Most recent logo design

I just got the final approval today on this most recent logo design. This is the type of logo design I really love, and rarely get to design. Simple and clean. More often than not, less really is more.

General Update

Since late December of last year, I’ve been working on illustrating a children’s book with a friend of mine which has kept me very busy. The book has a total of 26 pages, all of which have been fully conceptualized and sketched now. I had intended on having all of the pencil sketches scanned and digitized for document back-up purposes (and, quite frankly, because I love the look of sketches and always hate to ink over them. I really wanted to have a “snap shot” version of these illustrations in sketch form), but after getting a quote from the reprographics place, the author and I decided it wasn’t a necessity and wasn’t, therefore, worth the extra cost incursion. I’m a little bummed to be honest, but over $100 for nothing but scans just seemed absurd. If my sketches had been smaller, I could have done it myself at home for nothing, for heaven’s sake! Unfortunately for me, though, these sketches are 17”x14”… just a bit too large for your average scanner. So, I’m currently working on getting all of the sketches inked. Once that is finished, I’ll erase all the underlying pencil work (sniff, sniff) and then suck up the fact that they HAVE to be scanned (at least once) in order for me to continue working on them. When they’re scanned (or “digitized”) I can start the tedious task of vectorizing. That’s probably going to be the most time-consuming stage of this project, I think. Just one of these illustrations alone will probably take nearly 4-5 hours to vectorize, and I’ve got 26 of them to do. I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me.

Aside from the children’s book illustrations, I’m also still working with a company on the east coast on an invention that I started developing a few years ago. It’s nothing major, but its fun to mess with. Who knows if anything will come of it, but I’m learning a lot just by going through this process. This will be my second patent-pending project (the first being my LittleLDS software).

My Training Wheels stories have been sitting idly for a while, due to my focus on the children’s book project. Six of them have been fully written, and need to be illustrated. I’ve got ideas for more, but I’ll have to get back to them when I’m finished with my current children’s book illustrations are done. In the meantime, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for ways to market them. My gut feeling right now, is to NOT market them to the general public, but rather to an “Otaku” crowd first, like private schools, wealthy communities, and special-interest groups.

I’ve done a few logo designs this year. I’m currently wrapping up a logo design for one client, and eager to do more. I’ve come to a realization that logo design is where I really enjoy working the most. It pays well, it comes naturally to me, and EVERYONE and their dog is starting their own “business.” I love that the projects don’t last long and that everyone I work with is excited to work with me because my service represents an exciting new venture for their businesses. I love that it enables me to work from home (or anywhere a laptop goes for that matter), and that I have clients from all over the world. I plan on devoting a lot more time and creative effort into this area of my business.

LittleLDS coloring books and BigLDS t-shirts are pretty stagnant. Oddly enough, this isn’t disconcerting to me at all. I think it’s because they are finished products that I really don’t need to DO anything else with. It’s almost like they’re kids of mine that have grown up and left the house… off to make their way in the world and do their own thing. Of course I’m still concerned about them, but I figure a little time out there in the real world without my meddling might do them (and me) some good. Granted, they need a lot more marketing and advertising to become more noticed by the LDS community at large, but, even with NO marketing at all, I get a few sales here and there throughout the year. My interest doesn’t lie here right now, and I tend to skip around to where my interests lie. I’m sure it’ll return. In the meantime, meager sales will have to suffice.

I also haven’t done any Word Tangles in a long time. Similar to LittleLDS, I’m okay with that. The bait and hook are out there idling on an un-manned fishing pole in the pond of commerce. When the pole wiggles, (and always seems to a few times during the year) I’ll give it the attention it needs.

The Fulcrum Group, a think-tank-like resource, motivation and accountability management group that I organized, still meets regularly and is still one of the best things I’ve done for the productivity of my own business. Because of this group, I’ve been able to stay on target with my illustration project and stay motivated entrepreneurially. As the head of the organization, I’m responsible for each meeting – preparing a weekly agenda, motivational discussions, buzz topics, and project accountability – I’m not just helping others stay motivated and moving forward… its working for me too! I’m on target with my weekly goals, which will turn into success with my yearly goals. In a very direct, and yet unplanned way, running this group has started preparing and positioning me to be a type of Idea Cultivation Coach of sorts. There may be something in that for me in the future.

