Parents Are Salespeople, Too

A common family knowledge is children listen to their parents. Children are taught from their parents. Brush your teeth. Candy is bad for you. Go to sleep. Do your homework. Read books. You're playing too much video games. Eat your vegetables. Include your brother or sister. You don't need *insert unnecessary consumer good*. Say thank you.

Parents are parenting. Parents are also salespeople. Parents interact with salespeople buying a car, buying furniture, and shopping for home improvements. Salespeople must build trust, creditability, and sincerity selling a good or service. Parents must build trust, creditability, and sincerity nurturing and guidance. The children are the parent's customers. Parents adapt the ABC in sales which is Always Be Closing. Or parents practice rough parenting ABP or Always Be Parenting.

Throwback Blog: 500

Blogger's Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled 500 written on Aug 6, 2010. I wrote blog number 500. I didn't write a top 50 blogs. I reposted my top 30 blogs from 300 written on Dec 7, 2008. Today's blog is number 1,930.

I update my top 30 blogs. There are changes. Mistakes made. Lessons learned. My life changed. New knowledge. Intelligence expanded. Wisdom changed. Increased strength. Here are the top 30 blogs with updates in italics, strikethroughs, and my remarks noted with RM:

1. Never take anything and anyone for granted.
2. Trust my gut feeling.
3. My [earlier] daily top five rules for living: (1) Don't criticize, condemn, and complain, and don't compare with others. (2) Don't act like a jerk or bitch. (3) Always speak calmly and be calm. (4) Don't daydream when driving. (5) Keep your head up high . . . look at [their] cute face when talking. RM: Sometimes comparing with others is positive.
4. Continue to live life finding what you want to do.
5. Never judge a person by their appearance.
6. Remember to learn from [your] failures as well as your successes.
7. It takes patience to learn who a person is for long-term family, friend, business, and romantic relationships.
8. Do something else to take your mind off something you hate.
9. Meet new people and make new friends continuously.
10. It's OK to be alone.

11. You must earn what you want in life.
12. You are responsible for yourself.
13. Schools have summer vacations; life doesn't have summer vacations. Life has vacations. Life has seasons like sports and TV series. Fiscal years, resets, endings. Life can say one continuous life; however, there are chapters, volumes, parts, checkpoints. RM: Everyone needs a break. Everyone needs a vacation. Everyone needs days off.
14. Age is just a number. RM: Age is a factor in most situations.
15. Have courage to say goodbye to anything precious.
16. First years, first impressions, first go-around, and first successes are equally important as second years, second impressions, second go-around, and second successes.
17. Everyone has the right to find happiness. Pursue happiness to find happiness.
18. Be patient. Never rush.
19. Take life one day at a time. Have fun, learn, and enjoy. Increment.
20. If you talk the talk, you must stand by your talk.

21. Do something to receive something.
22. Money is a way to help people, create action, and show appreciation.
23. Fight the pain, the suffering, and the struggles to keep living.
24. Use your mind to see.
25. Time is the ultimate judge.
26. Live the present. Live the moment intelligently.
27. Wait 24 hours for goods or services less than $100 and 48 hours for greater than $100 to avoid the urge to splurge.
28. Do the little things and they add up in time.
29. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
30. When you in a jam, go back to the basics. Go remind yourself the basics which is what I'm doing :D :D :D

Number 500! This blog is number 500 and the 5th anniversary for Innovating Common Knowledge. Good timing. I average 100 blogs every twelve months. That's too low. On the other hand, 100 is a good number because I spread my time writing blogs and many other activities. There are both sides to the discussion whether I spend too much or too little time writing blogs.

On my 300th blog, I shared my top 30 blogs. I choose to repost the top 30 blogs instead of creating a top 50 blogs. The reason is the lessons I learned and the wisdom I gained from my top 30 blogs applies to today's living--and tomorrow's living. They are powerful for me. The lessons and wisdoms are both old lessons such as life is a marathon, not a [sprint] and new lessons such as age is just a number. The timing is good for another review.

I continue to write blogs promoting change, improvement, and innovation. I continue to write blogs to open myself up and to experiment what I can and what I can't do. The Sign Of My Times (SOMT) and Accutane blogs continue as I reflect how life is changed now and when I was a child and my acne treatment, respectively.

Here is the summary of my top 30 blogs:

1. Never take anything and anyone for granted.
2. Trust my gut feeling.
3. My [latest] daily top five rules for living: (1) Don't criticize, condemn, and complain, and don't compare with others. (2) Don't act like a jerk or bitch. (3) Always speak calmly and be calm. (4) Don't daydream when driving. (5) Keep your head up high . . . look at the cute face when talking.
4. Continue to live life finding what you want to do.
5. Never judge a person by their appearance.
6. Remember to learn from you failures as well as your successes.
7. It takes patience to learn who a person is for long-term family, friend, business, and romantic relationships.
8. Do something else to take your mind off something you hate.
9. Meet new people and make new friends continuously.
10. It's OK to be alone.

11. You must earn what you want in life.
12. You are responsible for yourself.
13. Schools have summer vacations; life doesn't have summer vacations.
14. Age is just a number.
15. Have courage to say goodbye to anything precious.
16. First years, first impressions, first go-around, and first successes are equally important as second years, second impressions, second go-around, and second successes.
17. Everyone has the right to find happiness.
18. Be patient. Never rush.
19. Take life one day at a time. Have fun, learn, and enjoy.
20. If you talk the talk, you must stand by your talk.

21. Do something to receive something.
22. Money is a way to help people, create action, and show appreciation.
23. Fight the pain, the suffering, and the struggles to keep living.
24. Use your mind to see.
25. Time is the ultimate judge.
26. Live the present. Live the moment.
27. Wait 24 hours for goods or services less than $100 and 48 hours for greater than $100 to avoid the urge to splurge.
28. Do the little things and they add up in time.
29. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
30. When you in a jam, go back to the basics. Go remind yourself the basics which is what I'm doing :D :D :D

My first blog was posted on Thur Aug 4, 2005. The 300th blog was posted on Sun Dec 7, 2008. Click 300 to read the entire 300th blog detailing the top blogs.

Influence Another Person

I live a crappy life. My life changed forever on Sat Oct 4, 2008 when I realized I must grow up. I correct some mistakes. I catch up what I missed in my 20s. I seek new adventures. I experience new experiences. I earn my successes. I work for happiness. Motivation is high. Never stop learning. Never stop innovating. Innovate infinitely. If I die tomorrow, then I die as a mature adult. Fewer regrets. My obituary is better today than any day before Sat Oct 4, 2008.

On the other hand, did I influence another person? Did I change another person? Did I save a person's life? I feel I owe the world. I'm in debt to the world because there are people who influenced me; moreover, I remove people who influenced me in the past for which their influence was wrong. The people and the world saved me for whatever reason God only knows. I appreciate their help.

I hope I influence another person before I die. I change another person. I save a person's life. I make a difference to one person. I die with no debts. I die a less than crappy life. My obligation is fulfilled.

