April 1, 2014

Eric Jackson

President- Jackson Kayak

325 Iris Drive

Sparta, TN 38583

 

Jackson Kayak no longer has control over its brand.   I am sorry to say, that as of 5pm last night, while I was out celebrating my Dad’s 80th birthday and my 50th birthday here in Southern, GA, Jackson Kayak’s stock was taken over by Confluence, and we are no longer a stand alone company, we are now only a brand within their organization.    I really don’t know how this happened, or why, exactly, or at least I can’t say here in a public forum.    What I can report is that there are immediately and permanent changes in our organizational chart from the top down.    I have been offered a “work contract” for three years, and should I decide to accept, my family will not suffer from lack of cash over those three years.     I have not consulted anyone yet who can advise me with any certainty as to whether the takeover is 100% legal yet, and if there is anything I can do about it.    I would have thought that the origin of such a thing, if it ever happened, would come from former employees and partners with Confluence brands such as Dagger, Wavesport, Wilderness Systems, and Wind Rider.     We don’t have anyone from Wind Rider working for us, but you know what I am trying to say.      However, the person who was responsible for bringing confluence to the table with the “Wall Street” guys, who, are not only not licensed to buy and sell stock publicly, but have been barred from both the Chinese stock market, and the Czech Stock Market in recent years from shady deals (This is not confirmed, but my source who is helping me figure out how we lost control of Jackson Kayak, literally overnight, to people we only met one time, last year.

 

Next steps:

Decide that, on principle, I won’t work for people who took my company away from me under pretenses of being my friend and only interested in helping us improve in exchange for helping them with a test case report where they would “pretend to buy us” and see how the market responded.   (please, NEVER, EVER, allow people with fancy suits and business cards access your database based on the idea that they can  help you improve your efficiency, etc., etc. if you let them run your “Data through our Analysis System”.

I am in Southern Georgia with my 80 year old dad, taking a short break in my training to fish with him for the first time in 35 years.   Should I leave and cancel the reservation and come home to “manage the crisis”, or should I recognize that this is a done deal and that any effort to turn back time is futile?

Switch over my accounts and empty my safe deposit box, because, like my Dagger Transition that I won my first world championships in, the new owners of my business are likely to cut up the medals and other intrinsic value objects I keep in there.    (I went to get my Transition and it was cut up after Confluence became owner of it)

Make a “What Now?” plan for myself and staff.      Hmm… I have no ideas yet.

Why this is a significant moment in our industry…  Because everyone and everything we built was for somebody else to take over and do what they want with it.  Who will take care of the little people?

 

I am done with this…. it is starting to piss me off and make me wonder if I am doing the wrong things.    I stopped and thought for a minute about what I should do.    The answer was clear… it is April 1st and April Fools Jokes can only go on for so long.    This is one of those moments.    Please share this article with all of your friends…   Please “Tag” it with the following hashtag tags…

#JacksonKayakForever,  #Joinriversnot (Riversnot- pronounced “Rivers Not”) is the campaign we are launching to show that we are more than just a whitewater company and trying to get the support of the “cast and blast” crowd that used my love for rivers and whitewater against me in the takeover, citing that “anyone who kayaks every day in whitewater and thinks that they can lead a business that is now more than 50% fishing kayaks, is clearly not capable of setting priorities that are inline with our new business model.”  )    I really can’t see where they were going with that, but the new “interim” President said that he would keep the brand intact, except for the name, logo, and team.      It is a mess.

Kristine was crying on the phone, as Steve Fisher, who just joined the team is still at our house after spending the weekend there for the Team Summit is furious that he didn’t join Team Dagger in the first place, and is losing his position as a team member in the new company as the people who were trying to recruit him on Team Dagger are making an example of him.    Another mess that I have no good way to clean up.

I wanted to lay all of this out on the table so everyone would know what is up.   How do I deal with all of this?   I am going to finish my trip here in GA with my Dad, Dane, and Nick, catch lots of fish during the day, and call everyone I know that has money and see if anyone has enough to buy Confluence’s stock which is trading on the “grey market” exchanges.   If I can get somebody to buy out majority stake who believes in me, perhaps I can lead the entire thing.     This is a long shot and even if I did find the money, I was told by my lawyer it would likely take a full year to complete and the likelihood of it happening was 1 in 1,000.     If it did happen, I would happily tell you all about it next year at this time.

It was a great ride, I made many great friends and found out who was not actually my friend, but was scheming behind my back.    April Fools, this year,  is on me.

If I sound irrational it is because I am so fired up I can’t think.    I just watch this video every time I feel like this… it isn’t 100% related, but it makes me feel good and I think it would make you feel good too.

After 10 years of posting April Fools Jokes that are completely fabricated for the effect of trying to get people fired up, this year I get my own “reality check” and have to deal with people thinking that this was all an April Fools Joke and to find out it was, but the joke was on me and that this time it isn’t funny.

Signing off for the last time on this forum,

🙂

EJ

April Fools.

 

 

April 1, 2014

 

Eric Jackson

President- Jackson Kayak

325 Iris Drive

Sparta, TN 38583

I didn’t retire, or anything like that… Just lost the company!

 

Here are some photos that let speak volumes loss and surprise.