White Tiger’s Lair

In the spirit of Floho last post I thought today I would post some random thoughts.

Having become a bit of a clean tech geek and working in the renewable energy field (with a roommate who works for the Environmental Ministry) I am surrounded by “things you can do to save the earth” all day.  This is something I am starting to take to heart in my own small way, nothing like a very interesting blogger who is making a change every day http://greenasathistle.com/ but still some changes.

There are plenty of good ideas to steal. For example, I could not live in a paperless office, I know I know, save the trees, but still I want the feel of paper and I to be able to read it horizontally or on the train and be able to write notes and highlight etc. So to help lessen the impact I make the font and margins small to fit as much on one side as possible and whenever possible I use both sides (though of course sometimes in business this is simply unacceptable.  I reuse glass jars instead of buying plastic containers, and I recycle other packaging (yeah ok living in Germany this is normal practice and nothing special, but it was new to me).  I go to the library every week instead of the book store, I have also starting buying things in 2^nd hand stores, previously I had occasionally gone to 2nd hand stores if I wanted a quirky or unusual item, now I find they are my first stop.  I need a sweater because it is getting really cold, off I go to the second hand store, need silverware, pants, belt or a necklaces (note: necklace chains do not hold up well in the washing machine) I can usually find what I need for 1-4 Euro.  I am reusing items, using less raw materials and preventing things from ending up in the landfills , at least not yet anyway.

Ja Ja, ok, so my initial reasons were not so noble it was more an issue of I needed things and could not afford to keep paying regular prices for them.  But we can put aside the ulterior motives for now and just say I am being very efficient, money and energy wise.

I had thought of creating some metric to track how much money, space in landfill, CO2 I am saving, but that is very difficult.  It is like the record industry saying that every time an album is downloaded off the internet they are losing the profit from a CD sale.  My buying habits are very elastic (price dependant) and getting two sweaters for a total of 8 Euro does not mean I would have spent 20 Euro each on new ones.  And since (as far as economics is concerned) I am not a rational decision maker, I base decisions on things other than economic value for example the style of clothes, color and fit, not just the warmth value, it is impossible to determine the amount of money saved.

Life is difficult.  Lets hear it for stating the obvious!!

As I get older I think more and more it comes down to the little daily choices not the big hulking choices that really make a difference in the direction of our lives.  It would be so easy to just quit, settle down into and average job in an average place and lead a normal life, have a little house and a little garden. I am so worn out, I would just like to relax and not have to stress for a while.  And yet I know even if I did do that, I would not be happy, sooner rather then later I would want more challenge, to be more, to do more to have more and so again I would take on extra stuff and the stress that follows.

I have a very good friend who I don’t think ever stresses out.  He has been in his job for a long time now, it no longer provides challenge and only takes about 6 hours a day but he is fine with that.  He has been offered several higher positions and always turns them down.  He has made a decision to not join the rat race.  He likes that he has the security of income without the extra stress or 60 hour a week commitment so that he can focus his energies on his hobbies and passions.  I wonder if I could do that.  I would like the lifestyle I see him leading but I don’t know that I could ever not completely focus my energies on something I am doing.

Ok, yes this is a long babbling post saying not really much at all. I have had so little energy lately since I have been sick and I have some major deadlines looming, like I need a job in the next 6 weeks, and by the end of today I have to find a speaker for an event I am hosting or I have to postpone it (I have been trying to line up speakers for 4 weeks, I have 3 but I need 1 one to pull it off), and it would be so easy to just do my job and go home and forget about preparing for the future, forget the extra stuff, cancel the event… that might make today easier but it will not get me where I want to go …

I don’t often have free time where I can zone out and do not need to concentrate on anything in particular, but as I was laying in bed sick all day I had time to think.   When I let my mind wander it frequently hovers to the topic of what kind of person do I want to be (also data visualization methods, new company ideas and occasionally plots to take over the world). 

Today was a “who do I want to be” day.  Now, when I was very young I was outgoing,  a real extravert, through my teenage years I lost that, I  became far far more self conscious and largely an introvert.  To succeed in my career I need to learn to sell.  Sell my ideas, my competence and essentially sell myself, and quite frankly that scares the hell out of me.  So I am taking the whole interact with the outside world in baby steps.  For work I sometimes have to call people for information, even this intimidates me though I have almost always had good results (in fact one person was so nice and helpful, I am getting a tour of the Berlin Börse next week).  Also,  my volunteer activities revolving around organizing networking groups  and events.  This week that meant seeing a company I was interested in, looking through old news articles for a name in the Department I wanted, then calling the headquarters and asking for that person, (research on company about 1 hour, getting up the nerve to call, nearly 5 hours)  It turns out that person left the company a while ago, but they did give me the name and email address of the person currently managing the department, email sent mission accomplished.  Very simple things but hard for me personally, which is why I keep seeking out these opportunities, I need to learn to be the kind of person who can walk up to a group of people and talk to them, not try to sell anything just talk, to not be so shy.

