Attention Span

Ever notice that pay is largely determined by attention span? Low paying jobs typically require very short attention spans--make a burger, ring up a sale. Higher paying jobs require longer interactions. The highest paying jobs often have steps requiring months if not years to complete. What is your attention span? Could you make it longer?

Great Visualization of Bank Failures

http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/12/13/visualizing-bank-failures-2008-2009/

Excellent Course on Business

Lonnie Wibberding a long time friend has made available a free short course in business/economics. He is an excellent writer and thinker. Take advantage of this rare opportunity at SmartFocusCoaching.com

Conflict of Interest Journalism

Thriving Small Business Still Struggling to Get Loans is a CNN.com article about a business man who can't get a loan to expand his successful small business without putting up his home as collateral.

I smelled a rat.

First, the premise of the article is based on ignorance. Just because business owner Andy Shallal can run a successful small business with 3 small stores does not at all mean he can run a larger business with the same degree of success. It's not unusual when a small business starts to thrive for the owner to believe they own the next Starbucks.

They borrow like crazy to expand and then crash spectacularly when the new investments turn out to be less productive than the original. In fact, small businesses are often successful because of the special efforts/knowledge of the owners. The larger a business grows the more diluted those talents become.

Banks have been around long enough to know the hubris of the small business owner and are extremely hesitant to loan money to small businesses borrowing money to grow. Every bank would love to have financed Starbucks, but for every Starbucks there are a thousand wanna-be's that will fail. Banks can't absorb very many of those losses without going broke themselves. So they set their standards very, very high. Thus the requirement for additional collateral.

Andy Shallal doesn't like those standards. Instead he wants the government to hand him cash. If he fails (the odds are he will) we taxpayers take the loss. If he succeeds--he gets the benefit. How nice. . . for him.

But there's still that rat. Small businessman Andy Shallal is no ordinary businessman. He's a liberal activist that uses his business to promote social issues. There is nothing wrong with that. Let me repeat--there is nothing wrong with his decision to be a liberal activist and use his business to promote his beliefs. It's a free country. Go for it.

But don't use my tax dollars to fund it. Don't use my tax dollars to fund conservative or libertarian projects either. Tax dollars belong in non-political projects like building roads and paying soldiers. If we start down the road of raiding the public treasury to support various competing political agendas it will take us straight to fiscal ruin. (If we aren't already there yet)

There is a huge potential for conflict of interest when a liberal activist seeks government money to build up a business that actively works to promote a liberal agenda. It is morally objectionable for CNN to report on Andy's desire for government loans without mentioning a word of this. Disclosures matter.

Best Peice of Financial Reporting I've Ever Seen

Kudos to Latoya Egwuekwe this is amazing.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Did You Feel Dumb Today?

Sometimes I feel totally dumb. Maybe I made a stupid decision or missed a key piece of information. While I feel bad I rarely go away from those experiences without learning something. Often those lessons have turned out to transform my life. The days when everything goes well feel awesome. It's good to have good days, but rarely do they pack the long term benifits.

Perhaps it's not such a bad idea to purposefully include a "dumb" moment in every day. Start reading a challenging book. Sign up for a stock market simulation (for the business noob) or fantasy football league (for the sports noob). Talk to a smart friend about something they are good at.

Have you created an opportunity in your day to feel dumb?

Welcome to Analyzing Everything

It's said the best thing about the NPR show "All Things Considered" is that everything is considered. It's also said that the worst thing about "All Things Considered" is that everything is considered. Perhaps the same is true for analysis.

I've always been an analyst. People and processes have always fascinated me. I did my first formal analysis back in high school when I analyzed my school's mission statement. In recent years I've worked as a software analysis. I've even been known to do an analysis on a cartoon. . . So here it is, my version of "All Things Analyzed".