I’ve been reading (well, listening to the book on CD of) “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas J. Stanley. While it’s no “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” it is still quite informative. Today I heard a section that is really worded very well. It says;
“The really smart people in professional athletics are the team owners and the agents. These agents are an especially crafty group. They don’t have much specific talent themselves. They don’t run, kick, block, or score goals. They don’t sing or dance, yet they last and last. So what if you are one in a million on the football-talent scale? You were a high school All American, a First Team Collage All American, and the first running back drafted in the Pros this year. But you blew out a knee. Your agent, on the other hand, has a growing stable of your kind. He grows his business like people grow apple trees. Once you are in his orchard, you keep producing for him. When you can no loner produce apples, they remove your dead or dying trunk from the field. A replacement apple tree is inserted like the interchangeable parts of a machine.”
Brilliantly put, and applicable to so much more than just the world of professional athletics!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Breaking the Cycle
In my opinion, one of the most interesting principles that Robert Kiyosaki (the author of the best-selling book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”) teaches is about the lack of financial education in our youth's curriculum. As a father of young children, one of my main goals and greatest ambitions is to provide my own children with the foundation that Kiyosaki says is lacking in today’s educational system. If you think about it, it really is true that schools only teach basic skills such as math, science, history, language, art, and health. While obviously necessary building blocks for a strong foundation in life, these skills are really only that...“building blocks.” What about the mortar? What's keeping it all together? What's lacking here?
The answer, in Kiyosaki's words, is simply "financial intelligence."
It’s true that the skills currently taught in schools is paramount in helping someone to get a good job and start earning money. But what about once that money is accumulated? What then? There really is no formal curriculum that teaches how that money can (and ought to be) intelligently spent. There’s no education about how to most effectively invest, how to truly save, or how to powerfully leverage money. These skills are the mortar that keep the building blocks together. This is what’s missing. These are skills NOT taught in the current education system. It’s really like teaching someone how to hunt for game, and neglecting to teach them how to properly prepare and cook their catch. Dangerous and stupid.
Think of it this way; by learning skills of language and history, for example, one might develop an aptitude for, and interest in, say, practicing law. Becoming an attorney is potentially a very lucrative profession. However, there are many VERY well-paid attorneys out there who, despite their high salaries, still have mountains of debt and financial stress. This is a good example of what is meant by one lacking financial intelligence. Individuals like this lack a foundation in the education (or at least the practical application) of how to SPEND money wisely. This point can be accentuated by the fact that there are also a lot of moderately-paid individuals out there who, regardless of their relatively conservative incomes, go on to live quite comfortably, having little or even NO debt. Smart.
Having said all that, one of my goals as a father is to teach my own children what they will probably never learn in a public school - financial literacy. I want them to have more than I have. I want them to know more than I did when I started out with my first job. I want them to have a heads up on the pitfalls involved with financial life.
There is, of course, one major problem with my ambition. See, I grew up in, what I believe to be, the lower middle class. As a member of the middle class, I had middle class parents, friends, and teachers. This middle class environment (although rich in good morals, values and experiences) just taught me (via osmosis) how to continue being middle class. And unless some kind of intervention took place, I would be destined to perpetuate all my middle class opinions, tendencies, fears, habits, and mindsets. As a product of the middle class, what qualifications do I have to teach my own kids anything OTHER than middle class principles and dogma? As Kiyosaki puts it, "What can a poor person teach his kids about being rich?" I wrote the following poem to illustrate this point in a more elementary way for my kids:
What can a Duck teach a Duck?
Near a forest thick with trees,
A duck lived by a pond.
Though many sounds came through the trees,
Of one he grew most fond.
The Lion is the jungle king
As everybody knows,
And the roar he makes commands the beasts
And keeps them on their toes!
To Duck, this sound was bold and strong,
And demanded his respect.
He marveled as he said aloud,
“That’s such a cool effect!”
Now, Father Duck had overheard
The musings of his son,
So he waddled over to the lad
And knew what must be done.
“Son”, he said, “I heard your quack,
And as your father duck,
I feel that I should show you how
That mighty pitch is struck.”
Excitedly the lad sat poised
For the lessons to be begin.