Mark Cuban AMA At Reddit r/wallstreetbest

Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban participated in a Reddit AMA or Ask Me Anything at r/wallstreetbets posted by u/mcuban on Tue Feb 2, 2021. Click Hey everyone, Its Mark Cuban. Jumping on to do an AMA.... so Ask Me Anything to read the forum Q&A. I copy and paste sorted by Q&A (Suggested). Cuban answered 49 questions.

mcuban: Lets Go !

turdled: This is legit. Mark decided to start the AMA earlier.

mcuban: H/T to Spugliese for this question

Hey Mark! Thanks for doing this. What are your thoughts on which services to use? I'm planning on getting g out of RH for obvious reasons, any retail trading companies you'd recommend? I want to support free trade and hit Robinhood in the wallet for what they've done here. Also, any legitimacy to a class action suit against them?

Pick the brokerage with the strongest balance sheet. What ruined it on RH is that they didnt have enough cash to deal with the growth in accounts, margin loans and volatility. The EXACT SAME THING will happen at the next broker if you dont make sure they have a MULTI-TRILLION dollar balance sheet to be able to handle these kind of circumstances

And there will be class action suits. And they will be combined and they will win and you will get a check for less than $10

mcuban: Final thought. First thanks for the great questions. Thanks for changing the game. Thanks for taking on Wall Street. Thanks for making kids around the country if not the world( including my son and daughter). WSB changed the game far more than everyone on this board will ever get credit for.

That said, you will do all this again. You will go after WS and the next time you will be smarter. There was only one thing that messed you all up: RobinHood and the other zero commission brokers that everyone used didnt have enough capital to fund the fight. They let you down in a big way.

When you load back up, fight a broker with TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in assets on their balance sheet. Someone that can be there when the fight starts and wont blink an eye.

No disruption is easy or happens in a straight line. Stay with it. I am a believer

pinklips_indy: Why is the stock plummeting so much?

mcuban: Supply and Demand, but in this case it literally could be because the source of demand has been crippled . When RH shut it down, then cut it back, lets put aside why, they cut of the greatest source of demand. They created a RobinHood Dive. No RH buyers, means sellers lower their price to find buyers. And they keep on lowering it till they find buyers. Keep the most natural buyers out of the market and the price keeps on FALLING.

Then that drop accelerates because the more the stock falls the more owners who bought on margin get margin calls. When that margin call happens, its brutal. They just take your stock, send you a fuck you note and sell your stock at the market price, no matter how low. They just want to get your cash to pay back the loan.

That then accelerates the selling.

Which then leads to what we are seeing in the market right now with GME in particular

So what to do ?

If you can afford to hold the stock, you hold. I dont own it, but thats what i would do.

Why ? because when RH and the other online brokers open it back up to buyers, then we will see what WSB is really made of. That is when you get to make it all work.

I have no doubt that there are funds and big players that have shorted this stock again thinking they are smarter than everyone on WSB.

I know you are going to hate to hear this, but the lower it goes, the more powerful WSB can be stepping up to buy the stock again. The only question is what broker do you use . Do you stay with RH , who is going to have the same liquidity problems over and over again, or do you as a group find a broker with a far, far, far better balance sheet that wont cut you off and then go ham on Wall Street.

Puddin-669: What are your thoughts on the volume of the last couple of trading days? And Also, what is your view on the practise of Naked shorting/Short Laddering?

mcuban: I actually love to see the companies I own shorted. If its a company I want to own, I know the shorts can be squeezed and if the company does really, really well, then the shorts will have to cover , creating more demand for the stock of the company I own, pushing the stock price up.

Back in the day I used to run a public company. I used to tell anyone and everyone i knew who didnt believe in us to short the stock

As far as naked shorting, thats not really a thing. Yes there can be more shares shorted than there are original float. That is by design. If i borrow a stock from you to short, and when I short it and your buddy buys it, then they can loan it to someone else to short, etc . All of those people who borrowed the stock paid to do so, and they realize that if enough people buy the stock and ask for the shares, they will get called in. So the chain of custody is there. The systems is doing what its designed to do.

So again, the more people shorting the stock in the company i own the better

Where you have to be careful is when the shorts are in a stock because the company is a fraud. If i short stocks, its only in companies i think are fraudulent and ripping off people . I actually produced a money about one element of this, The China Hustle

AChickenCannon: How do you think the SEC will respond to the GME situation? New regulations on retail trading?

mcuban: The SEC is a mess. I wouldnt trust them to do the right thing ever. Its an agency built by and for lawyers to be lawyers and win cases rather than do the right thing

If the SEC gave a shit about ANYONE other than Wall Street you would be able to go there right now and read bright line guidelines about insider trading, shorting, what is a pump and dump, what are the rules for cutting off the purchase of stocks like happened with GME et al

But they wont. They would rather litigate to regulate, which means they love to sue people in order to create new legal precedents.

All you need to know about the SEC and how badly they want to fuck the little guy is that they have the option of using JUDGES THAT WORK FOR THE SEC when they sue you rather than you have the option to have jury of your peers in front of a judge that is independent . Thats how bad the SEC is. If you want fair markets that doesnt benefit Wall Street call your local politician and show them this

CptThailand: Do you have an advice for people who have lost money the last few weeks and how to go on from this?

mcuban: I learned some expensive lessons when i first started trading stocks. It was painful. But i tried to learn what i got right and wrong. Right now, right here. The game is changing. The hard part is ask yourself if what you believed in has actually changed.

BTC HODLers are a great example to follow. Many bought at the highs in 2017 and watched it fall by 2/3 or more. But they held on because they believed in the asset.

The same applies to stocks. When I buy a stock I make sure i know why Im buying it. Then I HODL until till I learn that something has changed. THe price may go up or down, but if i still believe in the logic that made me buy the asset, I dont sell. If something changed that I didnt expect , then I look at selling.

fawkes0226: Would you ever consider opening a brokerage that's truly for the "little guys" like us? (Go Mavs BTW!)

mcuban: The challenge is not opening the brokerage, the hard part is dealing with success. What fucked up RobinHood is that they didnt have enough cash to handle the number of customers they had, their margin loans and the requirements from the DTCC. They have now raised more than $5 billion and that may not be enough. And its not like they are charging anything for their trades.

The question becomes whether or not buyers would pay a commission or even a tip to a broker for doing their trades. Crypto has no problem paying a transaction fee, you may have to do business with a broker that charges you so that you dont get fucked in a RH stop the buy type situation again

Competitive_Help_513: Hey Mark, given the maturation in public cloud computing and its impact on bringing down company startup costs, and the consequent rise in edge computing / distributed computing (ie a lot of compute capacity being built out globally, albeit not in traditional x86 architecture), when do you think we see grid computing (essentially public cloud business model on top of sensor meshes) finally become a thing? Anyone who can offer a "revenue stream on top of your capex" would have an AWS-esque business, no?

mcuban: Its starting to happen now. From mesh networks connected to traffic signals to much much more. Im an investor in a company called Mesh-Tek. they are putting their tech everywhere

as far as productizing , yes. anytime you can turn what you do inside of your company into a product you sell to the outside, that is something worth looking at closely

bigupsyaheard: What do you think could possibly change in the market after all of this is over? Any new regulations on your mind?

mcuban: What has happened the past few weeks with WSB has all happened before, it was just the big guys doing the battling. The only new thing was WSB traders took them on .

