True freedom, when given the choice between "Option A" and "Option B", is choosing to create "Option C."
- Robert Gruden
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, September 21, 2007
Lesson of the Day
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!
“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!
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.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tyed Art Tips: Edition 1
The other day, I was asked by a friend of mine, how I was able to stay motivated and organized with all the different ideas I have on a regular basis. The mere fact that I actually came across to someone as being motivated and organized in the first place made me feel pretty successful in an of itself. I don’t always feel that way. What I do always feel, however, is busy.
The truth is, I really do have quite a lot of ideas, and they come at me all the time. Sometimes they come when I’m looking for them, but more often when I’m concentrating on something else entirely. In order to keep all these ideas from slipping away and lying idol along the dusty walls of the back of my mind, I’ve learned how to bottle, catalog, and shelf them for later use. You might think of them as “pickled epiphanies.”
My first Tyed Art Tip is to keep a RUNNING LOG OF IDEAS. You can call this log anything you want, but the concept is universal. I call my running log of ideas, my BrainVomit book. I call it that for semi-obvious reasons. More often then not, my ideas come in a very random order and often at very inopportune times – kind of like when you get sick and launch your lunch – it’s not exactly planned or convenient. The difference between the regurgitation of food and that of the mind, however, is that I love it when my brain vomits ideas. It happens often enough these days, that I’ve learned how to always be ready for it. I learned a long time ago to trust my unconscious mind. I've also learned that my mind never shuts down. Whether my conscious mind is occupied with something challenging & intense, or peacefully sleeping, my unconscious mind is constantly brewing up something valuable. This is why catching these ideas when they chose to manifest themselves is so important. I never know when they’ll come, but I always know they’ll fascinate me, and I never want to forget them.
When I’m near a computer, I have a digital version of my BrainVomit book that consists of nothing more than a single Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that is 100% dedicated to these random thoughts, ideas, and epiphanies. The file is made up of many different tabs. Each tab represents a new idea, and within each tab, the idea is expressed and explored. When I write in here, I rarely concern myself with things like plausibility, grammar, or spelling. This is free-flowing environment where anything goes. Many ideas go undeveloped and even half-written. The point is to record something and bookmark the concept for later visitation. That's it. I keep all my ideas in one file so that I can keep track of them all. When I’m not close to a computer, I have a notebook version of BrainVomit that I carry with me wherever I go. Things written here eventually get transcribed to the computer version for simplicity.
My second tip is to create a LUNCHTIME POWER-HOUR for yourself. My “day job” (Booooooo)required its employees to take a mandatory hour-long lunch break from 12:00pm to 1:00pm every day. I’ve never like mandatory breaks. I’m the kind of person that would actually prefer to just work through lunch. Yes, I eat, but because of the type of work that I do in my “day job,” I can do that while I’m working at my desk.
Interestingly, over the years I’ve observed that most people spend this mandatory hour of “non-working” time actually NOT working. Meaning, that in this lunch hour, many of my colleagues play games on the internet, read magazines, socialize, and “go out” for lunch. I find this very interesting because of its contrast to my way of thinking. Let me explain. Just because I’m required to NOT work on “day job” tasks, does not mean that this hour should be spent lazily.
I decided years ago that, for me, this lunch hour could be much better spent eagerly investing in myself. This investment of time could be better spent developing my ideas, furthering my education, pursuing my interests and exploring my hobbies. Here’s the way I think about it;
With every work week, this single hour represents a total of 5 hours, right? I can easily spend 5 hours creating a Tyed Art Word Design that sells for about $300. Each pay period, this hour adds up to 10 hours, or the equivalent of 2 word designs. That’s roughly $600 of value. Every month, this time can accumulate to 20 hours, or about $1,200 worth of product work. In a nutshell, by the end of just one working year this otherwise wasted lunch hour has amassed to about 250 potentially productive hours (give or take holidays and days off)!! That’s the equivalent of nearly 10 full days of project productivity, or about $15,000 of potential Tyed Art income!! Power Hour indeed!
Now, of course I’m not always going to have a Word Design order to work on, but because I’ve got my BrainVomit Excel file, I’ve ALWAYS got something productive that I can work on. It could be a new book idea, developing an idea for an invention, a software product like LittleLDS, website improvements or marketing, or perhaps just simple business system ideas and organization. The best part of the lunchtime Power-Hour is that it is totally MINE! Just think….I’m “trapped” at work, with a computer and the internet at my uninterrupted disposal. I may as well use it to work on strategies to get me out of the proverbial “rat race.”
Simply put, when planned and spent properly, this one hour of each day could be the most important hour of my day. Call it overstatement, but it could even end up being worth more to me in the long run than the other 8 hours surrounding it, for which I actually get an hourly pay!
Try it…see if you don’t even “eventually” accomplish one of those long-term tasks!! Read book for that hour. Write in a journal. Do SOMETHING beside playing internet games and chatting! You’ll be glad you did.
The truth is, I really do have quite a lot of ideas, and they come at me all the time. Sometimes they come when I’m looking for them, but more often when I’m concentrating on something else entirely. In order to keep all these ideas from slipping away and lying idol along the dusty walls of the back of my mind, I’ve learned how to bottle, catalog, and shelf them for later use. You might think of them as “pickled epiphanies.”
My first Tyed Art Tip is to keep a RUNNING LOG OF IDEAS. You can call this log anything you want, but the concept is universal. I call my running log of ideas, my BrainVomit book. I call it that for semi-obvious reasons. More often then not, my ideas come in a very random order and often at very inopportune times – kind of like when you get sick and launch your lunch – it’s not exactly planned or convenient. The difference between the regurgitation of food and that of the mind, however, is that I love it when my brain vomits ideas. It happens often enough these days, that I’ve learned how to always be ready for it. I learned a long time ago to trust my unconscious mind. I've also learned that my mind never shuts down. Whether my conscious mind is occupied with something challenging & intense, or peacefully sleeping, my unconscious mind is constantly brewing up something valuable. This is why catching these ideas when they chose to manifest themselves is so important. I never know when they’ll come, but I always know they’ll fascinate me, and I never want to forget them.
When I’m near a computer, I have a digital version of my BrainVomit book that consists of nothing more than a single Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that is 100% dedicated to these random thoughts, ideas, and epiphanies. The file is made up of many different tabs. Each tab represents a new idea, and within each tab, the idea is expressed and explored. When I write in here, I rarely concern myself with things like plausibility, grammar, or spelling. This is free-flowing environment where anything goes. Many ideas go undeveloped and even half-written. The point is to record something and bookmark the concept for later visitation. That's it. I keep all my ideas in one file so that I can keep track of them all. When I’m not close to a computer, I have a notebook version of BrainVomit that I carry with me wherever I go. Things written here eventually get transcribed to the computer version for simplicity.
My second tip is to create a LUNCHTIME POWER-HOUR for yourself. My “day job” (Booooooo)required its employees to take a mandatory hour-long lunch break from 12:00pm to 1:00pm every day. I’ve never like mandatory breaks. I’m the kind of person that would actually prefer to just work through lunch. Yes, I eat, but because of the type of work that I do in my “day job,” I can do that while I’m working at my desk.
Interestingly, over the years I’ve observed that most people spend this mandatory hour of “non-working” time actually NOT working. Meaning, that in this lunch hour, many of my colleagues play games on the internet, read magazines, socialize, and “go out” for lunch. I find this very interesting because of its contrast to my way of thinking. Let me explain. Just because I’m required to NOT work on “day job” tasks, does not mean that this hour should be spent lazily.
I decided years ago that, for me, this lunch hour could be much better spent eagerly investing in myself. This investment of time could be better spent developing my ideas, furthering my education, pursuing my interests and exploring my hobbies. Here’s the way I think about it;
With every work week, this single hour represents a total of 5 hours, right? I can easily spend 5 hours creating a Tyed Art Word Design that sells for about $300. Each pay period, this hour adds up to 10 hours, or the equivalent of 2 word designs. That’s roughly $600 of value. Every month, this time can accumulate to 20 hours, or about $1,200 worth of product work. In a nutshell, by the end of just one working year this otherwise wasted lunch hour has amassed to about 250 potentially productive hours (give or take holidays and days off)!! That’s the equivalent of nearly 10 full days of project productivity, or about $15,000 of potential Tyed Art income!! Power Hour indeed!
Now, of course I’m not always going to have a Word Design order to work on, but because I’ve got my BrainVomit Excel file, I’ve ALWAYS got something productive that I can work on. It could be a new book idea, developing an idea for an invention, a software product like LittleLDS, website improvements or marketing, or perhaps just simple business system ideas and organization. The best part of the lunchtime Power-Hour is that it is totally MINE! Just think….I’m “trapped” at work, with a computer and the internet at my uninterrupted disposal. I may as well use it to work on strategies to get me out of the proverbial “rat race.”
Simply put, when planned and spent properly, this one hour of each day could be the most important hour of my day. Call it overstatement, but it could even end up being worth more to me in the long run than the other 8 hours surrounding it, for which I actually get an hourly pay!
Try it…see if you don’t even “eventually” accomplish one of those long-term tasks!! Read book for that hour. Write in a journal. Do SOMETHING beside playing internet games and chatting! You’ll be glad you did.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The art of “Free Seminar Crashing”
Ever seen Wedding Crashers? Me neither....it's rated R. But you know the premise, right? It’s based on these two guys who, as a hobby, go to the wedding receptions of people they don't know to hook up with girls, eat free food, and make new contacts. Well, between my 18th and 19th birthdays, my friends and I were the Rated-PG equivalent to the wedding crashers. Only we didn't crash wedding receptions, we crashed missionary farewells. I know, I know....shameless. But MAN was it fun!! We use to go in there to meet cute girls, eat free food and then bail before the prospective missionary-of-honor "DIDN'T" recognize us and kick us out! Well, now days, I'm doing something similar, but a little less unethical. Now, I'm a "free seminar crasher." My friend told me the other day that people like me - people who go to seminars, tradeshows, and conventions for the free goodies, give aways, and information are called "Plate-lickers." Hmmm.... I'm not sure how I feel about that...but I digress.
Anyway, you know what free seminars I'm talking about, right? The ones that you get invited to all the time through the mail? You know, the ones that promise to give you a free gift and a complimentary lunch or dinner just for attending? They’re usually about some sort of packaged real estate, marketing, or motivational deal that they’re trying to sell you. The way they promote them is really pretty annoying, I have to admit. They seem to try to make you feel like you’ve been specially hand-selected from an elite handful of A-listed professionals and executives to attend some secret meeting that no one else in your industry has the right to attend. Psssshhhhh…please. We all know better. Because we know better, most people HATE those things. Well, I’ve got a little secret. I LOVE those things!! I’m not kidding either. I go to almost all of them that I get invited to.
Last Friday I attended a one that was put on by StoresOnline Incorporated. It was considered a “preview” (I later found out) to what would soon be a “great opportunity”. After work at 6:00pm I attended the seminar with my buddy "Think-tank". This is the guy I go to when I need to bounce an idea off of someone. He’s the kind of guy who won’t just say, “mm-hhmmm” like most other people do. He’ll jump right in there and conceptualize with me. He’s probably just humoring me, actually, but that’s valuable to me. If I ever really do achieve my big break through, this is the guy that’s going to claim the assist. Like me, he’s always got a new idea or two floating around, and needs a good sounding board and/or devil’s advocate perspective.
So anyway, “Think-tank” and I went to this thing and enjoyed the presentation. Now, just for the record, I very rarely go to these things to buy into what is being sold. Yes, I know that there will ALWAYS be something for sell. However, I typically go for the free information that is being packaged around the products that are for sell. The free give-aways are nice too, but even they are really just a novelty fringe benefit that ends up getting discarded. For instance, a few months ago, I attended a seminar by a guy named Randy Crane. What a fascinating dude. He’s a very successful and very good presenter of information, and quite approachable. His deal was real estate. Yes, he was selling products and services, but that isn’t what I went in for, nor is it what I left with. I left with a free give-away (CD by Robert Kiyosaki - one of my long-time motivational mentors), some mints (you can never have too many mints), and some information about the mortgage industry that I had never heard before. This was my first introduction to MMA’s (Merge Market Accounts), and about how negative amortization loans work. I learned how to buy homes that are in foreclosure, how to keep from going into foreclosure and I learned about bit more about what other types of investments there are out there. That was a VERY valuable education to me. Being a people-person, I also walked away with a better understanding about how to make a good presentation, how to keep the interest of the audience, and how useful a good PowerPoint presentation is. It was a well-spent 90 minutes.
