Another style or genre of music that I enjoy. You should widen the horizons of your ear's Pleasure.
Clannad performs Harry's Song from the movie Patriot Games
Sunday, July 13, 2008
some more random short story ideas
Still more ideas from the notes yesterday of ideas written down for various short stories and illustrations Things to write about some day from the beach. for the first list of 1 -34 see the entry for yesterday.
35. Usually the difference in winning and losing is a matter of timing. All slot machines eventually have a jackpot. When I was in the Army, my best friend and I would go to the NCO club on Friday and Saturday nights, and sit and have a few martinis and then a great steak dinner and sit and relax and the whole time keep our eyes on the rows of slot machines. We were watching for the guys (no gals then) who would sit at a machine and just keep feeding a steady stream of dimes into the machine until they ran out of money. Their problem was that they weren't losers . . .they just didn't have enough capital to wait for the jackpot. We'd finish out a nice dinner and watch them walk off sad and head hung down, and then we'd get up and go over and put perhaps a roll (or less of dimes) in the same machine and collect the first jackpot that came up. And then we'd leave the machine rather than let it take back from us our winnings. It was always enough to cover the cost of the roll we put in, plus our dinner and drinks and we'd usually leave with enough to get a ride to the movie and then lunch the next day. We weren't any luckier than the losers. Just smarter. We were rewarded for our patience and observation and intelligence. It was all a matter of timing.
36. Using your competition to your advantage. I heard a great story one time from the Real Estate vice president of Wendy's. He talked about what a huge real estate department McDonalds had and how many millions and millions of dollars they poured into salaries and research to find exactly the right . . .and best . . .locations to place a new McDonalds. Wendy's on the other hand had a very small real estate department and very low overhead. But they still cared about good location. So they used McDonalds real estate department for their locations. Quite simply . . . they just waited for McDonalds to select a site and then they tried to get a location as close to them as possible.
37. Just because an idea failed the first time you tried it, doesn't mean it was a bad idea. Sometimes the firecracker just needs a longer fuse to keep it from blowing up in your hand.
Sometimes the oil was in the right spot, but you just didn't drill deep enough? Or maybe you drilled too deep?
38. Hotels are a great place to sell roses. And a lot of other things too. If you have a shoe store and someone buys a pair of shoes, why not also carry a line of belts and sell them a belt at the same time?
39. If you want a bigger piece of the pie, it's easier to make a bigger pie and get the same % of it, than it is to fight off others for part of their piece. What do you care if everyone else gets more too. If your goal was just to have more for yourself and your goal was met, then be happy if you gave everyone else a blessing too.
40. Do you have a rate for library card holders? I never liked the idea of discounting my hotels rooms just because a guest wanted to stand at the front desk and try to negotiate the room charge lower. I felt like it cheapened my product. On the other hand, I didn't want them walking off without getting them to stay with me. I figured it was better to get something for a vacant room than nothing if it was 11 at night and we were not sold out. So as a last resort, we'd ask them if they had a Sear's card or an Exxon card and offer them the discount. We were both happy. I got something from them and sold an empty room. But I left them with the impression that our rates were not negotiable. They got a place to sleep and felt like they'd gotten a surprise benefit and discount. We both won. That's the best business transaction you can have.
41. Circles of Influence. Years ago, the small town I had a hotel in built a by-pass around town and my sales dropped 20% in one day. I had to do something. One idea was that I went to see every funeral director in town, and made them a reservation agent for my hotel. When they would go to see the family the first time after a death, they would make a simple reminder to the family and ask if there would be members coming in from out of town so they (the funeral director) could call my hotel and reserve a small block or rooms at "his/her" special bereavement rate. It made the funeral director look like a hero because they provided a good service to the family, and it got the family directed toward my hotel for placing their family members during the funeral, rather than just leaving it up to them to decide for themselves. The added benefit to the family was that it got all of their out of town family members staying at one place . . . my hotel. It was a Win/Win/Win situation. But the super-duper benefit to me was that when they came we always tried to be friendly and accommodating and . . . as is often the case . . .the funeral gathering would turn into a small family reunion. And we'd give them coffee at night and allow them to all meet in our lobby and gathering room and spend time with each other. The first winter we did this, we ended up booking about 10 family reunions for the following summer. Circles of influence. Find a way to make everyone your personal sales representative.
42. Measurable advertising. Unless you have a swollen ego and just want to see your name in lights, don't spend money on advertising that you can't measure the results of.
