Oh my! I am filled with emotion this evening. South Dakota has pushed Barack Obama over the top. He is now the Democratic Party's nominee for the President of the United States!!!!
Varick, you must be dancing! South Dakota, my brother's final resting place, has brought Barack victory! How poetic!
Yes we can!
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
Texas corporations just do not get it - they continue to practice sexual discrimination in the workforce.
My proof?
Today's Dallas Morning News reported the CEOs' pay for the top fifty largest publicly traded companies (as measured by 2007 revenue) in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and only two of them are women - Katherine J. Harless of Idearc Inc. (number 27 with $4.8 million) and Mary E. Burton of Zale Corporation (number 47 with $2.5 million).
And worse, according to Dallas Morning News reporter Karen Robinson-Jacobs, the number of women in the boardroom and corporate executive officers is a paltry 8.6% (98 women out of 1,138 positions).
The paper surveyed the top 100 DFW area companies and received 69 responses. The results are pitiful. Of the responding companies, nineteen had no women on their board and no women in executive officer positions. Amazing! 138 directors and all men. 124 officers and all men. And these are the largest companies, where it would be fair to presume diversity. But no sir! (sorry for the pun).
I wonder why 31 companies failed to respond? Perhaps they have even fewer women in executive positions and are hiding from public scrutiny?
God forbid if you are a minority woman! Out of 528 corporate officers, precisely two are minority women (and it's not much better if you are a minority male with just eight).
Folks, these are publicly traded companies. When will shareholders wake up and demand equality?
I am ashamed of these numbers. And you should be too!
But I do know one thing - there will be exactly zero white men on the democratic ticket for this fall's presidential election. Maybe as a result, we'll see a "trickle-down" effect in the Texas boardrooms and corporate offices.
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
A quick look at the world's best software developers, based on the rankings at TopCoder - China, Russia, and Poland appear to produce the elite talent. My hunch is they will be well represented in the top 120 contestants at the Finals.
The 2008 TCO Finals should be a lot of fun ... hackers and geeks, get your game on. Go code!
About TopCoder, Inc.:
TopCoder is the recognized leader in identifying, evaluating and mobilizing effective software development resources. Through its proprietary programming competitions and rating system, TopCoder recognizes and promotes the abilities of the best programmers around the world. TopCoder software harnesses the talent of these developers to design, develop and deploy software through its revolutionary competitive development methodology. TopCoder's methodology emphasizes thorough specification and design, distributed development using reusable components, and a rigorous quality assurance review process that results in higher quality, lower cost software solutions than traditional software development methodologies. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events, recruiting TopCoder members and utilizing TopCoder's software services, visit http://www.topcoder.com/.Pierre Cutler
Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ symbol EBAY) and member of SacWomen's Power Women 50 Index, is retiring on March 31. And what has Whitman achieved since becoming eBay's CEO in February of 1998? Simply, she made her shareholders very wealthy.
She led the company to a successful IPO in September 1998. Since the IPO, the stock has appreciated an amazing 43% per year. A $10,000 investment at the IPO price of $.75 (split adjusted) has grown to $357,737 (Friday's closing price of $26.83). Over the same timeframe, a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 Index would have grown to $12,761.
Meg Whitman, the Power Women 50 Index will miss you. Sorry John Donahoe, eBay's incoming CEO, but you will not be a part of the Index. Susan Ivey, CEO and Chairman of Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE symbol RAI) will replace Whitman in the Index on April 1.
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
My fiftieth year passed me by in 2007. And what did I learn?
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
10 Things I Would Change If I Ran The Company:
And if I could add one more, I would limit email to just one day a week. email is disruptive and usually just a CYA activity. (Pierre speaking here - OMG, Gillian would never allow this as she lives and dies with her email).
Gillian Parrillo and Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executives
If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to IT, many of the "dirty little secrets" listed below may surprise you because we don't usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you've probably encountered most of these issues and have a few of your own to add - and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the discussion. Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers - they have their own set of additional dirty little secrets - but some of these will apply to them as well.