Well, at the end of Friday’s seminar, “Think-tank” and I discussed what we liked and disliked about the presentation. Did the guy maintain a good level of attention from the audience? Did he use good slides and other visual aids? Was he compelling enough to close the deal with his audience? And so on… The free dinner was okay (but FREE), the give-away (a planner/calculator/address book) was crap, and the internet marketing information was actually pretty good. The best part was that I actually wanted to know MORE about this company’s internet marketing strategies by the time the presentation was over. At $20 for two people, it was a no-brainer. So, for just $20, we signed up to participate in their ALL-DAY internet marketing workshop. My logic; in the worst case scenario, I’d just get up and walk out of the workshop at a cost of $20, and go back to work. “Think-tank” was in too, so at least I would have someone there to commiserate with and cut the cost in half since we could BOTH attend for that price.
Monday morning I came in and put in for a day off on Wednesday the 29th. So, yesterday, I got to sleep in until 7:30 (and hour an a half extra) and got into my usual business casual attire, and headed out for the Red Rock Hotel & Casino, prepared to learn a new thing or two about the great world of internet marketing. As an owner and administrator of 2 websites, I was definitely NOT disappointed! This ended up being one of the best spent $20 I’ve had in very long time! They’re not kidding when they say that investing in your education is the best way to go!
The workshop started out slowly and typically enough. First things first, they wasted the first hour or so reviewing stuff we had been told about StoresOnline last Friday at the “preview”. More about the “deal” they were offering. Then, finally, their equivalent to a keynote speaker was introduced. The guys name was Victor Gonzales. This guy was GREAT. He was funny, insightful, educational, engaging and NOT pompous (a relief after listening to some of the StoresOnline staff). He wasn’t an employee of StoresOnline, but was invited by them to speak as a successful StoresOnline software end-user client. I have to admit that as the day went on, I found myself REALLY wanting the StoresOnline software. It seems all-inclusive, extremely intuitive, and very useful. Unfortunately it would cost me more than I was willing to part with (for now). I already HAVE two websites, e-commerce capability, and enough curiosity and drive to learn on my own how to find other needed resources. Nevertheless, the software looks AWESOME. Not $2,700 per year and $30 per month awesome, but awesome nonetheless.
The non-biased and generic internet marketing information Victor taught throughout the day was invaluable to me! I learned a TON of new marketing strategies that I’m VERY excited to try out on my own websites. Lunch was provided as a part of the $20 is cost me to attend (yes, it cost me $20 and not just $10 because “Think-tank” was unable to attend). Lunch was definitely a secondary thought when this whole thing was planned. Ugh… I wasn’t even sure chicken (if, in fact, that’s what it was) could come in that shape. Oh well... it wasn’t extra and I didn’t starve. It may, however, have contributed to the major migraine I ended up going to bed with last night.
In hind sight, I would gladly have paid $100 to attend that workshop for all the valuable information I came away with. Here are just a select few of the strategies that were covered in great deal over the 8 hours I attended;
Anyway, you know what free seminars I'm talking about, right? The ones that you get invited to all the time through the mail? You know, the ones that promise to give you a free gift and a complimentary lunch or dinner just for attending? They’re usually about some sort of packaged real estate, marketing, or motivational deal that they’re trying to sell you. The way they promote them is really pretty annoying, I have to admit. They seem to try to make you feel like you’ve been specially hand-selected from an elite handful of A-listed professionals and executives to attend some secret meeting that no one else in your industry has the right to attend. Psssshhhhh…please. We all know better. Because we know better, most people HATE those things. Well, I’ve got a little secret. I LOVE those things!! I’m not kidding either. I go to almost all of them that I get invited to.
Last Friday I attended a one that was put on by StoresOnline Incorporated. It was considered a “preview” (I later found out) to what would soon be a “great opportunity”. After work at 6:00pm I attended the seminar with my buddy "Think-tank". This is the guy I go to when I need to bounce an idea off of someone. He’s the kind of guy who won’t just say, “mm-hhmmm” like most other people do. He’ll jump right in there and conceptualize with me. He’s probably just humoring me, actually, but that’s valuable to me. If I ever really do achieve my big break through, this is the guy that’s going to claim the assist. Like me, he’s always got a new idea or two floating around, and needs a good sounding board and/or devil’s advocate perspective.
So anyway, “Think-tank” and I went to this thing and enjoyed the presentation. Now, just for the record, I very rarely go to these things to buy into what is being sold. Yes, I know that there will ALWAYS be something for sell. However, I typically go for the free information that is being packaged around the products that are for sell. The free give-aways are nice too, but even they are really just a novelty fringe benefit that ends up getting discarded. For instance, a few months ago, I attended a seminar by a guy named Randy Crane. What a fascinating dude. He’s a very successful and very good presenter of information, and quite approachable. His deal was real estate. Yes, he was selling products and services, but that isn’t what I went in for, nor is it what I left with. I left with a free give-away (CD by Robert Kiyosaki - one of my long-time motivational mentors), some mints (you can never have too many mints), and some information about the mortgage industry that I had never heard before. This was my first introduction to MMA’s (Merge Market Accounts), and about how negative amortization loans work. I learned how to buy homes that are in foreclosure, how to keep from going into foreclosure and I learned about bit more about what other types of investments there are out there. That was a VERY valuable education to me. Being a people-person, I also walked away with a better understanding about how to make a good presentation, how to keep the interest of the audience, and how useful a good PowerPoint presentation is. It was a well-spent 90 minutes.
Well, at the end of Friday’s seminar, “Think-tank” and I discussed what we liked and disliked about the presentation. Did the guy maintain a good level of attention from the audience? Did he use good slides and other visual aids? Was he compelling enough to close the deal with his audience? And so on… The free dinner was okay (but FREE), the give-away (a planner/calculator/address book) was crap, and the internet marketing information was actually pretty good. The best part was that I actually wanted to know MORE about this company’s internet marketing strategies by the time the presentation was over. At $20 for two people, it was a no-brainer. So, for just $20, we signed up to participate in their ALL-DAY internet marketing workshop. My logic; in the worst case scenario, I’d just get up and walk out of the workshop at a cost of $20, and go back to work. “Think-tank” was in too, so at least I would have someone there to commiserate with and cut the cost in half since we could BOTH attend for that price.
Monday morning I came in and put in for a day off on Wednesday the 29th. So, yesterday, I got to sleep in until 7:30 (and hour an a half extra) and got into my usual business casual attire, and headed out for the Red Rock Hotel & Casino, prepared to learn a new thing or two about the great world of internet marketing. As an owner and administrator of 2 websites, I was definitely NOT disappointed! This ended up being one of the best spent $20 I’ve had in very long time! They’re not kidding when they say that investing in your education is the best way to go!
The workshop started out slowly and typically enough. First things first, they wasted the first hour or so reviewing stuff we had been told about StoresOnline last Friday at the “preview”. More about the “deal” they were offering. Then, finally, their equivalent to a keynote speaker was introduced. The guys name was Victor Gonzales. This guy was GREAT. He was funny, insightful, educational, engaging and NOT pompous (a relief after listening to some of the StoresOnline staff). He wasn’t an employee of StoresOnline, but was invited by them to speak as a successful StoresOnline software end-user client. I have to admit that as the day went on, I found myself REALLY wanting the StoresOnline software. It seems all-inclusive, extremely intuitive, and very useful. Unfortunately it would cost me more than I was willing to part with (for now). I already HAVE two websites, e-commerce capability, and enough curiosity and drive to learn on my own how to find other needed resources. Nevertheless, the software looks AWESOME. Not $2,700 per year and $30 per month awesome, but awesome nonetheless.
The non-biased and generic internet marketing information Victor taught throughout the day was invaluable to me! I learned a TON of new marketing strategies that I’m VERY excited to try out on my own websites. Lunch was provided as a part of the $20 is cost me to attend (yes, it cost me $20 and not just $10 because “Think-tank” was unable to attend). Lunch was definitely a secondary thought when this whole thing was planned. Ugh… I wasn’t even sure chicken (if, in fact, that’s what it was) could come in that shape. Oh well... it wasn’t extra and I didn’t starve. It may, however, have contributed to the major migraine I ended up going to bed with last night.
In hind sight, I would gladly have paid $100 to attend that workshop for all the valuable information I came away with. Here are just a select few of the strategies that were covered in great deal over the 8 hours I attended;
- Drop Shipping (a way to earn money with relatively no overhead in a win/win relationship
- What a Conversion Rate (CR) is and how it can affect my business
- What Value Per Visitor (VIV) is and how I can use it
- The 8 critical website features (LOL…I’m currently only employing 3 of them…Oops!!)
- The 3 most commonly made internet marketing mistakes (I’m making 2 of them…Ugh!!)
- Definition of a “Shadow Site”
- The value of a Reverse Search Engine
- How to effectively target specific demographics
- The 2-Step Distribution method
- The correct process to new website creation and research
- How search engines function
- How to optimize a website to be highly ranked by search engines
- The definition and use of Geo-targeting
- The differences between vertical and horizontal portals and how to use them effectively
- The definition and uses of Affiliate programs and Link Trading
Overall, the workshop was WELL worth my time and $20. Was it worth taking a day off from work? ABSOLUTELY!
I've learned: that not being on the first page of a search engine is like putting a billboard up in the middle of a forest.
I'm glad: That I now have some tools that have been proven to improve internet marketing success
I wish: that I would have had this information before I built my websites initially!
I will: spend some much needed time refining my websites and building more based on this new information.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Got Talent?
I’ve just finished browsing my kid-brother’s art blog. Call me biased, but I think he is one of the most talented artists I’ve ever met. Beyond talented, however, Glenn has proven himself to be a good steward of a gift he’s been given. All of us have gifts, but he’s doing something wonderful with his. It’s one thing to be given a gift, and another to take that gift and make something of it the way he is. If he continues with the path he’s on, he’s destined to make something even greater of his gift.
TALENT: a special natural ability or aptitude; a capacity for achievement or success
I find it very interesting the different ways in which people treat their talents. There are many different talents out there and there are also different TYPES of talents. Some talents are what I like to classify as “billboard” talents. These are the ones that are obvious enough to be recognized immediately. Artists, musicians, writers, athletes, actors, comedians, and the like. They’re often the ones of whom people are speaking when they say, “Whoa, I wish I could do that!” However, these “billboard” talent are only one class, and they can comes with a lot of pressure. Just because everyone else can recognize a person’s talent, doesn’t necessarily mean that the talented person can recognize it, let alone know what to do with it. Problems can ensue when those with extraordinary talent fail to meet the expectations of those around them, or even themselves.
Another classification is the “transparent” talent. These talents typically get overlooked, and yet tend to be the most common. They’re the talents that we use to do our jobs. Just think about all the professionals out there. Teachers, Attorneys, Doctors, Mechanics, Pilots, Psychologists, Engineers, and Truck Drivers, just to name a few, all have talents in their respective fields of expertise. They wouldn’t likely last very long in those fields if they didn’t. Ever wonder if you would be good at defending an innocent man who had been wrongly accused of murder? Have you ever wondered if you would be able to execute an arc weld on two separate pieces of steel while battling gusts of wind on the 86th floor of a New York skyscraper? What about performing an in-the-womb fetal surgery? Let’s face it; there are a lot of different talents out there. I’m an artist and I enjoy writing. However, put me in front of a broken down vehicle and tell me to “fix it” and I’m useless. From the dexterity of a stenographer who can type over 100 words per minute to the patience of someone meticulously measuring, cutting and laying perfectly leveled ceramic tile, talent is required.
Many people can sing, but how many people sing their way into Broadway, professional opera, or into multi-platinum album-selling stardom? Sure, many people can write, but not many are confident or bold enough to turn that skill into a regularly featured newspaper column, a movie script or a best-selling novel. I have a brother-in-law similar to Glenn, but in a different area of expertise. Aaron has a brilliant mind. Using wit, creativity, and literary skill, he’s worked his way up to being the head writer for an advertising agency in California. In the past he has written episodes for TV shows like CSI, and worked for Nickelodeon. None of this has come without some struggle for him. Although gifted, he’s had to be persistent. He’s also worked hard to overcome his challenges with own vision impairment. Aaron, like many others, has learned that just because he is talented, doesn’t mean he will be handed the great opportunity. He had to work for it.
In his book, Rich Dad Poor Dad (one of the greatest motivational books I’ve read), Robert Kiyosaki states that, “the world is full of talented poor people.” His suggestion here is, of course, that achieving greatness requires something MORE than just being talented. He goes on to say that most people are “only one talent away from being rich”. By this, he’s implying that by only recognizing our most obvious talents, we sell ourselves just short. It takes more than just slight of hand to be David Copperfield. You’ve got to be a showman too.