43. Reciprocating Business. Pressure your suppliers to use your product. Or stay in your hotel. You give them business, and tell them you expect them to give you business. If they give you the line, that they need to pass their business around, just tell them that you probably need to do the same. It's amazing how many will forgo their other clients who don't put it so "forcefully" and give you all their business.
44. Unintended results can sometimes be a wonderful benefit. I used to stop at a gas station to get gas and a canned Diet Coke. One day I stopped and Coca Cola had put in a new "talking vending machine". This was a few years ago when their theme song was the melody from "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony". Anyway, when you walked up and put your money in, it would play that little melody and then a digital voice would come out and say "please make your selection Now". One day as I was walking up to the machine a lady was in front of me. She . . .quite obviously . . .had never seen (or heard) a talking vending machine. (Note: for those of you under the age of 30, digital stuff like that has only been around since about 1985 very much). When she put her money in, it played the melody and the lady sort of stepped back in amazement. But then when the voice came on and said "please make your selection Now", she about leaped off the ground. If you can imagine the look on her face when she jumped back from the machine and looked at me and then back at the machine . . . it was as though there was a man in the machine. She very slowed stepped up toward the machine . . .and looked back at me . . .and leaned way over and said "I'd like a Coca Cola please!". Of course . . nothing happened. (and I had to restrain myself a tiny bit in amusement). She then leaned back over and more forcefully and much louder (as though it didn't hear her the first time) said "I SAID . . I'D LIKE A COCA COLA PLEASE!!!!!" Again . . . . (obviously) . . .nothing happened. She looked back at me with a very very puzzled look on her face. I guess she assumed I could help her. So I just said, "I think you have to press the button for your selection". She smiled BIG . . .as though a light had just come on in her head . . . and she leaned back over and pressed the Coke button and . . . .at the same time YELLED . . . "I'D LIKE A COCA COLA PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Of course, then the drink fell out, and she picked it up and opened it and was so happy with herself because she (with my help) had mastered this marvelous new piece of technology. But then . . . she just stood there. She had mastered it, and now she was going to watch . . . in amazement . . .as I mastered it too. Soooooooooooo. . . me being the kind and gentle person I am, who could not hurt her feelings . . . .I leaned over and pressed the Diet Coke button and YELLED "I'D LIKE A DIET COKE PLEASE". Then we both stood there and enjoyed our drinks together and discussed how very rapidly the world was progressing. She was very happy with herself. So why should I have taken that away from her? After all, we'd both gotten our drinks. I do wonder though if she ever wondered when a new person came and got inside the machine to dispense the drinks?????
45. Bait and Switch is not necessarily bad. Sometimes I don't mind be allured into something with one price only to then discover that something bigger or better is also available at a good price too. (Story of the Lemonade sales boy and girl to come later)
46. Give people choices. We have three kinds of rooms in my hotel. Standard, Deluxe and Executive. As I said before, if someone only has half the money you want for your product, then try to sell them half a product. If they don't have the money for an Executive Room, then have a Standard room that is half that price. If they came in the first place to try and give you some of their money, well . . .then . . .don't let them leave without taking it.
47. Never make someone stand in line when they are trying to give you their money.
48. Give back. Give more of yourself to others than you think others give to you. The Law of Returns, says that it will come back to you.
49. Native Wisdom. There are two bears living inside of you.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life."A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two bears.
One is evil - he is anger, envy,sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which bear will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
50. Something is not deception if it is the truth. There is no harm in framing the truth in a manner that will be most appealing to your customers. If your business is built on top of a former landfill, then just promote your site as being located in one of the most notable ecological collections in the world. And then spread some wildflowers around. People will draw their own conclusions and if they assume the wildflowers are the "eco beauty" then sobeit.
51. Bribery is not necessarily a bad thing. What is the harm in introducing your product to a new prospect by giving them a sample to try it out. That is bribery in it's purest form. If you make a repeat customer out of them and they come back 100 times, your advertising budget was only 1% per customer. That is a good return!
52. Don't let someone else gamble with your Ranch. I was in a partnership one time and we were operating on my capital. I came into the office one Monday morning and my partner had taken a very, very, very large risk over the weekend . . on a hunch!. He told me that he "felt" sure it was a good risk and that we needed to "bet the ranch" on the deal. I told him that I hoped he was right (and fortunately he was) but that it was easy to bet the ranch . . .if it wasn't your ranch. The opposite of this rule is also true. It's always best to gamble with someone elses money "if" they let you. You have a much greater moral responsibility but you have nothing to lose. Tread with caution when doing so.