Volkswagen was the short squeeze that was even crazier at the time. Ackmen vs Icahn on Herbalife was similar to this, but it was big money vs big money

Momentum and technical trading have been going on forever, which really is what is happening now broken down into charts and graphs.

What i love about this now, is that if you pick your spots right and work as a group, you can hit again and again

men-swear: What single piece of advice do you have for us to succeed in shaking this up? Keen the language simple for *ape* friends

mcuban: Patience. Disruption is never easy or straight line. Is what you believe in still true. If it is, stay with it. If it's not, figure out what changed, learn from it and reload for the next asset . As always DO THE WORK. Assets including stocks move for a lot of different reasons. Trading stocks isnt easy. Trading Crypto, NFT, whatever, isnt easy. None of this shit is easy. You know what it is ? Its time consuming and brain consuming. And when you learn share. If you want to beat old school Wall Street you have to share that knowledge and find the power in numbers

DragLox: With this kind of volatility in the market, had WSB forever changed the way things will be done on Wall Street?

mcuban: Yes. WSB leveraged the value of community. They took it to the people and made it bottom up. There is so much power and upside in this. Sometimes its expensive to learn. Anyone who has traded for a while has learned an expensive lesson they couldnt afford. I know i have.

next time WSB will be smarter. And next time can still be around GME, AMC, etc.

There will be a point in the stock where wall street starts saying "I told you so", let that happen for a few weeks.

Then hit them again, at a broker with the financial strength to never have to shut you off

JazinAdamz: What do you think about the media. Lying about what Reddit wsb is talking and excited about. For me it showed that the world is evil and everyone is bought. I still trusted some media but u really can't trust any of it. Anyway , my question is do you think the Robinhood class action lawsuit has a chance?

mcuban: Its not about being evil. Its about being lazy. They write stories. They dont do much research. So you get stupid shit being stated about things they really dont understand

fjposter22: Is it in the realm of possibility that these hedge funds just, don't cover their shorts at all? They go full felon and act like it never happened, ala "Fake News!"?

mcuban: Their goal is to never cover their short. But that would take the company going out of business or being delisted. That wont happen here.

Best thing you can do is hold on to the stock and do business with GameStop. If everyone goes to their website and buys from them that is going to help the company which will help the stock which will help everyone here.

If you still believe in the reason you bought the stock, and that hasnt changed, why sell ?

ShitpostSundae: Hey Mark, loved your interviews with barstool, your work on shark tank, and your thoughts on rolling out direct payments during the pandemic. Any chance you want to be a board member of GameStop? Thanks, I'll hang up and listen.

mcuban: Im a fan of stimulus payments. I think the best investment our government can make is in the American people ., At 1pct interest rates, we can get a great return .

And GME already has an amazing board. Ryan Cohen brought in some of his peers from Chewy.com. He didnt put in his money to throw it away

Slimey_Cat_Logs: I lost 15k in BlackBerry and that shit is tanking hard. Do you believe it will rise in the future or am I holding on to a dead stock.

mcuban: i have no idea. No one really does. I do think that once RH and others open up buying some of these will pop up. I just dont know how much or if it will happen for sure.

I think the stocks are getting shorted because the shorts know that the natural buyers , the folks on RH and others like it are being prevented from buying, so that will make it most likely the stock will go down

People dont realize how shorts jumped in when they saw the buy side shut off

Jaykalia: Stepping away from gme for a min,

What are your thoughts on the stock market this year? I see the almost-unjustifiable prices of the many "popular" companies, and it makes it hard to keep money in the market or expand my portfolio. Any advice?

mcuban: interest rates change all valuations. What is right or wrong is hard to determine. What is the right valuation , that is what the market is supposed to tell you. Stocks that dont pay dividends are only worth what someone will pay for them

V3yhron: Hey Mark, thanks for doing this. Do you think the future of exchanges are decentralized direct peer-to-peer networks to eliminate the kind of nonsense we saw this past week?

Also, do you view the ball dropping of Robinhood as an indicator that there is room for disruption in a retail trading platform? Perhaps one intermingling brokerage platform and democratized discussions?

Thanks!

mcuban: I think block chain is the future, i dont know if its decentralized or private

DepressedBard: Mark, what do you make of the blatant market manipulation and short ladder attacks occurring right this very minute by the Hedge Funds?

mcuban: i dont think its manipulation. I think the rules are set to benefit them and they have years of experience exploiting those rules.

Your congress people can change the rules to make them fairer for small investors. They havent given a shit up till now. Maybe people on this board can change their minds

Golfer0808: Hey Mark, this all started because the short interest was around 140%. We are seeing today GME has dipped considerably because it is being reported that the short interest has dipped to 50% or lower. However, the volume numbers haven't spiked to suggest the shorts are covering their positions. What's going on? Is this fake news?

mcuban: The amount of volume to cover the shorts was tiny compared to the amount of volume in the stock on a daily basis.

Lawlshark: Hey Mark, long story short. To continue on this disruption path do you believe that the more that HOLD THE LINE will directly impact the price of certain stocks in the market?

Power to the little guys. *Not financial advice*

mcuban: yes. definitely. HODLing worked in CRYPTO. But it will take some Whales to act as a foundation

romax1989: What industry that is relatively small now has potential to explode in the next 10 years?

mcuban: De-Fi, NFT, but there will be a lot of ups and downs along the way

AI will change everything, but 99pct of the businesses out there that say they use AI are full of shit.

Precision Medicine, Nano Technology, the MRNA technology used in the vaccines will grow.

Robotics. Green Tech, all will grown

Sapandco: Hey Mark,

Thanks for doing this AMA. Do you have any favorite tools to use when doing company research that are accessible to small retail investors?

mcuban: SEC.GOV and Yahoo Finance and basic google searches are really all the work I do on a company. But i dont trade a lot any more. Being a day trader means being online ALL DAY

0MNIBU5: Hey Mark, do you think anything will come out of this from wallstreets side? Do you think they're going to change their fundamental strategies and habits when shorting? Or is this just going to continue and they're going to go unregulated?

mcuban: They will be on the message boards monitoring activity, thats for damn sure

fanelectric: Hello, first want to say I'm a big Luka fan, and still love for porzingus ( NYK fan here )

2nd, Do you think we can file a lawsuit against brokerages like Robinhood ETC ?

mcuban: Yes. There will be class action suits. And you will win. And after legal feeds you will get your $4.00 settlement check

Simplyme__: Hi Mark! I love you on Shark Tank! My question is what advice to you have for people following their dreams and starting from the beginning again? Thanks so much! :-)

mcuban: First, find a job to pay your bills. Got to take care of the basics. Then get back after it. Just remember, its not in the dreaming, its in the doing

WyooterHooter: What potential does wsb/social media investors have going forward? What steps can we take to organize and act as the world's largest hedge fund or something similar?