Most of us don’t have any physical or mental disabilities impeding us from achieving our greatness. Instead, our extraordinary potential is most often stymied by our own apathy, procrastination and/or laziness. Some of us, after recognizing our gifts, just ignore them for so long that they dim over time and ultimately extinguish. Others of us confuse humility with denial of our talents. When complimented on something we do well, many of us argue with such observations and simply deflect the recognition. This usually also leads to loss of that skill or talent. If you claim enough times that you’re not really talented, eventually you’ll actually believe it and show it.
Those who have excelled in life have done so by choice. They’re the kind of people who don’t wait for recognition to come to them. They perform their talents and recognition follows naturally. They’re tenacious. They’re deliberate. They’re determined. How do we take talents and turn them into magnificent achievements? Like most things in life, there are dos and there are don’ts. Here are a few suggestions;
First, DO acknowledge that you do it well, whatever it is. Yes, be humble, but only AFTER you’ve admitted to yourself that you do, in deed, have talent. If you can’t recognize your talents, then just listen to what others say about what you do. Many times people will say things like, “Man, you’re really good with [blank]” or “I wish I could [blank] like you do.” More often than not, however, we already know what we’re good at simply because we enjoy doing it or because it comes naturally to us. In the world of business, it’s important to not only recognize your talent, but to run with it. If you don’t promote your own skills and talents, no one else is going to do it for you. Don’t brag…Do acknowledge.
DON’T compare yourself to others with similar talent. We can learn from, and even admire others who excel at things we do well without classifying them or ourselves as better or worse. After all, if all artists were equally talented, we ALL would have painted the Mona Lisa. How boring would that be?
DO use it. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it.” I don’t mean to use your talent ONLY when circumstances happen to offer you an opportunity. I’m mean MAKE opportunities to employ your talent. Stop making excuses for NOT doing what you’re good at. Stop pretending that everything else takes precedence. Stop placing obstacles in your own path and take Nike’s advice….JUST DO IT. You’ve been thinking about starting a business….then START it. Stop talking about it. You’ve always wanted to write a children’s book. Well then, sit down and WRITE it. Stop thinking about. You’ve thought about running a marathon… Well, you’re body isn’t going to get in shape by thinking about it. Get out there and train for it! The hardest step to take of any journey is always the first.
DO teach it to others who are so inclined. If you wan to become an expert, teach. In order to teach anything you have to be familiar with it yourself first. The more you teach, the more you’ll learn. The more you learn, the more you’ll enjoy it. The more you enjoy it, the more you’ll do it. The more you do it, the better you’ll get. My own daughter has started showing interest in art. It may be that she is only doing it because she sees how much I love it. Regardless, her interest in art is the first step towards discovering a talent she might have or even develop. Her interest is the first step.
Even though you’ve got talent, DON’T assume that you know it all. Tiger Woods, possibly the most talented pro golfer in the world, had an instructor. That’s right…he took lessons from Butch Harmon (No relation) even AFTER he was deemed “the best”. He didn’t presume to know all there was to know about golfing technique, just because he happened to be better than the majority of his competition the majority of the time. Talent, even natural talent, can always be improved upon.
DO explore yourself to find NEW talents. Just because you’re GREAT at one thing doesn’t mean you can’t be GREAT at other things too! Have you even known anyone who seemed to just excel at everything? I sure have. I used to hate people like that. Many of us assume that just because we don’t have natural inclination that we don’t have any talent. This is far from the truth. There are many very talented people who started with nothing but a desire to be talented.
Got Talent? Go ahead….name three of your own. I dare you.
TALENT: a special natural ability or aptitude; a capacity for achievement or success
I find it very interesting the different ways in which people treat their talents. There are many different talents out there and there are also different TYPES of talents. Some talents are what I like to classify as “billboard” talents. These are the ones that are obvious enough to be recognized immediately. Artists, musicians, writers, athletes, actors, comedians, and the like. They’re often the ones of whom people are speaking when they say, “Whoa, I wish I could do that!” However, these “billboard” talent are only one class, and they can comes with a lot of pressure. Just because everyone else can recognize a person’s talent, doesn’t necessarily mean that the talented person can recognize it, let alone know what to do with it. Problems can ensue when those with extraordinary talent fail to meet the expectations of those around them, or even themselves.
Another classification is the “transparent” talent. These talents typically get overlooked, and yet tend to be the most common. They’re the talents that we use to do our jobs. Just think about all the professionals out there. Teachers, Attorneys, Doctors, Mechanics, Pilots, Psychologists, Engineers, and Truck Drivers, just to name a few, all have talents in their respective fields of expertise. They wouldn’t likely last very long in those fields if they didn’t. Ever wonder if you would be good at defending an innocent man who had been wrongly accused of murder? Have you ever wondered if you would be able to execute an arc weld on two separate pieces of steel while battling gusts of wind on the 86th floor of a New York skyscraper? What about performing an in-the-womb fetal surgery? Let’s face it; there are a lot of different talents out there. I’m an artist and I enjoy writing. However, put me in front of a broken down vehicle and tell me to “fix it” and I’m useless. From the dexterity of a stenographer who can type over 100 words per minute to the patience of someone meticulously measuring, cutting and laying perfectly leveled ceramic tile, talent is required.
Many people can sing, but how many people sing their way into Broadway, professional opera, or into multi-platinum album-selling stardom? Sure, many people can write, but not many are confident or bold enough to turn that skill into a regularly featured newspaper column, a movie script or a best-selling novel. I have a brother-in-law similar to Glenn, but in a different area of expertise. Aaron has a brilliant mind. Using wit, creativity, and literary skill, he’s worked his way up to being the head writer for an advertising agency in California. In the past he has written episodes for TV shows like CSI, and worked for Nickelodeon. None of this has come without some struggle for him. Although gifted, he’s had to be persistent. He’s also worked hard to overcome his challenges with own vision impairment. Aaron, like many others, has learned that just because he is talented, doesn’t mean he will be handed the great opportunity. He had to work for it.
In his book, Rich Dad Poor Dad (one of the greatest motivational books I’ve read), Robert Kiyosaki states that, “the world is full of talented poor people.” His suggestion here is, of course, that achieving greatness requires something MORE than just being talented. He goes on to say that most people are “only one talent away from being rich”. By this, he’s implying that by only recognizing our most obvious talents, we sell ourselves just short. It takes more than just slight of hand to be David Copperfield. You’ve got to be a showman too.
Most of us don’t have any physical or mental disabilities impeding us from achieving our greatness. Instead, our extraordinary potential is most often stymied by our own apathy, procrastination and/or laziness. Some of us, after recognizing our gifts, just ignore them for so long that they dim over time and ultimately extinguish. Others of us confuse humility with denial of our talents. When complimented on something we do well, many of us argue with such observations and simply deflect the recognition. This usually also leads to loss of that skill or talent. If you claim enough times that you’re not really talented, eventually you’ll actually believe it and show it.
Those who have excelled in life have done so by choice. They’re the kind of people who don’t wait for recognition to come to them. They perform their talents and recognition follows naturally. They’re tenacious. They’re deliberate. They’re determined. How do we take talents and turn them into magnificent achievements? Like most things in life, there are dos and there are don’ts. Here are a few suggestions;
First, DO acknowledge that you do it well, whatever it is. Yes, be humble, but only AFTER you’ve admitted to yourself that you do, in deed, have talent. If you can’t recognize your talents, then just listen to what others say about what you do. Many times people will say things like, “Man, you’re really good with [blank]” or “I wish I could [blank] like you do.” More often than not, however, we already know what we’re good at simply because we enjoy doing it or because it comes naturally to us. In the world of business, it’s important to not only recognize your talent, but to run with it. If you don’t promote your own skills and talents, no one else is going to do it for you. Don’t brag…Do acknowledge.
DON’T compare yourself to others with similar talent. We can learn from, and even admire others who excel at things we do well without classifying them or ourselves as better or worse. After all, if all artists were equally talented, we ALL would have painted the Mona Lisa. How boring would that be?
DO use it. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it.” I don’t mean to use your talent ONLY when circumstances happen to offer you an opportunity. I’m mean MAKE opportunities to employ your talent. Stop making excuses for NOT doing what you’re good at. Stop pretending that everything else takes precedence. Stop placing obstacles in your own path and take Nike’s advice….JUST DO IT. You’ve been thinking about starting a business….then START it. Stop talking about it. You’ve always wanted to write a children’s book. Well then, sit down and WRITE it. Stop thinking about. You’ve thought about running a marathon… Well, you’re body isn’t going to get in shape by thinking about it. Get out there and train for it! The hardest step to take of any journey is always the first.
DO teach it to others who are so inclined. If you wan to become an expert, teach. In order to teach anything you have to be familiar with it yourself first. The more you teach, the more you’ll learn. The more you learn, the more you’ll enjoy it. The more you enjoy it, the more you’ll do it. The more you do it, the better you’ll get. My own daughter has started showing interest in art. It may be that she is only doing it because she sees how much I love it. Regardless, her interest in art is the first step towards discovering a talent she might have or even develop. Her interest is the first step.
Even though you’ve got talent, DON’T assume that you know it all. Tiger Woods, possibly the most talented pro golfer in the world, had an instructor. That’s right…he took lessons from Butch Harmon (No relation) even AFTER he was deemed “the best”. He didn’t presume to know all there was to know about golfing technique, just because he happened to be better than the majority of his competition the majority of the time. Talent, even natural talent, can always be improved upon.
DO explore yourself to find NEW talents. Just because you’re GREAT at one thing doesn’t mean you can’t be GREAT at other things too! Have you even known anyone who seemed to just excel at everything? I sure have. I used to hate people like that. Many of us assume that just because we don’t have natural inclination that we don’t have any talent. This is far from the truth. There are many very talented people who started with nothing but a desire to be talented.
Got Talent? Go ahead….name three of your own. I dare you.
Friday, April 06, 2007
BOOM...Virus Spreads
Lately I’ve been reading from a marketing strategy book called “Unleashing the Idea Virus” by Seth Godin. I had a lot of time to read it while I was in the hospital with Kim before and after the birth of our son just over a week ago. This is by far, one of the most helpful books I’ve ever read. It’s not the type of book that everyone would find helpful or even interesting. I think that I find it interesting in the same way that my programmer, Rob, finds his text books on Java script interesting. I’m really into marketing right now and so this book as come at a very fortuitous time for me. Just about every concept and principle I learn is directly applicable to what I’m doing and it's all written in lay man's terms.
One of the concepts that this book discusses is the strategy of making a new idea easy to spread. To illustrate this point, they use the examples of Hotmail, and Blue Mountain E-cards. Both of these “idea viruses,” as they call them, ignited fast. REALLY fast. They did so because of how easy they were for the user to spread them. Think about it. In order for Hotmail to even work, one has to email someone else while USING it. In other words, using it means promoting it. The same thing is true with Blue Mountain E-cards. Once a person receives one, and they think it’s cool, they want to send one to someone else. Just by using the idea, the idea is being spread around. And it is simple to do so. No multi-step processes, just a typed message and a click to send. Amazing! It’s not rocket science, and yet it's incredibly smart. Then again, some of the most simplistic things can be amazing to me. Until I started reading this book, I had never thought about the genius behind the marketing and strategies of these ideas. I took them completely for granted until they were pointed out and broken down for me. That’s how good they really were! Another “idea virus” that I had never even heard of is explained this way in the book;
“In Japan, teenage schoolgirls started and built a craze to billion-dollar proportions. They continue to line up to use a special kind of photo booth. Here’s how it works: You enter the photo booth (similar to the old Polaroid ones of your youth), insert some coins and it takes your picture. But instead of giving you four shots on a strip, it prints out 16 little tiny on-square-inch on stickers. Now, what are you going to do with 16 pictures of yourself on stickers? Share them with your friends! As a result, every popular Japanese schoolgirl has an autograph book loaded with dozens or hundreds of these stickers. Sort of like your high school yearbook signing ceremony, but on steroids.”
“A friend of mine, Sam Attenberg, developed and patented this technology in the States. And while it never became a full-fledged virus in the U.S., it developed pockets of intense activity in certain hives. Some machines were turning $70 an hour in sticker business, every hour on the hour for weeks at a time. In Japan, two companies dominated a multi-billion dollar-industry in Sticker Stations.”
“So what’s the medium? It’s the person-to-person exchange of stickers. The medium is the key to the entire [idea] virus. Once the first person got the sheet of stickers, the only way she could use them was by sharing them with 15 friends. But in sharing them, in using the medium provided, she had to explain where she got them. Boom. Virus spreads.”
