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Work Wit

Work Wit – New Networking Variant…Before Covid, businessfolks would gather and brag shamelessly about how well their ventures were gushing profits.  Now, the networking competition is to brag about how savage a loss you’ve manfully endured.

Biz Stats:  Number of business networking conversations containing total unvarnished accuracy:  one in every 10,000 (best estimate.) 

WORK WIT: Current Cash Currents…Crypto currency is a golden elephant held aloft on a fragile scaffolding on which money is transferred from the greedy & gullible to those who can spin the best rumor.

Biz Stats:  With nearly 500 billion real dollars traded daily in over 20,000 crypto currencies, and no secure equivalent of the S.E.C. to provide any transactional legitimacy,  here lies a risk-takers haven.

WORK WIT – Fun Business  And See the World…

Stationary bicycles are once again taking their proper, pre-pandemic place in society: out on the curb, under the “Best Offer” sign.

Biz Stats:  Peleton third-quarter revenue 2021: $1.262 billion.  2022 most optimistic 4th Qtr. estimate: $675 million.

First exercise bicycle: Gymnasticon in 1796. E-bicycle sales rise between 2021 and 2022: 240%.  https://bartsbooks.com

WORK WIT – Fun Business  – It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…

Since our payroll department switched to a drone delivery system, I haven’t seen a check in months – just about the time our neighbor purchased that new fully loaded Tesla.

Biz Quiz.  How soon will commercial drone delivery enter our lives? Most optimistic estimates say early 2024.  If you think you have tech troubles now, just wait until they institute drone commuting.   Https://www.bartsbooks.com

Work Wit: Retirement affords you the time to re-write your own history and deem your career a success.

Afterthought. As my wife’s husband always says, youth’s a blunder, old age a regret, then senility’s bliss allows you to forget.

Work Wit:  Sharing Your Wealth – A financial planner is an individual who has not been able to make himself rich, but who sincerely believes that with your money he can make you both rich.

Afterthought. Sometimes, after talking with my financial planner, I feel like the drowning man being asked by the yacht captain to throw him a rope.

WORK WIT; Our poor CEO has become so aged and feeble that he’s incapable of getting anything any more, except his own way.

Afterthought. Just because there’s a mask of wrinkles in the grin, does not mean that a sly fox isn’t lurking within. 

WORK WIT; Perhaps a Change of Title…They never got any work out of Robert as an employee, so management has decited to hire him as a consultant.  Hope springs eternal.

Biz Quiz:  What do you call a person who bursts into your office, raises everyone’s hopes and expectations – performs no work – then sends you a whopping bill?    Answer: A consultant.

WORK WIT: Sharing Your Wealth – A financial planner is an individual who has not been able to make himself rich, but who sincerely believes that with your money he can make you both rich.

Afterthought. Sometimes, after talking with my financial planner, I feel like the drowning man being asked by the yacht captain to throw him a rope.

WORK WIT: Nearly-rugged Individuals – An entrepreneur is someone who believes she would be successful, if only she had the right boss.

Biz Quiz:   What percent of startups fail within the first two years? Answer: 60 – 80 percent – Depending on the survey source.

Work Wit – IPO Under the Skin – Reverse mergers are a bit like the young elephant who allows  himself to be swallowed by an old snake so that he may more easily slither into greener pastures.

Afterthought. ‘Tis a heady experience to launch an IPO on a major exchange.  Just beware of the many strangling coils that may come with    the invested cash.

Work Wit – Pearls Beyond Price – If you can afford to pay your people what they’re worth – you need better people.

Biz Quiz:  What nation’s employees work the longest hours on average?
Answer: United States. (over 2200 hours annually.

WORK WIT: Sharing Your Wealth – A financial planner is an individual who has not been able to make himself rich, but who sincerely believes that with your money he can make you both rich.

Afterthought. Sometimes, after talking with my financial planner, I feel like the drowning man being asked by the yacht captain to throw him a rope.

 Work Wit:Security Blight – a password is a safeguard preventing its originator from gaining access to her own information, while affording only a minor delay to hackers who have no right to it.

Biz Quiz: Who has the larger number of cybersecurity companies –  Britain, United States, or the European Union? Answer: The United States with an estimated 1600+ firms.

                

 

WORK WIT:  Under Suspicion – A merger is a business deal involving two parties who feel cheated, two parties who swear they made out like bandits, making in all two.

Biz Quiz:  What’s the largest merger in history?   While others are in the works, the $360-billion blending of AOL & Time Warner in 2000 still tops the charts – temporarily. https://bartsbooks.com

 

5th Annual Delaware River Cleanup

On a sunny Saturday morning of September 17, Bart and Lorraine joined  another 300 muddy, joyful souls along the banks of the Delaware for the 5th Annual Delaware River Cleanup.

Most groups labored by foot, but we joined the canoe crew filling out boats with old chairs and pipes to ancient steering wheels – and a horrendous amount of plastic bottles.  All great fun with a marvelous group of environmentally conscious folks.

Memorial Day Afterthoughts

It is a sad paradox that while all wars are evil tragedies, yet so many individual combatants enter into battle armed with the most altruistic and humane hopes. This past Monday, I heard the story of one such fallen soldier who grew up in the village of Orleans, MA on Cape Cod.
My wife Lorraine and I had joined the townspeople for a powerfully moving service of remembrance in the Orleans’ Veteran’s Park. The Mayor reminded us that, unlike Veterans Day which honors those who have served, Memorial Day pays tribute to those fallen service men and women who made the ultimate commitment and paid the ultimate sacrifice. An elderly Coast Guard officer told the story of Alan, one of Orleans’ three heroes who had died in service of their country.
After graduating from Orleans High School, with the 19 other members of the class of 1938, Alan went to work in town. (The class picture showed only 16 of the class, four being absent due to a regional epidemic of mumps.) Within days of President Roosevelt’s announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor, Alan enlisted in the Navy and rose to the rank of Radioman First Class. From his ship’s position the northern Atlantic, Alan would transmit vital information to Allied convoys. Two years later a German submarine log records sighting and firing three torpedoes at Alan’s ship. Two torpedoes hit midships, sending Alan and all his 245 crewmates to their death. (Exactly how the Coast Guard officer came up with the German log notation, I find fascinating.)
Alan wrote no grand philosophic or patriotic essays, but a few recalled memories from friends and sentences in letters marked Alan’s reasons for going off to war. Unlike the traditional soldier’s hope for plunder or glory, Alan had mentioned that he believed it was his personal responsibility to serve and to protect his nation. A simple belief of one young man, indicating a truly heroic devotion. The Orleans Fire Department Chaplain gave a final prayer urging us, as Abraham Lincoln did following the battle of Gettysburg, to remember these fallen and honor them by rededicating our own lives. Just thought I would share this with you.
– Bart Jackson