52. Be forward thinking. Think outside the box.
To see how your baby sees things, spend a few hours a week crawling around the house on your knees to get things from the baby's perspective. If you have a hotel, stay in one of your own rooms once in a while to see what your guests think. Ask your customers lots of questions. Get the point of view of your customers rather than trying to give them your point of view. Also, this is really number 53. Just checking
54. People will pay you to make them look like a hero. (story of my Florist idea for men)
55. The best investment you can make is to invest in yourself to make more money.
(Joe Girard and his birthday cards)
56. You can in fact . . if you are pursuasive enough . . sell Ice Cream to an Eskimo. But do you really want to go to the north pole? Is the result worth the effort? Or are you just trying to puff yourself up and inflate your own ego. Is the world really going to be any better off if Eskimos are eating Ice Cream?
57. Dress the part.
Wear a suite to buy. And jeans to sell. When I was in the real estate development business years ago, and wanting to buy something, I wore a suit. I wanted the seller to feel like I was succesful and prosperous and he/she was getting the absolute highest dollar for their property.
35. Usually the difference in winning and losing is a matter of timing. All slot machines eventually have a jackpot. When I was in the Army, my best friend and I would go to the NCO club on Friday and Saturday nights, and sit and have a few martinis and then a great steak dinner and sit and relax and the whole time keep our eyes on the rows of slot machines. We were watching for the guys (no gals then) who would sit at a machine and just keep feeding a steady stream of dimes into the machine until they ran out of money. Their problem was that they weren't losers . . .they just didn't have enough capital to wait for the jackpot. We'd finish out a nice dinner and watch them walk off sad and head hung down, and then we'd get up and go over and put perhaps a roll (or less of dimes) in the same machine and collect the first jackpot that came up. And then we'd leave the machine rather than let it take back from us our winnings. It was always enough to cover the cost of the roll we put in, plus our dinner and drinks and we'd usually leave with enough to get a ride to the movie and then lunch the next day. We weren't any luckier than the losers. Just smarter. We were rewarded for our patience and observation and intelligence. It was all a matter of timing.
36. Using your competition to your advantage. I heard a great story one time from the Real Estate vice president of Wendy's. He talked about what a huge real estate department McDonalds had and how many millions and millions of dollars they poured into salaries and research to find exactly the right . . .and best . . .locations to place a new McDonalds. Wendy's on the other hand had a very small real estate department and very low overhead. But they still cared about good location. So they used McDonalds real estate department for their locations. Quite simply . . . they just waited for McDonalds to select a site and then they tried to get a location as close to them as possible.
37. Just because an idea failed the first time you tried it, doesn't mean it was a bad idea. Sometimes the firecracker just needs a longer fuse to keep it from blowing up in your hand.
Sometimes the oil was in the right spot, but you just didn't drill deep enough? Or maybe you drilled too deep?38. Hotels are a great place to sell roses. And a lot of other things too. If you have a shoe store and someone buys a pair of shoes, why not also carry a line of belts and sell them a belt at the same time?
39. If you want a bigger piece of the pie, it's easier to make a bigger pie and get the same % of it, than it is to fight off others for part of their piece. What do you care if everyone else gets more too. If your goal was just to have more for yourself and your goal was met, then be happy if you gave everyone else a blessing too.
40. Do you have a rate for library card holders? I never liked the idea of discounting my hotels rooms just because a guest wanted to stand at the front desk and try to negotiate the room charge lower. I felt like it cheapened my product. On the other hand, I didn't want them walking off without getting them to stay with me. I figured it was better to get something for a vacant room than nothing if it was 11 at night and we were not sold out. So as a last resort, we'd ask them if they had a Sear's card or an Exxon card and offer them the discount. We were both happy. I got something from them and sold an empty room. But I left them with the impression that our rates were not negotiable. They got a place to sleep and felt like they'd gotten a surprise benefit and discount. We both won. That's the best business transaction you can have.
41. Circles of Influence. Years ago, the small town I had a hotel in built a by-pass around town and my sales dropped 20% in one day. I had to do something. One idea was that I went to see every funeral director in town, and made them a reservation agent for my hotel. When they would go to see the family the first time after a death, they would make a simple reminder to the family and ask if there would be members coming in from out of town so they (the funeral director) could call my hotel and reserve a small block or rooms at "his/her" special bereavement rate. It made the funeral director look like a hero because they provided a good service to the family, and it got the family directed toward my hotel for placing their family members during the funeral, rather than just leaving it up to them to decide for themselves. The added benefit to the family was that it got all of their out of town family members staying at one place . . . my hotel. It was a Win/Win/Win situation. But the super-duper benefit to me was that when they came we always tried to be friendly and accommodating and . . . as is often the case . . .the funeral gathering would turn into a small family reunion. And we'd give them coffee at night and allow them to all meet in our lobby and gathering room and spend time with each other. The first winter we did this, we ended up booking about 10 family reunions for the following summer. Circles of influence. Find a way to make everyone your personal sales representative.