Finally, my latest effort has been the development of my new blog, ListQuest. This has been an exciting new way for me to push myself just a little further into the multifaceted world of investing and income-generation. ListQuest is a place where I can write all the things I’m researching about multiple streams of income. As its name implies, it’s my own personal quest to acquire as many streams of income as I have on my list. Things like precious metals, tax-lien certificates, intellectual properties, etc… I’m hoping that as I write what I learn, I’ll be able to give new insight to those who might not otherwise discover some of these ways to generate passive income. The idea is to help others shorten their learning curve in these areas while I do the leg work. What’s in it for me? Well, I love to write, I love to learn, I love to teach, and I love the subject of economics. It’s a good fit.

ListQuest

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to organize things. After reading a book called Multiple Streams of Income, by Robert Allen, which identifies many of the different ways one can generate residual income, I had an idea.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I'm already working toward financial freedom through the artistic projects I've started. These projects already cover several of the assets mentioned by this book. Products, Services (logo design), Intellectual Properties, and Inventions to name a few. Since I'm already doing this anyway, it made sense to widen my scope to include other types of assets that I'm interested in learning about.

So, I've decided that I would begin a quest, or sorts. The quest would be to create a "master list" of all the different types of residual income that I could learn about through research and then prioritize them in order of acheivability (for me, anyway). Next, as I learn about each, I could start creating a lay-man's guide, or a "how-to" manual on aquiring them... How I learn about them, the challenges I encounter during their aquisition, and how I overcome those challenges to obtain my goal assets, etc. The idea is in the quest itself. I call it my LIST QUEST. The quest to aquire at least ONE of each asset on the list, beginning with the easiest. Finally, I would document my checklist publically on a blog of the same name. I'm excited about this because it'll push me to learn about new and challenging ways to become financially free, and allow me to help others do the same.

FEAR

“Fear is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn’t do. More often than not it shows you exactly what you should do.”

~ Timothy Ferriss

Overcoming Parkinson's Law

Parkinson’s Law states that the perceived complexity of a task will expand to fill the time you allot to it. In other words, if you give yourself a week to complete a two-hour task, then (psychologically speaking) the task will increase in complexity and become more daunting so as to fill that week. It may not even fill the extra time with more work, but just stress and tension about having to get it done. By assigning the right amount of time to a task, we gain back more time and the task will reduce in complexity to its natural state.

The law works because people give tasks longer than they really need, sometimes because they want some ‘leg room’ or buffer, but usually because they have an inflated idea of how long the task takes to complete. People don’t become fully aware of how quickly some tasks can be completed until they test this principle.

Want to really challenge yourself? Try making a list of your tasks, and then divide them up by the amount of time it takes to complete them. Then give yourself half that time to complete each task. They key here is to set the time limit, in you mind, as crucial. Treat it like any other deadline. Part of reversing what we’ve been indoctrinated with is to see the deadlines you set for yourself as unbreakable - just like the deadlines your boss or clients set.

Use that human, instinctual longing for competition that fuels such industries as sports and gaming to make this work for you. You have to win against the clock; strive to beat it as if it were your opponent, without taking shortcuts and producing low-quality output. This is particularly helpful if you’re having trouble taking your own deadlines seriously.

At first, this will be partially an exercise in determining how accurate your time projections for tasks are. Some may be spot on to begin with, and some may be inflated. Those that are spot on may be the ones that you are unable to beat the clock with when you halve the time allotment, so experiment with longer times. Don’t jump straight back to the original time allotment because there may be an optimum period in between.

You can experiment with Parkinson’s Law and squashing your deadlines down to the bare minimum in many areas of your life. Just be conscious of the line between ‘bare minimum’ and ‘not enough time’ - what you’re aiming for is a job well done in less time, not a disaster that’s going to lose you employment or clients.

