Take Your Own Advice

I just spent 15 minutes reading through some old posts on this site. On the one hand, the results were depressing. There are so many great thoughts and ideas out there ...but I feel a little phony having not lived up to all my advice from the past 2 years.

On the other hand, it's encouraging to see that deep down I know what is right. I know the ways I want to be different, and what it will take to get there - even if I don't always act that way.

Writing to yourself (or to others) is something we should all do. Otherwise, it's too easy to forget where your mind has been. And, you can take your own advice from time to time.

What to do when you're waiting for something

Last night I was waiting for something, quite impatiently. So instead of continuing to kill time waiting for it, I did stuff.

• I cleaned my "area".
  
• I wrote 4 thank you notes.
  
• I edited a client's blog post.
  
• I went to bed.
  

Now it's the next day and I'm still waiting. Even though I've been checking every 15 minutes to make sure I didn't miss it, I'm using the time in between nicely.

• I cooked breakfast.
  
• I wrote a blog post.
  
• Then I wrote this one.
  

I suspect if it isn't here by the end of the day, I will have crossed off everything on my to-do list. Just don't tell me the score from Monday Night Football.

You don't need anyone to tell you how to be happy

And now, to do just the opposite, I refer you to this post entitled: 21 Habits of Happy People.

The reason I say that you don't need anyone to tell you how to be happy is because the 21 things on this list are very, very obvious. Having said that, it's very helpful to be reminded once in a while. Each item on the list will make you think: "duh, I knew that."

The thing is, we thwart our own happiness even though the path to get there is straightforward and something we already "know" deep down.

If you have to do just one thing today, how about "Don't judge." This will be triply effective because it covers 3 topics on the list:

14: Mind Their Own Business
16: Love Unconditionally
20: Self Confidence

Why self confidence you ask? Well, the less you judge others, the less you worry about others judging you. Think about the people in your life and whether or not this holds true. It certainly does for the people I know...

Consistency is hard

Just for kicks, I went back and read some of my very first posts (read the first, and then keep clicking "newer post" to keep going). Reading them made me smile, and many of them I don't even remember writing. I even felt like I learned something.

Deep down, most of us know what is right, and how we should be living. Following through is the hard part. How long can you keep something up? A week? A month? 5 years?

It's extremely hard to be motivated and enthusiastic about any one thing for that length of time. The people who do it well rise to the top and are often rewarded for their perseverance.

Those older posts were more introspective (or emo, as my friend Burt would accuse), and somewhere along the way I lost momentum. Sadly, that's probably a good synopsis of my entire life: start strong, lose steam, and then end up chasing the first colorful butterfly that comes along.

I admire people who can stick to one thing for years at a time. Unfortunately I haven't figured out if that is something I am capable of. Maybe the right thing hasn't come along just yet?

Finally, companies using phone technology in a non-annoying way

Sorry about the customer service kick, but I called NStar today to resolve a billing issue. The automated voice said there was a short wait, but if I wanted, they would call me back when it was my turn. Revolutionary!

Although I did have to type in my number (didn't they know it already), and record my name, and some other step I've forgotten, it was a breeze.

I did stuff around the house and a few minutes later the phone rang. I was now next in line, and had to wait about 10 seconds for someone to pick up (which annoyed me slightly, and then made me feel like a spoiled brat).

There is absolutely no reason every single company who routinely has people on hold shouldn't be using this technology. It makes customers so much happier.

Now, if DMV's could let you start doing this so you didn't have to sit miserably for 4 hours just waiting to take your driver's test...(true story, this just happened to the woman across from me in Boulder...she missed her scheduled road test).

5 Tips for Customer Service (yeah you, Bank of America)

Wow. Just...Wow. Check out this back and forth I just had with Bank of America Customer Service over email:

My email:

I recently signed up with a credit card through you guys
with my wife, Janet. Our credit card information shows up when
she logs into her Bank of America account, but it does not for me. Can
this be corrected?

Thanks

Their response:

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for your inquiry dated 8/9/08 regarding adding an account to
your Online Banking profile. We will be happy to assist you.

To ensure that the information we provide is correct and that any
changes we make are according to your wishes, please reply to this
e-mail with the following information:

- Please provide the credit card number?