mcuban: being on this board is big. I think social investors have an opportunity to change stocks the way social was used to build crypto

uns0licited_advice: When you meet an entrepreneur, what are some characteristics in the person that make you believe he/she will succeed? What characteristics do you see in those who don't succeed?

mcuban: Love to Learn

Love to Sell

Be Nice

Bust your ass

Reduce the Stress of people around you

StefonDiggsHS: Mark don't hide I've seen your jumpshot, I've seen you splash corner 3's when you gonna suit up for the mavs to end this cursed losing streak? :(

P.s. been a MFFL and one of my happiest moments is the 2011 finals. Can't wait to cop tickets as soon as I'm vaccinated or it's safe!

mcuban: Hang in there. We will be good.

robertito42: Does the undercapitalization of brokers and collateral requirements of the DTCC make a case for a chain made of blocks?

mcuban: Yes. Stocks will be on the block chain in the future, and that will make the markets much more efficient, transparent and available to the small investor

blow_zephyr: Is it true that you were told to stop investing in everyone who came on shark tank because you were making the other sharks look bad?

mcuban: Its true i make them look bad. But its also true i wouldnt care what they said

Watch us friday nights on ABC ! (Im always selling)

lordeqai: Bro what's the best price to sell at? What price will this go up to until it stops?

mcuban: I typically dont set price targets on the up side. On the down side, when i was just getting started I would set a stop loss at where my margin call would start. If you can afford to hold a stock that is going down, only sell if the reason you bought the stock has changed

ReadThinkDoMore: Is there a proverbial "deep state" within the hedge fund world? What I mean is are there even shadier figures than the CEOs of hedge funds who give them their marching orders? I think there must be. Any thoughts mark?

mcuban: I dont know. I have met hedgies that are questionable, but i dont really do any business with hedge funds

xeonv2: Hi Mark,

Do you honestly think decentralized finance will be a reality given the possibility of big players pushing it from becoming mainstream?

mcuban: Father time is undefeated. Big Players die and are replaced by the next generation

JonSnerrrrrr: Mr. Cuban, I know that you help people on a rather regular basis. Could you light a fire under the ass of the SEC or would that be sticking your neck out too far?

mcuban: Google my name and the SEC

Erchez: Mark - thanks for jumping in here, what are your thoughts about all the hate from billionaires and VC against the "retail bros"?

mcuban: who cares what they say. Do what you think is right. Always

Jokosmash: Thoughts on employee-led investment rounds?

mcuban: LOVE LOVE LOVE it

I think there should be incentives for companies to give stock to EVERY single employee

scuba787: Can the little guy prevail ?

mcuban: absolutely. This shit aint supposed to be easy and its not. Changing the game is ALWAYS messy

NoahSavedTheAnimals: If you could tell your 20 year old self one thing, what would it be?

mcuban: Drink less, party more. Too many hangovers fucked me up

mark_nguyen45: Hi Mr. Cuban this is off topic but do you think we make the playoffs still this year? Our team on paper looks really good but I can see how covid really hurt us too. Also MFFL

mcuban: yes

smartaus: In what major ways will this change the future landscape of stocks?

mcuban: strength in numbers is a thing

HoldTheChimichanga: Mark. Why are they blocking me from buying my bananas??

mcuban: You arent part of the bunch . Why else ?

shady_brady69: Do you consider the Mavericks to be the greatest investment you've ever made?

mcuban: No. I bet on myself.

NineHDmg: My friends have paper hands.

What should i tell them?

mcuban: Dont play RPS Blogger's note: RPS means Rock, Paper, Scissors

redditster00: Which alt coins do you like?

mcuban: I own AAVE and Sushi, along with Eth, BTC and LTC

PathOfTHEERighteous: Are the mavs going to win the finals in the next few years?

mcuban: Fuck Yes

patmacog: Would you take becoming the primary owner of the Steelers if it meant selling your ownership of the Mavs?

mcuban: no

madmatthammer: Do you think anyone will go to jail over this?

mcuban: no.

Ishtastic08: What does Dirk smell like?

mcuban: money

TombOfTheRedQueen: Will you run for president in 2024?

mcuban: no

Update On A Past Blog

The Mark Cuban AMA reminded me of a blog I wrote on Dec 22, 2014 titled Tell Me You Games. The blog suggested how people can start a conversation. Also, the blog suggested ideas to start people socializing in a formal setting, a casual setting, or a group of friends who want to play a game talking only. The AMA is like the Write A Question tip. A person is chosen to answer questions from other people. The questions can be asked verbally or written on paper.

Steve Jobs Compilation Blog

Here is a blog compilation which talked about Steve Jobs.

Bye. I have to go. (Dec 7, 2015). A page from the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. Jobs shared his feelings leaving Apple.

Top Ten Steve Jobs Quotes (Aug 3, 2016). I read the biography which is my all-time favorite book in all genres. I listened to his Stanford commencement address in 2005. I watched the 60 Minutes interview with Isaacson. I watched a documentary on PBS. The quotes are from the book, commencement address, the interview, and the documentary.

Top Ten Advice I Reference In My Life (Feb 26, 2017). I share some of my favorite quotes I reference and I follow daily. There is additional advice indirectly reference Jobs.

My Personal Circle Of Trust (Nov 18, 2017). I must trust everything about myself to live a good life. Trust my intuition is part of my circle of trust.

Raymond Mar One Liners (Jun 17, 2018). I mention Jobs is my most respected person. I mention I read his biography twice.

Life Is Xs and Os (Jul 21, 2018). Life finds a way to connect people--the X's. Life goes full circle--the O's. Everything we do today affects everyone tomorrow. I reference the connecting the dots, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."

Where Is The Intelligence? (Aug 24, 2019). Jobs was a genius. I discover I'm self-training to become a self-trained genius. To quote Steve Jobs, "Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Um, once you learn that, you'll never be the same again." I admit the feeling is scary.

Physical Appearance (Oct 31, 2019). Jobs said we do judge a book by its cover. All of Apple products are beautiful. Don't deceive everyone and don't deceive yourself physically appearing as somebody else.

Do Your Sets And Do Your Reps (Jan 19, 2020). The late Steve Jobs said, "The journey is the reward." Practice, drill, make mistakes, learn from the mistakes, do the reps, and repeat all.

My Self-Help Books Recommendations (Jun 28, 2020). I recommend his biography book as a self-help book outside the self-help book genre.

Finally, I watched the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates interview at the D5 Conference in 2007 after I read his biography years later. Jobs answered a question from the audience about legacy:

"I sort of look at us as two of the luckiest guys (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) on the planet cause we found what we loved to do. And we were at the right place at the right time. We gotten to go to work every day with super bright people for 30 years, and do what we love doing. It's hard to be happier than that. Your family and that. What more can you ask for? So, I don't think about legacy that much. I just think about being able to get up every day and go in and hang around these great people and hopefully create something that other people will love as much as we do. And if we can do that, that's great.