42. Measurable advertising. Unless you have a swollen ego and just want to see your name in lights, don't spend money on advertising that you can't measure the results of.
43. Reciprocating Business. Pressure your suppliers to use your product. Or stay in your hotel. You give them business, and tell them you expect them to give you business. If they give you the line, that they need to pass their business around, just tell them that you probably need to do the same. It's amazing how many will forgo their other clients who don't put it so "forcefully" and give you all their business.
44. Unintended results can sometimes be a wonderful benefit. I used to stop at a gas station to get gas and a canned Diet Coke. One day I stopped and Coca Cola had put in a new "talking vending machine". This was a few years ago when their theme song was the melody from "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony". Anyway, when you walked up and put your money in, it would play that little melody and then a digital voice would come out and say "please make your selection Now". One day as I was walking up to the machine a lady was in front of me. She . . .quite obviously . . .had never seen (or heard) a talking vending machine. (Note: for those of you under the age of 30, digital stuff like that has only been around since about 1985 very much). When she put her money in, it played the melody and the lady sort of stepped back in amazement. But then when the voice came on and said "please make your selection Now", she about leaped off the ground. If you can imagine the look on her face when she jumped back from the machine and looked at me and then back at the machine . . . it was as though there was a man in the machine. She very slowed stepped up toward the machine . . .and looked back at me . . .and leaned way over and said "I'd like a Coca Cola please!". Of course . . nothing happened. (and I had to restrain myself a tiny bit in amusement). She then leaned back over and more forcefully and much louder (as though it didn't hear her the first time) said "I SAID . . I'D LIKE A COCA COLA PLEASE!!!!!" Again . . . . (obviously) . . .nothing happened. She looked back at me with a very very puzzled look on her face. I guess she assumed I could help her. So I just said, "I think you have to press the button for your selection". She smiled BIG . . .as though a light had just come on in her head . . . and she leaned back over and pressed the Coke button and . . . .at the same time YELLED . . . "I'D LIKE A COCA COLA PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Of course, then the drink fell out, and she picked it up and opened it and was so happy with herself because she (with my help) had mastered this marvelous new piece of technology. But then . . . she just stood there. She had mastered it, and now she was going to watch . . . in amazement . . .as I mastered it too. Soooooooooooo. . . me being the kind and gentle person I am, who could not hurt her feelings . . . .I leaned over and pressed the Diet Coke button and YELLED "I'D LIKE A DIET COKE PLEASE". Then we both stood there and enjoyed our drinks together and discussed how very rapidly the world was progressing. She was very happy with herself. So why should I have taken that away from her? After all, we'd both gotten our drinks. I do wonder though if she ever wondered when a new person came and got inside the machine to dispense the drinks?????
45. Bait and Switch is not necessarily bad. Sometimes I don't mind be allured into something with one price only to then discover that something bigger or better is also available at a good price too. (Story of the Lemonade sales boy and girl to come later)
46. Give people choices. We have three kinds of rooms in my hotel. Standard, Deluxe and Executive. As I said before, if someone only has half the money you want for your product, then try to sell them half a product. If they don't have the money for an Executive Room, then have a Standard room that is half that price. If they came in the first place to try and give you some of their money, well . . .then . . .don't let them leave without taking it.
47. Never make someone stand in line when they are trying to give you their money.
48. Give back. Give more of yourself to others than you think others give to you. The Law of Returns, says that it will come back to you.
49. Native Wisdom. There are two bears living inside of you.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life."A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two bears.
One is evil - he is anger, envy,sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which bear will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
50. Something is not deception if it is the truth. There is no harm in framing the truth in a manner that will be most appealing to your customers. If your business is built on top of a former landfill, then just promote your site as being located in one of the most notable ecological collections in the world. And then spread some wildflowers around. People will draw their own conclusions and if they assume the wildflowers are the "eco beauty" then sobeit.
51. Bribery is not necessarily a bad thing. What is the harm in introducing your product to a new prospect by giving them a sample to try it out. That is bribery in it's purest form. If you make a repeat customer out of them and they come back 100 times, your advertising budget was only 1% per customer. That is a good return!
