Oct

22

Getting Things Done by David Allen

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Ever since reading this book I’ve experimented with different tools for implementing the system. The best I had found was Life Balance, but I didn’t like how it was stuck on my PDA and computer…I wanted a solution online. Leave it to John to solve my problem…his latest post gives you everything you need to start making the Getting Things Done system work for your life. Thanks John.

Jul

10

Credit Card Fees – Where do they come from?

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment

As a merchant and a customer, the credit card industry has been a difficult one for me to understand, but as a merchant, a necessary evil, and as a customer, a convenient and safe way to purchase. I recently read a clear explanation of where credit card fees come from by Braintree Financial. Thanks for the write up!

Apr

22

U.S. Marketing Genius Behind Toothpick – Charles Forster

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship | 2 Comments

I’ve always loved Dick Eastman‘s newsletter and I invited him to dinner last Thursday when I was in Boston. He took me to the Union Oyster House, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the U.S.

Besides great food and a great evening, I learned from Dick and from a document at the restaurant that Charles Forster from Maine was the first U.S. citizen to manufacture toothpicks. To jumpstart business, he hired Harvard Law Students to eat at the Union Oyster House (the “in” place to eat in Boston) and ask for a toothpick. When the restaurant admitted they didn’t have toothpicks, the Harvard boys were instructed to make a scene about it. After 5 or 6 Harvard boys complaining about the lack of toothpicks, the Union Oyster House placed an order. Apparently, when the oldest restaurant in town carried toothpicks, the rest of the restaurants in Boston followed suite. From Boston, toothpicks spread throughout the country. Nice marketing idea.

Apr

22

U.S.S. Constitution

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I fulfilled a life-long dream of boarding the U.S.S. Constitution. I built a scale model of the ship when I was young and I’ve always wanted to visit it. The Navy launches the ship about 8 times per year. They have a raffle for those who get to launch with her. I’m going to enter the raffle until I get to ride that beautiful ship.

Interesting facts given by the tour guide:

  1. 500+ crew.
  2. 9-11 sailors needed for operating each gun.
  3. 44 guns.
  4. Originally called the U.S.F. (United States Frigate) because of the number of guns on the ship.
  5. All ships today are U.S.S. (United States Ship) because there are so many different sizes and combinations of guns today.
  6. Oldest commissioned Naval vessel in the world.
  7. Had 33 engagements during its day. Never lost one.
  8. Rudder weighs 5,000 pounds.
  9. Masts have been replaced 4 times.
  10. The ship was originally commissioned to protect young America’s merchant fleet which found itself unprotected by the Royal fleet following the Revolutionary War.

I can’t believe I didn’t have a camera when I was there. It gives me an excuse to go back.

Apr

17

Seth Godin Speaking in Utah

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I’d like to hear Seth Godin speak in Utah. If entrepreneurship or marketing or sales interests you, I’d recommend participating in this. $50 means you hear Seth speak, have a book and four books to give as gifts. Not a bad deal. Good idea Seth.

Jan

16

University Education Secret

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Jeffrey asked me to write about why people are more important than material at a University.

As a freshman in college, I worked my tail off to understand each and every course completely. I practically memorized the texts. I answered questions in class. I studied long, hard hours on my own. I got great grades.

During my junior year I took a class from Dr. Ed Green in the school of education. When he announced that he’d recently attended conferences that have made him question the way the U.S. runs its public education system, I couldn’t help but like the guy from the start. He started talking about Home School as a viable alternative in the School of Education (a real no-no given the politics at BYU). When he asked any in the class for help on some projects he was working on, I immediately volunteered and found myself at his house talking about my non-public school past, he drinking in my every word. We became fast friends and worked on tons of projects together in Home School curriculum, ESL, reading, etc. He even hired me to work at Family Literacy Centers, Inc. right out of school. He made me successful. He also knew that my success meant his success.
Dr. Green didn’t have the research record of some of his peers. He would be the first to say that he’s not an expert in any material. In my years watching him, I’ve learned that he IS an expert in relationships with people. I see time and time again how many people he knows and connects with in all of his interactions. I didn’t understand how important this is until I applied for graduate school and took the GSE examination. I bombed it at BYU’s standards and shouldn’t have gotten into the program, but I wanted to study in the Instructional Psychology and Technology department, which was in the school of education. I applied and became the lowest score in the department. I don’t think my score even qualified. Dr. Green was on the committee and vouched for my character and skills, both of which didn’t show up on the test. The department didn’t regret Dr. Green’s recommendation; I was the first of my group who graduated. I moved through the program in one year and thoroughly enjoyed my Master’s Program.

Later, planning to attend Penn State for a Ph.D., the Penn State chair visited BYU for a conference. I volunteered to give her a ride from the airport. We hit it off well and when I applied to Penn State, I was admitted without having completed the entire application. They, however, told me I’d need to complete the application over the next year to meet their requirements (bureaucratic formality). They let me in because they knew me. They even offered a full-tuition intership with salary. I was beginning to see things differently.
One day, Dr. Green told me the story of a man who helped him through his Ph.D. program. Dr. Green associates all his success with people. He honors his mentor in giving him the break that made his career. He knows that subjects and materials go obsolete very quickly, but relationships never do.

I realize, looking back, that I passed up the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY EDUCATION…PEOPLE. Today, now that I understand the web and its capabilities, it makes sense. Why put people physically together at all? We can learn the material without being in the same room. But cyber friendships have a different strength of cement than in person friendships. If I were to do it again, I would have spent my time and energy building lasting relationships with my peers and professors like Dr. Green built with me. Those relationships are the vehicle for accomplishing any meaningful cause in life. I also look back at people I admired in school (Bryan Johnson, Richard Culatta and others) and I think that they understood this principle better than I.

Want a crash course in creating lasting relationships and real value for causes in which you’re involved? Here are my favorites (in no particular order):

Enjoy! Please share any other insights or great books related to this topic.

Jan

14

Education soulmate in India

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I spend an hour or two each week reading topics that interest me in the blogsphere. About three weeks ago, I found a man, whose name I don’t even know how to pronounce, that is a man after my own heart. K Satyanarayan loves education and is very vocal about moving the progress of his country forward in the face of a government that doesn’t know how to educate its kids. His next venture will be in education, he says. I read his bio, his goals and his comments, and I can’t believe how I feel like I’ve already met the guy (it’d be nice to help each other on a venture some day).

I’ve been reading The World is Flat and an experience “meeting” K Satyanarayan makes me believe that Thomas L. Friedman is really onto something. Cheers goes out to you K Satyanarayan from Neal in Utah.

Jul

25

Cafe Hayek: Only a third

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Cafe Hayek: Only a third of Medical Research is accurate? What about the study here? Is it in the 1/3rd wrong or 2/3rds right category?

Jun

12

Disconnect Generations = Screwtape Letter 27

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Favorite Books, Genealogy to Family History to FamilyLearn, Home, Family and Church | 1 Comment

In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, one of the devil’s servants, writes his nephew about the importance of disconnecting each generation from all others.

“It is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. But thanks be to Our Father [the Devil] and the Historical Point of View, great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that ‘history is bunk.’

Jun

6

tobycraig: Book Assembly Photo-Journal

Filed Under Education and Love for Learning | 1 Comment

Learn to bind your own books. tobycraig: Book Assembly Photo-Journal

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