SOUTH PARK’S ALL ELECTRIC, ZERO EMISSION HUB: THE MARTIN MOTOR GROUP

Martin Motors: Green Vehicles 4000′s: All Electric, Zero Emission-Non Polluting, and Freeway Safe

We’ve been very careful about mentioning Martin Motors- Forbes’ Venture: It’s a vision blown on the winds of a legacy begun by my father: Martin Cavanaugh Porter Snr.

 The bikes in the pic? 4000 Series, from Green Vehicles in Palo Alto-we’ve upgraded them with leather seats which are standard on all 4000 MM-FSS. What does F stand for? Forbes-my father’s foundational company. What does SS Stand for? Sustainable Sport: 60 MPH, 3 Hour Range, Swift as lightning, 5 hour recharge.

Martin Motors will being carrying many more zero-emission, all electric vehicles in DT Los Angeles: South Park L.A. We are on a mission-and we’ll talk about that soon: We’ll do our PR and marketing soon, we will do it all-right now, the focus is on product, on building the vertically integrated service-custom shop, and warehouse, and, on completing the showroom.

After that:  A terrific, interactive website, ecommmerce back-bone, and recharger stations throughout L.A. My team and I are working with strategic allies to get the word out-it’s a process-and we’re taking steps, so one day we can sprint.

Martin Motor Group will be open, officially September 1, 2009 but, by the 10 August, we’ll be open to sell you phenomenal, zero-emissions, all electric vehicles-powered by green vehicles, E+ Ultra, and A2B. And that’s just the beginning. Beverly Hills Oct 15, West Hollywood Nov 15.

Oh…by the way-if you need your car or vehicle washed in the heart of South Park L.A: Well, we’ll be providing that service soon.

THE MARTIN MOTOR GROUP

INQUIRIES@MARTINMOTORGROUP.COM

mcporter@martinmotorgroup.com

213-261-1949

 

SOUTH PARK L.A’S GOLD: NICK COOPER (CEO VOCAL CORNER STORE-AND SO, SO MUCH MORE)

There’s a fellow i’ve known for 8 years: A great and good man with power, style, verve, and vigor-packaged in subtly, with class, intelligence, and a richness of ideas and vision. His name is Nick Cooper-and we’ve reconnected.

We’re going to move forward together: Lifting both boats toward one vision: A better world, a better life-for ourselves, our communities, and our families.

Nick Cooper is high value-humble and that’s Gold.  He;s a connector, a forward leaner-he embodies the bleeding edge community that is South Park L.A

Gold is a very valuable thing-and should be treated as such: With care, concern, and kindness.

Circle’s circle: All that is good comes back to you-Nick Cooper is good- he’s coming back to me-and me, to him.

Gold. Solid. You can bank on it.

The seeds of vertical integration in South Park L.A

An officious technocrat was discussing business with my team and I recently and he announced with aplomb: “Of course vertical integration is dead in the L.A.

No it’s not:  The South Park Development Group (A Forbes Company) has assembeled a workshop and the beginnings of custom shop for Martin Motors (much more on that later-too close to the button-too big to discuss-a vision whose heart beats bravely, and is too special in relation to my father and the revival of our ties to South East Asia, and the rebirth of my families’ moniker: Forbes)- An upholsterer, a fine cabinetry maker, a painter,a furniture maker, and, possibly, a trimmer-with all their combined equipment, skills, honor, and excellence.

When? Next week, the week after, and the week after-all together in one location fulfilling a common goal: upgrading vehicles that Forbes retails and wholesales under the banner of Martin Motors. Further, providing the community those same services-under one umbrella-bannered under Forbes.

In South Park L.A, for South Park L.A: The South Park Work Shop. One boat-many rowers, skilled, driving against the winds of  convention, against the foes of full employment, better days in L.A, a better, safer, happier downtown L.A.

Tell a man and his team with a vision who collectively have lion-hearts what they cannot do, fueled by a legacy that must never be torn asunder-Forbes’ legacy,and, see for yourself what can be done.

Vertical integration in South Park L.A-in Down Town L.A: Better days, better ways-renewed manufacturing, and-yes-a vertically integrated company.

I’d like the ‘NO’ men to keep their collective opinions to themselves-they are, as individuals and collectively, the destroyers of all that is good and great in man: The will to win through.

“The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay…”

Robert Frost

There is more meaning in what you don’t say, than what you do: Business is personal

What you say and what you don’t: It makes all the difference in the world

“Business is not personal,” is like saying egg doesn’t have yolk.

