Hunters versus Farmers

Every so often a new idea emerges that rationally explains a problem – take for instance ADD/ADHD.

Researchers have been trying to figure out the “cause” of this problem.

Today, while reading Seth Godin’s blog he discussed Thom Hartman’s writing on ADD/ADHD in respect to marketing.

Hartman proposes that what we really call ADD/ADHD is actually the human  being’s “Hunter” genes being dominant in an individual instead of the recently developed (last 10,000 years) “Farmer” gene being dominant.

A “419” Conversation…

A couple of years ago I wrote about the Nigerian “419” scammers and how they try to steal money from the unsuspecting. There have been numerous stories over the past few years of how these Nigerian gangs take advantage of one of the oldest weakness of a human – greed. For you see, even though the Nigerians are doing wrong by preying on people. The “victims” of these crimes, for the most part, are just as much to blame. For you see they are trying to get money from a situation in which they know that they didn’t work for or have a right to. These “victims” are simply greedy as well and that greed is what gets them hooked into the con.

This evening while working on my computer a Skype message came in from a business person in Ghana asking for help. I’ve seen this come-on many times and I know it is a method they use in their con game.

Most of the time I simply ignore and block these type of messages. But for some reason I entertained a scammer this evening. As I went through the conversation something came to me and I had to share with the scammer my thoughts.

This interaction with someone somewhere in the world made me think. If I were born in their shoes would I have turned out any different. If I were poor and hungry, would I have the morals I have? Would I be an honest man? Would I care and love humanity? Or would I be filled with hate and lust and hunger for getting whatever I needed by whatever means possible, from whomever I can get it from?

Here’s the conversation…

MENSAH SNR: DEAR HERSCH
I feel quite safe dealing with you in this business proposal having gone through your profile.Though, this medium (Internet) has been greatly abused by bad fraudulent persons, I chose to reach you through it because it still remains the fastest medium of communication. However, this correspondence is unofficial and private, and it should be treated as such. I also guarantee you that this transaction is hitch free from all legal implication and it is not a scam.
This letter must come to you as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet that they can become great friends and business partners. I am Mr. MENSAH KWAME, currently Branch Manager with a reputable bank here in Ghana. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On March 01ST, 2006, a property consultant and importer of used cars, Mr. ALMIN J  SAMIN   made  a  (Fixed) Deposit for twenty four calendar months, valued at US$3.5m (Three Million Five  Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in my branch and I happen to be his account officer before I was moved to my present position recently. It was to my utter surprise that Mr.ALMIN  was among the death victims in the May 26 2006 Earthquake  disaster in Jawa, Indonesia that killed over 5,000 people. He was in Indonesia on a business trip and that was how he met his  end.

Upon the maturity in 2008, as his account officer, it is my duty to notify him on the maturity date so I sent a routine  notification to his forwarding address but the letter was returned undelivered. After sometime, I tried sending back the  letter, but it was again returned and finally I discovered from his contract  employers, that Mr. ALMIN was as a victim of  above mentioned May 26 2006 Earthquake disaster in Jawa, Indonesia and was the reason why he did not declare any next of kin  or relation in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank and did not leave any WILL.  This
sum of US$3,500,000.00 have been floating and placed under dormant/unserviceable account by my bank management since no one  have heard from the owner since 2007. I wish to let you know that all the investigation I have made so far, my bank  management is not aware of it; I am the only one that have the information.
With the recent change of government in my country and with their efforts to support the United Nations in checkmating terrorism aid in the Africa. before the middle of this year, the government will pass a new financial control law which will  give the government authority to interrogate account owners of above $1,000,000 to explain the source of the funds, making  sure it is not for terrorism support. If I do not move this money out of the country immediately, before the stipulated period  the government will definitely confiscate the money, because my bank cannot provide the account owner to explain the source  of the money. I cannot directly transfer out this money without the help of a foreigner and that is why I am contacting you  for assistance. As the Account Officer to late Mr. ALMIN  coupled with  my present position and status in the bank as a  Branch Manager, I have the power to influence the release of the funds to  any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to  the account, with the correct information concerning the account, which I shall give you. All documents to enable you claim  this fund will be carefully worked out and there is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.
If you accept to work with me, I want you to state how you wish us to share the funds in percentage, so that both parties  will be satisfied. If you are interested, contact me as soon as you receive this message on my mail box NOT IN SKYPE for security reasons with your full information  so we can go over the details. Thanking you in advance and remain blessed.

Please, treat with utmost confidentiality.

I shall send you copy of the deposit certificate issued to Mr.ALMIN  when the deposit was made for your  perusal. I wait your urgent response. Please get back to me through my private mail box; mensah1968@live.com or my direct
telephone number +233 54 211 1054

Regards,
MR MENSAH KWAME
Herschel Horton: Are you serious
MENSAH SNR: IM VERY SERIOUS YOUNG MAN  I NEED A SERIOUS MINDED HONEST MAN TO WORK WITH
MENSAH SNR: IF U ARE REALLY INTRESTED CONTACT ME ON MY MAIL BOX
Herschel Horton: You know, I’ve been looking for an honest business partner to work with for a long time. God must be answering my prayers
MENSAH SNR: mensah1968@live.com
Herschel Horton: I don’t use email though.
Herschel Horton: I don’t trust the US government…
MENSAH SNR: u need one for this transaction
Herschel Horton: Can I trust you? Do you believe that God will bring people together to do great things?
MENSAH SNR: i need your phone and email   to enable me give you all the documents to file the claim from the  Bank ok
Herschel Horton: I don’t use email… can you send me the documents via regular mail?
MENSAH SNR: what is your regular mail  of fax
Herschel Horton: PO Box 125993, Atlanta, Ga. 30359, USA — I don’t have a fax.
Herschel Horton: I do all my business the old fashion way
MENSAH SNR: im sorry i cant go the old school way
MENSAH SNR: your skype email?
MENSAH SNR: your phone number pls
MENSAH SNR: you have told me lies
MENSAH SNR: the first day
MENSAH SNR: Iam afraid icant deal with you
MENSAH SNR: bye
Herschel Horton: No Skype email… You know, I can really understand that you live in a poor place there somewhere in Africa, maybe Nigeria. I also know that you need money to provide for yourself, you wife and maybe your kids. Living where I do, I can’t really relate to your life. You most likely live in poverty and you most likely need money real bad. You need money so badly that you will try to take it from “dumb” people in the US who don’t know better. You’ll try to take advantage of their desire to get money that they don’t really deserve. I understand that you may justify your actions because these people are “fat and stupid and deserve getting their money taken from them.” I don’t know you from any of the other six billion people in the world. But I do know that you have a cold heart. You are lost and you will never truly reap God’s grace by stealing from others. My prayer for you right now as you sit in that shady, Internet cafe is that you will find the strength to stand up and walk out the door. That you will find a way to make a honest living and that you will one day raise your head and tell God that you are worthy of his love because you love yourself enough to do the right thing. May God show you the way.
MENSAH SNR: God will bring an honest person my way
Herschel Horton: He already did… he’s already told you the right words to speak to your heart today… ARE YOU LISTENING?
MENSAH SNR: iam not a poor man ok
MENSAH SNR: im chilling now in Austin  where are you in US  lets talk on phone
*** Call to MENSAH SNR, no answer. ***
Herschel Horton: I’m calling
MENSAH SNR: lets talk on phone
Herschel Horton: skype is a phone
Herschel Horton: what’s your phone number
Herschel Horton: I’ll call you
MENSAH SNR: not cheap internet calls
Herschel Horton: Austin, you still there… what’s your phone number?
Herschel Horton: That’s what I thought…

Did I waste my time? Maybe. But maybe somewhere in this person’s soul there’s a little voice, maybe their childhood voice, telling them to listen. We can only hope!

I’m With Coco

I posted this on my Facebook wall and thought I’d post it here as well…

I don’t watch a lot of late night TV anymore as I’m pretty much done by 11:00 these day… But when I do watch and watch Conan O I do enjoy his humor… From what I know I don’t like what NBC is doing to him… I knew when Jay went to prime time it wouldn’t last more than a year… I guess I’m not so smart cause it didn’t last longer than three months… No wonder NBC isn’t fairing so well in the ratings…

Cynicism Is Hard, Action is Easy

As the years roll under my feet and so many scandals erupt I find it so easy to be cynical to the activities of humanity.

In general, television news has become a twenty four hour cycle of “whack the mole” where the mole is anyone or any event that can garnish the most eye-balls at that particular moment in time.

Some would say that the problem with the news today is that most of what is reported really isn’t news. Stories are not being vetted properly and getting the scoop is more important than actually getting the story right.

Maybe it is just human nature as we grow older to develop an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity and general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others. Is it possible that it is a survival tactic?

My wife barked at me the other day because I was being cynical of what CNN happen to be reporting on at that time. She later explained that all she really wanted was to watch “the news” without side commentary.

This started me thinking about my attitude and actions, especially during the Christmas season. Over the past couple I days I’ve thought ‘you know, it becomes harder and harder to be a cynic if you allow yourself to go down that road.’ You start to get tired of the petty little dumb things people do. Your patience shortens and I think eventually you become an isolated, mean, grumpy, old soul.

So what do you do about this “affliction”?

You take action to at least change things you find you don’t like.

Don’t like poverty – help people in poverty learn to get out of it.
Don’t like bad politicians – find a good politician and support them like no tomorrow or even better become a great politician yourself.
Don’t like bad drivers – learn great defensive driving techniques and stay the hell away from them.

Whatever your don’t like – ACT and do something to either fix it or buffer yourself from it as much as possible.