Also, did you know that you can get answers to frequently asked
questions by clicking on the Help feature in Online Banking? If you have
a question specific to a particular function or feature in Online
Banking, you can click on the Help link in the upper right corner of
that specific page and you will be able to find pertinent information
for that feature of Online Banking. If you are new to Online Banking, we
also recommend you access the Test Drive located on the Account Overview
page, above your Account details on the right side of the page.

We value you as a customer and appreciate your business. If we may be of
further assistance, please contact us again by e-mail. Thank you for
choosing Bank of America.

Sincerely,

John Chippis
Bank of America

My Reply (omitting my credit number for y'all):

Credit Card number is:
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Their answer:

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for your inquiry dated 8/10/08 regarding the credit card
account. Your concerns are very important to us and we will be happy to
assist you.

We understand that you wish to view an additional credit card in Online
Banking. We show that the credit card account which you provided is not
listed under your profiled.

As mentioned in our previous response, please keep in mind that in order
to view an account online, your name must be listed as an account owner
or co-owner. Otherwise, you will not be able to view the account online
under your Online ID.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If we may be of
further assistance, please contact us again by e-mail. We value you as a
customer and appreciate your business. Thank you for choosing Bank of
America.

Sincerely,

Sandra Green
Bank of America

I fire back:

Your previous response did not mention that, which makes me feel like I
am getting form emails send back to me. Not sure why I wouldn't be an
owner or co-owner of the card. I double checked the number I provided,
and it is correct. The card has both my name (Ryan) on it, and
my picture (I'm wearing a yellow shirt!).

If this cannot be resolved in your response, please just let me know the
best phone number to call so that I can take care of this in one try.

Thank you.

(Note that my original response was longer than this, and actually quoted their response, however, they only allow you a maximum of 10 lines of text. Why? Because apparently they would rather stretch out the back and forth as much as possible, wasting everyone's time)

Unbelievably, they have the nerve to respond (I censored last 4 of CC#):

Dear Ryan,

Thank you for your inquiry dated 8/11/08 regarding the ownership of an
account. We are happy to assist you.

Our records show that you are an authorized user on the account ending
-XXXX. Authorized users are not considered liable cardholders and may
not request certain changes on the account.

In order to have an account under your Online ID, you must be either a
primary or a co-applicant on that account. A co-applicant has the same
authority and liability on the account as the primary applicant. We
apologize for any confusion.

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you online. Should you have any
further inquiries, please e-mail us again. Thank you for choosing Bank
of America. We value your business and look forward to serving your
banking needs. Have a great day.

Janice Croissant, Bank of America

What. The. $#%@.

There are so many things wrong with this exchange that I don't know where to begin (of course you know I'm about to try...).

1. Know your customer. Why is it that when I send a secure email through Bank of America's website (meaning that I am signed in at the time), they need to ask for my credit card number? I have one credit card with them, and it is clear that they are not just asking for "security purposes".

2. Form emails are not acceptable customer service. Seth Godin preaches over and over that a customer reaching out to you is a valuable resource, and whether a praise or complaint, it is an opportunity to enhance the relationship. The first email is CLEARLY a form email (actually, they all seem to be). 1 sentence of content (asking for my credit card number), and 9 sentences of 'thanking' and 'educating'. Of course, as your customer, all I see is that you typed six relevant words into a form that you copied and pasted to me.

3. Defining my problem does not resolve it. You know the proverb "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime"? Bank of America did neither. They told me to go fishing. Here is what they could have said during our first exchange:

"For some strange reason you are not listed as an owner of this card. Please have your wife give us a call so she can add you as one. Actually, let me have her address and I will send out the authorization form today."

Problem solved. Instead, it took three emails and 1 phone call to reach that conclusion. And don't get me started on the idiocy of mailing out paper forms to be mailed back with signatures when you have a perfectly good system of authentication and authorization built into the website I'm already using to communicate with you.

4. Address all of my concerns or requests. I asked them for a phone number if the problem could be resolved. It was not, and instead they asked that I email them again. Seriously. Were you even reading my email? I would not be surprised if these emails were all generated automatically.

