A few thoughts....

The end of the iPhone era?

2026-10-31T15:46:34.561-04:00

With the passing of a childhood hero (Patrick Stewart) this week, it got me thinking about how Star Trek seems to be the best predictor of future technology.

So here is goes:

The iPhone's days are numbered, and Apple said so itself…

In May 2025, Apple's services chief Eddy Cue said it under oath on the witness stand in the Justice Department's antitrust case against Google: "You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds."

What replaces it?

Ambient computing:

Microphones, speakers, and sensors embedded in rooms, cars, and streets, linked by satellite coverage that kills dead zones, let you speak or gesture and have the room respond: messages read aloud, calls routed to the nearest speaker, shopping handled by voice. Identity follows your voiceprint. Computing dissolves into the environment, present everywhere you go.

Smart wearables:

Glasses with displays, cameras, and AI, Meta's Ray-Bans today, Jony Ive's rumoured OpenAI device tomorrow, plus a watch and camera-equipped AirPods, cover nearly everything a phone does. Messages float in your field of view, navigation overlays the street, and AI whispers answers in your ear. Add Meta's EMG neural wristband, which reads muscle signals so tiny finger movements control devices. It is non-invasive and close to shipping. The phone's screen, camera, and speaker get redistributed across your body.

Agentic AI:

The shift may be software: AI agents that book, buy, message, and negotiate on your behalf, so apps fade from daily use. Early versions are already here, handling scheduling, shopping, and customer service with minimal input. As agents get more capable, the phone becomes a dumb terminal for an intelligence that lives in the cloud, and the app-tapping interface it was built around quietly disappears.

Humanoid robots:

A robot that walks into the world and gets things done: it checks the fridge, orders groceries, takes calls, and monitors the house. Your identity and preferences live in its cloud (or local) profile, accessible from any unit. The iPhone's core job, connecting you to services, gets absorbed by an agent with hands.

Screen localization:

Why carry a screen when every surface has one? CarPlay, smart TVs, fridges, restaurant tables, and kiosks already offer displays wherever you stand. Soon your session, messages, apps, and payments, could follow you from screen to screen through face or voice authentication. AR contact lenses take this furthest, putting a display directly in your eye, invisible to everyone else, while lighter holographic displays promise a virtual workspace anywhere. And once cars drive themselves, CarPlay's logic extends: the vehicle becomes a mobile room, covering much of the day the phone currently fills.

Brain implants (further out):

Neuralink-style implants skip the screen entirely: thought becomes input, and information feeds back directly to the brain. Messages arrive as inner "speech," calls as silent conversation, all handled inside the skull. Early uses are medical, and the trajectory points to consumer implants handling communication and AI assistance at the speed of thought.

Also on the way:

Smart rings and e-textiles, skin patches absorbing the watch's health, payment, and authentication jobs.

The combination does the job: AI agents doing the work, wearables and ambient sensors providing the interface, and screens everywhere else picking up the rest.

Now think about Star Trek. The ambient computer and natural voice interaction. The screens that became “local” devices when you approach. The communicator device. The humanoid robot and the implants. Agentic everything.

Engage.

2026-09-07T15:59:53.948-04:00

As new cars continue to get more expensive ($50,080 as of last September) and interest rates and gas prices remain stubbornly high ($4.14 average for regular), the question turns to "total cost of ownership" or "burdened cost per mile" of transportation.

As Tesla rolls out the Robotaxi concept ("Cybercab" with no steering wheel or pedals) to six cities across the US, Elon Musk has publicly stated that, at scale, the cost will be 30 to 40 cents per mile.

--> The average car/truck/SUV in the US today runs closer to 70 cents to $1.10 per mile.

Making up these costs:

1. Depreciation. The decline in vehicle resale value over time which is largest single cost (29 cents per mile or 37.5% of total). Check out below for how these depreciation curves can differ significantly.

2. Fuel / Energy. Gasoline, diesel, or electricity per mile based on efficiency (MPG or MPGe). (13 cents per mile or 16.9% of total)

3. Insurance. Full-coverage premiums (liability, collision, comprehensive) that are required when financing (11 cents per mile or 14.6% of total). When you look at the steep depreciation of electric cars plus the more expensive insurance, this quickly surpasses any maintenance or fuel savings.