"People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you're doing. And it's totally true. And the reason is because it's so hard that if you don't, any rational person would give up. It's really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don't love it, if you're not having fun doing it, you don't really love it, you're gonna give up. And that's what happens to most people actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful *in air quotes* in the eyes of society, and the ones that didn't, oftentimes, it's the ones that are successful loved what they did so they can persevere when it got really tough, and the ones that didn't love it quit cause they're sane. Right? Who want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it. So, it's a lot of hard work. And it's a lot of worrying constantly. And if you don't love it, you're going to fail. So you gotta love it. You got to have passion. And I think that's the high order albeit.

"The second thing is you got be a really good talent scout. No matter how smart you are you need a team of great people. And you got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, make decisions without knowing people too well, and hire them, and see how you do and refine your intuition and be able to help build an organization that can eventually just build itself cause you need great people around you."

Throwback Blog: Top Ten Steve Jobs Quotes

Blogger’s Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled Top Ten Steve Jobs Quotes on Aug 3, 2016. Let's review good life wisdom from my favorite famous person I answer the question who I want to meet dead or alive. I read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson twice.

Steve Jobs was a genius. He changed the world. I recommend everyone read his biography written by Walter Isaacson. A person's life can change reading the biography with heart. Jobs told Isaacson he never worried about money. Jobs lived a simple life at Reed College and in India. Jobs became rich after Apple went public. Moreover, Jobs promised himself the money didn't ruin his life.

Jobs told Isaacson his thoughts about growing old and the future months before Jobs was fired from Apple: Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them. I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back. . . . If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, "Bye, I have to go. I'm going crazy and I'm getting out of here." And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. (p 189-190)

Jobs was brave to destroy; in other words, out of the old and in with the new. Jobs accepted iPhones might cannibalize iPods or iPads might cannibalize laptops. "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will," said Jobs. (p 408)

Listen to Jobs' commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 on YouTube: Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. Some of the highlights include the following: (1) You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. (2) Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. (3) Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

I admit I cheated today's top ten. The quotes above are good top ten quotes. I want to mention all of his good quotes totaling greater than ten. Enough said. Here are the top ten Steve Jobs quotes:

10. Picasso had a saying--'good artists copy, great artists steal'--we have always been shameless . . . stealing great ideas.

9. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Um, once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

8. Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

7. When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life--and your life is just to live inside your world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life.

6. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

5. Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.

4. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

3. I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work.

2. You're born alone, you're going to die alone. And what exactly is it do you have to lose. There's nothing.

1. The journey is the reward.

Winning Can Solve Problems

Winning is good. The winning feeling is happiness. The two sentences are the clearest definition when a person or a group of people win. I elaborate more on winning. Redemption is winning. Earn successes are winning. Problems can be solved winning. We see winning. Winning clears the mind. Forgiveness can happen. The picture becomes clear. The problem is solved. The connections are established or connecting-the-dots are connected. Winning is powerful. Winning is motivating. Winning is a reminder live the present moment. Time will tell when the winning stops. The winning eventually stops. No problem. Life is not perfect. Take a breath. Reset. Begin a new path to win again.

Winning attracts attention. Winning opens opportunities. Winning is earned correcting past mistakes. Winning can justify sacrifices. Conversations begin. The naysayers and the critics are silenced. Winning lets bygones be bygones. Hope for good luck, favorable timing, courageous chances, and many opportunities. The next winner may be you.

A Dream On Practice

I dreamed last night my high school French teacher taught Calculus III college course. Today was a test. The class was located inside an arcade at the back room on a hill in the south side of San Jose, CA. The classroom consisted of long tables stretched horizontally parallel to the black colored chalkboard. The questions were on a 5X8 index card with various colors. Each color index card included different questions. All formulas were written on the chalkboard. One formula I partially remembered was = A + ___ + Be___e

One student said goodbye to the entire classroom before the test. He dropped out. He couldn't handle the commute driving on the Bay Bridge on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He moved back home to Taiwan.

The teacher passed out the test index cards. I blanked out waiting for my card. Why did I blank out? I didn't over-study. There was no information overload. The answer was I studied too little. The more accurate reason was I practiced too little. It was like I played professional sports. Too little practice. Too few repetitions or reps.

It took me too many adult years to realize studying was practicing. Practicing might be a better verb than studying. I have been practicing five days a week job training. I learn by repetition. I make mistakes. I make corrections. I discover the "oh, I get it now." Practicing. Training. Studying. Schooling. Educating. These words are synonyms. Today's blog all of the words is practicing.

Side note: There was a scene in my dream actor Jackie Chan did stunts with Oreo cookies and the carpool sign at the Highway 85-17 junction. He was on the ramp from Northbound 85 to Northbound 17.

Some Men Who Are Losers Makes All Men Losers

There is a common knowledge two people in a serious relationship both people should be winners. In particular, a woman should date a good man. The definition of a good man is subjective. Every woman has a different definition who they want to date. Intuitively, a good man is smart, kind, strong, courageous, open, and practices good social skills. Women must avoid loser men. Women must avoid dating a loser hoping he becomes a winner. If the woman is dating a potential winner, then the wait time for a loser to become a winner is subjective. Almost all losers continue to be losers. It's sad. Read my Top Ten Men Truths men I wrote on Jan 2017 to acquire knowledge how to be a winner. A winner attracts people.

Moreover, the attitudes dating men are changing. A kind, polite, and nice man were the top qualities to date. A man with a job, drives his own car, and lives with freedom are added to the top qualities.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Throwback Blog: FYI, Parents You Are Teachers, Too

Blogger’s Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled FYI, Parents You Are Teachers, Too in Jul 2009. Good timing for parents raising children. Summer vacation began weeks ago. It's a good time for parents to teach their children which includes keeping their brains active for the next school year. Use it or lose it. Also, the blog is a reminder parents must find time to teach their children despite long working hours. We live in the information age. More jobs require more than 40 hours during a work week. There is no excuse parents not teaching their children.

Parents, it's tough to raise children in the fast pace way of living. In middle June, two twin sisters fought in front of my house. One of the sisters alleged their father was abusive. I don't know who's telling the truth. But, wow!!! In addition, the recession is making financial decisions tough for struggling families.

Parents, find time to teach the soft skills schools don't teach. Schools teach the reading, writing, and math academic education. Schools don't teach manners, computers, communication skills, ability to deal with others, and physical fitness. Also, schools don't teach dancing, sewing, cooking, singing, fixing cars, yoga, and basket weaving. Furthermore, schools don't teach positive attitudes, responsibility, earning, innovating infinitely ^__^, trying new restaurants, visiting new places, welcoming failures and mistakes, and finding who your kids are. Avoiding teaching the soft skills because of long work hours is inexcusable. You're the parents, you signed the contract to raise and teach the children the moment they're born.

My parents failed to teach me the soft skills and the life skills. I forgive them! I'm taking responsibility and taking action to correct their mistakes and catch up. I have a long way to go. I'm late learning what I should have I have learned a long time ago. I'm growing up, and that's good to realize now instead of later.

