A few thoughts....

Weaving Together My Life Story In A Series Of Blogs

2025-12-12T13:41:00.000-05:00

The blog has always been a great platform for storytelling. Over time, I have shared many things about my history, my present, and goals for the future - they are:

My Life Story - Have you ever thought about the impact of big decisions that you made in your life? How about the small ones or the ones made for you? How would have your life turned out if things went the other way?

My Love Story - Michelle and met on October 15, 2010 in a serendipitous way. We were both part of a charity in Raleigh, NC and one night at a dinner struck up a conversation about many things - including our love of travel.

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Car Story - I have the dubious honor of getting speeding tickets on all 6 driveable continents - lucky that there are no cars in Antarctica! Did I ever tell you the time I passed the Polizia in Italy with my mom?

My Travel Story - The story started with a "Rollerblades and Red Bull" journey to 100 countries. It is now expanding in every direction after hitting 7 continents and the 7 wonders of the world (most with kids in tow).

My Nautical Story - I am pretty sure the love of water started in 1972 when I was six weeks old and my grandparents Bob and Dona McBain retired to Shuswap, British Columbia, Canada, and built a log cabin.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Cycling Story - When the Covid-19 pandemic first took hold in March 2020 we responded quickly as a family - including strict stay at home orders and no outside contact until we could get a handle on the risks. My attention now turned to exercise - and biking across North America (virtually).

My Retirement Story - I have no interest in disconnecting fully from the work that makes me so fulfilled. I could never see myself in bingo-playing retired life. I want to stay curious, engaged, and adding value past the (very specific) date in 2034 that I am aiming for.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

My Movie Story - Oddly enough, I think Pretty Woman made me very interested in business. I named my cat Austin Powers - oh, and yes, "Danger" is his middle name. Our current dog is named August Rush (Auggie Doggy). Movies such as Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Forrest Gump, & National Lampoon's Vacation have become soundtracks to my life.

These are all my personal stories. My business stories wrap around channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems and can be found here.

Also business related, on this platform I named the top 100 most visible channel influencers and top 100 global women in technology groups that continue to get thousands of visitors per month.

Thanks for taking a walk with me through memory lane!

China’s 🇨🇳 control over critical minerals is the most underappreciated force reshaping the technology industry

2025-11-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

China’s 🇨🇳 control over critical minerals is the most underappreciated force reshaping the technology and geopolitics landscape—and it impacts every part of the $5.3 trillion technology industry.

40 years ago, China was largely dismissed as a low-cost manufacturing hub. Today, it is the backbone of the world’s clean energy transition and a dominant force in every electronics supply chain, not only as the world’s factory but as the gatekeeper of the foundational elements powering modern tech.

China’s industrial policy quietly shifted from being a buyer of raw materials to becoming the world’s top producer and processor.

As the the western world was mass-consuming low cost products, we were funding this stealth (and brilliant) transformation.

China integrated mining, refining, and manufacturing into a fully coordinated national strategy. Through long-term infrastructure investments, joint ventures, and outright ownership of mines across Africa, South America, and Asia, China secured access to over 60% of global rare earth production and built processing facilities that now handle more than 80% of the world’s output.

Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements used in EV batteries, wind turbines, semiconductors, AI servers, 5G telco, and defense systems all flow through Chinese-controlled supply chains.

At a partner ecosystem level, this presents both risk and opportunity. Supply chain diversification, onshore production, and mineral recycling—all now high strategic priorities among Western governments—open new pathways for distributors, integrators, and MSPs to help clients assess and mitigate risk.

The same intelligence models partners have adopted for SaaS visibility and cybersecurity are now needed for physical supply chain transparency.

Just as China redefined itself from a manufacturing economy to a mineral-backed superpower, our industry must evolve from short-term technology transactions to ecosystem-driven strategic advisory.

The winners will be those who see beyond the product and into the raw minerals powering the infrastructure behind powerful platforms.

Civil War

2025-09-12T13:16:00.002-04:00

There are two ways the United States could fail and both are internal.

The grand experiment - America's unique attempt to establish and sustain a republic and democracy based on principles of liberty and popular sovereignty - is at critical risk of a civil war triggered by either poor vs. rich or left vs. right.

The external threat isn't military-driven but sowing division through malign influence campaigns. According to the U.S. Intelligence Community and Department of Homeland Security, major threats include Russia, China, and Iran. Their tactics exploit existing societal frictions to undermine trust in institutions, amplify discord, and interfere in democratic processes.

First, growing income inequality has played a significant role in the decline and collapse of great empires throughout history by fueling political instability, fostering resentment among the poor, and creating a decadent and less resilient elite. Research comparing the Roman and Han Chinese empires, for example, found that high inequality increased the potential for political instability that ultimately contributed to their downfalls.

Almost on every measure, we are marching towards this.

Second, happening quicker than the first, is the increasing division between the left and the right on the political spectrum. By nature, humans are tribal and are wired for survival with the need for packs or teams. The "us vs. them" is evolutionary and deeply rooted in our psychology.

Overriding these divisions over the first 200 years in the U.S. has been bipartisan leadership driving a deep sense of patriotism for the country over anything else. Whether it was the World Wars or yesterday's 24th anniversary of 9/11, a large and diverse collection of different states, races, and religions stayed true to this overriding pride and protection of the whole.

I created the visual below to help me think about this moment in history.

America has always had that "80% in the middle" of the bell curve - the neighbors, family, friends, and industry colleagues that wanted a better country but had different (but civil) opinions on how to achieve. It was ok to be a socially-minded conservative or a fiscally-minded liberal. It was ok to independently choose a side on over 100 of the most pressing issues of the day and not have those defined for us based on the team we chose.

Interestingly enough, large institutions such as government, courts, religion, and traditional media reinforced (and protected) the bell curve.

Sowing division and lowering trust in these institutions combined with the rise of the internet (1995) and social media (2006) has set us on a course to civil war. The world has never had millions of communication channels amplifying voices from every part of society.

The emergency issue is that to cut through this noise and clutter, algorithms have amplified the most extreme voices (on both sides) and commercialized them. American society is pretty numb to the barrage of information hitting us everyday and only engages when something is extreme enough to warrant a response. Reasonable discord in the middle (the 80%) is invisible.

We all recognize and can rank people around us (and ourselves) into each slice of this bell curve.

What do we do?

First, we need to protect each other and report anyone that falls (or is at risk of falling) off either edge of the curve.

Second, we need to recognize that we are ALL being manipulated. The media around us is driven off of clicks and engagement - it is sending them towards the edges to get noticed and compensated.

Tribal nature is pulling us with them.

Third, understand that we are making the job of people trying to end this empire easy. Sowing division is easy when something extreme gets painted as "them".

This week is a perfect example with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Millions of communication channels quickly became a cesspool of division and hate. Hundreds of my connections (on both sides and in different slices) have used the word "they or them" in their outrage.

These aren't woke pronouns - it is the seed of civil war.

Fourth, we need to obviously find common ground. This is where the 80% of the bell curve can disagree, knowing that the source of that friction is for a better country. Where we can identify and act (together) on the growing fringes and protect each other at the outer edge.

This is the tragic irony of what happened this week. Charlie is someone who successfully triggered some of these "extreme" algorithms (regardless of whether that was in or out of context, the result was the same) but believed in civil public discourse and wasn't afraid to engage and debate.

Many were quick to assign motive and blame before the shooter was even in custody because it had to be "them". Others were quick to support the horrific narrative that somehow he deserved to be killed.

We never got to see what the middle of America thought as we were invisible.

Milestone Alert! Today I visit my 100th country.

2024-07-01T05:54:00.014-04:00

Back in 2010, I wrote a blog titled "100 Country Rollerblades and Red Bull Tour". It was the start of a travel story and a manifestation to reach all four corners of the planet. For those of you in marketing, that blog went viral and spent several years on Page 1 of Google SEO for both keywords Rollerblades and Red Bull!

In my first 35 years, I had traveled to 9 countries. It would take 16 more years to reach the next 91! It also included seeing all 7 continents, 7 wonders of the world, 50 States (only missing New Mexico now), and 10 Canadian Provinces.

Since 2014, it has also included traveling with two children to all 7 continents including Antarctica. I should also mention that Michelle and I work full-time in demanding jobs and only 3-4 weeks per year are available to travel.

Having a sense of adventure and love for travel is different than reaching a target that only a few thousand people in history have achieved. It was actually inspired by the Bucket List movie from 2007 with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It reinforced the perils of waiting to retirement to really start living. Life tends to get in the way of living with families and careers take over most of our focus.

On the topic of personal bucket lists, here are 4 others beyond this 100 travel goal.

Why 100 countries?

Simple. I wanted it to be remarkable, challenging, but yet attainable. Knowing that out of 193 countries recognized by the United Nations (Vatican City makes 194) dozens of countries are in perpetual war (civil or otherwise), new threats pop up every few months, and a large number are small islands spread around the world, I chose a round number representing half the world.

Here is how the 100 looks on a map:

(This is an iPhone app called Been if you want to create your own travel map)

A bit more complicated than just 100 countries...

Being an industry analyst means there is more to planning travel than just a round number. I downloaded all 193 countries and sorted them by land mass and population. In terms of targeting where to go next, we tend to look at size and global importance of the destination.

While 100 countries represents 52% of the world's countries, it represents 79% of the world's population and 71% of the land mass. Seeing where 8 out of 10 people live (8.1 billion and counting) is a pretty cool achievement!


100		52%	78.62%	71.15%
# of Countries		Of countries visited	Population	Land Mass
x	🇨🇳	China	1,345,610,000	9,640,821
x	🇮🇳	India	1,210,193,422	3,287,240
x	🇺🇸	United States	311,950,000	9,826,675
x	🇮🇩	Indonesia	237,556,363	1,904,569
x	🇧🇷	Brazil	195,112,055	8,514,877
x	🇷🇺	Russia	141,927,297	17,098,242
x	🇯🇵	Japan	127,387,000	377,873
x	🇲🇽	Mexico	107,550,697	1,958,201
x	🇵🇭	Philippines	92,226,600	300,076
x	🇻🇳	Vietnam	85,789,573	331,689
x	🇩🇪	Germany	81,757,600	357,022
x	🇪🇬	Egypt	80,143,443	1,001,449
x	🇹🇷	Turkey	77,804,122	783,562
x	🇨🇩	Democratic Republic of the Congo	68,692,542	2,344,858
x	🇹🇭	Thailand	64,232,760	513,115
x	🇫🇷	France	62,793,432	551,500
x	🇬🇧	United Kingdom	62,041,708	243,610
x	🇮🇹	Italy	60,200,060	301,318
x	🇿🇦	South Africa	50,586,757	1,221,037
x	🇰🇷	South Korea	48,456,369	99,538
x	🇺🇦	Ukraine	46,936,000	603,700
x	🇪🇸	Spain	46,087,170	506,030
x	🇨🇴	Colombia	46,083,384	1,138,914
x	🇹🇿	Tanzania	43,739,000	945,087
x	🇦🇷	Argentina	40,091,359	2,780,400
x	🇰🇪	Kenya	39,802,000	580,367
x	🇵🇱	Poland	38,163,895	312,685
x	🇨🇦	Canada	33,740,000	9,984,670
x	🇺🇬	Uganda	32,710,000	241,038
x	🇲🇦	Morocco	32,223,787	446,550
x	🇵🇪	Peru	29,461,933	1,285,216
x	🇳🇵	Nepal	29,331,000	147,181
x	🇲🇾	Malaysia	28,306,700	329,847
x	🇹🇼	Taiwan	23,069,345	35,980
x	🇲🇿	Mozambique	22,894,000	801,590
x	🇦🇺	Australia	22,828,648	7,682,300
x	🇷🇴	Romania	21,466,174	238,391
x	🇲🇬	Madagascar	20,653,556	587,041
x	🇱🇰	Sri Lanka	20,238,000	65,610
x	🇨🇱	Chile	17,277,793	756,096
x	🇳🇱	Netherlands	16,690,000	41,526
x	🇰🇭	Cambodia	14,805,000	181,035
x	🇿🇼	Zimbabwe	13,009,530	390,757
x	🇨🇺	Cuba	11,306,183	109,886
x	🇬🇷	Greece	11,306,183	131,957
x	🇧🇪	Belgium	10,827,519	30,528
x	🇵🇹	Portugal	10,636,888	92,391
x	🇨🇿	Czech Republic	10,532,770	78,866
x	🇩🇴	Dominican Republic	10,090,000	48,671
x	Haiti	Haiti	10,033,000	27,750
x	🇭🇺	Hungary	10,013,628	93,032
x	🇷🇼	Rwanda	9,998,000	26,338
x	🇧🇾	Belarus	9,755,106	207,600
x	🇸🇪	Sweden	9,366,092	449,964
x	🇦🇹	Austria	8,372,930	83,858
x	🇷🇸	Serbia (excluding Kosovo)	7,800,000	77,474
x	🇨🇭	Switzerland	7,761,800	41,284
x	🇮🇱	Israel	7,697,600	20,770
x	🇭🇳	Honduras	7,466,000	112,492
x	🇭🇰	Hong Kong	7,003,700	1,104
x	🇯🇴	Jordan	6,316,000	89,342
x	🇩🇰	Denmark	5,532,531	43,094
x	🇸🇰	Slovakia	5,424,057	49,033
x	🇫🇮	Finland	5,389,683	338,145
x	🇸🇬	Singapore	5,076,700	710.2
x	🇳🇴	Norway	4,936,900	385,155
x	🇦🇪	United Arab Emirates	4,599,000	83,600
x	🇮🇪	Ireland	4,581,269	70,273
x	🇨🇷	Costa Rica	4,579,000	51,100
x	🇭🇷	Croatia	4,443,000	56,538
x	🇳🇿	New Zealand	4,315,800	270,534
x	🇵🇸	Palestinian territories	4,100,000	6,020
x	🇵🇷	Puerto Rico (US)	3,982,000	8,875
x	🇧🇦	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,843,126	51,129
x	🇺🇾	Uruguay	3,463,197	175,016
x	🇵🇦	Panama	3,454,000	75,517
x	🇦🇱	Albania	3,195,000	28,748
x	🇱🇹	Lithuania	3,053,800	65,300
x	🇯🇲	Jamaica	2,719,000	10,991
x	🇱🇻	Latvia	2,248,961	64,600
x	🇳🇦	Namibia	2,171,000	824,292
x	🇸🇮	Slovenia	2,079,344	20,256
x	🇱🇸	Lesotho	2,067,000	30,355
x	🇧🇼	Botswana	1,950,000	581,730
x	🇶🇦	Qatar	1,409,000	11,000
x	🇪🇪	Estonia	1,340,021	45,100
x	🇸🇿	Swaziland	1,185,000	17,364
x	🇫🇯	Fiji	849,000	18,274
x	🇲🇪	Montenegro	630,548	14,026
x	🇲🇴	Macau (China)	541,200	29.2
x	🇱🇺	Luxembourg	502,207	2,586
x	🇧🇸	The Bahamas	342,000	13,878
x	🇧🇿	Belize	322,100	23,000
x	🇮🇸	Iceland	318,452	103,000
x	🇻🇺	Vanuatu	240,000	12,189
x	🇦🇼	Aruba (Netherlands)	107,000	193
x	🇰🇾	Cayman Islands (UK)	56,000	264
x	🇲🇨	Monaco	33,000	1.95
x	🇬🇮	Gibraltar (UK)	31,000	6.8
x	🇻🇦	Vatican City	826	0.44

Travel timeline

1. North America (1972-80) - living in Canada and the United States, and travelling several times to Mexico allowed me to complete the continent (and a ton of land mass) early in life.

2. UK & France (1996)

3. Portugal & Spain driving tour (2002)

4. Bahamas, Cuba via vacations (2003-04)

5. Greece (2008) - including Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

6. 13-country driving & rollerblade tour across Europe starting in Germany, then circling through Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland & Czech Republic (2008)

7. China (2009) - including rollerblading through Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong & Macau.

8. Italy (2009) - trip with my mom.

9. South America tour - including rollerblading through Argentina, Uruguay & Brazil - both Rio and Sao Paulo (2010)

10. Caribbean cruise - Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cozumel (2010)

11. 7-country South Africa driving and rollerblade tour - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique & Swaziland (2010)

12. 5-country Scandinavian tour with Michelle (first trip together!) - Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway & Finland (2011)

13. 7-country SE Asia tour with Michelle - Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines & Singapore (2011)

14. 7-country ex-USSR tour with Michelle - Russia (both Moscow & St. Petersburg), Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania (2012)

15. Down-under driving tour with Michelle - Australia & New Zealand (2012)

16. "Wonders of the world" honeymoon with Michelle! - Morocco, Egypt (Cairo & Luxor), Sri Lanka, India (Mumbai, Delhi, & Taj Mahal) & Nepal (Mount Everest) (2013)

17. Asia tour with Michelle and Brooklyn on Mount Fuji for her first birthday - including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea (2015)

18. A very long drive through the entire countries of Ireland, England, Scotland with Michelle, Brooklyn, and Cali, tracing my family roots back to Nottinghamshire, England and Inverness, Scotland. (2016)

19. A beautiful tour down under to Australia and to the South Pacific to Thailand, Indonesia, Vanuatu, and Fiji with Michelle, Brooklyn, and Cali. (2017)

20. A panoramic cruise to the Panama Canal with stops in Aruba, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica with Michelle, Brooklyn, and Cali. (2017)

21. As part of Michelle's MBA from Manhattan College we visited multiple parts of Peru including Machu Picchu and the Amazon rainforest with Brooklyn, and Cali. (2018)

22. An epic 15-country journey on the way to Australia for a speech, including new country visits to Monaco, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. (2019)

23. Covid stalled our travel for a couple of years but we picked up again by hitting my 7th wonder of the world - Chichen Itza in Mexico (2022). The other 6 were the Taj Mahal (2013), the Colosseum (2009), Machu Picchu (2017), Christ the Redeemer (2010), Petra (2019), and the Great Wall of China (2009).

