can say is – this is not a dress rehearsal. This is the real deal. It may just be the warm up, but this is the real deal, it is going to happen. How serious it will be, we don’ t know. How much it will affect you we don’t know. But what we do know is that I have reached out, and the ‘ball is in your court’.

Ian King

Physical train wrecks  

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It does not have to be this way

Every day I speak with athletes who have more injuries than I believe are necessary or acceptable. The list of injuries is getting longer, relative to the decades past. This may be the trend, however no athlete needs to follow the trend. However for them to buck the trend, they will need to think differently, act differently and have different values than those around them. Because too many in the sports circle now accept, embrace and even benefit from this high incidence of injury.

Todays athlete injuries story – shoulder surgery at 17 years of age, multiple shin stress fractures in the next few years, following by multiple ankle joint and ligament strains in the next few years, followed by a dislocated wrist.

The one before – ACL, torn peck, etc etc.

Now I don’t blame the athlete in the first instance, especially when their first injury was in an age when in other aspect of life society does not deem them legally responsible. Noting that the exposure to ‘strength and conditioning’ was about two years prior to the shoulder injury, I confirm another example supporting my hypothesis that if we were to remove all ‘strength and conditioning’ programs globally, the athlete injury rare would halve or more.

In the first instance the sports administrators, coaches, physical coaches, and commercial sellers of goods and services should take a look at their values and competencies. Coaches – if just getting a job gives you a sense of fulfilment, I hope one day you look for more, including best the best you can be for the athlete. However as that is not likely to occur en-mass, the responsibility must come back to the athlete, especially the athlete 18 years or older.

Athletes – it’s time to wake up. You don’t have to be injured. You don’t have to accept this paradigm. But you are going to need to do something about it yourself because no one else is. Its your call. Accept the smorgasbord of injuries like most do – or be different. Find out what you can do to fulfill your potential through injury free training and competing. It is possible. We do it every day.