All of my friends and classmates in college agreed general education classes are a waste of time and waste of money. I believe college students need to take classes in soft skills—skills useful when they live their lives in the real world. Students pick the skills. The skills include first aid, cooking, car maintenance, basic PC computer skills, sewing, palates, and telling jokes. Science, humanities, liberal arts are good to learn. In today's world, who cares if someone knows the periodic table. I rather know ballroom dancing and cooking scrambled eggs =)

Side Note: Another sign of the recession when retail stores sells back to school supplies a week after 4th of July.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

The Three C's And A P And Two More P's: Choices, Consistency, Control, Proactive, Professional, Personal Responsibility

I wrote a blog making good choices, being consistent daily, and controlling the most in his or her life on Tue Apr 2, 2013 titled The Three C's: Choices, Consistency, Control. I added a P which is Proactive on Sat May 4, 2013 titled The Three C's And A P: Choices, Consistency, Control, Proactive. The three C's and one P are below:

*Choices. How does a person know he or she is an adult? The answer is the person can make their own choices. Life is good making good choices.

*Control. A person having control in his or her life demonstrates strength, intelligence, wisdom, and influence. A person can't control the weather, natural disasters, and car accidents. He or she can control how to deal with everyday life in good or bad moments.

*Consistency. Routine life is not being consistent. Living a daily life with ups and downs is not healthy. A person should be active with consistency. It's like a baseball player hitting a consistent .330 batting average in a season without slumps and brief hot streaks.

*Proactive. One of my career highlights was being a proactive research analyst. I supported the brokers working in the research department. My department was responsible for all the data, information, statistics, and marketing reports in commercial real estate. Specifically, one of my primary responsibilities was fulfilling daily requests and solving problems. I was creative. I thought ahead to provide better service. I never complained because they were a waste of time. I focused on satisfying the brokers' requests professionally.

Here are Professional and Personal Responsibility below:

*Professional. We see the successful people acting professional, behaving professional, thinking professional, and speaking professional. Professionals are strong, smart, wise, courageous, and mature. Professionals practice what they preach. Professionals stand by their beliefs. Professionals are responsible, continue learning, and drilling their skills. We see professionals in sport leagues, entertainment, business, and art. The professionals are at the top of their abilities.

*Personal Responsibility. I discovered the importance of personal responsibility when I was an inpatient for acute gallstone pancreatitis. Inpatients should relax by letting the medical staff do their job comforting me. However, to make their jobs easier I did my part to receive better care. I was responsible to inform the nurses and doctors how I felt such as pain, headaches, and dizziness. I was also responsible to take care of myself such as brush my teeth, walk, and stand up out of my bed to avoid bed sores. I was responsible to follow doctor's orders.

A person responsible for himself or herself is a sign of a person makes good choices, lives a consistent life getting better, controls more of his or her life, and portrays himself or herself as a professional. My top personal responsibilities are minimize eating processed foods, working out at the gym, reading books, learning new skills, sleeping eight hours a night, and pacing myself. Mastering the full circle three C's and three P's never lets himself or herself down.

The C's are in no particular order: consistency, choices, control. The P's are in particular order: proactive, professional, personal responsibility. Remember the three C's and the three P's anyway you choose such as CCCPPP, 3C3P, C3P3, or (C*3)+(P*3). You can remember the six in alphabetical order: choices, consistency, control, personal responsibility, proactive, professional.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Top Ten Life Lessons I Learned Watching Sports

I'm a sports fan for most sports professional and college. I do my best to follow the current events. There are life lessons I learned since I watched sports as a child. I wrote blogs inspired from sporting events such as The San Francisco Giants playing Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, and Alex Smith's first year with head coach Jim Harbaugh in the NFL 2011-2012 season.

Obviously one sports life lesson is hard work. I add the adverb "intelligently". Work hard intelligently. Dedication is also important. The player must go all-in his or her sport to be successful. Learn. Repeat. Practice. Repetition. Learn, repeat, practice, and repetition intelligently.

Here are the top ten life lessons I learned watching sports:

10. Curses Are Meant To Be Broken. Congrats to the Chicago Cubs winning the 2016 World Series. The last time the Cubs won was 1908. Congrats to the Boston Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series after their last world series win in 1918. The Cubs' curses billy goat in the 1945 World Series, black cat in 1969, and Steve Bartman in the 2003 National League Championship Series are forgiven and forgotten. The bottom line is nothing bad lasts forever curses or no curses.

9. Rest. Stay Healthy. Rest is important to stay healthy. Rest minimizes the chances for injuries. Days off are important. Athletes are not super humans. Sleep and rest are important.

8. Strong Core. The San Francisco Giants World Series wins in 2010, 2012, and 2014 are a good example of a strong core. Nine players were part of the three world championships. These players established a strong starting pitching rotation, a strong relief pitching bullpen, and top hitters at the heart of the batting order. A key factor for any success is a solid foundation, a solid core, or a group of reliable people.

7. Redemption. One of my favorite words. A team has another chance to correct mistakes. A player has another chance to forget being the goat and become the hero. There are endless future opportunities to succeed after mistakes.

6. Streaks And Slumps. Nobody's perfect. Life is not perfect. Sports are not perfect. No team wins 100% of their games. No player shoots 100% success. Winning streaks and bad slumps are part of the game. Winning streaks and bad slumps are part of life.

5. Be Professional. Professional expectations are high in all major league sports. Players act, behave, perform, and communicate professionally. They play professionally when we watch sports at the stadium or on television. They're having fun. They're also working. They're performing at the highest professional level. All success requires professionalism.

4. Consistency. The team plays their game. The players perform to their strengths. Coaches plan their games to their team's strength. Consistency is the key. Avoid being streaky. Never deviate out of the game plan. Good moments come to a person living a consistent life.

3. Be Calm. Moreover, consistency includes being calm. Avoid playing desperate. Desperation plays rarely succeed. Teams rarely play the final minutes, final quarter, final inning, or final period being desperate. Almost always losing teams continue to follow their game plan. There are exceptions such as playoffs.

2. Good Coaching. Coaching is important for the players to succeed. Coaches keep their players focused. Coaches correct a player's mistake. Coaches place their players at the best opportunities to succeed. Coaches teach their players what it takes to become successful. Coaches are like mentors. People need mentors to become successful.

1. Support. Nobody succeeds alone. Successful people need support from other people such as advice, assistance, favors, and a listener. Coaches are also a player's support. Players support each other because the team wants to win. Players watch each other's backs. Players stand with other players in bad moments. Players complement other players for good plays.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Top Ten Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs was a genius. He changed the world. I recommend everyone read his biography written by Walter Isaacson. A person's life can change reading the biography with heart. Jobs told Isaacson he never worried about money. Jobs lived a simple life at Reed College and in India. Jobs became rich after Apple went public. Moreover, Jobs promised himself the money didn't ruin his life.