24. We also hit the Bahamas (Atlantis) in 2022 and then finished the year in epic fashion with an adventure to Antarctica - our 7th continent! We saw Chile and landed in Argentina after the cruise to a newly minted World Cup in soccer. Messi was the world champion and months later would soon land in Miami to play! (2022)

25. We hit the ground running in 2023 with a spring break cruise through the Caribbean - hitting new countries of Honduras and Belize. During summer break we also took an epic cruise to the North Pole (kinda) - Alaska! (2023)

26. The Taylor Swift European driving adventure through London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. Also included Disney Paris, Harry Potter show in London, and staying at the majestic Port Lympne Reserve "Lion Lodge" in England. (2024)

27. The ultimate 7-country safari through Africa via Qatar, including gorilla trekking in Uganda, quick trips across the borders of Rwanda and Congo, then safaris through the Serengeti in Tanzania and Masai Mara in Kenya, and finishing with country #100 in Madagascar! (2024)

Where next?

As I mentioned earlier, many countries of the world are off-limits to travel due to safety. This can change often as we learned the day we landed in Egypt during the Arab Spring. Here are some thoughts...

- Eastern Caribbean cruise - Dominican Republic, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago & Aruba.

- Second SE Asia tour - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar & Laos

- Western Africa tour

- ex-USSR "Stan" tour

Even though the Middle East and much of Africa have been in a constant state of turmoil for centuries, I do hope in my lifetime to see these countries.

The next generation of travel will also involve sailing the blue ocean on a catamaran. More on that here.

Ending the journey at 194 countries isn't a specific goal but it would be a happy coincidence!

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Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

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My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

Announcing: 4,000 Days Until Retirement

2023-09-19T23:00:00.003-04:00

I received a milestone reminder today from my retirement countdown clock (yes, I have one of those!) that 4,000 days remain until I retire from full-time work.

A common question I get is why that (very specific) date of September 1, 2034? Simple answer: Our youngest of four daughters, Cali, is off to a college dorm making us empty nesters on that date.

I will be 62 years old and ready to split my time between some large bucket list items and part-time, project-based work on my chosen schedule. It will also be my 40th anniversary of work in the technology channel!

I have no interest in disconnecting fully from the work that makes me so fulfilled. I could never see myself in bingo-playing retired life. I want to stay curious, engaged, and adding value (perhaps as the old industry curmudgeon shaking his fist at the clouds!).

Several large bucket list items are calling -

1. Finish travel to 100 countries

This one will be accomplished in the next couple of years (well before retirement) as we are already at 90+. A trip to Serbia with my oldest girls (who are half Serbian on their mother's side) in a few weeks and an incredible safari in 2024 through multiple countries in Eastern Africa will pretty much get us there.

Since Covid, we have knocked off our 7th continent (Antarctica) and 7th wonder of the world. More on the travel story here.

What about seeing the remaining 93 countries in the world? I am glad you asked...

2. Sail the blue ocean

After power boating through most of the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and Canada, we want to leave land behind us and take the ~22 day journey over to the Rock Of Gibraltar. This bucket list item will take a decade of planning and execution. More on our nautical stories here.

Michelle does not want to sail for weeks in the middle of nowhere on a used vessel (and I don't blame her!). We are actively saving up for a new sailing catamaran stock full of all the latest technology possible. From sustainability to navigation to full broadband internet 24/7 - we are watching innovation closely in ship building. Right now, the strongest contender is the Leopard 50:

This is not a small endeavor - if we enjoy the trip over the ocean (and are still on speaking terms) the plan would be to keep going on a circumnavigation that will take many years to complete. Flying home for holidays and extended stretches of time with no time constraints would be the objective.

Gaining all of our certifications, licenses, and captain training over the next 4,000 days will be fun.

3. Own a Ferrari

This one is the least complicated of the bucket list items. As the girls become older teenagers, the timing will be right to go to a two-seater sports car in Florida. My sister had bought me the "Justification for higher education" poster for me back in the day and the last remaining car in the garage that I haven't owned is a Ferrari:

For more about my car and motorcycle journey check out here.

4. Play hockey into my 90s

I have played ice hockey consistently since the age of 3 or 4 and I have always watched those senior 90+ leagues in Canada and Northern U.S. States with admiration (and amazement!). The great thing about hockey is that it is a fluid exercise that doesn't jar the knees or joints like other sports allowing for better longevity.

That is Mark Sertich who played the game he loved until 99 years old! Check out my hockey story here.

5. Retire with 8-figures

I remember walking into my local credit union bank when I was 11 years old after just receiving my first paycheck for delivering flyers around the neighborhood. There was a poster on the wall that (in big writing) said "Do you want to be a millionaire?"

I spent the next 30 minutes reading all of the small print - it was explaining the power of compound interest. It was instructing me to put $50 a month into a savings account and promising that when I turned 65, I would have a million dollars. That day I deposited the first $50. When I upgraded to a paper route I bumped it to $100 per month. When I started pumping gas I put it up to $150.

When I got my internship at IBM in university, I kept raising the monthly number even higher. Michelle is great with money and owned a few houses and had her own sizable 401K from her years working at Cisco.

While my entrepreneurial journey at ChannelEyes didn't end with us getting rich - it gave me the experiences and tools to help other entrepreneurs on their journey. Having the wherewithal to keep renting out our homes in Raleigh and investing/saving as aggressively as we can (while traveling the world and living for today) is paying off slowly but surely.

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Turning 50 years old last year - or "half time" as I like to call it - inevitably turned my focus forward. What would the third and fourth quarters of life look like?

Only a few thousand people have travelled to over a hundred countries. (The Travelers Century Club has 1,400 members as an example).

Fewer people have ever self-navigated across an ocean or circumnavigated. (Estimates that a few hundred boats are attempting the feat at any one time).

Perhaps more bucket list items will pop up over time. These are the ones I have been manifesting as long as I can remember.

Tomorrow is 3,999 days until retirement!

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Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

Channel Content (2022-Now) Exclusively On Canalys Blog

2023-09-13T18:44:00.001-04:00

My work as an industry analyst for channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems resides over on the Canalys blog as well as on my LinkedIn Newsletter.

All of my personal stories about family, travel, boats, cars, hockey, music, school, and other fun stuff are still here!

Here are some recent articles:

The Travel Journey To 100 Countries Picks Up Again Post-Pandemic

2023-02-15T23:00:00.001-05:00

For a family that loves to travel, the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging. A few years of a staycation has now been replaced with adventure once again!

We were able to get away to Cancun and the Bahamas in 2022. A personal milestone was made in Mexico when we visited Chichen Itza - completing my tour of the 7 wonders of the world. The other 6 were the Taj Mahal (2013), the Colosseum (2009), Machu Picchu (2017), Christ the Redeemer (2010), Petra (2019), and the Great Wall of China (2009).

"At the brim of the well where the Wise Men of the Water Live. This is what Chichen Itza means in Maya. Chichen Itza was one of the most important city-states in pre-Hispanic America and is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico today. The Chichen Itza Pyramid or El Castillo is the most astonishing Mayan Ruin or building inside the Archaeological Site."

Antarctica Voyage

We finished the year in epic fashion with an adventure to Antarctica - our 7th continent!

The backstory is that we were going to go in 2013 when Michelle was pregnant with Brooklyn. There is only a 3-4 week window of the year (Christmas time) that you can sail to the South Pole and, at the time, the only way we could do it was on a Russian frigate. Definitely not consumer friendly. As fate would have it, we decided against the trip and that specific ship got stuck in the ice. Brooklyn could have been born in Antarctica under a Russian flag!

Fast forward a number of years and we booked the trip to depart in 2020. A couple of Covid-cancellations later we reconfirmed a December 2022 date and prepared for departure.

We booked three days to explore Santiago, Chile on the front end of the 16-night cruise and then three days in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the tail end.

The weather created some challenges on the voyage with a couple of missed ports and some itinerary changes, but Captain McBain (yes, no joke, from Calgary, Canada as well just like me!) navigated us safely through treacherous waters. He reminded us that weeks prior someone was killed on a large cruise ship through the Drake Passage by a rogue wave.

Every day in Antarctica was a new adventure. Everywhere you looked was like a postcard. I have seen many glaciers growing up in Canada, but nothing like this!

This was more than a bucket list check - it was life changing. The Russian frigate trip was $10k per person. This new option of luxury cruises (we took Princess) was closer to $2k per person and we could sit in the hot tub and eat steak and lobster every night.

We were all smiles as we went from 85 degree summer weather in Chile and swimming in the pool to having a snowball fight on the same deck a few days later!

Strongly recommended for everyone looking for an epic adventure!

Now, we are in the 90+ country range and looking forward to trips through Central America and Alaska later in 2023.

The journey continues...

With these challenges:

The Butterfly Effect – My Life Story

2023-02-15T22:02:00.002-05:00

Have you ever thought about the impact of big decisions that you made in your life? How about the small ones or the ones made for you? How would have your life turned out if things went the other way?

A movie that has always fascinated me is the Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. The movie was good (not great) but the concept is mind-blowing.

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect says that a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The concept was formulated by Edward Lorenz, and uses a metaphorical example of a hurricane being influenced by the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly.

Thus, a very small change in initial conditions can create a significantly different outcome.

Another similar and equally fascinating concept in science fiction is parallel universes or multiverses. Star Trek TNG had an episode called Parallels where every decision and possible outcome create multiple parallel dimensions. Thus, your life would have millions of permutations based on every decision you have ever made (or was made for you). You could be President of the United States or a bum on the street, depending on chance.

Today I talked about those moments in my life in front of MBA students at the Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. I came up with 11 pivotal times in my life that got me to where I am today:

1982 - My mom lugs home an Apple IIe computer

As a computer teacher at a small Jewish school in Calgary, my mom regularly carried home a heavy computer, screen and disk drives, introducing her inquisitive 10 year old son to computers. Instead of playing games, I learned BASIC and built a Quicken type financial tracking software that manages every dollar I earned at my paper route and every dollar I spent (normally Slurpees and Hockey Cards at 7-Eleven).

This small flap of butterfly wings created a future I couldn't imagine...

1987 - Five years later, a hit movie called Top Gun changes everything

Watching Tom Cruise pop a wheelie on that Ninja 900 (chasing a girl) as a jet takes off in the background had a monumental effect on an impressionable 15 year old kid, 6 months away from getting his drivers license.

I did the research (this was before the internet remember!) and figured out that the bike would cost $4,000. That finance program I built years back detailed for me exactly how to make it happen.

That frugal 6 months, combined with achieving a clear goal had a huge impact on my life from that day forward. Cutting out alcohol, smoking, drugs (or anything else frivolous) allowed me to get that motorcycle, build an executive home at 22 years old and get a new cherry red Mercedes a few years later.

That is the reason I don't drink alcohol today - plain and simple.

1994 – IBM Intern and resident Futurist

My dad strongly encouraged me to pursue an internship in my final year of college and I was lucky to have Cargill and IBM come knocking. Working a tech call center seemed to be a better option than a meat processing plant, and my career was officially launched.

Two stories stick out in those early days.

I walked in my first day expecting to work on spreadsheets tracking call center rep performance – it was January and IBM had just sold a boat load of Aptiva home computers. Canadian customers bought NHL Hockey ’94 in large numbers as well. Problem was, after spending over $3,000 and having the family open up the computer on Christmas morning – the game wouldn’t run! After waiting on hold for over 60 minutes the customers were livid! The stress was felt in the office and instead of working on spreadsheets, I picked up the phone. I took over 50 calls that day and everyday after. My boss met me for the first time a week later and was shocked - and pleasantly surprised - that I was the top rep in productivity as measured on the spreadsheet I didn’t work on.

Even in the first few weeks of that internship I could see myself contributing more. IBM at the time was a technology juggernaut employing over 10% of all world PHD grads in math, computers and science. They had just proven that Teleportation (Star Trek style) was possible, were building the computer called Deep Blue that would be the first to beat a grandmaster at Chess (Gary Kasparov never got over it) and evolve into Jeapardy champion Watson, and were demo’ing a new personal area network that used the bodies natural electricity and could transfer data by just shaking someone’s hand.

Problem was, there were no evangelists that could talk to business audiences, students and go on TV. I jumped on the opportunity and became the resident IBM futurist. According to the World Future Society, I was the only one they knew of that had lifestreamed my life from the beginning – using that financial tracking software, combined with the fact that I was scanning all my documents and storing all of my pictures in digital format.

Every day of my life was documented; financially, documents and pictures – and it still is today!

1996 – The Winnipeg Place Mat

When IBM promoted and moved me to Manitoba to be a sales rep it was a big deal. Most IBMers before me had to wait 5 or 6 years to ever get a chance in front of a customer, and even then as a junior assistant. Here I was, 24 years old (looking more like 14) trying to manage an entire IBM Territory for the PC division.

Knowing I wasn’t the most extroverted relationship salesperson, I went the transactional route. I spent hours in the library and on the road documenting EVERY customer in the region. It became a massive color-coded spreadsheet called the Manitoba Unfortunate 500. I even took my family on a trip driving thousands of miles through the Northern townships and peeking inside each window on main street to see what kind of computers they used. The spreadsheet grew to dozens of columns with absolutely every piece of competitive and contact info I could get my hands on.

I would print the spreadsheet on a large sheet of paper and then laminate it – becoming affectionately known as the “place mat”.

This place mat drove my activity every day and a few years later I was recognized for having the largest IBM market share of any Territory in the world – almost 7 out of 10 computers bought in Manitoba in 1998 were IBM!

2000 – The Knowledge Worker Index

IBM had moved me to Country Headquarters in Toronto and I was now a National Sales Manager. I was able to replicate the place mats for all 10 Territories and because of the mass quantity of prospects, a new scoring and propensity system needed to be developed.

After looking at thousands of our current customers, I built an algorithm that predicted how many knowledge workers (and thus computers) every company in Canada would buy in a given year. This predictive model was picked up by other divisions and the same methodology was being used to predict server, software and services sales.

2007 – The Channel Dashboard

I was now handling Lenovo Channel sales for North and South America, and the challenges were that much larger in size and scope. Like many times before, I used a data approach to tie together over 30 systems including financial, product, inventory, distributors, programs and historicals.

Instead of being data jockeys for partners, the channel reps could now have all information on one screen and start spending their time driving more strategic discussions with partners.

2009 – Moving to the United States and channeling Paul Revere

Lenovo moved me to World-wide Headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. and I was now faced with the biggest challenge yet. How do I run an SMB business for a company that ignored the market for decades with someone brand new to the country?

In the Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell illustrates the story with Paul Revere and the Midnight Ride. Revere was possibly the best connected person in Boston on April 18, 1775. When he was alerted to the impending British attack on the armory at Concord, he successfully alerted and armed much of the Boston countryside. I used the exact same approach for finding connectors, gaining endorsements, and taking the IT Industry in the US by storm.

This is a longer story and maybe one of the most interesting times of my professional life. I go into more detail here:

http://jaymcbain.blogspot.com/2015/08/everything-i-know-about-partner-channel.html

2010 – Market like Dandelions

I ran into a great connector in my travels by the name of Jeremy Epstein. He had an e-book that compared the future of marketing to a dandelion and it made total sense.

After traveling for 6 months straight on the Paul Revere journey, I needed to make an impact on the 30 or so communities that I became a part of. The problem was that communication preferences were changing with social media and almost 30 newer marketing vehicles. The simple math was 30 x 30 = 900 new touch points and the plan was to cover them all!

This is also a story that has it’s own blog here:

http://jaymcbain.blogspot.com/2010/05/dandelions-and-blowfishthe-future-of.html

2011 – Give up corporate life, become an Entrepreneur!

One of the top super-connectors I met on the Paul Revere journey was Bob Godgart. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of 5 successful businesses.

Bob was just transitioning his fourth company Autotask and I decided to jump on the chance to build ChannelEyes with him and two other great co-founders, Dave Geoghegan and Shari Godgart. The first couple of years were a blast – building the first social, mobile and big data solutions for vendors to better communicate, enable and drive sales with partners.