During the last couple of days thinking about this my mind reminded me of a trip to Seattle. Traditionally, when I go to Seattle, I go down to Pike’s Public Market. I like to hang around, buy things and in general soak up the atmosphere.

In 2003 while down there a guy came up to me and asked for five dollars. David, as I later learned his name, was this tall, gentle soul who looked like he hadn’t slept in a warm bed in months or even years. He told me of his plans to get back to school via a scholarship to play basketball. My wife still remembers the big, new, high-top shoes he was wearing. Although I wasn’t so sure of his story and not really wanting to give him five bucks to be spent on booze or such I told him “David, are you hungry?” to which he said “yea, I am.” So I said “I’ll tell you what, pick a restaurant here and I’ll buy you a lunch and don’t worry about what you get, and get you something for take-out.”

He picked a Chinese restaurant there and we went in and ordered for him. After getting his food we left him alone. Later I came back by and asked the lady at the restaurant if he finished his food and she said “yea, nothing was left over.”

Looking back at that story I realize that moments like that are what makes us all human. Those moments are what separate us from the beasts of this world. In moments of despair when we ACT to help each other we not only help those in need, but just as important, we show ourselves what life is truly about.

Life is about living as human race, working on ourselves to be better humans, helping others that want help become better humans, comforting each other and loving each other.

I believe that living life through cynical eyes becomes very, very hard over time. ACTING, on the other hand, to make life easier for one’s self and humanity, that is easy!

He Doesn’t Work In Mysterious Ways

When I was a young man in college I had doubts. My mom and father’s relationship was a mess and our family life at that time was stressful. I guess asking God for clarity in times of stress is considered normal. I really didn’t know what to expect from him. But I do remember asking him “God, let me know you’re working in my life, let me know that you are real.” Maybe like so many humans I had accepted the notion that “God works in mysterious ways” and I could only hope that one day I would have understanding.

Jon Krieger, my college room mate at the time, dad was doing some consulting work and had been told by Jon that I was this computer guru. Mr. Krieger asked if I’d like some part-time work helping out with some computer/accounting issues and I said sure.

I didn’t know Mr. Krieger very well at that time, but one day after work we started discussing my personal life and the turmoil I was going through.  Mr. Krieger shared with me some of the hard times he had went through as a young man and shared with me his love for God. I remember him telling me how God had saved him and gave him a good life with his family. He and I talked for a couple of hours about life and God and somewhere during that conversation I realized that God was speaking to me through Mr. Krieger. It was as if a light clicked on and my mind was freed from the darkness of uncertainty. After so many prayers God was showing me that he is real, and contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t work in mysterious ways.

You see, God works through people.

Everyday, people like Mr. Krieger are vessels of God’s love.

Over the years Mr. Krieger and I became good friends and looking back today I know that God brought him into my life and with that he enriched my life more than I would ever know.

Jon called me yesterday and told me that his dad was in an accident. Today, he called me with the news that Mr. Krieger didn’t make it. Today I am saddened that I have lost a friend. But I know with no doubts that the life Mr. Krieger led was full of love and joy. Love for his wife, love for his son and his son’s family, and most of all love for his God.

The God that showed me one day in a parking lot that he is no mystery. The God that showed me through a mortal man that God is with us everyday and everywhere. The very same God that showed me that all we have to do is open our eyes to see him.

I will miss Mr. Krieger. But I know that he is with God and I rejoice for him and I am so thankful to God for bringing Mr. Krieger into my life.

"Which businesses are all about, they are about people"

In today’s tough economic times, it seems the shortcut to quarterly profits for many executives is to cut the one resource that is truly the lifeline of a company – employees!

Small business seem to have the right attitude on this issue – people make a business what it is. Sure, a business has to have either great products or great services, or both, but the the creativity of human beings is what keep businesses moving forward.

Here’s a good example of creating a business around people – watch Episode 1

An epiphany about Bureaucracy

So, we’ve all work/worked with or in organizations that seemed bureaucratic, in-efficient and un-organized. While working in or with these organizations we begin to wonder how the organization became so hard to deal with. Why can’t they do the right things?
While working today I had an epiphany.
Bad organizations exist due to a series of bad decisions and over time the origins of these bad decisions become lost. The repercussions of the bad decisions become ingrained into the organization’s culture. People who have worked in the organization come to accept the culture as valid, although they subconsciously know something remains foul. New people who enter the organization openly question the stupidity of the culture and, naturally, are isolated and either rehabilitated so the culture makes sense to them or are expunged from the organization (culture).
By the mere fact that so many bureaucratic organizations exist is testament that individuals eventually conform to the culture. Bureaucratic organizations do get work done. But the work is not necessarily done in the most efficient and cost effective manner. In order for the organization to function, individuality must be purged, independent though can’t exist – hence the first indication that you work in a bureaucratic organization is that change is resisted and there is no valid explanation for not changing.
With this epiphany comes the realization that changing a bureaucratic culture is an uphill battle. Although I preach the greatness of what one person can do, I find myself lately questioning the desire to put forth such effort.
Here’s hoping you don’t work in this kind of culture.
Definition of epiphany: 3 a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment.
Definition of bureaucracy: a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation.

In Search of Eden

I live in a wonderful country. The “Dice of the Stork” rolled well when I was born and I have been given a great gift to live in the United States of America.

Here we have many freedoms and abilities to live our lives as we, the individual sees fit. Sure, there are problems and issue. Sure, things could be better. But at the core of my soul I know that America and American’s, as a people, are good – good to each other and good for the world.

Where else in the world do so many diverse individuals live together in a general state of well being?

It does however, seem that since the late sixties America and American’s have been in a constant struggle. Social and economic boundaries have been pushed and as the world has moved into the 21st century it seems that America has become more fragmented.

My mind strays thinking about the world’s situation today. I try to draw perspective by drawing on history of the human beings. Has there really ever been a time when humans never struggled with life? Was there ever a time when humanity “had it made?”

While watching an interview of Michael Moore by Wolf Blitzer I realized that most people are simply “In Search of Eden.” I don’t agree with Moore on a lot of his ideas, but I think, if I were God and could search into his soul that he really is searching for Eden on Earth. That, in some way, he does want to see our world, our country and our people “better off.”

HOWEVER, I’m not so sure if Eden or Heaven can be found by a group of people. I think ultimately it has to be found by individuals.

What If You Had Seven Days To Live?

Do you remember that movie Field Of Dreams where the main character (Kevin Costner) heard a voice tell him to build it and he will come?

What if you heard a voice and the voice said “Saturday will be your last day, call my name when you are ready to go.” Kind of creepy huh?

This got me thinking what if you knew or thought you had seven days to live? If you new without any doubts would you quit your job? Would you make amends to those who you have offended in life? Would you do something exciting that you always dreamed of doing? Or would you just live your life as you’ve always done?

I’m not sure that knowing for sure when you will die versus not really knowing for sure are really different from each other.

You see, we are all going to die. We all have an appointed day and time when we will be called away from the flesh of our bodies. With this absolute fact facing us shouldn’t we do the things that need to be done prior to our unknown departure?

We should all have last will and testaments. We should all make amends to the ones we have offended in life. We should do the exciting things that we dream of doing and we should live our lives with no regrets. There are so many things that in life we should do before our appointed time comes, even if we don’t know when the appointment is scheduled.

I’ve got a lot of things to do… what about you?

More Good Business Advice

I don’t agree with everything Mark Cuban writes, but I do appreciate his perspective and his experience when it comes to business.

Recently in one of his blog posts he wrote “On the flip side, if you want to start and grow a business that you retain control of, put money in the bank from and can make a long term commitment to, then always remember that sales should be the first thing you focus on when you wake up in the morning. Profitable Sales to happy customers is the best path to making money. If you go to bed at night thinking about how to sell more and how to make your customers happy. You probably are in a good place. If you go to bed and wake up thinking about how to raise money to stay in business, you might as well get the new business cards and think about what your new consulting blog is going to look like.”

I totally agree with this. In one of my past jobs I had a boss who could sell even without having a product. I use to hate when he’d go on the road because he’d come back and have a list of orders and ask “Now we have to figure out how to get this stuff made!”

I hated that. But over the years I’ve realized that he knew a secret – “getting the sale” was eighty percent of the battle.

16 Rules of Bob to Ponder…

I like it when someone shares their rules of success. Here are Bob Parson’s 16 Rules. He is CEO of GoDaddy.Com.

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I’m concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."
2. Never give up.
Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you."
5. Focus on what you want to have happen.
Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."
6. Take things a day at a time.
No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward.
Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8. Be quick to decide.
Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."
9. Measure everything of significance.
I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12. Never let anybody push you around.
In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.
13. Never expect life to be fair.
Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14. Solve your own problems.
You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16. There’s always a reason to smile.
Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

Not Just a Lump Of Coal

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my lovely baby girl Ellie-Jane. For some reason I’m not so public about her as I am about myself. I guess I’m respecting her right to eventually choose how public she wants to be with her life.

She’s been on my mind over the past couple of days, which got me thinking about children in general. You see, on Sunday she got a mosquito bite right under her cute little eye. Mom put some cortisone on it like any good mom would do and we put her to bed as we normally do.

On Monday morning my wife wakes me up with news that the baby’s poor little eye is swollen. I stumble into the baby’s room and sure enough her little eye was swollen. A couple hours later at the doctors office he tells me it isn’t infected. He said it might swell enough to close her eye, but not to worry that it will get better. He said she just had a reaction to the bite.

