Creating Art for Profit

It has taken a long time for me to accept the idea that creating art with profit as the primary goal, isn't such a great idea. Artists of any kind will dry up, burn out, lose interest and probably produce crap unless they can somehow - even if only while locked in the creative process - be jazzed by what they're doing. If it turns out that this effort produces something that people pay for and it's profitable, then they have a career if they choose to. Otherwise, it's a business and the "artist" is actually a manufacturer.

Some people (artists, real ones) will work on an idea for months, even years. They do a painting, a sculpture, or a musical piece over and over again until they find the end. This would drive you nuts if your motivation was for profit. So, if you want to "create" for a living, you have to have talent and trust that what you're doing is not about the money. I'm sure there are exceptions, but for the most part. I think this is so.

Don't you hate that?

Oh Great and Powerful Oprah... May I?

Oh great and powerful Oprah, let the following three things be so:

1.) Cancel this recession thing. It's not a good idea. Really - ask around. This would include letting there be a significant rise in the value of my investment portfolio - both equities and real estate. Please start working on that one right away.

2.) Don't let Mr. Huckabee become President. If you must allow it, please change his name. We'll feel silly saying Huckabee. Actually, I'm not too worried about this one - so work on some other things and we'll get back to you if there seems to be a real problem.

3.) Since I am allowed only three requests at a time, I'll make this a compilation or multilayered request. I'll assume tricky requests are allowed. If not, I'll make my third request be that tricky worded requests are legal. Of course, if you make me use up my third request, I'll also need an another request (4th) so that I can get my whole "want" properly expressed. This may require a variance or a waiver from you, but let's just say that the possibility of variances and waivers have already been slipped into a previous request and therefore - we are technically good to go. Anyway...Make me fit. I'd like to lose 40 pounds before the end of July. No, 50 pounds... yes, let's say 50, and do it without me having to suffer any discomfort, get sick, or even try hard. If this isn't possible, I'll go with the idea that I give some effort. Of course I'll need the effort to be included in the request if this is the case.

Thank you Oprah!

Traffic in India - Chaos?

Chaos, or not?
This is nuts.



Wow!

Restaurant and Lodging Pain

I see a significant increase in the number of restaurants for sale. I'm not sure how many of these get sold. The more likely scenario is that the business closes and the building gets sold or leased to someone else; who my open a restaurant. It is the rare circumstance in which a restaurant can be sold for anything other than real assets. In the restaurant business, there is no practical exit strategy. Why are many restaurants doing poorly?

I also see a significant increase in the number of hotels, motels and inns for sale. Most of these are also real estate deals with some hoped-for premium attached to the business. Why are many lodging businesses doing poorly?

Is there a common thread? It could be that these businesses are finding that discretionary spending is tightening. Consumers are demanding more (better quality) for less. Anyone that can't step up and deliver, gets avoided. Things that "worked" for a long time - suddenly don't. The money flows to a select few who find a way to tip the value scale in the right direction.

This is still not a very useful opinion. How can we find out what people want and why? The answer is; we have to ask them. Research / market study is more important than ever. Smart businesses will pay for the information if it's useful.

CRO Chief Risk Officer

A party favor for the Chief Risk Officer.

Boat Wheel

Get my boat out of this river and up to the level above the dam so I can continue my journey.

Please...

Thank you!

Twas '07

2007 was, and that's the most important thing about it.

This will be the final post of 2007 (unless I feel a pressing need later today, but I doubt it). While I'm still not sure why I stuff these things out here, I continue to do it. If you do something without good reason, is that crazy? Maybe huh?

2008 is a Leap Year. I guess that means it's time to leap. Hopefully I have that right. We'll see.

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save".

Will Rogers

Peter, Peter, Peter...

What is the managers job? It is to direct the resources and the efforts of the business toward opportunities for economically significant results. This sounds trite -- and it is. But every analysis of actual allocation of resources and efforts in business that I have ever seen or made showed clearly that the bulk of time, work, attention, and money first goes to problems rather than to opportunities, and, secondly, to areas where even extraordinarily successful performance will have minimal impact on results.

What is the major problem? It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between doing the right things and doing things right. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all. Yet our tools especially our accounting concepts and detail focus on efficiency. What we need is (1) a way to identify the areas of effectiveness (of possible significant results), and (2) a method for concentrating on them.


Peter Drucker

Early rising

If you get up early, you have an edge.

You might not think this notion is worth the full ten bucks. Perhaps the idea is too simple? If you don't see the full value here, I shall agree to take less. If- on the other hand, you're measuring worth by volume, I would suggest you reconsider your system altogether. But of course - you'll still be in the rack.

Thanks for coming.

Hammer this!

No Say!

Ya but what if...

Hey - if I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, I might fall. If that happens, I'll be killed. Not only that, but the fall will be a horrifying experience. My concern is surely justified. If I'm at the same edge, but securely anchored to a structure and it's not possible for me to fall, why would I be afraid? In one case I have a rational fear (logic), but in the other I have an irrational fear (phobia). The difference between logic and phobia isn't always as clear as it is in this example.

Perceived consequences are what drive our concerns. Sure death is a pretty serious consequence, but there's a whole lot of thinking going on about subjects less damaging than death. What makes some people seem fearless?

Let's look here: Maslow's hierarchy of needs

The Christmas bird - ha!