2015 – Become a CEO – fulfill a life dream

As we entered 2015, ChannelEyes was transitioning into a larger company. Having successfully raised millions in venture capital investment, ChannelEyes is now readying its breakthrough product called OPTYX – the first sales workflow product on the planet made for indirect sellers.

2017 – Becoming an industry curmudgeon – bring it all together

On a trip to Miami with my daughter, Danica, for spring break a couple of interesting things happened.

One, is a major snowstorm hit our home in Upstate New York, and Michelle was at home stranded with the driveway snowed in. All flights were cancelled for at least a week and we needed to get home! We rented a car and drove 24 straight hours home without sleeping.

Two, on that long car ride (around Virginia), I had a conference call with a company I was advising called Channel Mechanics in Ireland. It was a 4 hour call and I had trouble hearing and communicating effectively - but tried my best. After the call, two representatives from Forrester phoned me - one a sales rep who was on the call, and the other a Vice President and Research Director who was leading the call - both with praise for my contribution and an offer of employment. A few months later, in June of 2017, I joined Forrester as a Principal Analyst of Channels, Partnerships, Alliances, and Ecosystems globally.

In early 2022, it was time to take my analyst work to the next level - joining Canalys - the world's largest research firm laser focused on channels, partnerships, and ecosystems. Waking up each day with over 120 colleagues around the world thinking about indirect channels is amazing and the company culture is like family.

Now back to the Butterfly Effect.

If my mom didn’t bring home that Apple IIe computer when I was 10, I may never have got the job at IBM. If I didn’t write that Quicken program, I may never have been inclined to think in new ways during my sales and marketing career. If I didn’t apply the Paul Revere strategy I may never have met Bob and started a new company. The permutations and combinations of what-if scenarios is mind numbing.

Life hasn’t been without its disappointments. At one point I thought I could play in the NHL until I was cut in 1989. I went through a painful divorce in 2001. I thought I would be a lifer at IBM until Lenovo came along and moved my cheese in 2005.

I do know this. Getting cut at hockey refocused my efforts and led me straight into college. Getting divorced taught me life lessons that I apply to my wonderful marriage with the love of my life Michelle and 4 wonderful daughters (Danica – 1997, Mila – 1999, Brooklyn – 2014, and Cali - 2015). Leaving IBM/Lenovo put me in a wonderful position to create something meaningful.

For a moment, I wish I could flip parallel universes to see what my life would be like – although I would make 100% sure I could get back to this one because it is truly blessed.

I wouldn’t change a thing...the butterflies have led me to the right place.

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

My Car Story - How Top Gun and a "Justification for Higher Education" Poster Changed Everything!

2023-02-15T00:14:00.006-05:00

I have always loved cars.

From being a kid playing with Matchbox day and night, to an adult that is obsessed with the internal combustible engine. In fact many of my memories revolve around the vehicle I was in - whether traveling through 106 countries or driving through 10 provinces and all 50 U.S. States.

I know it is a bad thing, but I have a lead foot as well.

I have the dubious honor of getting speeding tickets on all 6 drive-able continents - lucky that there are no cars in Antarctica! Did I ever tell you the time I passed the Polizia in Italy with my mom?

He was smiling because I was driving a little yellow gutless Panda - and passing a Lamborghini!

A couple of major milestones happened as a teenager that further solidified my love of driving:

1. I was 14 when Top Gun was released in theaters.

After watching Tom Cruise take off after the girl on that GPZ900R (or better known as the Kawasaki Ninja 900), I was hooked. For the next couple of years my life revolved around motorcycles.

My first bike was old 1964 Bridgestone 400 that would literally seize up on the highway (having your back tire lock up at highway speeds teaches you a lot about balance and motorcycle handling!).

My second bike was a Yamaha RD400. It was white with red accents, had some serious upgrades including pipes that made the 2 stroke louder than a Harley. My favorite memory was tearing down the engine and removing the carbs to get it running each day before school.

Then it happened. I got a red and black (matching the movie) Honda CBR600R - with matching leathers, gloves and a helmet too! I had arrived - in the motorcycle sense.

2. Then my sister bought me this mounted poster and everything changed:

This poster became symbolic on multiple levels. One, to finish post-secondary studies, and two, to own all 5 of these cars in my lifetime. It never left my wall - different dorm rooms, apartments and even my first house - never took it down!

Knowing my first car couldn't be a Ferrari or Porsche, I started where I could.

First came a nice 4x4 Chev truck that I lifted slightly, put nice big tires and rims and a 3 inch solid steel bush guard on the front. Nothing could stop me, especially shopping carts on late night supermarket runs.

With my first job secured at IBM came my first brand new car - a 1994 Saturn SL1. It wasn't the fastest or sportiest car - but it had the new car smell and I drove it everywhere. Across all 10 Provinces in Canada and at least 15 States. It was stolen off our front driveway (fun story for another blog).

Replacing the stolen Saturn was the new 1994 Mazda MX-3 Precidia GS Coupe with the smallest V-6 in production! The sporty and cool factor went way up until I was moved to Winnipeg and I learned (the hard way) about the ice ruts that form on the road for 6 months out of the year.

So I traded in the front bumperless Mazda on a new 1997 Ford Ranger Splash truck. You may remember these from BayWatch on TV. That lasted until the kids came - Danica in 1997 and Mila in 1999. It was time to upgrade the Ford to an Eddie Bauer Edition Explorer which were so popular in that era.

Then it happened. A crazy few years of upgrades.

Combined with some good sales quarters at IBM and a neighbor who was a GM at the Toyota dealer, I located the first car on the poster. A BMW 320i Sedan.

Then 1999 hit - and for anyone selling computers pre-Y2K, there were some rich commissions being paid out. Exit BMW, enter a cherry red Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor!

A year and a half later, the Mercedes was traded on a bright blue Corvette.

Not sure why I bought a 2 seater in the Great White North, the next year I went back to a 4 seater, a yellow 1987 Porsche 911 Cabriolet.

With some nicer cars meant that I had to get some winter wheels - everything from a Volvo, Pathfinder and Jaguar XJ6 provided some winter comfort. I even took over the lease of a Toyota Yaris hatchback because I was pounding on miles driving to work and with my kids.

Three vehicles, one motorcycle, one boat and a jetski for a single guy was not efficient.

Around the mid 2000's I decided to upgrade the Porsche to a 2000 model with the new body style - still yellow of course. Also traded the Jaguar and Toyota into a 2000 Mercedes ML430 SUV. I still have the Mercedes and added another one - a 2010 Mercedes GL450 last year.

After moving to the U.S. in 2009 I felt it was my duty as a new American to buy a Harley - so there it was, a beautiful V-Rod with $5K in extra chrome and only 600 miles presented itself. Did you know that Porsche designed the V-Rod engine?

After 40 vehicles since 1987, I officially pumped the brakes. We have an SUV, car, a bike, a golf cart, and Boat.

The Marine Life is Calling

Around the time I moved to Toronto from Winnipeg (2000), I also got a passion for the water.

I bought a Seadoo Speedster boat with 2 jet engines capable of 55 miles/hr in a 15 foot boat. Within a year, I upgraded to a more reasonable 16 foot bowrider that didn't scare my children.

A few years later, after cruising the Trent-Severn, Rideau Canal and shooting up the St. Lawrence to Montreal, it was time to get a cruiser. The Bayliner 2651 Cierra provided a couple of nice beds, a bathroom and some cooking abilities and we must have put 1000 hours on it.

Finally, the two-footitus set in and I upgraded to my dream boat - a Carver 350 Mariner - with leather seats, a big screen TV and ample room to live in summer comfort. Parking it on the ocean in North Carolina provided the best moveable ocean-front property one could ask for.

Then in 2015, the reverse of two-footitus set in and it was time to downgrade into a boat where we could explore the North East United States without getting killed in gas money or repairs. The Carver was sold and a Bayliner 245 Ciera was purchased. And then the downsizing continued as we got a 17 foot Bayliner M17 bowrider that fits in the garage (HOA friendly in Florida!).

Full story here:

http://www.jaymcbain.com/2014/12/my-nautical-story-adventure-on-high-seas.html

History in Pictures

1964 Bridgestone 400cc Motorcycle

1976 Yamaha 400 Offroad Motorcycle

1982 Yamaha RD400 Motorcycle

1982 Yamaha IT125 Offroad Motorcycle

1987 Honda Hurricane CBR600 Motorcycle

1982 Chevrolet C1500 4x4 Truck

1986 Hyundai Stellar Sedan (Second vehicle)

1984 Yamaha 400 Motorcycle (Getting back and forth to Lethbridge more gas friendly than truck)

1994 Saturn SL1 Sedan (first new car!)

1994 Mazda MX-3 Precidia GS Coupe

1991 Honda Civic DX Sedan (second car)

1997 Ford Ranger Splash Truck

1995 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer SUV

1992 BMW 320i Sedan

1999 Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor Sedan

1997 Honda CR-V SUV

1995 Seadoo Speedster Jet Boat

1995 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe (and Mila!)

2000 Dodge Caravan

2000 Scorpion 16ft Bowrider 60HP Boat

1987 Porsche 911 Convertible

1994 Volvo 850 Sedan

1997 Toyota Corolla Sedan (second car)

1995 Jaguar XJ6 Sedan

1998 Honda CR-V SUV

1990 Suzuki Sidekick ($1000 project car - rebuilt engine) - and Danica!

1994 Nissan Pathfinder SUV

2007 Toyota Yaris Hatchback (and Austin)

2007 Honda CBR125 Motorcycle

1990 Bayliner 2651 Cierra Boat

2006 Honda Accord V6 (Michelle's car before the deer incident)

1997 Carver 350 Mariner Yacht

2000 Mercedes ML430 SUV

2009 Audi A4 Quattro Convertible (Michelle's car)

2006 Seadoo RXT Jetski

2006 Harley Davidson V-Rod Motorcycle

2011 Honda Rancher 4x4 ATV

2000 Porsche 911 Convertible.

2010 Mercedes GL450 SUV

2008 Bayliner 245 Cierra Boat

2018 Honda CBR650F Motorcycle

2016 EZ-GO Golf Cart (Florida Life!)

2024 Honda CBR1000RR Motorcycle

2013 BMW 328i Convertible (purchased 6.2.18)

Current Garage:

2018 Mercedes GLS 450 (purchased 2.12.23)

2022 Porsche Taycan Electric (Michelle's car - purchased 3.14.26)

2023 Bayliner M17 Boat

2025 Star EV Lithium Golf Cart

2026 Ducati Panigale V2 Motorcycle

History in Spreadsheet Format (yes, I track everything)

Where does the story end?

If you have been keeping track, I still have one car left to buy on the "Justification for Higher Education" bucket list. The BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar and Porsche are done. What is next?

Yes, a Ferrari.

I don't know when, and I don't know exactly how - but I will own a Ferrari. My favorite so far is the 360, but time will tell...

On the marine side, I will have to let go the Carver to get a sailboat at some point. Another bucket list item is to sail blue water from Florida to Spain. Unless there is a breakthrough in battery technology, or they magically figure out how to convert salt water to fuel, I will need the wind.

Anyway, a topic for another blog.

Epilogue - How I Buy Cars

Cars are depreciating assets and can burn a hole in your pocket very quickly. Here is what I have learned along the way:

1. Focus on one number only - depreciation. You can go a buy a fancy new $30K car that is only worth $4K in 5 years (many US based models last decade). The depreciation number is $26K or more than $5K per year of ownership. When you add insurance, maintenance and gas - not a pretty picture.

Take this example - I bought the Mercedes above for $18K (the list price for someone previously was over $80K). Letting someone else take the $62K hit was a good strategy. Even better is the 8 years of driving I have had with it and only $1,500 per year in depreciation.

It is hard to find a car that you only have to pay $1,500 per year on (buy or lease).

The Porsche new was over $140K ($CDN). I bought it after 3 years for $62K. After 11 years of driving, the depreciation number is $26K or $2,363 per year. Still a low cost for driving a nice car.

2. Buy OUT of warranty. Everyone loves new car smell with a bumper to bumper warranty right? Consider buying out of warranty (with low miles and clean CARFAX). The money you save - sometimes upwards of $10K from "in warranty" status - will more than pay for any mechanical problems that will arise. In most cases, the $10K will be pure profit.

3. Negotiate hard and without a hint of emotion. Michelle's Audi came from Florida and had a $500 shipping charge. That didn't matter because we had dealerships up and down the eastern seaboard competing for our business. We walked away several times and still got the exact color, style, options, etc. that she wanted. While you don't make any friends, upwards of $5K can be saved by not buying in your local town.

4. Use the $10K lift rule for buying. I could have never saved $62K for a Porsche at the time - but I didn't have to. I bought the BMW for $20K, sold it for about the same and added $10K for the Mercedes. Same thing, sold it and added $10K for the Corvette. Rinse. Repeat. The Porsche ended up only costing $10K more than the Corvette when I sold it. That is how I could flip cars every 6 months and not take a bath.

Quick Summary:

1. Target your dream car with options/color/etc
2. Research on Autotrader (disregard location)
3. Draw out the actual depreciation curve based on time and miles - choose optimal year (usually 4 years old)
4. Narrow down to 3-4 cars and approach dealers. Negotiate relentlessly.
5. Drive that beautiful luxury convertible for less than a price of new Honda Civic!

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

My Nautical Story - Adventure on the High Seas

2023-02-13T01:25:00.004-05:00

I am pretty sure the love of water started in 1972 when I was six weeks old and my grandparents Bob and Dona McBain retired to Shuswap, British Columbia, Canada, and built a log cabin:

Here I am with Grandpa Bob, my dad, Jim, and my sister, Tracey:

After the cabin was built, a portion of every summer of my life up until University was spent on the water - skiing, going on picnics, and swimming.

Water meant more to me than just fun and games though - it was a vehicle for adventure.

I can't think of a bigger adventure than Grandpa Bob rounding up his family in 1967, putting them in a 21 foot Starcraft aluminum cruiser and travelling from Lake Superior to Montreal for Expo '67. Across 2 Great Lakes, numerous rivers and canals, hundreds of locks, and thousands of miles of coastlines.

That is not only a ton of nautical miles, it was a trip of lifetime!

Fast forward 32 years and I was an IBM sales rep living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The year was 1999, and the pre-Y2K buzz had everyone buying new computers to avoid the end of the world. With fat commission checks and an opportunity to move to Toronto, Ontario in early 2000, the time was right to make my first boat purchase.

I defied all levels of logic by choosing a super-fast, 15 foot dual-jet boat made by Seadoo. I bought it sight-unseen on a website that many people were just starting to hear about - eBay.

With a flat bottom and no props or rudders, these boats were made to do donuts at 55mph and send you careening across the lake like a rock skipping. Also, no protection from the sun, no functional windscreen, and an impeller that sucked in weeds at the south end of the notoriously weedy, Lake Simcoe.

Exactly what the family needed - with 2 young girls, Danica and Mila, aged 3 and 1, this was a failed experiment in so many ways! But fun, nonetheless.

I owned my first boat for less than 6 months. It was time for an upgrade - both in wind and sun protection as well as usability. Enter the 2000 Scorpion, a 16 foot bowrider with a Yamaha 60hp on the back.

Wonderful gas mileage, brand new mechanicals, and a way to start exploring the many lakes, rivers and canals that make up the Canadian Shield.

A month after buying the boat, the first major voyage was planned up and down the Trent Severn Canal. With a unique marine railway lock to flight locks, hydraulic lifts, 39 swing bridges and 160 dams, the 386km (240 miles) route was a major undertaking for our maiden voyage.

Some history on the canal:

Samuel Champlain was the first European to travel the network of inland waters from Georgian Bay to the Bay of Quinte with the Hurons in 1615. A route that would later be canalized and named the Trent–Severn Waterway.

In the mid-19th century, the river systems of Central Ontario were used by lumber barons to easily transport newly felled trees to sawmills closer to market. Many of the logging companies opposed the building of locks, for these would interfere with their business interests. The logging companies did, however, help to create thriving communities such as Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls, all of which helped to delay the building of the lock system.

Countless miles were put on that little bowrider. The final trip was an amazing journey to Ottawa, Ontario, with the kids and my mom, Gloria McBain. Travelling up the historic Rideau Canal was one of my favorite memories. At 202km (126 miles), and 45 locks, it meanders from Kingston, Ontario to Ottawa.

History lesson:

The construction of the Rideau Canal was a preventive military measure undertaken after a report that during the War of 1812 the United States had intended to invade the British colony of Upper Canada via the St. Lawrence River, which would have severed the lifeline between Montreal and Kingston. The British built a number of other canals (Grenville, Chute-à-Blondeau and Carillon Canals, all along the Ottawa River) as well as a number of forts (Citadel Hill, La Citadelle, and Fort Henry) to impede and deter any future American invasions of Canadian territory.