Update – 8/10/2009: Looking at my blog statistics I notice a lot of people get referred here from Google by searching for “mosquito bite under eye” or something similar since their child has the same problem. I researched a little and found that the reason mosquito bites tend to swell really bad for children is that their immune system has not had enough incidents of being bitten to defend against the saliva that mosquitoes ingest during their feeding (biting). Unfortunately, some people continue to have allergic reactions even after their immune system is exposed to sufficient bites. Here is a link to better information on the allergic reaction – http://allergies.about.com/od/insectallergies/a/mosquitoallergy.htm.

Not to worry. For me, I do a decent job of not worrying, but you can’t look at her eye and not feel bad for her. You just look at her and have this empty, sad feeling because you hate that she has this irritation to deal with – that she might be in pain.

But like she’s done since she was born, she amazes me with her resilience. She doesn’t complain about her eye. She listens to me when I ask her not to rub it. She listens to me when I ask her to sleep on her other side so it won’t swell even more. She just has this wonderful, loving spirit in the face of a crappy mosquito bite that’s made her look like Rocky Balboa.

With all of this going through my mind I started thinking about how this baby has changed my life and my perception of life. Like any proud dad when she was born and I first looked into her eyes I knew I loved her. I knew that I would love her forever and would do anything I could to fill her life with love and happiness. Unlike moms who carry and nurture a baby in the womb I think men have a space of separation from their new born children. For a woman a child is A PART OF THEM. You see, besides having an emotional attachment during the pregnancy, a mom shares her flesh and her blood with her child. She tolerates her body going through a total change to give her unborn child a hospitable, nurturing home for nine months.

But back to the current story. For me, the past couple of days has shown me that although I’ve loved my baby from the first moment I realized I would be a dad, I realized that everyday since she was born I’ve been falling more and more in love with her.

Each day she has taught me something about life and about myself. Each day she amazes me with something new. Her little phases like “Dadda do that no, no, no” or “dadda so funny” just bring a smile to me and my wife.

Always searching for an appropriate analogy, I’ve been thinking that maybe children are like a lump of coal. You see, a piece of coal under pressure eventually turns into a diamond. And if you do a good job of raising your child they too can turn into a bright, glimmering diamond.

But after further contemplation I think I’m wrong.

You see, all children at birth are already diamonds. They sparkle and amaze, they bring brilliance and joy to our lives. They grow from helpless lumps of flesh and bones into beings of great minds and souls. They teach us about life and they teach us who we really are.

If anything, WE are the lumps of coal. They apply pressure and they demand from us life’s lessons and in return we learn to shine so that they may shine even brighter!

What Would You Change

I’ve been listening. Listening to the world murmur. Listening to the republicans, listening to the democrats, listening to the independents, listening to the Muslims, listening to the Christians, listening to the world.

Just listening.

It seems like everyone has something to say. And if you listen long enough it doesn’t seem like any two groups have the same thoughts or opinions in common about issues that we all need to deal with.

So I listen. Yes, sometimes I grow impatient listening, sometimes I get mad, sometimes I laugh and sometimes I cry. But I still listen.

For you see I’m trying to figure out what the truth might be. I’m trying to figure out what we should do to solve the problems that plague our society.

I decided a while back to listen more to what people are saying. At some point maybe I can figure out why they say what they say.

Although I don’t have ten thousand readers of my blog I would like to listen to what the readers of my blog think.

So my question today is “What would you change about America and why?”

Even if it is just one thing, what would it be.

Besides you leaving a comment with your thoughts, tell your friends to stop by and leave a comment with their thoughts.

I’m listening…

Dying Sucks!

For thousands of years, since the beginning of the first man’s first conscious thought, I suspect that man has pondered the tough question of “what happens when we die?” Where do we go? Do we exist after our physical body has expired?

Much smarter and wiser men than I have spent years thinking through this question. One of my favorite philosophers Socrates did a pretty good job of giving a possible explanation. Then there are religions that provide a pretty nice explanation.

I’m sure each of us at some time in our life go through what I call “an awakening” in which we realize that our life is fleeing and we ask about the possibilities of eternity and then we make a decision as to what will happen after we die. I know over my forty-two years of life I have thought about my eternal existence on more than one occasion.

Recently my thoughts turned back to dying because a friend of mine learned that he has cancer. Being a young man myself I started thinking about him and his family. I can’t imagine what he’s going through, what his wife must be going through, what his children must be going through.

While thinking about my friend’s plight I realized that dying sucks!

Yea, dying really, really sucks.

Thinking about my friend’s plight brought back memories of all the people I’ve loved over the years who have passed away. These people that I’ve loved are gone from my presence. Their bodies that I recognized and touched and loved are at rest now.

Thinking about my friend’s plight also reminded me of my loved ones that are much older and for who’s time is fleeing. One day they shall too leave my presence and for that I will be filled with sorrow.

But thinking about my friend’s plight reminded me of something so important.

Being a conscious, self-aware being consisting of mind, body and soul I know that when my loved ones leave my physical presence they are resurrected. They are resurrected to live forever in the hearts and minds of the people they’ve touched and they have loved. But more importantly, I know without any doubts that they are resurrected to live forever in the presence of the maker of us all. I know that though we may be separated by a physical barrier of flesh we shall still always be one in spirit!

Thinking of my friend reminded me that we are all dying. Some of us are a little further down the road to redemption, but we are all going to get their eventually.

I think it is tragic for young person to leave this world before their time. But I know that there is a reason for all that happens even if I can’t understand the reasons.

Thinking of my friend reminds me that living everyday here on this Earth and being in the presence of the ones I love is truly a gift.

I hope and pray for my friend in his time of need. He is a wonderful person with a great mind and I know my life is and will be always be better off due to his friendship.

Yes, dying really does suck, but no matter what happens we will always live, no matter if it is in a physical or spiritual form.

Happy Birthday

Ahh, birthday anniversaries come and go. For me, I’ve never been a big birthday  anniversary celebrating person. I’m not quite sure why I’m not so big on a birthday anniversaries. I thought for my 40th it would be a big deal, but like so many birthday anniversaries before the 40th wasn’t that big of a deal for me.

But for many people, celebrating the day they were born is very important. And now that I have a little baby I appreciate and relish her birthday anniversary more than I appreciate and relish my own. I guess deep down I’m not so excited about actually aging. It’s not that I mind aging – it is just the process can be painful at times.

As my 42nd birthday anniversary came and went yesterday I started thinking about what it should really mean. We always congratulate people on their birthday anniversary, give them a gift or such. Most people see a birthday anniversary as a celebration of their life. But for some reason it came to me that we should look at our own birthday anniversary from a different perspective.

I think we should actually thank other people on our birthday anniversary for helping us make it through another year and being able to celebrate another birthday anniversary.

Like I told my mom yesterday when she called, as she always does on my birthday anniversary, “thanks mom for laying on that bed and laboring and birthing me into this world. Thanks for feeding me and changing my dirty diapers. Thanks for the support and love for me and my little family this past year…” And then I thought of all the family and friends who I am very thankful for as they make my life complete and worth living. And of course I thank God, my wife and my baby for giving so much to me everyday.

You see, celebrating one’s birthday anniversary is actually a big deal no matter how you celebrate it.

Dreams Can Come True

So I fired up my Google Reader (link to my shared and starred items) and got a link to this video (click link to view) on YouTube.

After watching the video I just had a moment of excitement for Susan Boyle. My heart really jumped for joy in seeing her dream come true. At first I didn’t know how I would start out this blog entry. One thing that came to mind was that in her dream coming true she also showed the world yet again that you can’t judge a book by the cover.

But after some further thought I realized what’s more important in this story is that we are being showed that in our lives our Dreams Can Come True.

I’ll admit that in my life sometimes I let the day to day worries bring me down. But in the back of my mind, deep in my soul, I know that my dreams can come true. If I believe, I can achieve.

You Have All That You Need

Humans are extraordinary organisms. They continually thirst for more power, fame, fortune, love and knowledge. It seems that these thirst are driven from deep down in our sub-consciousness. It’s like we don’t have a choice of how much we want to improve ourselves or push ourselves. For me it seems that there is always an inner voice telling me to do more, to be more. For me, the voice gives me a desire to make a positive difference in the world.

But as a believer in a higher power I sometimes question myself and my maker about when, where and how I’ll make that positive difference. How should I go about doing more and being more? Questions I’m sure a lot of people have throughout their lives.

As with so many questions the answers don’t come as we often envision them.

It seems that my questions of lately brought on an unexpected answer. The other day while thinking about my future and what I should be doing these words came to me…

You have all that you need.

These words answered ALL my questions.

You have all that you need – to be more powerful, more famous, to find love, to find fortune and the increase your knowledge. You have been given all that you need to do all that is needed.

And then I realized, yes, I do believe that most of us down here on this third rock from the Sun do indeed have all that we need. We can make a positive difference in each others lives, we CAN change ourselves and we can change the world.

Once you have this realization, all you need is to take action everyday and when you get down and don’t see the progress you desire always remember that “You have all that your need!”

One Positive Thought!

I’ve had a blog for some years now. Over the past seven years I’ve posted two hundred and sixty five items. Some of my blog entries have been short and some long, some good and yes, some bad. But I really have enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts and have enjoyed the comments of people who have passed by and shared their thoughts with me.

Sometimes I wish I had the drive to write more often in my blog, to share more of my life, to share more of my thoughts. I think somewhere deep in my sub-conscious I have a feeling that by sharing my “thoughtful” thoughts that I can change the world in some manner. You see, words are the beginning of the process of change. Thoughts of the human mind are, in my opinion, so important and powerful. If you are a believer of evolution you should realize that the human mind is the greatest evolutionary step for any animal to ever exist. If you believe in God you know that our mind is made in the image of God’s, which is the most powerful mind in the universe. So it is my opinion that the mind is indeed where all of our existence starts.