The most important teachers

The following is an excerpt from the book Rich Kid Smart Kid, by Robert Kiyosaki. It continues on with the theme of education reform.

“Almost every parent I’ve met is certain that his or her child is smart and a genius. When that child reaches school, however, the child’s natural genius is often shoved aside or takes a subordinate roll to the single genius and single learning style emphasized by the educational system as the ‘right way’ to learn.”

“My smart dad and many other educators realize that the current school system does not cater to the various different geniuses that children are born with. It’s unfortunate that our current educational system is mired in controversy and old ideas. While our current system may be aware of many of these educational breakthroughs, the politics and red tape surrounding the profession of education prevent many of these new innovative ways of assessing your child’s genius from becoming part of the system.”

I like this quote because it reminds me that the most important teachers my kids will ever have will be (or, at least OUGHT to be) my wife and me. However, in order to be a better teacher to my own kids, I need to continue on with my own education and studies, as Mr. Kiyosaki suggests, and DO what I teach. I need to ‘walk my talk.’ Like most kids, mine “…learn more by watching than they do by listening. Children are tuned into watching for discrepancies between words and actions. Children love to catch parents saying one thing and doing something else.”

Currently, little to nothing is taught about money in school. As always, their focus is to teach them skills they’ll need in life to EARN money, but those skills needed to help them manage their earned money after that. If I want my kids to learn the basic principles of wise spending, saving, and investing, I’ve got to teach them those skills myself. And if I want to do that, I’ve go to learn those skills myself first.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

I recently discovered an online venue that has positively captivated my attention. Positively, because what I've gleaned from it has been VERY positive in deed. Although the venue itself is truely remarkable, and highly recommended for it's interesting topics, curious presentations, educational speakers, entertaining qualities, and fascinating explanations... it is not what this post is about.

The following video contains a point view about education that I cannot agree with more. It's compelling, sensible, logical, intreguing, honest, and even entertaining. I'm posting this video in support of my efforts to sculpt my own corner of education reform... My Training Wheels series of books. If ever there were a good explaination of why this type of out-of-the-box thinking is necessary and relavant for the modified education of children of today, this is it:

Do Schools Kill Creativity? (19:24)
(by Sir Ken Robinson)

Levelers & Untouchables

As always, I’ve been listening to an audio book to keep my mind sharp while I trudge along at work. The book is called “The World Is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. It’s a brief history of the 21st century, and has a lot of really good snippets between a lot of really dry information. Not riveting, by any means, but interesting and educational. I love the library!

Anyway, the book’s general premise is about the different ways in which the world is “flattening,” or in other words, the different ways in which the world’s economic, technological, informational, and entrepreneurial playing fields are being leveled as time goes on. It discusses 8 “Levelers” that have either transpired or are currently transpiring to level these playing fields to the advantage of the every-man. Each of these levelers has, or is, contributing to what the author has labeled a “flat world” – a world in which everyone has an equal opportunity at success and prosperity. These are the 8 “Levelers;”

1 - The PC and Windows Leveler – enabling, speeding up and the facilitating of personal computation and productivity
2 - The Internet Leveler – The shrinking of the world by connecting every one to everyone else
3 - The Workflow Software Leveler – Applications talking to other applications & standardization of programs and processes
4 - The Open-Source Leveler – challenging proprietary technology and big business with the synergizing of knowledge and talent through shareware
5 - The Out-Source Leveler – Enabling small business to look big without big costs
6 - The Supply Chain Leveler – Making non-local specialties, customs, and opportunities local and more accessible (e.g. UPS)
7 - The In-Source Leveler – The absorption of specialized tasks of other businesses to increase the productivity and efficiency of both parties
8 - The Informing Leveler – The facilitating of constant access to knowledge and information (i.e. Google & Wikipedia)

The book also mentions 5 “steroids” that enhance, magnify and intensify these levelers… These are digitalization, mobility, personalization, virtualization, wirelessness. What a profound realization!