“Boom”, indeed. To me, this is high impact stuff. So why am I so interested in this particular marketing strategy? Simply stated…LittleLDS needs the lift-off thrust described here. After reading this excerpt I immediately had a really great idea. Surprise, surprise….I know. The idea is to create some sort of sharable medium. I can employ the LittleLDS brand to create a new type of coloring page that can only be “really fun” when it’s being shared with another child. After all, two coloring children are better than one. So, you get one child excited enough about the idea that they bring the pages to another child to share. The two friends share an experience that begs to be repeated. The second friend takes the pages to another friend to reproduce the experience, and... Boom. Virus spreads.
One of the concepts that this book discusses is the strategy of making a new idea easy to spread. To illustrate this point, they use the examples of Hotmail, and Blue Mountain E-cards. Both of these “idea viruses,” as they call them, ignited fast. REALLY fast. They did so because of how easy they were for the user to spread them. Think about it. In order for Hotmail to even work, one has to email someone else while USING it. In other words, using it means promoting it. The same thing is true with Blue Mountain E-cards. Once a person receives one, and they think it’s cool, they want to send one to someone else. Just by using the idea, the idea is being spread around. And it is simple to do so. No multi-step processes, just a typed message and a click to send. Amazing! It’s not rocket science, and yet it's incredibly smart. Then again, some of the most simplistic things can be amazing to me. Until I started reading this book, I had never thought about the genius behind the marketing and strategies of these ideas. I took them completely for granted until they were pointed out and broken down for me. That’s how good they really were! Another “idea virus” that I had never even heard of is explained this way in the book;
“In Japan, teenage schoolgirls started and built a craze to billion-dollar proportions. They continue to line up to use a special kind of photo booth. Here’s how it works: You enter the photo booth (similar to the old Polaroid ones of your youth), insert some coins and it takes your picture. But instead of giving you four shots on a strip, it prints out 16 little tiny on-square-inch on stickers. Now, what are you going to do with 16 pictures of yourself on stickers? Share them with your friends! As a result, every popular Japanese schoolgirl has an autograph book loaded with dozens or hundreds of these stickers. Sort of like your high school yearbook signing ceremony, but on steroids.”
“A friend of mine, Sam Attenberg, developed and patented this technology in the States. And while it never became a full-fledged virus in the U.S., it developed pockets of intense activity in certain hives. Some machines were turning $70 an hour in sticker business, every hour on the hour for weeks at a time. In Japan, two companies dominated a multi-billion dollar-industry in Sticker Stations.”
“So what’s the medium? It’s the person-to-person exchange of stickers. The medium is the key to the entire [idea] virus. Once the first person got the sheet of stickers, the only way she could use them was by sharing them with 15 friends. But in sharing them, in using the medium provided, she had to explain where she got them. Boom. Virus spreads.”
“Boom”, indeed. To me, this is high impact stuff. So why am I so interested in this particular marketing strategy? Simply stated…LittleLDS needs the lift-off thrust described here. After reading this excerpt I immediately had a really great idea. Surprise, surprise….I know. The idea is to create some sort of sharable medium. I can employ the LittleLDS brand to create a new type of coloring page that can only be “really fun” when it’s being shared with another child. After all, two coloring children are better than one. So, you get one child excited enough about the idea that they bring the pages to another child to share. The two friends share an experience that begs to be repeated. The second friend takes the pages to another friend to reproduce the experience, and... Boom. Virus spreads.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The pangs of tax season
Aside from being an average W-2 tax payer in April, I’m also required to pay my corporate taxes by March 15th. This rule is taking some time to get used to. Seems like my panic hits just after the official deadline, and lasts until after the regular tax season is over. By then I’m finished filing not only my regular taxes, but also my now “extended” corporation taxes. You know, for as much as this country depends on small businesses, they sure don’t make any of it easy to run.
It seems like everyone is a little stressed this time of year over taxes. You can even sense it in the commercials on TV. Come to think of it, it’s almost like the whole month of December. You know, those last stressful 2 week-shopping, hustling & bustling days? Fortunately, the Christmas season ends in opening of gifts and lots of smiles….The tax season, on the other hand, promises nothing but will occasionally offer you a small portion of what they “rightfully” stole from you during the previous year with a meager tax return. Ahem…yippee (sigh). A tax return is supposed to make me excited, right? Excited about what exactly, that the IRS took TOO much away from me during the year?? Excited that I’m getting back only a percentage of the excess amount they took?? Give me a break.
I've learned:
- That in order to owe LESS in corporate taxes, I’m forced to spend MORE. This spending is “controlled” or “strategic” spending, however, on things that my business needs anyway. These are things like printer toner, paper, computer equipment, and software.
- That the silly game that the IRS plays with corporations requires that I actually TRY to end up with a net loss at the end of the year. Something’s wrong here. This is backwards.
- That a corporation starts out as with a default status of “C-Corp” which, among other things, subjects me to having my taxes due in March. Last year I filed for an “S-Corp” status so this year I’ll be filing in April again.
- That as a corporation, one of the best ways to keep the IRS from TAKING Tyed Art’s money is to give it away! That’s right, charity. It’s similar to paying a personal tithe as an individual. Any charitable donations and gifts can be written off and tax deducted. This is why the big boys do be sweepstakes and giveaways! It’s not because they can afford to, but rather, because they can’t afford NOT to. If they didn’t give away their money, they’d end up paying MORE in taxes. Again, something isn’t right here.
I'm glad:
That there are capable and competent accountants out there to help me figure all this out.
I wish:
I had a better aptitude towards bookkeeping. It’s a chore for me. I actually don’t mind sitting down and getting things recorded. I’m a very organized person. My problem is remembering to DO it in the first place.
I will:
Have to learn a lot more about what types of tax breaks and legal loopholes there are out there. One doesn’t profit much from being a corporation when one doesn’t know much about being incorporated or about taxes. I need to become more corporation, tax and financially literate.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Your "Inner Truck Drivers"
Ever feel like you’re actually living two different lives? Or, said differently, have you ever felt like you’re NOT living a life that, perhaps, you should be living? I’m not talking about having different personalities or moral positions, rather, multiple purposes and aspirations. I get this sensation all the time. I often feel like I’m competing with myself for how I spent my own time. Sometimes I think my mind is a truck’s cab with two drivers, both taking turns steering the cargo of my thoughts in their own desired directions. While they don’t argue, each driver takes a different course when it’s his turn. They don’t seem to agree about how to get to where I’m going.
Each moment can trigger a change of the drivers. When I’m about to do or say something, interact with someone, or make a decision, the drivers contemplate switching seats and a course correction. One of these drivers seems to have much more time at the wheel than the other and the result is predictable. One driver gets frustrated with inactivity while the other becomes tired and burnt out.
I’ve given names to my drivers. For simplicity sake, “Ty”, is the husband, father, son and friend. When Ty is driving I get up, go to my regular 8 to 10-hour job, answer to a boss, request time off, get a paycheck, and come home. This is the guy with the gorgeous wife and 2.9 kids, a hefty mortgage to pay, yard work to do, a list of honey-do’s awaitin’, and hang out buddies to spend time with. This part of me worries about how much is spent, how well I’m providing, and how to out-do my last romantic gesture for my bride. When I’m living the life of Ty, I go to church, rough-house with my kids, watch TV shows & movies, and eat too much of my wife’s fantastic cooking. I’m a family guy…no different than any other.
When Ty, isn’t driving, “Tyed Art” is. This trucker is the very embodiment of the phrase, “Me, Incorporated.” Depending on the day, I’ve could also refer to this driver as the entrepreneur, LittleLDS, business, or ambitious driver. This driver is tenacious. Tyed Art only drives when it’s convenient to do so. He only drives during Ty’s down-time, or when special scheduling arrangements have been made. It’s during the hours of this driver’s navigation that I find my time slipping away effortlessly. It’s during this time that I feel empowered by doing something I know I’m good at. While Tyed Art drives, I only spend Tyed Art money. I act like the person I wish I was. I’m bolder, riskier, and certainly more sophisticated. When Tyed Art drives, my moods don’t fluctuate as much either. If given the chance, this driver would ALWAYS have me in my home office working on my projects. I get consumed by it.
This perspective is a little weird, I know.
But don’t we all have a life that we’re NOT living? A life that we always either talk about living, or just dream about living? Although I’d felt this way many times, I’d never really analyzed it until I heard someone else express it in words. Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, puts it this way in another book entitled The War of Art:
“Most of us have two lives; the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance. …Late at night, have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write? A painter who doesn’t paint? An entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what resistance is.”
Unless you have a strong tolerance for harsh language, I don’t recommend you actually read that book though. It’s unfortunate because the net result from the book is VERY positive. Anyway…
Although I inherently know where each time-consuming activity belongs on the totem pole of priorities, I’m still hounded by the desire to fulfill my cravings for success, recognition, and accomplishment. Reconciling the two routes is an ongoing challenge. I think the key is to develop a gradual and harmonious merge of the two. Just like two different drivers, I think they can co-exist, but they can never simultaneously drive. I think those who are doing what they LOVE (for a living) are blessed to have inner truck-drivers who are in agreement about where their cargo is headed and how to get there. No matter who’s driving, they’re still heading in the same direction. That balance is my goal.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Moving right along...
As usual, inspiration has been hitting and missing me the last few days. I’ve been working recently on a project with Building the Kingdom that has offered me a lot of creative license. After seeing my LittleLDS website and artistic style, they have invited me to work with them on creating a Farside-like comic, based on LDS humor and culture, which will be positioned on their website’s home page starting next month. The project has a lot to offer us both. There’s a bit of a vacuum in the LDS comic market, so it’s hoped that the comedic images will generate talk and traffic for their site, which will automatically produce the same for mine. My comics will be ever-present on their home page, which will mean free and constant advertising for LittleLDS products. Because they want a new comic once per month, I’ll have little pressure to produce them quickly…that’s good. It really is a win/win idea. At the end of one year, they’re proposing to produce and sell a 2008 calendar using the comics that will be titled, “The Latter-Day Side.” The title was my idea. I’m very excited about the project and have already started working on the first image.
I’ve also been working a lot on my LittleLDS Product Party idea. No, I haven’t forgotten about it. Not by a long shot. It’s actually coming along nicely. I’ve finished most of the written concept, and am now starting to revise, refine and tweak the overall model. There are still a few gaps to fill in there and there yet. When it’s available, the Party Kit will include an introduction to the product and party model, hosting instructions, activity ideas, dessert recipe suggestions, party invitation templates, and other useful party tips. I’ve already got a few volunteer hostesses lined up to launch the first parties when I’m ready.
LittleLDS CD#4 is relatively slow-going, though certainly not standing still. I’m moving at a crawl, but each new day brings progress. “Be the torus, not the hare”, I keep reminding myself. My programmer is nearing this semester’s end, and is looking forward to working with me at an accelerated rate to get it done. We’ve also planned to begin production of a new program that will enable me to generate my own LittleLDS titles independently of any programming individual. This will not only allow me to move at a quicker pace, but it will also provide me with some autonomy as a designer, as well as an ability to expand my scope to a more generalized children’s’ market. LittleLDS is a great launching pad for this new digital coloring book medium, but I’m finding that it’s a bit too limited as an overall market. Although I will continue to develop it, LittleLDS will eventually be a smaller parallel vector in the same direction as my next big project. After I have this new program fully functional, I’ll be able to begin working on my “Never-ending Coloring Books” brand. The same illustration style and great teaching focus, but no more exclusively LDS-specific titles. Never-ending Coloring Books (whose name is still subject to change) will be generalized for all kids. A much broader market will hopefully translate into a much faster-growing company and product.
I've learned:
That we almost always get out what we put in
I'm glad:
That I usually feel empowered by my challenges
I wish:
I my programmer was finished with school already
I will:
Never feel comfortable sitting around while there are things to be done…I am my father’s son.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Expensive Real Estate
I recently renewed my membership with a great online community of LDS business owners which, hopefully, will help me with the promotion of LittleLDS. I’m excited about it. The site is www.BuildingTheKingdom.com and they have generated quite a bit of traffic this year. They’ve revamped their site, and have expanded their staffing, marketing and focus. I’ve actually been a member for a while, but only recently started using this virtual venue as a place to advertise. That’s actually what I’m targeting with this blog today; the price of banner advertising.
The web is literally made up of many millions of sites all interconnected and making money on each other through “per-click” technology. This means that they link to each other with banners and profit not only through the business they are advertising on the websites themselves, but also (and at times, more importantly) just by the traffic that runs to and through their websites. It’s a fascinating world, the internet.