Yes, you must have action to follow-up what the mind thinks.

But, with this blog all I can do is think and write my thoughts to bits and bytes – electronic paper.

So I started thinking that it would be nice to write at least one positive thought a week. I’m usually not very good at keeping to a defined schedule, but I’m going to try.

Can One Positive Thought a week make a difference in the world? I hope so. If all that happens is my mind is re-focused once a week to think positive about my life and our world then it will be a worthwhile endeavor.

So, I challenge you to have at least One Positive Thought and to share it with the world. You just never know what deeds will come from them!

Why and How People Go Into Debt

Just the other day I had a conversation with a good friend. We were discussing him wanting to purchase a new “toy” that cost a few of thousand dollars.  For the past couple of years he and I have been supporting each other to be financially free. Free from debt, free from the fear of loosing it all, free from the pressure that financial instability brings.

Like me, he had a financial epiphany and realized that how he was dealing with money had to change. From that “eureka” moment he’s been steadily saving and has gotten totally out of debt. Several thousand dollars  saved later we were talking of how nice it is to have a buffer. To have some peace of mind that if we had an emergency that we would not die a week later for lack of not having any funds to buy our food or pay our living expenses.

As he was talking about purchasing his “toy” he said “I look at my savings and it just seems hard to make myself spend that five grand after working so hard to save  it!”

I interrupted him in his thought and said “that’s it.” In that moment I realized how people seem to so easily get into debt. It took a couple of years for my friend to slowly pay off his debt and to save a few hundred dollars a month. But incrementally, one dollar at a time, one debt at a time he changed his mindset to save money and to pay off all his debt.

Conversely, if you really think about it, accumulating debt is simply the reverse process. People get into debt by slowly purchasing things a little at a time. They look at their bill and at first it is just a few hundred dollars a month. They pay the minimum and then keep buying more and more “things” that don’t seem to have any value. After several months they are several hundred dollars in debt and then over a period of a year or two they have thousands in debt. For a while the minimum payment amount is very manageable from month to month.  But at some point the minimum payment becomes significant and becomes a shackle of pain and agony.

So incrementally debt becomes “normal” in the mind of the debtor.

Incrementally the debtor becomes enslaved to the cycle of paying a minimum finance charge that never pays off the debt.

People go into debt because THEY slowly re-program themselves to be inoculated to the pain and the reality that debt brings.

But like my good friend, WE CAN RE-PROGRAM ourselves to save and to realize that saving money is indeed a good feeling and a good thing to accomplish.

The Best Remote Desktop Support Application – Fog Creek’s Co-Pilot!

In the computer business the term Killer App gets thrown around loosely all the time. You know, from my twenty-five years of using computers I can say I’ve seen my share of Killer Apps. I remember way, way back when Word Star came out – that was a Killer App at the time.

You see, a Killer App is really a computer program that takes a job and makes it so easy to do that it “kills” the pain of doing that job. At least that’s my partial definition of what a Killer App is all about.

I’ve been a follower of Fog Creek Software and Joel Spolsky for some time now. Joel co-founded Fog Creek Software and a couple of summers ago he had his interns build a tech support tool call Co-Pilot. I don’t know, maybe Joel wanted to give the programmer wannabees something to do to get them out of his hair so he could write in his blog. Or, just maybe Joel had this great vision of a Killer App that would solve all remote desktop helpdesk issues. In either case Joel’s intern team hit a grand slam.

If you are the person all your DACUFs (dumb ass computer user friends) call for help when they’ve screwed up their PC or MAC, then you’ll no doubt want to use Co-Pilot. Co-Pilot makes it so easy to connect to the DACUFs computer so you can figure out what’s wrong. No more trying to describe how to get to the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs icon.

And the really cool thing about Co-Pilot is that the tool is totally free on the weekends – like you didn’t have anything better to do on Saturday afternoon besides fix your DACUF’s computer.

On second thought, never mind, keep this tool a secret else your Saturdays are bye-bye.

But for the professional support people out there, you should invest in this tool and see how much pain is taken away from providing support to the computer illiterate masses.

Co-Pilot is indeed a Killer App in my book.

Update 7/15/2009: So I pay attention to the search terms used by people in Google who get directed to this blog entry and it seems that the searchers are wondering what are the comparisons of Co-Pilot versus  Microsoft’s built-in Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance applications.

Remote Desktop is where you actually attach to a Windows XP’s console and log into the machine, which will log out the user on the other end. Remote Desktop can be used for fixing issues with a Windows machine, but for end-user support it wasn’t really designed for that purpose since the user doesn’t see what you are doing to fix their problem. And with most help-desk issues, the problem most of the time isn’t the computer hardware or application but actually how the user is trying to get something done.

Remote Assistance is Microsoft’s attempt to allow a more skilled computer person to assist the less knowledgeable user. However, to get the skilled user connected takes like an act of God on the end-user’s side to initiate the connection. And then once the connection is made the interface for the person giving help is dog slow.

With Co-Pilot for an end-user to get help they can give a support person one link to initiate the connection to their computer. Additionally the help desk person can give an end-user one link to establish a connection to their computer. Once the connection is established it runs generally 10x faster than anything else I’ve used and it allows both helper and end user to communicate and see what’s going on with the computer.

Updated 06/23/2009:
A friend sent me a link to a free remote desktop support application that works just like Co-Pilot.

I haven’t checked-out or tested Mikogo (www.mikogo.com) yet, but wanted to put it up here for your reference.

If you have a chance to test it, please let me know how it works out for you.

Updated 1/5/2009:
Over the Christmas holiday’s I had the need to help a family member out with a rebuild of thier XP home machine. I found TeamViewer (http://www.teamviewer.com) to be a great remote desktop support application and it is free for non-commercial use. The installation isn’t as easy as using Co-Pilot, but it isn’t so hard to get installed for the novice that you can’t walk someone through the process.

Note:
I received no compensation for this review and endorsement. But if Joel finds this one day while wasting time on the Internet he can reward me by sending me an autographed book of his best articles.

More Interesting Data

For a while now I’ve been thinking about facts and fiction. In our complex world it seems that the two become entangled in the fury of a grinding dance until us mere mortals can’t distinguish the two apart.

I’ve found it comforting to look deeper and find data. Analyzing trusted data can help determine fact from fiction.

In my recent readings I found the following two pieces of data…

This graph came from a blog, but originally came from WWW.ContraryInvestor.Com. The graph shows how our government is now a bigger employer than Manufacturing and Construction combined.

And then this graph shows 2006 California tax data.

Just like the tax data for US income tax payers this shows that over eighty percent of taxes collected in California are paid by less than fifteen percent of all tax payers. Yet another example where a minority is supporting the majority.

The Mission Statement

It is the new year and for a few weeks I’ve been thinking about my new year resolutions. You know, a set of thoughts and ideas you’ve wanted to do, should do, but never got around to doing throughout the past year. And then low and behold, the new year comes rearing its ugly face at you taunting you for all you haven’t done!

It seems like the new year is a perfect time to “start over.” But the reality is that you can’t start over. You are where you are right now, never in the past, never in the future. The reality is that you have to change yourself right now.

But instead of the traditional resolutions, I thought it more appropriate to define my mission statement. Yea, I know, it sounds like one of those lofty-dofty dreamy things. But in reality it is something that everyone should do.

A few years ago at work I got a new boss and the first thing I asked of him when we first met was for him to define a mission statement for our team. For you see, I had grown tired of working in the cubical nightmare and not really knowing what our team was really being asked to do. I realized that in order for our team to be effective, and to be able to keep our manager honest with us, that we needed a “contract” to define what we put our energy towards. A statement that told other teams who we were, what we did, why we did it and to some extent how we did it – a mission statement.

Some time later after I went to work for another team my former boss sat with me and told me that it was a learning experience to go through that exercise. He said it helped him focus our team’s energies toward the objectives given to him by his management.

Long ago in my youth I went through a hard time emotionally. I guess the youth in me found it hard to find a mission in life, to find direction. I found comfort in my belief that God had a plan for me, even if I didn’t know what that plan entailed.

I found myself with a simple prayer – “God, I’m not sure where you want me or what you have in store for my life, but I ask that you let me be a positive difference in people’s lives, that I make this world a little better off than it was before I came unto it.”

Since that time I have found peace with that prayer from so long ago, with my direction, with my mission, with my life. I know that no matter where I go, who I meet or what I do, I will make a positive difference.

So, I guess my mission statement has always been with me for these years – to be a positive difference in people’s lives and to make the world better off than it was before I came unto it.

What is your mission in life? To build fortune, fame, power? Or to build something else? Or to leave something when you are gone?

Each individual’s time here is fleeing… but our collective missions, they never end.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Around this time of year the greeting Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year are repeated numerous times as you meet friend and strangers alike. Wouldn’t it be just peachy-king if we always had the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year attitude towards each other all year long?

So, I guess I’ll try to spread the cheer for as long as I can until the man beats me down again in 2009

From our little family to yours, may you have a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year throughout the entire 2009 year!

Data Tells You A Lot…

Well, if you are a Star Trek fan you know that indeed Data does talk a lot. But this blog entry isn’t about Star Trek’s Data.

This is about the taxes American’s pay. Take a few minutes and look at the table below. I’ve highlighted some parts of the data that I think are important and I’ll elaborate on these parts in the points below.