10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate's or bachelor's degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, "That's just part of the job." If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, "There's no comp time for that since you're on salary. That's why we pay you the big bucks!"
9.) It will be your fault when users make silly errors. Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, "What's wrong with this thing?" or "This computer is NOT working!" or (my personal favorite), "What did you do to the computers?" In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.
8.) You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day. When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes - and they don't realize how simple the fix really was - you will become the hero of the moment and everyone's favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown - you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you'll soon return to hero status.
7.) Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise. Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You'll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don't have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.
6.) Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs. Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline. For help, take a look at TechRepublic's free download "Ten ways to decline a request for free tech support."
5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong. Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it's a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company.
4.) You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones. One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we'll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that's not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff.
3.) Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies. A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it's often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it's the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied.
2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business. Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous.
1.) IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up. All IT pros - even the very best - screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don't have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, "We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!" What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.
Courtesy of TechRepublic. This is part of Jason Hiner's regular [Tech Sanity Check] series.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
Glassboth is an interesting quiz that allows you to spread 20 points to provide your ranking of importance to the top issues with which this country is dealing e.g., healthcare, the war in Iraq, drugs, immigration, social security etc. (makes you realize how hard it is for politicians to decide where the money should go - almost all are critically important to me). You then answer a series of questions related to the topics you designated as important. Out pops the Presidential candidate which whom you are most in tune. Pretty interesting stuff.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
Ted Nicholas has founded 23 successful companies. He has written 14 best-selling books and conducted hundreds of seminars around the world.
He provides these tips to be used by superstar companies only!
1. Have fewer meetings!Many regularly scheduled group meetings are unnecessary. Often a telephone call, memo or e-mail will suffice and is a better solution.
Meetings involving several staff members are very expensive. Just compute the hourly cost. You will be amazed! Clearly, it makes economic sense to only schedule meetings that are absolutely necessary.
2. Limit attendance.
Invite only the people who are absolutely necessary to the outcome of the meeting.
3. Start and stop meetings on a strict timetable.
Whether or not some people arrive late, start and stop at the scheduled time regardless.
4. Limit the time of the meeting.
Keep most meetings to 30 minutes. Only if absolutely necessary go to 45 minutes. In rare cases go to 60 minutes, or 90 minutes. If a subject is not covered within the scheduled time, simply shelve it to the next meeting.
5. Plan the meetings carefully.
Distribute a meeting agenda at least a day in advance. List the subjects of discussion. The decisions which need to be made. Who is responsible to implement the decision. The agreed upon completion date.
6. Preparation is critical for all attendees. Ask participants to prepare in advance for their part of the meeting agenda.
7. Appoint a person to keep notes of the meeting.
Ideally, keeping meeting notes is a rotating responsibility. Distribute the notes within 24 hours of the meeting. Tape record the meeting to be sure you have a record of what transpired. Especially important is the action to be taken. Who has agreed to do what by when?
8. Avoid the so-called open door policy. This is highly overrated. Do not conduct most one-on- one meetings in your office.
Some people just don't seem to know when to leave your work area and thus waste a lot of your time with small talk.
Instead, stop by the employee's office. Conduct your business. Then politely terminate the meeting and leave. You are much more in control of your time visiting an employee.
9. Use meeting performance as an important part of your periodic employee evaluations.
An evaluation can be an ideal time to communicate with an employee as to whether or not they are "getting it" insofar as your meeting culture.
I've observed that most small, medium and even giant companies unnecessarily allow meetings to waste endless hours of time of numerous employees.
For example, I'm a shareholder in Nestle, the world's largest food company. I also know several top executives there and have heard them complain about how Nestle wastes so much time on non-productive meetings. Indeed, if shareholders were to be made aware of how much money is being wasted, I'm sure they would not be pleased.
Put the nine fabulous proven meeting procedures in place in your organization. I promise that your company's productivity and success margin will dramatically improve.
