A Personal Correspondence - Now Shared

Dear Mr. Jack,
First I want to tell you that I am a big fan and I watched all your episodes and I really enjoy what you are doing.
I live in Serbia, I just graduated from college and the thesis topic was electric vehicles.
Thus began my interest in electric cars and especially for the conversion.
I have a small workshop with all necessary tools, and I have the knowledge to do it.
I want to start to do the conversion of my personal car and if I manage to finish it on time I have the opportunity to promote it at the Car Show Belgrade for free and also in the local media.
The main problem is that I just graduated from college and have no money to buy all the parts but I need to slowly collect piece by piece. I'm afraid that I will not be able to finish by the beginning of the fair which was in March 2011. If I succeed, I believe that in this way, word spread my name and that I could start working my dream job, car conversions. Market in Serbia for something like this of course is there and i want to be the first to do it here and propagate it
.
If you have any suggestions or if you somehow may help me please contact me.
I hope our cooperation.

ing.el. Nebojsa Matovic


Mr. Matovic:

I was very much involved in the very early days of the development of the Internet. Whatever you believe it derived from, I happen to know it all happened because of a small band of people who had a dream, and worked to implement it with very little financial resource and NO large organizations to help. Had they not acted, we would not be able to correspond this moment by electronic mail.

It is my belief that individuals such as yourself, daunted by obstacles such as money, time, space, and access to components, will convert cars to electric drive and THAT is how we will change the nature of energy use on our planet across the globe. It will ONLY happen if enough individuals such as yourself persevere in the face of these challenges. General Motors, Nissan and Toyota not only can't do it it alone, they cannot do it at all. With all the money, resources, and engineering talent available to them, they simply cannot. They can only FOLLOW YOU.

This is NOT the conventional wisdom. But having been through it before with the Internet, it IS reality. I already know it. Whatever the TV says, and whatever the large companies say, I already KNOW who built the Internet in the early days. And this is how I know who will lead us into a future of energy independence and efficiency to improve the standard of living in ALL countries.

This means YOU. It is not up to your government. It is not up to car makers. Only you can make this change.

I cannot tell you where to find money. All humans world wide seek money. I can't really tell you how to build YOUR car. It will be different from my car.

What I can tell you is that it took 95 years to reach the first 500 million cars in 1995. We will double that by 2015 - twenty years. And we will be at 1.5 billion cars by 2025 - another ten years. We produce oil. But we are producing all we can now. We can't make it any faster than we do. And this inevitably leads to a world wide economic DISASTER of unprecedented proportions. No jobs. No food. No nothing. For decades.

All that can change. If we convert automobiles from gasoline to electricity. We can make electricity in infinite amounts and in many different ways.

And to make that change, the ONLY way we will make that change, is if a grassroots movement of individual MEN go to their garages, convert a car, and show it to their neighbors who still use gasoline. There is NO second way. It won't happen by accident. And it won't happen by government. And it won't happen by large corporation. It won't because it cannot. NOTHING DOES.

I cannot make this easy for you. In fact, the challenges in your way are so huge, that you can only do it if you get angry. If you see this looming disaster as clearly as I see it, and realize that it is not possible for governmental leaders to do this, and it is not possible for corporate leaders to do this, it will make you very angry. If you are angry enough, you will do something about it. You may not be able to change the world. But you can change one car. And if enough get angry, and enough change one car, like rain drops and floods, it will grow to a tidal wave. And you can indeed change the world. In fact it is the ONLY way the world changes. Adult men have to just go to their garage and CHANGE it. With no ones permission. And no "group" to support them. They have to do it themselves.

If they do it, it will lead to a technological revolution employing MILLIONS of people worldwide, prosperity, much less noise and smell, and plenty of everything for all. If they do not get angry and do NOT go do it, we will mire down in a worldwide economic depression.

So I can only encourage you, and applaud your efforts. I cannot provide the money, the components, or the design.

But you have most sincere wishes that you succeed. Because the world very much needs you to succeed.

Warmest Regards;

Jack Rickard