Here’s a really great quote from the book, “…When I was growing up my parents used to say to me, ‘Tom, finish your dinner - people in China and India are starving!’ My advice to you is, ‘finish your homework – people in China and India are starving for your jobs!’”

The author’s plan for safe-guarding one’s self against being eventually out-sourced in a highly competitive world is to become, what he calls, an “Untouchable.” According to him, there are 4 types of untouchables;

1 - Special - Especially talented, skilled or unique (e.g. Michael Jordan)
2 - Specialized – Becoming so specifically trained and capable that your skill are a necessity and therefore non-fungible
3 - Anchored – being tied to a location (doctors, construction worker, waiter, etc…)
4 - Adaptable – constantly acquiring new skills, knowledge and expertise to always create value and relevancy… in short, learn how to learn.

It really is amazing the way everything is becoming so accessible to everyone. This is extremely obvious when you look at the number of self-made millionaires and even more self-made business-owners. Folks nowadays are able to perform their own due-diligence instead of paying a “professional.” They’re starting, managing and legalizing their own businesses without accountants or attorneys. It really is amazing! I’m not sure if all of this leveling is a good thing or a bad thing!

The "Good Idea" Paradox

Although I’ve always known it as common sense, I’ve only recently admitted to myself conscientiously that a “great idea” isn’t always a “good idea.” Allow me to clarify…

For a very long time now, I’ve been morphing increasingly into, what my many of my friends call an “idea man.” I love ideas. I love the excitement they conjure up inside me. I love the energy, innovation, creativity, and development of new ideas. Not only do I love coming up with my own ideas, but I love helping other people develop their ideas too. Intrinsically speaking, of course, I recognize this as a good thing. I mean, who doesn’t want to have good ideas, right? Practically speaking, however, it’s a very inconvenient thing for me. The very prospect of a new idea can derail me from whatever I’m currently working on faster than a pebble can derail a whole train from a set of steel tracks. It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m doing… If a new idea occurs to me internally or is introduced to me externally, the result is the same… DROP EVERYTHING! It’s my natural instinct.

I noticed the beginnings of this phenomenon about 10 years ago. At first, I had some good ideas, and they were manageable as that... just a few individual projects. However, before they were fully explored or developed, more ideas would accumulate. It seemed the muses started gathering in masses and forming lines at my side, each with their own project ideas. Invention ideas, sketch concepts, business ideas, books I could write, ways I could organize the way I did things, ways to be more effective and efficient… Before long, it felt like the muses were actually competing with each other and yelling over the top of one another to be heard rather than quietly and subtly whispering into my ear. Soon, it felt like I was a super-charged idea magnet sucking in every idea that hung floating in the air around me like iron filings.

Okay… sure, I’m being a little dramatic here. It’s not like I’m the John Travolta character from the movie “Phenomenon” or anything, but still… I have had a LOT of ideas over the years.

A few years ago, I started to capture and “pickle” my ideas for later development using a technique that I've coined “BrainVomiting.” It’s really just free-flowing your thoughts into written (or typed) documentation for later sorting and processing. This blog, for instance, is a form of this process, but back then my BrainVomit consisted mostly of a large note book that I used to tote around to record all my ideas, their dates of conception, and a brief (or sometimes lengthy) description of each as they came. The physical book, over time, became a bit cumbersome to heft around everywhere, so I eventually converted my process into a digital method. I created a single Excel file on a flash drive which I now carry with me everywhere I go. This one file is made up of many, MANY tabs. Each tab represents ONE concept or idea. Some are very well developed, while others are simply meant to be book markers to just get the idea documented so as to not be forgotten.

Some of my own ideas have been fleshed out, by not many. Some have made it through the spreadsheet exploration phase, past the drawing board, and even on to production and publication. Ideas of mine with actual real-world development and/or recognition are rare and highly valuable to me. And herein lies my problem.

