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Work Wit, Biz Quiz and Curmudgeopedia

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.

Re-sculpting Your Career – Post-Covid Opportunities

Fortune now smiles on the energized employee willing to take his/her current skills and apply them in a new field. On Friday, February 24, 10 a.m. at the Princeton Public Library Bart Jackson will speak to the Professional Service Group of Mercer County. Admission is free, all are welcome – virtual attendance is also available: register on the PSG website www.psgofmercercounty.org.

Bart lays out a practical plan for searching out what businesses are seeking, how to navigate your professional switch, and how to negotiate your way into a more profitable career. In his words, “If you thought the business talent hunt was immense before Covid, wait until you see what’s waiting for you today.”

The Hopeful Generation

“We could could put seed packets in books and distribute them to school children and families…We could connect with universities… employ environmental groups…gain business sponsorships…”

That is the sound of Fairleigh Dickinson University students brainstorming how to re-forest our planet with one trillion (yes, trillion) more trees.

I know it’s traditional to look at the upcoming generation and fear for the future of our world.  But let me assure you there seethes an energy, idealism, and creativity in today’s college students unequaled in many decades.  Yesterday, FDU professor Gerard Farias invited me to speak to his “Managing Enterprise and Organizations” class.  As part of the course, the students select some social need and create an enterprise aimed at fulfilling that need.  These students have begun engineering a venture that will provide computers to computer-less young people so they may attend schools online.  I challenged them with trillion-tree project, which is currently being undertaken and by social entrepreneur Roland Schatz (with astounding success.) These students’ enthusiasm and depth of thought, along with their unabashed optimism struck me forcefully.  Having sat through many a “creative” session with businessfolks twice their age, I have seldom felt such positive hope.  ‘Twould not surprise me to come across some of these individuals in the future as candidates for the Prometheus Social Enterprise Awards.  So allow me this simple observation: whatever our generations have done to bring us to our present condition, we need not worry.  Hot on our heels is coming a horde of freshly inspired successors dedicated to making things a lot better.

The Power of the Youthful Pen – Princeton Writing Academy Grand Writing Contest

The Power of the Youthful Pen – Princeton Writing Academy Grand Writing Contest

Yes, this Younger Generation will amaze you.  On Thursday, Bart had the privilege to announce the winners of the Princeton Writing Academy’s Grand Writing Contest, sponsored by Prometheus Publishing.   Academy Director Janine Edwards and her instructors have taught their students remarkably well. Before an audience at the Princeton Community Television Station, 5 and 6th grader semi-finalists read their own notably insightful, finely crafted tales.  These authors addressed homelessness, struggling under the competitive spotlight, fickle popularity, and an imaginative depiction of a young Chinese girl’s experience of encountering Chairman Mao Zedong.  Meanwhile, the 7-8th grade authors read impressively thoughtful offerings as an allegory of destructive greed, inventively mystical self-discovery, and a probing story about facing the final moments of our world.

Janine had given me the honor of acting as judge for the finalists.  As I read through their stories, I couldn’t help but be struck by the honesty and perceptive scrutiny of these young authors.  Then I looked at what I was writing when I was their age, and all I can say is that we have no cause to despair of today’s youth.  A new generation of idealists is blooming.