The Facilitators

We have been custom building personal computers in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, for over 13 years. Regina is a city of 175,000 people in the heart of the prairies of Canada.

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, a Province of a million people.

It is just North of Minot, North Dakota.

There are over 7,000 Duncan computers in Southern Saskatchewan. We custom built every one of them, and they are all upgradeable. As builders of upgradeable computers for twelve years we have been agents of change for our clients since the days the XT was 4.7 megahertz.

About 6 1/2 years ago, after we had built a computer manufacturing company of 47 people, fierce competition forced us to lower our percentage gross profit from 32% to 12%. We found that although we were doing $100,000 business a week we were losing $10,000 per week.

We had built a $5,000,000 a year business without a bank loan and we had built up a little equity in the business.

But not enough to withstand the sort of competition we experienced in the spring of 1992. Despite trying to urgently and quickly scale back, we were unable to pull the company out of it's dive . . . . it crashed.... and there was h.. to pay everywhere!

After more than 6 years of extremely hard work, we realized that all we had built was a deck of cards, and the first wind just blew us away.

We stayed and faced the music and we went right back into the business. We now remember being told we would never be able to do business in Regina again... especially the computer business.

We had 800 flyers made up, and we personally took them door to door, calling on Regina business people, meeting them in person...and asking them for their continued business and support.

Everyone treated us well...at least to our faces, and by the time we had handed all the flyers out, we were back in business . . . the phone was ringing again, and it has not stopped since.

Then came trouble with Microsoft.

We had backordered 320 copies of Windows and DOS during the last couple of months of our failed business. Despite the fact that we had carefully recorded the backorder in every customer's file, had them initial their system order showing clearly that they knew the DOS and Windows were back-ordered, and that we had every intention to deliver the manuals, we were technically in contravention of copyright law. Microsoft and the RCMP prosecuted us and once again we were in the papers. We pleaded guilty and we were fined a total of $15,000.

All that brought us to the low point of our lives. The rest has been uphill.

You see, our Company may have failed but our product didn't. And we did not fail as computer builders, or as people, as parents, as grandparents or especially as soul mates,

We our rebuilding our business, and today we are building computers like crazy...this year we expect to build 700 computers....

We have added education to our business, and we are facilitating young people to become Microsoft Certified System Engineers.

This is a course normally given for adults, usually held in a classroom based setting, and generally costing $8,000 to $14,000. At least that is what our competition is charging!

Our approach is considerably different.

1. Instead of classroom based, teacher based education, we are using facilitated computer based, self-paced multimedia, interactive learning tutorials for our learners. The courseware we are using is mostly NetG product. Check it out at www.netg.com. This will give you a close look at the quality of our courseware.

 2. We have divided the course into 3 parts.

A. Facilitating the learner's acquisition of the knowledge either in our learning center or at home.

B. Providing opportunity for practical experience.

C. Sharing concepts of change.

The knowledge is imparted by the computer...we act as facilitators.

The practical opportunity is through having our young Prodigy Associates come and work in our computer shop/factory/service depot as well as make house and business calls. This is how they can make money to pay for the course, pay for their computers, and have spending money besides. We expect each Associate (12-18yrs old) to earn $20,000 "while" they are on our Microsoft course. (We anticipate that will be 3 years). We are charging $5,000 for the course and it is on a pay as you go basis...no financial strain.

The third part of the course is the one we see as the most important part...."Sharing concepts of change".

John is a graduate of the Investment in Excellence course given by The Pacific Institute of Seattle, Washington.

We have patterned our lives around this course, and it is the reason that we are rising "like a Phoenix bird from the ashes". All our thinking in regards to "concepts of change" has been shaped by the course that Lou Tice has given to millions of people around the world. John has listened to the course's six weeks of audiotapes so many times they are almost worn through.

Here is how he introduces this part of the course, asking the prospective young Associate four questions....

1."If I were to say that the single most important thing that has happened in your life is change...would I be right or would I be wrong?"

"I always get a surprised, hesitant, but finally emphatic "right"".

2. "If I were to say that the single most important thing that will happen in your life will be change...would you say that I am right...or am I wrong?"

"I always get an immediate "right" followed by a smile."

3. "Then I ask how much "formal" education have you had in change?"

The answer is always the same...............none....

