linklings, dawn of the problogging empire
Today when I woke up before dawn, I realized it was my first day of being a full-time problogger. I’m still in the corporate mentality of thinking of Saturday as a “day off,” though. I realized that might be one of the first things that has to disappear to make that corporate mindset disappear and the entrepreneurial (or whatever) mindset appear. There is no need to wake at 6, work from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. I need to work when I feel like it and (considering I have a stomach-achey two year old and a 9-months pregnant wife at home) when I can! But just as I can take Monday morning off now to go to an appointment with the pediatrician, I also need to work on a Saturday afternoon when it’s time to get a link post together. And I also need to start thinking of this blog as my work and my inspiration, since it’s my only income source now! Even if I’m planning on going back to consulting in a few months, it’s still exciting to lock myself into this mindset: I am an entrepreneur, a problogger, a writer! What a cool feeling.
From The Money Writers:
- Looking for Cheaper Gas?
One of the bizarro-world aspects of life in New Jersey – everything else costs a fortune, taxes are sky-high but our gas is dirt cheap and every single last station is completely full-service; self-service isn’t even allowed. Took me a while to get used to it but now I’m spoiled.
- Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 1
If you spend any time reading this blog, you’ll know I love creating and measuring and talking about goals. This is the kickoff to a series I know I’ll like, and I’ll be looking for tips to work on my own dollar plan.
- Giving Money as a Gift, How Much?
This is a question that’s bugged me a lot being married into an ethnic group where money is far and away the most common gift given – my take is around $100 per (adult) head attending the event, I guess.
- 4 Ways You Can Profit from the Falling US Dollar
So it’s come to this: hedge against the loss in the value of the local currency by getting currency from a stable, healthy economy. Last time I did this it was Russians hedging against the ruble by hoarding dollars. Now it’s Americans hedging against the dollar by hoarding euros. Sigh.
- Coupon Tips and Tricks That Can Cut Your Grocery Bill By 80%
I hate coupons and basically just try to grab the cheapest natural food available, but after reading this comprehensive how-to I may give one more stab at the mystical art of coupon cutting.
- Maybe Higher Food Prices Are Actually Good For Us as a Society
“Because of higher grocery bills, people are resorting to such ghastly tasks as cooking at home, growing some of their own food, and using leftovers!” The end times are near, indeed. Sheesh.
- Finovate Start-up: What Would You Ask Vestopia, SmartHippo and other companies?
The founder of start-up SmarterBoar is offering to fire off questions at Finovate on your behalf.
Elsewhere about ye olde Webbe:
- Leave Your Shoes at the Door: Three Ways To Be a Friendly Visitor to Your Environment
This was an awful, but very powerful image for me: “imagine that next to your gravesite (or what have you) when you die lies a pile of things that you have consumed and discarded over your lifetime – especially the non-recyclables.” Ugh. I don’t want to, but I did, and it made me want to change some habits.
- Rules To Follow In Times Of Inflation.
These are three great points, but one of them is critical: in times of (hidden) inflation, saving money can be counterproductive. That “high yield” savings account? You may be better off using it to do repairs you’ve been putting off on the car or house (or other necessary expenditures). Spend the money before it loses value. I’ve seen it happen before, in Russia – it can get to the point where buying a TV is a better investment than putting money in the bank. Scary, but true.
- 10 Ways New Parents Overspend On Their Newborns
I had to laugh at this article. Oh, those poor first-time parents, buying this and that item that they will never need! I am now preparing to be a grizzled veteran parent with baby #2 and there is no way I could ever possibly spoil our baby girl with cute little outfits and toys. And those, my friends, are famous last words. We are doomed to repeat history
- So You Want To Be In Management
This article probably deserves a little more thorough analysis on my part, but two quick comments:
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1. “Please respect my time by not coming at 5:30 PM with a critical issue we could have discussed at any time during that day.” Amen. When I was a senior manager I hated hearing about “blow-ups” at the end of the day. I wasn’t a heart transplant surgeon, I was a finance manager. It could wait.
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2. “I don’t believe it’s my job to motivate you. You should motivate yourself. My job is to provide you the resources to do good work, set goals and expectations, and follow up.” Maybe I messed up here. The single greatest thing I loved about managing people was motivating them. My staff loved it too, and I doubt you could find a single person who ever worked for me who wouldn’t say that I tried to motivate them. Maybe it didn’t always work, but I tried, because I like it. It’s why I think I would be a decent life coach or career coach – would I? Hm.
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- We Feel Like Fools for Saving Our Money
“Don’t assume that dropping 15% into a 401K, having $1000 in an emergency fund and having a “steady job” are enough to protect you and your family.” I don’t know who this guy Steve is who’s writing at Prosper but he sure is pessimistic about the economy.
- Sharing Salary Figures on Facebook
“If we can talk about how many orgasms we have with our mate, why can’t we discuss how much we make?” If that quote doesn’t get you to read this article from the Times, I don’t know what would.
- 21 resources for budget travel
Here’s a great “list of lists” for budget travel resources. I present it for your reading pleasure, not mine, since with a toddler and an infant baby the only travel we’re going to be doing is going back and forth to the local supermarket for diapers. I’ll just wait until the kids are old enough to go hang out in a yurt in the Gobi.
