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Hip Hip for Valentines Day

One of my ten favorite definitions of love is: that marvelous state of being in which your own well being is dependent on the well being of another.   Just think for a moment.  Love is probably the only emotion that we deem worthy of its own celebration day.   There are no cards sent for Hate or for Anger’s special day.  No champagne corks pop for Fear Day.  No one gets chocolate in celebration of Greed.  (No.  Election day does not count.)  The reason is markedly simple: we love to love.  We love to be loved.  And romance, well, it makes us joyfully lose our mind.  (Personal examples excluded.)

Those of you who have stumbled across my biography will note that this scribbler’s most prized writings are the poems he has written to his beloved, which stand published on the north wall of our house.  So, if you will, allow me to share a brief segment of the Valentine poem, “Fortune Smiles,” penned years ago for my bride…

Love is a chalice

From which each one may sip,

Thereby enriching all.

Hate is a bowl,

In which unfortunate souls wallow

In vain hope of staunching their pain.

The Fates have sent me Sweet Lorraine

My Soul overflows

I have no need of the bowl.

Happy Valentines Day 

The Challenge Read Everyday in February

Thanks to generous folks funding medical miracles, Cancer has been transformed from death sentence to a combatable disease.  People afflicted are conquering and surviving cancer every day.  Recently, the American Cancer Society has launched a fundraiser that simultaneously helps heal our bodies and strengthen our minds.  Their Read Every Day In February Facebook Challenge is a participatory fundraising event guaranteed to prove enjoyable, enlightening, and rewarding.

Step 1.  Select a stack of books and articles that you plan to spend time reading each of the 28 days this February, 2025.  Make the commitment.

Step 2.  Go to the American Cancer Society’s Facebook page, and register yourself as a reader.  (You can also join a reading group to gain a little company.)

Step 3.  Spread the word around to your friends and coworkers that you would like them to help battle cancer by sponsoring your reading effort.

Step 4. To get all the Challenge’s details and answer your questions, visit

https://challengedocs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ACS-Read-Every-Day-Feb-24-FAQ.docx.pdf

If you’re like most of us, you have a stack/list of fascinating reads you never seem to get around to delving into.  Well, here’s your chance.

And if you are looking for more fascinating reads, visit www.BartsBooks.com.

In This Season

In this season of love celebrated and friendships rekindled,

        We wish you a joyful heart lots of laughter – as we share our  many blessings

      And in the coming year may we rediscover the power of our own kindness to warmly enrich our fellow travelers.

                     Merry  Christmas and Happy Holidays,

              From the Bart Jackson &

                    The BartsBooks Team

Work Wit, Biz Quiz and Curmudgeopedia

Work Wit

Sparkling Persistence…Fail once and folks will call you unlucky.  Fail three more times and they will brand you a loser.  Fail four more times then triumph once, and people will revere you as an “overnight successful entrepreneur.”

Biz Quiz

How great a role do immigrants play in business launches?  Within the last 10 years, 44.8 percent of all new U.S. businesses were started by first generation immigrants.  (Not all survived/thrived.) Today, approximately 20 percent of U.S. businesses are owned by first generation immigrants.

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It.

ADVERTISEMENTS – An unending series of loathsome seductions luring all humanity to consume more than any stomach or household can possibly store.

***

Work Wit

Gifting Glut…Put a “Sale” sign beside it and Santa’s hat on top of it, and you can charge anything you want for your goods over the holidays.

Biz Quiz

How much did American’s spend on Cyber Monday?  The final tally is not in yet, but as of 6 p.m. on Monday, December 2, 2024, U.S. tech gourmands were spending $15.7 million per minute on tech toys, er, necessities

Curmudegeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

BRAND – An artistically cutsey symbol (e.g. a piece of fruit) carefully designed to release the viewers’ hidden urge to put their money in your pocket.

 

Work Wit

Modern Compartmentalization….Our CEO has just appointed a new creative team, and given them special sweatshirts.  We are so relieved – now the rest of us don’t have to bother thinking.

Biz Quiz

How does creative management differ from non-creative management? The former seeks outside-the-box ways to guide complex projects into an alignment of principles, methods, techniques, practices, and instruments that will maximize productive cash flow.  The later merely looks for ways that might make more money.                                                                ***

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It.  

SOCIAL MEDIA – 1) A less personal, more intimate vehicle for broadcasting self praise.  2) A promotional tool employed by advertisers for reaching the greatest number of people with the least possible effect.

***

Work Wit

Useful Obsolescence…Previously worn neckties are like old worn auto tires – both are a potential boon, desperately awaiting the right entrepreneur to discover a new use for them.

Biz Quiz

What three professions still cling to the necktie as an imperative part of business dress?  The answer is finance, law, and white-collar thieves; but I repeat myself.

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

SOCIAL MEDIA – A more intimate, less personal pathway to competitive status anxiety, that both youngsters and business mistakenly view as a necessity.

 

Work Wit

Being an entrepreneur is truly a liberating experience – you are absolutely free to work any 80 hours a week that you want.

