Quotations

How To Make Tough Decisions.

“I don’t know what to do.”“I’m stuck, which way should I turn?” “ I’m procrastinating because I don’t know what will happen.”

This happens all the time to everyone at their workplace. EVERYONE.

Unfortunately, most people are paranoid of everything falling apart or failing IF they make a critical decision.

Do One Thing Different Today.

I love my Monday posts. I try to come up with some type of energizing idea that will jolt my readers out of their chairs (or beds). I look at Mondays (especially the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday) as a time to refresh, reinvigorate, and renew. Okay, you might have a bit of a hangover, or you ate too many jalapino hot pockets, but you and I know Mondays are crucial to kick off a great week.

When Is It Right To Question Authority At Work?

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." – John F. Kennedy. How often do we let this happen to us at work? We go with the vagaries of the loudest shouters without sitting down, truly thinking about the issue and doing what is the right path for you, your organization, and your customers?

There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

"There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." A powerful quote by Milton Friedman, a prominent American economist in the 20th century. I first heard this saying at my introductory orientation as a freshman at Ripon College with Dean Harris, Dean of Men. He was speaking to the entire male freshman class (the ladies were in another room in a similar talk with the Dean of Women — boy would I have liked to have been a fly on that wall!). Dean Harris was a wonderful man who reached out to me at different junctures of my college career — giving me sage advice (and reprimanding me when I stepped over the line). He's a special person in my life.

Move Your Money.

Let's talk about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks. Let's start discussing what concrete steps individuals can take to help create a better financial system.

Let's get practical — and with some help from friends in the world of bank analysis, a video and website were produced devoted to a simple idea: Move Your Money.

Please watch and send to all your friends. Thank you.

Things I learned from Warren Buffett.

I just went back to my notes from a video of Warren Buffett speaking his mind. Here are a few of his tips on investing, business, and life.

  • There are no called strikes in the ballgame of investing. You do not lose a single penny by passing on any given investment. Even if someone else hits a homerun with it, doesn’t mean that you are missing out. That said, you will have to swing the bat if you ever want to get anywhere. Just make sure it is a good pitch.

  • Do business with people you like and who share your objectives. Money should not be only consideration when making business decisions. We have all worked with some people who we would have paid any amount NOT to work with. If we could quantify joy and happiness, it would be easy to see that working with people you like would far outweigh the joy received by getting more money with bad business partners.

  • Invest in companies selling products that consumers are not concerned with price.

  • It’s not about the biggest motor, but the most efficient motor. A smaller company that is run efficiently is going to do better for their shareholders than a mammoth company with wasteful spending.

  • Don’t worry about what the stock market will do, focus on what the company will do. Good companies can and will go up even in the middle of falling market.

  • With stocks it is hard to know WHEN something will happen, but it is easy to know WHAT will happen. Everyone seems to be concerned with the WHEN, but focusing on the WHAT seems to yield a nice fruit.

  • Find companies with endless demand for their products. Funeral homes will always be needed, because people are still dying.

  • Leave your children enough money so they can do anything, but not enough that they don’t have to do anything.

  • Decision making abilities fade as cash flow increases. If you only have $5 in your pocket until the end of the week, it is likely that you will make a good decision with it, because it is all you have. On the other hand, if you have $100 for the week, your decisions regarding a $5 purchase are far less critical since you have another $95. Therefore, people tend not to treat those decisions with the same respect they would if it was their last $5.