Everything is personal-because we are not automotons, we are not islands devoid of feeling: What you don’t say to someone: “Thank you,” or on-going appreciation, a degree of understanding for the pressures and difficulties your co-workers face, and most importantly applause (your hands don’t have to clap!)when they do well, says as much as what you do say.

Example: There is one fellow I am dealing with, abroad, who sends me ‘panic-emails’ ongoing-regarding his issues in the midst of his setback. Ones which, to a great degree I am trying to assist him with: Both on a personal front and on a business front: He is unable or unwilling to eke out a word of encouragement or thanks-and his excuse is that “things get lost in translation.” This fellow, I have been told is a masterful negotiator who negotiates for a living: Nothing masterful here,just panic driven, reactionary, and demeaning messages, which, after awhile, fill one with bile. What is bile? The precursor to throwing up.

Bravery, brightness, and brilliance hold their ground on the rock of steadniess through rough seas and a wink and a nod at your fellow ship-mates facing the same troubles you are.

And, if all you have to say-to telegrapgh-to communicate, is pressure driven and not motivation driven, you will soon loose your allies and cut off your legs-proverbially, left with stumps: Then you will be alone, bereft of a team, of allies, and of partners in your business journey.

The test of courage and of toughness is not in the best,bright, sunlit moments of prosperity and triumph, it is in the midst of gloom and setbacks, in that time of your quiet panic. In those moments, if you can signal to your mates, to your companions in this war against time and complacency, thanks, on-going gratitude, and a sense of shared suffering and shared hope (I’d refer you to Henry V’s Agincourt Speech) then, then you can stand with your head held high and say: “I’m a man…”

I am as at fault in this area, I am sure, as everyone else-which is perhaps why I bring it up.

Band of merry brothers…   

SOUTH PARK L.A: CONVERGENCE OF MICRO-MANUFACTURING (WITH GLOBAL COMPONENT SOURCING), ORIGINAL CONTENT PROVIDERS, AND HIGH TECH: L.A’S GREAT HOPE FOR DYNAMIC GROWTH

This recession is not over: Some sectors are showing signs of growth-amazing recovery-some sectors sluggish, and the next sector to crash: To devour more wealth and savings, to unglue, unhinge, and demolish the life savings of thousands of investors will be the commercial real-estate market.

It will plunge as sure as rain falls from the sky.

So what is the solution to this? To the Macro economic environment and the Micro economic environment?

Cooperation, connectivity, and the renewal of mercantilism: Of a form of high-tech, high-level, “I trust you, you trust me,” bartering. Alliance building, strategic partnerships, aggregation of forces (businesses, personalities, and organizations), and a willingness to accept the concept that so many Americans shy away from as a viable mode of business: Warfare. Total warfare.

There are enemies-they exist as concepts (I am almost no one man’s enemy): Conventional thinking, delays, anemic policy making, obtuse officials, fearful capital, and mindless, inane C-Level decision makers many of whom, instead of being swept away by a recession they helped cause, have been shifted to another company, or worse elevated.

Capital must flow to innovation and innovative people and organizations congregate together in areas: South Park Los Angeles is one.

Its the next Tribeca- Its most certainly a micro (veiled) Silicon Valley.

This recession will come and it will go in the next three years-in the next three years-through the recession, exponential growth will be found in sustainability, green-companies, green-tech related companies, and-yes-dare I say it: Manufacturing. Manufacturing is a different animal that what it once was.

Its nimble, its out of garages and small warehouses, its fast, replicatable, and getting less expensive to do: This recession has cracked the delicate egg of Union domination and corporate greed-its the moment for America (for Los Angeles), to seize and begin to develop rapid-cycle, niche manufacturing.

MANUFACTURING IS THE OLD NEW. WATCH SOUTH PARK L.A: ITS SOON GOING TO BE A HUB OF MICRO-MANUFACTURING ENABLED BY ITS INNOVATIVE SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS CONCENTRATED IN TECH AND CONTENT CREATION, AND INTERNATIONALLY THROUGH GLOBAL SOURCING OF COMPONENTS.

We’re not at a dead-end, its a cul-de-sac: The tide will turn and lift boats powered by entrepreneurs, risk takers, and visionaries.

Extending the life cycle of a product and the importance of personality,ideas, emotions, strategy, excellent design, and CONNECTIVITY

-Martin Cavanaugh Porter

Evolution of products used to be long-tail: Six years from design, manufacturing, and sales. That’s changed: radically. Product development can be done anywhere: R+D can be done anywhere. So-so design can be done in many places and that means products evolve and get better faster ergo-shorter, tighter life cycles.