Go ahead, take a gander for a while at the table.

Did you cheat on me? Really, look at the table carefully.

Ok, so what does this data tell you?

1. that ONE (1) percent of the tax paying Americans pay 39.89 percent of all income taxes collected.
2. that twenty five (25) percent of the tax paying Americans pay 86.27 percent of all income taxes collected.
3. that fifty (50) percent of the tax paying Americans pay 2.99 percent of all income taxes collected.

What does this mean to you?

For me the data says that a small minority of tax payers are paying the bill for the rest of their fellow citizens.

The data also confirms that politicians abuse the facts when talking about tax policy. You hear some politicians say “this tax break is only for the ‘rich!’”

Well, when the “rich” are paying most of the taxes, a tax cut will indeed benefit them more than for people who barely pay any taxes.

I didn’t mean to get off on a tangent on the interpretation of this data. What I really wanted to say today is that we need to be better gatherers and analyzers of data so that we can be better informed so that we can make better decisions.

Data Source: IRS, via this great web site that has a crap load of tax data – The Tax Foundation.Org

What Is Important In Life?

A friend sent me an email and told me of the story of her running a half marathon. In the course of life, one single person completing a half marathon isn’t such a big thing? Or is it?

You see, she’s recently lost over a hundred pounds and she’s changed her life for whatever reasons she has. Honestly, I am so happy for her. I know that her loosing the weight is a wonderful thing as she will no doubt be healthier and in turn have a better quality of life.

But the thing that impresses me more than her loosing weight and made me think tonight is that she is doing what is important in life!

You see, she is living and she is writing her story everyday. And I think that is what we all should learn to do better – live life and tell a story worthy of telling with our lives. Don’t be afraid to go out and do something. Don’t be afraid to really live.

I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing this chapter in her life story book…

Hi Y’all,
Well, after months and months of planning, training, walking miles and miles through blisters, butt pain, etc, (you get the picture), I accomplished a goal. That goal was to compete in a half-marathon.  For that event I set 4 goals.  First was to just plain finish the 13.1 miles.  The second was to at least get in under 3 hours 45 minutes.  Then the third was to hopefully get an “official time”.  That time had to be 3:30:00. And fourth was NOT to come in last! As the day of the event got closer, I knew, barring any injury or heart attack, I would finish and I was confident I would get in under 3:45:00 but the third one was still in question and I had no clue about the fourth.

In the pre-dawn darkness and cold drizzle 1,700 competitors started the 13.1 mile race.  I knew I would be run over by all the runners so I positioned myself to the side about halfway back.  As I stood there waiting for the gun to go off I suddenly got choked up and tears formed in my eyes.  I couldn’t believe I had actually made it to the starting line.  Long months of training in the heat and cold and dreaming of the finish line over and over had culminated in this final moment.  I became overwhelmed with emotion.  I was going to do it!  I only had 13.1 miles to go!

I never heard the starting gun, just saw the crowd start to move out ahead of me. As most of the crowd raced by me, I settled down into my rhythm, put the earphones on and got down to business of finding that finish line.  A little way down the road, I spotted Ralph with the camera.  He had gotten up at 5:30am with me and again my wing man was with me.  As with most of the miles I have walked in the past year and a half, I was alone in my race.  All the runners had long since disappeared, and those that had started running and were now walking were little dots on the horizon.  The Silver Comet Trail was beautiful this October morning and I was enjoying my fast walk through the woods.  Low and behold, I started to catch some of the people in front of me.

Timers at the mile markers kept me motivated and by the time I made it to the turn around point I was determined to make that third goal.  By now my poor ole tired puppies were starting to bark a little but everything else was holding up just fine.  I also got to see just how many people were behind me.  I was ahead of 18 racers at that point.  Well, at least I wasn’t last!  When I hit the nine mile mark and the caller announced my time, I knew the third goal was within reach.  I still had plenty of gas in the tank, thanks to my cinnamon roll, bananas, M&M’s and Gator-aid.  I turned on the afterburners and started to catch some of the people in front of me. 

The last two miles were difficult as I had really stepped up the pace and stretched out my stride and dug deep into my determination and grit.  The muscles in my legs were starting to sing now, not scream but definitely singing a loud tune.  By now most everyone was gone, the timers and water stations abandoned.  It was a lonely last 4 miles.  When I passed the 12 mile marker I was setting my tennis shoes on fire and so damned happy that I had only one mile left.  I knew I was going to make all my goals.

With two tenths of a mile left to go, I looked up and there was my little girl, Melissa, coming up the path to meet me.    I started singing the words out loud to the song in my  headphones and joggers along the trail started laughing.  Not making fun mind you, just laughing.  I didn’t slow down, and she pulled in beside me and we breezed into the finish line, Melissa pealing off at the last second, so I could cross the finish line for my official time.  And there was my wingman, taking pictures. I came in behind 1,673 people but ahead of 26 people, with a time of 3:24:37, got my finishers medal, the tee-shirt and got to tick off one more of those things on my life’s list of things to do.  I wore the tee shirt for 2 days after that.

My muscles did some serious complaining as soon as I finished the race, they weren’t singing anymore, they were screaming very loudly and I heard the tune.  As soon as I sat down on the bus back to the start I knew it was a bad idea.  Every muscle from my waist down cramped and strained and twitched, etc.  But all was well.  A bottle of Advil and a cheeseburger later and I was absolutely fine.  The next day I only had one spot that I knew was a problem.  A tendon in my foot was strained but a couple days rest and it was good as new.
Two days later, I was back on the street walking and wondering, “What’s next”?
Well, thanks for indulging me in this recount of a very important day in my life.

Love to all,
JP

America, is still, The Beautiful

So, my friend’s wife Ginny wrote recently in her blog about the current state of American politics. She said “I am fed up with all the commercials, bumper stickers, fliers and news commentaries touting one candidate as our savior and the other as the devil incarnate.”

She went on to discuss her feelings and that she is tired of a lot of what is going on with the 2008 presidential election process. And I agree with her in many ways. This election cycle has as well been so draining on me as well

I could spend hours detailing the things that upset me with the state of politics today. But, to be honest with you, detailing such things would only depress me more and really not serve a positive purpose.

WHAT I really wanted to say today is this:

Even with the negatives that have occurred over the past two years I still believe that America, is still, The Beautiful. American’s still have a great standard of life compared to the world. We still have freedoms that people dream of living in. We still can wake up each morning and choose to make our lives better. We still can worship the God we choose. We still can disagree with each other in a civil and safe manner. We still can engage each other in meaningful discussions on what is important for the country.

I could go on and on as to what we still can do in this country. But the greatest thing that we still can do is to travel to a poll next Tuesday and stand alone in a voting booth and to cast a vote for what we believe. In doing this activity we tell the word that AMERICA, is still, THE BEAUTIFUL. For this I am very grateful. How about you?

Enslaving the Masses

So, if you were an evil person or very aggressive, money hungry, entrepreneur business person or a politician in search of wealth, power, fame or all three, you might find yourself thinking to yourself “How can I guarantee future wealth, power and fame and ensure that I can repeat success time and time again and that people will look at me as their savior?”

How would you do this in today’s world of “democracy” and “freedom?”

How would you control people’s lives without them even realizing that they were indeed being controlled?

In a modern world where slavery is detested as an evil activity of a bygone era, how would you by proxy enslave your fellow human beings?

I think you could achieve these goals by making life so comfortable by providing to the masses the basic necessities of life so that they would eventually choose to be provided for instead of providing for themselves.

Once people were dependent on you for the real necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter, you would then re-educate them into thinking that secondary wants and desires of life like a new car every three years, iPods, expensive clothes, big screen LCD televisions, destination weddings and other similar things are of course necessary for “the good life.” And this is where your master plan really takes hold. Incrementally you condition the masses to desire the “good life” even though they don’t have money to pay for it. You would make it easy for them to get credit and to purchase these “lifestyle necessities” now. This would in turn put people into debt for things that have no lasting value, not to you personally, but to the system that YOU created, control and derive great profits from. You have created a perfect system to enslave the masses while you never have any direct attribution for the deed!

Now, at some point in time, since some of the masses are not totally blind and dumb, you would have to have diversions for them, else they figure out the truth. Within the enslavement system, you create diversions to distract their attention so they have someone, something, or some group to blame for their ever decreasing quality of life. For part of the deception that you created relies on the enslaved masses to feed their selfish egos to further their belief that they deserve the good life and someone is taking it away or holding it back from them.

Ironically, and in a flash of brilliance you figure out how to divert your slaves attention to your true enemies. You see, your real enemies are those who understand your enslavement system. They teach your slaves how to be truly free from the bonds of debt,  uncontrolled desires, addiction, ignorance, stupidity and despair. They teach your slaves that personal accountability and individual achievement is the only way to break the shackles of the slavery that you have created.

Although you have amassed great fortune, fame and power, you still desire more from your slaves. After some time you realize that fortune, fame and power don’t really fulfill your own real needs. You realize that you need love and adoration from your slaves. So, you look for and create opportunities for which you can become their ultimate savior from the uncertainties and harshness of the natural world. Besides being their benevolent care giver who provides all for them, you save them from impending disaster and from their enemies and they love you.

After reading this you may think to yourself that it is impossible for this to happen in today’s modern societies – think again. There is more personal and governmental debt today than at any time in the history of the US and the world. People routinely pay on credit for things that neither provide substance nor add lasting value to their lives. Millions of people are admittedly one week to one month away from loosing everything if they lose their job. And in a country where opportunity to educate one’s self to be anything one desires, the US has one of the worse primary education system.