Meetings are one of the biggest time-savers around. Email is another, although email could easily be classified as a meeting, just in a different form. Be bold, take action without checking with everyone, apologize (only if it backfires!) later.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
A great post (again!) on Guy Kawasaki's blog. He asks Fred Greguras, partner in the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick and West to give him the top ten questions asked him by new entrerepreneurs. This is an invaluable list, with answers, of all those 'how do I start my new venture?' And if you get the answers early on, they can save you all kinds of time, trouble and money later on. Print this off and place it somewhere very prominent! And, by the way, there are 16 questions!
Question: Can I start a technology company in the same business as my current employer?
Answer: Working completely outside of an employer’s premises and not using an employer’s trade secrets or other resources may not be enough to avoid a taint on your technology and intellectual property (“IP”) for the new business. Investors will examine the creation of IP very carefully in such a situation as they don’t want to buy into a law suit. While California law favors employee mobility it also protects employers in Labor Code Section 2870 which is part of most employee invention assignment and confidentiality agreements you sign before you begin employment with a company.
Basically, 2870 states that an employee owns an invention that he/she developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer’s equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information except for those inventions that either relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer; or result from any work performed by the employee for the employer.
The taint to the new business can come from the founder who is trying to continue work with his/her current employer while trying to create technology and IP for a new business or from a consultant who is “moonlighting” from a business in the same space. Some business sectors such as EDA software are notorious for litigation against departed employees who try to start a new business in the same space.
Question: When should I incorporate?
Answer: The first step in starting a business is to test the business concept with prospective customers and to look carefully at potential market size to see if there really is a business opportunity. Timing of incorporation will be driven by the need to document the founders’ ownership of the business, to secure ownership of pre-existing intellectual property, to enter into contracts with customers, to grant stock options and to accept investment. You usually don’t want to delay incorporating until just before a Series A financing round because such timing could cause tax problems for founders who want to buy their shares at a nominal price as compared to the valuation of the corporation at the time of the financing.
Question: Why don’t I use a Limited Liability Company (“LLC”) since it is cheaper to start?
Answer: An LLC is often used for consulting and smaller businesses, but not often for an operating business that will seek venture capital. You can decide whether to be taxed as a corporation or partnership when your business organization is an LLC. Losses and gains of the business flow through to the shareholders individual 1040 tax return when taxed as a partnership. Venture capitalists won’t invest in an LLC, you can’t grant stock options to employees and other service providers in an LLC, and an LLC can’t be acquired tax-free in a stock acquisition exit.
Question: Why does everyone incorporate in Delaware?
Answer: I still see some entrepreneurs use California corporations because they want to keep their costs as low as possible. Delaware incorporation advantages are venture capitalist preference, ease of dealing with regulatory authorities, flexibility in the law (such as the number of board members) and more helpful precedent on corporate law. Disadvantages are the corporation being taxed by and subject to two states regulatory requirements.
You can’t avoid California taxes if the corporation is operating in California. California advantages are lower cost and being subject to only one state’s regulatory requirements, if the corporation is operating here. One major disadvantage of using California is the difficulty of dealing with regulatory authorities on corporate filings in a financing or other situation when articles of incorporation need to be amended. If a business has been incorporated in California, the VCs will often want it to be reincorporated in Delaware as part of a round of financing.
Question: Should we incorporate as an S corp or C corp?
Answer: “S corp” and “C corp” are tax statuses rather than a type of corporation you would form in California or Delaware. An S corporation is taxed like a partnership. Gains and losses flow through to the shareholders so it can provide tax advantages if, for example, there is a long product development period with significant expenses that would flow through to individual tax returns.
There are restrictions on the number (100) and types of shareholders in an S corp. Shareholders must be U.S. citizens or residents and natural persons not entities. Also, while you can make a decision at the end of a calendar year to switch to a C corp, you can’t decide to turn S corp status off when ever you want to do so. A preferred stock financing will terminate S corp status because an S corp may not have more than one class of shares outstanding.
Question: Should I incorporate offshore since my business will focus on China/India?