4. Routine Maintenance & Repairs. Scheduled services (oil, fluids, filters, brakes) and out-of-warranty mechanical repairs. (11 cents per mile or 14.3% of total). Looking at quality ratings per vehicle brand makes a big difference here.

5. Financing. Interest payments and loan/lease borrowing charges (excluding principal reduction). Average car loans are hovering around 6.4% on new cars or 11.4% on used cars. (8 cents per mile or 9.8% of total)

6. Taxes & Fees. Annual state registration, licensing, safety/emissions inspections, and prorated purchase sales taxes. (5 cents per mile or 7% of total)

7. Incidental Driving Costs. Tolls, parking, and car washes. (Variable but add up quickly in larger cities).

I made a prediction years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqAriWls7s) that getting from point A to point B would shift from owned automobiles to "on demand" services within a generation.

Uber and Lyft significantly accelerated this trend and the future of fully autonomous, humanless fleet services would start to dominate the next few decades.

After fully autonomous vehicles take hold, the final accelerator will come in the form of infrastructure changes where governments designate exclusive lanes for self-driving cars - at twice the speed limit of regular lanes.

Oh, and how about safety?

Self-driving cars are 5X safer today than humans and get in 85 percent fewer injury crashes. These numbers will only improve as technology and infrastructure improve.

Sure, we may still want to have that old stick-shift convertible in the garage for nostalgic drives through the country on weekends, but with savings of two-thirds to three-quarters coming soon, it will be impossible to ignore the future shifts of driving.

13 Country, 25 Day, Round-The-World McBain Adventure 2026

2026-08-17T19:31:40.415-04:00

Having returned a couple of weeks ago from an epic family adventure around the world, several people asked about the 13 country itinerary so I wanted to share the details.

The trip was triggered months ago with speeches I needed to deliver on July 26th and 28th in Cairns, Australia for ARN Edge 2026 on the future of channel partner ecosystems. A summary of the speech can be found here.

The idea was similar to another round-the-world adventure from before the pandemic (2019) that, with Michelle and the kids, dropped into 15 countries. Basically, to meander our way around the world with a bunch of shorter flights ending up in Australia at the end.

With now heavy use of AI tools such as Gemini and ChatGPT, alongside favorites like 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/months in advance is long over.

This trip also extends 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 was finished on our Africa trip and now has me at 112 countries!

Planning for this trip had 3 distinct parts:

1. The direct flight from Miami to Rome, with a rental car taking us 4,000 kilometers across Europe. From an overnight ferry down to Sicily (Michelle's ancestral home) up to Venice, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Munich, Prague and then over to Frankfurt.

2. The exploration of the heart of the Silk Road through Central Asia including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakstan.

3. Exploring China, and then over to Tokyo to get down to Cairns, Australia for the speeches.

Each day of the trip brought lifelong memories, but also incredible challenges (that don't show up on glamorous Facebook posts) that I will talk about at the end.

--> Exploring Rome and the Vatican for the first time with the kids

--> The shocking history of Pompeii and the absolute beauty of Positano.

--> The incredible beauty of Michelle's ancestral home in Ragusa, Sicily and driving around the entire island after an overnight ferry from Naples.

--> The loooong drive from Sicily up to the stunning Venice for a day (and night) on the canals.

--> Cali really wanted to see Switzerland and I wanted to stop in Liechtenstein (a small country I missed on my 14-country tour a long time ago through Europe).

--> We continued to drive north through Austria and Germany where we saw the castle that inspired Walt Disney for his princess castles at Disneyland and Disney World!

--> Michelle had never been to Germany and I would always say that, after visiting 112 countries, that Prague was a magical place for me on a previous trip. It was on our "must see" list.

--> After 4,000 kilometers of driving through Europe, it was now time for Part 2 of the trip through Central Asia - the Stans! First stop direct from Frankfurt was Uzbekistan and a 2-hour train ride over to Samarkand.

As one of Central Asia's oldest continuously inhabited cities, Samarkand is historically significant as a pivotal crossroad of the Silk Road that connected trade and culture between East and West, and as the grand capital of the 14th-century Timurid Empire renowned for its landmark Islamic architecture.

