Improve My Business

Here I sit in a client’s office in Los Angeles, still trying to recover for the 5.8 earthquake that just rocked the area about an hour ago. I’m still a little queasy (probably adrenalin aftermath) and a little shaky (my insides as well as the building movement)…

I gotta tell ya, it’s really thrown off my concentration. I can’t focus on what I was doing when the quake struck; I can’t focus on what I’m supposed to be accomplishing right now; and just when I think I’m OK and ready to get back to it, the lights freekin’ flicker! Like, every 2-3 mins - just enough to be annoying as well as a reminder that “Things aren’t like they were this morning”. So, here’s my deal with myself: when the lights stop flickering, I’ll start working on diagramming a process again.

Till then, it’s hangin’ around on Twitter and hopin’ that I can continue to fake out the client with my perceived nonchalance - all while silently screaming “I want my mommy!” in my head… and I’ll gladly pay the big trucks that rumble by the building $100 if they take another route - their passing feels too much like aftershocks.

Technorati Tags: twitter

I wanted to find someone to build a website to very specific requirements. I was referred to a person (we’ll call him Idiot Jerk, a pseudonym for his real name) and I went to his website, www.idiotjerk.com. I looked for a button that said “contact me” or something, instead I found this sentence:

“To reach Idiot, think about the URL of this site and how it might relate to his email address.”

Gee, I get to puzzle this out prior to giving him work! How fortunate for me, the time-starved entrepreneur! Let’s try some variations! Let’s try some permutations!

Let’s try someone else.

Technorati Tags: website builder

Yep, I’m going to follow the time-honored tradition of telling you some cool sites to visit:

Meryl Evans, from Meryl.net, writes the Bionic Ear Blog [can you spot the mistake on this page? She may be looking for a bionic ear, but she apparently has got time travel down pat!] as well as some great technical stuff. She had a links page which was fun to go to also!

Another blog I read constantly (much to the detriment of my work/sleep) is Jenny’s, in various incarnations - she has The Bloggess, and Good Mom/Bad Mom - both of which are a hoot. If you get easily offended, you may want to skip these sites… if you don’t, be prepared to laugh you *ss off. I have a bazillion more I could post, but I’m laughing too hard… and as a side note, did you realize that ‘blog’ spelled sideways is ‘glob’, which is what these posts are — globs of fun!

I also follow Guy Kawasaki who’s got some cool posts - I learn a little bit about a lot from his Alltop sites (I’d suggest a Quality listing, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t make it, an then I’d be crushed), and I learn the latest in Apple toys from him also. That said, he seems like he’s a cool dude and doesn’t take himself to seriously. Everyone should follow his Powerpoint Presentation rules (me included - they can easily be adapted from VC to Quality, right?).

Finally, I faithfully read Glenda Watson Hyatt’s blog. She’s got athetoid cerebral palsy due to being denied oxygen at birth, and as a result has limited body control… she types everything with her left thumb, and hence is AKA The Left Thumb Blogger. She’s got more humor, courage, and brains in her left thumb than most of us have in total, and I am constantly in awe of her. Most of all, her humor keeps me coming back…

That’s it for now, kiddos!

Technorati Tags: humor

Improving a process is sometimes like teaching an old dog new tricks — although it sounds like it might be fun, the dog may disagree.

“I like the way I’m doing something now.”

“We’ve always done it this way.”

“This is the way I was trained to do it.”

“I can do it this way without even thinking about it - I don’t want to learn some newfangled method.”

The truth is, we need to keep moving forward to ensure that we’re not left behind. Will Rogers summed it up when he said, “Even though you are on the right track - you will get run over if you just sit there”. So, accept improvement as a good thing rather than a necessary evil, and give the new trick a try!

Technorati Tags: process improvement

[reposting after moving my blog... sorry if you didn't see this last week!]

I knew that blogging was one way to get more popular, but WOW! I’m overwhelmed by this…

Technorati Tags: blogging, humor