In my opinion, the masses have become takers instead of givers, whiners instead of winners and blamers for their personal failures in life.

I see the spirit of freedom, personal choice and accountability slowly dying and being replaced with the invisible shackles of slavery and bondage.

But their are beacons of hope in this chaos of slavery who try to enlighten and educate… Howard, Ramsey, Cuban, Robins and Boortz just to name a few who will help you not become one of the enslaved masses.

Finding Diamonds In The Snow

I don’t know. Diamonds aren’t usually found lying on the ground, in plain sight, in the snow.

But the other day while reading Bob Lefsetz, because I’m interested in the music business, he made a reference to Michael Hedges, who was a huge twenty carrot diamond that apparently wasn’t noticed until it was to late.

But it started me thinking that with the new technological world we live in, we have to re-program our minds to look for diamonds in all the nooks and cranny’s of this world.

With the size of the Internet and the documentation of man’s knowledge seemingly exploding it will become harder and harder to find diamonds. So how do you find better quality information in today’s world?

Simple! You have to find trusted sources on the subjects you are interested in and pay attention to what they are writing about. You have to have an open mind about new information and you have to have curiosity to keep you looking for the diamonds in the snow.

Some Lessons in Life Are Worth Repeating Over and Over and Over Again…

I’d like to think that I’m informed and up-to-date with what is going on in the world. As I’ve gotten older I’ve tried to become a person who listens to other people’s opinions and “facts” and I try to keep an open mind.

I know that at times I get tired of the rhetoric and stupidity in the world today. Lord knows that I have my own dumb things to over come. But at least each morning I wake up and I try to change myself and the world in which I live in for the better.

I haven’t  blogged much lately because, to be honest, I got tired. Tired of saying the same thing over and over and over again. Tired not knowing if what I was saying was actually being heard (read).

But after reading this post from Seth Godin, it re-charged my batteries and it made me realize that Some Lessons in Life Are Worth [and worthy of] Repeating Over and Over and Over Again!

Thanks Seth!

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And here’s his post as I think it is worthy of copyright infringement in the hopes that other people will read his thought today!

Is effort a myth?

People really want to believe effort is a myth, at least if we consider what we consume in the media:

• politicians and beauty queens who get by on a smile and a wink
• lottery winners who turn a lifetime of lousy jobs into one big payday
• sports stars who are born with skills we could never hope to acquire
• hollywood celebrities with the talent of being in the right place at the right time
• failed CEOs with $40 million buyouts

It really seems (at least if you read popular media) that who you know and whether you get ‘picked’ are the two keys to success. Luck.

The thing about luck is this: we’re already lucky. We’re insanely lucky that we weren’t born during the black plague or in a country with no freedom. We’re lucky that we’ve got access to highly-leveraged tools and terrific opportunities. If we set that luck aside, though, something interesting shows up.

Delete the outliers–the people who are hit by a bus or win the lottery, the people who luck out in a big way, and we’re left with everyone else. And for everyone else, effort is directly related to success. Not all the time, but as much as you would expect. Smarter, harder working, better informed and better liked people do better than other people, most of the time.

Effort takes many forms. Showing up, certainly. Knowing stuff (being smart might be luck of the draw, but knowing stuff is the result of effort). Being kind when it’s more fun not to. Paying forward when there’s no hope of tangible reward. Doing the right thing. You’ve heard these things a hundred times before, of course, but I guess it’s easier to bet on luck.

If people aren’t betting on luck, then why do we make so many dumb choices? Why aren’t useful books selling at fifty times the rate they sell now? Why does anyone, ever, watch reality TV shows? Why do people do such dumb stuff with their money?

I think we’ve been tricked by the veneer of lucky people on the top of the heap. We see the folks who manage to skate by, or who get so much more than we think they deserve, and it’s easy to forget that:

a. these guys are the exceptions
and
b. there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.

And that’s the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.

This is a hard sell. Diet books that say, "eat less, exercise more," may work, but they don’t sell many copies.

With that forewarning, here’s a bootstrapper’s/marketer’s/entrepreneur’s/fast-rising executive’s effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it’s worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ’spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don’t currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don’t, you’d have a wider network and you’d be more focused.

It’s entirely possible that this won’t be sufficient, and you will continue to need better luck. But it’s a lot more likely you’ll get lucky, I bet.

Removing the "Ignorant Factor" from self

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post I came across two videos from www.Ted.Com. In very different ways both of these videos show how the analysis of data and the internal analysis of self can lead to knowledge and help remove the ignorant factor from self. 

Click each link to see the videos.

Hans Rosling:Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen.

Anothy Robins:Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better.

Ignorance in the Information Age…

For me, accepting the realization that at every moment in time I am not as smart as I think I am has helped me become a better person. You see, rather we believe it or not, we are all ignorant. We all lack knowledge in many areas of life and even when we are “experts” in a field of study, we still don’t know it all in that area of expertise.

Yea, I would like to be Mr. Know-It-All, but that’s not ever going to be a reality I live in. But, the good thing about ignorance is that you can work on becoming less ignorant. It may take a little time and effort, but you can learn and become a better person through the acquisition and application of knowledge.

However, you can’t overcome being stupid. For me, stupidity is the inability to learn or the flat out refusal to learn.

In the information age, as a society, are we becoming less ignorant, and more informed? Yea, I think in certain areas of our society we might be. But I also have a feeling that in very important areas of society we actually might be stupid.

Here’s an interesting video on the subject…

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/alisa_miller_shares_the_news_about_the_news.html

He’s no Ronald Reagan, but I like George W. Bush

“I wish for a world free from tyranny: the tyranny of hunger, disease and free from tyrannical governments,” the president wrote. “I wish for a world in which the universal desire for liberty is realized. I wish for the advance of new technologies that will improve the human condition and protect our environment. I wish God’s blessings on all. George W. Bush.” – Personal Japanese Tanabata wish during Great 8 summit, 2008.

I grew up during the Ronald Reagan years, who, as a speaker, had such eloquent ways of communicating his thoughts, hence the nick-name “The Great Communicator.”

Contrasting The Great Communicator is George W. Bush’s inability to be eloquent with his words. But for me, George seems to be one of the guys. His style is laid back and not contrived with highly obtuse imagery and words.

With George, you get what you see and you get what you hear. No pretentiousness and nothing hidden.

I can imagine that if you met George outside of the Office of the President he would be easy to converse with and you would like him.

I like George W. Bush. I am gratefully that he has presided over America during these troubled eight years. Our country has many problems that still remain to be solved, but I truly believe that George looked after our country as best he could and the people of the United States of America are better off due to George W. Bush.

My Japanese Tanabata wish for George W. Bush this day is “George, may the rest of your life be filled with love and joy. May you be received by friends and foes with generosity, affection and respect for the man you are and for the sacrifices you’ve made during your service to your fellow man. I wish this day that when your flesh and bones have long disappeared from the landscape of this earth that your heart and soul shall long be remembered fondly and with love and affection for all generations to come.”

Ideas for the Good Life: #001, #002 and #003

If you take all the good ideas you’ve ever had or heard and list them how many would you have?

10, 20, 100 or a 1000?

Would you be able to communicate them in a short but insightful manner?

I started thinking about short, insightful thoughts recently because it I’ve been exposed to a couple recently. I find that life can teach you lessons over a long period of time and then, when you least expect it, life can teach you a lesson in an instant.

In this blog from time to time I’ll express these ideas. For now, I’m not going to comment on these ideas as I think they speak for themselves. If you have any Ideas for the Good Life send me a comment. We can never have too many of these!

Ideas for the Good Life # 001
Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value.
Credit: Seth Godin’s blog: Urgent personal finance advice 

Ideas for the Good Life # 002
Never ask a question that you don’t really want answered, and be prepared for ALL possible answers.
Credit: Herschel Horton after a discussion with his college girl friend in 1989.

Ideas for the Good Life # 003
In business meetings never give an answer without knowing the reason for the question.
Credit: My boss during a staff meeting on 6/17/2008

Contributing to the Noise Infested Internet Echo Chamber

As a kid I use to play in and around this long drainage pipe that was about a quarter mile long and about four foot in diameter. It was dark, cold and you could yell something to your friend on the other side of the pipe and the echo would eventually be heard on the other end. This “echo chamber” held our fascination and we had a lot of fun with it.

You could say that the Internet is the ultimate “Echo Chamber” as it provides a means by which thoughts can be echoed across the world in mere seconds, really cool!

But like kids playing with a drainage pipe, there seems to be so much noise echoing throughout the Internet. This high noise level is inevitable since there are millions, if not a billion or more people on the Internet.

I struggle with my own desire to communicate my thoughts versus the question of wether I am really contributing in a positive manner or simply adding noise to the Internet?

But after thinking about this issue I came to the conclusion that good, honorable, well intended thoughts, no matter how many times they’ve been communicated are worth repeating and repeating and repeating.

I think that with my limited audience that if I repeat good thoughts that one day, at least one of these thoughts will make a positive difference in someone’s life.

So here’s today echo…

Seth Godin wrote in his blog today about personal finances. The guiding principle of his post is this: Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value.

I’ve listened to many personal finance gurus and none have ever really communicated the importance of debt control in this manner and Seth is in Marketing, not financial management.

The Sins of our Fathers

For the longest time I only had to think about myself. For no particular reason for the first thirty six years of my life I only had to take care of me. I managed to stay out of debt, purchase a couple of cars, purchase a condo and stay gainfully employed. Like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates recently discussed I really do agree that I got a great ticket here on this Earth by being born in the United States during this time of prosperity. I’ve been blessed in so many ways that I can’t even begin to describe them.