The market place demands more-expects more-and gets more. Prices fall and rise based on commodities and the changing policies of governments, the willingness of private money and institutions to invest, and policy: All those factors are variable.

This means almost anything-anything, can be commoditized: Businesses are no longer applauded just for having a well-made product and sales teams don’t just win on ‘product knowledge’ alone.

What’s left? What can’t be dragged down into the morass of commodification and what questions should you ask about yourself and your company?

Personality: Do you have an attractive personality- are you a magnet? Is this reflected, infused, in your brand and company? Are you able to connect people with other people? Do people call you. Do people ask youto assist them, solve problems, and get things done? Is all this integrated into your companies’ brand and image. Personality decreases the disaster of commodification. Can your personality, difuse through your organization, renown, encourage consumers to purchase your products just past the conventional widom of when the product’s life-cycle is supposed to be over? Do you believe you can remake your personality? You can: Mirror and study attractive personalities.

Ideas: Do you have great out-of-the-box ideas: Are they so compelling and powerful that they drive alliances and bring people together to assist you with your dream-make that dream their own, and, in partnership make real, what is your vision? Do you have many good ideas? Do you write them down? Do you share them with others-bringing them closer to you? Can your ideas singularly improve enough peoples’ lives and businesses that what you sell, and the company you own turn the commodification tide and extend your product’s life-cycle?

Emotions: Do you care? Stop for a moment: Ponder this- Do you care? Do you empathize? Are you able to emote powerfully positive energy that compells others to join with you in bold visions-are you emotionally in tune with others? Do they feel better when you are around: Energized, cheered-up, grateful for the time they spend with you? Bottom-line: Do they feel inspired. No force, no cheaper, faster, better manufacturer or company can compete with a leader who can inspire his/her team under any conditions, threats, foes, or situations. The power to inspire= the power to strike down the tidal-force of copy-catism. Inspiration is the ultimate brand and as rare as the rarest diamond.

Strategy: Do you drive your choices in business strategically? Do you map your business out? Goal post, do you put yourself in another man’s shoes and try to bring enough good to the table that conventional deals, contracts, and ways of doing things-which led to this recession-which led to this recession-can be undone through force of out-of-the-box ‘win-win’ strategic planning?

Excellent Design: And here is the shield and sword of a companies’ ability to go to war with mass-volume-hydra headed, far flung purveyors of rapidlly produced product: Exquisite design. Do you have on your team or in your universe players able to up-brand and extend the life cycle of your companies’ products with innovative, trans formative designs-over and over again?

CONNECTIVITY: Can you bring people together when you have very few resources and execute the goal? No man is an island-none of us are perfect. CONNECTIVITY is not “making connections”-that was pre-recession babble- CONNECTIVITY is the combination of 1-3 above: Personality, ideas, and emotions. CONNECTIVITY IS YOUR (AND YOUR COMPANIES’) WARRIOR-It can’t be beat. And maybe only one in 100,000 people have the power of CONNECTIVITY. Seek them out-and stay stuck to them like epoxy.

South Park L.A: Southern California’s Sillicon Valley

posted by martin cavanaugh porter South Park L.A is a microcosm of Silicon Valley: But better.

Here’s why- The brilliance and boldness, the ‘newness’ and vigor of ideas that flowed from that great hotbed of ingenuity which helped the economies of the world flourish-exists in South Park, within a six block geographical zone. And more: It is youth, brilliance and glitter matched with (some)seasoned experience (half those folks caused this recession-the other half have allot of wisdom to offer: Just North of our great 90015 incubator that is South Park are the institutions that repose in them many men and women with experience and the financial expertise to assist the tech-creative-manufacturing-design hotbed that is South Park, L.A.

 Even better: Abroad, in South East Asia, in the most unlikely places one might think, are other hotbeds of brilliance- Ayala Tech Park in the Philippines, and VC’s spread out like fans on a spinning fan looking for excellence, seeking alliances, and investing in strategic partnerships.

 

Our company,my team, Forbes-South Park Dev Group (mcporter@flvllc.com) is working with one of the key players in that VC fan for two reasons:

To build the dream that is M Motors- a dream that convention and retrograde, formulaic in-the-box thinking will never destroy.

To work to form a strategic partnership with them, providing a pipeline of projects from South Park, viable to finance for expansion and growth purposes.

It is with alacrity and with a renewed sense of purpose that I find myself forever taken by South Park and it’s pioneers-and it is my mission and one of the core purposes of my life to move South Park L.A’s brilliant, bright, entrepreneurs into the spotlight of international expansion, of better, brighter days.