As Father Duck perched on a rock
The boy began to grin.
“Lesson one,” said Father Duck,
“To roar you need webbed-feet.
Not so much to make the sound,
But more to keep the beat.”
“Second then, to make a roar,
You’ve got to have a bill.
With that a duck can roar with ease,
Without, he never will.”
“Finally, son, to roar with skill
Your feathers are a must!
For each keeps water off your back.
You have them all, I trust?”
With a nod, he left his perch
And patted Little Duck.
“That roar is yours with tips like these,
And, of course, a little luck.”
The little duck, with hopes set high,
But now a bit confused,
Stood up and climbed the little rock
That Father Duck has used.
With flapping wings, he stomped his feet,
And felt a sudden chill.
Then, imagining the roar inside,
He opened up his bill.
“QUACK! QUACK!” Burst from the duck,
And sorrow lined his bill.
“You’ll get it, son”, said Father Duck,
“With practice and some will.”
He hadn’t learned to roar, but yet
The duckling understood.
He’d never heard his father roar,
And probably never would.
A duck can teach you how to quack,
But what about to roar?
Does he qualify to teach you that,
Having never tried before?
When taught to roar by other ducks
Experience might lack.
So however bold their sound comes out
They still sound like a “QUACK!”
The answer, in Kiyosaki's words, is simply "financial intelligence."
It’s true that the skills currently taught in schools is paramount in helping someone to get a good job and start earning money. But what about once that money is accumulated? What then? There really is no formal curriculum that teaches how that money can (and ought to be) intelligently spent. There’s no education about how to most effectively invest, how to truly save, or how to powerfully leverage money. These skills are the mortar that keep the building blocks together. This is what’s missing. These are skills NOT taught in the current education system. It’s really like teaching someone how to hunt for game, and neglecting to teach them how to properly prepare and cook their catch. Dangerous and stupid.
Think of it this way; by learning skills of language and history, for example, one might develop an aptitude for, and interest in, say, practicing law. Becoming an attorney is potentially a very lucrative profession. However, there are many VERY well-paid attorneys out there who, despite their high salaries, still have mountains of debt and financial stress. This is a good example of what is meant by one lacking financial intelligence. Individuals like this lack a foundation in the education (or at least the practical application) of how to SPEND money wisely. This point can be accentuated by the fact that there are also a lot of moderately-paid individuals out there who, regardless of their relatively conservative incomes, go on to live quite comfortably, having little or even NO debt. Smart.
Having said all that, one of my goals as a father is to teach my own children what they will probably never learn in a public school - financial literacy. I want them to have more than I have. I want them to know more than I did when I started out with my first job. I want them to have a heads up on the pitfalls involved with financial life.
There is, of course, one major problem with my ambition. See, I grew up in, what I believe to be, the lower middle class. As a member of the middle class, I had middle class parents, friends, and teachers. This middle class environment (although rich in good morals, values and experiences) just taught me (via osmosis) how to continue being middle class. And unless some kind of intervention took place, I would be destined to perpetuate all my middle class opinions, tendencies, fears, habits, and mindsets. As a product of the middle class, what qualifications do I have to teach my own kids anything OTHER than middle class principles and dogma? As Kiyosaki puts it, "What can a poor person teach his kids about being rich?" I wrote the following poem to illustrate this point in a more elementary way for my kids:
What can a Duck teach a Duck?
Near a forest thick with trees,
A duck lived by a pond.
Though many sounds came through the trees,
Of one he grew most fond.
The Lion is the jungle king
As everybody knows,
And the roar he makes commands the beasts
And keeps them on their toes!
To Duck, this sound was bold and strong,
And demanded his respect.
He marveled as he said aloud,
“That’s such a cool effect!”
Now, Father Duck had overheard
The musings of his son,
So he waddled over to the lad
And knew what must be done.
“Son”, he said, “I heard your quack,
And as your father duck,
I feel that I should show you how
That mighty pitch is struck.”
Excitedly the lad sat poised
For the lessons to be begin.
As Father Duck perched on a rock
The boy began to grin.
“Lesson one,” said Father Duck,
“To roar you need webbed-feet.
Not so much to make the sound,
But more to keep the beat.”