Then I suggest that the computer business is the fastest changing aspect of humanity and that I visualize that when they are fully accredited they will be essentially helping others to change. I suggest that they will need to know how to change themselves before they can effectively help others change. .

4. Finally I ask them what they feel is the most valuable part of the course, acquiring knowledge, getting practical experience, or sharing concepts of change...and they always answer...the third part...the change part.."

It is our goal that we wish to facilitate all of our Associates through The Pacific Institute Investment in Excellence curriculum.

We have each Associate write out his or her goals...and we suggest to them that their first goal should be ...."I want to have 500 goals...at any one time". That means that when they achieve a goal, they need to have another one to replace it.

Goal setting, visualization, comfort zone, self esteem, lock-on-lock-out, empowerment, affirmations and accountability, self-image, resiliency, beliefs, expectations, habits, attitudes, motivation, perception and teamwork are but a few of the subjects we deal with during the course. These are the fundamentals we cover in The Investment in Excellence, the methodology of change we have adapted for our Prodigy Associates.

We refer to our learners as Associates because we treat them as young people in business for themselves from day one.

We call them Prodigies because we and they believe they are "slightly ahead
of their time"

In order to start on our course and stay on it, we ask for "excellence in every
corner of their lives"

We set our clocks by a Seattle Company....Teledesic...www.teledesic.com

We have a secret web site at www.net1fx.com/~satellites and we are building this web site to tell the story of the hundreds of Low Earth Orbit satellites
that are about to be launched, bringing broadband communications to every
part of the globe.

With our Associate program we have begun to build a huge team of
"facilitators" ready to facilitate the massive transfer of technological
change to that 65% of the world that has never placed or received a phone
call, because they have never seen a phone. The broadband communications
brought to us by the satellites will change all that in one day...the day
the Teledesic system is turned on....and we will be ready for that day with
the finest and best trained and youngest facilitator team this world has
ever seen...ready to surf that wave of technology around the world, helping
others of every race, color, creed, and religion assimilate the technology
that we still have not adjusted to in three generations.

To do this we are perfecting online delivery and facilitation of our
courseware. We will do it entirely over the internet. We are already
conversant with the basic skills such as video conferencing, real time audio
and text chat...etc,

We are already supporting hundreds of our computer clients 24 hours a day
"online" over the internet...using real time network awareness programs such
as ICQ.

Seattle is the breeding ground of all of this change..

.

Bill Gates and Microsoft are in Seattle, Bill is a major shareholder in Teledesic

Craig McCaw is CEO of Teledesic in Seattle, formerly of McCaw Communications.

The Boeing Corporation is the major contractor of Teledesic
and will build 350 Satellites...head office in Seattle. The Boeing Subdivision SeaLaunch will make it all work.

The Pacific Institute is Seattle based....

So we seek to follow the Seattle lead...and we will be, as we already see
Regina to be, a world class facilitator center . .and this will happen within 5 years...

For 13 years now we have worked very hard to prepare our clientele for change. We have explained the need for upgradeable machines to everyone who would listen to us. Now we believe that there is no group of computer users more prepared for the change we are about to experience than Duncan computer owners.

We have always wanted to play a role in the computer success of our clients. We are excited by the fabulous wealth of talent of the thousands of Duncan computer users. Each day we witness snowballing growth and an explosion of creativity and talent, as entire families of our clients become comfortable with computing and the changes brought to them each day by this interest..

We believe that tapping into this pool of rich human resource is tapping into one of the single most important golden veins of computer expertise in Canada today.

Despite the enormous install base of the other name brand machines, their machines are not upgradeable and their owner's mindset is therefore naturally bent towards permanence. This is not the case of The Duncans Computer user-base, who we believe are more ready for change than any other computer group.

Our mission is to extend that rich resource around the globe, surfing what we call "The First Wave". . . the wave of technology, enabling the emerging nations.

We will surf back on "The Second Wave". . the wave created by the enormous latent capabilities of the third world nations, as they embrace the technology, probably taking up where we leave off, challenging our complacency with their readiness for change and contrasting our growing resistance for change...

"The Second Wave - The Leapfrog Wave", that is the basis of our next grand project! 

Helene and John Duncan

Regina, Saskatchewan

E-Mail: duncans@net1fx.com

Web Page: http://www.net1fx.com/~duncans

This page last updated October 31, 1998

Copyright 1998, The Duncans