Forbes & M Motors: A dealership and distributorship-one day, a manufacturer in the heart of DT L.A’s new vital business hub: South Park L.A, 90015

I can’t stop learning because within the limitations of my points-of-view and sense that I must engage actively in the small world I inhabit: DT L.A (South Park L.A), I meet so many people, so talented that force me to re-think concepts and precepts and to do new things in new ways: Patterns that I would not normally follow.

I am vitalized by my vision and my passions and trying to include all points of view-stay fresh-agile: Even when it doesn’t feel good: Digesting the unpalatable meal of humility to get along to go along. It is however nutritional and brings me, my team, my family, and the hundreds of future employees I hire and care for, one step closer to the great dream and the grand goal of building up DT L.A’s job base through green, all electric, zero-emission manufacturing of full scale vehicles.

Where? Not in some far flung industrial center-not in the outer-reaching of our incredible city-of this megalopolis, which Eli Broad, Richard Riordan, Mayor Tom Bradley, and others re-envisioned to have a central core.

M Motors, within three years, will manufacture in DT L.A and, like American Apparel-though with some core differences-components will be brought in from abroad to some degree, hundreds of men and women from Boyle Heights to South Central, hands coarse, full of un-used latent talents, even aging, will rise and work and see from their own labors our inner-cities’: Our core-city’s rebirth.

I am not a fanatic nor am I a hyper-idealist, nor am I an enemy of profit: Raised in dealerships and distributorships under the benevolent but insistent hand of my father: (age 6, 10 new vocabulary words a day-flash cards-until I was 18, from age 8 and on, reciting back to him The Economist Magazine, at age 10 through 18, forced debates-which I relished- at the dinner table about three subjects-politics, business, and values): I am a realist, who having been raised by a pragmatist who did many ‘impossible’ things, many times, taught me that to dream entrepreneurial dreams that combined a sense of social-justice with a strong eye on the bottom-line and ROI, and on profits (“look out for your workers-they have families-and they also have dreams,”-one of many things he would say to me), are not incongruous-they are complimentary.

There are many businesses to be in and for now and the foreseeable future, my company: South Park Development Group, bannered under Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC will develop a Dealership-Distributorship with expansionary goals and be a Business Advisory and biz-accelerator (it’s not my company-just like the consumer owns companies by virtue of buying their products-Forbes is owned by three-God willing soon to be four of my compadres, warriors, who through sleet or snow, under cover of darkness and in the full sunlight of a bright day, have stood by the vision, and maintained their equipoise even under the most egregious insults to our vision).

The seeds of Forbes were laid by my father: Raised in the flat-lands of Kansas, on a farm, whose father was loved and respected for his honor and drive (inherited by my father, and a goal-post for me) brilliant of mind, he gained degrees to George Town and Cambridge University, England, and, reading Nights of Arabia, married a young Spanish-Japanese beauty in Morocco, flew off to Asia (remember, if you can, when Pan Am was Pan Am!) and still, nearly penniless, went to Asia to seek and build a fortune and leave a legacy.

He built a fortune and he lost it. He built a legacy and I grasped it and asked others to join with me to build it.

It’ s a whisper on the wind, an echo in the night, a still-distant drum beat: But if you listen carefully enough, you can hear the beat of the drums getting louder and the sing-song cadence of hopeful birds chanting “rebirth.”

For my family, for my allies, for my team, for myself, and for my city: Late nights and early mornings until all the second-raters and nay-sayers see from their small apertures full-scale, powerful, vehicle manufacturing rise up in South Park L.A.

There was a mayor known for burning the midnight oil for the sake of his vision for the city (Downtown central library, integration, equality)-Mayor Tom Bradley. There was a Mayor “Tough enough to turn L.A around…” and he did, Richard Riordan-both were known for ‘late nights and early mornings.’

When I was a little boy (6-12) in my blue pajamas my father (he raised me-I was raised by my father alone), would review the vocab-flash cards before bed, read me a book (The Fountain Head, Atlas Shrugged, Shakespeare, the list is endless), and then go to his study and work. When I woke, blurry-eyed, but excited at a new day (nothing like the first wink of sunlight), my father was at the breakfast table, reading the Financial Times, muttering to himself, and watching the Telex machine for orders-he was a dealer and a distributorship (telex machine?-look it up, lol).

Late nights and early mornings.

Prime Movers in South Park L.A & Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC, South Park Development Group: M Motors

What defines a prime mover? Creators, producers, manufacturers, originators-they singly and in alliances, are the world’s engine.

And the world does not welcome prime movers-it is not in collective man’s nature to admire prime movers: It is prime movers who admire man- individual men who, through their will and determination, through unyielding drive, move the world.