Answer: This decision is driven by the likely exit strategy and the type of investors most interested in your business. Exit alternatives such as an IPO on the Indian or Hong Kong stock exchanges are not possible if you are a U.S. corporation. Some global investors will invest only in an offshore corporation such as a Cayman Islands exempted company while some domestic U.S. venture capitalists will still only invest in a U.S. corporation.
You can reincorporate from one state to another, i.e., California to Delaware, on a tax-free basis but you can’t reincorporate outside the U.S. without tax consequences. Reincorporation offshore almost always will cause the corporation to remain subject to U.S. taxes under Internal Revenue Code Section 7874. If you initially incorporate offshore you can reincorporate into the U.S. on a tax free basis so if in doubt, start offshore at the outset.
Continue reading "Ten Top Questions Asked by Newbie Entrepreneurs" »
Pierre Cutler
Sacramento Executive
Sacramento - a top ten city for:
Where People Are Losing their Houses - #4
Markets With Highest Mortgage Risk - #8
Have Your Identity Stolen - #9
Bike Commuters - #6
Car Theft #7
Underrated City for Travel - #10
Urban Areas With The Roughest Pavements - #7
Most Overpriced Real Estate Markets - #3
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
Two Sacramento companies have made it onto Entrepreneur' Magazine's Hot 500 list of America's fastest growing small businesses. Response 1 Medical Staffing of El Dorado Hills and Commercial Building Specialists of Roseville.
The ranking starts with 19 million businesses and applies stringent growth criteria that weeds out all but 0.5 percent of the total. Response 1 Medical Staffing had a revenue increase of 235% from 2003 to 2005 and Commercial Building Specialists enjoyed 880%.
Thanks to these outstanding companies for getting good press for Sacramento and its entrepreneurial spirit.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
A new study by the Corporation for National and Community Service
Topping the list of the top 50 - Minneapolis-St. Paul, followed by Salt Lake City, Austin, Omaha and Seattle. Bottom of the list - Las Vegas. Sacramento came in as 13th, better than the rest of the California cities. I guess we still retain some good, old-fashioned hometown spirit.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
1. Get introduced through an entrepreneur or attorney to a VC they have worked with in the past. A good law firm can be very valuable for investor introductions if you can convince them your business would be a good investment.
2. Talk to multiple firms at once. Create a competitive process and seek multiple term sheets if you are able.
3. Read up on term sheets and have a good understanding of them before you start talking to investors. The key terms are pre-money valuation, liquidation preference, participation, share revesting, dividends, board size and protective provisions.
4. Be upfront about the general terms you are seeking to save yourself and the investor time.
5. Know that the pre-money valuation is only one of the most important terms.
6. Get involved with organizations in your community that can connect you to other entrepreneurs who have done it before and then have lunch with those entrepreneurs.
7. Realize that it will probably take at least 9 months to raise money from start to finish your first time doing it.
8. Realize that until you have at least $1 million in annual revenue it may be difficult to get most VCs interested.
9. Know that it may take 6 months of sustained product and revenue progress after your first meeting before a VC will consider your deal seriously.
10. Know how much money you are trying to raise before you begin discussions.
11. Know that it may be easier to seek angel funding or debt funding instead of venture capital early on.
12. Know that once you sign a term sheet it will be at least 30 days and up to 90 days before you actually close on the funds.
Courtesy of Ryan Allis. Follow the journey of entrepreneur Ryan Allis as he builds his company iContact into the worldwide leader in on-demand software for online communications, publishes his book Zero to One Million, travels the country as a speaker on entrepreneurship, explores the worlds of public policy, technology, marketing, management, leadership, venture capital, and organizational behavior, and lives a passionate life as a North Carolina entrepreneur and CEO.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
I went to see an early screening of Sicko last night. Most memorable moment of the movie for me - causing me to scrabble in my purse for a pen - "If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people." Great quote from Tony Benn, a British politician.
