Better question:  How much is health a liability with your company? Does it affect your productivity?

Japan recently enacted a LAW that FINES Japanese workers who are overweight (due to their rising obesity percentages).  Apparently Lincoln Industries also has a requirement for employees to be physically fit. I think this is a great trend.  As much as I would love to say it is one’s own freedom to gain as much weight or smoke as many cigarettes as he/she sees fit, a company has a responsibility to its employees and itself.  Not only would fit employees increase productivity, it would also increase happiness and decrease potential liability and risk.  Why aren’t more companies doing this?  What are your thoughts?

Post from: EveryJoe

How Important is Health?

I am not angry because I just looooove buying alcohol on Sundays.  I am angry out of principle.  First of all, I would like to stay out past midnight on Saturdays.  Second, it is a law based on religious beliefs (let’s not kid ourselves) – not that I am not religious, but there is a seperation between church and state… hurr. Finally, allowing the sales on Sunday could boost the economy.  That is what I think.  Do you think it is worthwhile to even discuss?

Post from: EveryJoe

Why So Blue?

I just think its interesting when you have talented players that with the right pieces to their team,  can be contenders to win a championship, are so quick to jump at the opportunity to just make a few extra bucks.  Well it’s not a few extra bucks, it’s like either going with a 5 year deal for $101 Million or a 6 year deal for $127 Million.  I mean at that point, is there really a big difference in money?

I mean if you’re a Ray Allen or a Kevin Garnett, it makes sense as they were going to a team that was instantaneously going to contend with a title, which they ended up doing so.  What I DON’T get is when a player goes to a team that totally sucks just for the money.  That’s annoying & it screwed up sports IMO.

Ya you gotta look out for your family, but sheesh, how big is your family when you pull a 100 Million Dollar plus payday.  That’s nuts.

I see some entrepreneurs do the same thing.  Where they get so caught up in the money side of things that they burn bridges, jump from opportunity to opportunity where all they have to do is just let a little grass grow under their feet and just build a business.

Money is obviously important, but you’ve definitely gotta have some integrity in class in business.  The grass isn’t always greener & relationships with your team, business partners are far more important than leaving just for the money.

What are your thoughts on this?

Post from: EveryJoe

NBA Free Agency & Entrepreneurship

Do you do the whole “Benjamin Franklin,” Pros vs Cons on a piece of paper?  Do you ask around?  Who do you ask?  Do you follow your passion or do you follow what’s safe?  Do you flip a coin or just go with your gut?

These are things that we as young entrepreneurs need to start asking ourselves.  Why you ask?  Because if we’re in these situations and having not been prepared, might cause a state of panic.

I’ve dealt with situations like this a lot, but they’re still not easy and one thing I will promise you is this – not everyone will be happy with your decision.   We have to realize as a young entrepreneurs that we can’t please everyone.

When Bill Cosby was asked what he thought the key to success was he simply stated, “I don’t know the key to success but I know the key to failure – trying to please everyone.”

Here’s my take & I’m interested in YOURS.

When faced with a big “life” decision or “career move” decision, ask your closest friends, ask your mentors, ask your family so you can get another perspective.  But the kicker is, don’t let them decide for you – GO WITH YOUR GUT (your heart, your instinct, your intuition, your spirit, or whatever YOU call it) and don’t look back.

I’ve found in studying entrepreneurs for a long time that the most successful entrepreneurs have always went with their gut, their instinct.  Problem is for most entrepreneurs, especially young one’s is they let their brain talk them out of situations.  I agree you have to think logistically, but ultimately your heart/gut/instinct is right most of the times.

What are your thoughts?

Post from: EveryJoe

What Do You Do When There’s A Fork In The Road?

It has helped me reflect on my life, my business, my friendships and a lot of other things.  I think I’m going to do this a lot more in the future and just get away.

My advice is to obviously make sure you have systems in place so that your business continues to run and that you’re not neglecting clients, but do your best to get away from the noise and site back and be still.

Post from: EveryJoe

Is Being Lazy Ever Okay?

I have shared with you the importance of writing out your goals and creating a plan.  But the question becomes, well how do you organize that stuff?  Whiteboards would be a GREAT place to start.

I freaking love these things.  I have one on my wall right next to me on the left & then another one right behind me.  Whenever I have ideas, or projects, or people I wanna network with, I run straight to the whiteboard and write it down.

These last 2 weeks I’ve been working on a huge project and my whiteboards have completely helped the process.  I’d write some ideas on the wall, sit back in the chair and stare at the wall…some ideas stuck, some didn’t.

If you’re doing different projects or have papers to write or school, Whiteboards can totally help you systematize your ideas all in one place.  Plus actually writing it out vs keeping it in your head helps a ton!

Post from: EveryJoe

Whiteboards Rock!

As everyone is going back to work today because they “have to,” I’m flying down to Beverly Hills to hook up with some friends of mine that have been a big inspiration.  My friend Ryan Blair of PathConnect.com has taught me a lot about entrepreneurship.  This guy has built several multi-million dollar companies and at the age of 26 sold his company for $30 Million.

You can check him out on the “Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.”  It’s a great interview on how someone went from literally nothing to having huge success.  This is a great story of success  and goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what your race is, your gender, you can have massive success if you choose to.

Here’s the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqV8mWnKUy4

You don’t have to create the type of success Ryan has to be your own boss & have everyday be a holiday.  Make a choice that you wanna be your own boss and make your own schedule, find a mentor, and go take action on it.  T

Good luck and hopefully I’ll meet some celebs today!

Post from: EveryJoe

Everyday Is A Holiday When You’re Your Own Boss

It’s only sad to see Facebook’s minor decline is possibly due to the fact that they set themselves up for failure.  How did they do this?  Well, let’s think about it…

Over the past several years, people have seen and expected changes and features being added.  Suddenly, when ideas run dry, people lose interest.  I think when people started installing applications on their pages, everything began shifting downhill.  The site now relies on the creativity of the users – and when you put every programmer in a room and tell them to organize something… what do you get?   You get 12 different font styles, comments in 20 different languages, messy scripting, neat scripting, and an incredibly high air conditioning bill – yeah, you know you were thinking the same thing.

Peoples’ profiles are chaos.  You can’t pull any relevant piece of information off of anyone’s profile because it is often so cluttered with crap that the information you were looking for ends up being segmented twelve times throughout the page.

I could continue, but I just want to say move out Facebook, LinkedIn is packing more heat.

Post from: EveryJoe

Facebook Down – LinkedIn Up!

I was reading this article from Fortune on CNN.com and I thought of some things that weren’t addressed… what should you be asking your webmaster?  Sure, price and quality is very important, but what do you need to ask?

From my personal experience with working with clients and from working with my own sites, there are a few things that always get brought up:

• How easy is it to update the website?
• Can I update the website?
• How fast could you update it?
• Do you charge for editing separate from the monthly cost?
• What are some examples of other sites?
• Are you trained to maximize SEO?
• What hours are you available for technical support in case the site goes down?

It’s always good to plan ahead for websites.  If you are planning to transition your business online, be prepared.

Post from: EveryJoe

Questions to Ask Webmasters

Here’s a few ideas I came up with:

• Pay debt
• Test a new form of (online?) advertising
• Nest egg
• Invest in organizational tools
• Upgrade computer (assuming it can’t accomplish all the tasks you need)
• Buy some useful software
• 5-hour back massage :)

Where else can you put your stimulus check?  … You know, for the benefit of your business!

Post from: EveryJoe

Fun With Stimulus!