 In South Park L.A, my freinds are Prime Movers: Rasmus Lee (SRH Holdings, PRE Brokerage, Hygge), Joe Montalbano (Nylon www.nylon.la), Fred Hakim  (www.bottlerock.net), Terrel Owens- South Park L.A’s own resident artist. The list is longer.

I can’t claim to be a prime mover- I aspire to be a prime mover.

 To want to create, to produce to pick up a legacy laid down by my father and build it into a legacy my children can be proud of requires tremendous optimism and faith in my fellow man.

 Faith in follow-up, in other’s vigor, and vitality: Faith, actually, that those who do not aspire to be prime movers, at least give a degree of courtesy and consideration to those who hold those aspirations.

 My father is a prime-mover: He built when other’s said it was impossible. He drove deeply into new markets as South East Asia’s distributor for Caterpillar. He supported many, many young men who had aspirations financially and with his joie de vivre, his advice, his care, and his example. He lost all his wealth on a bad bet (pound sterling 1992).

 I have found almost no other men with these same qualities-until recently-and this man, who has himself lived many lives and worn many hats, reminds me most of my father: He is brilliant in business and brilliant at giving advice, lifting, buoyantly, one’s dreams whilst keeping them alive by keeping me grounded: I hope, one day to announce him as CEO of this little company-of Forbes, of M Motors, of the legacy.

 He has manufactured, he has been in finance, he has activated, accomplished, and achieved: With him I believe that all that is possible for Forbes can be made facts-on-the-ground-real as rock.

 My father is the man to whom I dedicate my aspirations because he never said “impossible, untenable, or unreachable” to me- knowing those words are like daggers, dream-killers. Instead he advised on how to make possible, tenable, reachable, my goals.

 My father is no pie-in-the-sky idealist: He was a pragmatic, realistic businessman: He is now a veteran of the business world, giving advice-which I take. But so much more- a lifter of other men, who believes that will- sheer bloody will, can bend events in a direction otherwise anticipated.

 I pick up with my unyielding, loyal team, where he left off: Opening a dealership of zero-emission, all electric vehicles in South Park L.A (Downtown L.A) called M Motors (MM).

 The drive and the dream is to one day manufacture in DT L.A-to roll off a manufacturing plant cars, trucks: All electric, zero-emission vehicles, and, in doing so, reignite DT L.A’s manufacturing base through green technology.

 I have been told by many men in middle-management that this dream is untenable: One actually scoffed at me-“manufacturing in L.A…vehicles!?”Grinning at his own brilliance-at his sheer cynicism and ambivalence to the hope of developing a broad, new base of jobs for the jobless (why, one wonders, would a man stick so deeply into another man the dagger of pessimism?

 But this is what I have been told by giants, men whose names you would swiftly recognize as best-of-breed in the L.A business  and spiritual world ( a preist whose name is on many tounges for his proven accomplishements:“Tough, but possible, a long road-but a journey worth taking. You’ve come so far, so fast, don’t let anyone stop you.”

 I won’t.  I need help and I’m getting it and by hook or by crook the legacy will live on. I have a son-and like my father his name is Martin. There are three Martins’ and one legacy to lift up, burnish and pass on: The Forbes legacy.

 I know my weaknesses-they are my burdens and my demons-there are so many of them: And I wish I was less rash, less brash, and better at so many things.

 I know that there is a man whose strength, experience, and love of life-whose business acumen: (all attributes of my father), may mentor me, help me, and work with me to bind that legacy which is just now a whisper carried by a fragile wind, into a rock upon which thousands can depend on for gainful employment, that my father one day from heaven can look down and see the brand he built, build men, and that my son may carry forward into the bright upland hills of greater achievements built on green, sustainable distributorships and manufacturing of all electric, non polluting vehicles.

 “The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, its energy- invincible determination- a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.” – Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton

 

Terrell Moore: South Park L.A’s new, resident artist

South Park is changing and developing into a vitalized corner of affluence, brilliance, and brightness. It’s newest addition is Terrell Moore, whose gallery is on the east side of Hope St, half a block down from 12th Street.

His large, glittering tapestries are monuments of emotion and interaction-the colors that bind and develop into a whole.

South Park must support South Park- and, when, almost as an apparition, greatness falls into our laps: Terrell Moore and his art-which is, frankly superlative, all South Park should spread the word-we have new artist amongst us-an addition to the community, a new strength.

In this years to come the vast wealth of South Park can afford to spend a fraction to support the arts: Support Terrell.

His website: www.terrellmoore.net