Mentor: The Kid & The CEO
Posted on December 17th, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Several months back, I was introduced to Tom Pace, the author of Mentor: The Kid & The CEO (shameless affiliate link). Soon after meeting him, I picked up a copy of his book.
I actually sat down to read it one night while Leann was watching Dr. Quinn. I figured I’d read until she finished the episode she’d just started, then watch a show myself. But by the time her episode was done, I was half done with the book, so I just spent another hour and read the whole thing. So it’s definitely a quick read, along with books like The Go-Giver.
The book had a great story, which is based on the real life experiences of Tom Pace. The story was entertaining and compelling, a definite page-turner. The book tells the story of a CEO mentoring a young man in prison, something Tom himself actually does on a regular basis. The events in the book of the CEO influencing the young man, then the young man helping the CEO through a rough patch in his business, really do parallel the experiences Tom himself has had. And the story was very compelling, with each chapter ending in a cliffhanger of sorts.
One of the great things for myself as a reader was the extensive list of other books to read as well. There were a few books listed throughout the story, then the end had a much longer list of recommended books for people looking to improve themselves.
I do recommend the book as a quick read, and it’s definitely a good start if you’re looking to begin building up a library of books on how to improve yourself. And it’s a great book to buy larger quantities of for high school age students, which is something they’re actually trying to promote. You can buy large quantities directly from Mentor Hope, the publisher.
Tags: book review, quick read, Tom Pace
The best (Muppets) YouTube video
Posted on November 24th, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
This Muppets video is awesome. Super-awesome.
Tags: bohemian rhapsody, muppets, video
How I’m Achieving My Goals: Step 1
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
Jim Rohn
I’ve recently begun mentoring someone and am helping her accomplish life goals. Over the years, I’ve read many different theories on how to set and achieve goals. I’m developing a way that I think, worst case, will work well for me. Best case, it may work well for you also.
The first step is simple: Set goals. Personally, I’m a fan of the Jim Rohn method for setting goals. His talk on setting goals is fantastic. He gives many examples, but really just has a few basic steps. Here his method is, in a nutshell:
- Write down five goals you’ve already achieved.
- Write down 50 goals you want to achieve.
- Label each of those 50 goals as 1, 3, 5 or 10 year goals.
- Pick the top four most important one year goals, and write out a couple of sentences for each on why it’s important.
- Write a short paragraph about what kind of person you have to become in order to achieve those goals.
Working with my mentee spurred me on to take the steps myself. I had definitely accomplished goals that I had already set, but had not yet written out that many goals I wanted to accomplish. So here’s some samples from my own list as an example.
- Start a web design business, write a book.
- Ride exercise bike on a regular basis, go to Disney World, write five books.
- Ride an exercise bike was 1 year, Disney World a 3 year, write five books a 10 year.
- One of my four most important was to ride my exercise bike, for this reason: My health in general, and my blood pressure specifically, is very important. This will be one thing that will be fairly easy to do that will have the biggest positive impact on my overall health.
- Here’s my paragraph on what sort of person I need to become: In order to accomplish my goals I have listed over the next ten years, I have to become a more disciplined individual. I need to be more adept at forming and maintaining good habits. I need to increasingly make better use of my time.
Hope that helps. Stay tuned for step 2…
Free Prize Inside, by Seth Godin
Posted on November 4th, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
I just finished off another of Seth Godin’s bestsellers, Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea (shameless affiliate link warning). It was good stuff, which is par for the course with Godin.
If you’re not familiar with Seth Godin’s books, a frequent focal point of his is basically that it’s a lot easier to market something that’s remarkable and does way more than just differentiates you from the competition. He has referred to this as a purple cow in the past, and here uses that term and that of a free prize. That’s a drastic simplification of what Godin has written several books about, but that’s the gist of it.
So a lot of Free Prize is Seth Godin’s same mantra as always. So if you’re looking for tons of new Godin ideas, you’ll probably be disappointed. However, as usual, he gives plenty of great stories to back up his ideas. The one fairly new thought in this book, however, was his advice on how to champion ideas.
As usual, a lot of his thoughts are “Duh, I could have thought of that.” But it doesn’t matter, because you didn’t. Not only that, but Godin organizes the thoughts so well and has researched so many examples.
If you enjoyed Purple Cow, or any of Godin’s books, I would recommend taking a look at Free Prize Inside as well. And it’s a decent starting place if you’re looking into how to market your own business, but a great place if you’re wanting to know how to better champion your ideas in general.
