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.
Last year I shared a couple of pretty good Rules at the start of the holiday season.
This year I have another that may ease some of your holiday stress.
Ethel Watts Mumford said, “God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends.”
The first part is the root of stress for those people who believe that family should be a constant source of all things good. They twist themselves into pretzels to effect that outcome and tear apart their psyches when it doesn’t materialize.
Worse, they completely ignore the second part of the quote, thus losing the sweet solace of good friendships.
Hugh Kingsmill, a contemporary of Mumford, provided the corollary that many need to let go of the stress of missed expectations and embrace the solution.
Friends are God’s apology for relatives.
Enjoy your friends this holiday season and all year ‘round and, if you are lucky, those relatives who also qualify as friends.
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.
Back when this blog was published seven days a week, Sunday featured a collection of quotes along with (hopefully) pithy or erudite comments from yours truly.
Scott Johnson said, “A bad day at work is better than a good day in hell.” If you don’t agree, ask any of the thousands of people who are there because they don’t have and can’t find a job.
And on a day dedicated to the working stiffs, management should take to heart the words of Henry George, “Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over,” before finding yet more ways to reduce their compensation.
Thomas Geoghegan explains succinctly why unions aren’t organizing the way they used to, “When people ask me, ‘Why can’t labor organize the way it did in the thirties?’ the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal,” as are many other actions from that era.
Everybody works hard these days, whether they sweat or not. Victor Hugo understood that when he said, “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.”
Samuel Gompers offers two insightful comments.
The first recognizes that labor knows boundaries.
“All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day . . . is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”
The second seems to me to apply to any thinking human, not just those designated ‘labor’.
“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.”
Finally, Elbert Hubbard offers some profound advice to all those who run flat out 24/7, “The man who doesn’t relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.”
I hope you take his words to heart, unplug and hoot a bit this weekend.
Today is a new holiday and one that’s been a long time coming.
We already have a day dedicated to bosses and admin/secretaries and now Solar Winds has proposed making September IT Professional Day in honor of one of the most ignored, when things are working, and maligned, when things go wrong, departments. Bare i 2016 ble det lansert over 100 nye casinoer for det norske markedet https://www.casinonorske.com/spilleautomater-på-nett.
A few years ago in my Labor Day post I commented that it seems New Year’s was only yesterday, but here we are and it’s already Labor Day—summer’s over, school’s starting, the leaves are turning and the year is nearly done.
Common wisdom has it that toil slows time, but the years fly by when you’re having fun.
It’s also said that if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life—having fun instead.
So the real question becomes are you having fun yet—or still toiling?
Have a wonderful holiday and stay safe; I’ll see you tomorrow.
Last week you got a glimpse of a few difficulties faced by the wealthy (‘rich’ is such a crude word and so open to interpretation, while ‘wealthy’ is less specific).
Today we’ll take a look at gifts for them and for us.
First off, I couldn’t find Neiman Marcus’ famous (infamous:) Holiday Gift Book, but I did find some great food items.
There are marvelous stocking stuffers from a fantasy store (includes links to products) ranging from a pair of Paul Morelli earrings at $37,000 or a Dolce & Gabbana hair comb for $545 to an affordable Pisces powder compact from Estée Lauder for just $70.
Hermès has something special for that evening butterfly who hates carrying a purse; it’s called Nausicaa (rose gold and diamonds) and sells for a paltry $578,000.
I’m always surprised at how affordable many of Tiffany’s business gifts are—not to mention how well they play in other arenas—and always in one of those famous, oh-so-classy blue gift boxes.
Of course we shouldn’t bypass Cartier; and while some of the gifts shown are a bit ho-hum the leopard cubs are adorable.
If I say do so myself, I am a gifting genius. My nieces and friends will attest to my skill at finding what they really wanted; as far as I know, not one of my gifts was ever exchanged. I was a PANK (Professional Aunt, No Kids) decades before it became common, but now there is help for those who are chanllenged.
These days being green and socially responsible are all the rage. This is especially true with teens and twenty-somethings and while some folks really mean it, others merely pay lip-service, but how can you tell the difference?
Holiday gifting is a great time to find out who actually walks the walk or are all talk by giving a gift that helps change the world for people in far greater need than you or they are likely to ever know—in fact, for as little as $52 you can change a Haitian family’s life forever.
A secondary benefit of this kind of gift is the gleeful fun you will have watching the reactions of those who are all talk.
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,
Did you know that yesterday was New Year’s — or so it seems to me.
A few years ago in my Labor Day post I commented that it seems New Year’s was only yesterday, but here we are and it’s already Labor Day—summer’s over, school’s starting, the leaves are turning and the year is nearly done.
Last week you got a glimpse of a few 