Jobs told Isaacson his thoughts about growing old and the future months before Jobs was fired from Apple: Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them. I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back. . . . If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, "Bye, I have to go. I'm going crazy and I'm getting out of here." And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. (p 189-190)

Jobs was brave to destroy; in other words, out of the old and in with the new. Jobs accepted iPhones might cannibalize iPods or iPads might cannibalize laptops. "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will," said Jobs. (p 408)

Listen to Jobs' commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 on YouTube: Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. Some of the highlights include the following: (1) You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. (2) Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. (3) Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

I admit I cheated today's top ten. The quotes above are good top ten quotes. I want to mention all of his good quotes totaling greater than ten. Enough said. Here are the top ten Steve Jobs quotes:

10. Picasso had a saying--'good artists copy, great artists steal'--we have always been shameless . . . stealing great ideas.

9. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Um, once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

8. Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

7. When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life--and your life is just to live inside your world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life.

6. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

5. Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.

4. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

3. I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work.

2. You're born alone, you're going to die alone. And what exactly is it do you have to lose. There's nothing.

1. The journey is the reward.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

The Person Wants No Help

How do you help a person who refuses help? How does the helper(s) convince with 100% certainty he or she must change? Communication skills are important. Help is being offered. He or she must accept help to stay alive. We care to help a person live a better life. Why refuse help? Stubbornness. Denial. Quit or tired living life. Don't care anymore. Pride.

How much time is given to the person to choose accepting help? The length of time is subjective. There's a day when the helper(s) must let it go. Let it be. Move on. The helper(s) can't wait an eternity. The time length is the same when the person accepts help. How much time does he or she have to successfully change? The length of time is subjective, too.

The simple examples of people who need help are homeless people and alcoholics. A homeless person says, "Leave me alone." An alcoholic refuses social services.

Helpers do the best they can. Some people accept help and some people refuse help. Helpers are not miracle workers for which one snap solves problems. Life is not a one snap success. How do you help a person who refuses help? There's no absolute answer. It depends on the situation. The helper and the person needing help respond differently. Helpers make their best judgment to continue convincing or quit convincing to the other person who must get help.

Furthermore, a person yelling or speaking in a high volume many times when communicating is a sign he or she needs help. He or she feels ignored. He or she wants attention. The answers to questions are too short. The thinking process is bad. Responses are confusing. Arguments are started. These are also signs of low self-esteem. These are signs a person needs help.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Colin Kaepernick Learning On the Job

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick lost a disappointing NFC Championship game to the Seattle Seahawks. I share my thoughts on Kaepernick.

His early success is also his failures. Many 49er fans have high expectations for a player who played 1.5 full seasons. Perhaps, the expectations are too high. I can relate because of my early successes at my first jobs after college. The difference is Kaepernick doesn't take his starting role for granted; on the other hand, I took my jobs for granted. Kaepernick works hard on and off season doing his best to be a winner. I didn't work hard and I didn't improve my skills and knowledge.

The scouting report at the 2011 NFL Combine stated his weaknesses included lacking experience under center. He was slow to check down or throw quickly when blitzed. Hall of fame quarterback Joe Montana said Kaepernick must learn how to pass in the pocket. He must learn how to run the offense in the pocket. Make quick reads and choices. Read and observe the defense. Stay calm in the pocket instead of panicking early and running out of the pocket. Scan the field to find open receivers. He must learn how to play the game correctly.

Hall of fame quarterback Steve Young was a running quarterback. Young eventually learned how to pass and run the offense. His hard work and learning rewarded him with a Super Bowl championship in his 10th NFL season and one of the highest quarterback ratings careerwise. Montana won his first of four Super Bowls in his 3rd year.

Good Teachers

Kaepernick eventually learns the game and wins a Super Bowl. The coaches, teammates, veteran players, and support staff help Kaepernick become a successful quarterback. Successful people are dependent on good mentoring, good teaching, and good learning skills. Be patient. Success takes time. There are mistakes to be learned. There are successes to be improved.

There are new experiences and knowledge acquired only on the job. Kaepernick gains experience on the football field such as creating more big plays and developing patience. He already has an excellent physical body, quickness and speed to avoid sacks and getting first downs, and a strong throwing arm. Kaepernick is an important player that resulted in the 49ers playing in the NFC Championship in 2013 and 2014; moreover, he already has six post season games experience.

I believe Kaepernick is the San Francisco 49ers' future quarterback. He's going to win the franchise's sixth Super Bowl Championship in time. The 49er organization and the fans must wait. We are witnessing a young quarterback on the rise to stardom. We must grunt out the failures Kaepernick must learn. Patience is a virtue for which we are rewarded in time.

The Three C's And A P: Choices, Consistency, Control, Proactive

I wrote a blog about a person's success is based on making good choices, producing consistent results, and controlling the most circumstances in his or her life on Tue Apr 2. The title of the blog was The Three C's: Choices, Consistency, Control. I want to discuss the "P" which stands for "Proactive", another key to be successful. First, here's a quick review on the three C's:

*Choices. How does a person know he or she is an adult? The answer is the person can make their own choices. Make good choices and life is good.

*Control. A person having control in his or her life demonstrates strength, intelligence, wisdom, and influence. A person can't control the weather, natural disasters, and car accidents. He or she can control how to deal with everyday life in good or bad moments.

*Consistency. Routine life is not being consistent. Living a daily life with ups and downs is not healthy. A person should be active with consistency. It's like a baseball player hitting a consistent .330 batting average in a season without slumps and brief hot streaks.

Here is proactive:

*Proactive. One of my career highlights was being a proactive research analyst. I supported the brokers working in the research department. My department was responsible for all the data, information, statistics, and marketing reports in commercial real estate. Specifically, one of my primary responsibilities was fulfilling daily requests and solving problems. I was creative, I thought ahead to provide better service, I innovated my work, and I produced excellent reports for their clients. I never criticized and complained because they were a waste of time and energy. I focused on satisfying the brokers' requests professionally. My professionalism was a positive action such that all the brokers could be comfortable coming to me for help.

The highlight above is a good example being proactive. A proactive person makes sure everyone is comfortable around him or her. The person never reacts in a negative way. He or she solves problems, takes the initiative, brainstorms for better solutions, and gets the job done. The results exceed expectations. There is stability and assurance everything is going to be good. A proactive person is an all-star.

Follow, practice, and adapt the three C's and P. I promise life is better making your own choices, being consistency at everything you do, controlling as many circumstances, and proactively solving problems and preventing future troubles.

The Three C's: Choices, Consistency, Control

Imagine a triangle with each word on each side: choices, consistency, and control. I believe the three C words are the keys to success in anything from education, business, sports, and arts. I adapt the three Cs when I start working again. My daily life includes the three Cs. They show my maturity and my growing wisdom. Life has been better. I elaborate on the three Cs:

Choices. I attended an all day educational teachers seminar in college. My first career choice was being a high school mathematics teacher. The professor told all the undergraduates and student teachers a person is an adult when he or she can make their own choices.

I want to add an adult is wise and mature when they make good choices. People must avoid making bad choices to ruin their lives. I don't need to give examples of bad choices because they're obvious. The better choices we make, the better we take care of our body, mind, and spirit. The family and friends in our lives are happy we're making good choices, and that is a quality to meet new people.