Go see the movie. It is not strident Michael Moore, as people hate him (and some love him), but it certainly shows that Canadians, the British, and the French (who have the premier health care system in the world, according to the World Health Organization), treat everyone based on their need and not on their wallet. They certainly don't dump those who can't pay their medical bills outside homeless shelter - a haunting scene in the movie from the United States, which on that same WHO ranking is 37th, right after Costa Rica and before Slovenia. Sicko makes the point that even the prisoners at Guantanamo get better health care than most Americans and better than rescue workers from the 9/11 World Trade Center site.
The US is the only country in the Western world without a nationalized health system. As Michael Mooore suggests, we grab the coolest cars and wine and everything else from Europe, but not the health system. Why are we constantly fed the myth that all those countries have terrible health systems and people hate them...it's just not the truth. But making us believe that allows someone to make lots of money off our system the way it is. Oh, and that would be the health insurance companies.
Chill while you listen to President Nixon warm up to Ehrlichman explaining the fact that there are going to be "health maintenance organizations like Edward Kaiser's Permanente thing....which Edward Kaiser is running ....for profit....All the incentives are toward less medical care," Ehrlichman explains further to Nixon, "The less care they give them, the more money they make." Kaiser Permanente is now the nation's largest HMO.
People die in this movie because they can't afford care, or because they went to the wrong hospital. A physician testifies that health insurance companies pay bonuses for doctors to deny care - and people die because of it...but the doctors gets the bonuses. Children die because their parents take them in an emergency to a hospital which is not 'in-network', the insurance company denies care, and by the time they are transferred, they die. People who are unconscious from a serious car accident get transported by ambulance to a hospital, and the claim for the ambulance is denied because there was no pre-approval.
Let's stop thinking that we have the best health care system in the world, we don't. We don't live as long as people in many countries in the world mainly because we don't provide preventitive care to all of our population, and we trail 41 countries in infant mortality rate. This, even though we pay more by far than any other country for our care. The money that makes up record-breaking profits for our health insurance companies.
Is this America? We, the people. When did we stop caring about people? All of our people. When did we think it was OK to let people who could be saved, die? Go see the movie and then take to the streets and demand that everyone in this country get health insurance and quality health care.
Stop believing the lies, start standing up for every American. And while we are about it, let's decide what our priorities are as a nation: "If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people."
I vote for helping - but I vote. I wish everyone else of a like mind would do so also and then maybe something might change, although as Sicko shows us there are 4 time more healthcare lobbyists in Washington than there are politicians.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
California dominated the bad news in the May 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report by RealtyTrac, which tracks the foreclosure market. The state led the nation in foreclosure filings, with 39,659 in May. Foreclosure activity increased 30 percent in the state in May compared to April, and was up 350 percent over May 2006. With one foreclosure filing for every 308 households, the state came in third for foreclosure rates behind Nevada (one filing for every 166 households) and Colorado (one filing for every 290 households).The top three metropolitan areas for foreclosure rates are all in California, led by Stockton with a 49 percent increase in foreclosure activity and one foreclosure filing for every 88 households. Merced came in second with one filing for every 100 households, followed by Modesto with one for every 118 households. California also claimed the 5th spot with Riverside-San Bernardino, the 6th spot with Vallejo-Fairfield and 7th place with Sacramento. Las Vegas, Denver, Detroit and Miami were also in the top 10 for foreclosure rates.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
10 things to do before you turn 50 By Jay McDonald • Bankrate.comYou've sensed the black bunting and cruel gag gifts dead ahead, the cheerful semi-surprise party of well-meaning younger friends and commiserating older ones who, like you, have decidedly mixed feelings about hitting the big 5-0.
The very least that can be said in favor of reaching the half-century mark is that it carries less angst than the big 3-0, less sting than the big 4-0, and certainly beats the alternative.
After all, you've accomplished far more at this point in your life than at those previous traumatic milestones. Chances are you've found love and married (perhaps more than once), you've raised a family (perhaps more than one), you've settled on what you're going to do when you grow up, and you've probably cobbled together enough assets to make retirement a real possibility.