52. Don't let someone else gamble with your Ranch. I was in a partnership one time and we were operating on my capital. I came into the office one Monday morning and my partner had taken a very, very, very large risk over the weekend . . on a hunch!. He told me that he "felt" sure it was a good risk and that we needed to "bet the ranch" on the deal. I told him that I hoped he was right (and fortunately he was) but that it was easy to bet the ranch . . .if it wasn't your ranch. The opposite of this rule is also true. It's always best to gamble with someone elses money "if" they let you. You have a much greater moral responsibility but you have nothing to lose. Tread with caution when doing so.
52. Be forward thinking. Think outside the box.
To see how your baby sees things, spend a few hours a week crawling around the house on your knees to get things from the baby's perspective. If you have a hotel, stay in one of your own rooms once in a while to see what your guests think. Ask your customers lots of questions. Get the point of view of your customers rather than trying to give them your point of view. Also, this is really number 53. Just checking54. People will pay you to make them look like a hero. (story of my Florist idea for men)
55. The best investment you can make is to invest in yourself to make more money.
(Joe Girard and his birthday cards)
56. You can in fact . . if you are pursuasive enough . . sell Ice Cream to an Eskimo. But do you really want to go to the north pole? Is the result worth the effort? Or are you just trying to puff yourself up and inflate your own ego. Is the world really going to be any better off if Eskimos are eating Ice Cream?
57. Dress the part.
Wear a suite to buy. And jeans to sell. When I was in the real estate development business years ago, and wanting to buy something, I wore a suit. I wanted the seller to feel like I was succesful and prosperous and he/she was getting the absolute highest dollar for their property. When I was going to try and sell something, 
I wore jeans and wanted the buyer to feel like I needed money more than anyone in the world. I also wanted to appear the least intellectual between the two of us.
58. Adopt your product to a niche. Make the same product "specifically" for many different niches and make each niche feel like it was made just for them. For instance, if I were selling insurance I'd have a policy that I said was good for "over 40 auto assembly line workers with high school aged children". I think I'd get em all. And the policy would in fact be good for them. And then I'd take the same policy and sell it to "under 50 clerical workers with no children at home".
59. You can't catch any fish if you don't first get the hook in their mouth. Related to this one is: You can't possibly win if you don't enter.
60. Sometimes if you don't have anything to feel good about just have someone hit you on the head with a hard book and then you can at least feel good about how good it feels to not be hit anymore.
61. Keep pads handy and write things down. (Just like I did with all these things years ago)
62. Sometimes others "don't" want to do something more than you "don't" want to do it. You can make a lot money from this. (IBM training manual story)
63. Related to the funeral director story above, give others an incentive to sell for you. Duplicate and clone yourself. Have an unpaid sales force of hundreds or thousands.
64. Your customers will have a hard time getting in to buy something from you if your door is locked. (consider this) What are the obstacles you have placed in front of your own customers. Do you make it easy for them to give you your money or difficult?
65. Find your best points and make sure they are magnified to your customers. If your ice cream bar doesn't have chocolate coating then advertise how pure your vanilla is.
66. Just because you don't like what you see in the mirror, doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. Maybe the mirror needs to be replaced? Or maybe you just need to look at yourself from a more attractive angle?
67. Feelings are not right or wrong. They are just feelings. And you are entitled to them.
68. Objectives and Goals. You have to have objective to reach your goal. I can make a goal on January 1 to spend more time with my kids. But if I don't have objectives to reach that will determine the goal was met, then I have no idea at the end of the year whether I did it or didn't.
69. If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen . . . or get an air conditioner brought in and get rid of the heat?
70. Don't offer to put out my fire if you don't have any water. And if I have a fire going on, all I want at the moment is for you to help me put it out. I will not be in the mood for hearing from you about all the other fires you have witnessed in your life, or heard about.
71. Jesus just managed 12. Amazon.com does not have any meeting that can't be fed by two large pizzas. Who do you think you are if you're trying to directly supervise more than 12 folks. I've found that about 6 is my limit. That's half of what God was able to do after all.
72. Begin each task with the idea that ALL things are possible. Then work backwards to eliminate the things that keep it from becoming reality. Sometimes it takes team work and the only thing holding you back is a partner to balance you out.
I wore jeans and wanted the buyer to feel like I needed money more than anyone in the world. I also wanted to appear the least intellectual between the two of us.58. Adopt your product to a niche. Make the same product "specifically" for many different niches and make each niche feel like it was made just for them. For instance, if I were selling insurance I'd have a policy that I said was good for "over 40 auto assembly line workers with high school aged children". I think I'd get em all. And the policy would in fact be good for them. And then I'd take the same policy and sell it to "under 50 clerical workers with no children at home".