I rarely get past the BrainVomit part of any idea before another one comes bursting into my brain like a ticked-off S.W.A.T. team! Next thing I know, I’ve completely shelved a perfectly good adolescent idea for another infantile one. There’s little growth.

The other day, my wife approached me with an idea she had heard about on the news. Of course, she knows me well enough to know that I can’t just hear an idea without exploring it, if even just a little. Without going into detail about the idea itself, it's sufficient to say that it had a lot of merit. It wasn’t her idea, and it certainly wasn’t a new one in and of itself, but it was a good solid idea. In fact, it was such a good idea that I, fell right into my typical pavlovian response of promptly dropping every other project I had been working on like lead weights and took it with me to one of my next Fulcrum Group meeting. I was sure that this new exciting idea would get some attention and traction there. I told my friend about it and he lit right up just as expected.

"It's a no-brainer! LET’S do it!!"

Newly refuled with the familiar and intoxicating excitement and zeal that I always feel at the prospect of a new GREAT IDEA, I started to develop it in a new tab in my digital BrainVomit file. However, something different happened this time. The more I worked on developing it, the more I started to rethink it the whole thing. Not the potential of the idea itself – no question there... it’s still a GREAT idea – no, I started to rethink my idea-flowing method. All of a sudden it hit me, as though I hadn’t ever considered it before (although I must have done at some point before) that jumping to a brand new idea now might not be…ironically… a good idea. Not the BEST idea anyway.

I ended up talking to my Fulcrum Group friend about my concerns, and it turned out that he was feeling exactly the same way about this new project, and had anticipated bringing it to my attention. I was really glad that he, in fact, felt the same way. We mutually agreed that, despite the legitimately GREAT opportunity this particular idea had presented us with, it was ultimately not wise to pursue. I’ll be honest… It was unsettling to do this. I wasn’t used to intentionally deciding NOT to chase another great idea.

What I’ve learned; it isn’t always a good idea to chase a GREAT one.

The Analogy of Leverage

Last night the Fulcrum Group met together and had a very productive session. At the beginning of the meeting, and after learning that Archimedes discovered the lever, I heard a quote by Archimedes which began a very thought-provoking discussion. The quote was,

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

The question was then asked of the group at large,

“If this group is, in fact, a fulcrum - which represents motivation, accountability and resource - then what does the lever represent, and what does the object being lifted represent?”

After listening to the opinions of the others, I gave them mine. I told them I thought that the object being lifted represented each individual project that we’ve assigned to ourselves and that the lever represented the talents and/or abilities that we have. Our talents and abilities, alone, may reach and be applied to our projects, but without the motivation, accountability and additional resources of the fulcrum, we are left armed only with our own strength. The Fulcrum Group has provided me with the ability to multiply my own strength and give me the leverage over my own projects that I lack without it.

Stirring the Back-Burners

Well, along with my "front-burner" projects (namely, the illustrating of a children's book with an friend from the Fulcrum Group, writing, editing and illustrating my own Training Wheels series), I'm also trying to keep some of my other already-existing ventures fresh. Among other things, I'm currently designing a logo for a convenience store company in Florida which is always fun for me. Not only do I really enjoy designing logos themselves, but every once in a while, I find it refreshing and even creatively necessary to jump from one project to another. It allows me some much needed change of scenery and the switching of concepts.

Most recently, my LittleLDS brand has been getting some subconscious mental attention. I've discovered that while I work on one project, inspiration and motivation will often build and eventually crescendo into an outright epiphany at some point in favor of the projects that I've had simmering on my mental "back-burners" for a while. I think this is the responsible side of my brain's way of keeping things exciting and fresh for the childishly impatient attention-span’s side.

Anyway, while working on something completely unrelated the other day, I had an idea that would be a lot of fun to do with LittleLDS. Until now, the products that I sell with LittleLDS have been designed specifically for LDS (Latter-Day Saint) children. Of course, logically, the marketing of these products has been geared only towards young LDS parents (mostly mothers) because those children can’t buy for themselves. The other day, however, it finally hit me that I’ve been completely ignoring the parents themselves as direct consumers all along! Here I am, trying to get parents to buy stuff for their kids when I could have been simultaneously marketing different products to the parents themselves! Immediately after making this realization this weekend I went to work to expand the brand to include the new simple, consistent, and logical next step… BigLDS!