Love, family, financial security -- what's not to like about turning 50?
Well, the downside is that one of these mornings you're going to wake up and actually be staring at a 50-year-old in the mirror.
The big 5-0, as everyone who has hit it will tell you, is the physical milestone. Somebody cranks up the gravity, makes all the print tiny and turns your favorite foods against you. Your doctor becomes a nag. Your clothes start shrinking. And you forget, but not selectively anymore.
Any day now, that AARP card will arrive in the mail and you'll be officially old. But that doesn't mean you have to go gently into that good night -- not by a long shot. After all, you're a baby boomer. You were born to be wild.
Here are the top 10 things you need to do before you greet the big 5-0:
1. Get lost
Looking for a personal mantra as you prepare to tee off down life's back nine? How about this one: Habits kill. By now, you may have seen more of other parts of the world than you've actually seen of your own hometown because you've been a good little Pythagorean and mastered the straight line between A and B and never got beyond point C.
But now is the time to get lost, at least metaphorically. Take that road you've never taken. Go to work by bus instead of train. Or get really radical, and walk somewhere. Mix it up. And be sure not to plan too much. It takes all the fun out of it.
2. Use the good china
Who doesn't know the frustrating feeling of watching our parents or older relatives deny themselves the pleasure of using fine china, linen, silver and other great things in life? Don't go there.
If you've got the good stuff swaddled in bubble wrap, locked away for safekeeping or displayed in fine glass cabinetry, pull it all out right now. Find the orneriest 3-year-old available and together build a ridiculous lunch of peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches with SpaghettiOs on grandma's finest. You'll be grinning for days.
3. Visit the wonder window
Been a couple decades since your kids were born? Need a double shot of wonder with that latte grande? One of the best free shows on earth is available at the maternity ward of your local hospital. Just drop in and stand at the window.
There's a wonderful charge from being in the presence of newborns, especially when we're feeling the tug of our own mortality. If you are a parent, it can put you in touch with all the reasons you brought your own kids into this world in the first place. That's a pretty nice place to revisit.
4. Lose the locks
Anthropologists are trying to isolate the gene that makes human beings cling against all reason to the hairstyles they had when they bought their first car. What's sadder than a 40-year-old man with a mullet? A 50-year-old with a comb-over or a ponytail, that's what.
At 50, it's time to lose the locks. Guys, give your boyhood barber a farewell tip, find a stylist half your age and get short and modern. Ladies, the '70s called and they want their long hair back. Go bobbed, go gelled, go asymmetrical, go crazy, but go short. You both will look 10 years younger.
5. Treat a stranger to dinner
Let's say you've done pretty well in life, climbed the corporate ladder, made it to the top, love the view. Congratulations. Now what? Compassion for those who didn't catch the same breaks is a pretty good place to start the cool-down from your career marathon.
Try this: The next time you dine out, look for someone who is alone, perhaps sad or troubled or less fortunate than yourself, and surreptitiously pay their waiter for their meal, anonymously. It might make a difference in their life and it will certainly make a difference, for the better, in yours.
6. Upgrade your vices
In the spin-cycle of youth, you wallowed in the shallow end when it came to pursuits of pleasure. You saw Rocky Horror 36 times, traveled with the Dead for a summer (you think), drank anything with an alcohol content and played Trivial Pursuit until your mind turned to cottage cheese. It was easy to waste time when you had so much of it.
Now you need to be a little more selective. Upgrade your vices. Read great books. See great movies. Drink better wines. Catch a live concert, philharmonic this time, now and then and spring for good seats. And spend more time with people who make you laugh. You've had the rest, now go only for the best.
7. Meet the folks
No one can give you a clearer forecast of what's in store for the second half of your life than your parents. If you haven't done so already, make a point to meet the folks on an adult level. As 50 approaches, chances are you are noticing lots in common with them that you can use to open the door to new mature relationships.
It will do wonders for all of you. Ask them about anything and everything they've experienced. You'll need all the gory details, especially the health-related ones, they sheltered you from in your younger days so you'll be able to age like a fine wine instead of a sour grape.
