It wasn’t long ago I believed I had missed an opportunity to catch an upswing in the market. Good thing I missed it, because this past week would have all but erased any short term gains. Which leads one to ask, do you stick long term in the market, or do you wait long term to get back in when the times settle.

Not everyone has the patience, and not everyone has the stomach to take the risk. But those that do, generally pay off handsomely. Need proof, search for a fellow named Warren Buffet.

I’m not in any position to offer stock advice, but if I was to buy today, I would buy Coca-cola stock. Recession, Depression, Bull or Bear markets… we’re all drinking Coke products. Don’t believe me, take a look at their product line.

Seth is offering an opportunity of a lifetime for a select few.  Does this apply to you?

I know a quite a few people who would jump at this opportunity. I know I would love to, but it comes down to timing, opportunity cost and I think mostly reality. Unfortunately. :|

If I could convince the mortgage to wait a few months for the next payment, I would jump with both feet!

Anyone else?

I like the new dashboard UI recently released from Google Analytics.  Specifically the ability to ‘star’ a website and then filter by those that are stared.

Another notable update is adding some trend data to the initial dashboard.  Telling my increase or decrease in traffic for the past 30 days.  Nice work, and thanks for the free service!

Keep updated with the new things coming out of Google Analytics by following their blog.

Looking for a wireless home music system, look no further than Apple. No, I’m not an Apple zealot, but by the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll sure think I am.

Some History

Quite a while back we were looking for a system where we could sync our MP3 Music collection and stream it to our home stereo. We tried out Roku Soundbridge. It never made the cut. I replaced it with an AirPort Express (Airtunes). It worked quite well.

Today

I now have the system that rivals (actually blows out of the water) the Sonos systems. One which I can control from my finger tips, while sitting on the couch. It’s WIFI, so wherever I am in the house, I can turn the music up, switch songs, turn on (or off) speakers, etc. It’s great!!

Of course, I could have purchased the Sonos systems for $1000 bucks. Instead, the Airtunes Express is $99, the iPod Touch or iPhone is $250 (many of us already have one of these, or an iPhone) and the iRemote Application is free.

So, either choose the Sonos system (please don’t) or the Apple system. Apple system is as inexpensive as $99. Get the AirTunes Express from eBay as cheep as $30 bucks, and you’re laughin!

A while back, I found myself watching the Knowledge Network and on came this guy I had never heard about. His name, John Hardy.

Here is this guy, living in Bali in his Bamboo House, making Jewellery, running his factory ‘off the land’. Quite interesting actually, and it demonstrates hope. Hope that it can be done, we can live sustainabily, we can produce goods sustainably, we can run a business sustainably.

He’s a big advocate for the use of bamboo (and he uses a LOT of it). We’ve got quite a few things in our place made from bamboo. We’ve even got bed sheets from Bamboo cotton, there are more uses than you know of!

John Hardy does his part, let’s do ours!

It’s been years since we’ve had a land-line in our house, or perhaps I should phrase that:  years since we’ve had a home phone.  Like many other early adopters, Malin and I made the switch to cell phones long ago (my first one was in ’99).  Not long after, we abandoned the land-line all together.

There are a few problems with a cell-only plan:

• the phone heats up, and becomes annoying to keep against your face
• long distance rates suck
• it’s compact, sometimes too compact for comfortable use
• it get’s misplaced
• it runs out of power
• regular (or excessive) use cost a lot of money

So, along came VOIP, Skype, Shaw Home Phone and many others.  We signed onto Skype under a year-long promotion a couple years back.  $12 bucks (and change) for unlimited* long distance in North America for an entire year.  Yep…  a full year for $12 bucks.

We used the service for a year with a headset, and generally we were quite happy.  Sound quality was good, but our headset mic wasn’t up to par so the call quality for the other end was hit and miss.

Fast forward to today…  we’ve had a DLink USB Phone adapter for over 3 months now.  We went out and purchased our way into the present with a set of Panasonic Phones.  When all is setup, the Panasonic phones are scattered around the house, the DLink is setup in the den, and the desktop computer is turned on and logged in to Skype.

It works!

Call Quality is excellent for both sides, monthly subscriptions are $2.95/month for unlimited* calling to North America.  We don’t think twice to call our parents (who are both a long distance call away), and we don’t bat an eye to call Hawaii for our wedding planning.  All is great!  We love our Skype!

However…. the problem is that the DLink+Skype solutions occasionally disconnects our call.  Sometimes it’s 3 seconds in, other times it’s 30 minutes.  It’s not a major inconvenience, but when that happens it also means we need to reset the solution before it works again.

Resetting the solution goes like this:

1. Kill DLink software (kill the DLink DPH-50U Process in the Task Manager)
2. Unplug the USB connection to the DLink box
3. Wait a few seconds for Windows to catch up
4. Re-plugin the DPH-50U USB Box
5. Wait a few seconds
6. Start up the DLink Software
7. Wait a few seconds for everything to reconnect
8. Place another phone call

This works, every time.  But what a pain in the ass.

Does anyone else know a solution to fix the DLink – Skype – Windows problems I am having?

Anyone else have some feedback on how Skype works for them?

Not using Skype? You should get connected!

* A fair usage policy applies. Excludes service, special, premium and non-geographic numbers.

A lot has been said, written and studied about motivation.  But it’s still something that is hard to maintain and definitely not easy to manage.

I know for myself, I go a month here and a month there where I’m highly motivated and it’s times like that the time just flies by.  Eventually, the roller coaster comes back down to earth for a while and you maintain and chug along with the rest of the planet, as just another cog in the machine.  As Seth once put it:

The end result is that it’s essentially impossible to become successful or well off doing a job that is described and measured by someone else.

Later in the same article he says:

People who make up new rules continue to be in very short supply.

How does this relate to my subject, Motivation?  I’m getting to that.

Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, we all know what’s going on in the world right now, the economy is tanking and it’s taking casualties down with it.  Either in terms of layoffs or entire companies, the outlook is grim.

Grim of course, if you don’t see some of the opportunities, or Grim of course if you’re not capable to taking advantage of those opportunities.

I’ve been reading a lot more Seth lately, it’s enlightening.  He has plenty of great insight, and he just does such a good job getting a good message across; common sense or not, they land on open ears.  Now is a good time for this.

Again, how does this relate to Motivation?

Let’s consider the Criticism post out of his great book, “Small is the new Big”.  It specifically mentions:

So, why haven’t you and your team launched as many Purple Cows as you’d like?

Fear.

Not just the fear of failure. Fear of failure is actually overrated as an excuse. Why? Because if you work for someone, then more often than not, the actual cost of the failure is absorbed by the organization, not you. If your product launch fails, they’re not going to fire you. The company will make a bit less money and will move on.

What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.

We don’t choose to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes diners take notice or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.

I’ve never been one to fear like mentioned above.  Sometimes one gets comfortable, other times it’s just frustration.  Ultimately, it’s taking the easy way out.  Working as a cog in the system.

One thing I am known for is my candor at home and at work.  I’ve always been one to speak my mind, sometimes it comes across pessimistic, other times it’s constructive criticism, and others it’s being sure to recognize good work.  It’s the times where I am waving my hands in the air that get me motivated.  Waving with an idea, a goal I want to achieve or quite simply a concern we’re about to do the wrong thing.

This is where motivation comes in.

If you are in a good organization, that encourages and welcomes your ideas and input, that’s motivating.  If you’re given enough floor time for an elevator pitch, that’s motivating.  If you’re given the opportunity to take that pitch somewhere, that’s motivating.

What’s even more motivating is when some of those ideas show signs of growing legs.