Tags: book review, marketing, Seth Godin
Great Scott!
Posted on October 30th, 2009 @ 9:28 am
One of my programmers just told me to check out today’s xkcd comic. He claimed it was curiously appropriate for me, considering I’m dressed up as Marty McFly from Back to the Future II for Halloween.
Not Doc Brown
Random BTTF related funny story: I came home one day and my kids were running around saying “Great Scott!” I thought it was hilarious, Leann didn’t. Turns out the got it from Oswald, and not Back to the Future. Ah, well.
Tags: back to the future, comic, geeky, hat, marty mcfly, xkcd
My Twitter account is worthless
Posted on October 5th, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
Well, actually it’s worth $467. Apparently…
Created by WhatsMyTwitterAccountWorth.com
I need help from business owner bloggers
Posted on October 4th, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
I need help from some business owner bloggers for my blogging book. It doesn’t matter if you have already blogged extensively, or have just barely set up a blog.
What you have to do:
- Blog on an assigned topic
What you will get out of it:
- The blog topic
- Free copy of my book
- Free publicity in my book
If this is something that interests you at all, and you are a blog owner with a blog already set up (does not matter if you have an entry already or not), contact me and send me the following:
- Your blog’s website address
- A brief description of your business
- Why you should be included
I have no clue what the response will be to this. I have a limited number of chapters to fill. It’s possible some people will help with multiple topics. It’s also possible I’ll have to turn some people down.
Thanks in advance for all the help!
Efficiency of hairstylists
Posted on October 1st, 2009 @ 10:46 am
This was Josh's first haircut by Hether, back in 2005. For some reason, I don't have an extensive gallery of pictures with myself and Hether in them.
Over a year ago, I stopped cutting my own hair and started going to a hairstylist. There are huge advantages to both a stylist over a barber, and definitely a stylist over myself, especially with the place I go to.
- I can make an appointment. No waiting, and it just fits easily into my schedule.
- It’s (now) less than a five minute drive from my office.
- Hether, my stylist, washes my hair too, so I’m good to go for my next meeting without going home to shower.
- It took me about 20-30 minutes to cut my own, including shower and everything. I’m only gone from my office for about 15-20 minutes, total.
- The price isn’t too far off from a barber.
- My wife pays for me when she goes in. So technically, I never pay for a haircut anymore.
- We won’t get into the waxing…
Of course, a disadvantage over cutting my own as home is that I can’t get a haircut in the buff. At least, that’s what Hether told me this morning.
Why I turned down your friend request
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 @ 10:35 am
I get a lot of friend requests. I’m one of those people who do not accept every friend request that comes my way, though. Here’s a few reasons I might turn down your particular friend request.
I can’t see your face
If I don’t know who you are by looking at your profile picture, I’m not going to accept your friend request. It doesn’t matter if your picture is so small that I can’t make out your face, or if you have a picture of your kid instead of a picture of you, or if you have a picture of an American flag. If your profile picture isn’t a clear shot of your face, I’m not going to accept your friend request.
I can see your face, but have no clue who you are
Sadly for you, this may not be completely your fault. I tend to not have the greatest memory for people, both faces and names.
However, you can curb this reason by sending your friend request very soon after you meet me in person. Like, within 48 hours generally works. While my memory is bad, it’s not quite that bad yet.
You have a second account for your business instead of a page
Businesses should have a Fan Page for themselves, not a second account. Accounts are made for people, Fan Pages for businesses (and some other purposes).
This is not a hard, fast rule, as I do occasionally accept a friend request from someone who set up an account for their business. But I’m always worried that if they don’t know how to use Facebook properly, I may not want them as my friend on there.
We have no mutual friends
If I can see your face, but don’t remember you, I may still accept your friend request if we have quite a few mutual friends. If, however, I have no clue who you are and we have no mutual friends, chances are slim that I will accept you as a friend.
Again, these are just guidelines I personally go by. I’m not necessarily recommending you do so. Plenty of people accept any and all friend request they get.
Obviously, I’m not one of those people.
Tags: facebook, friend, friend requests
Origin of Ctrl Alt Del
Posted on September 16th, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
Interesting short video on the origin of Ctrl Alt Del. But Bill Gates sure does not look amused when this guy shares the credit towards the end.