- Learning to Love Water, the Frugal and Healthy Beverage
A very, very simple statement that’s almost impossible to follow: there is no need to ever drink any liquid whatsoever other than water, other than pleasure. Water serves all of the “liquid intake” needs humans have. I guess theoretically I should drink nothing but water, but I sure would miss that Shiraz and morning roast (not together people, I’m not a degenerate).
photo credits: Jaypeg21 and Marcus Vegas
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Yep, in the world of being a full time blogger, you have to blog whenever the creativity is sparked. You’re not in the 9 to 5 world anymore! There’s also no good time to take off as your readers will notice when you stop posting for a week!
I thought the “motivation” comment was weird and completely contrary to my experiences as both managed grunt and manager of my own wee teams/departments too. But in reading further it seems he’s a middle manager in some gigantic megacorp running people across many states, which may make a difference (and sounds hellish).
I only drink water, Barrys tea, and beer. And frankly I’d rather expire than give the tea up.
@guinness416: I actually didn’t mind working for a megacorp managing people globally. It was fun (for a while) and I built some valuable organization and productivity skills that have helped me personally. I wasn’t cut out for it long-term, but different strokes for different folks… and who’s to say, if Ron enjoys it somebody has to do it!
Yeah, I would have a tough time giving up the tea, which is weird, considering I never drank hot tea growing up in the South. You damn Europeans got your hot-tea hooks into me in the end – now iced tea just seems weird.
Maybe a little clarification is in order…
I am a middle manager (one rung between me and the CEO) for a pretty large corporation and I do run profit centers located across many states and it is hellish.
I DO motivate many of the couple hundred people I supervise, but I believe that all people are only marginally motivated by someone else. REAL motivation comes from within. I’ve stopped looking for people who can be motivated and started looking for those who are self motivated. I don’t have to supervise the self motivated person as closely and the work they do is superior. I DO hand out plenty of praise and I’m glad to do it
Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t MAKE people summon up from within themselves the drive, the motivation, the work ethic that they need to become a superior performer. I can give them tools, praise, resources, goals, and my expectations and then follow up with them, but I cannot make them do it. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t “manage” him to drink.He has to be thirsty from within himself.
I believe people are motivated by three things.
Fear – the weakest and worst motivation. Effective, but short lived.
Reward – costly and more effective if the reward is “worth it.” Take away the reward, take away the motivation.
Personal – this is the best motivator. These people are motivated to do a good job because it’s who they are. These are the people I need running the show from 6 states away.
If I’m off base, I’m more than willing to learn a different approach.
Sorry for the long reply. Didn’t mean to hijack the thread!
@Ron: No, no, it’s no hijacking at all! It’s an interesting question of whether the manager can truly motivate, or if it’s simply the manager’s job to create an environment where self-motivation isn’t hindered. I guess I base my theory on the fact that some of the staff I’ve managed who were, according to their evaluations before they worked with me, sub-par managed to ‘right the ship’ and succeed after I managed them. Whether I did it, or whether I just gave them the environment to unleash their inner drive is almost irrelevant, in a sense. But I can’t know whether I did it, or whether they might have succeeded simply because of their own mental growth or family support or whatever. It’s hard to know.
I don’t disagree at all about your assessment of what motivates people. I thought your post was great, and actually your comment about managing people has given me something to think about – whether creating the environment for success for staff (or for myself, frankly) is more important than trying to build the skills for success IN staff (or myself).
And really, it’s hard to know what the answer is. Hey, thought-provoking posts are always good, even when you get some disagreements!
I like a little milk on the side, but water keeps me going.
Thanks for including it and congrats on the dawning of your empire.
Best of luck with pro-blogging. It certainly comes at the right time. Congratulation.
Around 1980, the conventional wisdom was to load up on long-term debt (mortgage, car payments), and pay it off with cheaper dollars in the future, because inflation was very high relative to today (though nowhere near the level of Weimar Germany, for example).
The talk of depression mentioned in your Prosper post is absolutely bogus. Today we have no clue about what our ancestors went through in the 1930s. The fundamental problem today is that a segment of the population is so highly leveraged that illness, loss of job or even loss of overtime, or the increase of a mortgage rate sends us over the edge.
@Ron: Great comment. I believe you are correct.
Also regarding your Prosper post, Steve, your prescription for whatever the world may bring is dead on. I do believe that you would make a good career coach.
@Curmudgeon: Thanks very much, I appreciate the compliments on my Prosper post, and thanks for the encouragement on the coaching. And yeah, I think the article from Wealth Building Lessons that I linked to in the Prosper post was correct in saying a depression, in the strict sense of the word, was unlikely. People are going to talk about a depression but the government is significantly more interventionist (if that’s a word) today and has more tools at its disposal to prevent the meltdown that occurred in the 30s – although I do worry about the lack of controls over the financial services sector after 20 years of deregulatory trends in the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush presidencies. But you’re right – institutional failures are much less concern than mass personal financial failures. So many of my acquaintances are one paycheck from being unable to pay their mortgages that it’s horrifying.