I have been considering the concept of greed and how it relates to some of the happenings over the last few years (banks failing, mortgages not being paid, Madoff, etc.). I argue that these people were not greedy enough. Take a look at someone like Madoff. If he was more interested in his needs over the…
How to Learn a New Language
Over the last few years I have been growing an interist in learning new languages. I think it comes from my interest in building new relationships and I cannot do that as effectively when interacting with people who speak a differnt language. I have tried a few tools, and I am always looking for better ways to…
How to Get a Job With One Phone Call
I was living in Knoxville, TN (in 2008) and was looking for a job in Kansas City, my home town. I found several companies I was interested in working for and began calling them. Notice I did not start by searching for open positions. I was called and asked if someone would talk to me about the…
Watch Out for The Experts
Things are getting complicated. We have to rely on experts more now then before, and the need of people with specialized knowledge is growing. For example, it used to be that teenagers worked on their cars, but now they are so complicated that an expert technician is needed to do most of the work. Don’t get me…
Do You Understand This Advertisement?
When I saw this advertisement I thought “how clever”, then I wondered how many people understand it. Being a chemical engineering nerd I know that Au is the atomic symbol for gold, but how many other people know it. This led me to think about advertising in general. If you are going to be advertising anything you…
So You Want to Save Money?
I always knew what restaurant.com was, but I did not pay much attention because I don’t want to get stuck spending money on things only because I have a coupon. A few weeks ago I had a friend give me the low down on how to use it. I first started at restaurant.com and found some restaurants which I…
Dave Ramsey’s Plan Does Not Work For Everyone
Maybe this will get me some hate mail. Dave Ramsey‘s plan works great, but it does not always work for everybody…or does it. I want to use this topic to address thinking for yourself. Essentially Dave’s plan is a set of decisions that a person can make which will help them to prosper. We use…
How to Stay Positive
I am generally a very positive person but it takes work. It is easy to stay positive when everything is going well but when things go bad is a different story. One technique I use is to consider everything a learning experience. When something goes bad and I start to get upset I ask myself “what did…
Nerding it up on Nanobots
I am going to nerd it up, so feel free to skip it if you like. I listen to a podcast where weird things are discussed and one of the topics they like to cover is The Singularity. The Singularity is projected to occur within the next 50 years based on the Moore’s Law. One of the key things that may…
Get Rid of One Thing
Over the years I have been accumulating things. When I left school to move to Tennessee and when I left Tennessee to move back to Missouri a moving company took care of everything. It was so easy. About a year ago we had to move our own stuff. I decided we have too much crap. While having…
Working With a VA
I am in the process of writing a workbook to help husbands communicate with their wives their want to start a business. I am great at regurgitating information, but I am not great at grammar, punctuation, etc. To help this, I hired a friend to review it for me. I learned a lot from this experience, and…
Getting Your Spouse On Board: The Lizard Strikes Again
I have been working on my book, and I recently had a proofreader review it. I had some resistance to giving it to him but I knew it was my lizard brain. I was afraid of criticism. The funny thing is that part of my day job is having my work reviewed, but for some…
Super Customer Loyalty Series-Not So Super Waiter
I am always looking for the lesson to take away from a bad situation. This helps me find the positive in everything. Last Saturday Andrea, some friends, and I went out to Lidia’s. Andrea has been wanting to go for so long and she was super excited. The long and the short of it was…
Global Warming is a Hoax…
Or maybe it isn’t. I bet this will get me some hate mail. I am going to use this topic to tackle critical thinking, statistics, and asking good questions. Warning, this post is huge. First is to tackle asking good questions. The key questions out there regarding global warming are: is the world getting warmer?…
Getting Your Spouse On Board: Become Extraordinary
I have been thinking that I need to do something unique to stand out. All of the blogs I read are unique and interesting. Right now I feel mine is pretty blah. I cannot come up with an idea on my own. I completely overlooked asking Andrea what she thinks we should do. Maybe I…
New Superpower, Remembering Names
Everyone always says “I am no good with names”. No one is; you have to work at it. If you don’t make an effort to remember names then you won’t. We think in pictures and sounds and not words. Also, in memorizing anything you have to make an effort. Next time you meet someone and…
Multi-Level Marketing Helped Me Find My Superpowers
I will forever be frustrated at people who attack something they do not understand. Consider multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing businesses. Many people have quite a negative view of these companies. These are legitimate business models which share a lot of similarities with the company you work for. In the past, there were businesses that…
Super Customer Loyalty Series-Super Car Repair
I know a little bit about car repair but I don’t have much patience, time, or the tools for much of it. About a year ago Andrea was having trouble starting her car and it was beyond my ability to fix it. James Dibben recommended Spillman Auto Service which he used to take all of his business’s vehicles for repair.…
Super Customer Loyalty Series-Super Home Sales
This is a continuation of the Super Customer Loyalty Series. My wife and I wanted to purchase a home in Tennessee in 2007. I began talking to friends and one recommended Susannah Dunn. The main thing that sold me was her willingness to jump right in and get dirty serving her customer. My friend, who recommended her, mentioned her…
Super Customer Loyalty Series-Bad Bank
I was reviewing some notes and I found something referring back to a April 2011 Success Magazine article about customer loyalty by Erin Casey (pg 26 if you are looking). In rereading the article, I remembered why I made the note, I completely disagreed with one statement: “Customer loyalty isn’t dead, at the very least it is…