But as my life has changed with marriage and having a child I’ve been really thinking about the future of my life, my child’s life and the future of the human race. Over the past year, my thoughts have taken on the questions of time and perspective. I think I’ve been on these thoughts due to this year’s United States Presidential election cycle. I’ve seen many examples of short term thinking, greed and hubris.

The other day I thought to myself “does the average person think past their life and into the twilight years of their children?” If all things go well for my young baby daughter she could realistically expect to live until 2107. That seems so far away in my mind, but draped against the backdrop of human history it is really only one breath among millions. And then what really boggles the mind is to think that the human race could possibly make it to the ripe old age of one million years old.

I concede that it is almost impossible to ponder the effects of our collective contributions to the human race and if we would even be remembered in a million years. But then while watching the HBO series John Adams a thought by Thomas Jefferson really said something to me.

Thomas Jefferson said that “I am increasingly persuaded that the Earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to its laws and judgements.”

To me Jefferson is saying that life changes constantly and each generation must live life to their best abilities without placing burdens on the next generations to come.

I fear that we are not listening to Jefferson. For you see in the United States our “fathers”, the political representatives we have been electing over the past thirty years and sending to Washington to represent our common interests, have been committing a great sin.

In my eyes, it is blindly obvious that accumulating great debt is indeed a sin or at the least plainly stupid.

Whatever the reasons have been in accumulating this debt is not the focus of this post. The reality is that this debt will certainly bind future generations to our judgements, which is exactly what Jefferson warned against.

As I sit and write about this Sin of our Fathers I try to imagine the future. I wonder if our children will live a less vibrant life than we have lived.

I look at my daughter and see a shackle being placed on her daily growing leg. She has so much ahead of her, yet she and her peers may never be able to achieve their collective potential due the bad judgements of their elders.

I ask “Are we responsible for ‘The Sins of our Fathers?’”

I answer the question with this: we are not responsible for the sins of our fathers. However, today’s generation of Americans and the generations to come will certainly pay the price for those sins.

Sadly I think that my generation and my daughter’s generation will pay an extremely difficult price in the not so distant future. I see a time where we live in an environment not so different than that of my Grandmother’s where poverty and despair prevailed during the Great Depression.

I hope I am wrong, but I fear I will not be.

One Good Business Thought – To use a microscope or telescope?

Working in a very large company as I do, I sometimes get bewildered by the decisions and thought processes of Executive Management. I’ve been around long enough to understand that as a person grows professionally and gets promoted their level of attention to details has to lessen due to the ever increasing amount of information they must filter in order to come to a decision. Great leaders have to balance the abstraction of information and the ability to dive into the details to make great decisions.

At my company we use instant messaging as an everyday tool. Sometimes during those little conversations a good thought submerges.

Co-Worker > that’s such a great document herschel
Co-Worker > always impressed by your organizational skills
Me > if only other people were so impressed
Me > I enjoy organizing
Co-Worker > everybody enjoys the grand things
Co-Worker > nobody likes the details that make things work
Me > I don’t mind the details… I mind the people at the top who make decisions based on 10 layers of abstraction
Co-Worker > or on white papers
Co-Worker >
Me > A real executive has to be able to understand the details without being consumed by the details… it’s like a telephoto lens… some pictures are cool very close up like taking a picture of a humming bird… but, what’s better is the hummingbird amongst a grove of flowers…
Co-Worker > ha yea good analogy
Co-Worker > there is also a good one from a book I’m reading
Co-Worker > “the art of the start”
Co-Worker > its about entrepreneurs
Co-Worker > but basically applies to any leadership position
Co-Worker > says… the trick is to carry a telescope and a microscope
Co-Worker > but the bigger trick is to know when to use them

The one good thought in that conversation is that when you are in charge of a large organization you have to be able to understand and dig for details, but you can’t be consumed by them and as my co-worker put it you have to know when to use your telescope and microscope.

Good Content Rules

So I purchased a pretty expensive camera a couple of years ago and started using it for this and that. I admit, I didn’t need a thirty two hundred “prosumer” Sony HDR-FX1 to “mess” around. But I got it thinking I would use it to create new content and do something great with it.

Well, the reality is that creating “great” content that is interesting, entertaining and engaging takes a lot and I mean a lot of talent and time.

Internet content is no different. In the early days Internet content stayed within the realm of the geek’s. After the invention of the Internet to aide DARPA and scientist in their communication of ideas, the geek’s got a hold of the technology and used it to better communicate technical information for hardware and software development.

And then some really smart people figured out that the Internet could communicate things that “normal” people were interested in, like “did you see this video of that crazy fool ranting about Brittany?” And these people figured that they could make a lot of money off a new advertising model. And some of these people got really rich, really fast.

The funny thing is that the old truism still exist – CONTENT is KING.

We still see good and bad ideas come and go in business and on the Internet. There are a class of bloggers out there who started a communication revolution and they’ve been able to cash in. One such blogger that I like to reference is Robert Scoble. He’s done pretty good for himself in this brave new medium. I also like to reference him because I’ve met him and he is truly nice person and passionate about technology.

But his problem, like many great artist, is that he can’t see past the technology and his passion and find a long term use for technology. More importantly he suffers from the “got to get it on the Internet now, got to be on the edge” with his content. Don’t get me wrong here, I think highly of his passion for technology. And I don’t like being critical.

You see, he made his mark with an interesting, entertaining, engaging blog. He’s good at that medium. However, now he’s out concentrating himself with a lot of sub-par video and audio from a camera phone and hour long interviews with technical people who are not very interesting, engaging nor entertaining.

Not to get too far from my point, I gave his video content a chance a while back and it bored me. The camera phone stuff lacked a sense of professionalism and the better quality video lacked being concise. Every time he posts a video now I ignore it.

And this over the past couple of weeks he’s starting to think less of what made him and gave him his current stature in the technology business – his blog. Maybe technology can’t be polished to maintain an audience like The Office or Thirty Rock. Maybe Robert needs time to find the right formula for video as he did for blogging.

But I can tell you first hand that since I haven’t been able to create something great with my camera that I appreciate good content when I see it and there’s no doubt that GOOD CONTENT RULES and GREAT CONTENT WILL MAKE YOU RICH IN TODAY’S WORLD.

Update, March 27th 2009?
Well, the premise of this post is still very sound — great content rules. As far as Robert’s video’s, well, they’ve gotten more polished, which has made them easier to absorb.

Writing Is Good For You…

So, a long time ago and what seems so so far away, I had an English teacher who made us write in a journal every day for the twelve week quarter. We hated it so much. Many times I’d wait until Friday morning to write my five entries that needed to be turned in for that week. But, I did write, though I never learned to like it in High School.

Turn the page some twenty years later and journal writing stuck with me. As I furthered my education I found that writing in my journal helped me organize my thoughts, gave me perspective and made me think. To write one must think and then take action on those thoughts to actually, physically write something down.

Several years ago I found blogging technology. I started writing in a blog and haven’t stopped ever since. I have found that writing is good for me. It helps me remember my life a little clearer and hopefully it will help other’s in some way, some time or some where.

If you are thinking about blogging here’s some other people’s ideas on what to do.

Seth Godin

Robert Scoble

Bloggingtips.Com

Write because you want to write and you’ll see that in time it will pay off in a positive way…

Are You Listening

I just have to say I love blogging technology. It is so inspiring to sit in front of a computer and to be able to hear the voices of anyone, anywhere in the world in almost real time. For my virtual friend Robert Scoble, I say blogging hasn’t changed one bit, there are just more voices to listen to if you want.

And for my friend and co-worker who is trying to listen to his heart and his God I want to tell you a story.

When I was about twenty years old my life was in turmoil. I didn’t know if God listened to me. I struggled with my belief system. I prayed many times “God, let me know you are working in my life, that you care for me.” Looking back I can’t believe how young and naive was to think God HAD to answer poor little me. But the beautiful thing I’ve come to appreciate about God is that he does work in my life and he does care and more importantly he talks to me and he answers my prayers, if only I listen. For one day while sitting in a car with a new acquaintance, we were discussing many things in our lives and in a mere second I realized God had put me in that car at that exact time and place and had put my new friend in that car at the same exact time and place. The words and ideas I exchanged with my new friend were words and ideas that God wanted me to hear.

Yea, sometimes I think it would be easier for me if God were to use a burning bush, but to be honest I don’t think there is much in my life that would require that much pomp and circumstance from God – he has my attention as it is. I have found that God speaks to my heart is so many ways. From the thoughts my friends convey in emails, blogs, conversations and from the ideas of radio talk hosts, preachers, movies, songs and in so many other ways that I can’t count. You see, God is in me, with me and around me all the time. I may not like ALL of his answers, but if I desire, I can hear him.

Now, the million dollar question for today is when you listen and hear him, do you take action on his words? And more importantly when God ask you for something do you answer his calling?

A Perfect Golfing Moment: Part III

The game of golf requires so many things to go right to hit a shot exactly as the golfer envisioned prior to striking the ball. For me the rarest of all shots is the Hole In One. A hole in one is so rare, yet so exciting and coveted by all golfers.

In my quest to become a better golfer and attain the previously written about

Four Pillars of Golf I should have added the Hole In One as a bonus. For you see, I think a hole is one is like the icing on the cake for a golfer who breaks 80, shoots PAR golf, shoots below PAR and breaks 70.

The thing about a hole in one is that it does require a good bit of skill to hit the ball near the pin, but then there is always a tad bit of luck for the ball to bounce into the cup after hitting near to the pin.