--> The second country on the Stan tour was Kyrgyzstan - a landlocked Central Asian nation defined by the towering Tian Shan mountain range, a rich nomadic culture rooted in ancient Silk Road history, and a strong tradition of oral storytelling.

--> The final country on the Stan tour is the 9th largest country in the world by land mass, Kazakstan. It is a vast Central Asian nation characterized by its expansive steppes, rich oil and mineral wealth, and a deep nomadic heritage bridging East and West.

--> After the Stans, it was time to start moving East again. Next stop, Beijing.

With over 3,000 years of history, Beijing has served as the imperial capital for multiple ruling dynasties, including the Yuan, Ming, and Qing, shaping it into the heart of Chinese civilization.

Today, as the political and cultural capital of the People's Republic of China, it stands as a global superpower hub that bridges ancient heritage, like the Forbidden City and Great Wall, with modern innovation and international diplomacy.

--> It was now time to make our way to Cairns, Australia. A quick stop in Tokyo before heading south. We were able to rent another car and see some breathless scenery before the ARN event got into full swing.

Cairns serves as the primary gateway to Tropical North Queensland, renowned worldwide as the departure point for exploring the Great Barrier Reef.

Beyond marine adventures, the region attracts visitors with its ancient tropical landscapes, highlighted by the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, scenic coastal drives, and yes, lots of crocodiles!

--> After all of this adventure, it was time to put on a sport coat that I had been lugging through 13 countries, and get up on stage.

ARN (Australian Reseller News) is the premier news publication for the Australian IT channel, while EDGE is its flagship annual conference gathering ICT vendors, distributors, and managed service providers to discuss ecosystem growth and market strategies.

--> We flew from Cairns to Sydney to Dallas and then to Miami back-to-back. The only flight delay (only 2 hours) on the entire worldwide trip came on the Dallas leg and then they lost our luggage which took 5 days to resolve.

We were home so it really didn't matter, but that brings up an important point about traveling challenges. They happen almost every day on a trip like this - some small and forgettable, some large and will be remembered forever!

So here they are...the challenges:

1. We were robbed in Switzerland!

Of all the places we have been - from Antarctica to Africa - who would of thought that Switzerland was the place that could of ended our entire trip with a robbery of our passports?!

It was surreal experience.

Walking back to our rented SUV in Lucerne after a few hours of sightseeing and lunch, I saw a vehicle with its trunk open and a bright yellow Porsche suitcase just like mine. I thought, wow, that guy has the same suitcase as I do.

He then turned around and had a red Ducati backpack on. I thought, wow, he has the same motorcycle as I do too!

Then it clicked.

My ten year old (Cali) said she has never heard me curse before. The guy saw us and started running. It then dawned on me that our 4 passports were in that bag! The entire trip would have to be cancelled (in country 2 of 13) and we would have had to come straight back to the US.

So I defaulted into my Canadian hockey player mode and gave chase. Weighted down by the backpack and a bunch of coins he must have been stealing from every car, it didn't take long to catch up.

I tackled him in the middle of the street. Coins went everywhere. The backpack came off. A key from around his neck ripped off.

Cali jumped into action and took off with his key.

His face then turned really serious as that key would determine whether he got away or went to jail. He started to swing at Cali and lunging at her which caused her to fall down. He started to reach for his waistband too.

With our passports back, I yelled at Cali to throw the key and jump to safety. The police came, people came out of their shops, drivers stopped in the middle of the street - it was quite the scene.

The police (and locals) were horrified this happened in their town and were so apologetic. Because this involved a child, the severity of the punishment goes up by 5X in Switzerland. They promised to watch every camera on every street light and make an arrest.

We got to move on to Liechtenstein.

2. My ATM card was sucked into an ATM machine in Uzbekistan

In the category of "all my fault", I lost focus for a moment and impacted the rest of the trip in ways I didn't imagine (or plan for).

After 112 countries, I have a rule that I go to the first ATM that I see and withdraw the equivalent of US$100 in the local currency.

I was surprised when the machine spit out $1,000,000 in Uzbekistan dollars and I turned to the kids to wave a stack of $100,000 bills!

The machine started to beep and when I turned around the card was sucked back in. Calls to the bank told us it would be 3 or 4 business days to get it back and we were leaving in 48 hours.

