There’s a Kurt Vonnegut short story about an alien named Zog who visits the planet Earth. He comes with the noblest cause: to explain how war could be prevented and cancer could be cured. His home planet is Margo, where everyone communicates through farts and tap dancing.

Zog landed at night in Connecticut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a house on fire. He rushed into the house, farting and tap dancing, warning the people about the terrible danger they were in. The head of the house brained Zog with a golf club.

(from Breakfast of Champions)

What a nice picture of the relationship between credit unions and young people. Both need to reach each other, badly, but both tend to completely miss each other. And then someone gets clubbed and a house burns down.

Gen Y needs help.

Here are some snapshots of the state of the union (pulled from the Filene report “Reaching Generation Debt“):

• By 2004, people under the age of 25 were the fastest-growing age group in bankruptcy declarations ¹
• Also in 2004 (the latest year with national data) 25 - 34 year olds with credit card debt used an average 25% of their income to pay off debt, and 45% of them used credit cards for day-today-living like rent and groceries. ¹
• As if we need another crisis: “Analysts say rising defaults, coupled with federal subsidy cuts, are beginning to strain the student loan industry…the question is whether a similar crisis [to the mortgage crisis] is on the horizon for student loan borrowers.” ²
• More than half of Gen Yers aren’t saving for retirement because they’re busy with other financial obligations…like paying down their massive debt. ³
• Financial products are more complicated - 401(k)s, IRAs, student loans, and credit cards are all relatively new - and financial literacy is as dead as a doornail.

I could go on, but you get the picture. The situation is dire. Because credit unions’ actions are driven by people and social responsibility, and not lining the pockets of stockholders, they are the group to get us out of this mess.

All growns up (too growns up).

Because credit unions and their members are dying (sadly, I mean that literally). Here are some bits that most CU industry folks have heard before:

• The average age of a credit union member? 47 years old. The average age of a board member? 52.
• Prime borrowing years are 25 - 42. And as the older members continue to age, their borrowing needs dwindle and they want a higher yield on investments.
• I don’t know the stat offhand, but I do know that credit unions are merging and shutting down like crazy. Maybe one of you can help me with that in the comments.
• Only 6% of people ages 19 - 24 have said they’d use a credit union for their next financial product. ⁴

To quote Cornerstone’s Steve Williams:

The point is, we’ve got to replace the old customers that we lose – God bless ’em – with new, younger ones.

Again: The situation is dire.

What can we do about it?

Let’s get our hands dirty.

I’m completely floored to announce that I’ve partnered with the Filene Research Institute for the next year and a half to lead their Young Adult Implementation project. The project picks up where Ben Rogers and the 30 Under 30 (not a bad band name) left off - I’ll work with credit unions to put Filene’s Gen Y products and strategies into action.

I’ll be working alongside some of the smartest people in the industry helping to solve the problems that get my belly all firey. It’ll be hard work, it’ll be exciting, and together we’ll make people’s lives better.

Let’s do this. Who’s in?

I know I’ll catch hell for this, but it’s hilarious. So sue me:

Tomorrow morning, earlier than anyone in the world should have to be up, I’m hitting the road for a couple of weeks to speak at a few events and spend some time with family. I realized today during a cold-pizza lunch that I still hadn’t designed business cards for myself…and that I probably should for this trip.

So after spending some time tossing around ideas, I went to Kinko’s (yup, I took the ghetto printing route), and came back with these:

What do you think?

If we meet and I hand you a card, I hope you’ll use it to goof off (if only for a little bit). I only had one hundred printed. When these run out I’ll redesign and print some “real” cards. But for what they are, I’m pretty happy with the result.

And now I need to go pack.

As a punk kid working for myself, I often ask myself “Hmm, self…how can I make more money, but do less work?” “Hmm, self…how can I contribute to the greater good by making people’s lives easier?”

For many people, the answer is to create a successful product. And while I still think my Hot Jacolate™ is a pivotal concept, I have a ways to go.

Here are two product development tips I’d do well to keep in mind:

Design for yourself.

Jason Fried, Founder & CEO of 37signals, described their product development process like this:

We start by designing software to solve our own problems. We scratch our own itch.

We recognize our problems aren’t unique. Other people can benefit from the way we solve our problems. So we turn our software into products and put them into the marketplace.

A good read on product development via “itch-scratching” is David Vinjamuri’s Accidental Branding. He explains how entrepreneurs - including J. Peterman, Craig of Craigslist, and Gary Erickson, creator of the Clif bar - created incredibly successful products by solving their own problem first, and building on the solution. (Stay tuned for a legit review of this book.)

Fail, and fail fast.

Jim Coudal of Coudal Partners (and officemates to 37signals), explains:

Not every idea is going to work. Know that going in. Ideas tend to follow the path of least resistance and more often than not that path is the one where you find yourself talking an idea to death, by getting hung up on the “what ifs.” So you need to actively push ideas out and embrace failure. Fail spectacularly whenever possible.

For small businesses, shifting from client-work to a worthwhile product can mean the difference between running a hamster wheel and forward progression. The difference between maintaining and flourishing. And, as it turns out, the first step to that creative spark is to get annoyed.

So, what’s the pain in your day-to-day’s can right now?

Today my buddy Charlie Trotter told me a story about his experience after signing up for Utterz, a mobile-blogging tool:

I Uttered an Utterz about hoping it would work well with my blog and twitter. I just got an email from the community manager welcoming me and assuring me that it would integrate just fine. He actually listened to my audio thing because I didn’t title it.

He went on to say:

I love it so so much when a site rep contacts me specifically about something. The CEO of Media Temple left me a voice mail thanking me for sending Media Temple a nice email. Dalas Verdugo, Vimeo’s community manager is quickly available through IM and quickly solves my problems when they happen. Now this email from Utterz.

Having that personal connection, having someone take the time to make it when they own a site with so many users is a big deal to me. It makes me a zealot for them.

Boom. How do you turn consumers into zealots? Act like you’re a human and they’re a human and we’re all a bunch of humans.

Fast Company, a business magazine with a heavy lean towards design and innovation (and a personal favorite of mine), has relaunched their website as a social network. Edward Sussman, President of Mansueto Digital, says this about the new FastCompany.com:

Starting today, we become the first major media website to tackle the following problem: Can a business publication blend journalism and online community to create something better than either by itself?

We think so. If done right.

For a publication who’s brand is ideas, I love this. Users who join the network can blog and comment, “befriend” other users, post videos, or even suggest questions to Fast Company. In opting to play equal parts mouth and mouthpiece, the new site is a big, fat, fascinating conversation. I’m looking forward to seeing how the user-generated commentary is used in the the printed magazine.

Conversations in motion include:

• Can good design save a bad product?
• How Social is “Social” Media?
• What is the role of the individual in corporate social responsibility?

Join the conversation by creating a profile here. And if you want, add me as a friend.

Shari Storm is blogging about motherhood and business and how those two worlds are more related than you might think. She’s a hilarious and insightful writer (and I don’t even have kids).

She’s also working on a book. If the book is as good a read as the blog, I can think of four or five mommas offhand who I’m forwarding it to / getting it as a gift for.

So hurry up, Shari. America is waiting.

Check her out here:
http://thenewmba.blogspot.com/