59. You can't catch any fish if you don't first get the hook in their mouth. Related to this one is: You can't possibly win if you don't enter.
60. Sometimes if you don't have anything to feel good about just have someone hit you on the head with a hard book and then you can at least feel good about how good it feels to not be hit anymore.
61. Keep pads handy and write things down. (Just like I did with all these things years ago)
62. Sometimes others "don't" want to do something more than you "don't" want to do it. You can make a lot money from this. (IBM training manual story)
63. Related to the funeral director story above, give others an incentive to sell for you. Duplicate and clone yourself. Have an unpaid sales force of hundreds or thousands.
64. Your customers will have a hard time getting in to buy something from you if your door is locked. (consider this) What are the obstacles you have placed in front of your own customers. Do you make it easy for them to give you your money or difficult?
65. Find your best points and make sure they are magnified to your customers. If your ice cream bar doesn't have chocolate coating then advertise how pure your vanilla is.
66. Just because you don't like what you see in the mirror, doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. Maybe the mirror needs to be replaced? Or maybe you just need to look at yourself from a more attractive angle?
67. Feelings are not right or wrong. They are just feelings. And you are entitled to them.
68. Objectives and Goals. You have to have objective to reach your goal. I can make a goal on January 1 to spend more time with my kids. But if I don't have objectives to reach that will determine the goal was met, then I have no idea at the end of the year whether I did it or didn't.
69. If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen . . . or get an air conditioner brought in and get rid of the heat?
70. Don't offer to put out my fire if you don't have any water. And if I have a fire going on, all I want at the moment is for you to help me put it out. I will not be in the mood for hearing from you about all the other fires you have witnessed in your life, or heard about.
71. Jesus just managed 12. Amazon.com does not have any meeting that can't be fed by two large pizzas. Who do you think you are if you're trying to directly supervise more than 12 folks. I've found that about 6 is my limit. That's half of what God was able to do after all.
72. Begin each task with the idea that ALL things are possible. Then work backwards to eliminate the things that keep it from becoming reality. Sometimes it takes team work and the only thing holding you back is a partner to balance you out.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
some short story ideas
I came across some scribbled legal pad pages today while cleaning out some files. I remember making the notes one sleepless night just as random thoughts of things I've learned over the years. Each is an idea that I could write many pages about. I'll put them here as a reminder to finish the thoughts out someday when I'm laying on the beach in Belize one week a month.
1. You can win by losing most of the time. If you lose $1.00 on 9 out of 10 decisions, but make 20.00 one the decision you got right, you come out ahead. Keep your losses small, and let your profits run and grow!
2. You will usually get the better end of any deal by letting the other person believe they are smarter than you. I always want to appear at a disadvantage in any business deal . . .at least intellectually . . . with the other side, and by so doing, they will usually make some serious blunder in the transaction because they have been deceived by their own vanity. Stroke peoples ego and vanity if they are puffed up, and both will grow to a point of handicapping them and blinding them to wise judgement.
3. Push, pull, ride, or get out of my way. Life is made up of those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who end up just saying "what happened?". I want to be in the first group. As the saying goes "unless you are the lead dog in the pack, the scenery never changes."
4. One of the easiest things to make money at, is to find some task to do that no one else wants to do. People will pay you a fortune to do their unpleasant needs.
5. When you're selling something and someone only has half as much money as you want, then try to sell them half of what you've got.
6. Don't force your employees to be thieves. Pay people the absolute maximum you can pay them, and make sure you pay them enough to meet their needs. If you don't they will be forced to steal from you. They will either steal money, or they will get a second job to make ends meet, and then they will be robbing you of their best effort.
7. I will always get out of life the most that can be had, if I first make it my mission to help others get out of life what they want most. It is the law of returns.
8. I also get the most profit by duplicating myself. I need to clone myself over and over and over. As one man I am limited to what I can make in 20 hours a day. If I duplicate myself a dozen times and make only 10% of the profit from each of their labor, I will make more from their collective efforts than I could have made by myself.
9. Related to number 2, is to always regard others more highly than myself. For those who have inflated egos it will lead to your success and their disadvantage. For those who themselves, have controlled egos, it will honor them and be respectful and they will return the honor to you and respect you. Either way, you will come out ahead. Call everyone sir or maam or madam until they tell you to call them by their first names. Even if they are younger than you. Give respect, and you will earn respect.