8. Scare yourself
One of the advantages of launching your second childhood now is that you've still got the muscle tone and mobility to truly push the envelope, get the adrenalin roaring and flash-test the old circuitry without winding up in the ER.
What's the scariest thing you always wanted to try? Glacier skiing? Skydiving? Spelunking? Karaoke? Don't just dream about it, get out there and give it a go. Great cocktail stories often involve overcoming fear. Let this be your best one.
9. Get spontaneous
Remember those habits we earlier said are buzz killers? Well, those small, comfortably predictable action sequences actually do serve a purpose. They help guide us subconsciously through our daily existence. Without them, we would spend most of every morning just getting out of the house.
That said, after 50, most of our habits start to turn against us, for good reason: We are no longer the same person who formed them all those years ago. How to kick the ones we no longer need? Get spontaneous, right now. Seek new experiences, new technologies, new points of view, new possibilities. Pursue your bliss and let it guide you to new habits that will serve you better down the stretch.
10. Laugh more
Native American folklore says that the first question we ask upon dying is, "Why was I so serious?"
Life today is full of reasons to scowl, frown, sputter and fume, but you know what? That's just plain defeatism and it only makes you look and feel old. Find things that make you laugh and surround yourself with them.
Set laughter goals: laughing to tears daily; falling-down, rolling, pants-wetting hilarity once a week perhaps. Laughter is your tether to youth, an instant facelift, and the purest appreciation for what a cool ride this really is.
Happy Birthday, Pierre.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
I found these words of wisdom in Jeffrey Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling":
Ask the wrong questions. Get the wrong answers. The most important aspect of making a sale - is also a major weakness of every salesperson. Here are 9.5 benefits to make sales by:
1. Qualify the buyer.
2. Establish rapport.
3. Create prospect disparity.
4. Eliminate or differentiate from the competition.
5. Build credibility.
6. Know the customer and their business.
7. Identify needs.
8. Find hot buttons.
9. Get personal information.
9.5 Close the sale.
Great advice from the guru of selling!
Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive
From the Sacramento Business Journal:
The Sacramento region is the second most affordable area in the state for first-time homebuyers, according to a report released Thursday by the California Association of Realtors.In Greater Sacramento, 43 percent of households could afford to buy an entry level home, up from 40 percent last year. The first-time buyer median price was $310,670, with a minimum qualifying income of $62,640.
The percentage of households who could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 25 percent in the first quarter, down slightly from 26 percent for the same period a year ago.Statewide, the minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home for $480,670 in the first quarter was $96,910, based on an adjustable interest rate of 6.3 percent and assuming a 10 percent down payment.
At 44 percent, the High Desert region was the most affordable in the state, followed by the Sacramento. Santa Barbara was the least affordable region in the state at 12 percent, followed by the Monterey region at 19 percent.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
A very interesting list that I am sure that Pierre and I will be discussing in more detail on future blogs. The list contains many items that we constantly discuss and to which we look for innovative and daring answers. Thanks to Calvin Chan for posting this on the Sacramento Entrpereneurship Academy community website.
"I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.”- Steve Jobs
His accomplishments and character helped define a generation and change the world. He is co-founder of the fairytale company we now know as Apple Computers. And he is the visionary of the personal computers world that led the entire computer hardware and software industry to restructure itself.
This man with boundless energy and charisma is also a master of hype, hyperbole and the catchy phrase. And even when he’s trying to talk normally, brilliant verbiage comes tumbling out.
Here’s a selection of some of the most insanely great things he said, golden lessons to help you succeed in life, Jobs-style:
1. Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!
2. Steve Jobs said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
There is no shortcut to excellence. You will have to make the commitment to make excellence your priority. Use your talents, abilities, and skills in the best way possible and get ahead of others by giving that little extra. Live by a higher standard and pay attention to the details that really do make the difference. Excellence is not difficult - simply decide right now to give it your best shot - and you will be amazed with what life gives you back.