I have a bunch of ideas to share today. There’s thread tying them together, other than them being about business, so I’m just referring to it as a “business thinking salad.” Hopefully, it’s good and you don’t spend your time picking out the metaphorical red onions.
The first two headings are about personal/family stuff… along with some blog direction. Feel to skip them if they are not your thing. I, personally, love to learn more about the people behind the blogs I follow.
Freedom?
My 3 year old has his first day of camp today. This ends a 10-week string where I was a stay-at-home dad. As Retire By 40 put it, “Any stay at home parent wants a little more time to do what they want. RB40Jr was out of school for two weeks and it was rough… By the end of the two week break, I was getting easily irritable and I didn’t like that.”
I don’t know how other stay at home parents do it, but I’m guessing they aren’t trying to balance 3 other businesses and most of the household chores as well.
The grandparents chipped in with a several days of help, but it was often 2-3 days of overnights. The needle moved sharply in the other direction and I missed him. It’s almost like starving a person for weeks and then giving them all-you-can-eat lard. There’s no balance… it is simply not healthy.
All the time, there was a looming feeling of Cat’s Cradle (Chapin, not Vonnegut)… I’m sure I’ll want to have all this time back with him in a few years.
Expect action on this blog to pick up. I’m going to start by looking for a new writer (my old one got a new job). If you think you’re a good fit reach out to me here.
Father’s Day and the 2-year old Competitive Eating Champion
I had a great Father’s Day… two of them actually. My wife took me and the kids out for lunch… the best BBQ in town (there’s not much competition). The 2-year old slept through it, so he had lunch when we got home. Three hours later, we all went out again for my father-in-law’s celebration. Because I had just eaten, I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, a half-pound burger, to split with the 2-year old. (The 3-year old had fallen asleep this time.)
When the burger arrived, I almost got sick as it was so big and I was still so full. Fortunately, my 2-year old is the next Joey Chestnut as he ate 90% of the burger, not to mention quite a few chips and fries. The running joke for the next couple of hours was, “So how was your burger?”
Enough family stuff… let’s move on to the business ideas.
Ever Wonder? Is This Business Idea Any Good?
I wonder that all the time. In fact, I’m often so paralized by the question that I can’t move forward. Well, I may have found the answer.
Pat Flynn had his Will it Fly book on Kindle available for 99 cents this weekend. That price is no longer available as I write this, but there’s arguably a better deal.
The Audible book is still $1.99. (I hope that’s still the case as you read this as it seems an oversight.)
You could can pay around $15 to read a paperback or have your Amazon Echo read it to you for $2.
Good Marketing, Bad Marketing, and False Marketing
I’m often annoyed by marketing. I can understand a company explaining why people should their products. That’s good marketing. Sometimes the companies use misleading information and a bunch of psychological tricks. This morning I was reading Root of Good’s article on focus groups and some examples of these were brought up. I considering this bad marketing.
There’s sometimes a very thin line between the two.
Then there’s simply false marketing. There are probably at least 20 marketing statements I hear a day where I think, “That can’t be right.” When I have the time to look into them, I find that 90% they simply aren’t right.
To give you an example of what I mean, I watched John Oliver on Brexit (warning: very adult language) this morning. He pointed out a commercial that appears to have blatantly lied, stating that there are 109 European Union regulations to making a pillow. He shows that’s simply not true.
This stuff probably seems like common sense, but it’s odd that the first two articles I read today had significant mentions of bad and false marketing.
Should You Get an MBA?
I looked into this question over a decade ago. The more I looked into it, the more it seemed that the value was mostly in networking with others, not the education itself. I feel like you can get much of the education through books like The Personal MBA.
It was kind of gut feel from all my reading, but there was never one specific thing that I felt I could point to. This weekend I found an article on The Atlantic that is the closest thing to it: The Management Myth. The article should open your eyes about how weird “management” is.
Sometimes my wife brings up the idea of getting an MBA to pair with her pharmacy degree. I cringe a little bit, because it doesn’t feel like the time/money investment is worth it.