“Second then, to make a roar,
You’ve got to have a bill.
With that a duck can roar with ease,
Without, he never will.”
“Finally, son, to roar with skill
Your feathers are a must!
For each keeps water off your back.
You have them all, I trust?”
With a nod, he left his perch
And patted Little Duck.
“That roar is yours with tips like these,
And, of course, a little luck.”
The little duck, with hopes set high,
But now a bit confused,
Stood up and climbed the little rock
That Father Duck has used.
With flapping wings, he stomped his feet,
And felt a sudden chill.
Then, imagining the roar inside,
He opened up his bill.
“QUACK! QUACK!” Burst from the duck,
And sorrow lined his bill.
“You’ll get it, son”, said Father Duck,
“With practice and some will.”
He hadn’t learned to roar, but yet
The duckling understood.
He’d never heard his father roar,
And probably never would.
A duck can teach you how to quack,
But what about to roar?
Does he qualify to teach you that,
Having never tried before?
When taught to roar by other ducks
Experience might lack.
So however bold their sound comes out
They still sound like a “QUACK!”
Father Duck would be much better off doing one of two things; admit that he didn’t know the first thing about the “art of the roar”, or learn (from a Lion) how to actually roar before teaching that skill to someone else. THIS is my quest. This is the reason I have adopted the "Rich Dad" lessons with such enthusiasm and passion. I agree with it. And by USING it I can, in effect, break the middle class mindset cycle in MY OWN home. I might not be a creator of financial intelligence, but I certainly can be a student and perpetuator of it.
Monday, September 10, 2007
The Green Age
Now days, the “IN” thing for many businesses is to be GREEN. Everything is green now. Green used to be just a color, but now, it’s a whole way of life. The new definition of “green” is “environmentally responsible,” and everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon. While some are doing it to be responsible, many are doing it to be seen. It’s not just a movement towards a better way of life. It’s also very much about marketing strategy. Think about it… If you can provide a product or service in this new millennium, you can compete. But if you can provide that same product or service while adhering to the new GREEN trends, you can win!
What started out being widely recognized only once per year as just “Earth Day” beginning in 1962, has since evolved into something much more ubiquitous, and dare I say…trendy. Business has aggressively taken a sharp turn in a new direction over the past few years.
Auto manufacturers are going green with hybrid vehicles, and the race is on to find alternative sources of fuel that emit fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. Water is being conserved with “Xeriscape” landscaping in desert communities across the western states. Businesses and individuals are participating in recycling programs. Heck, light bulbs are more energy efficient! Politicians have all turned green with envy at all the attention this hot topic is generating, and have thus aimed many of their own priorities at affiliating themselves with some sort of green agenda. Just look at Al Gore! Enough said.
Not be left in the “limelight” even the search engine giant, Google, has jumped on board. They’re so green that they’ve gone black. Literally! They now have a new website called “BLACKLE” which “…saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." As 20/20’s John Stossel would say, “Give me a break!”
Even my “day job” is going green. In a few weeks we’re moving out of the building we’re currently in, and into a building that is designed to be more “environmentally responsible.”
According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website (www.usgbc.org), this means employing programs like “LEED.” “The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
Unfortunately, for me this just means lower moral in the work place. With smaller cubicles and lower partition walls this move is already feeling like a demotion. The cubical dividers will now be glass windows instead of opaque dividers, “so as to allow in as much natural sunlight as possible.” While saving on energy consumption, it will also manage to eliminate any privacy we now have at work. C’mon, no one wants to have people looking over their shoulder at work! Although, all the “kiss-ups” at the office say things like, “well, if you’re worried about people seeing your monitor, you must not be on task.” Oh, brother. That’s a bunch of crap. Everyone needs some type of sanctuary, even at work. I don’t need everyone to see when I blow my nose, check my email or eat a snack. I don’t want to see my fellow employees picking their noses, adjusting themselves or doing anything else they would normally do behind a wall! I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking, but is too chicken to say for themselves. This GREEN building is my newest reason NOT to work for someone else! I can’t wait to go out on my own!
Well, at least according to Google, I guess Tyed Art, Inc is already adhering to a higher and greener standard of business. Tyedart.com has been “predominantly black” from its conception, and I’m a mostly “paperless” company because almost everything I do is digitally created and stored. Take that Al Gore!
