Category Archives: Ideas

random ideas that pop in my head…

Becoming Rich or Successful By Communicating Selectively and Effectively

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As some of you may know, in addition to sharing my story and progress (see my gain in Net Worth article), one of the big reasons I blog is to improve my communication and thinking skills.  Lately, I believe both of these two skills have jelled to enable me to see more about my life as an employee than it had in the past with respect to my career as an employee.

Are You Brilliant But Unknown?

Have you noticed that a lot of your ideas are all around you at work, but you still not a director or higher yet?

Well it could be that you ideas are being credited to others around you.  I use to be open with my thoughts on particular problems and would speak about my solutions to any peer or friend that was within earshot.  Surprisingly (or perhaps naively), I never communicated those ideas to my bosses and their bosses…

A few years back I remember telling my boss a brilliant idea that I had that would save the company hundreds of thousand of dollars each year.  The idea was unique and I’m quite sure that it was all mine.  I remember being excited about the idea and upon thinking of it, immediately requested a meeting with my boss (at that time) to discuss the idea.  We had the meeting, and while he didn’t shoot it down, he was reserved and said he would look into it.

Time passes and a few month later, my boss tells the my department, this brilliant idea at a departmental meeting, and gives credit to a peer that was a good buddy of his.  More time passes, and he gets the credit (via corporate awards) entirely with no mention of me (or even his buddy that he mistakenly gave the idea credit to).

Yeah, I was bitter, but you want to know something…  It was entirely my fault for not gaining the credit that I should have had!

Why?

First, I knew of the reputation that my former boss had and knew that I shouldn’t have told him the idea in private meeting (what was I thinking?).  Telling my boss alone, was like putting both a shark and a seal in the same SeaWorld aquarium…  (poor seal…)

Second, I didn’t write-up the idea in a written proposal and email it to a few of the big bosses!  Such an action could help your idea get recognized by someone in a higher management position, or perhaps you might start to develop a friendship with one of them.

Third, I didn’t re-enforce the idea by being more social with management.  After sending the proposal, I should have tried to meet with the few managers to point out the strengths of my idea and answer any questions about the proposal.  I could have even scheduled a meeting as a friendly Q & A (question and answer) session.

Forth (and this may be the most important), I should have tried to socialize more with management!  I’ve seen many a lesser peer get promoted faster than I have because they are a golfing, card playing, or sport watching buddy with management.  It’s human nature to try to surround yourself with people who like you and you like too.  This is one of my biggest problems over my career, and is totally my fault (I’ve had opportunities).  Remember, your managers are still just people…

Believe it or not, the same principals apply to becoming rich too!  I’ve discussed these ideas with a few of my friends that are millionaires, and they say the same communication skills apply to gaining business (becoming rich), too.  Of course upper management in their case are clientss, and other business connections.  Obviously, they aren’t going to share their ideas either, instead they are going to present products for their business clients to buy…

I hope this little insight helps those suck in a dead end job or those just starting out.  If you want to hear specific stories (I have plenty), email or comment below and I’ll introduce some in future articles.

Bests to you,

MR

 

Technology Benefits For The Elderly

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Growing up, I lived close to a nursing home.  My family use to go to this nursing home because it had a church in it too.  During that time in my childhood, I use to see the elderly often.  Honestly, it usually made me sad, especially those that were not as coherent.

While sometimes I question if technology is good for employment in the short term, for the elderly, technology can be an incredible benefit!

While we’re all aware of the hearing aids and other medical devices such as a pace maker, I believe that technology for the elderly is just starting to be realized.  Much like the old TV series, “The 6 million dollar man”, bionics should be doable by now, or perhaps an exoskeleton of some sort.  I think the Segway could just be the start.  Perhaps in the future, the elderly could use more accommodating but similar devices in concept to replace wheelchairs and the like.  Perhaps vehicles could be automated so that the user could just tell the machine a location and the machine would take the person there without any manual intervention.

What I think would be really exciting and an area to be explored is virtual reality for the elderly.  Wouldn’t it be great to get plugged into a machine and have full body motion, like the movie “the Matrix”.  The elderly could visit Paris, or go water skiing, or anything think that they desired instead of being confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home.  Of course they would know that it’s just virtual reality, but it could be a great experience.