In the summer of 2002, the little bowrider was upgraded to a functional 26 foot cruiser - a 1990 Bayliner 2651 Ciera. With 2 double beds, a bathroom, shower and kitchen - we were now in business!

The maiden voyage was up the Trent-Severn again to a town called Midland - in Georgian Bay. Several other trips were made up and down the Trent-Severn exploring Collingwood, Ontario in the Blue Mountains, down to Toronto, Montreal (via the Saint Lawrence Seaway), Rochester and numerous trips to Niagara Falls.

Life was definitely good - and the nautical miles kept piling up!

One of my favorite memories with the kids was our marina at Ontario Place. We were moored in the middle of a theme park and would wake up and go on the rides, eat, play, go boating, listen to an outdoor concert, and then sleep again!

Life was definitely good on the Bayliner.

In 2006, some strange things were happening with the Canadian dollar. The value was increasing rapidly and ended up (in 2007) hitting 10% more valuable than the US dollar.

Dreams of owning a serious cruiser went from flashes of fantasy to a reality in no time flat!

I started to look around and fell in love with the Carver Mariner 350. A yacht that was 39 feet all decked out with leather, big screen TV, 3 double beds, and the ability to carry 30 passengers.

I found the perfect boat in Cape Coral Florida, sitting on a lift behind a huge mansion. The person who sold it was a Realtor who bought numerous $10 million dollar estates and sold off the boats behind to put the money into new kitchens and landscaping.

The yacht brokerage was instructed to list them on boattrader.com and drop the price by $10K per week until it was sold. I thought I lost it when it hit a low number, but the other guys financing fell through and I was able to scoop it - with another $10K off because a week had passed.

The next challenge was to get the boat to Toronto from Florida. I decided to have it shipped to Atlantic City, where I would pick it up, navigate the ocean (or Intracoastal Waterway depending on weather), go through New York, up the Hudson to Albany, hang a left at Erie Canal and hit Lake Ontario via Oswego.

This is where the story takes a turn for the worse!

A major storm ripped through Upstate New York wiping out lock 10 on the Erie Canal. With no promise of re-opening in the 2006 season, we had to decide whether to:

a) Leave the boat in New York for the winter
b) Have it shipped from Albany to Toronto
c) Take the loooong way up the Champlain to Montreal and then down the Saint Lawrence to Lake Ontario

The sense of adventure kicked in and, not to be defeated, we set sail to Montreal.

The boat was named Lucky Deux, but was anything from lucky from that day forward!

Going up the Hudson, north of the Federal Troy Lock, we started to have mechanical issues with the boat taking on water through a broken front window seal, losing the fan belts and then clunking bottom in a narrow Montreal canal.

But that was nothing. Next up, Tornado.

Boating through the famous Thousand Islands was a pleasure and something every mariner should do once in their life. As we entered Lake Ontario via Kingston, you have a choice to go inland across the first quarter of the lake or jet out of Prince Edward and go around the wonderful Sandbanks Provincial Park.

The challenge is that it puts you in the middle of this great lake and weather can turn on a dime. We were reaching the furthest point of the outlet when the VHF radio started crackling - severe storm alerts, mariner alerts, you name it.

In the middle of the afternoon, the sky turned dark black in the North and rain started pelting down.

The waves started kicking up to 5 and 6 foot levels with many of them crashing into the boat. I had about 30 miles to reach the nearest shore and 40 miles to the nearest town - Colborne, Ontario.

We were now taking on water at a pace where the 4 bilge pumps couldn't stay ahead of it. The boat, already at 20,000 pounds, was getting heavier by the minute. A normal cruising speed of 20 mph was now about 14 and we were not able to get on plane.

Knowing that 30 to 40 miles at 14 mph (through a major storm) would take us into the night was top of mind. Having the engines die in the middle of the lake had me on the verge of panic. As captain, your first priority is the safety of your crew - and I was going to get us to safety.

Hell or high water.

Or both.

The girls were troopers and we found out when we landed in the dark in Colborne that a tornado had ripped through town causing extensive damage. The old salts at the marina couldn't believe that the Lucky Deux was on the water and made it in safely.

After that day, I had a new appreciation for preparation and safety.

The Carver ended up getting 2 new engines, new props, shafts and just about every other replaceable part in the next few years. It became the worst investment sinkhole I had ever been a part of.

The memories did take a turn for the positive in 2009 when I moved to Raleigh, N.C. and transported the boat to be moored at New Bern. I had my own ocean-front condo!

I invited my new girlfriend Michelle Ragusa and her two dogs to the boat in later 2010 and it was there in New Bern that our story really started. Read more about our story here.

Next up was another move to Albany, NY and another transport of the boat. Mooring the boat on the Hudson was a bit of a challenge. With $4 gas prices and a limited cruising range up and down the river we felt we were missing out on the wealth of cruising opportunities through Upstate New York, NYC, Boston, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

It was time to make a change - and downsize.

The memories and love I had for the Bayliner came flooding back. What if we had a boat that we could trailer to awesome locations and start to explore the Northeast with Baby Brooklyn?

So the decision was set - in 2014 we sold the Carver and purchased a 2008 Bayliner 245 Ciera. Almost the same boat as the old Bayliner 2651 that I had, only 18 years newer!

We set off on some amazing adventures on the new Bayliner. From Boston (including Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard), New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and much more...we covered most of the Northeast!

Check out these trips:

More about our Bayliner story here.

When we moved to Florida in 2017 we quickly figured out this was not the right boat for a few reasons:

1. Hot temperatures and A/C only works at a marina with electricity (which we were never around)

2. The boat was stored in a lot 30 minutes away from our house because our HOA wouldn't allow a boat on the property. This meant I would have to tow it down to the house to charge the batteries and clean before each outing which was a huge undertaking.

3. We were not cruising as much or sleeping underneath. Any cruising would be to a hotel to tie up.

4. The internal engine with sterndrive wasn't the best with salt water. People run outboards in Florida for good reason.

So the decision was made in 2023 to buy a brand new Bayliner M17 bowrider. With a 10 year warranty on the hull and a 5 year warranty on a new Mercury 75hp outboard we were back into reliable (and cost efficient) boating.

The best part is that the boat has a foldable tongue on the trailer allowing it to fit in our garage at home. When we want to hit the intracoastal it takes minutes to hook up and we are launched within 30 minutes. No cleaning or deterioration from the hot Florida sun as it is indoors.

What's further down the road?

The end goal, and major lifelong bucket list item is to sail the blue ocean. Upon retirement (or sooner) a trip from the Caribbean to the Rock of Gibraltar via the Atlantic Ocean will happen.

22 days of wide open spaces and no shores - a wonderful solitude of nature and a major adventure wrapped up into one.

Logistically, I will need to learn how to sail, get my captain's license and take every offshore course I can get my hands on. Unless advances in technology allow renewable power sources, we will be in the market for a new sailing catamaran at some point...

I will continue to update this blog over time.

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

My Travel Story - How to be a world traveler while raising a family and working full-time

2023-02-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

One of my most popular blogs ever was from 2010, titled "100 Country Rollerblades and Red Bull Tour". It is the story of visiting every corner of the planet, fast & cheap, and the building a retirement plan around re-visiting favorite places for longer periods.

I talked about the Bucket List movie from 2007 with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and the concept of waiting to retirement to really start living. Life tends to get in the way of living sometimes and families and careers take over most of our focus.

“We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.”

Since the movie, and the corresponding epiphany, I have been able to visit 93 countries on every continent - many of those with Michelle and the kids in tow!

Here is a current map...

The goal of hitting 100 countries is what drives this crazy adventure.

There are no lack of challenges:

1. TIME - being a married father of 4 beautiful girls aged 26, 23, 9, and 7, as well as a busy industry analyst for Forrester, doesn't leave much time to be a world traveller.

2. MONEY - You could spend a fortune on flights, hotels, visas, food and tourism - especially living in North America where every trip is a major transcontinental journey. Grouping countries into themed trips has been the answer.

3. ENERGY - Travel can be very stressful and draining, dealing with airports, ground transportation, logistics, foreign languages, currencies and tight itineraries.

4. THINGS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL - A quick read of the morning newspaper will show that the world is always in a state of change. For example, one of our honeymoon stops was Egypt to see the pyramids, the Nile & Luxor where King Tut's tomb is. The day we got married the protests turned deadly, and on our day of arrival, 54 people were killed in the main town square.

It turns out that attaining 100 countries is more difficult than first planned. The number itself wasn't anything more than a round number that was challenging and remarkable at the time.

After some research, I found a Travelers' Century Club, or TCC, that was founded in 1954 in California and has about 2,000 members. To be a member, you must have travelled to 100 or more of countries and territories in their Directory. The Club recognizes a much wider array of countries and Territories (324) than does the United Nations (193).

In terms of "sovereign" states, there are 206 listed in Wikipedia. Somewhere between this number and the United Nations number is where I fall - adding important places such as Taiwan, Kosovo and Vatican City.

It also makes for a nice round number - travel to 50% of the planet!

That's where it gets a bit more complicated. I downloaded all 200 countries and sorted them by land mass and population. In terms of targeting where to go next, I tend to look at size and global importance of the destination:

85	44%	74.49%	66.65%
# of Countries	of world visited	Population	Land Mass
	World (land only, excl. Antarctica)	6,936,289,500	134,940,000
P	China	1,345,610,000	9,640,821
P	India	1,210,193,422	3,287,240
P	United States	311,950,000	9,826,675
P	Indonesia	237,556,363	1,904,569
P	Brazil	195,112,055	8,514,877
P	Russia	141,927,297	17,098,242
P	Japan	127,387,000	377,873
P	Mexico	107,550,697	1,958,201
P	Philippines	92,226,600	300,076
P	Vietnam	85,789,573	331,689
P	Germany	81,757,600	357,022
P	Egypt	80,143,443	1,001,449
P	Turkey	77,804,122	783,562
P	Thailand	64,232,760	513,115
P	France (Metropolitan)	62,793,432	551,500
P	United Kingdom	62,041,708	243,610
P	Italy	60,200,060	301,318
P	South Africa	50,586,757	1,221,037
P	South Korea	48,456,369	99,538
P	Ukraine	46,936,000	603,700
P	Spain	46,087,170	506,030
P	Colombia	46,083,384	1,138,914
P	Argentina	40,091,359	2,780,400
P	Poland	38,163,895	312,685
P	Canada	33,740,000	9,984,670
P	Morocco	32,223,787	446,550
P	Peru	29,461,933	1,285,216
P	Nepal	29,331,000	147,181
P	Malaysia	28,306,700	329,847
P	Taiwan	23,069,345	35,980
P	Mozambique	22,894,000	801,590
P	Australia	22,828,648	7,682,300
P	Sri Lanka	20,238,000	65,610
P	Netherlands	16,690,000	41,526
P	Cambodia	14,805,000	181,035
P	Zimbabwe	13,009,530	390,757
P	Greece	11,306,183	131,957
P	Cuba	11,306,183	109,886
P	Belgium	10,827,519	30,528
P	Portugal	10,636,888	92,391
P	Czech Republic	10,532,770	78,866
P	Haiti	10,033,000	27,750
P	Hungary	10,013,628	93,032
P	Belarus	9,755,106	207,600
P	Sweden	9,366,092	449,964
P	Austria	8,372,930	83,858
P	Switzerland	7,761,800	41,284
P	Israel	7,697,600	20,770
P	Hong Kong (China)	7,003,700	1,104
P	Jordan	6,316,000	89,342
P	Denmark	5,532,531	43,094
P	Slovakia	5,424,057	49,033
P	Finland	5,389,683	338,145
P	Singapore	5,076,700	710.2
P	Norway	4,936,900	385,155
P	Ireland	4,581,269	70,273
P	Costa Rica	4,579,000	51,100
P	Croatia	4,443,000	56,538
P	New Zealand	4,315,800	270,534
P	Palestinian territories	4,100,000	6,020
P	Puerto Rico (US)	3,982,000	8,875
P	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,843,126	51,129
P	Uruguay	3,463,197	175,016
P	Panama	3,454,000	75,517
P	Albania	3,195,000	28,748
P	Lithuania	3,053,800	65,300
P	Jamaica	2,719,000	10,991
P	Latvia	2,248,961	64,600
P	Namibia	2,171,000	824,292
P	Slovenia	2,079,344	20,256
P	Lesotho	2,067,000	30,355
P	Botswana	1,950,000	581,730
P	Estonia	1,340,021	45,100
P	Swaziland	1,185,000	17,364
P	Fiji	849,000	18,274
P	Montenegro	630,548	14,026
P	Macau (China)	541,200	29.2
P	Luxembourg	502,207	2,586
P	The Bahamas	342,000	13,878
P	Iceland	318,452	103,000
P	Vanuatu	240,000	12,189
P	Aruba (Netherlands)	107,000	193
P	Cayman Islands (UK)	56,000	264
P	Monaco	33,000	1.95
P	Vatican City	826	0.44

As you can see, targeting places like China, India and Indonesia help achieve the population numbers, while places like Russia, Australia and Argentina drive the land mass values.

So, while 93/200 countries traveled to almost 1/2 of the world, in terms of population I am at 78% and land mass 69%!

The most difficult part of getting to 100 countries is the perpetual state of war (civil or otherwise) and the geographic spread of small islands around the globe. At any one time, there is only about 100 safe, accessible and economically viable countries to travel to.

Today, the entire mideast is out of the question as well as the majority of Africa. The Northern shore of South America and most of Central America is also risky at the best of times.

So here it is, how I have traveled the world and going to hit 100 countries economically and with only a few weeks of vacation time per year:

(Assuming you live in North America which is harder than Europe)

1. North America (1972-80) - living in Canada and the United States, and travelling several times to Mexico allowed me to complete the continent (and a ton of land mass) early in life.

2. UK & France (1996)

3. Portugal & Spain driving tour (2002)

4. Bahamas, Cuba via vacations (2003-04)

Sub-total: 9 countries over my first 35 years.

Queue the Bucket List...

Now, strap in...

5. Greece (2008) - including Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

6. Driving tour across Europe starting in Germany, then circling through Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland & Czech Republic (2008)

7. China (2009) - including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong & Macau.

8. Italy (2009) - trip with my mom.

9. South America tour - Argentina, Uruguay & Brazil - both Rio and Sao Paulo (2010)

10. Caribbean cruise - Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cozumel (2010)

11. South Africa driving tour - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique & Swaziland (2010)

12. Scandinavian tour with Michelle - Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway & Finland (2011)

13. SE Asia tour with Michelle - Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines & Singapore (2011)

14. ex-USSR tour with Michelle - Russia (both Moscow & St. Petersburg), Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania (2012)

15. Down-under driving tour with Michelle - Australia & New Zealand (2012)

16. Honeymoon of a lifetime with Michelle! - Morocco, Egypt (Cairo & Luxor), Sri Lanka, India & Nepal (2013)

17. Asia tour with Michelle and Brooklyn on Mount Fuji for her first birthday - including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea (2015)

20. A panoramic cruise to the Panama Canal with stops in Aruba, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica with Michelle, Brooklyn, and Cali. (2017)

21. As part of Michelle's MBA from Manhattan College we visited multiple parts of Peru including Machu Picchu and the Amazon rainforest with Brooklyn, and Cali. (2018)

22. An epic 15 country journey on the way to Australia for a speech, including new country visits to Monaco, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. (2019)

23. Covid stalled our travel for a couple of years but we picked up again by hitting my 7th wonder of the world - Chichen Itza in Mexico (2022). The other 6 were the Taj Mahal (2013), the Colosseum (2009), Machu Picchu (2017), Christ the Redeemer (2010), Petra (2019), and the Great Wall of China (2009).

24. We also hit the Bahamas (Atlantis) in 2022 and then finished the year in epic fashion with an adventure to Antarctica - our 7th continent! We saw Chile and landed in Argentina after the cruise to a newly minted World Cup in soccer. Messi was the world champion and months later would soon land in Miami to play!

25. We hit the ground running in 2023 with a spring break cruise through the Caribbean - hitting new countries of Honduras and Belize. During summer break we also took an epic cruise to the North Pole (kinda) - Alaska!

Now the question is, how to go get those last 7 countries - safely and economically?

Trip plans & ideas:

- Eastern Caribbean cruise - Dominican Republic, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago & Aruba.

- Eastern Africa safari tour - Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania

- Second SE Asia tour - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar & Laos

Even though the Middle East and Africa have been in a constant state of turmoil for centuries, I do hope in my lifetime to see these countries.

The five most important tools I have found in planning these trips are:

1. Kayak.com
2. Hotels.com
3. Google Maps
4. Tripit
5. Microsoft Excel

I also enjoy getting DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, especially the Top 10 ones. With a good mix of pictures, backstory, organization and itinerary help, they have turned out to be invaluable.

The plan to sail later on will afford the opportunity to see new countries by water and check out new parts of these countries from port.

So, yes, it is possible to see the world while working full-time and raising a family. It is also possible to do without hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash laying around.

Jay McBain joins Canalys: Industry and career inflection points collide!