5. Don't pass me around your office. Each reply from BOA was from a different person. Unless you are responding the same day, and the original person helping me has gone home for the night, please don't pass off each request to a new person. It's inefficient and impersonal. If the first person cannot solve the problem, the next person I talk to should be able to. What does that say about your organization if your customer service people cannot resolve problems? I understand everyone cannot know everything, but my problem is not unique...your large organization has already had this exact request dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of times. Direct me to someone who can help.

And sadly for them, somehow, this little incident may be the straw that broke the camels back. Goodbye BOA. I will take my business someplace that makes me happy. Well, happy might be a stretch...let's just say: less angry.

Achieve your personal goals thru competitions

Aside from my name, the phrase that most commonly brings readers to this site is, interestingly: "How to make a goalie stick". I can assure you, that each of them leave confused and doubting the power of google, which directs them to this post entitled: How do you make a goal stick. As you can imagine, it's about a completely different subject.

I'm not sure I ever followed up on that post though. I easily went a month without eating out. Oh, and I didn't have dessert either. Turning it into a competition with a friend made it much easier to achieve than just "telling myself" it's something I wanted to change.

That was over a year ago, but it's probably time for another similar competition. In fact, I have two good friends dueling right now with some very different habits they'd like to break. So, if anyone out there wants in on some good old fashioned betterment through competition, let me know.

A few things I need to get rid of: no solitaire on my phone, no wasting time surfing the web aimlessly, watching TV when I'm bored (probably only amounts to 45 min a day, but still...), and there are probably others...

Semi-vegetarian

This is not about happiness but...

Ever heard those crazy stats that go something like this: "Did you know there are more sheep than people in Scotland?"

"Not possible!" you say.
"How quaint!" you exclaim.

Well, according to this video "What's Wrong with the way we eat", the United States kills roughly 10,000,000 animals each year for food consumption. Ooops. I forgot 3 zeros. I meant: TEN BILLION. That's what, roughly 30 times our population?

A few other stats:

• "Between 1950 and 2000 the worlds population doubled, the meat consumption increased fivefold"
• "Experts who are serious about disease reduction recommend that we eat just over a half a pound of meat per week". Our actual consumption is over 1/2 pound per day...ie. more than 7 times more than that.

Since roughly 20% of all greenhouse gas is generated by livestock, or it's transportation.

The idea of eating less meat for the sake of the environment is an easier sell than "being mean to animals". At least for me anyway.

Old people are happier

So says CNN.

The first person I told about this said: "I've had that so far...although there may have been a happy bubble around age 4 or 5".

But basically, your odds of getting happier increase by roughly .01% each week. (This is why the article says 5% every 10 years...it sounds much more optimistic that way!)

Anyhoo...it looks like the key to happiness is: wait!

Money and happiness

Check out this article alluding to the fact that money might actually buy happiness, kinda. Basically once you get past a certain standard of living, money doesn't seem to matter much.

The graph also makes it look as though for countries at the high and low ends of the happiness scale, relative happiness within the country doesn't seem to vary much based on income level. It's the countries in the middle of the scale where the richer are significantly happier than the poor.

In the US it appears that you'll be a little happier if you're more well off than others. However, I do have a theory that many people in this country are significantly higher on the "well off" scale than they actually realize. So I'm not sure how that factors in...

It's the little things that say something about you

I was walking behind some kids (late teens, early 20's) the other day, and one of them threw his empty soda cup onto a perfectly clean, spotless, manicured lawn alongside the sidewalk. Walking about 20 yards behind them, I picked it up. hoping they would notice.

Two minutes later, his friend, finished with his soda, tossed it over the wall and into someone's backyard. I almost yelled out to them, but figured it wasn't worth getting in a fight (I had no homeys to back me up).

As a general rule, I don't judge. But somehow, for some reason, that one little action made me judge. It's pretty stupid, I'll admit, but in an instant, I learned so much about those two kids.

Maybe it's just basic "Do unto others"? But seriously, we're all human beings here, there is no point in being a dick just because you'll get away with it.

Is there a coorelation?

Usually I would say: yes. But I think it's different this time.

There is a pile of stuff on my desk. It's been growing. Clothes on the floor in the shape of a U around my chair.