I had a backup card to a Canadian account but the card wasn't used in 6 months so they terminated it. Our credit cards all have PIN numbers for cash back but we didn't know any of them. My corporate card doesn't support cash back.

So, Central Asia, still half a dozen countries to go, and no access to cash in places without good credit card infrastructure.

The solution was Western Union, but explaining to Russian banks (The Stans were part of USSR until 1991) in Russian language that I am sending money to myself and "trust me" was difficult. A few banks turned me down while angry, unpaid, taxi drivers waited outside.

I finally got $500 in USD and protected that like it was gold for the remainder of the trip!

3. Michelle got her iPhone stolen in a train station, also in Uzbekistan

Also in the category of "our fault", Michelle left her iPhone in a bathroom stall at a train station. Her pictures, navigation, communication and payments, gone.

It was only about 30 seconds later when she realized it was missing and rushed back into the bathroom. No one claimed they saw it and the cleaning lady said she was out of luck.

I hit the Apple Find My iPhone feature and the phone started ringing - right in the middle of the cleaning lady's stuff. She had hidden it.

Crisis averted but it made us question humanity for a moment.

Other challenges were not as serious but still added unnecessary drama:

--> I booked the car from the wrong Rome airport. D'oh. While they are only 19 miles apart, the travel time was close to an hour. The first airport had a lucky cancelation and a nice MG SUV to rent but it could have started the trip with a thud.

--> Our first night away from Rome in Positano was a Airbnb type hotel up on a high cliff with a promise of a lock box number that never came. We were sitting at a restaurant at 11pm trying to get the number still and contemplating if we were sleeping in the car.

--> I lost my Meta Oakley glasses on the Great Wall of China. With memories of Michelle's iPhone, I was questioning if I would ever see them again. Interestingly enough, our tour guide said that very little theft happens in China because of the overly severe consequences. We walked back and the first tower guard had the glasses from someone who turned them in. Faith in humanity restored!

--> We had couple of challenges in China that we should have planned better for. First, our phones (Verizon) didn't connect to their network. No cell phone access meant no two-factor authentication on our credit cards. AliPay, their version of an "everything app" worked great till we hit $1000 and then the fraud checks started to come. We could verify any of the cards and were stuck with our tour guide paying for everything. Luckily he had an old PayPal account (through a VPN because it isn't allowed in China) and we were able to get money (and a big tip) over to him.

--> Flight delays to Dallas and they lost our luggage for 5 days. The trip around the world through 13 countries was flawless. Every flight was on time and our luggage was sitting at customs waiting for us. That was until our trip home and we faced a 2-hour delay. That then meant that only 1 out of our 6 bags showed up in Miami. Five days later it was resolved. It didn't really matter because we were home, but still another small stressor.

All in all, the trip was fantastic. The memories will be there for a lifetime.

It also reminded ourselves that we have become a bit too lax on our planning. Not carrying enough cash. Not testing cards before we go. Not researching enough of the gotchas in far away lands. We will remedy this for next time.

Onward and upward!

2026-07-04T10:43:29.805-04:00

While we celebrate the 250th in the United States 🇺🇸 today, it is interesting to see how the first 100 years played out.

When I see a visual like this, it reinforces my own belief that I am a visual learner.

While you frequently see statistics online claiming that roughly 65% of people are visual learners, 30% are auditory, and 5% are reading/text-based, there is a major catch: these numbers are not backed by educational science.

Only 2% of people are visual-only learners.

The concept of fixed, distinct learning styles, known as the VARK model (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) is actually how 65% of people learn.

Having finished visiting all 50 states last year (kinesthetic) and being able to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the U.S. as a whole gave the total experience.

Final thoughts on learning…

I have become obsessed with Audible since we adopted our Golden Retriever, Malibu. I have averaged 10,845 steps a day in 2026 with 26 books flowing through my Meta Oakley sunglasses 😎

The map below gives me 10 more books to go and listen to!

2026-07-03T21:27:44.663-04:00

Tomorrow the McBain’s head out on another epic global adventure. 12 countries and a full circumnavigation 🌎✈️

Details:

—> Flight to Rome 🇮🇹 , check out the sights plus the Vatican 🇻🇦

—> Drive down to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Ferry ⛴️ over to Sicily and Michelle’s ancestral home in Ragusa.