2022-04-04T10:30:00.006-04:00

We are witnessing a once-in-a-generation shift in the global economy, and partnerships play a leading role. Most business leaders across every industry, of all size firms, and in every corner of the world are considering significant business model shifts. They are realizing that they can't do it alone in the decade of the ecosystem.

I am so excited to join the global team at Canalys - the world's leading analyst firm with a distinct focus on channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems. The 24-year-old market analysis firm strives to guide clients on the technology industry's future and to think beyond the business models of the past - delivering smart, timely, and actionable market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals.

In addition to research, the Canalys Forums deliver the industry's largest and most valuable channels events in EMEA, APAC, and LATAM. The firm also offers Candefero, a powerful online channel community delivering a unique blend of real-time feedback, sentiment trackers, polls, and opinion surveys for thousands of technology vendors and distributors. While Canalys has long been active in North America, I look forward to helping expand activities further in this market.

To join a firm with such an impressive pedigree at this critical inflection point in our industry has me the most excited!

We are still in the beginning stages of a genuinely global transformation as every company (in every industry) has been forced to digitize and become technology companies themselves. The vast majority of professional services firms have also transformed into technology services companies creating exponential partnership opportunities that we wouldn't have fathomed five years ago.

I spend considerable time researching the "watering holes" that channel and ecosystem professionals frequent as they engage with their peers around future trends. I also spend hundreds of hours each year looking at the underlying channel technology that enables this future - with a keen eye on the future product roadmaps.

Combining this with the mountain of data and insights that Canalys delivers globally will produce actionable (and unique) guidance around:

Shifting Go-to-market and business models:

Partnering strategies in subscription and consumption models.
Leveraging marketplaces (internally and externally) as a competitive advantage.
Building robust ecosystems around Product-led growth (PLG) and emerging tech firms.
Utilizing distribution, cloud service providers, and technology solutions brokers as ecosystem orchestrators.

Rethinking partner marketing, programs, and measurement

Communicating the "multiplier" instead of margins - the total economic value of partnering.
Moving beyond a pure resell-model of precious metal tiering to a points system recognizing non-transactional behaviors such as influence, transaction-assist, and long-term retention.
Recognizing technology, strategic and business alliances with new measurements around co-innovation, customer value creation, and network effects.
Breaking down silos to add channel professionals matrixed throughout the organization - in marketing, sales, customer success, and product.

Investing in technology automation and data-driven program innovation

Improving basic program and channel management processes that (for many) are still painfully manual and error-prone.
Leveraging clean, consolidated, and real-time channel data to improve speed to market, decision making, and partner experience (PX).
Introducing attribution, secure data-sharing, and other ecosystem technology to manage partners at a more granular level and pay performance-based incentives at the point of value versus the point of sale.
Moving traditional channel account manager coverage into a more effective community strategy that is repeatable and scalable.

And this is just the beginning.

We have a new digital savvy, consumer-like end-customer with a different psychology, behavior, and buying journey. These new buyers surround themselves with upwards of seven different partners in a customer journey that now never ends.

The pressure is increasing on channel leaders to deliver at a new level of scale, complexity, and personalization and to figure out the people, processes, programs, and underlying technology that will drive competitive advantage in the decade of the ecosystem.

JayFM 2021 - My Top 100 Favorite Songs of All-time! (Plus 643 more honorable mentions)

2021-07-03T19:07:00.017-04:00

Music means something different to everyone who listens. Like many people, I have pretty diverse interests across the years and genres. And it changes slightly from year to year - new music and finding old music that strikes a nerve.

However, my favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. It could probably be labelled an eclectic mix of emo, sadcore and slowcore. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

It is an interesting dichotomy, but perhaps makes sense. A place where I can disengage, move to a different level, and explore things from a different perspective - almost spiritual.

So here is JayFM, my Top 100 songs of all time IN ORDER:

(Public Playlist on YouTube can be found here - or click on each individually if you want to watch.)

#	Name	Artist	Year
1	Ronan	Taylor Swift	2012
2	Jar of Hearts	Christina Perri	2010
3	Beneath Your Beautiful	Labrinth	2012
4	Trust In You	Lauren Daigle	2017
5	Our Best Friend	Abby Carey	2021
6	Show Me Heaven	Maria McKee	1990
7	A Million Dreams	Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman & Michelle Williams	2017
8	Make You Feel My Love	Adele	2008
9	Sandcastles	Beyonce	2016
10	The Story	Brandi Carlile	2007
11	I'm Gonna Be Strong	Cyndi Lauper	1994
12	Words	Dolly Parton	2021
13	Vivian	Delta Spirit	2010
14	The Lucky Ones	Jack And Tim	2018
15	Crimson and Clover	Tommy James & The Shondells	1968
16	The Last Day of Our Acquaintance	Sinead O'Connor	1990
17	Shallow	Lady Gaga	2018
18	Total Eclipse of the Heart	Bonnie Tyler	1983
19	The Sweetest Thing	Juice Newton	1981
20	The Weakness in Me	Melissa Etheridge	2002
21	Fare Thee Well Love	Rankin Family	1990
22	Love Can Build A Bridge	The Judds	1990
23	Baby Can I Hold You	Tracy Chapman	1988
24	Angel of the Morning	Juice Newton	1987
25	Scars	I Am They	2018
26	Impossible	Shontelle	2010
27	Why	Annie Lenox	1992
28	Wings	Birdy	2013
29	I Would Give Everything I Own	Bread	1976
30	Born to Run Accoustic	Bruce Springsteen	1987
31	A Thousand Years	Christina Perri	2011
32	Misguided Angel	Cowboy Junkies	1988
33	The Sound Of Silence	Disturbed	2015
34	Landslide (Live feat. Stevie Nicks)	Dixie Chicks	2002
35	Perfect Duet With Beyonce	Ed Sheeran	2018
36	Goodbye	Hootie & the Blowfish	1994
37	Jessie	Joshua Kadison	1993
38	If You Were a Sailboat	Katie Melua	2007
39	Piece By Piece	Kelly Clarkson	2015
40	You Say	Lauren Daigle	2018
41	Hold On To Me	Lauren Daigle	2021
42	Run To You	Lea Michele	2017
43	Fade Into You	Mazzy Star	1993
44	Adore You	Miley Cyrus	2013
45	Slow Down	Nichole Nordeman	2017
46	2000 Miles	Pretenders	1984
47	Just Give Me A Reason feat. Nate Ruess	P!nk	2012
48	Angel	Sarah McLachlan	1997
49	Bridge Over Troubled Water	Simon & Garfunkel	1970
50	Leather and Lace	Stevie Nicks & Don Henley	1981
51	Honestly	Stryper	1986
52	Rule The World	Take That	2007
53	Ernest, Charlie and Allan	Tannis Slimmon & Lewis Melville	2019
54	Seasons In The Sun	Terry Jacks	1974
55	Don't Come Around Here No More	Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers	1985
56	Love Is All Around	Wet Wet Wet	1994
57	Your Love Is My Love	Whitney Houston	1998
58	No Matter What	Boyzone	1998
59	I Don't Know How to Love Him	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
60	Tonite Is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love	April Wine	1975
61	Eternal Flame	Bangles	1982
62	Always	Bon Jovi	1994
63	Loving You is a Dirty Job	Bonnie Tyler	1986
64	God Gave Love To You	Bonnie Tyler	1993
65	Everytime	Britney Spears	2003
66	Power of Love	Celine Dion	1993
67	Arms	Christina Perri	2011
68	Fix You	Coldplay	2005
69	All She Wrote	Default	2003
70	Anyone	Demi Lovato	2020
71	My Immortal	Evanescence	2003
72	Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)	Hillsong United	2013
73	Collide	Howie Day	2003
74	Right Time of the Night	Jennifer Warnes	1976
75	Million Reasons	Lady Gaga	2016
76	I Dreamed a Dream	Les Miserables (1985 original London cast)	1987
77	Twinkle Song	Miley Cyrus	2015
78	Come What May	Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor	2007
79	Stay	Rihanna	2012
80	Angels	Robbie Williams	1997
81	It Must Have Been Love	Roxette	1990
82	Stay	Shakespeare's Sister	1992
83	Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now	Starship	1991
84	New Years Day	Taylor Swift	2017
85	December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)	The Four Seasons	1975
86	I Got You Babe	UB40	1985
87	I Know Him So Well	Whitney Houston	1987
88	Follow You Follow Me	Adaline	2016
89	Don't Wanna Lose You	Gloria Estefan	1992
90	November Rain	Guns N' Roses	2000
91	Sign of the Times	Harry Styles	2017
92	Hallelujah	Jeff Buckley	1994
93	Lightning Crashes	Live	1994
94	I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)	Meat Loaf	1993
95	Family Portrait	P!nk	2001
96	Forever Young	Rod Stewart	1988
97	From This Moment On	Shania Twain	1997
98	Unpretty	TLC	1999
99	Didn't We Almost Have It All	Whitney Houston	1998
100	Make Me Do Anything You Want	A Foot In Cold Water	1972

What is currently on my iPhone?
Here is the next 643 songs on my iPhone right now - bringing in some more diversity.