Surely, this increasing mess must mean that I'm depressed, that I'm chaotic, and that I'm goofing away all my time. Not so. I've been working harder than ever, and this is just a consequence.

Maybe cause and effect isn't always clear cut.

However, I do waste a small amount of tiny mental anguish each day realizing this is something that needs to be taken care of. That, and taxes.

Is Technology Good or Bad?

There's a debate raging over at the Economist. Think it's all good? Consider this, from the "con" opening statement:

The system as a whole, the system we create and sustain and live in, now has so many and so complex separate parts that understanding consequential interactions, potential outcomes—intended and unintended—and long-term effects is more difficult than ever in human history. One might argue that the genesis of problems like over-choice and surplus complexity is in human frailty or human wants satisfied by technology, but, without technology, more simplicity would endure. Technology is the beneficial culprit that allowed us to do this.

I admit, reading The Paradox of Choice was an eye opener for me. We always assume that choice is better, but is it better if it practically paralyzes the decision making process, leaving us more stressed and less satisfied than when we began?

To be honest, I think this is why a lot of people are choosing Apple these days. Although even they may be endangering their own simplicity...I recently had trouble figuring out which iPod I needed, Nano or Touch. But there certainly is something to be said for giving people less choice. I can't imagine trying to buy a non-Apple mp3 player right now. Too many options.

Yes, we now charge for everything

While flying out of Denver a few days ago, I noticed a curious new service. It's called Clear. From their website:

Clear® is the fast pass for airport security. Clear members are pre-screened and provided with a high-tech card which allows them to access designated airport security fast lanes nationwide. Clear members pass through airport security faster, with more predictability and less hassle.

Clear's first year price is $100 plus the TSA vetting fee of $28 for a total charge of $128.

What is brilliant about this service, is that it pretends to be about safety. But really, it's nothing more than a VIP pass for people who are willing to pay more to skip the waiting in line.

Am I the only one who doesn't think this is fair? I understand the economics behind variable pricing, and how it can be used to maximize profits. But can't we draw the line somewhere? Everyone at the airport already paid different prices for their tickets.

Is it fair to ever charge for reordering privileges?

• Imagine watching people move in front of you while waiting in line at the restroom?
• Imagine people skipping to the front of the taxi queue?
• Waiting for the next ride on the ferris wheel? Sorry, that guy paid more.

Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't seem like they are getting a different service, just a paid shortcut to the same service. It would make all the difference in the world if you could just present your card and walk right on through without having to:

• have your ID pic matched to your face
• have your ID name matched to the name on your ticket
• remove your shoes
• remove your belt
• remove your laptop from your bag
• remove your jacket
• drink the remaining water in your Nalgene
• walk through a metal detector
• have your pass checked again
• and put everything back together

PS. It's true. You do have to go through all the same loops with Clear, it's just that you get the extra feeling of superiority over all those schmucks waiting in line like everyone else...

From their site:

The Clear lane is a designated lane at the security checkpoint. Clear Members must verify a fingerprint or iris image (collected during enrollment) in order to enter the lane.
At the Clear lane, a Clear attendant will greet you and check your boarding pass, Clear card and government-issued photo ID. You will be asked to insert your Clear card into the kiosk, which also verifies the fingerprint or iris image that you selected during enrollment. When everything is verified (which takes just a few seconds), you will receive a receipt indicating that you are a Clear member.

Clear members still proceed through metal detectors and x-ray machines operated and regulated by the Department of Homeland Security but other parts of the process are expedited. When you approach the lane, our attendants will help you with the bins and to get ready to go through the checkpoint. This alone helps our lane speed by as much as 30%!

This is too much. Honestly.

3 steps back is many steps forward

This story, about a company using weather balloons to potentially blanket wireless access to the entire country, makes me pause. Maybe sometimes, what seems like a step backwards in technology might be the answer you're looking for. Of course, I can't think up any other examples of this....

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut

Who says that hole-in-one's are reserved for people who can actually see the ball? This blind guy, just sunk his first after 60 years of golf (unclear whether or not he has always been blind).

There are potential lessons to be learned:

If you're an optimist the lesson is: keep trying. In life, love, and business, you can only succeed when you actually try. This guy had the ultimate excuse, but it didn't stop him.

