Please don't take this as being too jaded, but I was in the sporting goods business for 15 years and owned a successful fly fishing store for over 10 of those years, before selling out due to a combination of long hours burnout, a wife who travels for work and having had 4 children under the age of 5.
Having owned a retail sporting goods business for over a decade, I was around different writers and tv celebrities at the trade shows and every year some came into my store before or after filming a trout fishing trip on our home river.
My conclusion was and still is, every outdoor writer and tv celeb has either a shtick or a brand they're selling, or at least trying to sell. And that's for fishing and hunting included. As they become more successful, they become a brand.
Having done TV shows, been the subject of numerous articles and had after hours drinks (the real truth detector) with those involved in either the video or print end of the outdoor industry, the motives were not much different than the retail aspect. Keep product flowing.
If it's a tv outdoor celebrity, watch and enjoy, but don't think the purpose of the show is anything much more than trying to get you to buy the products that the sponsors who essentially underwrite the show happen to sell.
If an outdoor writer, again, read and enjoy. But don't change any aspect of how you do things from the words of a stranger who's ultimate goal is selling copy to cement his/her brand name and to possibly cross promote products they also happen to sell.
So, if a writer does a story about how wonderful wool plaid is, and he happens to sell wool plaid, I'd keep the words in perspective. Or if a writer does a story on how indespensible neck knives are, and he sells neck knives on his web site, keep that in mind. Or if a writer does stories on alternative quiver options and he sells alternative quivers. You get the idea.
There's nothing wrong with good old American entrepreneurial capitalism. Everyone has the right to make a living and use savvy ways to sell his wares and inform at the same time, all while creating a buzz about him or herself at the same time, thus preserving a certain number of pages in the next magazine and interest in the brand name and cross promoted products, which maybe are sold right on the authors high tech website.
But a sales pitch is usually a sales pitch, no matter how accomplished and respected the salesman. Sometimes the sales pitch isn't even about a particular product, but about selling the brand the author has cultivated, which is easily taken by a willing audience.
And there's nothing wrong with that. I did it myself. When I lined up doing a tv fishing show or doing an article with a newspaper or magazine, the whole reason was to promote sales. This is still America, afterall.
But I wouldn't give much weight to any article other than reading for amusement and mild consideration.
As far as the "gadgets" such as phones, a few years back, I started to have a minor heart attack while literally taking a treestand down, 20 feet up in the tree. It was winter, I was in the back of our property, alone, I was in deep snow with lots of clothing on and had really exerted myself.
I didn't have my phone with me.
When I knew something started going really wrong with me, I got down out of the tree, dropped everything at made way to the truck. I was so dizzy and nauseous that I felt like I was going to puke. When I looked in the side mirror of the truck, my face was ash grey and I remember saying out loud "I'm in big trouble out here".
My fear was that my family would wonder why I didn't come home and they'd find me face down in the snow, dead.
I drove back to the cabin and luckily found like 8 baby aspirins in the bathroom drawer that I literally chewed up and swallowed with spit, since we shut the water off for winter. I wanted that stuff to work asap.
I found a beer in the kitchen and sat down, not wanting to do anything to exert myself. I sat in the cabin for 20 minutes, drank the beer and felt god enough to drive home, but still not right.
Needless to say, I made it home, called the Dr. and had a stent put into a 70% blocked artery 3 days later.
So, you can guess my attitude about having a phone on me. Now, I don't text anybody, at anytime. Not even in daily life. And I don't call buddies that I just saw a deer.
But from now on, I have a phone with me whenever I'm doing activies at the deer camp, regardless if winter, summer or hunting season.
Anybody with any health issue's owes it to his family to keep a phone on them.
A side note, what I didn't know is that my family cholesterol was over 300! I'm on cholesterol meds for 5 years and got it down below 200 and my last stress test came thru with flying colors.
If you've had a parent or sibling that's had a heart attack, you're a candidate. Find out your cholesterol and if over 35 with a strong family history of heart disease, and you have high cholesterol I suggest you DEMAND to have a stress test called in from your family doctor.
And don't think twice about turning your ringer off and throwing your cell phone into your gear back. It just may save your life.
Topic: Article by G Fred in the new TBW.. please re-read with a better explanition on pg 3 (Read 2445 times)
