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Administrivia

It’s commonly observed that the devil is in the details. We’ve had some niggling bits of administrative minutiae to attend to over the last couple of weeks. Ah well, just some more stuff to slog through on our way to happier times.

Tax Time

Slowly but surely, the W2s and other bits of accounting paperwork have been popping up in the mail. So much the better. The sooner we can get it all filed and sorted out, the sooner we can get on to more enjoyable things.

Thank goodness for TaxAct. I’ve been using this service the last couple of years and no problems so far (knock wood). I’m looking forward to being free of the Obamacare Mandate next year, but for this year I’m just grateful to have gotten the paperwork early enough to start processing things already.

Some of the other details I’ve been wrestling with of late are in the editing of my over-the-shoulder training videos. The sound is a bit sketchy. I’ve been doing my best to clean it up and amplify it with the tools at my disposal, but it will have to be good enough for the initial release.

It’s kind of weird, actually. When I record outside, the audio is absolutely beautiful. Sitting here on my sofa ( which is preferable when the temps are dipping to arctic lows with the wind chill ), it seems to sound like I’m talking underwater. Truly odd. I’ve done a reasonable job of cleaning that up and trying to make it sound normal, but geez…

Details, 😈, details, 😈, details.

Some More Rules

Rule #148-152: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels

Only the mediocre are always at their best

This wry observation is both a warning and a consolation.

It’s a warning to always challenge yourself to do a little better than the last time. Learning, striving, trying, experimenting are all great ways to be better than last time. Folks who rest on their laurels indefinitely are nothing to admire.

It’s also a consolation. Even though we try to be better than last time, we sometimes fail. Sometimes we’re ill. Sometimes we’re busy with off-topic concerns. Sometimes we just aren’t hearing the muse.

It’s disappointing, frustrating and counterproductive, but nobody can bat a thousand all the time. If you were only ever up, you’d have no perspective. Experiencing the occasional bad hair day helps keep you grounded and relatable. When you think you can do no wrong, you’re guaranteed to prove that you can.

Rule #153: Sell the sizzle, not the steak

Every once in a while, even the Ferengi hit on a genuine bit of advice.

This is classic marketing strategy. I heard this one decades ago and it has stuck with me. In writing sales copy, you are encouraged to sell what the customer gets out of the product rather than the product itself. You’re not selling a vaccuum cleaner, you’re selling the cleanest carpets they’ve ever seen. You’re not selling kitchen knives, you’re selling the time they save by not having to hack away at the food they’re preparing. You’re not selling a mattress, you’re selling the comfort and relaxation of restorative blissful slumber.

Rule #154-161: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle,

  and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared.
~Buddha

The Ferengi would never ever twig on to this. There’s no profit in sharing. There’s no market to corner. There’s no way to be the winner in this scenario, except that when you share happiness everybody wins. That’s quite beyond the imagining of most Ferengi.

For those of us in the real world, this is a fantastic message. Love and all of its manifestations are inexhaustible resources. It’s been said that the rarity of diamonds is what makes them valuable. Happiness need not be rare. It should be as ubiquitous as air and sunlight.

It costs nothing to make someone genuinely happy. Sure, they’ll be happy if you give them some money but they’ll spend the money and they won’t be happy anymore. When you’re kind for no reason other than to make someone happy, that’s a rare treasure that they can return to for the rest of their lives. When they’re having an absolutely awful day, they can look back and remember that somebody went out of their way to try to make them smile. You can’t go back and spend the same dollar, but you can always go back and enjoy a memory of happiness.

This is something I liked to practice at the factory. Spending twelve hours overnight in a noisy factory can be stressful, boring, painful or some combination of the lot. I knew that people only had a long night of discomfort to look forward to, so I did my best to try to take the edge off. I told jokes and kidded around and smiled for the sake of smiling so they’d have something to actually look forward to. Lightening the load a little bit helped to make the night go faster and more enjoyably. Give it a try sometime. It’s well worth it for your colleagues and for yourself.

Rule #162: Even in the worst of times, someone turns a profit

Again, the Ferengi have stumbled upon the truth.

In the depths of the Great Depression, there were a lot of people all over the world who lost absolutely everything. Poverty and destitution were the watchwords of the period. Brother Can You Spare A Dime captured the imagination of people deep in the economic turmoil of the 1930s. It was the #1 hit in 1932 and the best selling record for the next couple of years. The disillusioned protagonist of the song may have needed someone to spare a dime, but Brunswick Records was making serious bank at 75¢ per record (that’s $13.42 in today’s money) while other labels were making 35¢ per record (which would be equivalent to $6.26 today). The song caught people by their very souls and moved them in ways that caused them to spend in even the darkest of economic eras.

Rule #163-167: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels

Success is where preparation and opportunity meet

Laying the groundwork for success can be arduous, but it’s absolutely necessary. Trying to make money without providing value of any kind is a self-defeating mentality. It’s a bit trap in internet marketing. Everybody wants to buy a magic button. Everybody wants a shortcut. Everybody wants to make zillions overnight with this one weird trick.

There’s no trick except the one that’s being played on you by Ferengi marketers. Selling fantasies to gullible people may be incredibly profitable in the short term, but eventually, you’re going to get caught and called out. Once your reputation is tarnished that way, you’re going to have to start entirely over or quit altogether. What use is it to cut your own throat?

Preparation needn’t be exhaustive. Do something that somebody needs done. Make something someone needs to have. Once you’ve got that sorted out, all you need to do is find the somebody who needs it. That’s success. Finding what people need and giving it to them.

Rule #168: Whisper your way to success

Ding, ding, ding. We have another winner. We happened upon some Rules that didn’t express chauvinism or encourage fraud. It truly is a great day to be alive, friends. We’ve tiptoed into the Ferengi flower patch with this collection of Rules.

This one is particularly dear to me. I spoke recently about hating gurus. There are people in the internet marketing world who live solely on the adulation of the fawning masses. Their reputation is everything and they’re loud and proud. Well, pride goeth before a fall. These clowns are setting themselves up for a catastrophic tumble while the people I truly admire get quietly on with their business. They produce excellent results and quietly build their clientele. They’re humble, earnest, honest and dependable. Everything a Ferengi is not and everything a guru is not but ought to be.

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I can’t wait to be done my bit of onerous accounting. I hope you get lovely big returns with no headaches this year.