If you're a pessimist the lesson is: success is more luck than anything else. Which of course, is then used as an excuse not to try. Why work hard to achieve something that might accidentally happen by sheer luck anyway?

Disclaimer: even though I'm a raving optimist, my first reaction to this story can be found in the title of this post.

I haven't asked for advice from old people lately

From this article over at Businesspundit:

You can learn a lot by talking to the elderly. One thing you typically find is that they do have common regrets, very different from the faux regrets above. They wish they had taken better care of themselves, saved more money, spent more time with friends and family, and done more to achieve some of their goals. They never wish they had watched more television.

And, in my final reference to Stumbling on Happiness, the book concludes with the idea that if we want to know if something will make us happy, we should ask someone else who has made the decision we're considering. Yes, even a random person. Will you be happier living in Denver? Ask someone who moved there recently. Will you like running your own consulting business? Talk to people who have done it.

With all the information out there these days, it's easy to go on without anyone's advice. You can find all the answers. But none of us really know ourselves or our minds as well as we think we do. Hell, it might even worth projecting forward a few years as yourself, and then look back and imagine what regrets you might have.

I know I'm spending a too much time on things I won't even remember in a few years...

Some radical ideas about work

There are quite a few things swirling around out there with regards to the traditional work relationship (go in to work from 9-5 Monday thru Friday) and it's effectiveness. One such article mentions the new ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) recently implemented at Best Buy.

The results have been spectacular: an average 35% boost in productivity in divisions working in ROWE and a decrease in voluntary turnover by 52-90% depending on department. (Interestingly, involuntary turnover increased among ROWE workers—while it might seem like slacker paradise, shirkers have no place to hide when the only measure of work is results. What’s more, as the number of meetings fell, collaboration and teamwork improved.) Just as important, employee engagement and other “soft” metrics (like energy and hours of sleep and family time) went up significantly. Check out the fascinating study from University of Minnesota for more data on the links between freedom and accountability, productivity, happiness, and health.

Kinda makes you want to be a workplace happiness consultant, doesn't it? Or maybe that's what they should be calling those guys like Bob & Bob from Office Space?

In other work related news, apparently telecommuters are both more productive and more loyal? Start setting yourself up for this kind of work now, it will become prevalent before you know it...

On Resources, and using them

Grinding It Out also touches on this concept that "business will expand to tax the facilities provided." Think you'll need 80 seats in your restaurant? Put in 120, and sure enough, you'll find a way to fill all those tables at peak hours.

This is probably a concept that we can see everywhere in our world:

• If days became 26 hours long, you can imagine, that it would only take a few days for you to figure out how to fill those extra 2 hours (and you probably wouldn't know the difference).
• The Central Artery, a highway in Boston, was built with a capacity that well exceeded the "need" at the time, but of course, almost immediately after the work finished, they started planning it's replacement. The increased capacity brought and more cars until it could hold no more. $14.6 billion later, I'm told the traffic situation has improved somewhat.
• Somehow, no matter what size my desk is, it seems to be entirely covered with piles of stuff within days of a thorough cleaning

And so on...

Someone was recently telling me about similar research done with food and rats. Or rabbits? Can't remember. Basically, the size of the group correlated precisely with the amount of food placed into the habitat. Kinda makes you wonder if we should be worried about the recent run-up of efficient food production on this planet...?


PS - Going to be off for a few days. Check back in a week...I promise a swift return!

Apparently McDonalds is not evil

I just finished reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Croc. It's essentially an autobiography of Croc, who is often heralded as one of the great American entrepreneurs of this century. Basically, you can't help but come away from the book with a reverence for this man. He is so hardworking, passionate, and clearly genuine. I've never hated McDonald's, but I haven't spoken highly of them since I was around 8. And no, there is no story behind that.

Really, McDonald's is just a well oiled (no pun intended) machine trying (and succeeding) to win the game of business. It's not like they're out their killing kittens to get what they want...

The last two paragraphs of the book (see, I did read the whole thing) are beautiful:

Too many young Americans these days don't get a chance to learn how to enjoy work. Much of this country's social and political philosophy seems aimed at removing the risks from life one by one. As I told a group of business students in one of the talks I gave at Dartmouth, it is impossible to grant someone happiness. The best you can do, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, is to give him the freedom to pursue happiness. Happiness is not a tangible thing, it's a byproduct -- a byproduct of achievement.