LittleLDS is all about using coloring pages to help LDS kids understand their faith better. So, what is BigLDS? Simply put, it’s the vehicle I’ll be using to package all my other LDS-related ideas into. All the ideas I’ve had that just don’t quite fit well into the LittleLDS brand. Things like the Latter-Day Side comic that I created months ago, which hasn’t had a logically place to be displayed. It’s also where I’m featuring the WMC stuff. The WMC was a gag-concept that, oddly enough, is morphing into a real thing right before my eyes (more on that later). Anyway, check it out. Go to the BigLDS store link (in the right column of this blog) to see what I’m building there. I’m still tweaking everything, so explore with the same restrained scrutiny that you would if you were walking around the construction site of a funhouse. Enjoy.

The Fulcrum Group (Part II)

This is the logo I designed for The Fulcrum Group. I'm a big fan of simplicity in my logo designing, and I think the light "F" and the dark "G" in this one are a good contrast to one another. The trick was coming up with a good balance of weight between the positive and negative spaces. My thanks to the Amazing Glennardo for helping me narrow down some of my concept's weaknesses and suggesting this version's +/- effect.

Meeting "Notes"

Reason #155 to NOT work for someone else;
"Holiday Meetings"




On Christmas Eve I had to work. It was a rediculous day to be at work from the get-go, but to make things worse, my boss actually scheduled a real meeting that day for the whole team. I'm not sure if he was trying to keep us focused or if he was just being mean. Either way, it was retarded. This image is the result of the "notes" I took during that meeting. I call it "Barbbed." I guess that is the way I was feeling about having to be in a meeting on Christmas Eve. Hhhh...

Taking Care of "Business"

The other day, while "seated" in the men's room I was looking at the randomly patterned marble tiled floor, as I always do during "business time", and found myself image-hunting. I've done this all my life. In the random designs of the floor, I see images and then I draw them. Faces, space ships, hands, animals, and creatures. Weird, I know, but I'm an artist, and inspiration has to come from somewhere. I don't pick the places where the muses choose to whisper to me. Pitty, though, that the muses feel it necessary to converse with me while "I'm taking care of business." This is the sketch that resulted from the image I saw last Friday. I call it "The Nukkelip"

The Fulcrum Group

Although I’ve always liked the idea of having a business partner, I’ve never been able to find a good match for myself. I like the idea of having someone else to bounce my ideas off of to give me feedback. I’m not talking about the, “Yeah, that looks nice,” type of stuff. You know, “real” feedback. The kind that you can’t get from your mom, and that is legal tender in the real world. I’m a big boy…I can take it. I like the idea of having someone pushing me for deadlines and helping me exercise accountability for my goals. I like the idea of having someone to consult with before making a big decision. I like the creative process of playing the devil’s advocate in conversation and brainstorming. Sure, working on your own has its benefits too, but still… having a partner would be fun.

I’ve never had a business partner, though. I’ve tried it before – a couple of times – but it’s never really worked out. It’s never seemed like a real partnership. It’s always been more like one person piggy-backing on the ideas of another. I don’t want to work on someone else’s project and I don’t want them taking equal credit or profits for something I did 90% of. Maybe I’m picky, but I’m also realistic. Still, I like the idea of a partnership. I think I like the idea of partnership more than the actual thing.

This is why I have some of the friends that I do. I like surrounding myself with motivated and like-minded people. And although this helps, even this sometimes doesn’t cut it. Recently I started my own little think tank. Once a week, a few of my like-minded friends and I get together to bounce ideas off one another, talk about trends, set written and verbal goals, and report on the progress of previously set goals. We have a written agenda with each meeting, some sort of dinner, and some great intellectual conversation. Really, our group is a smaller version of Benjamin Franklin’s “Junto” group, from which I got the idea.

