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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.

Speaking of Honor…

You should have seen our CEO appealing to the board of directors’ sense of honor.  It was like watching a violinist trying to saw down a tree: he had the right motion, he just was using the wrong tool.

Afterthought.  Alas, greed and fear of greedy shareholders can all too often blanket board members’ vision of pursuing the honorable course.  Thus the wise CEO is one who can lead her team along a profitable path to the most ethical decisions.

From Vine to Glass Touring the Fine Wines in New Jersey May 4th

Thursday eve, May 4, 6:30 at the Cranbury Library

From Vine to Glass  Touring the Fine Wines in New Jersey

As the sixth largest producer of wine in the United States, New Jersey boasts 55 commercial wineries and a growing number of wine-grape farms.  And in the Dionysian Society blind tasting pitting the best wines of France and California vs. New Jersey – guess who took top honors?   Wine author and hobby vintner Bart Jackson guides you around the Garden State’s wine offerings, explaining what grapes thrive in her four growing regions, and what winery events not to miss. (Opera & wine, anyone?) Bart also provides tips on selecting, tasting, and growing, as well as some of the best ways to launch your own wine trail explorations.  All is presented with good humor and touches of history…(Do you know how many wineries in Burlington county were closed at the outset of Prohibition?)  Come and discover the tasteful bounty growing all around us.

Bart Jackson, author of The Garden States Winery Guide, is a veteran advocate and explorer of New Jersey’s wine industry. Since 1995, he and his wife Lorraine have grown the grapes in their own hobby vineyard in Cranbury from which they joyfully press and produce their own Chateau Bonne Chance vintages.  Bart is CEO of Prometheus Publishing, hosts The Art of the CEO radio show, and is the founder of The Prometheus Social Enterprise Awards, bringing the most inventive social contributors to light. His other books range from Whitewater – Running the Wild Rivers of North America to the bestselling CEO of Yourself – Getting Down to the Business of Your More Rewarding Life.  As a globe-trotting journalist, Bart has carted his pen and curiosity and wine thirst through over 80 countries.  His most prized writings are the poems penned to his bride Lorraine, which are published on the north wall of their Cranbury home.

To learn more visit From Vine to Glass Touring the Fine Wines in New Jersey – The Art of the CEO Radio

 

The Thanksgiving List

The problem is that my Thanksgiving Thankful List is like my elevator pitch – unless the elevator is running from Boston to Baltimore, I never have enough time.  SO… instead of boring all my relatives at the feast table with my blessings, while they are salivating for turkey, I thought I’d share a few of the angels who continue to brighten my days.

– Most recently, when that hefty tree fell across the road blocking our path home yesterday, I thank the nameless fellow motorist who helped me sweat & wrestle it off to the side…couldn’t have done it without you, pal.

– When the media tries to terrify me with tales of shootings, I think of John whose personal crusade and clever dedication have lowered gun violence in Yonkers by 86 % – and still counting down.  (John gave up his scholarship to Julliard to work for the Salvation Army and YMCA.)

– Kudos to Katie in Haiti – the medical doctor who has founded a clinic in Haiti’s rural northwest that provides healing, food and hope to the poorest of the poor.

Oh, and thanks to Lorraine who brought awareness of Katie’s work, by hosting a multi-church fundraiser for the cause.

– When newspapers gleefully portray the gore of battle, I catch the news from Mel who founded the NonViolent Peacekeepers and learn of the latest war-torn regions into which he’s sent unarmed peace keepers to halt the rape and slaughter of civilians.

– And special hats off to Orondaam for our lunch at Social Enterprise Summit, where he explained how, from his Nigerian homeland, his Slum2School enterprise has built schools, funded teachers, and awarded scholarships, giving education to tens of thousands of young people trapped in Africa’s poverty stricken regions.

– Then, of course, I thank the frenziedly active Dale, whose Entrepreneur Zones venture is helping distressed communities across the nation bootstrap their way out of hopelessness.  (He’s even honored me with the ability to pitch in and help.)

I’m just getting wound up, but this elevator is not running to Baltimore.  So allow me one more note of thanks to the bedraggled band of New England Pilgrims who in 1620, with half their members dead after the first year in the New World, found reason and energy to raise their hands to heaven and give thanks.  And this year we all still follow that tradition.  My we each find the embers of hope this thanksgiving and perhaps labor a bit to blow them into a warming flame.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Bart Jackson

 

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.