What started out being widely recognized only once per year as just “Earth Day” beginning in 1962, has since evolved into something much more ubiquitous, and dare I say…trendy. Business has aggressively taken a sharp turn in a new direction over the past few years.
Auto manufacturers are going green with hybrid vehicles, and the race is on to find alternative sources of fuel that emit fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. Water is being conserved with “Xeriscape” landscaping in desert communities across the western states. Businesses and individuals are participating in recycling programs. Heck, light bulbs are more energy efficient! Politicians have all turned green with envy at all the attention this hot topic is generating, and have thus aimed many of their own priorities at affiliating themselves with some sort of green agenda. Just look at Al Gore! Enough said.
Not be left in the “limelight” even the search engine giant, Google, has jumped on board. They’re so green that they’ve gone black. Literally! They now have a new website called “BLACKLE” which “…saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." As 20/20’s John Stossel would say, “Give me a break!”
Even my “day job” is going green. In a few weeks we’re moving out of the building we’re currently in, and into a building that is designed to be more “environmentally responsible.”
According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website (www.usgbc.org), this means employing programs like “LEED.” “The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
Unfortunately, for me this just means lower moral in the work place. With smaller cubicles and lower partition walls this move is already feeling like a demotion. The cubical dividers will now be glass windows instead of opaque dividers, “so as to allow in as much natural sunlight as possible.” While saving on energy consumption, it will also manage to eliminate any privacy we now have at work. C’mon, no one wants to have people looking over their shoulder at work! Although, all the “kiss-ups” at the office say things like, “well, if you’re worried about people seeing your monitor, you must not be on task.” Oh, brother. That’s a bunch of crap. Everyone needs some type of sanctuary, even at work. I don’t need everyone to see when I blow my nose, check my email or eat a snack. I don’t want to see my fellow employees picking their noses, adjusting themselves or doing anything else they would normally do behind a wall! I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking, but is too chicken to say for themselves. This GREEN building is my newest reason NOT to work for someone else! I can’t wait to go out on my own!
Well, at least according to Google, I guess Tyed Art, Inc is already adhering to a higher and greener standard of business. Tyedart.com has been “predominantly black” from its conception, and I’m a mostly “paperless” company because almost everything I do is digitally created and stored. Take that Al Gore!
Friday, September 07, 2007
Now THAT is a chair!!
Bud Light presents...Real Men of Genius
...Real Men of Genius...
Today, we salute you, Mr. Deluxe-Comfort Design Chair-Inventor.
...Mr. Deluxe-Comfort Design Chair-Inventor!
Whoever said sitting at a computer all day is a pain in the butt obviously didn't have your vision for ergonomic cyber comfort. Why take a break, when you haven't exerted any physical effort all day. Carpel tonal, please! You can design entire cities without flexing a single muscle!
...I'm sinking into a coma...
Forget standing up to stretch your legs during the work day... In fact, forget exerting your self at work ever again. Thanks to your "Ergo-Throne", now you have a way to stay immobile for whole pay periods at a time. Reclining seats…Adjustable monitors… Back massager… Intravenous hydration drip...A catheter and colostomy bag... Now all you need some hospice care and a spounge bath.
...Is it atrophy or rigamortis?
So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, Oh King of Comfortable Computing! Because, while your mind can handle complex design computations, it should never have to handle another simple muscle maneuver again.
...Mr. Deluxe-Comfort Design Chair-Inventor!
Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
There's no time like the present
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
“The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting varied results.”
“The most common impetus for progress is change.”
“The best way to achieve life’s greatest comforts starts by leaving your own comfort zone.”
“Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.”
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
“When you change the way you look at things, things change.”
“You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.”
“There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
“It is never too late to become what you might have been”
“The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting varied results.”
“The most common impetus for progress is change.”
“The best way to achieve life’s greatest comforts starts by leaving your own comfort zone.”
“Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.”
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
“When you change the way you look at things, things change.”
“You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.”
“There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
“It is never too late to become what you might have been”
“There are 3 types of people in the world; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
Question: What do all of these sayings have in common?
Answer: Your future. You better get started.
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