We’ve called our little get-togethers “The Fulcrum Group” because of its roll in each of our respective projects. A fulcrum is a strong and steady object or pivot point which provides the leverage necessary to make lifting or moving possible where it might not otherwise be. Each of us has our own projects to work on and our own deadlines. The group provides the sounding board the motivation, and the brainstorming that we all respectively lack without it. It also provides a sense of accountability and camaraderie.

Too Young? I think not!

I think Whitney Houston said it best when she sang the words, “…I believe that children are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way…” A bit cheesy perhaps, but still true.

Ever since I started working on my Training Wheels series, I’ve been on the look-out for other sources of education for my kids in the areas of business & entrepreneurship. I’ve been looking for others who share with me the sense of urgency to give my kids a head start on a good foundation of financial concepts and education. After doing some research, I’ve discovered that apparently I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a great idea to start teaching kids early about “grown-up” concepts like the ones I teach in my Training Wheels stories. Check these out!!

Rich Kid, Smart Kid (Rich Dad, Poor Dad’s Robert Kiyosaki teaches kids about assets, liabilities, and how money works through the Cash Flow for Kids board game. We have this game, and my 6 year-old daughter LOVES it!!)

The BizWorld Foundation (business and entrepreneurial training & education for kids… also check out this video. This is an incredible program!!)

Give Me 20 (Helping kids learn about money & credit through allowance and other resources)

A Smart Kid (The Foundation for Change helps teach kids about financial literacy through the “Moolah Matters” program.)

Moonjar (Teaching kids about money through their “Save, Spend and Share” program & products)

Kids are a LOT smarter than we give them credit for. They pick up on things quickly, and are too naïve to believe in the “I can’t do it” logic that many adults have subscribed to. If kids can learn about weather and kinetic energy, they can certainly learn about the simplified concepts of economics and entrepreneurialism! This weekend I’m meeting with my programmer about the new Training Wheels interactive website that I’m building. He’s flying into town tomorrow and we should have a great company-funded weekend here in Vegas!!

A Timely Statement

The following statement was forwarded to me this morning by my grandad. It's succinct, profound, and I couldn't agree more with it:

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

- The late Dr. Adrian Rogers

"That's work-related, right?

Reason #262 to not work for someone else;
"The Miromanager"

So, it’s Friday again. Another week has passed and it’s time to start winding down. I’ve got my typical Friday-friendly t-shirt and jeans with Hard Rock Café hat on. It wouldn’t be Friday otherwise. The anticipation of next week’s short 3-day pre-Thanksgiving work week hangs in the air and has everyone feeling pretty good. When I got to the office, I started out with my normal prepare-for-the-day, and more importantly, prepare-for-the-weekend routine. Styrofoam cup full of steaming no-name brand instant hot chocolate to warm me up…check. Boot-up the computer…check. Open work email and check for company notices…check. Layout my first project folder…check. Make my list of things to do today…check. Open my “Brain Vomit” spreadsheet so I can jot down any random epiphanies I might have during the workday…ch… Suddenly, my boss, “Poptart” is standing behind me staring at my screen with paycheck in hand and smugly says, “That’s work-related, right?”

Hhhhhh…… Seriously??

After a very awkward few seconds, as I alt-tabbed my way back to a work-related screen, Poptart left and I resumed my now-interrupted workday. Not even two minutes later, through my peripheral vision, I noticed him walking towards my cubical again, and this time I didn’t even look up at him. In knew exactly what he was doing, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. Without stopping, he nonchalantly circumvented my work area. When he was no longer within my peripheral vision I knew he had to be behind me. Without moving my head, I looked up over my computer monitor at his reflection in the class partition that divided my space and the next just in time to see him look ever his shoulder at my screen.

As if this wasn’t’ bad enough, he did exactly the same thing AGAIN just 4 or 5 minutes later!! What the crap?? Why is he busting my chops today??? Did he think I wouldn’t notice? Don’t managers, supervisors and bosses know that a happy employee is a productive employee? His obvious attempts to catch me off-task only fueled my desire to NOT be productive!!