Achievement must be made against the possibility of failure, against the risk of defeat. It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor. Where there is no risk, there can be no pride in achievement and, consequently, no happiness. The only way we can advance is by going forward, individually and collectively, in the spirit of the pioneer. We must be able to take the risks involved in your free enterprise system. This is the only way in the world to economic freedom. There is no other way.

Amen brother. Sounds just as true 30 years later...

Destruction, in the form of a pill

Imagine a little pill. Something that, without physical side effects, could have the most disruptive effects on our way of life.

What would that pill do? Put people in a constant state of bliss? Halt the bodies natural aging process? Double the size of our....brains?

Try this: eliminate the need for sleep. Sweet, we'd all get an extra 8 hours of leisure time each day, right? Scott Adams doesn't thinks so...

Or would the possibility of working twenty hours a day become a necessity, as wages plummet with the instant doubling of labor supply?

Suppose the sleep drug becomes illegal in the United States without a prescription (likely), and legal in a competing country (also likely). The countries that use it will become economic powerhouses while effectively enslaving their workers around the clock.

Read the rest...

Money can buy happiness, apparently

Or, according to this article, more correctly:

there's a 72% correlation between per capita GDP growth in a country and its citizens' happiness.

And by worldwide standards, we're doing pretty damn well in here in America. But what about "mo' money, mo' problems" and "money doesn't buy happiness"?

Maybe those are just ways of telling ourselves we don't need more?

PS - the article also says we're making more babies than at any time since the 70's, and have the highest rate of any developing country. I'll let you draw your own correlation between sex and happiness.

On Killing Time

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Doing the things that you have been putting off will make you happier than continuing to procrastinate.

Even if you don't think it affects you. It does.
Even if you think you'll have plenty of time to do it later. You won't. And even if you do, it will come at the expense of other more enjoyable things.

I didn't kill any time today. Although technically I didn't get to relax till 9pm (and promptly began to write this blog, which probably doesn't count as relaxing anyway), I feel so much better than all those days when I just get to kill time however I please.

Of course, refer below to what I learned in 2007, and you'll see that if I keep this up for a few days, I'm sure to long for "killing time mode" again.

What I Learned in 2007

One year ago, I proclaimed 2007 "The Year of the Can". I'm not exactly sure whether or not I succeeded, but it does feel like the right kind of changes are in the works. Slowly though. Very slowly.

In a sense I fell off the wagon these last two months. I've stopped worrying about setting myself up for the future, which is both good and bad. Good? I'm not anxious about wasting time anymore. Bad? I know I am capable of more, and should be taking steps towards making my future happier and more productive.

I've rationalized this by telling myself that, since I will be skipping town (perhaps for good?) at the end of this coming summer, there is no point in building towards anything because I'll be starting over again in a few months. Of course, I realize this is stupid, but as Memento proclaims:

So you lie to make yourself happy, nothing wrong with that. Everybody does it! So what if there's a few little details you'd rather not remember?

But what I'd really like is to not have to lie...or more correctly: why can't admitting to yourself what's really going on be 90% of the battle? It feels like much, much less right now.

What did I learn in 2007?

• Death can be a powerful catalyst - in the short term. It's sad how quickly you can go back to your old ways...the ways you thought the experience would change you forever.
• It is always better to prepare first and kill time second. Never the other way around.
• The grass always seems greener. At this moment, I'm almost certain I would feel exactly the same about my life even if I had not switched careers.
• I say that people are the most important thing to me, but I rarely live up to that. I want to want closer relationships, but if I never take the right steps to make that happen, isn't that a sign? Sometimes it just feels like "hanging out in the company of people I care about".
• I have long term ADD. Instead of switching tasks every 5 minutes (which I also do, but not chronically), my primary interests switch every few weeks.
• Information browsing should only be used for inspiration, not as a strategy for gaining knowledge. Before the internet, it made sense to devour any useful tidbit of information that came your way. Now, ANYTHING you will ever need to know can be found in seconds. Educate yourself on an as needed basis, otherwise it's just information overload. Every. Single. Day.

What have you learned?