Yesterday while playing a round at Mallard Cove Golf Course in Lake Charles, Louisiana, I hit a perfect ball that hit inches from the cup and then bounced into the cup for my first Hole In One.

The brisk twelve mile per hour wind had me guessing what club to choose as I had an estimated 183 yards to the flag from the tee. Being a high ball hitter, I really have to work at club selection during windy days and in Southwest Louisiana there’s a lot of windy days.

At impact I knew I hit the ball solid. With my follow through I picked up the ball during it’s straight as a arrow flight. I remember whispering to myself “get to the green, get to the green.” I can still see the ball hitting next to the flag and taking a short hop left into the cup. It’s the only time in golf when you really get excited by seeing the ball disappear.

So there, I’ve got one. I hope it doesn’t take another ten years to get my next Hole In One. And I hope it doesn’t take another ten years to shoot below PAR and to break 70.

Good News Is Out There

With all the noise on the Internet and all the really bad local news, it is really refreshing to see that there is indeed good news to be had in the world.

Yesterday, while doing my work I fired up www.MSNBC.Com on my trusty Internet Explorer and got streamed a bunch of good news stories.

In fact, there was so much good news I could hardly contain myself.

I guess you just got to be at the right place at the right time. Quit watching the bad stuff, it’ll make you think the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

"Intellectual Dishonesty" Is Killing America

Slowly the blood of freedom flows from its veins. A malicious word here, one dishonest thought there, one act of indecency that little by little is killing the spirit of America from the inside-out.

You would have to be a bloody fool to not see the growing divide among the people of America. I know I make such a grand generalization. But in story after story I read a small voice whispers “there it is…”

Every now and then I get into a discussion with a smart person and I ask a pointed question on a subject like taxes and ask “would you give up fifty percent of your income to help the poor.” Inevitably they respond with the answer “yea, no problem.” I then tell them that they are not intellectually honest with their answer and they look at me like I’m crazy.

For you see, if you then asked them to pull out their checkbook and make a ten thousand dollar donation to the United Way they politely decline.

AND THIS IS THE ATTITUDE THAT IS KILLING AMERICA.

The press hears “the people” saying one thing, but the people of America elect and allow the politicians to act totally contrary.

This ABC News article got me thinking about this subject. I’ve read and seen video of Warren Buffet arguing that rich people aren’t paying enough in taxes. In this particular article he was testifying against repelling the estate tax. A tax that I remind you takes wealth away at the end of a life from Americans who have already paid taxes throughout their lives. Hence, the estate tax has been popularly named the “death tax.”

In previous interviews he’s made the point that from a percentage perspective he’s not paying as much in taxes as people that work for him. But from a numbers perspective he’s paying millions more in taxes than anyone working for him. So there he is, using smoke and mirrors to deflect the truth about taxes. A truth that most people don’t want to hear. A truth that without any doubt in my mind Warren knows the facts about. So based on the facts I have in front of me it is appears that Warren is being Intellectually Dishonest.

By the way, when it comes to who pays the taxes in America here are THE FACTS.

The real problem facing America is that most people don’t want to know the facts. The facts will simply interfere with their opinions. Opinions that are mostly formed out of the dark void of ignorance and stupidity. For me, what is even worse is that there are a class of people who are not ignorant or stupid. These people allow themselves to be lead by their desires for the world to be a better place, no matter what the cost or facts may offer. The people afflicted with this attitude actually have what I call the Do Gooder Disease.

There are so many people who are intellectually dishonest with themselves and this disease will eventually allow people to believe in anything that affirms their belief system.

If I ever met Warren Buffet I’d ask him “What percent of personal income taxes did the top five percent of taxpayers pay in 2002 (the latest year of available data)?” I’d then ask him to pull his check book out and write a check to the Treasurer of the United States for fifty percent of his estimated 52 billion dollar estate.

Warren, why wait for death to give it back to the poor people of the United States? And who better to manage this redistribution of wealth than the efficient Federal Government of the United States of America?

The Value of Real Friends

I have found that true friends take time to find and take time to nurture. Luckily, I’m not famous or rich and don’t have to deal with many phony people approaching me trying to be my friend. I think if I ever won the lottery developing new friendships would be difficult. But, since winning the lottery or becoming famous is harder than getting hit by lightning, I guess I don’t have to worry about that.

But over the past few weeks I’ve had countless reminders that true friends are so valuable. My wife got a job offer recently and so we decided to pick up the family and move to Lake Charles, Louisiana. Since I grew up in Atlanta and lived there most of my adult life, most of my real friends are there. During the lead up to moving we had several send off lunches and dinners and although we knew we were moving away and talking about moving, it really didn’t hit that we were moving until yesterday.

After the packing, loading, driving, unloading, and unpacking got done, we sat down yesterday and realized during a conversation we were here, by ourselves, with no friends, no one to get support from.

And of course our friends have all called us, asking how we are doing and if we made it ok, to which I say we have and thanks for the well wishes.

I’m not the kind of guy to pick up with just anyone. It takes time for people to get me and it takes time for me to trust people and their intentions. My wife, I think she’s about the same. But since she’s a much nicer person than I, she has less trouble finding friends.

Although I think sometimes moving is a good thing and gives a person perspective, it can be difficult and hard to get through.

But at least I have my best friend and my new best friend with me. Together we can make a new life here, while not forgetting about the friends and family left behind.

As I try to remind myself… “Don’t worry about yesterday, or tomorrow, do what you can do today and tomorrow will be better and yesterday, well, it’s already done.”

Capturing Savings Versus Innovation

I work in a challenging environment. Unlike small information technology environments this environment is very, very large, which creates a lot of the challenges. You see as an IT and IT operations team becomes very large it also becomes very cumbersome.

Over time, very large IT environments (VLITE) slowly shift into more and more focused groups providing services to their internal customers. As this specialization grabs hold in the enterprise, individual contributors and management loose track of the big picture. And that big picture is to provide efficient and cost effective computing resources, hardware and software, that enable business matter experts the ability to execute in the marketplace.

Many VLITE’s over time become slow and incapable of delivering innovative technology that actually makes the company money. How many times have you heard a business executive murmur “Damn, IT says it will take six months to make the modification to my application and then when they deliver it is all wrong.”  

There are many reasons for this failure. Some of the problem resides solely with IT. They become so large that senior management looses touch with what is really going on five levels below them. Some of the problem is due to the short-sighted, share-price management mentality pervasive in Fortune 100 companies. An frankly, a lot of the problem is the result of bad thinking and execution due to the “momentum” effect.

In the future I’ll write more about the share-price management mentality and the momentum effect. But this writing centers on the words capturing savings.

What is exactly “capturing savings.” Well, it is a buzz word that executives like to throw around when they’ve been asked to reduce operating costs in their organizations. In very large corporate companies, the best easiest brainless most effective method for capturing savings is to lay off personnel. Layoffs are the last ditch action taken because it shows instant savings and if all other “cost savings” initiatives fail, laying people off is a sure bet for the non-thinking executive and will ensure the executive will receive his yearly bonus.

Without digressing to far, the problem with layoffs is more to do with the problem of hiring. I’ve found in my anecdotal experience that if a company has great hiring and firing practices, they generally don’t have to conduct annual layoffs.

In my honest opinion, executives need to remove the two words “capturing savings” from their vocabulary. Replace those words with one word and one vision — INNOVATION. No matter what your position in a business may be, you should always look for ways to innovate what you do. “Capturing Savings” is a mentality that people have when they know they have not been executing their responsibilities effectively and they know they need to go back and get it right.

If you do it right the first time, then their shouldn’t be any savings to capture unless a new technology comes along that renders your old methods obsolete.

Learning From People You Don’t Know

On some conscious level, at some point in your life you may realize that you learn a boatload from people you don’t know.

During your formative years, you learned out of school books from people who wrote those books and I bet for the most part you never even had a clue who or where they were from.

For me, I guess it is easy to pick up a news paper or magazine, read something, learn something new and not even think of the person who wrote the article.

Not “knowing” your source is now so OLD SCHOOL.

For you see, with the Internet and BLOGS you have a direct connection to the author. It may take you some time as it has with me to find bloggers that you can connect and understand, but eventually you can find individuals out on the Internet who have knowledge, who share it willingly and from whom you can learn a great deal about life, liberty and the pursuit of your happiness…

Of the seventeen blogger’s that I subscribe to via RSS and read everyday, there are about three that I would say I really often learn something tangible from them.

• Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/; Seth gives great business insights from the perspective of marketing. Real marketing isn’t show biz and commercials, it is how you talk to customers and tell them about your company’s products and services. This guy gets customer relationship building and management. I’ve been reading his blog for well over two and a half years and never not learn something from his posts.
• Joel Spolsky: Joel on Software, http://www.joelonsoftware.com/; Joel is a software developer who started his own company that builds software. His blog chronicles his journey through the process of building a software company and his thoughts on how to build “world-class” commercial software. You may think that just because his blog is about software development that it would be boring to non programmers. If you thought this, you would be dead wrong. His thoughts and opinions on how to create software can be liberally applied to creating any product. Learning from his mistakes and journey is indeed a privilege.
• Zac Smith; Hello-Righton.com, http://www.hello-righton.com/; I have a real, personal connection to Zac. He and I work at the same company and for about two years we worked on the same team. Long before I started reading Zac’s blog I knew he had a spiritual side about him. I started reading his blog about a year ago. As he states in his blog “The purpose of this blog is to SHEPHERD others.”

Who do you really learn from?