Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we humans could relegate all our foolishness and foibles, both word and deed, to this one day of the year. Instead we tend to spread them across the year and repeat them over and over and over…
All humans are fools at times; some more often than others. Those who claim otherwise are usually found in the ‘more often’ category.
Can you believe? Q1 is over, done, gone and all we have to show for it is a day especially for fools. So on this day dedicated to fools and foolishness I offer you up some foolish words of wisdom.
Way back in 1894 Mark Twain wrote a book in which the main character, Pudd’nhead Wilson, says, “This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.” A home truth if there ever was one.
If you plan on pulling any pranks today you might want to keep Will Shakespeare’s words in mind, “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”
Ben Franklin must have been thinking of politicians when he said “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.”
As usual, it’s Will Rogers who nails April Fool’s Day perfectly—not to mention the upcoming elections, “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”
Finally, we can all see the truth in this old Welsh Proverb, “If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings;” all we have to do is look in the mirror.
I wish you a wonderful day full of pranks, silliness and friends.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here.
It doesn’t matter which side you were on regarding the recent shutdown, because you were probably effected.
Maybe it was you, a relative or friend. Or maybe a friend or relative of a friend who couldn’t feed their kids or pay their mortgage/rent.
People were angry; some wrote letters, most unloaded online.
The more entrepreneurial (opportunistic) converge on Café Press.
But one entrepreneur went much further.
Greg Miller, founder of Neuticles, a company that sells testicular implants for neutered dogs so they appear unneutered, used his own product to make a statement.
As the shutdown has dragged on – it entered its 34th day Thursday – he is preparing to send his product to all 53 Senate Republicans, plus Vice President Mike Pence, with the message: ‘We are demanding that you gain testicular fortitude and have enclosed a pair of Neuticles to help achieve the necessity to stand up against the sole interests of this rogue president.”
Miller’s company, based in Oak Grove, Missouri, will spend around $13,000 on mailing plus the cost of the product.
He knows that sales are likely to take a hit from his actions, so why do it?
“I just want them to get some damn balls and think of America, not their political party.”
Male or female, entrepreneurs are known for being tough, in other words for having cojones, i.e., balls.
Greg Miller certainly does — in more ways than one.
I haven’t taken more than a few days off here and there since I started writing this blog in 2006 and that’s a long time.
I’ve also written numerous times that unwired vacations are critical to productivity and creativity.
The unwired part is especially critical — whether they are vacations or staycations.
Thus, from now until January 2 Mapping Company Success will go dark and I’ll indulge my staycation doing all the tuits I haven’t gotten ‘round to, which includes a clean, organized office.
Wow! I’m excited! (No sarcasm, I really am.)
That said, I do want to wish you a very special holiday before I unwire, so I looked for something special to share and I found it.
Something that fully embraces all my ambivalence of the season.
It’s the last day of June and I’m a bit burned out. So I’ve decided to do something I have done in the 12 years of this blog.
I’m going to take the entire next week, July 1-7 off. Call it a mental health week.
Rather leave you with nothing to do while I’m gone I thought I’d share a three valuable links and one excellent joke (or maybe it’s a meme)
A techie and his wife were having a conversation about their attitudes towards life and death.
The techie had very strong feelings about his end-of-life preferences. He said didn’t want his brain frozen or any other Silicon Valley ideas.
“Never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on machines and liquids from a bottle. If you see me in that state I want you to disconnect all the connections that are keeping me alive, I’d much rather die.”
At that point, his wife got up from the sofa with a look of pure admiration on her face and came towards him.
She gave him a hug and proceeded to disconnect the Cable TV, DVD, computer, smart phone, iPod, Xbox, and Alexa.
Then she went to the bar and threw away all the whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, along with the beer from the fridge.
Then she held him tenderly and used mouth-to-mouth to help him breathe.
Because her husband almost died.
As to the links,
Obvious as it sound, watching experts does not improve your skills.
A pair of researchers from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business conducted six separate experiments in which people who watched an expert demonstration of a particular skill experienced a big surge in confidence in their own skill-doing ability, and zero increase in their actual ability.
Freakin’ Awesome Karaoke Express (or F.A.K.E., for short). I made it up and paid strangers to pump up its online footprint to make it seem real. I didn’t do it to scam anyone or even for the LULZ. I wanted to see firsthand how the fake reputation economy operates. The investigation led me to an online marketplace where a good reputation comes cheap.
Impressive. John Perry Barlow founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, contributed to the Grateful Dead as a lyricist and in figured out what it took to be a good adult.
According to his Reddit AMA four years ago: “I found myself so surprised to have reached an age of indisputable adult that I wrote up a set of “adult principles” that I’ve been trying to live up to for 35 years.” The rules below are concise, practical, and can be applied to nearly every aspect of life: from waiting in line at the market to having a difficult conversation with a loved one.
Have a fabulous Fourth of July and I’ll see you on the 9th.
What do you do when you are bored / broke / dim / greedy?
Especially if you live in California?
File a lawsuit, of course.
Not only do you sometimes win, but 40 years later someone produces a musical about it.
In the 1970s, a 29-year-old woman named Gloria Sykes sued Muni for $500,000 (roughly $3.1 million today) for a head accident on a Hyde street cable car that turned her into a nymphomaniac. The widely publicized event and ensuing court battle brought in psychiatrists and the woman’s lovers to testify on her behaviors, and—as might only happen in San Francisco—she won her case.
These days, cable cars are passé and the focus is on food.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,