Now I read A LOT of blogs, mostly renewable energy blogs but also management, entrepreneurship and recently quite a few economics blogs (which is a little strange as that was once of my least favor topics when doing my MBA).  I came across an article today (http://www.seedsofgrowth.com/how-to-create-a-wom-worthy-airline ) about Capt. Denny Flanagan a pilot at United who goes out of his way for customer service every flight.  I became really intrigued with the huge list of his actions and after a bit of googling found him mentioned quite a few places some of these go back several years and some basically copy eachother, but you get the idea:

·         http://www.randgolletz.com/newsletters/July-2005.html

·         http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0828biz-Unitedcapt28-ON.html

·         http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/2007/08/how-to-create-a.html

·         http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118826634834410559.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone

·         http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8305767

Many of these articles and comments focus on what it means for the airline, or for “customer service” some a pretty negative, and some are really biased in other ways.  The aspect that was not discussed, but which I find most interesting is the person himself.  He has said what motivates him to do the many small things that make a big difference, but how does one keep that motivation and with enthusiasm going day in and day out?  In the past few years I have tried to adjust several aspects of my personality to be in line with the type of person I want to become, it is still an actual conscious thought, do I want to say/do/act in this way or that, what would my ideal be, what are the consequences?

So how do I teach myself to become this type of person, who does a 100 small little things each day that add up to make a huge difference and to what goal do I orient those things.  It is not that everyone cant do the things he does, it is the people, myself included, don’t.  We don’t act, we don’t follow through we don’t take that extra step, and that is not the person I want to be.

I am sure there must be more people like him out in the world, I need to find who they are and see if there is a good match for one as a mentor, now that would be awesome to have a roll model like that to call up for advice on how to apply the same principle to my life and situations.

Sorry I know that was long and babbling, but I am sick, that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it…

And since I know there is 1 person in the whole wide world who actually still reads this, HI FLO!!! Read about this guy, you will like him.

Well it is another cold and rainy day in JULY!!! I am not sure that whomever is in charge of the weather is out of their mind on drugs!

During a rather long meeting today I created a pretty good To Do list, unfortunately it  is almost 2 full pages long.  Time to start searching for a good, web based task Manager/Calendar that i can sync to outlook at night (so that it then sync to my PDA).

Several months ago a book was recommended to me called “Natural Capitalism”. I can really recommend this book. It gets a bit preachy in places and I don’t agree with stronger Socialist opinions but it also makes some very good points, particularly in the area of systems thinking. Not determining value on the marginal charge of the element but in the change of the overall system or in most cases systems that is affects and interacts with.

Recently I was on a long train ride and as usually happens my mind was wondering.

I wanted to create a financial tracking system so that I can better track where I am spending money without paying the money for tracking software such as Quicken.

Ok not a problem, so what do I want it to do:

Well at the very basic level I want to be able to see where I spending money, am I keeping to my budget and forecast my cashflows (or lack thereof). Why did I want to this? Well I want to see if I can identify better/smarter/more efficient spending decisions. One thing I have been thinking more about lately is when I am buying something do I buy the cheapest version I can find since my current cash flow situation is so bad or do I buy the higher quality item and assume a longer useful life of the product.

So it would be nice if I could build in a multiplier that takes into consideration the expected value and the difference in value between the lower and higher cost item. But when I started thinking about how to do this I realized that it can’t be calculated from the value of the product but it must be done based on the added value to the system or systems it affects.

For example a computer is not of much use without an operating system and software to run on in. So the value of the software can not be taken in isolation but added to the value of the system, similarly often times the change in value an item adds to a system in not simply its cost. Instead some sort of measure must be deducted of the value of the systems before the addition of new software and the overall value of the system after the addition. Well this all make sense in my head but I was having a hard time visualizing how to implement it in and excel model, so I decided to try a simple example.

Decision to be modeled: Should I buy a $40 suit jacket.

Factors in the decision:

n Item cost

n Useful life 3 years, being worn once a week

To begin with I thought, well this is simple, just and NPV model and see the present value per use. However, that does not take into account changes on the system. What system you ask, well a new suit would affect parts of my life that could be considered personal systems.

The most obvious is my financial system namely my cashflow system, but other “systems” include my “Clothes system” but also and perhaps from a purchase decision point of view on my “Professionalism and Appearance System” which has a strong secondary link to my “Attitude and Outlook” and “Getting a Job” systems.

Ok more complicated but still doable and I think more importantly defining the different major systems and their interactions in my life could be very illuminating.

So, next step would be to determine the formula for the added value of the new jacket, here is where I ran into more of a problem how do I value my current wardrobe? Resale value? Replacement value? The value it adds to my life (When you feel you look sharp and professional the way you carry yourself, the way you act is different then when you feel you do not look as you could). This is where I think I will have to table the idea for a while, while I decided how these “Systems” really work in my life and what types of interactions they have.

Now come on, who has not had days like this!!  http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSEIC74877020070717

 And just for an added bit of fun I have considered throwing fruit at passers-by from my office window, but unfortunately by co-workers wont let me.  Of course another friend of mine wont let me throw water balloons out his window at the MBA students walking to exams at 8am.  I tell you, people just don’t let me have nay fun at all!  =)