Christmas Bird - Ha!

NBA's #1 draft choice for 2008 B.C.

The greatest basketball team ever would have been built around this guy. Unfortunately, he is apparently dead and a fake. Too bad. I would've liked to how they defended him in the low post.

Horn acoustics

Okay, so maybe I'm a little fascinated by the use of acoustic horns in this application. This set of speakers runs close to $20,000. Whaaaaat?

Cows

Home Audio - System of the week?

Just plug in your i-pod.

You want this huh?

No pain... None!

I'm not aware of a situation where making someone feel badly about their work or about themselves has ever enabled success. Guilt, ridicule, bullying, a condescending tone, doubt, hurtful criticism and anything that makes someone feel like they are not worthy of your confidence, we'll call "pain". I could call it anything, but pain seems appropriate. Pain and especially individually addressed personal pain has no upside.

If you have a relationship (personal or business) where you find that you need to deliver personal pain, you would be better off finding a way to end the relationship. Pain won't fix anything - it only destroys potential. I don't know of anyone who ever reached their potential without support and encouragement in the right places. Getting mad about something is one thing, but if the recipient takes your lack of confidence to heart, it's pretty much over.

What if no one is interested?

The reason why someone is selling seems like an extremely important thing to understand. We would guess that there are circumstances where someone needs to sell a piece of real estate. Maybe their job moved etc. There are also folks who would like to sell their house because they want to downsize or upsize - they want a different house. Maybe they bought that house to sell it (flip). Hmmm...?

What do you do if no one is interested? No offers. No traffic. Nothing.

You need to sell your house vs. You would like to sell your house.

Well, the truth is that there is a price where it would sell. You then become less wealthy by the amount of the loss. What if you can't be less wealthy because you have no money. You owe more than the "it will sell at this" amount to the bank. You just might have to stay there; or you could just leave - let the bank have it.

Some people make a deal with the bank; sell the property and then set up a new loan (unsecured) with the lender. These people might be back to fight another day.

Some decide it just isn't worth it and they punt. These people probably won't be back.

That's how this stuff happens.

So you purchased a pen...

A review of a BIC pen purchase on Amazon.com. This guy's toungue is cleverly planted in his cheek. There were some others attached to this product that were also pretty good.

How about the fact that 997 of 1,003 people found the review helpful:

Very good if you need to write on paper, 7 Mar 2007
By M. Williams "Matt Williams" (Essex, England) - See all my reviews

Since taking delivery of my pen I have been very happy with the quality of ink deposition on the various types of paper that I have used. On the first day when I excitedly unwrapped my pen (thanks for the high quality packaging Amazon!) I just couldn't contain my excitement and went around finding things to write on, like the shopping list on the notice board in our kitchen, the Post-it notes next to the phone, and on my favourite lined A4 pad at the side of my desk.

My pen is the transparent type with a blue lid. I selected this one in preference to the orange type because I like to be able to see how much ink I have left so that I can put in another order before I finally run out.

When the initial excitement of taking delivery of my new pen started to wear off I realised that I shouldn't just write for the fun of it, this should be a serious enterprise, so by the second day of ownership I started to take a little more care of what I wrote. I used it to sign three letters, and in each case was perfectly happy with the neatness of handwriting that I was able to achieve.

I have a helpful tip for you that you might not know about - if you let the ink dry for a few seconds you can avoid the smudging that sometimes happens if you rub the ink immediately after writing. Fortunately the ink used in this particular Bic pen seems to dry very quickly.

On the third day of ownership I went on a trip to London and took my pen carefully packed away in my brief case, but I needn't have worried, this isn't some temperamental ink pen that leaks when you store it at the wrong angle. I sat at my meeting and confidently removed the cap from my pen and it wrote flawlessly, almost immediately.

I notice that the barrel of the pen has been crafted very carefully to fit in the pen holder down the edge of my Filofax. It's not so grippy so that it is hard to remove when I want to make a quick note, and yet not so loose that it falls out too easily when I open my Filofax in a hurry. Maybe the choice of surface texture on the pen has some part to play here, because it seems that the inside of the leather grip on the pen holder in my Filofax has just the right level of adhesion that I can be confident when I need to reach in and get my pen it's going to be just where I left it!

Today is the fourth day of ownership of my pen, and I have to say I'm starting to treat it like an old friend. I walk around the office with it clipped in to my shirt pocket and someone in the accounts department actually asked to borrow it while we were both standing at the photocopier. Would you believe it, they actually tried to walk away with my pen! They were very embarrassed when I called after them as they walked down the corridor and asked for it back. You will be happy to know that it is now back, safe and sound in my top pocket, ready and waiting to start writing again.

In summary, I would happily recommend this pen to anyone who is planning on writing on paper. If you are considering a writing implement for some other surface such as writing on a CD, or other non-porous substances then another pen might be better suited, but if it's just plain old paper then I think you will probably be well served by this particular model.

Silver and Gold

Specific Gravity (SG) is the ratio of the density of a given substance, to the density of water (H2O). Substances with a specific gravity greater than 1 are heavier than water, and those with a specific gravity of less than 1 are lighter than water.

Gold has a specific gravity of 19.3, meaning it is 19.3 times heavier than an equal volume of water.

Silver's specific gravity is 10.5.