Now some of you may think virtual reality would be a trick and a waste of life for the elderly, but I disagree.  After all, look at many of the non-elderly generation, many of them watch reality shows, which in my opinion is just a waste of life too.

Hopefully, in the future, technology can benefit the elderly in other ways too, especially with robotics and virtual software.

Just thinking out loud,

MR

Why Experimental Learning Is Better Than Book Learning

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Let me say that learning from books is a great thing that we have all benefited from greatly!  If fact, it would be a sad, sad world if we didn’t have books to learn from.

It’s how we learned the majority of what we know!  Without the existence of book learning, we’d probably still be hunting with bows and arrow to a large degree.   Without books (or any form of reading and learning system), we couldn’t have standards or controls to maintain things.  Yes, learning from book is a very important need in our lives.

But…, are we stifling our creative selves within?  By reading what other tell us to do or think, are we kind of experiencing a mass brainwashing effect?  In some ways, if we all read the same materials that everybody reads, do we have the possibility of becoming more like human lemmings?  Where we blindly follow our discipline off of a cliff?

I think that book learning is great, but you have to think and do our own experiments in life too.  Or try to do something that doesn’t involve following instructions in a book!  Check out the picture of very large (almost life-size) Transformers that a laid off machinist created after losing his job.  He didn’t follow a book to create these mainly Halloween displays, he just did it.  Later he did design a book that explained how he did it, and instruction to do the same, but wow, that’s pretty incredible.

 

Transformers

Transformers

 

I bet this guy is now kind of a local hero (especially to his son and the kids in the area) in his neighborhood, if not his community.  Of course he’s been on the news too!

The point is, that the guy that made these replicas of the Transformer (robots?) didn’t do so because it was in a book, or that it might not be possible.  he did it by experimenting and thinking.  While his example doesn’t solve any real problems in society, it does show that we don’t have to be lemmings following a preordained route to become a member of the mediocracy.

We all dream, but perhaps we should all dream and do.  In the computer world, dreaming without action is call Vaporware.  Step out of your societal rut and experiment in life!  Personally, I did my lunch experiment and while it required more spreadsheet time and a bit more thinking than normal, the end results were very rewarding!

At age 42, Benjamin Franklin was rich and retired!  He then proceeded to become an inventor.  He could have become even richer, but he was already one of the rich men in America, so he never patented his stuff and gave it away to society for free.

Your experiment doesn’t have to be earth shattering!  Start out small, then build up to larger and more grand experiments!

What say you?

MR

 

 

Maximizing Time While Changing Car Oil

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Blue Truck

Truck

Well, it’s been 5 months and it’s time to change the oil in my car.

I remember as a teenager and later as a cash poor college student changing the oil myself.  It’s not really a hard task, but I still hate to waste the time doing it especially during finals week…  As a senior in college, I decided that I didn’t have the time and took my care to a Jiffy Lube.  Of course, I took my Operating Systems book so I could read and prepare for an upcoming test while I waited.

Flash forward to today, right now I’m sitting at the much cheaper Walmarts Auto Department again waiting for my car to have the oil changed.  Of course, I’m not just sitting in the sitting room waiting, I’m doing the following during this particular visit:

  1. I’m typing this blog post!
  2. I’m eating a salad at the same time
  3. I hope to read a book after I get 90% of this post done.
  4. I’m dumping off my oil from my lawnmower and snow thrower.
  5. If I have time I’m going to go shopping for some cheap but nutricional food for my diet.
  6. Enjoying a mediocre cup of free coffee from Walmart (lol).

Since I’m not wasting time while I get my oil changed, this experience is actually kind of relaxing and pleasant.  The entire Walmart oil process cost my $30, but that’s not too bad considering I’m getting so much done.

One of my favorite thing to do anymore is maximize my time so I get easy stuff done at the same time, or maybe one complex task grouped with mindless tasks such as eating or waiting for something.

The only way it could be better would be if it were snowing or raining during the change.  In the summer, I don’t mind changing oil as much because the weather is great.

Well, the Walmart employee just pulled my car in the garage to start working on it, and this blog post is done.  Now onto the book that I brought!

Cheers,

MR