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In 1997, we had the parings party at the Hard Rock hotel on a Sunday night. David and his young son were wondering around snacking and communicating with David’s friends and other guests. Out of nowhere word spread that Tiger was in the house. David asked to go find him and we did. They had roped off a special area and only Tiger and “special guest” were allowed in the area. David was a special guest and took me along with him. I was amazed at what I saw. The special guest (mostly NBA players) was all over Tiger like the fans are normally over them.
I was the only person in the area with a camera. I took a picture of David and his son with Tiger. Suddenly, I was the most popular person there besides Tiger. A few special guests asked me to take their picture with Tiger and gave me instructions on where to send them. I mentioned that I was going to the Masters in April and would see if I could get Tiger to sign them at the practice rounds. David and a few others signed the pictures and sent them back to me to have Tiger sign. There were three sets of 8”x 10” copies of the photos signed by the NBA Hall of Famers and taken with Tiger. One copy to return to the NBA guys, one for Tiger and one for me. Mike Cowan, Tiger’s caddy, better known as Fluff, asked me how I got them and I told him the story. He told me he was sure that Tiger would sign since they were personal. He waited until Tiger was done putting on the practice green. When he returned, he said, “he will not sign” and handed me the pictures. I handed him the ones I had done for Tiger. Fluff looked at me like what are you doing? I said give them to Mr. Woods and tell him I’m not a jerk like him. Later I put the Garden of Good and Evil (voodoo) curse on him. As well as I can recall, he has had a few problems since then. On the other side of that I guess we would all like to have his problems. He is still an ass hole until he apologizes to me. I should live so long,
An interesting aside, Tiger missed the cut at the Canadian open the Friday before the parings party. This was the only missed cut in his first 8 years on the PGA tour. Tiger had 142 straight tournaments without missed a cut and he misses this one to show up on Sunday night to hobnob with the special guest at Charles’ tournament. Do you think maybe he missed on purpose or just couldn’t concentrate on playing golf thinking about breakfast at Perkin’s restaurant in Orlando on Sunday morning.
SIDE BAR - Michael Jordan showed up a couple of times was the only “special guest” that didn’t suck up to Tiger. I think he thought Tiger should be kissing his ass not the other way around.
The 90s was known as the Digital Decade. It was also a reasonably quiet10 years as compared to other decades.
The 90s saw the end of the decades long cold war with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We saw extreme advances in technology. It was an exciting decade. Video games made a big splash by taking advantage of the expanding technology, Super Nintendo, Super Mario World, Pokemon Red and Blue, Street Fighter II, etc.
The Gulf War –Iraqi forces conquered Kuwait and within 30 days the U.N. (read U.S) had driven the Iraqi forces back to Iraq with their tails tucked between their legs.
We started to see domestic discontent that continues to boil up even today. This needs to come to an end, peacefully. We also saw the beginning of terrorists attacks on the U.S. by our own as well as Al-Qaeda. The Oklahoma City bombing, and the first bombing of the World Trade Center are examples.
Princess Diana died in an automobile crash that can partially be blamed on the press obsession with her personal life.
My friend Nelson Mandela was elected president of the Republic of South Africa in 1994 officially ending apartheid and white minority rule in South Africa
Bill Clinton was the president for the U.S. for most of the 90s and was dominate political figure but seemed to have a problem keeping his britches zipped up and Ms. Lewinsky almost got him removed from office. He did do one good thing as a result. Oral copulation was declared to not be sex.
Marijuana was legalized in California and the controversy is still raging.
The 90s saw increasingly frequent and more devastating natural disasters. Those disasters would cause a record-breaking $608 billion worth of damage – more than 4 previous decades combined.
Prosperity was rampant in the free world not so much in the totalitarian world. As examples, the U.S. experiences the longest period of peace time economic expansion during the decade. The former Soviet Union did just the opposite.
It was a revolutionary time for digital technology. Personal computer ownership went from 15 to 35%. Cell phone usage went from a few percent to over 25%. The World Wide Web (WWW) was publicized in 1991 and in use by 50% in some Western countries including the U.S. Cameras became digital completely wiping out the film industry, goodbye Kodak. The 24-hour news cycle (CNN) takes over and starts the demise of the daily newspaper which is continuing to happen. In Tampa, we get the “daily” newspaper on Wednesday and Sunday. For old farts like me, I look forward to the newspaper. Of course, we are a dying breed. Except for me I am going to live to 2100 – my second 80 years. WEB browsers were developed making the WEB more user friendly and more open to everyone, even us old farts.