#	Name	Artist	Year
101	What's Up	4 Non Blondes	1992
102	Say Something	A Great Big World	2014
103	The Winner Takes It All	Abba	1980
104	Don't You Remember (live acoustic)	Adele	2011
105	Someone Like You	Adele	2011
106	Hello	Adele	2015
107	When We Were Young	Adele	2015
108	Hiding My Heart	Adele	2011
109	One and Only	Adele	2011
110	Set Fire to the Rain	Adele	2011
111	Take It All	Adele	2011
112	Turning Tables (live acoustic)	Adele	2011
113	Send My Love (To Your New Lover)	Adele	2015
114	Skyfall	Adele	2012
115	Two of Us	Aimee Mann & Michael Penn	2002
116	All Out Of Love	Air Supply	1976
117	Even the Nights Are Better	Air Supply	1976
118	Making Love Out of Nothing at All	Air Supply	1976
119	Lost In Love	Air Supply	1980
120	The One That You Love	Air Supply	1981
121	Every Woman in the World	Air Supply	1983
122	Here I Am	Air Supply	1983
123	Sweet Dreams	Air Supply	1983
124	Lover of Mine	Alannah Myles	1998
125	Song Instead of a Kiss	Alannah Myles	1998
126	More Than Words Can Say	Alias	1990
127	Poison	Alice Cooper	1989
128	Pure Shores	All Saints	2000
129	Never Ever	All Saints	1997
130	It Ends Tonight	All-American Rejects	2005
131	Gives You Hell	All-American Rejects	2008
132	If I Didn't Have You	Amanda Marshall	1999
133	I Will Take Care of You	Amy Sky	1996
134	Take That Look Off Your Face	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
135	All I Ask of You	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
136	Amigos Para Siempre	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
137	Another Suitcase in Another Hall	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
138	Any Dream Will Do	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
139	As If We Never Said Goodbye	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
140	Don't Cry for Me Argentina	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
141	Love Changes Everything	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
142	Memory	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
143	Oh What a Circus	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
144	The Music of the Night	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
145	The Perfect Year	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
146	Whistle Down the Wind	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
147	You Must Love Me	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
148	Superstar	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
149	Phantom of the Opera	Andrew Lloyd Webber	2001
150	Rock Me Gently	Andy Kim	1974
151	Windows	Angel Olsen	2014
152	You Needed Me	Anne Murray	1978
153	Tomorrow	Annie	1982
154	Heat of the Moment	Asia	1990
155	Always	Atlantic Starr	1987
156	How Far I'll Go	Auli'i Cravalho	2017
157	I'm With You	Avril Lavigne	2002
158	Don't Tell Me	Avril Lavigne	2004
159	Fall to Pieces	Avril Lavigne	2004
160	Nobodys Home	Avril Lavigne	2004
161	Airplanes, Part II	B.o.B feat. Eminem & Hayley Williams of Paramore	2010
162	When I See You Smile	Bad English	1989
163	Do They Know It's Christmas?	Band Aid 20	2004
164	Manic Monday	Bangles	1982
165	Where Were You When I Needed You	Bangles	1984
166	I'll Set You Free	Bangles	1982
167	In Your Room	Bangles	1988
168	I Write the Songs	Barry Manilow	1992
169	No Sleep Till Brooklyn	Beastie Boys	1986
170	Paul Revere	Beastie Boys	1986
171	Mad About You	Belinda Carlisle	1986
172	Heaven Is a Place on Earth	Belinda Carlisle	1987
173	I Get Weak	Belinda Carlisle	1988
174	Stand By Me	Ben E. King	1961
175	Take My Breath Away	Berlin	1986
176	The Rose	Bette Midler	1979
177	Wind Beneath My Wings	Bette Midler	1988
178	From a Distance	Bette Midler	2008
179	If I Were a Boy	Beyonce	2008
180	Halo	Beyonce	2008
181	In A Big Country	Big Country	1983
182	(I've Had) The Time Of My Life	Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes	1995
183	Piano Man	Billy Joel	1973
184	The Way You Are	Billy Joel	1977
185	The Tide Is High	Blondie	1980
186	Maria	Blondie	1998
187	Hooked On A Feeling	Blue Swede	1992
188	We've Got Tonight	Bob Seger	1978
189	Bed of Roses	Bon Jovi	1992
190	Never Say Goodbye	Bon Jovi	1994
191	(You Want to) Make a Memory	Bon Jovi	2007
192	Thank You For Loving Me	Bon Jovi	2000
193	Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord	Boney M.	1981
194	I Can't Make You Love Me	Bonnie Raitt	1991
195	Something to Talk About	Bonnie Raitt	1991
196	It's a Heartache	Bonnie Tyler	1977
197	Holding Out For A Hero	Bonnie Tyler	1984
198	Don't Turn Around	Bonnie Tyler	1988
199	More Than A Feeling	Boston	1976
200	Drinking in L.A.	Bran Van 3000	1997
201	Hands To Heaven	Breathe	1987
202	I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman	Britney Spears	2001
203	We Take Care of Our Own	Bruce Springsteen	2012
204	Secret Garden	Bruce Springsteen	1998
205	We Shall Overcome	Bruce Springsteen	2006
206	Just the Way You Are	Bruno Mars	2010
207	Christmas Time	Bryan Adams	1985
208	Everything I Do I Do It for You	Bryan Adams	2005
209	All for Love	Bryan Adams	2005
210	Heaven	Bryan Adams	2005
211	Let's Make a Night to Remember	Bryan Adams	2005
212	Straight From the Heart	Bryan Adams	2005
213	One Kiss	Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa	2017
214	Havana	Camila Cabello	2018
215	Safe and Sound	Capital Cities	2011
216	Friends & Lovers	Carl Anderson & Gloria Loring	1986
217	Call Me Maybe	Carly Rae Jepsen	2012
218	You're So Vain	Carly Simon	1972
219	Superstar	Carpenters	1971
220	Close To You	Carpenters	1999
221	All by Myself	Celine Dion	1992
222	Because You Loved Me	Celine Dion	1992
223	My Heart Will Go On	Celine Dion	1992
224	To Love You More	Celine Dion	1998
225	Where Does My Heart Beat Now	Celine Dion	1990
226	If You Asked Me To	Celine Dion	1992
227	Before You	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
228	God Made Me	Chantal Kreviazuk	1996
229	Surrounded	Chantal Kreviazuk	1996
230	Wait for Me	Chantal Kreviazuk	1996
231	Far Away	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
232	Feels Like Home	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
233	In My Life	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
234	Leaving on a Jet Plane	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
235	There Are Places I Remember	Chantal Kreviazuk	1999
236	This Year	Chantal Kreviazuk	2002
237	Time	Chantal Kreviazuk	2002
238	Wild Horses	Chantal Kreviazuk	2005
239	Boom Clap	Charli XCX	2014
240	The Flame	Cheap Trick	1988
241	Heart of Stone	Cher	2003
242	If I Could Turn Back Time	Cher	2003
243	Just Like Jesse James	Cher	2003
244	Want U Back	Cher Lloyd	2011
245	After All	Cher with Peter Cetera	1989
246	Youre the Inspiration	Chicago	1984
247	Hard Habit To Break	Chicago	1984
248	I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love	Chicago	1988
249	Hard To Say Im Sorry	Chicago	2003
250	My Girl	Chilliwack	1988
251	The Lady in Red	Chris de Burgh	1994
252	Beautiful	Christina Aguilera	2002
253	Distance	Christina Perri	2011
254	Human	Christina Perri	2014
255	Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)	Cinderella	1988
256	Rockabye	Clean Bandit	2018
257	Bubbly	Colbie Caillat	2007
258	Realize	Colbie Caillat	2007
259	Fallin' for You	Colbie Caillat	2009
260	I Never Told You	Colbie Caillat	2009
261	Yellow	Coldplay	2000
262	The Scientist	Coldplay	2002
263	Hymn For The Weekend	Coldplay	2017
264	World We Know	Crash Parallel	2008
265	At My Funeral	Crash Test Dummies	1991
266	Superman's Song	Crash Test Dummies	1991
267	Higher	Creed	1999
268	With Arms Wide Open	Creed	1999
269	Bad Moon Rising	Creedence Clearwater Revival	1998
270	Don't Dream It's Over	Crowded House	1986
271	(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight	Cutting Crew	1986
272	True Colors	Cyndi Lauper	1986
273	That's What I Think	Cyndi Lauper	1993
274	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Cyndi Lauper	1983
275	Time After Time	Cyndi Lauper	1983
276	All Through the Night	Cyndi Lauper	2004
277	Change of Heart	Cyndi Lauper	2004
278	Mary's Prayer	Danny Wilson	1987
279	Home	Daughtry	2006
280	Sit Still, Look Pretty	Daya	2015
281	Be Alright	Dean Lewis	2018
282	Out of the Blue	Debbie Gibson	1987
283	Lost in Your Eyes	Debbie Gibson	1989
284	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Deep Blue Something	1995
285	Give Your Heart a Break	Demi Lovato	2011
286	Thank You	Dido	1999
287	That's What Friends Are For	Dionne Warwick	1985
288	Travelin' Soldier	Dixie Chicks	2002
289	Cowboy Take Me Away	Dixie Chicks	1999
290	Islands In The Stream	Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers	1982
291	The Boys Of Summer	Don Henley	1984
292	The Heart of the Matter	Don Henley	1995
293	The Last Worthless Evening	Don Henley	1995
294	Thinking Out Loud	Ed Sheeran	2014
295	I Wanna Go Back	Eddie Money	1986
296	Take Me Home Tonight	Eddie Money	1986
297	You've Got to Hide Your Love Away	Eddie Vedder	2006
298	I'll Be	Edwin McCain	1998
299	Love Me Like You Do	Ellie Goulding	2015
300	Sacrifice	Elton John	1974
301	Your Song	Elton John	1974
302	Can You Feel the Love Tonight	Elton John	1974
303	Candle in the Wind	Elton John	2000
304	Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me	Elton John	2000
305	Daniel	Elton John	2000
306	Rocket Man	Elton John	2000
307	Can't Help Falling In Love	Elvis Presley	1961
308	Love Me Tender	Elvis Presley	1956
309	Not Afraid	Eminem	2009
310	Love the Way You Lie	Eminem feat. Rihanna	2010
311	Hero	Enrique Iglesias	2001
312	Only Time	Enya	2000
313	Orinoco Flow	Enya	2005
314	Hungry Eyes	Eric Carmen	2014
315	Wonderful Tonight	Eric Clapton	1977
316	Tears In Heaven	Eric Clapton	1991
317	The Final Countdown	Europe	1986
318	Carrie	Europe	1986
319	More Than Words	Extreme	1990
320	This Kiss	Faith Hill	1998
321	Breathe	Faith Hill	1999
322	There You'll Be	Faith Hill	2001
323	Feeling A Moment	Feeder	2005
324	Clumsy	Fergie	2006
325	London Bridge	Fergie	2006
326	Fergalicious	Fergie (feat. will.i.am)	2006
327	Love of a Lifetime	Firehouse	1988
328	When I Look Into Your Eyes	Firehouse	1992
329	Go Your Own Way	Fleetwood Mac	1977
330	Everywhere	Fleetwood Mac	2002
331	My House	Flo Rida	2015
332	Never Let Me Go	Florence And The Machine	2011
333	Cruise	Florida Georgia Line	2012
334	Waiting for a Girl Like You	Foreigner	1982
335	I Wanna Know What Love Is	Foreigner	1984
336	Killing Me Softly with His Song	Fugees	1996
337	Carry On	Fun	2011
338	Some Nights	Fun	2011
339	We Are Young (feat. Janelle Mon√°e)	Fun	2011
340	The Dance	Garth Brooks	1998
341	Friends in Low Places (long version)	Garth Brooks	1998
342	That Summer	Garth Brooks	1998
343	Mad World	Gary Jules	2002
344	One More Try	George Michael	1987
345	I'm Not Gonna Miss You	Glen Campbell	2014
346	Nothings Gonna Change My Love	Glenn Medeiros	1986
347	Anything for You	Gloria Estefan	1992
348	Words Get in the Way	Gloria Estefan	1992
349	Always Tomorrow	Gloria Estefan	1992
350	Can't Stay Away From You	Gloria Estefan	1992
351	Coming Out of the Dark	Gloria Estefan	1992
352	Iris	Goo Goo Dolls	1998
353	Give a Little Bit	Goo Goo Dolls	2006
354	Somebody That I Used to Know	Gotye	2011
355	Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)	Green Day	2001
356	Patience	Guns N' Roses	1988
357	Paradise City	Guns N' Roses	1987
358	Sweet Child o' Mine	Guns N' Roses	1987
359	The Sweet Escape	Gwen Stefani feat. Akon	2006
360	Mmmbopp	Hanson	1996
361	Weird	Hanson	1997
362	Without You	Harry Nilsson	1971
363	All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You	Heart	1990
364	These Dreams	Heart	1985
365	Alone	Heart	2002
366	We Can Work It Out	Heather Nova	2002
367	What Does It Take	Honeymoon Suite	1985
368	The Reason	Hoobastank	2003
369	Hold My Hand	Hootie & the Blowfish	1994
370	Let Her Cry	Hootie & the Blowfish	1994
371	Take Me to Church	Hozier	2014
372	Wanted	Hunter Hayes	2011
373	Let It Go	Idina Menzel	1999
374	Thunder	Imagine Dragons	2017
375	Demons	Imagine Dragons	2012
376	It's Time	Imagine Dragons	2011
377	Girls Chase Boys	Ingrid Michaelson	2014
378	Never Tear Us Apart	INXS	1987
379	Say You Won't Let Go	James Arthur	2016
380	Let It Go	James Bay	2015
381	You're Beautiful	James Blunt	2004
382	I Won't Give Up	Jason Mraz	2012
383	Empire State Of Mind	Jay-Z & Alicia Keys	2009
384	Stranded (Haiti mon amour)	Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge & Rihanna	2010
385	While My Guitar Gently Weeps	Jeff Healey Band	1990
386	Foolish Games	Jewel	1995
387	You Are So Beautiful	Joe Cocker	1974
388	Up Where We Belong	Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes	1969
389	Take Me Home, Country Roads	John Denver	1997
390	You're The Voice	John Farnham	1986
391	Someday	John Legend	1998
392	All Of Me	John Legend	2013
393	Imagine	John Lennon	2009
394	Your Body Is a Wonderland	John Mayer	2001
395	Daughters	John Mayer	2003
396	Amazing Grace	John McDermott	1994
397	Auld Lang Syne	John McDermott	1992
398	Waltzing Matilda	John McDermott	1992
399	Willie McBride	John McDermott	1992
400	America The Beautiful	John McDermott	1999
401	Battle Hymn of the Republic	John McDermott	1999
402	Danny Boy	John McDermott	2002
403	Missing You	John Waite	1984
404	Hurt	Johnny Cash	2002
405	I Walk the Line	Johnny Cash	1988
406	Folsom Prison Blues	Johnny Cash	1957
407	Ring of Fire	Johnny Cash	1964
408	Hold Me Now	Johnny Logan	1980
409	Miracle	Jon Bon Jovi	1990
410	Santa Fe	Jon Bon Jovi	1990
411	Blood Money	Jon Bon Jovi	1990
412	Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin'	Jon Bon Jovi	1990
413	Blaze of Glory	Jon Bon Jovi	1992
414	Seasons of Love	Jonathan Larson	1999
415	Moondance	Jonathan Rhys Meyers	2008
416	This Time	Jonathan Rhys Meyers	2008
417	O Holy Night	Josh Groban	2007
418	You Raise Me Up	Josh Groban	2003
419	I'm Not Afraid to Move On	Jostein Hasselg√•rd	2003
420	Don't Stop Believin'	Journey	1981
421	Faithfully	Journey	1983
422	Open Arms	Journey	2004
423	Over The Rainbow	Judy Garland	1939
424	Love Yourself	Justin Bieber	2015
425	All My Life	K-Ci & JoJo	1986
426	Roar	Katy Perry	2013
427	This Is Me	Keala Settle	2017
428	Somewhere Only We Know	Keane	2006
429	Because Of You	Kelly Clarkson	2004
430	Already Gone	Kelly Clarkson	2009
431	Praying	Kesha	2017
432	Take It Off	Kesha	2012
433	Only God Knows Why	KID ROCK	1998
434	Picture	Kid Rock Feat. Sheryl Crow	2003
435	Bette Davis Eyes	Kim Carnes	1981
436	Beth	KISS	1996
437	Need You Now	Lady Antebellum	2010
438	I'll Always Remember Us This Way	Lady Gaga	2018
439	I'll Never Love Again	Lady Gaga	2018
440	Is That Alright?	Lady Gaga	2018
441	Ride	Lana Del Rey	2012
442	Blue Jeans	Lana Del Rey	2011
443	How Can It Be	Lauren Daigle	2015
444	How Do I Live	Leann Rimes	1997
445	Looking Through Your Eyes	Leann Rimes	1998
446	Love Like Crazy	Lee Brice	2010
447	La Bamba	Leon Thomas III	2008
448	Bleeding Love	Leona Lewis	2010
449	Come to Me	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
450	Heart Full of Love	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
451	On My Own	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
452	Castle on a Cloud	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
453	Do You Hear the People Sing?	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
454	Drink With Me	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
455	Empty Chairs at Empty Tables	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
456	Finale	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
457	A Little Fall of Rain	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
458	One Day More	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
459	Red and Black	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
460	Stars	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1985
461	Bring Him Home	Les Mis√©rables (1985 original London cast)	1997
462	Someone You Loved	Lewis Capaldi	2018
463	You & Me	Lifehouse	2005
464	Don't Know Much	Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville	1999
465	Hello	Lionel Richie	1983
466	Amazed	Lonestar	1999
467	Royals	Lorde	2013
468	Team	Lorde	2013
469	Tennis Court	Lorde	2013
470	Never Enough	Loren Allred	2017
471	Midnight Blue	Lou Gramm	1987
472	What a Wonderful World	Louis Armstrong	1988
473	Despacito	Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee	2017
474	7 Years	Lukas Graham	2012
475	Paper Planes	M.I.A.	2008
476	Time for Change	M√∂tley Cr√ºe	1989
477	Without You	M√∂tley Cr√ºe	1989
478	Same Love	Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	2012
479	Crazy for You	Madonna	1995
480	This Used To Be My Playground	Madonna	1995
481	Like a Prayer	Madonna	2010
482	Rude	MAGIC!	2014
483	Walking in Memphis	Marc Cohn	1991
484	I'll Be There	Mariah Carey	1992
485	Hero	Mariah Carey	1993
486	Endless Love	Mariah Carey & Luther Vandross	1994
487	One Sweet Day	Mariah Carey And Boyz Ii Men	1995
488	Lavender	Marillion	1985
489	August's Rhapsody	Mark Mancina	2008
490	Memories	Maroon 5	2019
491	Toy Soldiers	Martika	1988
492	My Baby Loves Me	Martina McBride	2001
493	Laid	Matt Nathanson	2003
494	Break My Stride	Matthew Wilder	1983
495	Have You Seen Her	MC Hammer	1990
496	U Can't Touch This	MC Hammer	1990
497	Too Legit to Quit	MC Hammer	1996
498	Paradise by the Dashboard Light	Meat Loaf	1991
499	Two Out of Three Ain't Bad	Meat Loaf	1991
500	Heaven Can Wait	Meat Loaf	1998
501	Someday	Meg Donnelly	2018
502	Stand	Meg Donnelly	2018
503	The Safety Dance	Men Without Hats	1982
504	Said I Loved You...But I Lied	Michael Bolton	1995
505	Heal the World	Michael Jackson	1991
506	I Just Can't Stop Loving You	Michael Jackson	1987
507	Man in the Mirror	Michael Jackson	1987
508	You Are Not Alone	Michael Jackson	1995
509	Place In This World	Michael W. Smith	1990
510	I Will Be Here for You	Michael W. Smith	1992
511	The Living Years	Mike And The Mechanics	1988
512	Wish You Were Here	Miley Cyrus	2020
513	The Climb	Miley Cyrus	2009
514	We Can't Stop	Miley Cyrus	2013
515	Wrecking Ball	Miley Cyrus	2013
516	Don't Forget My Number	Milli Vanilli	1988
517	Girl You Know It's True	Milli Vanilli	1988
518	I'm Gonna Miss You	Milli Vanilli	1988
519	Blame It On The Rain	Milli Vanilli	1989
520	Home Sweet Home	Motley Crue	1985
521	The Drinking Song	Moxy Fr√ºvous	1993
522	To Be With You	Mr. Big	1991
523	Wild World	Mr. Big	1993
524	Broken Wings	Mr. Mister	1985
525	I Will Wait	Mumford & Sons	2012
526	Miss You Like Crazy	Natalie Cole	1990
527	Torn	Natalie Imbruglia	1997
528	Beloved Wife	Natalie Merchant	1995
529	Unwritten	Natasha Bedingfield	2004
530	Love Hurts	Nazareth	1980
531	Summertime	New Kids on the Block	2008
532	You Get What You Give	New Radicals	1998
533	This Town	Niall Horan	2017
534	Tears Are Not Enough	Northern Lights	1985
535	All or Nothing	O-Town	2001
536	Little Talks	Of Monsters and Men	2010
537	Get Here	Oleta Adams	1996
538	I Honestly Love You	Olivia Newton-John & David Foster	1974
539	Drivers License	Olivia Rodrigo	2021
540	Cheerleader	Omi	2015
541	Best Song Ever	One Direction	2013
542	What Makes You Beautiful	One Direction	2011
543	Story of My Life	One Direction	2013
544	Stop And Stare	One Republic	2007
545	Secrets	One Republic	2009
546	Live Is Life	Opus	1984
547	When A Man Loves A Woman	OTIS REDDING	1966
548	Good Time	Owl City	2012
549	Glitter in the Air	P!nk	2008
550	It's All Coming Back To Me Now	Pandora's Box	1989
551	The Only Exception	Paramore	2009
552	Let Her Go	Passenger	2012
553	She's Like the Wind	Patrick Swayze	1988
554	Because The Night	Patti Smith	1978
555	Don't Shed A Tear	Paul Carrack	1987
556	Yesterday	Paul McCartney	1990
557	Nowhere Man	Paul Westerberg	2005
558	Wherever I Lay My Hat	Paul Young	1983
559	Oh Girl	Paul Young	1990
560	Rush Rush	Paula Abdul	1991
561	Blowing Kisses in the Wind	Paula Abdul	1990
562	Tonight I Celebrate My Love	Peabo Bryson	1990
563	If Ever You're In My Arms Again	Peabo Bryson	1984
564	Glory of Love	Peter Cetera	1986
565	Next Time I Fall In Love	Peter Cetera & Amy Grant	1986
566	Separate Lives	Phil Collins	1985
567	A Groovy Kind Of Love	Phil Collins	1988
568	Against All Odds	Phil Collins	1984
569	One More Night	Phil Collins	1985
570	Gone, Gone, Gone	Phillip Phillips	2011
571	Home	Phillip Phillips	2011
572	Raging Fire	Phillip Phillips	2014
573	Blow Me (One Last Kiss)	Pink	2012
574	Every Rose Has Its Thorn	Poison	2006
575	Something to Believe In	Poison	2006
576	Brass in Pocket	Pretenders	1983
577	I'll Be Missing You	Puff Daddy	1997
578	I Hate This Part	Pussycat Dolls	2008
579	Bohemian Rhapsody	Queen	1981
580	We Are the Champions	Queen	1977
581	Stand	R.E.M.	1988
582	Everybody Hurts	R.E.M.	1992
583	Fight Song	Rachel Platten	2015
584	Creep	Radiohead	1991
585	The Zephyr Song	Red Hot Chili Peppers	2002
586	Take It on the Run	REO Speedwagon	1980
587	Can't Fight This Feeling	REO Speedwagon	1984
588	Keep on Loving You	REO Speedwagon	2006
589	Hold On To The Nights	Richard Marx	1987
590	Right Here Waiting For You	Richard Marx	1989
591	Now And Forever	Richard Marx	1993
592	You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'	Righteous Brothers	1965
593	Unchained Melody	Righteous Brothers	1990
594	Take a Bow	Rihanna	2007
595	Love On The Brain	Rihanna	2016
596	FourFiveSeconds	Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney	2015
597	Listen to Your Heart	Roxette	1988
598	Spending My Time	Roxette	1991
599	Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)	Roxette	1991
600	Across the Universe	Rufus Wainwright	2001
601	Lost Boy	Ruth B	2017
602	Love Is on the Way	Saigon Kick	1992
603	I'm Not the Only One	Sam Smith	2014
604	Stay With Me	Sam Smith	2014
605	Brave	Sara Bareilles	2013
606	I Choose You	Sara Bareilles	2013
607	Pie Jesu	Sarah Brightman	1992
608	When She Loved Me	Sarah McLachlan	2000
609	I Knew I Loved You	Savage Garden	1999
610	Still Loving You	Scorpions	1984
611	Send Me An Angel	Scorpions	1990
612	Wind of Change	Scorpions	1999
613	Crazy	Seal	1991
614	Take You There	Sean Kingston	2007
615	Weak In The Knees	Serena Ryder	2006
616	Try Everything	Shakira	2016
617	I'll Stand by You (feat. The Roots)	Shakira	2010
618	The Woman In Me (Needs The Man In You)	Shania Twain	1995
619	You're Still The One	Shania Twain	1998
620	I'm Holdin' on to Love (to Save My Life)	Shania Twain	1997
621	Forever And For Always	Shania Twain	2003
622	Party for Two	Shania Twain feat. Mark McGrath	2004
623	When I'm With You	Sheriff	1982
624	Mother Nature's Son	Sheryl Crow	2002
625	Lean on Me	Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock & Keith Urban	2010
626	St Annes Parade	Shovels And Rope	2016
627	Cecilia	Simon & Garfunkel	1970
628	Homeward Bound	Simon & Garfunkel	1972
629	America	Simon & Garfunkel	1968
630	Holding Back The Years	Simply Red	1985
631	If You Don't Know Me By Now	Simply Red	2006
632	You Cause as Much Sorrow	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
633	Black Boys on Mopeds	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
634	I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
635	Nothing Compares 2 U	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
636	The Emperor's New Clothes	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
637	Three Babies	Sin√©ad O'Connor	1990
638	2 Become 1	Spice Girls	1996
639	Viva Forever	Spice Girls	1998
640	Home for a Rest	Spirit of the West	1990
641	We Built This City	Starship	1985
642	Don't Let Me Down	Stereophonics	2004
643	Elgar / Something Inside	Steve Erdody & Jonathan Rhys Meyers	2008
644	I Pray	Steve Erdody & Jonathan Rhys Meyers	2008
645	Oh Sherry	Steve Perry	1984
646	I Just Called To Say I Love You	Stevie Wonder	2002
647	Come Sail Away	Styx	1977
648	Drive South	Suzy Bogguss	1992
649	China in Your Hand	T'Pau/T'Pau	1987
650	Back For Good	Take That	1995
651	Love Will Lead You Back	Taylor Dayne	1989
652	I'll Always Love You	Taylor Dayne	1993
653	Breathless	Taylor Swift	1997
654	You Belong With Me	Taylor Swift	2008
655	Mine	Taylor Swift	2010
656	Everything Has Changed	Taylor Swift	2012
657	Blank Space	Taylor Swift	2015
658	Look What You Made Me Do	Taylor Swift	2017
659	California Girls	The Beach Boys	1965
660	Kokomo	The Beach Boys	1989
661	Hello, Goodbye	The Beatles	2000
662	Hey Jude	The Beatles	2000
663	Let It Be	The Beatles	2000
664	Iko Iko	The Belle Stars	1964
665	Wherever You Will Go	The Calling	2002
666	Drive	The Cars	1984
667	Closer	The Chainsmokers	2016
668	Paris	The Chainsmokers	2017
669	Something Just Like This	The Chainsmokers	2017
670	Linger	The Cranberries	1993
671	Zombie	The Cranberries	1994
672	Dreams	The Cranberries	1993
673	My Eyes Adored You	The Four Seasons	1975
674	Can't Take My Eyes Off You	The Four Seasons	2002
675	You Found Me	The Fray	2009
676	Our Lips Are Sealed	The Go-Go's	1981
677	We Got the Beat	The Go-Go's	1980
678	Vacation	The Go-Go's	1982
679	Head Over Heels	The Go-Go's	1984
680	These Eyes	The Guess Who	1969
681	Don't You Want Me (Baby)	The Human League	1981
682	Change of Heart	The Judds	1988
683	Grandpa (Tell Me 'bout the Good Old Days)	The Judds	1988
684	Love Is Alive	The Judds	1988
685	Mama He's Crazy	The Judds	1988
686	John Deere Tractor	The Judds	1991
687	All These Things That I've Done	The Killers	2004
688	When You Were Young	The Killers	2006
689	Ho Hey	The Lumineers	2012
690	For The First Time	The Script	2010
691	Spirits	The Strumbellas	2016
692	Ahead by a Century	The Tragically Hip	1996
693	Bobcaygeon	The Tragically Hip	1998
694	Happy Together	The Turtles	1966
695	Bitter Sweet Symphony	The Verve	1997
696	Glad You Came	The Wanted	2010
697	Could've Been	Tiffany	1987
698	I Think We're Alone Now	Tiffany	1987
699	All This Time	Tiffany	1988
700	The Best	Tina Turner	1991
701	The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)	Tokens	1961
702	Un-Break my heart	Toni Braxton	1996
703	I'll Be Over You	Toto	1986
704	Africa	Toto	2003
705	Rosanna	Toto	2005
706	Stay High	Tove Lo	2014
707	Fast Car	Tracy Chapman	1988
708	Save Me San Francisco	Train	2009
709	Marry Me	Train	2009
710	Drive By	Train	2012
711	Play That Song	Train	2017
712	Ride	Twenty One Pilots	2015
713	Stressed Out	Twenty One Pilots	2015
714	One	U2	1991
715	I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For	U2	1987
716	With Or Without You	U2	1987
717	Where the Streets Have No Name	U2	1987
718	Every Breath You Take	UB40	2004
719	Follow Me	Uncle Kracker	2001
720	Smile	Uncle Kracker	2010
721	Save the Best for Last	Vanessa Williams	1991
722	Love is	Vanessa Williams	1998
723	What Will Come Of This	Vaya Con Dios	1990
724	Shut Up and Dance	Walk the Moon	2014
725	Heaven	Warrant	1989
726	Come In Out Of The Rain	Wendy Moten	1994
727	My Love	Westlife	2000
728	Mandy	Westlife	2003
729	What About Now	Westlife	2009
730	Wait	White Lion	1988
731	Here I Go Again On My Own	Whitesnake	1987
732	Greatest Love of All	Whitney Houston	1985
733	Saving All My Love For You	Whitney Houston	1985
734	You Give Good Love	Whitney Houston	1985
735	Where Do Broken Hearts Go	Whitney Houston	1988
736	I Will Always Love You	Whitney Houston	2000
737	One Moment in Time	Whitney Houston	2009
738	You're In Love	Wilson Phillips	1990
739	See You Again	Wiz Khalifa Feat. Charlie Puth	2011
740	Rewrite The Stars	Zac Efron & Zendaya	2017
741	Dusk Till Dawn	Zayn	2017
742	Chillout	Ze Frank	2008
743	Clarity	Zedd	2009

