Our grass is green and growing. You know what that means don’t you? Right! It means spring is here and we’re being attacked by the curse of pollen, watery eyes, runny noses, sinus infections and headaches. Nevertheless, I still love springtime!
Does the nice increase we’re seeing in our dealer’s early and large purchases of equipment and parts reflect their renewed optimism for 2010? Or does it reflect their customers early season purchasing habits? Let’s hope it’s both.
Remember the old saying “Nothing is new, it is just forgotten?” As our government begins to try to control the price of health care, I remember back in 1973 when President Richard Nixon’s Cost of Living Council froze gasoline prices. I suspect most of you don’t remember what happened next. Let me remind you.
Consumers were ecstatic at the beginning. But very quickly they realized their choice was not between high price and low price gasoline; their choice was between gas and no gas.
Oil companies and their gas stations responded to the price freeze by curtailing supply, limited customers to half a tank’s purchase, shutting down early and closing on Sundays. How well I remember waiting many different times in a line at a service station to purchase gas - a line that might have over 50 cars in it. And it wasn’t unusual to wait in line for more than an hour.
The conclusion was that the cost in inefficiency and time lost was greater than any benefit derived from a regulated price. Now I’m wondering what the unintended consequences of regulating health care pricing and costs will be on you and me? Maybe our politicians in Washington need to be reminded, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." Let’s hope not this time.
April 1, 2010 was the eighteenth anniversary of the US Lawn Mower Racing Association. Who would have ever guessed?
It comes as no surprise that one’s educational attainment typically has a direct impact on employment.
The jobless rate for those workers with less than a high school diploma was 14.5 percent in March of 2010. For those with a high school diploma, but no college, the rate was 10.8 percent.
For those workers with some college or an Associate’s degree, the jobless rate was 8.2 percent. For those with a Bachelor’s degree and higher, the average unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent.
I think those numbers speak for themselves.
Caterina Fake, the co-founder of the photo-sharing Web site Flickr, has banned meetings in her businesses. How does she get things accomplished and provide direction without meetings.
She says, “Interactions should be constant, not crammed into meetings once a week. You just turn around in your chair and bounce an idea off one of the other 10 people in your office. Keep the floor plan open so people can talk to each other. And as the company gets bigger, keep dividing it into small and smaller groups.”
I know I would vote to do away with meetings in my business, if I could. But I can’t imagine not having a meeting when it was needed. It’s the meetings we have when we don’t need one, that are worrisome and time wasters.
To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine each night… and to those who don’t and are always seen with a bottle of water in their hand, I share with you my favorite Ben Franklin quote, “In wine, there is wisdom, in beer, there is freedom, and in water there is bacteria.” I think his words sum up my feelings very nicely!
Here are two anonymous quotes I really like about living life to its fullest.
The first says, “Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.”
And the other says, “Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as if they were your life, for without them, life is meaningless.”