Biz Quiz

In 2024, what is the failure rate for new businesses?  Generally, studies show that 10 percent fail in the first year, another 70 percent don’t survive the second year, and the remaining 10 percent close doors soon after.  This said, the spirit remains undaunted with over 600 million entrepreneurs worldwide, comprising 8 percent of the global population.

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

TERRORIST – A dastardly hired/enlisted killer whose organization lacks the funds to buy him a proper uniform.

Work Wit

The trouble with our employees is that they have seem to have other goals in their lives besides increasing our company’s bottom line.  The trouble with our shareholders is that they believe the only way to achieve that increase is to fire all the employees.

Biz Quiz

What are the fastest growing Fortune 500 companies?  Striding into first place is the California technology giant Nvadia, claiming a 163 percent value growth in 2024; with sprawling investment firm Charles Schwab racing along into second place with a 136 percent growth thus far this year.                                                                 

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

MEETING – A gathering of grudgingly resigned souls in which minutes are taken and hours are thrown away. (Paraphrased from the meeting-bedeviled President Barack Obama.)

 

Work Wit

Big Box AttackThe mushrooming of big box stores offers a vast array of low quality items with savings so great they can almost be afforded by the slave-waged staffers they hire.

Business Quiz.  How many individual retail storefronts are currently operating within the United States?  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1,076,931.

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

STOCK MARKET – A desperate gambling den in which the heady liquor of ambition is served instead of opium.

Work Wit

Each business leadership book requires, apparently, a trendy buzzword to give it a veneer of originality.  Our favorites: leadership matrix – data-driven leadership – strategic leadership – disruptive leadership – leading from your gut – leading without your gut.  (real titles.)

Biz Quiz

How many business leadership books are written every year?  Some sources claim an unbelieveable 4.8 billion such tomes are penned annually.  (Disclaimer: ‘tis a statistic probably as accurate and valuable as the proverbs contained within most leading pages.)                                                            ***

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

FINANCIAL PLANNER – An individual who is not himself rich, but would have you believe that giving him your money will make you both rich.

***

Work Wit

Adrift in Data…If my business were as well organized as my desk, we’d hit Chapter 11 within a month.

Biz Quiz

What is the approximate cost of hiring a professional organizer?  To get your desk and workspace cleaned up and workable runs usually $450, but can go up to $1,500.  To develop a systematic work flow that generates more profit, less stress, and no clutter may require a consultant who charges half of what you currently pay your psychiatrist.

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

LEISURE – Time wasted in pursuing those activities you know you really do enjoy, as opposed to those valuable pursuits that others assure you really should enjoy.  See also Wine, Women, Song.

     ***

Work Wit

Advertising executives devote their days to spanning the vast gap between consumer needs and consumer desire, with bridges of cash. 

Biz Quiz

How much do Americans spend on luxury items?  We are holding steady at $77 billion – and about $387 billion worldwide.

***

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

CHILDHOOD – That blissful state of exploratory wonderment experienced by the young prior to their being gifted with electronic devices.

 

Work Wit

Least Valuable Business Books:  Elon Musk’s How To Motivate Your Employees and Donald Trump’s How to Avoid Paying for Contracted Work.

(What we can’t understand is why these two guides are so popular.)

***

Biz Quiz

How many business books are published annually?  You have the privilege of enriching your life with approximately 1000 new business tomes every month – nearly 12,000 annually.

            ***

 

Curmudgeopedia – Devilish Definitions of Life as We Live It

LEVERAGED BUYOUT (LBO) – Using money you don’t have to purchase something you don’t own, but take title and responsibility for, in hopes of paying back stakeholders you don’t know.  Very popular.

Thanksgiving Thoughts – Hidden Treasures

This past week, as we plunged full glut into the holiday season, I’d been asked to give a talk on Mocktails – those cleverly concocted, non-alcoholic drinks that are so invitingly tangy that you barely miss the booze buzz.   So, as our tasting started, here I mingled amongst a sea of strange and smiling faces, sipping strangely muddled mixtures, and Boom!  I caught the feeling – the atmosphere glowed with festivity.   Laughter swirled around us just as freely as if we’d had 80-proof in the glass.  And slowly the light dawned.  Right here before me swarmed an oft-ignored blessing – the treasure of our fellow humans, face to face.

There comes a real joy in being a herd animal – rubbing shoulders, swapping tales and lies with old friends and new.  Each of these folks I had yet to meet held a wealth of experience, waiting to be tapped.  And the best part?  This inspiring nectar surrounds us daily, ready to be poured out through the simple act of convivial conversation.   Yes, it may sound a bit sappy, but I’ve always felt that learning’s more fun when done in the first person.

As we gather around the table this Thanksgiving Thursday, doubtless, each of has a long list of favorable items and individuals that rightly deserve our sincere gratitude. But if I may, allow me to share my own thankfulness for all those fascinating people miraculously set around me – those well known, and those I’ve yet to explore who will enrich my future days.

Wishing you every Joy this Thanksgiving,

Bart Jackson