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.
Why is happy so often equated with fun, as in “if you’re having fun you’re happy.” What makes you happy? A beautiful sunset? Your kids/grandkids? A quiet walk? Time with loved ones? For most people, It takes more substance than fluff to make them happy.
It’s well-proven that happy employees are more productive, but creating happy requires substance.
The components of long-term happiness are things such as challenging work, continued learning, opportunities to grow, clear communications, fair bosses, etc.
All of these require more thought, effort and skill from managers than installing a few foosball tables or gamifying the project.
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.
Introducing Re:scam – an artificially intelligent email bot made to reply to scam emails. Re:scam wastes scammers time with a never-ending series of questions and anecdotes so that scammers have less time to pursue real people. (…) Instead of junking or deleting a scam email, you can now forward it to Re:scam who will continue the conversation indefinitely – or until the scammer stops replying.
Add me@rescam.org to your address book and make sticking it to spammers effortless.
I recently had the opportunity to spend time speaking with Dave Crenshaw to discuss his new book, “The Power of Having Fun”.
The topic of the book can be a bit incomplete when looking at it without context, so let me expand on it. The book alone is not simply a guide for how you can have fun but more a lesson on how incorporating fun into your daily life will enhance productivity and lead to true happiness.
That can be a bold statement that a single book will somehow transform your life in some profound way, but Dave does a great job in providing concrete steps to help achieve a balance with work and life.
A little background on Dave Crenshaw to give some insight into how he realized a book on how to have fun was required.
Dave is a coach and speaker who has spent considerable time with high-performing folks in business. After he graduated from Brigham Young University he realized that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and coach. After working with a firm he decided to set out his own shingle and started hustling to form his own successful business.
I say all of this to point out that this book is not some theoretical novel written by a guy who sat in an ivory tower, Dave has been in the trenches and fully understands that life requires balance.
The premise of the book is simple enough. As work and home life start to blur we can become focused on ever more productivity, efficiency gains, and the bottom line. People have started to sacrifice taking vacations let alone spending a quality hour around the dinner table at home with family.
Careers have a tendency to become more and more demanding as we rise the ladder. Dave isn’t saying that should be abandoned, he is merely stating that an oasis, as he calls it, should be observed.
The first thing that stood out to me is the guilt that people feel when having fun.
A lot of times you see people take a great vacation or buy a new item they had lusted after, only to feel guilty for it after. As a society, we are taught that our reward comes after the hard work.
From a religious perspective, this is inherent, “our reward is in heaven” is a phrase you will hear often. As a result, we are wired to not take pleasure in fun until we have completed the task at hand.
Dave takes a different approach to this. His idea is to set up a block of time where we have determined that a fun activity will occur. This oasis allows you to relax and recharge, while also not skewing over to just wasting time.
Have you seen the business owner that cannot take a vacation out of fear that his employees will resent him? Or perhaps you have brought the laptop with you to Tahiti so you can remain connected to the office while forsaking family commitments.
Does this really advance us as a society?
Maybe in certain cases, but most humans need a balance to live.
One thing I like to always understand is how can we quantify this?
The simple answer here is to run an A/B test.
Go a week where you build in an oasis and then go another week without. See what the two outcomes are and determine if incorporating them into your life makes sense.
I am personally in a place where I have little kids and a busy wife. I feel guilty if I go out to lunch let alone go out for a night on the town because I know my wife struggles to have any time for herself.
When speaking with Dave about this he agreed that it can be tough. His solution though is to ensure my wife has her own oasis of time. Build it and plan them out and both parties can be happy without the guilt.
Now, you may be thinking that this book is only addressing a first world problem for high income earning folks. I would disagree.
An oasis of time does not require an elaborate trip to the Bahamas. It can simply be reading a book for thirty minutes or going out for a meal rather than cooking.
The idea is that a balance and time to recharge are required, but you should not put yourself in debt doing so.
The book addresses a range of topics from specific steps for how to build an oasis to how to deal with the emotional baggage that we all carry. The one takeaway Dave told me he would like people to have is this. “Fun is a priority, it must be planned because it’s easy to neglect.
From a tactical standpoint, the book is a fun read, has some great workbooks, and can be incorporated into your life immediately.
From a strategic view, this book has the ability to address long-standing guilt that we as a society have accrued.
I encourage those that are trying to find a balance in life to read it. The busy mom, the lonely workaholic, or the college grad. It is applicable to all and was a true pleasure to read.
His book is available now on both Amazon.com as well as national book retailers. To learn more about Dave visit his website.
I was thinking throughout the week about culture again. Obviously, that is a theme, but I was thinking about it from a self-centered perspective. How does the culture of a company impact me personally? I am sure you have thought similarly in the past as you have dealt with different organizations in your day to day activities.