10. People's needs are not determined by your store hours but your store hours should be determined by their needs. Keep your priorities in order.
11. All I need to beat my competition is a slight competitive edge.
12. It's not a beautiful or useful product if no one else thinks so besides you.
13. You don't have a line of elephants if you have two aadvarks in the middle.
14. You can't line people up in a circle.
15. Pardon me. Is my underwear showing? Encourage others to show you your blind side.
16. Don't let someone try to rescue you from drowning if they can't swim.
17. Likewise, you can't rescue someone from drowning if YOU can't swim.
18. Make friends with your enemies is the best way to not have enemies. Otherwise, slay them.
19. One way to lose weight if you eat too many donuts is to go by one night and just blow up the donut shop. (when no one is there of course). Tongue in cheek. But the point is, to solve a problem . . .think outside the box and identify EVERY possible solution.
20. You can make a better slide rule, but no one will want to buy it. You can build a better mousetrap, but no one's going to want it if they don't have mice. Create or see a need. Then make a product or service to meet the need. Don't make something that no one needs.
21. I have found in my life that round wheels work best. So there you go. Now you know that too. Don't waste any of your time trying to wonder about that anymore. Go do something useful. How can you make a better, smoother, faster, "round" wheel. That's how to be successful. If you try to find a way to make square wheels work, you will waste your life.
22. Yes. With faith you can move a mountain. But what are you going to do with the dirt? Use your faith for things that you need it for. Probably you'll be happier just moving the molehills out of the way.
23. "Gosh, I don't want to do THAT. So let's hurry up and get started and get it done. Get the annoyances out of your life and stop stressing over the unfinished, unpleasant tasks.
24. You don't need more than 1 friend out of 10 to kick you in the rear. Surround yourself mostly with friends that will encourage you on to greatness.
25. Profit is good. And it's ok to get rewarded in a business enterprise and even to make skillions of dollars doing something for being smarter, faster, or more efficient than anyone else. If they don't like you having so much more money than them, they need to go invent something wonderful.
26. Sell people more than they expect to get for less than they expect to pay. You'll make a fortune. Regardless of how much profit you make.
27. Curtis Mathis and Hobbs Bonded fibers. Make something or offer something that is so far superior to your competition that you have no competition. Stand so far above the crowd that people cannot comparison shop your prices. Be in a league of your own and then you can set your own price.
28. You can't sell something for a price that is greater than someones desire or need. Regardless of what you have to pay to make it.
29. If people's desire isn't high enough to pay your price, then increase their desire. Unload a truckload of mice in their yard and they will flock to you to buy mousetraps.
30. You can't sell a lady a pair of shoes that fit you. They need to fit her.
31. People will always be envious or resentful of your success. Because if they can't understand my success, then they have no understanding of their own failure.
32. New clean oats cost about 4.00 a bushel. If you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse one time, those are considerably cheaper. I sell new clean oats.
33. Father Tyl and the back up plan for the racehorse lottery.
34. Give people raises in money first and then if you've done that as much as you can, give them titles to raise their esteem. Have a supreme housekeeper. And a Superior Maintenance Superintendent.
That's only half my list. More coming later.
1. You can win by losing most of the time. If you lose $1.00 on 9 out of 10 decisions, but make 20.00 one the decision you got right, you come out ahead. Keep your losses small, and let your profits run and grow!
2. You will usually get the better end of any deal by letting the other person believe they are smarter than you. I always want to appear at a disadvantage in any business deal . . .at least intellectually . . . with the other side, and by so doing, they will usually make some serious blunder in the transaction because they have been deceived by their own vanity. Stroke peoples ego and vanity if they are puffed up, and both will grow to a point of handicapping them and blinding them to wise judgement.
3. Push, pull, ride, or get out of my way. Life is made up of those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who end up just saying "what happened?". I want to be in the first group. As the saying goes "unless you are the lead dog in the pack, the scenery never changes."
4. One of the easiest things to make money at, is to find some task to do that no one else wants to do. People will pay you a fortune to do their unpleasant needs.
5. When you're selling something and someone only has half as much money as you want, then try to sell them half of what you've got.
6. Don't force your employees to be thieves. Pay people the absolute maximum you can pay them, and make sure you pay them enough to meet their needs. If you don't they will be forced to steal from you. They will either steal money, or they will get a second job to make ends meet, and then they will be robbing you of their best effort.
7. I will always get out of life the most that can be had, if I first make it my mission to help others get out of life what they want most. It is the law of returns.