—> Up to Venice 🛶, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Liechtenstein 🇱🇮, Munich 🇩🇪, and into one of my favorite places, Prague 🇨🇿.

—> Fly from Frankfurt to Uzbekistan 🇺🇿. Spend a few days touring and then down to Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬. A few more days and finish off in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿.

—> Fly to Beijing 🇨🇳 and check out all the sites including the Great Wall.

—> Fly to Tokyo 🇯🇵 en route to Cairns, Australia 🇦🇺 for a speech on the 26th and 28th.

—> Fly down to Sydney and then to Dallas 🇺🇸 and back to Miami!

Last time we did this (2019) it was 15 countries and some lifelong memories.

This will make 112 countries visited (out of 193) for me.

Bon Voyage!

Weaving Together My Life Story In A Series Of Blogs

2026-06-12T16:44:28.720-04:00

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!

2026-06-12T16:44:15.228-04:00

As predicted, the world's largest IPO successfully landed today with SpaceX (SPCX) finishing at $2.105 trillion in value with Elon Musk's share at $884 billion.

Combined with Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and other investments and assets, he is officially the world's first trillionaire at $1.2 trillion (that the we know about - likely larger).

Founded by Musk in 2002 to revolutionize space transportation, SpaceX initially struggled, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy after three failed launches of its Falcon 1 rocket.

The fourth launch in 2008 succeeded, securing a vital $1.6 billion NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration cargo contract that stabilized the company.

SpaceX went on to disrupt the aerospace industry by developing the Falcon 9 and achieving the world's first orbital-class rocket booster landing in 2015. Reusability slashed launch costs, fueling the rapid deployment of its Starlink satellite constellation.

--> SpaceX acquired xAI (which previously merged with X), consolidating SpaceX's aerospace, AI, and social media empires into a single entity.

Now trading publicly as SPCX, the trillion-dollar company leverages Starlink's massive revenues to fund heavy AI compute costs, including a major data center partnership with Anthropic.

Anthropic agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month. Running through May 2029, the total potential value of the contract sits at a massive $40+ billion.

--> Anthropic is going to IPO itself into a potential multi-trillion dollar value in the upcoming days.

This operational dominance and the massive scaling of its Starship program combined with AI leadership ultimately propelled SpaceX to its historic public IPO.

Both Anthropic and OpenAI have hired notable channel chiefs (and teams) to go after the enterprise tech opportunity. Waiting for SpaceX to do the same before year end.

2026-06-08T12:54:40.219-04:00

The "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) backlash against data centers has turned the physical infrastructure of artificial intelligence into a fierce national land-use battle.

For years, the tech industry marketed the cloud as an invisible metaphor, but AI’s massive appetite for resources has broken that illusion, forcing industrial-scale installations into local communities.

Currently, the United States houses over 4,500 active data centers. To fuel the AI boom, an additional 700 to 1,500 facilities are actively under construction or in development nationwide.

Check if one is in your backyard here: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-data-center-near-me-location-tracker-2026-6

This unprecedented footprint has triggered a severe public backlash; a recent Gallup poll revealed that 71% of U.S. adults now oppose data center construction in their local areas.

Opponents cite strained local power grids, skyrocketing utility bills, immense water consumption for cooling, and disruptive noise pollution. Local rejections and high-profile lawsuits, such as the citizen-led suit against the 9-gigawatt Stratos project in Utah, are stalling major rollouts.

Moving forward, the trend will shift from urban mega-hubs like Northern Virginia to rural regions, with 67% of planned facilities targeting rural areas to avoid localized resistance.

To survive, developers must pivot to energy-aware hybrid infrastructure, secure independent power via natural gas or small nuclear reactors, and engage transparently with communities to balance national compute demands with local quality of life.

2026-06-05T16:59:44.423-04:00

We are entering an unprecedented cycle of IPOs where we will have three companies all join the trillion (or likely multi-trillion) dollar club on day one.

SpaceX (which has xAI, X, and Grok inside), Anthropic, and OpenAI have taken the "unicorn" story to the next level.

(A unicorn is startup company valued at $1 billion or more by private investors before going public.)

The story doesn't track for all unicorns though. As of March of 2026, there are 1,356 total unicorns across all industries with 485 of them being in enterprise technology.

Fun facts:

1. The San Francisco "Bay Area" alone has 171 enterprise tech unicorns — more than 1 in 3 globally.

2. The US 🇺🇸 isn't just winning — it's lapping everyone 341 of 485 (70%) are American. The next four — China 🇨🇳 (26), UK 🇬🇧 (17), Israel 🇮🇱 (16), France 🇫🇷 (13) — combined still don't match New York City alone (42).

3. $4 trillion+ in combined value, but wildly top-heavy. The median valuation is just $1.7B — barely over the threshold. The three companies above represent 2/3 of value.

4. 2021 was a unicorn factory 148 of 485 companies — 30.5% — earned unicorn status in 2021 alone. That's more than the entire decade of 2013–2020 combined.

5. 99 companies are worth exactly $1 billion. One in five enterprise tech unicorns is sitting right at the minimum threshold, suggesting many are valued at the round number they were last marked at, not true market price discovery.

6. Sequoia Capital's portfolio is worth more than most countries' GDPs. Sequoia appears in 52 companies with a combined valuation of $2 trillion+ — mostly because of OpenAI and Anthropic.

7. The big three investors are everywhere Andreessen Horowitz (41 companies), Sequoia Capital (39), and Accel (38) appear in roughly 1 of every 12 companies on the list each.

8. The average time since joining the list is 4.1 years. The oldest — Mu Sigma Inc. (data analytics, India) — has been a unicorn for over 13 years with no exit. Lookout and Magic Leap have been waiting 12+ years.

9. Israel punches well above its weight with 16 companies, $29.4B in combined value, from a country of 10 million people. That's more unicorns per capita than any nation except the US, and ahead of Germany and Australia despite being a fraction of their size.

10. The AI wave is just getting started 88 companies joined in 2025 to March 2026 alone. Nearly 1 in 5 of the entire list in just 18 months. The newest entrants (WorkOS, AMI Labs, Nexthop AI, Axiom Math) all hit unicorn status in March 2026, and 4 of the top 8 by valuation are pure-play AI companies.

Outside of the consumer interest in big IPOs (and soon to be richest people in the world), the business interest for channel partnerships is seeing which categories of enterprise tech are getting the attention of serious money.

Early market success regularly results in huge channel plays downstream - just look at Anthropic's $100 million investment in partners a few weeks ago!

2026-06-05T11:03:42.590-04:00

Today marks a historical moment in the rapid growth of AI.

AI agents crawling the web have, for the first time, surpassed humans in internet activity, according to Cloudflare.

The split is currently 57% machine to 43% human, at least as measured by HTTP requests. The gulf is certain to widen.

What are the bots doing, you ask?

Checking prices, comparing flights, ordering products, facilitating payments, reading pages, and, not unlike their web crawling forebears, scraping and indexing content. (But this time, for AI models not search engines)

Generative AI has spent years learning from the web, now agents are spending their time "doing" on the web. That translates to lots of page load requests, even if it’s not much time spent compared to humans.

Coming up on June 12th, we are going to have the world's first trillionaire (Elon Musk) after the SpaceX IPO

2026-05-21T16:09:57.843-04:00

Coming up on June 12th, we are going to have the world's first trillionaire (Elon Musk) after the SpaceX IPO.

Looking at previous milestones, Bill Gates was the first to $100 billion ($185 billion in today's dollars) in April of 1999. Jeff Bezos was the first to $200 billion in August 2020.

Obviously, the first argument is how much money should sit with individuals as Elon would effectively join the G20 - the richest 20 countries of the world (in GDP) as an individual.

More interesting for me is the story (or system) behind this and what it means for the rest of the partner ecosystem.

How do more billionaires get formed in orbiting this opportunity? (excuse the space pun). How do more multi-millionaires form by rotating around each of these billionaires? And so on...

It is easy to dismiss Elon as a jerk - both in the Steve Jobs sense of management as well as many people's opinions on his foray into politics (DOGE) and acquiring Twitter.

As an analyst, in contrast, we think about algorithms, systems, methods, processes, workflows, and repeatable logic.

The Algorithm was the first book written by someone in Elon's close circle - the ex-President of Tesla about the "system" behind the story. What do we learn from this system? (both the good and the bad). How do we explain it to others?

Author Jon McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota Motor Corporation a global powerhouse—principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by incrementally improving existing systems and processes.

What he learned from Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic goals.

--> Elon called this five-step framework “The Algorithm.”

Fun fact for our channel: - McNeil is also one of early funders/advisors of Cork alongside Datto legend Austin McChord and CEO Dan Candee. Cork is redefining how MSPs approach cybersecurity and financial promises to clients. I am also proud to be a company/board advisor.

Anyway, I don't normally recommend books - but grab this one and read it before June 12th to give you more context behind the scenes:

https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Hypergrowth-Formula-Transformed-Lululemon/dp/B0FFG5KFSK

AI won't replace you (in the short term). It will, however, be responsible for getting you fired

2026-05-13T18:39:10.127-04:00

Calls being recorded for “quality purposes”, key loggers, mouse tracking, email metrics, badge monitoring, login attempts.

All surreptitious tactics to correlate and report on the productivity of employees.

What is missing? Context.

Every job is different. Top performers may execute their jobs differently when full context is understood.

—> So, what systems have almost perfected context in the past 12 months? LLMs.

That AI agent that sits on your shoulder, reads every email, watches every keystroke, listens to every conversation, analyzes every spreadsheet, records everyone else’s opinion of you.

That “copilot” that has been promised to make you superhuman is also reporting back (to who paid for that agent) the exact contribution you are making to the business.

How many hours are you actually working?

What measurable output comes from those hours?

How many meetings are you attending and not leading, taking away actions, and/or actually completing them?

How many jobs are not directly impacting revenue growth, cost control, client satisfaction, partner enablement, or product innovation?

Layoffs are hitting by the tens of thousands per company almost daily. These aren’t people who managers deem “low performers” (which was always subjective and unfair) but who AI reports aren’t providing an acceptable ROI (with surprising accuracy and getting better each day).

Case in point (in past 48 hours):

The situation at Meta has escalated rapidly as the company prepares for a massive workforce reduction (10% or 8,000 people) while simultaneously rolling out new, highly invasive tracking software.

The convergence of surveillance, imminent job cuts, and labor organizing marks a significant turning point in the technology industry internal culture (and soon to be all industries).

—> This isn’t AI replacing your job. It is AI causing your job loss.

One of the interesting (and unpredictable) side effects of AI may be the resurgence of unionized workforces.

Recruitment flyers are already in bathrooms in the U.S. 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧 at Meta.

Unions first exploded on an international scale between 1877 and 1886 during the Great Upheaval.

A second, even larger explosion occurred in the Great Depression (and the New Deal in the U.S.) during the 1930s.

Will AI trigger a massive third wave?

2026-05-02T01:12:00.008-04:00

Demographics are a fascinating way of predicting future trends, opportunities, and threats.For example, we knew for the last 8 years that millennials would become the #1 buyer in the $6.07 trillion tech industry last year.

--> We also know that China will drop their population in half (1.41 billion to 633 million) by 2100 due to the disastrous One-Child Policy.

The average age is already 40.6 years old and they will be facing a similar economic fate as Japan because of demographics.

We are not only in the AI-race for the next 20 years, we are also in an immigration race as most of the world (minus Africa and some of the Middle East) are not at a 2.1 child replacement rate.

Far from it.

It would also behoove us (as global citizens) to encourage the economic and geopolitical development of Africa to handle the coming population boom.

--> Africa will double in population size by 2050 and the situation is a study in extreme contrast.

The continent is home to the world's most significant demographic "boom" while simultaneously navigating localized crises of violence, disease, and structural instability.

Africa’s population is "chronically young". Half of the citizens in sub-Saharan Africa are under 21 years old. About 12 million enter the labor market every year and only 3 million formal wage jobs are created annually.

This youth bulge can be a demographic dividend if educated and employed, but without opportunities, it becomes a primary driver of social instability and recruitment for extremist groups.

More challenges:

1. Over half of the low-income countries in the region are at high risk of debt distress, leaving little money for "human capital" (schools and hospitals).

2. Traditional foreign aid from the West (ie. USAID has cut upwards of 60% in past year) and China has been falling since the pandemic, forcing African nations to look toward "self-reliance" and diaspora philanthropy.

3. Severe droughts in East Africa have worsened food security, making children even more vulnerable to diseases they might otherwise survive.

--> Analysts tend to call demographics "destiny in slow motion."

Unlike economic forecasts or polling (which can shift with every tweet) demographic data is remarkably "sticky" because the people who will make up the workforce, the taxpayer base, and the buyer markets twenty years from now have, for the most part, already been born.

2026-04-28T01:14:00.001-04:00

Marking this important moment in history on my blog.Last week we had humanoid robots setting new marathon records (power/speed) and beating professional ping pong players (dexterity/reflex).

We have noted important AI moments in the past like IBM defeating a chess grandmaster in 1997, Google defeating Go in 2015, and OpenAI passing the Turing Test in 2025.

Well, today we have 20 different AI models (LLMs) that are smarter than the average human (ranked as 100 on this chart).

More importantly, we now have 11 models running beyond genius level (130 on this chart) according to Mensa Norway.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that by 2029, computers will achieve human-level intelligence, passing a valid Turing test (already happened last year), marking the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

He expects this AI to possess human-level cognitive capabilities, leading to significant human-machine integration and the start of a technological/biological singularity by 2045.

He may have been too conservative on this forecast by at least 15 years.

2026-04-24T01:15:00.004-04:00

A humanoid robot just surpassed the human world record (in half-marathon) by 7 minutes.Having worked through 32 years (and living through 53 years) of the technology industry's growth, it always amazes me what it feels like "in the moment" versus the way we wax poetic about it 20 years later.

We all know those moments.

When a young Bill Gates thought every home will have a PC, and the IBM people in the same meeting felt like the total opportunity was 10,000 hobbyists.

When a young Jeff Bezos wondered what to do with tech infrastructure they had to build for their busiest day (but sits idle for the rest of the year), and magazines start making fun of him on the front cover.

Here is the deal.

The first PC was VERY limited. But it did have slots, bays, and ports that enabled innovators and entrepreneurs to build trillions of dollars of value in the future (Thanks Steve Wozniak for winning this battle over the other Steve).

The first iPhone was VERY limited. But it did have a future vision of what an App Store could do and unleashed millions of inventive minds into the ecosystem.

The same criticism came of early LLMs.

They hallucinate. They can't be trusted. It is a consumer noveltly.

Then an LLM passed the legal bar exam (bottom 10%). Six months later it passed (top 10% - Harvard/Yale level). And then 6 months later it was writing, grading, and proctoring the exam for humans.

All in 12 months.

We have difficulty in projecting what fast growing technologies will become. Bill Gates said in 1996: "We overestimate the first 2 years, and underestimate the first 10".

So here we are with humanoid robots. They are clunky, they look funny, their fingers don't have the dexterity.

Until they do.

--> Last year, humanoid robots finished the half-marathon for the first time. The result? Twice as long as the human winner. It was funny to watch.

--> This year? They set a new world record by a staggering 7 minutes.

--> Next year? They will probably finish a half marathon in 5 to 10 minutes total - the race will have to move to a Formula One track to facilitate.

Future:

The world has been built (for thousands of years) by humans FOR humans. The idea that we need hundreds of "smart devices" in our lives may turn into the fact that we only need a very few - shaped as humans and as capable (both physically & intellectually).

Examples:

- Your smart vacuum (sorry iRobot on bankruptcy), doesn't need to be smart when a humanoid robot can use a dust pan and mop.

- Your fancy smart cat litter box can go back to the normal one when a humanoid robot cleans it after every use.

- Your car with tens of thousands of dollars in sensors, cameras, and Lidar can go back to normal when a humanoid robot can take the wheel (with safety already 10X distracted humans).

- Even as simple as your smart thermostat. It can go back to the old dial when humanoid robots (which will be in every home within 20 years) can turn the dial with much better accuracy.

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.

_________

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!

________________________________________________________________________

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!

2023-02-15T00:14:00.007-05:00

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

1969 Bridgestone 175cc Dual Twin 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.