It works because the nerds who used to get made fun of in school have now taken over the world by turning us all into computer-dependent cyber junkies. It’s pay-back time. Just look at us “bloggers.” We’re a whole sub-culture of ordinary people who act like we’re all columnists for some New York newspaper. Some of us just write for fun, or to stay connected to friends and family, while others have made an actual career of it…either way we all do it to get readers. Then there are the “pic” sharers. The internet is bursting at the seams with photos and other images. Some of us don’t stop with online photo albums, but advance to online scrapbooking, and full-scale website portfolios. Regardless, we’re making the world smaller with the ubiquitous internet (hasn’t its clout earned it the respect of being capitalized by now?).
At the heart of this mass-transit medium, there is another thing that I find fascinating. Advertising. In order to catch the eye of the cash-wielding consumer, nerds have employed artists to create “banners”. Aptly named, these are virtual billboards that wave at us (sometime literally…i.e., animated “GIF” banners) from the corners and margins of the sites that we visit. Ironically, many of the banners that have been specifically designed to attract our attention have caused us to conversely “evolve” into ad-ignoring internet browsers. This evolution has, of course, spawned the annoying, breed of advertising known as “pop-ups”. To by-pass our keenly developed tendency to ignore the lure of the sales pitch, “pop-ups” were invented to interrupt us in the middle of whatever we’re doing, with total disregard, just incase we intended to NOT click on that “suggestive” banner on the website. Exit, the polite style of advertising… Enter, the “in-your-face,” “See-it-whether-you-want-to-or-not” style of advertising. And with that, out came the inevitable weapons of mass obstruction. Software specially designed to impede the intrusion of “pop-ups.” Suddenly we’ve all become total experts at AVOIDING the very stuff that we, as business owners, are working so hard to put in front of each other. Is this getting complicated, or what? What a paradox.
Well, not to be left out, I’m putting in my two cents. I want a piece of to chaos. While learning about the dos and donts of web-based advertising, I’ve noticed something about this virtual world that seems down-right counter intuitive to me. Stay with me, this is going to get a little technical…
In the real and tangible world, we’ll say, Las Vegas (a relatively hot topic-of-a-town), physical real estate is pretty expensive. Of course, it varies from day to day, and even throughout different locations in the city, but generally speaking, it’s still costly. As I write this, the average cost for a piece of residential real estate, will run you about $372,046. Let’s just assume for simplicity sake that this amount will afford you an average sized 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2,000 sq. ft. house. If you do the math (I’ll do it for you), that equates to about $186 per square foot of physical real estate. Now keep in mind that this number is for a tangible thing….an intrinsically-valued commodity.
Okay, now wrap your brain around this….
The space that I’ll be populating with my homemade LittleLDS banner on the Building the Kingdom website is only 150 pixels wide and 100 pixels high. For those of you who are NOT nerds or artists, like me, I’ll put it into lay man’s terms. 150x100 pixels, at 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch), is only 1.625 inches by 1.0625 inches. That’s right…this virtual real estate that I’m RENTING (nope, can’t even BUY it) is barely larger than a POSTAGE STAMP! And we complain about those at only $0.39 (so far)! Now, for me, a renewing member of the community, the banner came free with my membership renewal. However, let’s just play devils advocate here. What if they hadn’t given it to me as a special promotion? Wanna take a guess at how much this tiny piece of virtual real estate costs? Go ahead…guess. $25? No. Not even close. $50? Nope, try again. $100? Keep going … It costs $130 to NOT OWN this intangible space in a virtual world. Even crazier than that, is the fact that my banner will be among many others of the same size which will take turns in a per-click rotation. That means that about every 5th person who logs on to their website will actually see my banner. Nuts, isn’t it? In the real world, that would be like buying a house, but having it disappear after you drive away from it….only to discover that it only reappears every 5th time that you look for it. Wait, it gets better. Let me put it into even greater perspective. Let’s compare apples to apples.
If I take that same 1.625” x 1.0625” of virtual space and convert it to area (length x width), I would get about 1.73 square inches. In order to compare apples to apples, I need to convert that number to square FEET. So, 1.73” divided by 12” (the number of inches in one foot) equals about 0.144 square feet. Still with me? That means that the cost of this piece of virtual real estate, costs $130 for less that 15% of one square foot! That’s roughly $903 per square foot!!! If I built the same 2,000 sq. ft., 3-bed, 2-bath house on land in the virtual real estate world of the internet, it would cost me over $1.8 million dollars!!!! And the rule of “location, location, location” still applies. Depending on the website and its traffic flow, $130 for a banner can actually a good deal where web advertising is concerned! Dang! Isn’t business GREAT??
So, get a good look at it folks… the infamous LittleLDS banner!
The web is literally made up of many millions of sites all interconnected and making money on each other through “per-click” technology. This means that they link to each other with banners and profit not only through the business they are advertising on the websites themselves, but also (and at times, more importantly) just by the traffic that runs to and through their websites. It’s a fascinating world, the internet.
It works because the nerds who used to get made fun of in school have now taken over the world by turning us all into computer-dependent cyber junkies. It’s pay-back time. Just look at us “bloggers.” We’re a whole sub-culture of ordinary people who act like we’re all columnists for some New York newspaper. Some of us just write for fun, or to stay connected to friends and family, while others have made an actual career of it…either way we all do it to get readers. Then there are the “pic” sharers. The internet is bursting at the seams with photos and other images. Some of us don’t stop with online photo albums, but advance to online scrapbooking, and full-scale website portfolios. Regardless, we’re making the world smaller with the ubiquitous internet (hasn’t its clout earned it the respect of being capitalized by now?).
At the heart of this mass-transit medium, there is another thing that I find fascinating. Advertising. In order to catch the eye of the cash-wielding consumer, nerds have employed artists to create “banners”. Aptly named, these are virtual billboards that wave at us (sometime literally…i.e., animated “GIF” banners) from the corners and margins of the sites that we visit. Ironically, many of the banners that have been specifically designed to attract our attention have caused us to conversely “evolve” into ad-ignoring internet browsers. This evolution has, of course, spawned the annoying, breed of advertising known as “pop-ups”. To by-pass our keenly developed tendency to ignore the lure of the sales pitch, “pop-ups” were invented to interrupt us in the middle of whatever we’re doing, with total disregard, just incase we intended to NOT click on that “suggestive” banner on the website. Exit, the polite style of advertising… Enter, the “in-your-face,” “See-it-whether-you-want-to-or-not” style of advertising. And with that, out came the inevitable weapons of mass obstruction. Software specially designed to impede the intrusion of “pop-ups.” Suddenly we’ve all become total experts at AVOIDING the very stuff that we, as business owners, are working so hard to put in front of each other. Is this getting complicated, or what? What a paradox.
Well, not to be left out, I’m putting in my two cents. I want a piece of to chaos. While learning about the dos and donts of web-based advertising, I’ve noticed something about this virtual world that seems down-right counter intuitive to me. Stay with me, this is going to get a little technical…
In the real and tangible world, we’ll say, Las Vegas (a relatively hot topic-of-a-town), physical real estate is pretty expensive. Of course, it varies from day to day, and even throughout different locations in the city, but generally speaking, it’s still costly. As I write this, the average cost for a piece of residential real estate, will run you about $372,046. Let’s just assume for simplicity sake that this amount will afford you an average sized 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2,000 sq. ft. house. If you do the math (I’ll do it for you), that equates to about $186 per square foot of physical real estate. Now keep in mind that this number is for a tangible thing….an intrinsically-valued commodity.
Okay, now wrap your brain around this….
The space that I’ll be populating with my homemade LittleLDS banner on the Building the Kingdom website is only 150 pixels wide and 100 pixels high. For those of you who are NOT nerds or artists, like me, I’ll put it into lay man’s terms. 150x100 pixels, at 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch), is only 1.625 inches by 1.0625 inches. That’s right…this virtual real estate that I’m RENTING (nope, can’t even BUY it) is barely larger than a POSTAGE STAMP! And we complain about those at only $0.39 (so far)! Now, for me, a renewing member of the community, the banner came free with my membership renewal. However, let’s just play devils advocate here. What if they hadn’t given it to me as a special promotion? Wanna take a guess at how much this tiny piece of virtual real estate costs? Go ahead…guess. $25? No. Not even close. $50? Nope, try again. $100? Keep going … It costs $130 to NOT OWN this intangible space in a virtual world. Even crazier than that, is the fact that my banner will be among many others of the same size which will take turns in a per-click rotation. That means that about every 5th person who logs on to their website will actually see my banner. Nuts, isn’t it? In the real world, that would be like buying a house, but having it disappear after you drive away from it….only to discover that it only reappears every 5th time that you look for it. Wait, it gets better. Let me put it into even greater perspective. Let’s compare apples to apples.
If I take that same 1.625” x 1.0625” of virtual space and convert it to area (length x width), I would get about 1.73 square inches. In order to compare apples to apples, I need to convert that number to square FEET. So, 1.73” divided by 12” (the number of inches in one foot) equals about 0.144 square feet. Still with me? That means that the cost of this piece of virtual real estate, costs $130 for less that 15% of one square foot! That’s roughly $903 per square foot!!! If I built the same 2,000 sq. ft., 3-bed, 2-bath house on land in the virtual real estate world of the internet, it would cost me over $1.8 million dollars!!!! And the rule of “location, location, location” still applies. Depending on the website and its traffic flow, $130 for a banner can actually a good deal where web advertising is concerned! Dang! Isn’t business GREAT??
So, get a good look at it folks… the infamous LittleLDS banner!
(actual size)
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
ZZZZZZzzzzz.....huh? HUH?? AHHHH!!!
Reason #1,979 to not work for someone else;
The “Late Headless Chicken” Mode
I don’t care how “responsible” you are, everyone has one of these mornings at some point. It starts out unlike most, and usually spirals uncontrollably into a “bad day”. When it happens, nothing short of a miracle will get the day back on track. This was my morning….
“OH CRAP!!”
From a deep sleep, and with a sudden jolt of realization, I sprang out of bed, probably looking like a jack-in-the-box popping out of its cube. I bolted over to my cell phone on the dresser hoping to dispel my dreaded suspicion. Having been let down many times by plug-in alarm clocks which had been silently rendered useless in the middle of the night by power outages, I came to the realization long ago that I can only depend on battery powered electronics to wake me... even then, it’s a challenge.
Because I’m already not a morning person (a handicap that I’m certain is delaying my entrepreneurial success a few productive early hours at a time) just reading the time on the cell phone’s tiny back-lit screen was hard enough, let alone trying to process the meaning of the numbers. I’ve done this enough times, however, to know that if it doesn’t say 6:00 am, something’s definitely wrong. Sure enough, it said 6:28am!
“DANG IT!!”
“Okay…I’ve got exactly 2 minutes to get out of the house before I’m late! GO!” Yeah right. As I bolted into the bathroom, a torrent of thoughts flooded my mind… “Why didn’t my alarm go off? Maybe it did… Did I snooze it? Wouldn’t be the first time… What should I wear that’ll look good? No time… What’s clean? Who cares… Shirt. Pants. Wait…..if you can’t shower today (…ugh…) you’ve GOT to, at least, for the love of all that’s sanitary, change your underwear! Okay, socks… Shoes. Belt. What am I going to do with my hair? Dang it…it’s too long! I need a hair cut! If it were shorter I could do it seconds… This is going to take no less than 5 minutes! Precious minutes… No time to stylize… Must settle….Just get rid of the bed-head…” I stuck my head in the sink, soaked, and then dried it. I moosed up the fro and then tried to tame the mop to look, well…at least like I didn’t forget it. Ugh….
Just then I heard a sound I had hoped to avoid on this, of all mornings… My 2-year old was awake and knocking on the bedroom door…crying.
“AAAHH, GREAT!!”
On any other day, while still on schedule, this would only be moderately annoying. Second only to being on time for work, my number one goal every morning is to get up, ready and out of the house before the girls wake up. When they’re up, they always slow me WAY down because they’re so loud and needy first thing in the morning. They always either need to be changed, fed, hugged or entertained somehow. If you don’t do this, things get ugly real fast. Normally, I try very hard to address their immediate needs in order to give Kim an extra few minutes of much needed pregnant-mother sleep. Unfortunately for all of us, today I was in “late headless chicken” mode. I quietly trotted over to the door and poked my head out and attempted to “reason” with her. Nothin’ doin’. Not sure what I expected there. After a few minutes the seconds on my watch started to speed up and synchronize with my adrenaline-filled pulse! "There’s no time for this!" I shooshed her, closed the door, and bolted back to the bathroom. By the time I’d finished the pointless job of de-bed-heading my hair, Kim had already gotten up, changed the diaper, and diffused the ticking time bomb that was my daughter by inviting her into our warm comfy bed for a snuggle. All of this while still mostly asleep. Amazing. Another quick glance down at my watch…
“OH SNAP!!”