You know, normally, I’m a great worker. I consistently have some of the best numbers in the department. I’m always on time, I meet deadlines, and get along well with my co-workers. And yet somehow this retard feels the need to micromanage me based one single out-of-context moment when I was not looking at a work-related screen. I would actually have understood his suspicions had he at least caught me on an offensive or distasteful website (which I don’t do either). That, at least would seem validated. But a spreadsheet of randomly jotted ideas??

Please!!! This is like when retarded cops pull people over and ticket them for having one headlight out. Seriously? There aren’t enough drug users and domestic violence cases out there to focus on? Ugh…

The Winning Edge

I heard two pretty awesome concepts today while listening to some audio books. The first concept was about what it takes to beat the competition in business. I thought this analogy was really brilliant;

“If a horse runs in a horse race and comes in first, by a nose, it wins ten times the prize money of the horse that comes in second…by a nose. Now does this mean that the horse that comes in first by a nose is ten times better than the horse that comes in second? Does it mean that it’s even twice as good? Does it mean that it’s fifty percent better or even ten percent better? The truth of the matter is that it’s only a “nose” better, but the difference in prize money is enormous.

The person who gets the sale for their company gets one hundred percent of the business and one hundred percent of the commission. The person who does not gets zero. This does not mean that the person who does not get the sale is only half as good as the person who gets the sale. It just means that they were slightly different while selling. The key to success is to develop that winning edge.”

The second one was about developing our intelligence. In this book, the author was expressing a belief that there are multiple facets of one’s intelligence. I like the breakdown and thought it even supported the first audio book’s point about developing the winning edge. The more of these areas of intelligence that we can develop, the better suited we can be to gain the winning edge in that area.

1- Lingual Intelligence – The ability to grasp vocabulary, grammar, and languages
2- Numerical Intelligence – The ability to understand numbers, mathematics and logic
3- Spatial Intelligence – The ability envision 3-dimensionally within the mind’s eye
4- Musical / Rhythmic Intelligence – The ability to read, write and play music and rhythm
5- Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence – The ability to coordinate one’s physical activity at will
6- Interpersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand, communicate and relate to others
7- Intrapersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand and master one’s self
8- Naturalistic Intelligence – The ability to understand one’s environment and nature
9- Visionary Intelligence – The ability to foresee, predict, and anticipate trends and cycles

A Good Day

The last 24 hours have been really good. Despite what happens the rest of the day today, I've placed myself one step closer to two of my goals.

A few weeks ago I purchased 'Cashflow for Kids', a game created by Robert Kiyosaki to help teach kids all about fiscal responsibility. K and I played it by ourselves a few days ago to get a feel for it, and then last night, because she was just going off-track and didn't have any school this morning, K and I allowed my 6 year-old, M, to stay up late. Once the other two kids were in bed K and I decided to play the game with M. It turned out even better than I had hoped. Not only did M seem to grasp the game quickly (which I expected), but K seemed to really enjoy teaching it to her. I was very impressed. It was awesome watching my wife teach my daughter about concepts like assets vs. liabilities and income vs. expenses. K and I have never enjoyed conversing about that stuff to each other. Like every other married couple, finances have not always been the easiest thing to work with. We manage, but never easily. Seeing this game in action was much more than fun for me. It was so satisfying to watch M get excited by her good fortune as she passed paydays, collected money, made purchases and learned from sobering pseudo financial experiences. One step closer to seeing M succeed in life financially.


Today during breaks and lunch I finally finished my 6th Training Wheels story too! It's called "Dig Another Hole" and I'm really looking forward to reading to the M and E tonight at bedtime. I've already given them the title, and they've been asking about it. I do that on purpose so that I'll stay motivated to finish each one. I've already got my next topic picked out and will be starting it tomorrow. One step closer to publishing my Training Wheels stories!

It's been a good day.