Don’t let one loss turn into two (or more)

January 9, 2011 by Leave a comment

For those of you who don’t follow college football or particularly care for sports, please bear with me.  The cautionary tale that follows begins with a sports reference, but is a life-lesson, nonetheless.

Earlier this week, Stanford University spanked Virginia Tech in the Discover Orange Bowl.  For those of you less sports-inclined, “spanked” means “beat really, really badly”.  Okay, where was I?  O yeah, so Stanford whooped Virginia Tech 40-12 and honestly the game wasn’t that close.  They beat them so bad, in fact, that Andrew Luck, Stanford’s quarterback, solidified himself as the #1 prospect for the NFL Draft (he decided a few days later that he’d stay in school) and their head coach, Jim Harbaugh, parlayed what amounted to the culmination of a pretty remarkable stint, albeit short, at Stanford into a head coaching position at one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, the San Francisco 49ers. Read more of this post

Filed under Deep Thoughts and Philosophy Tagged with

Trimmed Mean

January 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Companies are always looking for trends.  One common statistic is average.  What is the average monthly expenditure for travel and entertainment?  On average, how many units of each SKU are sold?  How many calls per day, on average, does our Call Center receive?  All these are common questions and present a picture for management to look at in an attempt to better understand the business.

But just taking the average can be misleading and problematic.  What if there was a trade show in July and the entire Sales and Management Teams went to Phoenix, Arizona for a week?  That would obviously skew the travel and entertainment numbers.  During the Holidays, mainly because it’s the end of the year, your company sells twice as many calendars as it does the rest of the year.  So forecasting for February based on the annual average would be a mistake.  And let’s take the example of the Call Center. Read more of this post

Filed under Business Stuff Tagged with

Life is Hard

January 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

Life is hard.  Work.  Deadlines.  Commutes.  Health.  Weight Gain.  (Attempted) Weight Loss.  Kids.  Bills.  Layoffs.  The Economy.  Death.  Relationships.  Life, we can all agree, has its share of challenges, its ups and its downs.  But, you should be thankful for that.  For one, it helps weed out those among us who really don’t want success, don’t want to go through the bumps and cracks that lie on any road to ultimate achievement.  But, as I will show you, the more important thing to remember is that Life is Hard because we who want to grow, who want to learn, who want to get the most out of life, need for it to be hard. Read more of this post

Filed under Deep Thoughts and Philosophy Tagged with

7 Ways to Increase the Efficiency of your Accounting Dept.

January 6, 2011 by Leave a comment

It’s good to know that at least some of the things in which I vehemently believe (process refinement, full leverage of business applications, IT department inclusion) are echoed by others in the Accounting world.  I read this article, shared with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Network on LinkedIn by Yelena Z.  It’s a great read.

7 ways to make your accounting department more efficient

Filed under Business Stuff Tagged with

Managing Goals for Success

January 6, 2011 by Leave a comment

People tell me all the time that I’m motivated and dedicated.  They allege that they are impressed with my drive and commitment to reaching my goals.  But I’ve never thought of it- a focus on improving every day- as anything spectacular.  Because I think we all have it inside of us.  We just need tools to help bring it out.  Maybe I know better what those tools are, but I hope to help others find their own equivalents.

First of all, like what I imagine is true for most other self-driven people, I am at the same time driven and haunted by one thing.  No matter where I am in the “success percentile” for any given attribute, I compare myself with those above (to the right of) my line in the bell curve. (Sorry for the statistics reference).  I’ll go into more detail on this in another post, but here’s a simple explanation and example.  If I think I’m at the 80th percentile in terms of athletic ability, I compare myself to the 20% that are better than me.  I have an MBA from Santa Clara, but compare myself not to people with undergraduate degrees or none at all (those to the left on the bell curve), but instead to those with MBAs from what some might consider more prestigious schools.  Or maybe to someone with an MBA and a CPA license.  The point is, I’m driven, in part, because there is always someone out there who is doing more and working harder.  I’m learning that this viewpoint is not always good; but in reality, it is part of the reason for my drive and commitment. Read more of this post

Filed under Deep Thoughts and Philosophy, Fitness Stuff Tagged with

← Older posts

Newer posts →