Dolly the sheep was cloned triggering a raging controversy on human cloning and the religious implications. These concerns continue until today.
The Hubble space telescope was launched in 1990 and it revolutionized astronomy and is continuing to do so.
The GPS Global Positioning System becomes fully operational. Without taking up the rest of this book I will say that did as much as anything to change small planet and make it even smaller.
As I have said, women are taking over our world. The human animal group is finally seeing it happen. The 90s was to see a record number of women were in high office in the U.S. There are many examples, Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are on the Supreme Court. Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and many others.
O.J. Simpson got away with murder because he was black and a famous football player.
Television was all about Sitcoms – Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers and more than I can mention. These three were the ground breakers and led the group.
Websites and apps launched during the decade were eBay, Amazon, Netscape, Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, and many others but you get the idea.
The Last Dance, the ESPN documentary on Michael Jordon and his 6 NBA championships was based on Jordon’s exploits the 90s decade. If you haven’t seen it, do so, it is a very interesting study of the behind-the-scenes interaction between Michael and his teammates, friends, family and the ever-present press.
As I pointed out earlier, the 90s led the way and formed the basis for the technological world that we currently take for granted.
During the 90s decade I had a period of time that I did some consulting gigs. One of my most interesting was a group that went by the name of Experience Engineering (EE). EE was the brainchild of Lou Carbone. We would design and make a blueprint of the customer interaction with whatever business we were contracted to assist. This would start from being at home until you arrived back home. Lou wrote a book about the process called CLUED IN. The process was planting clues throughout the experience to assure the customer you care about them. Examples are folded toilet paper in your hotel room to give you the clue that the room had been cleaned. Another was Expectant Mother Parking spaces near the door at a grocery store client we had.
NOW THE 21ST CENTURY
Damn did this century start with a BANG. The World Trade Center came falling down. The world implications of this act of war are far reaching and are still being felt today, 20 years later.
I am going to step out of bounds and insert a political opinion. In 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and killed 2403 people and we declared war and punished them for their act of war. In 2001 Saudi Arabia attacked the USA and killed 2977 people and injured over 25,000. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in human history. There are continuing health consequences, also. In fact, I lost a very close friend (Bill Woebse) in the last month. Bill was working in the building next door to the World Trade Center and ingested dust, etc. and lost kidney function over time. He was 52 at the time of his death. Bill is also a big part of my Parrot Cay experience mentioned next.
We ignored the fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists who commandeered our civilian aircraft were Saudi citizens and the ringleader Osama Bin Laden was very closely connected to the Saudi royal family. All evidence points to the fact that the terrorists were financed by Saudi government officials and members of the royal family. We did nothing but continue to politely ask them to lean over so we could continue to kiss their ROYAL backsides. It doesn’t make sense to me but what do I know.
At the time I said we declare war and send them back to the desert with their camels and tents. I realize that is not politically correct, but I am not always P.C.
I find it interesting that since the 9/11 attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully carried out a deadly attack inside the United States. The most typical jihadist threat to the United States remains homegrown rather than foreign nationals infiltrating the country. Since 9/11 104 people have been killed by U.S citizens motivated by jihadist ideology. This is far lower than even the most optimistic analysts projected in the aftermath of 9/11.
I wonder why!!! You think maybe it has something to do with the $2.8 TRILLION spent on counterterrorism efforts by the U.S. government. As well as the fact that the “no fly” list of unwelcome visitors went from 16 at 9/11 to 81,000 in 2016. Those efforts have made the United States a HARD TARGET.
The biggest threat to human life has been mentally ill (read crazy) individuals (92) who have killed 737 men, women, and children.
Now that I have covered 9/11 and aired a few of my feeling, I am going to treat the next 20 years up to 2020 as similar to how I treated the decades in the 20th century. I will sprinkle in some personal experiences, as well as what I think are the most significant happenings during the 20-year period.
In 2001, I decided to use my Indian connections to outsource back-office functions for U. S. clients. The business was Resource Providers, Inc. (RPI). I gave a little equity to a couple of people with medical experience, one was a doctor. They handled to day to day needs so I could continue to do some consulting. RPI was a medical transcription company. My daughter Holly, who already had her own company, Press PR + Marketing, along with my very smart employee at RPI, Laura Heiderman and I started a Chronic Care Management called LinkedMD in 2015 and sold it to a Detroit company in 2019. I’m on a one-year contract working for the company that bought LinkedMD and working on this book. By the way I’m considering starting a new company. You have any good ideas call me.