So there it is...

The great thing about music is that it is a moving target. I will come back here time and again to update new songs that have had an impact.

Thanks for listening!

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

My Covid-Inspired Cycling Journey Across North America

2021-05-06T16:41:00.009-04:00

When the Covid-19 pandemic first took hold in March 2020 we responded quickly as a family - including strict stay at home orders and no outside contact until we could get a handle on the risks.

The first major impact for me was losing my hockey game(s) each week. Sunday morning hockey and Tuesday night beer league games were put on indefinite hold. More about my 45-year hockey story here.

The question now turned to exercise. Those who know me well will attest to the fact that I have a serious sweet tooth and extended time without elevated heart rate was going to pack on the pounds. Running was quickly ruled out because, as a sprinter, I don't think my body is equipped to run past 200 meters.

My attention now turned to the garage where I had a couple of 20 year old bikes sitting there - a Kona mountain bike and an aluminum Trek 100 road bike. I remembered back to some epic rides growing up including:

1986 - Braeside (Southwest Calgary, Alberta) to Okotoks on my BMX bike (~70km)
1987 - Braeside to Hawkwood (Northwest Calgary) on my BMX bike (~60km)
2005 - Markham (North of Toronto, Ontario) to Barrie on Trek (~172km!)
2013 - Wynantskill (East of Albany, NY) to Saratoga Lake on Trek (~70 miles)

So off I went - taking off from our home in West Boynton Beach, FL each Sunday morning.

I explored towns north, south and east of our house and then settled on a route on A1A highway (by the ocean) from home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and then down to Linton Avenue and back home. This was roughly 50 miles - and I would never come off the pedals for almost 3 hours (on red lights I would turn right and then U-turn back).

As I logged more and more miles each week I started to track on a spreadsheet - because that is what I do as an analyst! More on why I count everything here.

As the mileage started to reach 500 miles - I gave myself a goal to ride the equivalent of mileage to Toronto, Canada.

Now with 1,182 miles in the books and a pandemic that was lingering into a new year, the plan expanded to now ride over to my mom's house (virtually) in the Sunshine Coast, BC.

I also started to get enamored with cycling shows on YouTube, social communities, and newer bike technology. I walked into a local Trek dealership and said it was time to upgrade the 20 year old aluminum bike to something more modern (carbon) and aerodynamic. I was shocked to hear the pandemic drove up demand (kinda like toilet paper) of road bikes and they were quoting me a 1.5 to 2 year waiting list for bikes!

I wasn't willing to make a 50% deposit on something I wouldn't see for years so put the plan on the back burner.

One day, we (Michelle, Brooklyn, and Cali) were down at Delray Marketplace (about 5 miles down the road from our house) and I mentioned I was going to pop into a new cycle shop called Epic Cycles.

They miraculously (and unexpectedly) had just received a new BMC SLR carbon road bike in my 54 size that day. I told them I would think about it and left the store - about 20 seconds later I gave the kids some money to go to the candy store and I made a quick u-turn back into the store!

Now I was cooking with gas! My average speed improved by about 2 mph and I was carving 50 mile Sundays without the pain and suffering that it normally came with.

I was also moving my way across Canada on my new goal to Vancouver. As of this writing (May 6, 2021), I have passed Regina and now en route to my alma mater - Lethbridge, Alberta:

With Vancouver coming into view (about 11 more Sundays) I am guessing I will start to (virtually) ride down the Oregon coast to California and back across the southern U.S. visiting my daughter Danica in Waco, Texas (2nd year law school finished, go national champion Bears!).

UPDATE:

8/17/21 - This past weekend I made it to the Sunshine Coast - my mom's home - just north of Vancouver, BC!

This strange Covid-inspired journey will likely be 6,000 miles of riding and a couple of years to encircle North America.

So there is my cycling story - I believe it may have just begun a lifelong hobby on the pedals!

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

Channel Content (2017-2022) Exclusively On Forrester Blog

2020-06-05T14:13:00.010-04:00

Before I joined Forrester (2017-2022) I wrote about channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems here. Now, that content is over on my Forrester blog.

All of my personal stories about family, travel, boats, cars, hockey, music, school, and other fun stuff are still here!

On the channel side, here are my 13 most read blogs:

1. What I See Coming For The Channel In 2020

2. Channel Software Tech Stack (2019) — INFOGRAPHIC

3. Channel Marketers Need To Become Community Marketers — Here’s How

4. Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Comes Of Age

5. Through-Channel Marketing Represents The Third Stage For Sales And Marketing Leaders

6. Channel Data Is A Competitive Differentiator

7. Measure What Matters: Unlocking The Power Of Partner Ecosystems Demands Powerful Measurement

8. Time To Rethink Channel Incentives And Program Management (CIPM)?

9. Channel Automation Becomes Table Stakes For Partnership Success

10. Can You Deliver A Great Partner Experience Without Great Onboarding?

11. The 64 Best Channel Podcasts Of 2019

12. Do Channel Vendors Need Public Relations Anymore?

13. Quantifying COVID-19 For The Tech Channel — May 8 Update

My Love Story

2020-05-31T16:31:00.010-04:00

Michelle and met on October 15, 2010 in a serendipitous way. We were both part of a charity in Raleigh, NC and one night at a dinner struck up a conversation about many things - including our love of travel.

I was talking about my upcoming Rollerblades and Red Bull trip to South Africa and she had just returned from there days prior. We ended up staying up all night talking about everything!

I was heading on a work cruise in the next few days, but when I returned we really started to click.

Instead of words - let me tell the story in pictures and video.

Shortly after we started dating I through Michelle a huge curveball that I was moving to New York to pursue a new business. I ended up convincing (tricking) her to move with me to Albany, New York. :-)

A year later, she took me skydiving in Long Island for my 40th birthday and I surprised her back with a proposal at 10,000 feet! Skip ahead to 1:22 if you want to see it:

And, we were officially engaged:

The wedding plans were set into motion and on July 4th, 2013 we were married in New Rochelle, NY with family, friends and furkids:

After the wedding, we set off on a honeymoon of a lifetime - visiting Casablanca Morocco, Cairo and Luxor Egypt, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mumbai and Delhi India. It was a whirlwind, but we saw 5 world wonders - the Sahara, the Nile, the pyramids, Mount Everest and the Taj Mahal:

This is where the story of Brooklyn began. And a few months later, we were ready to share with the world:

In November, we learned the gender of Brooklyn at the same time all of you did - on a live action reveal video!

Michelle was rocking the bump over the winter months with grace and smiles :-D

And then the big moment!

We went to a boat show 60 miles away on March 29, 2014, had our final doctor's appointment on Monday, March 31st, then off to a late IMAX movie (Noah) that night.

Michelle started going into labor during the movie and we came home (after finishing the movie of course), got packed up and headed over to Albany Medical Center by 4am on April 1st (4114)

After taking a dip in the whirlpool around 5:30am, Michelle went into active labor and it was game on! 12 hours later, Brooklyn made her way into the world!

After Daddy cut the cord, she was weighed in and spent some wonderful time on Mommy.

Michelle and I are truly blessed.

Our little angel, Brooklyn Marie McBain, made her way into the world on April 1, 2014 at 5:35pm. She weighed 7 pounds and 11 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She was born at Albany Medical Center in New York.

All of us are in so much love with Brooklyn - she is so beautiful.

Our fourth little angel, Cali Rose McBain, made her way into the world about 20 months later on December 29, 2015 at 4:57pm. She weighed 8 pounds and 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. She was born at Albany Medical Center in New York.

All of us were in so much love with Cali - she is so beautiful.

And now our family was complete with our four beautiful daughters, Danica, Mila, Brooklyn and Cali. Check out these baby pictures:

Through work changes, moving to Florida, traveling the world, Danica entering Baylor for Law School, Mila finishing her undergrad at York University in Toronto, Brooklyn graduating Kindergarten, Cali entering VPK, we continue the story with as much love as we have built over this incredible decade-long journey.

The best is yet to come!

Other parts of my life story are here -

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Travel Story - After visiting 85 countries (many with kids in tow), we are preparing for a trip to our 7th continent (Antarctica) in January 2021 assuming restrictions from COVID-19 lift.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

These are all my personal stories. My business stories wrap around channels, partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems and can be found here.

Also business related, on this platform I named the top 100 most visible channel influencers and top 100 global women in technology groups that continue to get thousands of visitors per month.

Thanks for taking a walk with me through memory lane!

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Crazy MBA Story - In the summer of 2017, while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

15 Country, 21 Day, Round-The-World McBain Adventure 2019

2019-08-03T10:25:00.003-04:00

Having returned yesterday from an epic family vacation, several people asked about the itinerary so I wanted to share the details. Michelle will be sharing her thoughts here shortly.

The trip started with a speech I needed to deliver on July 31 in Hamilton Island, Australia for ARN Edge 2019 on the future of channels. The idea was to meander our way around the world with a bunch of shorter flights ending up in Australia at the end.

With heavy use of Kayak.com and Hotels.com, we kept the trip as flexible as possible and in many cases would only book the hotel room the day of staying. This caused a bit of anxiety at times, but also saved money without keeping to a rigid schedule. The days of having to book anything multiple weeks in advance is long over.

This trip also helped the original bucket list "100 Country Rollerblades and Red Bull Tour". While the rollerblades and red bull have been curtailed in recent years, the march to 100 continues with this trip bringing me up to 95 countries!

Next year I expect to join the Travelers' Century Club. The Travelers' Century Club™ is a nonprofit social organization representing world travelers who have visited 100 or more of the world's countries and territories.

Here is a quick video of the trip:

Well, here is a taste of the numerous stops:

And here is the detailed itinerary of how it all happened:

My Crazy MBA Story…

2018-08-21T00:52:00.002-04:00

Last summer while climbing Machu Picchu, Peru as part of my wife Michelle’s International MBA from Manhattan College, I thought – why not me?

As a mentor earlier in my career, I would often tell younger people to not take an MBA too close to their undergraduate degree as it tends to get overlooked by recruiters and hiring managers if there isn’t enough work experience in-between. My own personal life plan had me returning to school at some point, but as with so many people, life got in the way.

I looked for a recognized, accredited, and affordable online program that I could do while working at Forrester (and that they would pay for). For almost 25 years, I have been in channel-related jobs which is basically representing over 600,000 entrepreneurs and family-run businesses around the world. LSU – Louisiana State University – had the perfect program for me, an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise. The program could be completed in as little as 10 months and cost a grand total (including books and all other costs) of $12,473.90.