"It’s 6:53 am! Aaahhh!!! I’ve got to be AT work in 7 minutes!!" I got nearly to the bottom of the stairs when I realized I didn’t have my cell phone with me. I bounced off an invisible rubber wall and raced back up the stairs. "Got it! Must…get out!" Suddenly I felt like I was in an episode of 24 trying get out of a house which had been compromised by a timed explosive that could go off at any second. Not a second to spare, I flew down the hallway to my office and grabbed my work bag, threw on my jacket and tore back down the hall towards the kitchen. “Shoot, my work ID badge!” Back to the office, and back to the kitchen to rummage through leftovers in the fridge for lunch! 6:55 am…tick tock, tick tock…. “Where are my keys?? In the office? No. Upstairs? Oh, please, for the love of Pete, not upstairs again!” Hoping, I swung around the kitchen and spotted them on the counter. “Whew! No time for relief…”
“GO! GO! GO!”
Lugging my work bag and some Tupperware, I made it out to the porch, locked the front door and headed for my car. I looked at my watch again… Okay, even The Flash, himself, couldn’t make it to work on time at this point. Reality started to set in. "Hhhhh….I’m late. Really late." I got in the car, rolled down the driveway and pulled out my cell phone. As I searched through my list of contacts for my boss’s number, I tried to hurry and think up some cleaver excuse as to why I would be so late. How do you tell your boss that you're late because you snoozed through your alarm? It was just seconds before 7:00am. Luckily for my pride, at least, I got my boss’s voice mail instead of him. “Hey, just wanted to let you know that I’m running behind this morning and will be a little late. I’m on my way now and should be there in just a few minutes….” Click. HHhhhh..... The rest of the drive was just damage control. I was already late. From this point on, it would just be a matter of HOW late. “Mitigate the time loss….don’t be stupid, but punch it!” Foolishly, I weaved in and out of lanes, screeched off the line when the lights turned green and sped up at all the yellow lights. I’m sure somewhere, my old Driver’s Ed teacher was in hives.
By the time I finally got to work, I had set a new record for myself. I was at my desk by 7:19am. Nervous, I looked over all the cubicles at my boss’s office door and saw that it was closed. Wait, HE'S not even here yet?? I skipped a shower, ignored my needy daughter, broke just about every traffic law possible and arrived sweaty, panting and ready to humbly apologize only to discover that my BOSS wasn’t even in yet?!?! As I clouded up, a question surfaced in my mind. "If my boss wasn’t here to witness me being late…was I late? I mean, technically, yes, but it’s not like we clock in around here... As far as he’s concerned I arrived before him just like every other day. As far as he’s concerned, I’m a model employee…. As far as he knows…." Then it hit me. Insult suddenly joined the injury… There was a message on his voicemail from me TELLING him that I’m going to be late.
HHHhhhhhhhh……. I’m retarded. And still late.
I've learned:
A boss will always be more concerned about your tardiness than he’ll ever be about his own.
I'm glad:
I've got a boss that's understanding
I wish:
I were more of a morning person
I will:
have to go to bed abnormally early if I'm ever going to become one
The “Late Headless Chicken” Mode
I don’t care how “responsible” you are, everyone has one of these mornings at some point. It starts out unlike most, and usually spirals uncontrollably into a “bad day”. When it happens, nothing short of a miracle will get the day back on track. This was my morning….
“OH CRAP!!”
From a deep sleep, and with a sudden jolt of realization, I sprang out of bed, probably looking like a jack-in-the-box popping out of its cube. I bolted over to my cell phone on the dresser hoping to dispel my dreaded suspicion. Having been let down many times by plug-in alarm clocks which had been silently rendered useless in the middle of the night by power outages, I came to the realization long ago that I can only depend on battery powered electronics to wake me... even then, it’s a challenge.
Because I’m already not a morning person (a handicap that I’m certain is delaying my entrepreneurial success a few productive early hours at a time) just reading the time on the cell phone’s tiny back-lit screen was hard enough, let alone trying to process the meaning of the numbers. I’ve done this enough times, however, to know that if it doesn’t say 6:00 am, something’s definitely wrong. Sure enough, it said 6:28am!
“DANG IT!!”
“Okay…I’ve got exactly 2 minutes to get out of the house before I’m late! GO!” Yeah right. As I bolted into the bathroom, a torrent of thoughts flooded my mind… “Why didn’t my alarm go off? Maybe it did… Did I snooze it? Wouldn’t be the first time… What should I wear that’ll look good? No time… What’s clean? Who cares… Shirt. Pants. Wait…..if you can’t shower today (…ugh…) you’ve GOT to, at least, for the love of all that’s sanitary, change your underwear! Okay, socks… Shoes. Belt. What am I going to do with my hair? Dang it…it’s too long! I need a hair cut! If it were shorter I could do it seconds… This is going to take no less than 5 minutes! Precious minutes… No time to stylize… Must settle….Just get rid of the bed-head…” I stuck my head in the sink, soaked, and then dried it. I moosed up the fro and then tried to tame the mop to look, well…at least like I didn’t forget it. Ugh….
Just then I heard a sound I had hoped to avoid on this, of all mornings… My 2-year old was awake and knocking on the bedroom door…crying.
“AAAHH, GREAT!!”
On any other day, while still on schedule, this would only be moderately annoying. Second only to being on time for work, my number one goal every morning is to get up, ready and out of the house before the girls wake up. When they’re up, they always slow me WAY down because they’re so loud and needy first thing in the morning. They always either need to be changed, fed, hugged or entertained somehow. If you don’t do this, things get ugly real fast. Normally, I try very hard to address their immediate needs in order to give Kim an extra few minutes of much needed pregnant-mother sleep. Unfortunately for all of us, today I was in “late headless chicken” mode. I quietly trotted over to the door and poked my head out and attempted to “reason” with her. Nothin’ doin’. Not sure what I expected there. After a few minutes the seconds on my watch started to speed up and synchronize with my adrenaline-filled pulse! "There’s no time for this!" I shooshed her, closed the door, and bolted back to the bathroom. By the time I’d finished the pointless job of de-bed-heading my hair, Kim had already gotten up, changed the diaper, and diffused the ticking time bomb that was my daughter by inviting her into our warm comfy bed for a snuggle. All of this while still mostly asleep. Amazing. Another quick glance down at my watch…
“OH SNAP!!”
"It’s 6:53 am! Aaahhh!!! I’ve got to be AT work in 7 minutes!!" I got nearly to the bottom of the stairs when I realized I didn’t have my cell phone with me. I bounced off an invisible rubber wall and raced back up the stairs. "Got it! Must…get out!" Suddenly I felt like I was in an episode of 24 trying get out of a house which had been compromised by a timed explosive that could go off at any second. Not a second to spare, I flew down the hallway to my office and grabbed my work bag, threw on my jacket and tore back down the hall towards the kitchen. “Shoot, my work ID badge!” Back to the office, and back to the kitchen to rummage through leftovers in the fridge for lunch! 6:55 am…tick tock, tick tock…. “Where are my keys?? In the office? No. Upstairs? Oh, please, for the love of Pete, not upstairs again!” Hoping, I swung around the kitchen and spotted them on the counter. “Whew! No time for relief…”
“GO! GO! GO!”
Lugging my work bag and some Tupperware, I made it out to the porch, locked the front door and headed for my car. I looked at my watch again… Okay, even The Flash, himself, couldn’t make it to work on time at this point. Reality started to set in. "Hhhhh….I’m late. Really late." I got in the car, rolled down the driveway and pulled out my cell phone. As I searched through my list of contacts for my boss’s number, I tried to hurry and think up some cleaver excuse as to why I would be so late. How do you tell your boss that you're late because you snoozed through your alarm? It was just seconds before 7:00am. Luckily for my pride, at least, I got my boss’s voice mail instead of him. “Hey, just wanted to let you know that I’m running behind this morning and will be a little late. I’m on my way now and should be there in just a few minutes….” Click. HHhhhh..... The rest of the drive was just damage control. I was already late. From this point on, it would just be a matter of HOW late. “Mitigate the time loss….don’t be stupid, but punch it!” Foolishly, I weaved in and out of lanes, screeched off the line when the lights turned green and sped up at all the yellow lights. I’m sure somewhere, my old Driver’s Ed teacher was in hives.
By the time I finally got to work, I had set a new record for myself. I was at my desk by 7:19am. Nervous, I looked over all the cubicles at my boss’s office door and saw that it was closed. Wait, HE'S not even here yet?? I skipped a shower, ignored my needy daughter, broke just about every traffic law possible and arrived sweaty, panting and ready to humbly apologize only to discover that my BOSS wasn’t even in yet?!?! As I clouded up, a question surfaced in my mind. "If my boss wasn’t here to witness me being late…was I late? I mean, technically, yes, but it’s not like we clock in around here... As far as he’s concerned I arrived before him just like every other day. As far as he’s concerned, I’m a model employee…. As far as he knows…." Then it hit me. Insult suddenly joined the injury… There was a message on his voicemail from me TELLING him that I’m going to be late.
HHHhhhhhhhh……. I’m retarded. And still late.
I've learned:
A boss will always be more concerned about your tardiness than he’ll ever be about his own.
I'm glad:
I've got a boss that's understanding
I wish:
I were more of a morning person
I will:
have to go to bed abnormally early if I'm ever going to become one
Friday, February 23, 2007
Carrot on a stick
The Horse:
“I know that I’m a lucky horse,
For every day I’m blessed.
A crispy carrot I’ll get to eat,
If I pass my daily test.”
“I’m not required to do that much,
The reward seems worth the sweat.
I’ve always earned it by day’s end,
It’s a safe and secure bet.”
“When I awake on each new day,
I feel the hunger pains.
This causes me to look around,
For a carrot to take the reigns.”
“Just before I give up hope,
I spot it hanging low.
Dangling just above my nose,
And tempting me to go.”
“So I arise and get a taste,
Mmm…sweeter than a peach!
But just before I bite again,
It jerks beyond my reach”
“Of course this is expected,
For it happens every day.
I work all day to catch the prize
And it always runs away.”
“I’m not really worried though,
The prize is always caught.
True, at times, it seems too small.
After all, I’ve done a LOT.”
“I’ve hauled, I’ve pulled,
I've sustained a lot of stress.
I’ve been yanked and jerked around,
Hmmm… But I digress…”
“This is what I’ve always done,
I see no need to change.
I’ll follow where the carrot leads,
And fight off the hunger pains.”
“I know that I’m a lucky horse,
For every day I’m blessed.
A crispy carrot I’ll get to eat,
If I pass my daily test.”
“I’m not required to do that much,
The reward seems worth the sweat.
I’ve always earned it by day’s end,
It’s a safe and secure bet.”
“When I awake on each new day,
I feel the hunger pains.
This causes me to look around,
For a carrot to take the reigns.”
“Just before I give up hope,
I spot it hanging low.
Dangling just above my nose,
And tempting me to go.”
“So I arise and get a taste,
Mmm…sweeter than a peach!
But just before I bite again,
It jerks beyond my reach”
“Of course this is expected,
For it happens every day.
I work all day to catch the prize
And it always runs away.”
“I’m not really worried though,
The prize is always caught.
True, at times, it seems too small.
After all, I’ve done a LOT.”
“I’ve hauled, I’ve pulled,
I've sustained a lot of stress.
I’ve been yanked and jerked around,
Hmmm… But I digress…”
“This is what I’ve always done,
I see no need to change.
I’ll follow where the carrot leads,
And fight off the hunger pains.”
The Rider:
“I am a lucky man indeed,
For every day I’m blessed.
I’ve planned ahead and found a way,
To excel beyond the rest.”
“I push myself to reach new goals,
And at first I had to sweat.
But now the plan is paying off,
And my future’s not a bet.”
“When I awake on each new day,
And I feel those hunger pains,
I’m reminded of the goals I’ve made,
And resolve to take the reigns.”
“In order to maintain my wealth,
I learned this long ago;
Ignore the fads and trendy things,
And be not tempted so.”
“Instead I’ve found more value,
In the pit than in the peach,
Potential lies within the seed,
That’s worthy of my reach.”
“To cover the great distances,
Of where I go each day,
I ride astride my trusty horse.
