Possible flags to watch out for when people talk to you

Guest post: More on distractions, from Paul Ford | 43 Folders: "For most of my life people saw me doing the things I liked to do and said, “you have too much free time on your hands.” I’ve decided that when you hear that, it means you’re doing something right."

Little rules of thumb like this are terrible useful.

I've run across a few other not so nice ones.
If someone tells me that they are a business owner and would never treat a customer like they are being treated that often has meant they are trying to squeeze more out of the sale then is really fair.

If a boss starts appealing to your professionalism, he is really asking you to work for free or work in a hostile environment without complaint. Best t o start looking for a new job at that point.

One the other hand, if all publishers you send a manuscript to reject it, and the writing is good, it may mean you have a major bestseller on your hands. J.K. Rowlings is the biggest example but many bestselling authors had the same problem. So look at those rejections as good news.

How to Change the World: Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup

How to Change the World: Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup: "My buddy at Redfin, Glenn Kelman, decided he wanted to bare his financial soul so that other entrepreneurs could get greater insight into the witchcraft called financial modeling. In this two-part posting, he reveals his numbers and his lessons. They are eye-opening for most entrepreneurs. "

This is a hard eyed look into what starting up a company takes in financial planning. I am really glad this came out now.

Starting up: Going to the SBDC

It's been crazy and being pt on retainer at work is not all that I would want it to be. But I am going through the process of setting up a business so we can do something formal there.

So basically the computers are Mr. Fix It are running well enough that they don't really need me for that anymore and the business model has changed again so they don't need extra people for the phones. So I am being put on retainer so they have someone to call to fix the computers is something goes wrong.

I set up an appointment at the local Small Business Development Center which is conveniently around the corner and down the street, and talked to one of their counselors and have started the work of setting up a business plan.

I've come to realize that all I am doing is setting up a job. This kind of self-employment is a job with the added responsibilities of marketing, sales, accounting and insurance.

While the big name competition is Geek Squad and Firedog, I am really competing with geeks in high school and the local college who just need a little extra money for games. They have much lower expenses then myself with a family.

Am I good at this? Yes, but not the best and I am not really interested in being the best computer support guy out there. It just isn't worth the aggravation anymore. I want the tools to work, I don't want to spend my time getting things to work before I can get any work done.

So that leaves me to looking for a new job and trying to do a number of things too: finishing moving into our apartment, and writing an emergency plan for my church and expanding my wife's and daughter's horizons with math and science.

My wife and I are taking an Amateur Radio class together and it is a lot of fun thinking about making radios again. Lately every time we drive past a car dealership with a giant balloon above it, I think about how much it is carrying capacity must be. The tie down they use is often a heavy bit of rope with flags on it and it goes up 75-100 feet. A bit long for thin coax but doable, it might be better to run a very low power system to transmit up to the balloon and then use a higher power transceiver to launch from there. This is exciting but it is also just a hobby and for emergency preparation the niche is pretty darn small.

Going to the SBDC

It's been crazy and being pt on retainer at work is not all that I would want it to be. But I am going through the process of setting up a business so we can do something formal there.

So basically the computers are Mr. Fix It are running well enough that they don't really need me for that anymore and the business model has changed again so they don't need extra people for the phones. So I am being put on retainer so they have someone to call to fix the computers is something goes wrong.

I set up an appointment at the local Small Business Development Center which is conveniently around the corner and down the street, and talked to one of their counselors and have started the work of setting up a business plan.

I've come to realize that all I am doing is setting up a job. This kind of self-employment is a job with the added responsibilities of marketing, sales, accounting and insurance.

While the big name competition is Geek Squad and Firedog, I am really competing with geeks in high school and the local college who just need a little extra money for games. They have much lower expenses then myself with a family.

Am I good at this? Yes, but not the best and I am not really interested in being the best computer support guy out there. It just isn't worth the aggravation anymore. I want the tools to work, I don't want to spend my time getting things to work before I can get any work done.

So that leaves me to looking for a new job and trying to do a number of things too: finishing moving into our apartment, and writing an emergency plan for my church and expanding my wife's and daughter's horizons with math and science.

My wife and I are taking an Amateur Radio class together and it is a lot of fun thinking about making radios again. Lately every time we drive past a car dealership with a giant balloon above it, I think about how much it is carrying capacity must be. The tie down they use is often a heavy bit of rope with flags on it and it goes up 75-100 feet. A bit long for thin coax but doable, it might be better to run a very low power system to transmit up to the balloon and then use a higher power transceiver to launch from there. This is exciting but it is also just a hobby and for emergency preparation the niche is pretty darn small.

Remarks of Bill Gates %u2014 The Harvard University Gazette

Remarks of Bill Gates %u2014 The Harvard University Gazette: "Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have %u2014 whether it%u2019s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet."

It just isn't good enough to have a goal. I have lots of goals and most of them are not getting anywhere.

Finding a high-leverage approach is probably more important then we think. I am not going to worry about finding the highest-leverage approach, mainly because that would like to analysis paralysis and besides I probably don't know enough yet to find it an any case. Not to say I am dumb but things change when you start solving a problem.

It is almost Heisenbergian, Once you start doing things the nature of the problem you are trying to solve begins to change and that is unpredictable. In all likelihood the best solution hasn't been created yet but soon will be. That is the way it tends to happen.

Sometimes however it is a little perverse and the solution doesn't appear very easily but that is often because the type of solution I'm pursuing is not optimal and I need to change attack vectors.

Eek, It almost sounds like "The Secret" I am not into the law of attraction stuff but this has happened too often too deny it completely.

Taking Control Of Your Lifestyle

"No one knows for certain how many single-digit millionaires live in Silicon Valley. Certainly their numbers reach into the tens of thousands, say those who work with the area’s engineers and entrepreneurs. Yet nearly all of them still have all-consuming jobs, not only because the work gives them a sense of achievement and satisfaction but also because they think they must work so much to afford their gilded neighborhoods."

Most of those interviewed consider themselves "accidental millionaires." They didn't set out to make so much but they did anyway. Lifestyle isn't only about how you live but your ideals about how you should live your life.

I really doubt that they intended the life they have but they still seem to think that grinding away at work is what they need to do. At 80 hrs a week work isn't a part of your life but it takes up all of it. There is no room for family much less hobbies.

They even realize that moving to someplace like Kansas City would completely change everything. They would be really wealthy there but they are still working class in California.

Complimentary Cash in a Fantasy Casino

Complimentary Cash in a Fantasy Casino: "Real wealth is neither having more money, nor having higher priced stocks. Real wealth is accumulated capital - buildings, tools, factories…and the skills to know how to use them. Wealth can be money too - but only if the money represents real, useful capital. In Zimbabwe, they've got their Zim dollars up the wazoo. But the real capital in the country is fast disappearing - stolen, destroyed, neglected, redistributed, consumed or exported. Under these conditions, increases in stock prices are empty; the stock market in Harare has become a kind of fantasy casino, where people can pretend to get rich by betting against each other."

It reads like what is happening here, except we call it outsourcing,

I was thinking about the difference between wealth, prosperity and riches. And how it relates to what is discussed in the scriptures.

I realized that I didn't have a good definition of wealth and here is one delivered right to my inbox.

The scriptures are replete with all kinds of stories and parables about prosperity and riches and financial matters.

God obviously wants us to prosper as the promise in Malachi shows, but he warns us of the pursuit of riches which can destroy us as it did the Nephites.

How we define wealth can often make the real difference between prosperity and riches.