I had a couple of hiccups getting started convincing them that Canada was not a third-world country and my undergraduate degree from the University of Lethbridge should be accepted on par with a U.S. degree. Once the dean accepted my story, I was off to the races. Online classes would commence on October 23, 2017 and end on August 18, 2018 – a few days shy of ten months.

Then the fun really began!

1. Nov 11, 2017 - Embarked on a 10 day cruise through South America and Panama Canal 2 weeks into first semester. The Wi-Fi on cruise ships is spotty at best and the cost ran into hundreds of dollars as I was on video calls with my class teams (who would later rate my participation as part of the final grade!).

2. Dec 10, 2017 - Moved the family from New York to Florida. Michelle had a great opportunity to join the team at Office Depot in Boca Raton and we set sail for warmer climates!

3. Mar 18, 2018 – Completed my first Forrester Wave on TCMA, the most intensive product that the company offers, taking over 100 hours of research and interviews. This is while traveling heavily through the channel industry busy period and keynoting in front of large audiences once per week on average.

4. Mar 20, 2018 – Became Vice-Chair of Emerging Technology community at CompTIA – the world’s largest IT Association, involving multiple calls per month and travel to Chicago in March and Washington DC in August.

5. May 3, 2018 – Closed on new house in Boynton Beach after living in tiny corporate temporary housing for almost 5 months with Michelle, Danica, Brooklyn, Cali, and either my mom and sister as well as Michelle’s mom giving a much needed helping hand.

6. Aug 6, 2018 – Michelle had open heart surgery in New York City to repair a condition she has had since birth. We spent two and a half weeks at different apartments and hotels with the kids and Michelle’s mom Mary Anne while she recovered. I ended up finishing my last semester finals using spotty internet and not sure where I was going to be from one minute to the next! (I finished my Econ 705 final at the hospital while waiting to hear from the surgeon on how it went).

So, if you are sitting back thinking that the time isn’t right for an MBA…when would be better? With my wife and two older children, Danica and Mila, all in college together, it was a family bonding exercise talking about our school adventures.

With two young ones in diapers, moving across the country, a very time and travel intensive job, holidays, and a serious medical issue, never did I feel that the doubling of classes was too much. There were times that I had to reach deep into the night to finish everything – but it was never overwhelming.

And now, much like pulling off a band-aid, the MBA is done! I have completed the course requirements and can walk across the stage as a newly-minted MBA. The course work has proven to be immediately valuable to my job and a major personal bucket list item has been checked off the list.

________________________________________________________________________

Read some other stories from A Few Thoughts - Jay McBain:

________________________________________________________________________

My Housing Story - After 13 moves and stops in three Canadian Provinces and three U.S. States, here is my journey in pictures from the Northwest to the Southeast of North America.

My Hockey Story - As long as I can remember, I have been playing hockey. Over four and a half decades and thousands of games later, I still lace them up a couple times a week, year-round.

My Christmas Story - Whether traveling to see family, or going to Disney or Hawaii, or simply staying home - the season is packed with memories of family and friends.

My Music Story - My favorite music can be best defined as sad / emotional / multi-level slow music. Oddly, it is opposite of my worldview - which is normally overly-positive and optimistic.

The March To 100 Countries Continues!

2017-11-27T23:30:00.001-05:00

76 Countries now visited (or 73% of the world population and 66% of world land mass). Travel now becomes a bit more tricky to avoid war zones and unstable political regimes.

Countries visited:

Argentina
Austria
Australia
Aruba
Belgium
Brazil
Bahamas
Botswana
Belarus
Canada
Switzerland
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Czech Republic
Germany
Denmark
Estonia
Egypt
Spain
Finland
Fiji
France
United Kingdom
Greece
Haiti
Hungary
Indonesia
Ireland
India
Iceland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Cambodia
South Korea
Cayman Islands
Sri Lanka
Lesotho
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Latvia
Morocco
Macau
Mexico
Malaysia
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
Norway
Nepal
New Zealand
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Puerto Rico
Portugal
Russia
Sweden
Singapore
Slovenia
Slovakia
Swaziland
Thailand
Taiwan
Ukraine
United States
Uruguay
Vatican City
Vietnam
Vanuatu
South Africa
Zimbabwe

More details:

South America Cruise 2017

2017-11-10T23:30:00.004-05:00

Excited to be going on a South American cruise with Michelle, Brooklyn and Cali tomorrow - 10 days including Columbia, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Aruba, Grand Cayman Islands from Fort Lauderdale!

Peace out winter blast.

#NauticalLife Update

2017-09-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

We didn't get out boating as much as Michelle and I wanted in 2017 - but still are finding new places and enjoying the nautical lifestyle!

Keynote - How The Channel Is Adapting To The Changing Customer Buying Journey

2017-07-20T17:00:00.001-04:00

In the Age of the Customer, line of business (LOB) executives are increasingly leading technology decisions, sometimes taking over completely from the IT department. These business leaders are looking to a new set of hyper-specialized “shadow channels” to help them plan, implement, and integrate the technology to drive business value. In this session, we assessed the impact on vendors, partners, distributors, and explored what is required for success in this new channel ecosystem.

Check out my 28 minute Forrester keynote from Rackspace Solve Partner Conference this week in NYC:

Jay McBain Joins Forrester Research As A Principal Analyst - Global Channels

2017-06-05T15:59:00.001-04:00

June 5, 2017

I am very excited to be joining the amazing team at Forrester today as Principal Analyst - Global Channels. Most of my 23 year career has been inside the channel, gaining experience from Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and Lenovo, midmarket companies such as Autotask, and a 5 year startup journey with ChannelEyes.

This blog has been home to over 100 different articles about the channel (among other things). I am fascinated with how partners, vendors and distributors have navigated the changes in technology, business models, and most recently, the customer buying journey over the past 35 years. With over 160,000 views, there are many others that share my passion!

Forrester is an idea company, where smart, motivated, curious people bring a diversity of opinions and the courage of their convictions to collaborate on ideas that change the course of business. Most of all, bring a point of view. I’ll get to work with innovative clients at emerging and established brands around the world; these are the business and technology leaders who I can inspire and who will inspire me. The Forrester experience is built on a singular, powerful purpose: to challenge thinking and lead change.

Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential global research and advisory firms in the world. They work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. Forrester’s unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 500,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide, rigorous and objective methodologies, and the shared wisdom of our most innovative clients. Through proprietary research, data, custom consulting, exclusive executive peer groups, and events, the Forrester experience is about a singular and powerful purpose: to challenge the thinking of their clients to help them lead change in their organizations.

For more information, visit forrester.com.

The Channel Faces Another Difficult Transition: And This Time It Is Not A Technology Or Business Model Change

2017-05-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

The global IT channel have proven to be remarkable change-agents, both in front of their customers and inside their own businesses. Thinking about the amount of churn over the past 35 years can be downright dizzying.

Starting from the first disconnected PC's to last week's WannaCry ransomeware attack, channel partners have transitioned their skills to dozens of new technology opportunities. At the same time, they have transformed their business models from resell, break-fix, installation, maintenance, to solution providing and recurring managed services, among others.

The one thing that has stayed relatively constant over these decades is how customers decide and procure technology. Led by CIOs and IT departments, channel partners and vendors have fine-tuned their product and messaging mix to capitalize on this customer buying journey. Over the past couple of years, driven by cloud and the growing acceptance of SaaS business ecosystems, this journey just took a hard right turn.

Analysts are now reporting that 72% of technology decisions are influenced and/or made by line of business executives (Gartner). These leaders of departments such as sales, marketing, finance, operations and HR are increasingly taking ownership of their own digital transformations. In fact, it is predicted that this number will rise to 90% by the year 2020.

Here are some other startling numbers that are reflective of this new buying journey:

29% of technology decisions have no involvement by the IT department. The business executives are building the solution without internal help and in many cases are using external talent to advise on things like security, backup, compliance, disaster recovery, etc. (Forrester)
52% of business executives are using business-unit budgets to buy technology as opposed to assigned technology budgets from IT departments. (CompTIA)
58% of business executives are significantly involved in deciding and hiring third party services firms to implement and integrate these projects into the back-end of their company. (Forrester)
73% of B2B buyers prefer buying from the web, or self-service functionality from the vendor. Reselling technology and taking a margin will soon become a relic of the past. (Forrester)
68% of purchases through distribution are now categorized as simple or transactional. This is because business buyers are doing the upfront research, building the solution, and in the absence of self-service options, are purchasing at the part number level. (National Association of Electrical Distributors)

Business leaders are clearly looking for full-service solutions and are putting together the resources and teams to make it happen. They are increasingly relying on a new set of influencers including SaaS ecosystem partners, industry-based professional services firms, ISVs, born in the cloud firms, and the startup community. These shadow channels are discussed in detail here.

There are three reasons why I feel this will be a difficult (and futile for many) transition for channel partners:

B2B Marketing Weakness - As the book The E-Myth masterfully outlined, most SMB channel partners are technicians at heart and haven't focused on the sales and marketing skills required to scale their business. Now that there are ten times the amount of buyers at each customer, this weakness will be amplified. Many vendors are also guilty of focusing only on the IT buyer and have a serious visibility problem with the new buyer as well, assuming their products and services are even relevant in this new world.
Lack of Sophistication - About a decade ago we started a march towards specialization. The secret to success was becoming verticalized in certain markets and industries. The new buyer is looking for a level of hyper-specialized skills around business outcomes. In this new world, "vectorization" is now required which means having skills germane to the line of business itself, customer size and segment, sub-industry, geographic nuances and business technology application and how it integrates with the organization as a whole. Further discussion of vectors is here.
May Not Have The Will To Change - This industry is about 35 years old, and most of the traditional channel started their companies in the 1980s with IBM, Apple or Compaq or in the early 1990s with the rise of Microsoft. It doesn't take long at an industry event to see that the aging channel is not being replaced by millennials. In fact, IT does not rank in the top 10 of desirable industries for college grads today (CompTIA).

After all of the technology and business model twists and turns, and with 40% of the channel planning retirement in the next 7 years (CompTIA), there may be a lack of energy or enthusiasm for this latest curveball.

This is more difficult than adding a new technology practice or specialty to the line card. I even think this is harder than changing a revenue model. Working with a completely different buyer, with different preferences, motivations, requirements, and levels of influence will profoundly challenge the channel like nothing before it.

The 10 Rules to Guarantee a Promotion to Channel Chief

2017-04-20T13:21:00.000-04:00

I decided to have fun with some data over the past week.

I started by downloading the 337 Channel Chiefs from CRN's annual list (2016 version) and ran them all through Linkedin to see what insights I could come up with.

I decided to focus on 10 attributes that could shed light on the road to becoming a Channel Chief. The data had some obvious edge cases, but statistically, it formed a relatively tight bell curve around the averages.

The 10 Attributes I looked at:

1. City where Chief lives

2. Are they still working at the same company (a year later)

3. Gender

4. Age (estimated based on undergrad date and other factors)

5. Attained Masters degree or above

6. Number of companies worked for in career

7. Time spent in current company

8. Time spent in current role

9. Did they have channel roles leading up to Chief role (if not, what?)

10. Size of company, and impact on above attributes

Before we get to the rules, why would anyone ever want to be a Channel Chief?

[begin sarcasm]

The head of indirect channels for an organization is (by far) the best job an individual could hope for! Spending your time traveling the world to glorious destinations, hosting parties and galas for partners, spending millions of dollars in marketing funds, and striving to drive more boondoggles than last year.

All this while not being held accountable to senior management. Perhaps it sounds too good to be true. But wait, it gets better...

What could be easier than dealing with people who are passionate about your products and want to promote them to the world? How hard could it be recruiting this fan base and keeping them motivated by dozens of expensive programs? Oh, and look at that, another industry magazine just put you on the cover!

Sounds good so far, but how do Chiefs get a free pass internally from management?

Easy. Channels tend to be nebulous – not only hard to measure because of their indirect nature, but time-delayed as you are collecting data through a complicated multi-tier supply chain. Sales in, sales out, end user reporting, return on invested capital - these are metrics that confuse even the best CEO.

The VP of Sales gets the brunt of the pressure because direct sales are easy to measure, forecast and build KPI’s around. And most CEO’s out there didn’t rise through indirect channels. In most cases they were engineers, direct sales leaders or financial people.

So, is a Channel Chief is basically a rock star without responsibility or accountability? Not quite.

[end sarcasm]

These common perceptions actually make the job harder. The average tenure of a Chief is only 4.2 years – contrast that to the average CEO at 8.1 years. If the job was that great and liberating – why the short stay?

1. Channels take a very long time to develop.

Trying to explain to a CEO who is (very publicly) measured quarterly that developing an effective channel takes years is not a very popular conversation.

2. The indirect organization is usually the red-headed stepchild.

Getting access to top people, technology, resources or investments is last in line behind the sales, marketing and product teams.

3. The Rodney Dangerfield Effect.

Because it is not understood by other executives, it can be glossed over in senior management and board reviews. While the commitment to channel differs by company, the attention it gets is, in many cases, out of alignment.

The end result is a high pressure job, without adequate support and dubious respect.

A Channel Chief is a part-time sales leader, marketer, finance and operations exec, lawyer, motivator, counselor, trainer, product manager, strategist, economist, support agent and futurist.

If this is the life of a rock star, perhaps it is not as fun and rewarding as we once thought. It truly takes a special individual to step into the above chaos day in and day out and maintain a sense of humor.

So, do you still want to be a Channel Chief? Read on.

Armed with a nice big spreadsheet of data (and a number of strategic VLOOKUPs and COUNTIFs), here are the rules to becoming a Channel Chief:

1. Live in California

More specifically, San Francisco. About a quarter of all Chiefs live in California, with the majority of those (60%) living in the Bay area.

2. Don't get too comfortable

I analyzed the 2016 CRN list on purpose, to see how many of them stayed put after making the list. A year later, upwards of 25% of them are now working for different companies! Even more have been promoted internally into new responsibilities. This is not a "set it and forget it" profession.

3. Unfortunately, the gender gap exists here too

The Channel Chiefs are 77% male on this CRN list. Unfortunately, it gets worse when you narrow down this list to choose only the most senior from each company (248 companies). At this point it jumps up well into the 80's. As an industry we NEED to do better - check out this analysis of the Top 100 Global Women in Technology groups that I compiled recently.

4. Be born before the first moon landing

Specifically 1968. The average channel chief on the list is 49 years old. While there was a wide range of ages, most were clustered tightly around mid 40's to mid 50's.

5. Don't rely on an MBA for career progression

Almost three quarters of the Channel Chiefs do not have a masters or above degree. While college degrees number in the high 90's, most Chiefs relied on career progression to get to where they are. More on that to come.

6. Move companies to achieve higher positions in the Channel

The average number of companies the Chiefs worked previously for was 4.8. Many used company changes to elevate from Rep to Manager, Manager to Director and Director to VP. Larger companies are the exception where some have progressed internally for a few decades to get that coveted title.

7. But don't move companies too often

With only 4.8 company stops on average, the average Chief has spent 8.7 years at their current company. You may not get hired as a Chief right away, but one or two promotions may land you there within 4 years.

8. Prepare your career (and family) to be somewhat transient

The average tenure for a Channel Chief is 4.2 years. If you remove the Fortune 500 sized companies, where the stays are much longer, this drops down to the 2-3 year range. Moving jobs and moving cities is very common in this group of 337 people. Very few are employed in their hometown or college town.

9. Don't be too concerned if you haven't worked in the channel previously

Half of the Chiefs came from different backgrounds including sales (most common at 50%), general management, marketing and product management. While the progression of Channel Account Manager (CAM) to Channel Manager to Channel Director to VP Channel to SVP Global Channel is the most common, it is not the only way. Reference #6 above on how to make those jumps faster.

10. Be careful on size of company you work for

If you are looking to be a Channel Chief at a Fortune 500 company, jumping to smaller companies to get higher titles doesn't seem to work. The better bet is to start in the mailroom and plan for a 20+ year career of linear progression. If you want to be a Chief at a midsize company, multiple jumps as a VP (especially in the same product category) seems to be the best path. I can see a recruiting trend here, where they seem to target the Chief of their competitors.

If you haven't figured out by now, the title of this article was meant as click bait. There are no guarantees in life, or in the channel.

However, if you do know what you want, there are certain tactics you can deploy to elevate your chances of success. Luck plays a role as well - fast growing companies in exploding product categories tend to hire underneath their current employees. This results in rapid career progression.

At some point in this growth, usually after a sizable round of financing or IPO, the company will hire a senior, recognized Global Channel Chief to play the adult in the room. This person usually comes from a Fortune 100 company.

Well, there it is. For those of us who have spent our careers in the channel know that it is an equally exciting and frustrating place. Under-recognized, under-funded but filled with some of the best people I know. 75% of all world trade goes indirectly, and these are the heros that make it happen.

Good luck on your indirect journey!