Which makes work seem like play.”
“With just one simple carrot,
I’ve got this horse well taught.
To be contented when we stop,
And eat what he has sought.”
“I’ve never seen a written rule,
That work should cause me stress.
Instead of hard, then, I’ll work smart
And ensure that I progress.”
“Striving for expiring things,
Means temporary gains;
And following where the carrot leads
Brings tomorrow’s hunger pains.”
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The "Sick Leave" Ambush
Reason #3,628 to not work for someone else:
The "Sick Leave" Ambush
Will someone please explain to me the logic behind "sick leave?" I've found this concept to be a complete trap. Make no bones about it, everybody gets sick. Some get sick more often than others, but we all have those days when we'd rather just stay in bed and feel miserable all by ourselves than come in and LOOK miserable in front of everyone else for 8 hours.
The theory behind sick leave is well enough intentioned. When we're first hired on with a new company, most of us attend some type of orientation where a million different policies and procedures are fired at us. By the time we leave this "orientation" meeting, however, most of us feel much more disoriented than when we went in, despite the HR rep's reassuring, "Don't worry, it's all laid out for you in the handbook!" While drinking from this fire hydrant of information, you might hear them whiz through some policy regarding paid time off. This, for the average working American, is the needle in the haystack. The light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the one piece of this meeting that gives us something to look forward to. Don't kid yourself, you're already looking forward to the next paid holiday, or vacation that you qualify for. After all, not many of us are working just for fun. Ahhh...time off. But I digress...
Let's say, after you've been with a company for a probationary period of 30 days, that every pay period you now accrue 3 hours of "vacation time" and 3 hours "sick time." Now, let's say that you've been working for this company for about 6 months and have never taken a day off. Assuming it were possible, you would now have about 36 hours (nearly 4.5 days) of each. Ever wonder what would happen if you used all your vacation time at once? Probably nothing more than a little extra paperwork to catch up on by the end of your vacation, right? On the flip side, however, what if you were to call in sick every day for a entire work week? What would happen then? Chances are, your boss would start to make negative assumptions about you, don't you think? "He's faking it to make a vacation out of the long weekend!" "He's got interviews with other places on COMPANY time!" "He's milking the company!"
Although it is never said aloud, most people know that "vacation time" can be used without any worry about their reputation. Why is it then that those 3 hours of time, when used as "sick time," will usually negatively affect the way your employers judge you? The only difference between "vacation time” and "sick time", after all, is the amount of time we have to notify our employers that we'll be using it...right? Aren't vacation hours and sick time hours both GIVEN to us to use? Why then, for the love of Pete, should we feel guilty or looked down on when we actually DO use it...even if we use ALL of it?!
Although I've got a great boss now, and this isn't a current issue, in the past I've actually been dangerously close to getting canned just for using the sick time my company has allotted me. This doesn't make any sense to me. If I were to ask my previous boss whether or not the sick time I had acrued was actually mine to use, surely he would say, "yes"...wouldn't he? It's not like I had ever dipped into borrowed time off in order to be out sick.
I suffer from migraine headaches. I generally get a really bad one about once per week, and almost always have about 3 or 4 less severe, but nagging headaches during the rest of the week. Sometimes they're just annoying enough to make me miserable while I'm at work, while other times they're capable of forcing me to stay at home where it's quiet and dark. Someone like me can't just NOT work. I've got to make due with what I've got...
With the last company I worked for, which will go unnamed, this happened a lot. However, because I usually wake up with my headaches, I would pop a pill in the early morning, call in sick, and then lay down to sleep it off. More often than not, I'd feel well enough within a few hours, and be able to make it into work by about 11:00 am or noon. Granted, with a situation like this, the biggest problem is that my employer is expecting me to be at work until he gets my message. With vacation time, it would have been planned in advance. I can understand that. But they did GIVE me those hours to use....didn't they? I mean, they are allowed, right? It doesn’t make much sense to me to give someone "time off" hours (regardless of what you're calling them), and then get disgruntled when you take them up on their offer to actually use them.
Even the actual call-in to the boss is a joke. I've had a boss actually tell me, while briefing me on their call-in-sick protocol, "When you call in, you don't need to try to sound sick. Just say you’re using sick time." I had to laugh at that one. Obviously, that employer was tired of employees faking a desperately frail whimper in order to sound legitimately sick. I'll admit it...I've done it before. I'd venture to say that most of us in the working class have done it at one time or another; You know, when you called in sick, and, at the risk of sounding too healthy to be taken seriously, gave an academy award-winning sick voice performance. Psshhh....we've all done it, dude.
Listen, not much is worse, in my world, than having to call some other human being (who is only my boss because they got there before I did) and inform them that I'm not feeling well. Nothing else makes me feel as inferior and enslaved as having to call-in. Whether I'm truly sick or just want the day off. That, for me, is a great reason to work towards my goal of working for myself.
I've learned
That if you ever feel like you need to take a vacation from your work, you're in the wrong field. Those who truly love what they do, never really work a day in their lives, and subsequently never need (or even want) to take a vacation from it. To them, vacations are just interrupting them from doing what they enjoy.
I'm glad
That the general public has not caught onto the great investing secret of precious metals yet. I've still got some time. Gold and silver are both performing terrifically, and folks are bound to notice it soon. By the time they do catch on, it'll mean it's too late to buy it at a good deal.
I wish
I was able to consistently focus on just ONE of my ideas and get it totally finished. This is my greatest challenge as an aspiring entrepreneur. I can't seem to just put new ideas aside until after I've finished previously conceived ideas. All of them seem viable, and none of them seem unimportant enough to prioritize lower.
I will
Have to push a lot harder if I'm going to finish the Virtual Vault before the baby-boomers retire. They'll start within this year. I think they'll be my target market with all the pensions, investments and assets they'll need to manage during their retirement years.
The "Sick Leave" Ambush
Will someone please explain to me the logic behind "sick leave?" I've found this concept to be a complete trap. Make no bones about it, everybody gets sick. Some get sick more often than others, but we all have those days when we'd rather just stay in bed and feel miserable all by ourselves than come in and LOOK miserable in front of everyone else for 8 hours.
The theory behind sick leave is well enough intentioned. When we're first hired on with a new company, most of us attend some type of orientation where a million different policies and procedures are fired at us. By the time we leave this "orientation" meeting, however, most of us feel much more disoriented than when we went in, despite the HR rep's reassuring, "Don't worry, it's all laid out for you in the handbook!" While drinking from this fire hydrant of information, you might hear them whiz through some policy regarding paid time off. This, for the average working American, is the needle in the haystack. The light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the one piece of this meeting that gives us something to look forward to. Don't kid yourself, you're already looking forward to the next paid holiday, or vacation that you qualify for. After all, not many of us are working just for fun. Ahhh...time off. But I digress...
Let's say, after you've been with a company for a probationary period of 30 days, that every pay period you now accrue 3 hours of "vacation time" and 3 hours "sick time." Now, let's say that you've been working for this company for about 6 months and have never taken a day off. Assuming it were possible, you would now have about 36 hours (nearly 4.5 days) of each. Ever wonder what would happen if you used all your vacation time at once? Probably nothing more than a little extra paperwork to catch up on by the end of your vacation, right? On the flip side, however, what if you were to call in sick every day for a entire work week? What would happen then? Chances are, your boss would start to make negative assumptions about you, don't you think? "He's faking it to make a vacation out of the long weekend!" "He's got interviews with other places on COMPANY time!" "He's milking the company!"
Although it is never said aloud, most people know that "vacation time" can be used without any worry about their reputation. Why is it then that those 3 hours of time, when used as "sick time," will usually negatively affect the way your employers judge you? The only difference between "vacation time” and "sick time", after all, is the amount of time we have to notify our employers that we'll be using it...right? Aren't vacation hours and sick time hours both GIVEN to us to use? Why then, for the love of Pete, should we feel guilty or looked down on when we actually DO use it...even if we use ALL of it?!
Although I've got a great boss now, and this isn't a current issue, in the past I've actually been dangerously close to getting canned just for using the sick time my company has allotted me. This doesn't make any sense to me. If I were to ask my previous boss whether or not the sick time I had acrued was actually mine to use, surely he would say, "yes"...wouldn't he? It's not like I had ever dipped into borrowed time off in order to be out sick.
I suffer from migraine headaches. I generally get a really bad one about once per week, and almost always have about 3 or 4 less severe, but nagging headaches during the rest of the week. Sometimes they're just annoying enough to make me miserable while I'm at work, while other times they're capable of forcing me to stay at home where it's quiet and dark. Someone like me can't just NOT work. I've got to make due with what I've got...
With the last company I worked for, which will go unnamed, this happened a lot. However, because I usually wake up with my headaches, I would pop a pill in the early morning, call in sick, and then lay down to sleep it off. More often than not, I'd feel well enough within a few hours, and be able to make it into work by about 11:00 am or noon. Granted, with a situation like this, the biggest problem is that my employer is expecting me to be at work until he gets my message. With vacation time, it would have been planned in advance. I can understand that. But they did GIVE me those hours to use....didn't they? I mean, they are allowed, right? It doesn’t make much sense to me to give someone "time off" hours (regardless of what you're calling them), and then get disgruntled when you take them up on their offer to actually use them.
Even the actual call-in to the boss is a joke. I've had a boss actually tell me, while briefing me on their call-in-sick protocol, "When you call in, you don't need to try to sound sick. Just say you’re using sick time." I had to laugh at that one. Obviously, that employer was tired of employees faking a desperately frail whimper in order to sound legitimately sick. I'll admit it...I've done it before. I'd venture to say that most of us in the working class have done it at one time or another; You know, when you called in sick, and, at the risk of sounding too healthy to be taken seriously, gave an academy award-winning sick voice performance. Psshhh....we've all done it, dude.
Listen, not much is worse, in my world, than having to call some other human being (who is only my boss because they got there before I did) and inform them that I'm not feeling well. Nothing else makes me feel as inferior and enslaved as having to call-in. Whether I'm truly sick or just want the day off. That, for me, is a great reason to work towards my goal of working for myself.
I've learned
That if you ever feel like you need to take a vacation from your work, you're in the wrong field. Those who truly love what they do, never really work a day in their lives, and subsequently never need (or even want) to take a vacation from it. To them, vacations are just interrupting them from doing what they enjoy.
I'm glad
That the general public has not caught onto the great investing secret of precious metals yet. I've still got some time. Gold and silver are both performing terrifically, and folks are bound to notice it soon. By the time they do catch on, it'll mean it's too late to buy it at a good deal.
I wish
I was able to consistently focus on just ONE of my ideas and get it totally finished. This is my greatest challenge as an aspiring entrepreneur. I can't seem to just put new ideas aside until after I've finished previously conceived ideas. All of them seem viable, and none of them seem unimportant enough to prioritize lower.
I will
Have to push a lot harder if I'm going to finish the Virtual Vault before the baby-boomers retire. They'll start within this year. I think they'll be my target market with all the pensions, investments and assets they'll need to manage during their retirement years.
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Fragility of Small Business
Like any measurable thing, businesses can be categorized into scaleable and quantitative groups. For instance, they can be categorized by demographics, or by the amount of jobs they create. They can be sorted by the amount of revenue they generate, by the amount of stock holders they have, by the products that produce, or by their marketing budgets. There are the major league players like Microsoft, Wal Mart, and Google, there are the mid-sized businesses (that still seem huge) like Post Net, Big-O Tires, and Pier One, and then there are the little guys. I mean the really little guys. You know the ones who “claim” to be businesses and who just barely qualify on paper as “legitimate” businesses. Sure they produce products and provide services, but generally speaking, the only difference between them and the average employee is which hour you happen to catch them working. It is this latter category that, ironically, makes up most of America’s economy. Strange, isn’t it? The big businesses make more money when compared side by side, but collectively it is the small (sometimes only technically) businesses that drive the national economy. How is this possible? Well, there are just that many of us out there. Folks like me who have great ideas, dreams, and aspirations, but not much clout. Many of us are starting from scratch. it’s all about good timing and being ready to welcome opportunity when it knocks on our door.
They say that 90% of small businesses fail within their first year. After that first successful year, they say that 90% of those fail within the next 5 years. I think failure and success are both relative terms. At the risk of sounding cliché, the only true measure of one’s success or failure is one’s own goals and aspirations. Those goals and aspirations are determined by commitment, optimism, and patience. Like all the other non-believers of the get-rich-quick method, I’m in this for the long haul and I know it’s going to take a long time before I see the results I’m looking for. It’s takes time to build a strong business infrastructure and system. I don’t expect to be wealthy overnight, but I do expect that it’s somewhere along the path I’m on. I just need to stay on the path and push....hard.
