Monday, February 24, 2014

13 Reasons You're Not As Successful As You Should Be by Jim Kukral

#1 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Laziness
#2 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Entitlement
#3 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Fear
#4 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Negativity
#5 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Stop Thinking
#6 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No Goals
#7 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – “They”
#8 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No “X” Factor
#9 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Time Waste
#10 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Social B.S.
#11 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Think Small
#12 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Want It
#13 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Believe

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Financial Empowerment

An acquaintance from my graduate days at University of Connecticut contacted me about his son applying to RPI.  He and his two boys love to ski, and the winter Olympics drove their enthusiasm.  Skiing was one deciding factor for their college selection.  I hadn't much luck with finding a job after graduating from RPI so I hardly recommended it as a potential choice.  After I sent the email letting them know I  would discourage RPI,  I was quickly escorted off Sage College Campus and asked not to return.

I was reading about financial security at the time.  From the online version of the WSJ By Chris Heilmann of US TRUST Comment: This article caught my eye so I decided to read and comment. US Trust's has a program to help kids get rich. Their program is designed to pass those values to the next generation. Do we adopt the values that generate wealth from our parents, and at what age do we own the responsibility? Are parents trying to pass these values to their youth?

The dean of students approached me when I was reading this article online at the Sage College Campus in Troy NY.  He mentioned there was a disturbance in the classroom and since I had not been in a classroom I quickly replied not my problem and I don't assume to take any responsibility for the college's problem.  Had I been a paid member of the community I would of course take this more seriously. He gave me a letter stating I was a persona non grata and said I was disallowed from coming on The Sage Colleges campus without further notice.  I was taken aback and now am working on what to do next.

To continue on with what I was reading US Trust published an article and video online in the Wall Street Journal, January 2014. Here is another WSJ article: Teaching Your Kids to Be Rich Article: It's not just developing a work ethic—these days, they need to deal with social media too. Comment: so I was interested in what is it about social media that will bring us understanding of our world of work? On one side of the coin, technology advances has caused a new type of business to spring up. What type of businesses are forming and how we do note the drastic changes in how to make money through these new businesses. The current advances in technology have made many changes in how we work and in our society.  Mobility has allowed us to communicate from remote locations, so we can do business anywhere in the world.

So back to what happened, this acquaintance has tracked me down using social networking and online searches and has asked me to help him.  And he wanted me to apply for work at ORACLE.  I am definitely interested since I know the pay will be better than no pay or unemployment.  But my ethical backbone,  told me to inform  him about the truth about the status of my career after graduating from RPI. Right? Wrong I hinted there was a problem and told him that skiing was really important part of his son's future, shouldn't he base a large part of his decision on the quality of that program?

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Making a Makerspace Creating a Business Model

This article by Guy Calavacanti is a series of workshops and articles sponsored by Artisan's Asylum and MAKE. The first article in the series is on how to get insurance for your creative manufacturing makerspace. The next one discusses the business model. Consider the ways you can make money in this creative manufacturing environment.

  Creating a Business Model
http://makezine.com/2013/06/04/making-makerspaces-creating-a-business-model/