8. I also get the most profit by duplicating myself. I need to clone myself over and over and over. As one man I am limited to what I can make in 20 hours a day. If I duplicate myself a dozen times and make only 10% of the profit from each of their labor, I will make more from their collective efforts than I could have made by myself.
9. Related to number 2, is to always regard others more highly than myself. For those who have inflated egos it will lead to your success and their disadvantage. For those who themselves, have controlled egos, it will honor them and be respectful and they will return the honor to you and respect you. Either way, you will come out ahead. Call everyone sir or maam or madam until they tell you to call them by their first names. Even if they are younger than you. Give respect, and you will earn respect.
10. People's needs are not determined by your store hours but your store hours should be determined by their needs. Keep your priorities in order.
11. All I need to beat my competition is a slight competitive edge.
12. It's not a beautiful or useful product if no one else thinks so besides you.
13. You don't have a line of elephants if you have two aadvarks in the middle.
14. You can't line people up in a circle.
15. Pardon me. Is my underwear showing? Encourage others to show you your blind side.
16. Don't let someone try to rescue you from drowning if they can't swim.
17. Likewise, you can't rescue someone from drowning if YOU can't swim.
18. Make friends with your enemies is the best way to not have enemies. Otherwise, slay them.
19. One way to lose weight if you eat too many donuts is to go by one night and just blow up the donut shop. (when no one is there of course). Tongue in cheek. But the point is, to solve a problem . . .think outside the box and identify EVERY possible solution.
20. You can make a better slide rule, but no one will want to buy it. You can build a better mousetrap, but no one's going to want it if they don't have mice. Create or see a need. Then make a product or service to meet the need. Don't make something that no one needs.
21. I have found in my life that round wheels work best. So there you go. Now you know that too. Don't waste any of your time trying to wonder about that anymore. Go do something useful. How can you make a better, smoother, faster, "round" wheel. That's how to be successful. If you try to find a way to make square wheels work, you will waste your life.
22. Yes. With faith you can move a mountain. But what are you going to do with the dirt? Use your faith for things that you need it for. Probably you'll be happier just moving the molehills out of the way.
23. "Gosh, I don't want to do THAT. So let's hurry up and get started and get it done. Get the annoyances out of your life and stop stressing over the unfinished, unpleasant tasks.
24. You don't need more than 1 friend out of 10 to kick you in the rear. Surround yourself mostly with friends that will encourage you on to greatness.
25. Profit is good. And it's ok to get rewarded in a business enterprise and even to make skillions of dollars doing something for being smarter, faster, or more efficient than anyone else. If they don't like you having so much more money than them, they need to go invent something wonderful.
26. Sell people more than they expect to get for less than they expect to pay. You'll make a fortune. Regardless of how much profit you make.
27. Curtis Mathis and Hobbs Bonded fibers. Make something or offer something that is so far superior to your competition that you have no competition. Stand so far above the crowd that people cannot comparison shop your prices. Be in a league of your own and then you can set your own price.
28. You can't sell something for a price that is greater than someones desire or need. Regardless of what you have to pay to make it.
29. If people's desire isn't high enough to pay your price, then increase their desire. Unload a truckload of mice in their yard and they will flock to you to buy mousetraps.
30. You can't sell a lady a pair of shoes that fit you. They need to fit her.
31. People will always be envious or resentful of your success. Because if they can't understand my success, then they have no understanding of their own failure.
32. New clean oats cost about 4.00 a bushel. If you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse one time, those are considerably cheaper. I sell new clean oats.
33. Father Tyl and the back up plan for the racehorse lottery.
34. Give people raises in money first and then if you've done that as much as you can, give them titles to raise their esteem. Have a supreme housekeeper. And a Superior Maintenance Superintendent.
That's only half my list. More coming later.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
ERA and Ameno and my fantasy
My fantasy . .to be a knight on a big horse!
CLICK HERE
I do know that you can't own a falcon. The falcon is yours because it chooses to be yours. You let it go and it chooses to fly back to you.
CLICK HERE
I do know that you can't own a falcon. The falcon is yours because it chooses to be yours. You let it go and it chooses to fly back to you.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Joy of a child
I just look at pictures of my grandchildren sometimes, and want to break out in a grin. I love them so much.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
ROFWDL . . Rolling on the floor with dog laughing.
THE WORK OF STEVEN WRIGHTIf you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who
once said: "I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates." Iread these to a friend's dog and we both thought they were funny.
Here are some more of his gems:
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.
Half the people you know are below average.
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
OK, so what's the speed of dark?
How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
I intend to live forever - so far, so good.
If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
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