I read a book recently by Tony Hsieh, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose.” This book is written by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, and highlights the growth of a fledging company that was eventually acquired by Amazon for nearly $900 MM.
I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see how a radical pursuit of culture can drive a company to immense growth. Now I have not had the pleasure of meeting Tony personally, but just reading that book made me feel like I could speak to him on a first name basis if I met him on the street.
One takeaway I had from the book was the fact that Tony truly wanted his employees to feel happiness and joy while they were at work. He did and continues to do this in a variety of ways.
He hosts epic parties, they have a relaxed work environment and they pay people to quit during the on boarding process. That last part may seem a bit radical, but they basically offer on boarding employees the opportunity to take a severance package if they don’t feel like they are a good fit.
This has a two fold impact; it weeds out those who probably shouldn’t be there and it prompts those writing a blog to mention it in their blog.
Even though Zappos has been around for a while and I am technically a millennial, I had never purchased shoes from the website before. I tend to be a tactile guy who wants to hold something in my hands before I buy, so the concept seemed at odds with my buying style.
After I read the book I decided that I needed to at least try out the service and see what I thought. I chose some shoes that I have worn in the past (I don’t want to dive head first here) and placed my order. Typically you get delivery in two days so before I knew it I had a box on my doorstep. I eagerly opened my box, discarded the paper and put on the shoes… and they didn’t fit.
So at this point I have a conundrum, I never order online for this very reason. Well the book did mention that they offered free returns as a part of their culture and that they actually preferred for you to call, so they could speak directly with you.
Tony has a 24/7 operation where you can call and place orders, make returns and so on. I decided to follow this experiment to its natural conclusion and make the call. This is the opportunity to learn how Zappos’s culture would impact me personally.
I made the call and explained the issue of the shoes being a bit too large. The person I spoke with was nothing but kind. He talked about the weather and things that were going on in his neck of the woods, which happens to be Vegas.
He also placed an order for a smaller size to be sent, as well as a return label so I could ship the other shoes back for free. Now this may sound like standard fare, but the entire call was relaxed, personable and memorable.
Now I am by no means a frequent customer of Zappos, but I know I can rely on them for a quality experience and they are no longer this faceless entity swallowing up my money.
At the heart of it, that is culture’s impact on you and I. We interact everyday with companies and people and we have a takeaway from those interactions.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Today is kind of holiday — mentally, if not physically — it is the start of a 3-day weekend for those not in startups or retail.
And even many startups will ease off and do a bit more fun stuff and partying.
That said, I decided to add a little to your levity, while subtly providing a lesson learned.
How often do you double-check your content before sending a message from your phone? I’m not talking about spelling, per se, but the way iPhone and Android auto-correct can totally change the meaning of what you’ve written.
To drive the point home, along with adding the promised holiday levity, here is an example, which you may have seen, since it is making the rounds on the internet.
The message:
Hi Fred, this is Alan next door. I have a confession to make. I’ve been riddled with guilt these past few months and have been trying to pluck up the courage to tell you to your face, but I am at least now telling you in text as I can’t live with myself a moment longer without you knowing.
The truth is I have been sharing your wife, day and night when you’re not around. In fact, probably more than you. I haven’t been getting it at home recently, but that’s no excuse, I know. The temptation was just too much. I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies and forgive me. It won’t happen again. Please suggest a fee for usage, and I’ll pay you.
Regards, Alan.
Fred’s response:
Feeling insulted and betrayed, grabbed his gun, and shot his neighbor dead. He returned home where he poured himself a stiff drink and sat down on the sofa.
He took out his phone where he saw he has a second message from his neighbor:
Second message:
Hi Fred, This is Alan next door again. Sorry about the typo on my last text. I expect you figured it out anyway, and that you noticed that darned Auto-Correct changed ‘Wi-Fi’ To ‘Wife.’ Technology hey?
There is nothing like the various advice columns to keep you abreast of societies attitudes.
One I enjoy is called Social Qs; I like the insight it gives into people’s attitudes and questions of how to respond to everyday happenings.
Now and then the attitude behind a question will leave me speechless.
Like this one.
I took my sweet little dog for a walk. He got agitated by a cat sitting on a porch, pulled free of me and raced toward the house, knocking over (and breaking) a large ceramic urn. I acknowledge that I am partly responsible for the damage. But don’t the homeowners have some responsibility, too, letting their cat sit out in the open? —ANONYMOUS
Not surprising that it’s anonymous; few people would have the courage to admit to that level of self-absorption.
The Social Q response was perfect (as one would expect).
You break it; you bought it. “And your little dog, too,” growled the Wicked Witch of the West. The cat is free to sit on its porch with regal impunity.
No kidding. It wasn’t even roaming around, just sitting quietly, minding it’s business and watching the world go by.
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,
Today is kind of holiday — mentally, if not physically — it is the start of a 3-day weekend for those not in startups or retail.
