Monthly Archive for August, 2008

Author of ‘100 Things to Do Before You Die’ is killed in fall

Just shows you to live life now.

The man who co-wrote the best-selling adventure travel guide 100 Things To Do Before You Die has died at the age of 47.

Dave Freeman had visited half the places mentioned in his book whose recommendations included a voodoo pilgrimage to Haiti and running with bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

He died after falling over at his home in Venice, California, and hitting his head.

He wrote the book on what to do before you die and he only gets through half the book.

What are you doing to live your life?  Are you waiting until you retire?

Another quote from a blog post. From one of the founders of Wall Street Stock Market.

Do not save money, that’s the most foolish thing you can do. Whatever money you earn, give instantly half to your children, they will love you for that. Spend the other half traveling and enjoying life. Money is of no worth when you are old and then you realize that it’s the time that matters.

You can enjoy life and save and invest money.  But live life.  Don’t live and then find out it’s too late to travel, have fun and enjoy life.

My grandmother was retired most of my life.  All I remember her doing is sitting in front of the T.V. and staring at it.  If someone got up she would immediately ask them to go get her a Coke or food.  She never moved.  She did this for at least 30 years, day after day.  I would rather be dead.

I grew up in Alaska.  I move all the time.  Flew from lake to lake and incredible small town to even smaller town.  I had a blast.  When I moved to Arizona I drove all over the state and took photographs.  I took a consulting job in the Bahamas just because it was in the Bahamas.  I had a blast diving and snorkeling.

The last two summers I’ve gone to Europe.  Three summers ago I went to Panama and Mexico.  And I’ve been to the beach five or six times in the last three years.  Life is a blast.

What are you doing to have a blast?

Author of ‘100 Things to Do Before You Die’ is killed in fall - and he only managed to achieve half his list | Mail Online

What to do with all that money?

Reversible business models

I just finished reading this excellent post.  Here is a quote.

In China, some doctors are paid monthly when you are healthy. If you are sick, it’s their fault, so you don’t have to pay that month. It’s their goal to get you healthy and keep you healthy so they can get paid.

Shai Agassi of Better Place designed a business model for electric cars where the car is given away for free because the company makes its profit on the electricity and battery maintenance.

I see some reverse business plans as being brilliant. Some open up a new market. Ink jet printers under $100 with the ink cartridges is a new market I believe, people that that don’t want to pay a lot. The existing ink jet market people go forward with their existing printers. The two markets can co-exist because they don’t clash.

Read the rest of the article -Reversible business models | Derek Sivers.

Customer Satisfaction: Time is Precious

I’ve noticed in Internet Marketing that many professional Internet Marketers are awful at customer service.  Some even remove people from their list and ban there IP address from their website so they can’t ever visit again.  If they did this with a restaurant they would lose everyone else to after the big “scene”.  Not professional at all.

I think Internet Marketing is at the end of it’s infancy.  In a few years not having good customer service will be paramount to not being in business.  Banning people for simply wanting some customer service on a product they bought just isn’t going to fly in the future.

This blog post below is from a study that shows that customer service time has a high correlation to customer satisfaction.  Talking to real people does help.

The takeaway from all this is that important customer relationships need to include listening to the customer. This may mean face time for big customers, perhaps phone time or even web chat for smaller ones. And these contacts can’t be one-way sales pitches - the customer needs to believe his concerns are being heard.

Neuromarketing » Customer Satisfaction: Time is Precious.

Traveling around the world

My cousin Milena is traveling around the world and I just found out she is writing for her home town newspaper in the travel section.  She is going to write a book about it hopefully.

She has some rather funny bits and it’s worth a read.

Postcards Home from,,,, | mySA.com.

Multiplying Output in Groups Plus

Tim Ferris’ latest blog post is awesome.  So much content.  I love that.

The video is excellent on showing how employees can be more productive not just CEO and entreprenuers.  And the worksheet is going out to all my team.

There is a misconception that lifestyle design is just for entrepreneurs or CEOs.

In reality, the principles — borrowed from economics and behavioral psychology — can be applied within organizations and groups with even more dramatic effects.

The Fortune 500 4-Hour Workweek: Multiplying Output in Groups Plus: Downloadable Checklists - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss