SWCAMBORNE

“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin

My nephew Robert B and his beautiful bride, Theo, have organized a series of occasional “Prom Night” events in London.

Robert and Theo

By every report they are great, fun, over-subscribed dress-up parties. They appeal to the retro 60’s instinct of young people. I’m to old to attend but I share the sentiment and recommend visiting the site and getting on the email alert list.

http://www.promnightuk.com/

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Dahlia and Joel gave us a lot to be thankful for by hosting our family get together even though they were in the middle of a major re-landscaping project.

Click here to see all of the pictures I took of the event.

I have spent a few days lately with my in-laws and other septuagenarians at various events and had concluded that hearing aids are not working that well yet. I remarked to Nurit after one investor meeting that the one conclusion we could draw from the meeting was that we should invest in hearing aid companies. It appears that most of the hearing aids sold today don’t work very well.

About the time that I turned 40 my eyes went bad and I could no longer read without glasses. I wasn’t unique, it happened to almost everybody at about that age. Well here is an advance warning to all of you baby boomers when you turn 70, as most of you will, your hearing will go bad. Get ready for it.
Fortunately I have solved the problem of bad hearing aids. It appears that one of the things that today’s septuagenarians want is to keep it a secret that they need some help hearing. The same thing happened with glasses it was hard to admit that we couldn’t read the menu so we blamed it on the lighting in the restaurant. But we are from the wireless generation. We are used to having hands free cell phone remotes and Walkman wires hanging from our ears. I pods are a fashion accessory. We can handle the idea of a much bigger hearing assistance package that might actually work.

So here is the billion-dollar idea. Start a hearing aid company that doesn’t focus on invisible as the primary objective. Its focus instead is on hearing assistance. The product is visible and fashionable like an I pod and might include a directional microphone. You can adjust the volume without putting your finger in you ear. It comes in colors and might also serve as a cell phone and a music player. It could have Bluetooth directly to the TV sound.

Acting differently:

If you are poor and you act “differently,” you are crazy.
If you are middle class and you act “differently,” you are weird.
If you are well off and you act “differently,” you are quirky.
If you are wealthy and you act “differently,” you are eccentric

Fair or not fair?

Thanks to Gary David for helping me create and refine this post.