I’m in my 2nd year of business as a corporation. However, I’ve been working as a hobby business for about 6 years now. One might say I’ve beaten the odds of surviving longer than the 1 to 5 year life expectancy of a small business. Although, one might also argue that I haven’t been involved in the real business world long enough to have any measurable track record. Again, I think it comes down to perspective.
Why is it that most small businesses fail so early on anyway? I mean, why is it that so many well-intentioned, hard working, smart, and talented people’s business ventures go belly-up shortly after beginning? Businesses are like trees. They start out small, fragile and vulnerable. Expecting a business to start out generating massive amounts of money right from the beginning is as about as smart as expecting a newly planted sprout to start producing fruit in its first season of growth. They need lots of attention at first. Attention and NOT much expectation. Just like a new plant needs lots of sun light, fertile soil and water to grow, a business needs dedication, ambition, optimism, and conviction.
So, why am I writing about the fragility of small businesses today, you might be wondering? Well, today I feel small. Determined and confident, but very small. I guess I'm probably still trying to establish my own roots in the soil I find myself in. I'm still trying to look at my business' potential instead of seeing the current status of my fragile sprout. I'm trying to remain satisfied my pace as the torus, and not the hare.
So, why am I writing about the fragility of small businesses today, you might be wondering? Well, today I feel small. Determined and confident, but very small. I guess I'm probably still trying to establish my own roots in the soil I find myself in. I'm still trying to look at my business' potential instead of seeing the current status of my fragile sprout. I'm trying to remain satisfied my pace as the torus, and not the hare.
I've learned...
That inspiration comes when it will. While I don't believe you can FORCE yourself to have good ideas, I certainly DO believe that you can help the process along. The implementation of "The Breakthrough Principle" has worked just about every time. In a nutshell, this theory states that once you've exhausted your mental resources, you should "walk away" from the project. This will allow your subconscious to work out the block while you're otherwise engaged...similar to when you dream while sleeping.
I'm glad...
That I discovered CNDD and have been able to help other identify it in those around them.
I wish...
I had the tenacity to quit my job today and work full-time investing in my own ideas.
I will...
Try harder to distinguish between what is urgent and what is important...and then do what is important FIRST.
That inspiration comes when it will. While I don't believe you can FORCE yourself to have good ideas, I certainly DO believe that you can help the process along. The implementation of "The Breakthrough Principle" has worked just about every time. In a nutshell, this theory states that once you've exhausted your mental resources, you should "walk away" from the project. This will allow your subconscious to work out the block while you're otherwise engaged...similar to when you dream while sleeping.
I'm glad...
That I discovered CNDD and have been able to help other identify it in those around them.
I wish...
I had the tenacity to quit my job today and work full-time investing in my own ideas.
I will...
Try harder to distinguish between what is urgent and what is important...and then do what is important FIRST.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Artistic Paradigm: the means or an end?
On occasion, when I log into my gmail account to check for email messages, I’ll find that my younger brother Glenn is logged in too, and we’ll chat. We actually do this fairly often. It’s nice because we’re not only states away from one another, but also because he and I share similar interests, and we like to discuss them. Like me, Glenn is an artist. Second only to his wife, I’m sure, I'm his biggest fan. Although he’s my younger brother, I really look up to him. I’d like to take credit for having “trained” him as an artist, and I actually do joke about it with him. We kid around about him being my artistic version of the Star Wars Padawan Learner…a prodigy born of my masterful skills and brilliant and artistic teaching techniques.... However, I hardly think that simply being born first and “allowing” him to watch me draw while we were growing up qualifies me as a mentor of any kind. Yes, I showed him a few things along the way, and yes, I “graciously granted” him access to my pencils, colored pencils and drawing pads (with some prodding by Mom and Dad), but really, Glenn made himself. I was a good soundboard for his own good ideas, just as he was for me. While I can’t take credit for his talent or techniques, I will accept credit for helping him to gain the initial interest in art (I was, after all, probably his first introduction to anything artistic), and for being supportive of his pursuit of his talent’s development. There’s really nothing noble in that….he’s always just been my little art buddy.
Glenn and I have really gone different directions with our talents though. Over the years, I’ve become much more specialized, while Glenn has chosen to broaden his range of expertise. While I’ve taken advantage of my artistic talent to produce sellable artistic products and, yes, some good artwork, Glenn has excelled in his exploration of his own remarkable artistic capabilities. He’s done something that I’ve wished for and dreaded all at the same time. He has, through school and experimentation, artistically diversified himself. Glenn has not only enabled himself to express his many creative ideas, but he’s also enabled himself to do it through many different mediums. Where I’m limited to my pencils, colored pencils, some acrylic paint, and some great computer programs, Glenn has really extended himself. In addition to the skills I've learned he’s also worked with clay, oils & water color, chalk, and ink. He’s also diversified the applications of his art. He’s gotten into live model drawing and artistic anatomy, rendering and animation, storyboarding, video production & editing, and is currently studying at BYU while being courted by Pixar. I've focused my talent mainly towards the creation of product lines, reproducible pieces of art, and industry-specific logo design. I've been working towards establishing a name for myself and to implement business systems that are propelled by my artistic styles. I've learned how to use my talent to increase my chances of building a profitable business through website design, corporate logo design, software interface design, and the design of artistic products.
While art is certainly my means, it isn’t always my end. With Glenn, however, art is created for the sake of being artistic. I admire that. I have ideas and systems that I endeavor to establish, and my artistic talents enable me to achieve those goals. Glenn creates art because he love to create art…it just so happens that other people LOVE his art too, and therefore commission him for their projects. For me, art is a tool. For Glenn, it is the prize, in and of itself. Both of us love art.
Recently, while chatting with Glenn online, we started talking about a blog entry I had written a few weeks back called, “Working for Money”. In it, I wrote a poem that I had created to make a point. The poem is called “What am I working for?”. In a nutshell, it’s about a wandering tradesman who, while in the middle of his daily routine, stops to reflect on the purpose of that routine. He questions his inherited motives for working and earning. After deliberation and a powerful realization, he ultimately decides against continuing on his current path, and instead, takes a new one that will enable him to achieve a comfortable and enjoyable life in his old age. I originally wrote this poetic analogy to illustrate a point only. Once it was finished, however, I envisioned actually illustrating its verses for a childrens book. Being busy with other things, of course, this idea dropped into its place in my brain vomit book to be regurgitated later. Glenn told me that when he read the story, it jumped out at him. He said the words produced powerful imagery to him and that he could appreciate the message of the analogy. I was suddenly very proud of it and hopeful again of my original idea to illustrate it into a childrens book. However, the wheels in my head started turning in a different direction this time.
Needless to say, I’ve invited Glenn to work with me on the project. He as the illustrator, and me as the author. Between his amazing artistic talent and my words and direction, we might have something here. He was delighted that I would ask him to help me with it, and accepted. I was delighted because I had just employed one of my favorite artists. We’ve already discussed the idea in great detail and we’re both excited about it. We’re also both very realistic about it. It is, after all, yet another idea on our already-full plates. We’ve agreed that this project is estimated to take a long time to complete. Fortunately for me, the story itself is already finished. When asked when I wanted the illustrations to be finished, I simply told Glenn that we should just take it one image at a time, rather than trying to squeeze out the whole project at once. I think that will be much easier for us both...especially with our schedules. We’ll constantly have ideas to bounce back and forth along the way, and we’ll have the liberty to take the time to really develop the imagery the way I've envisioned it.
__________________________________________________________________________
I’ve learned…
that while some people converse with others to exchange ideas, some merely converse to be heard and deliver ideas. This second type of person isn’t interested in learning or sharing, but only in knowing and telling.
I’m glad…
that the CD which is stuck in my new car’s in-dash CD player is of MP3 songs that I compiled specifically to play to over and over. Hhhhhhh…… (C’mon Ty, stay positive…) Could be worse. The CD player could have chosen to permanently swallow a CD that only has ONE song on it that I like.
I wish…
that there were more than 24 hours in a day. Of course, knowing me, if I actually had more than 24 hours in a day, I’d probably fill them all up too, and still wish for more hours. Perhaps I should, instead, be thankful for the amount of hours I have in a lifetime.
I will…
not make a very good millionaire unless I first learn how to be a good steward over the few thousand that I’ve earned, managed and lost already.
Glenn and I have really gone different directions with our talents though. Over the years, I’ve become much more specialized, while Glenn has chosen to broaden his range of expertise. While I’ve taken advantage of my artistic talent to produce sellable artistic products and, yes, some good artwork, Glenn has excelled in his exploration of his own remarkable artistic capabilities. He’s done something that I’ve wished for and dreaded all at the same time. He has, through school and experimentation, artistically diversified himself. Glenn has not only enabled himself to express his many creative ideas, but he’s also enabled himself to do it through many different mediums. Where I’m limited to my pencils, colored pencils, some acrylic paint, and some great computer programs, Glenn has really extended himself. In addition to the skills I've learned he’s also worked with clay, oils & water color, chalk, and ink. He’s also diversified the applications of his art. He’s gotten into live model drawing and artistic anatomy, rendering and animation, storyboarding, video production & editing, and is currently studying at BYU while being courted by Pixar. I've focused my talent mainly towards the creation of product lines, reproducible pieces of art, and industry-specific logo design. I've been working towards establishing a name for myself and to implement business systems that are propelled by my artistic styles. I've learned how to use my talent to increase my chances of building a profitable business through website design, corporate logo design, software interface design, and the design of artistic products.
While art is certainly my means, it isn’t always my end. With Glenn, however, art is created for the sake of being artistic. I admire that. I have ideas and systems that I endeavor to establish, and my artistic talents enable me to achieve those goals. Glenn creates art because he love to create art…it just so happens that other people LOVE his art too, and therefore commission him for their projects. For me, art is a tool. For Glenn, it is the prize, in and of itself. Both of us love art.
Recently, while chatting with Glenn online, we started talking about a blog entry I had written a few weeks back called, “Working for Money”. In it, I wrote a poem that I had created to make a point. The poem is called “What am I working for?”. In a nutshell, it’s about a wandering tradesman who, while in the middle of his daily routine, stops to reflect on the purpose of that routine. He questions his inherited motives for working and earning. After deliberation and a powerful realization, he ultimately decides against continuing on his current path, and instead, takes a new one that will enable him to achieve a comfortable and enjoyable life in his old age. I originally wrote this poetic analogy to illustrate a point only. Once it was finished, however, I envisioned actually illustrating its verses for a childrens book. Being busy with other things, of course, this idea dropped into its place in my brain vomit book to be regurgitated later. Glenn told me that when he read the story, it jumped out at him. He said the words produced powerful imagery to him and that he could appreciate the message of the analogy. I was suddenly very proud of it and hopeful again of my original idea to illustrate it into a childrens book. However, the wheels in my head started turning in a different direction this time.
Needless to say, I’ve invited Glenn to work with me on the project. He as the illustrator, and me as the author. Between his amazing artistic talent and my words and direction, we might have something here. He was delighted that I would ask him to help me with it, and accepted. I was delighted because I had just employed one of my favorite artists. We’ve already discussed the idea in great detail and we’re both excited about it. We’re also both very realistic about it. It is, after all, yet another idea on our already-full plates. We’ve agreed that this project is estimated to take a long time to complete. Fortunately for me, the story itself is already finished. When asked when I wanted the illustrations to be finished, I simply told Glenn that we should just take it one image at a time, rather than trying to squeeze out the whole project at once. I think that will be much easier for us both...especially with our schedules. We’ll constantly have ideas to bounce back and forth along the way, and we’ll have the liberty to take the time to really develop the imagery the way I've envisioned it.
__________________________________________________________________________
I’ve learned…
that while some people converse with others to exchange ideas, some merely converse to be heard and deliver ideas. This second type of person isn’t interested in learning or sharing, but only in knowing and telling.
I’m glad…
that the CD which is stuck in my new car’s in-dash CD player is of MP3 songs that I compiled specifically to play to over and over. Hhhhhhh…… (C’mon Ty, stay positive…) Could be worse. The CD player could have chosen to permanently swallow a CD that only has ONE song on it that I like.
I wish…
that there were more than 24 hours in a day. Of course, knowing me, if I actually had more than 24 hours in a day, I’d probably fill them all up too, and still wish for more hours. Perhaps I should, instead, be thankful for the amount of hours I have in a lifetime.
I will…
not make a very good millionaire unless I first learn how to be a good steward over the few thousand that I’ve earned, managed and lost already.
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