Consistency. We produce, succeed, and accomplish a reasonable number of assignments, projects, and goals in a certain period of time. We avoid erratic spikes and falls. There is no such thing as being too hot and being too cold. Consistency is not living a routine life. We experience slumps, short-comings, delays, and mistakes. Nobody is perfect. The key is recovering or bouncing back from these quickly to refocus and get back to your optimal performance.

Control. Think about the most successful people. One attribute they have is control. They control their results, their successes, their actions, their subordinates, their decisions, and their thinking. It's like nobody controls them; they're in complete control. The more aspects we can control in our lives, the better we guide the outcomes to our favor, our advantage, and our desired result. A person having more control of their life is like a child moving out of their parent's house. The child controls when he or she wakes up, the food eaten, the friends they invite to their house, the clothes worn, and when he or she goes to sleep.

Follow the three C's. Practice and adapt the three C's. I promise life is better making your own choices, being consistency at everything you do, and controlling as many circumstances.

Lessons From My Office Space

An important key to be successful is a mentor. The mentor is a person who’s been there, done that. The mentor is a source of wisdom. The mentor is guidance for what is right and what is wrong. I believe if I ask 100 very successful and household name people how important a mentor is, I’m confident I receive at least a 95% yes response.

I didn’t have a mentor. One person who looked at my resume said I never worked at a position above entry level. My career has been supporting other people. I fell through the cracks. I had nobody next to me supporting my career. I had nobody telling me what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. I had nobody calling me out when I’m really screwing up professionally or personally.

I was on my own believing I was a bad ass. I believed I was the best. I didn’t need training. I learned it fast. There was nothing I couldn’t do. I read a book and I mastered it instantly. I was respected for being me, an all-star who did everything the best. I realized today I was wrong. I know some of my co-workers were angry at me for mistakes I didn’t know I caused. Nobody corrected my errors.

I received small corrections from people either not my manager or from another team. One co-worker who visited my building from another country corrected my emails. I was too polite. I should write my emails asking the question immediately. The recipients didn’t have time to read a lengthy email. Another correction came from my senior manager, a dotted line manager. She corrected me on reports saying I don’t need to include the data. Reports should have the bottom line numbers only. The readers didn’t care about the data. They wanted to see the bottom line numbers. The data could be requested separately.

Those two lessons are examples of my career lacking a mentor. I learned a lesson on posting financial numbers from one of my accounting instructor. I submitted an Excel assignment. The teacher corrected me the numbers in a financial statement are aligned right, not aligned center. I aligned center the numbers for all my reports. Nobody told me I was doing it wrong. The correct way is always align right numbers.

How Did I Fall Through The Cracks?

The manager who hired me at my first job went on vacation for two weeks. The co-worker I replace trained me for a week. The majority of the on the job training was how to handle the brokers and taking it easy. I failed to learn those lessons. Two weeks later, my manager returned and we worked together for a month. He didn’t mentor me because a few weeks later, he went to another company. He gave me a crash course on real estate statistics. Otherwise, I learned nothing about working from my office space.

The manager who hired me at my first job hired me at his second company three months later. He stayed with the company for six months because he moved to Australia. He didn’t have time to continue my training and mentor me because he was busy with a big database project. One of his assignments was to create a new database, a criteria for his hire.

A new boss was hired two months later. She did nothing with the research department. No leadership. No communication between me and my co-worker. We had a few meetings in the beginning months; thereafter, no meetings, no lunches together, and no bonding. There were discussions between my new boss and the managing partner about setting up an internship for me to mentor. Nothing happened. My boss was fired two years later.

The rest of my years at my second job went without a direct manager. My co-worker and I didn’t get along. The office manager and the managing partner did nothing to mentor me and did nothing to make amends with my co-worker. I went to my third company after working at my second company for eight years.

My third company my department was spread out in the world. My immediate boss and my immediate co-workers telecommuted most working days. I believed my experience in Crystal Reports was the reason my third company hired me. I think again and I realize working independently was another reason my third company hired me. I never saw my team at least 70% of my working days. I didn’t receive any mentoring.

My contract was terminated because of the real estate bubble. I went back to school and I earned an AA degree in Accounting. My job skills and experience are stale. I’m reviewing my Microsoft Office skills: Access, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. I’m researching learning SAS software. I should have access to online courses from Accountemps at the end of June. I learned SQL for Access, learned MySQL, and refreshed my Crystal Reports earlier this year.

Trial And Error Are My Friends

I learned two huge mistakes on my own. The first mistake I corrected in March 2006 was talk and socialize with my co-workers. Open your mouth and smile. Take a break and have a conversation. The second mistake I corrected was in 2009. I realized I actually had people supporting me in my second company. I never realized it while working. They supported my thoughts about the company not supporting my needs and not receiving help for my struggles and lack of experience. They supported my difficulties working with my co-worker. I believed I was lonely. I believed I was on my own and I had to be strong. Truthfully, I was a coward.

These lessons I learned and the lesson I’m learning today are valuable. I realized I must grow up on Sat Oct 4, 2008. The life lessons I have been learning and the life mistakes I have been correcting are useful for my next workplace. Don’t take anything for granted.

The Personal Side Of Me Finding Raymond Mar

Meet Jonathan Goldsmith

Men’s Health Blog Andrew Del-Colle Interviewed Jonathan Goldsmith who plays “The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials for Dos Equis beer campaign. Click link below for the interview posted Fri Nov 19, 2010:

Jonathan Goldsmith | The Most Interesting Interview

The Personal Side Of Me Finding Raymond Mar

FYI, Parents You Are Teachers, Too

Parents, it's tough to raise children in the fast pace way of living. In middle June, two twin sisters fought in front of my house. One of the sisters alleged their father was abusive. I don't know who's telling the truth. But, wow!!! In addition, the recession is making financial decisions tough for struggling families.

Parents, find time to teach the soft skills schools don't teach. Schools teach the reading, writing, and math academic education. Schools don't teach manners, computers, communication skills, ability to deal with others, and physical fitness. Also, schools don't teach dancing, sewing, cooking, singing, fixing cars, yoga, and basket weaving. Furthermore, schools don't teach positive attitudes, responsibility, earning, innovating infinitely ^__^, trying new restaurants, visiting new places, welcoming failures and mistakes, and finding who your kids are. Avoiding teaching the soft skills because of long work hours is inexcusable. You're the parents, you signed the contract to raise and teach the children the moment they're born.

My parents failed to teach me the soft skills and the life skills. I forgive them! I'm taking responsibility and taking action to correct their mistakes and catch up. I have a long way to go. I'm late learning what I should have I have learned a long time ago. I'm growing up, and that's good to realize now instead of later.

All of my friends and classmates in college agreed general education classes are a waste of time and waste of money. I believe college students need to take classes in soft skills—skills useful when they live their lives in the real world. Students pick the skills. The skills include first aid, cooking, car maintenance, basic PC computer skills, sewing, palates, and telling jokes. Science, humanities, liberal arts are good to learn. In today's world, who cares if someone knows the periodic table. I rather know ballroom dancing and cooking scrambled eggs =)

Side Note: Another sign of the recession when retail stores sells back to school supplies a week after 4th of July.

I'm growing up Finding Raymond Mar