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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

I Choose to Laugh

Recently, America has replaced Humor with Hate as its emotion of choice.  We hate immigrants or those who hate immigrants.  We pour forth our ire on anyone who offends feminists, or those who loathe feminists. Every new word or deed sets our wrath on edge, and ignites our short fuse to a tirade against “the other side.”  With teeth clenched, we rant against a mindless virus – those setting up vaccines to fight the virus – and those not responding to the virus exactly as we know they should.  (You know, those irresponsible/paranoid idiots.)

Disrespect has blossomed from an occasional noun to a frequent, very active verb.  You’ve got to be ever on the watch against those who describe our race or one of those races we favor. They are most likely denigrating bigots – all of them.

And the media loves it.  They fuel our rage and titillate our hate with tales of president past or current – and we angry supporters, in turn, fuel their circulation numbers.  And when we lapse exhausted from disrespecting all of the above, we hunt in search of new targets worthy of our juggernauting enmity.

Now, I could give you my own rant about the danger of spewing venom within and without – how increase of destruction grows with what it feeds on, but you already know that.   The addictive quick high of rage crashes the spirit into ruin – you don’t need me to tell you.

So why revel in this Hades of Hate?  And no.  Don’t you dare tell me that the devil (in the guise of divisive media or politicians or plague) makes us do it.  Frankly, Scarlet, that just ain’t so.  Their acts and words may instinctively prick your spirit and even spark some brief anger, but the choice to harden your heart and carry the scowl of hostility on into the day…That is your choice alone to make – and dispense with.

And the good news?  More and more folks seem to be joining me in opting for humor.  When my wife inspired me to pen & publish the joke-laden “Vax Envy Fight Song” about the Covid-19 inoculation process, and when my second-wisest counselor, Carol, asked me to make a series of laughable quips about our current circumstances, all of you greeted them with refreshing enthusiasm.  And I will bet ten cents of my own money that America will rapidly turn the corner, nix the hate, and re-turn to our romance with humor.  So allow me to invite you all to join me in this joyful trend.  Set your search engine for something funny, some common, laughable point of humanity, and take it to heart.  Then share it with a friend and watch her smile.

Wishing you every success,

Bart Jackson

 

 

 

Who Said?

“I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building.  I felt better right away.”

The controversial, counter-culture comedian authored Brain Droppings, and made millions laugh over his routine: “The Seven Dirty Words that are keeping us from winning the war.”

– George Carlin

             

 

The Healing Shore

HD Thoreau noted of Eastham Cape Cod, that “the barren aspect of land would hardly be believed if described.”  I suppose it depends upon what you are cultivating.  For me, our home in Eastham shores writhes abundantly with life.  Whether it is the view from out of my window on Cape Cod Bay, or walking the hard sand flats at low tide, there stands no more fertile plain for raising up one’s most profound and deepest thoughts.

Or wading heavily amidst the thunderous rhythms of Nauset Beach’s ocean waves as they crash and seethe along the slender sandy strand hemmed by towering dunes and open sea.  Surely, there lies no richer field for planting soul into perspective & the mind into more astute reflection.

‘Twas to this most blessed retreat I came this week after shoulder-replacement surgery.  The quelling of the mind and the release from the daily frenzies of home and office life proffered the utmost recuperation.  With my good wife Lorraine, and later joined by my COO & laughing adventuress Carol Ezzo, we journeyed into the realm of simple re-creations such as finding clams on the flats, half-shell oysters amongst the shoreside restaurants, and bright-plumed birds in remote marshes.  And yes, and in the eve, we even made some amazing strides in our latest book, along with lining up new guests for our The Art of the CEO radio show.  The brain works best when freed from the chaff of distraction – and fueled by good friends and lobster in drawn butter.

Wishing you all a grand summer,

– Bart Jackson