Coming in under the wire, this is my contribution to Holly’s Mentor Roundtables post

Have you failed in life? No? Then you have nothing to teach me. It’s just that simple. In my life and my career, the biggest gains in my life have come from the result of a huge, drastic failure. Failure to finish college. Failure to manage my vices. Failure at my first stab at a career. All of these things were monumental failures. And you know what? I learned more from those than anything else. And that’s what I have to offer. My failure. My experience.

So what do you have to offer? What have you failed at? Because if you haven’t failed, you haven’t been tested. It’s easy to give mentoring advice when you don’t know what happens when the shit hits the fan. How’d you deal with it? What was the fallout? How did you grow?

Because that’s what I would want. Pain is learning.

“When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the air as birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas as fish, yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As such, I am restless….?

The president got in on today’s press briefing and asked a bunch people to get off of that Cambridge cop dude’s lawn. I wish them all the best. (more…)

actually getting a raise. When my wife began her career as a prosecutor for the state attorney’s office, I immediately got a $300 dollar raise. Now, I’m not a lawyer, nor do I work for the state. So why did I get a raise?

Heath insurance. Hers is free for the family, whereas mine was $300 a month. I am a real fortunate guy. For starters, the $300 a month was lower
than many people I know in the area, so I was already ahead to begin
with. And heck, I actually had a job that offered it, so I was golden. As I said, I’m fortunate.

My friend Kimi isn’t so fortunate.

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You can read Part I here and Part II here

Now you’re probably reading this thinking that I want government to come in and save the day. Hardly. Most of the time, government can’t get out of its own way. And the current political landscape is so divided that no one in Washington will risk doing what’s right by sacrificing their political careers, as evidenced by the recent vote in the House on the financial bailout package. (And the pork that was added really upset me, but that’s another issue for another day) But I’m not a conservative who thinks that business will correct itself, either. Complete free markets, when left unchecked, will self destruct. Because all free market theories forget one basic principal: there are people involved. Emotions and greed negate most logical and rational theories. ]]>

Now back to the market itself*. There are many,
many issues at hand, and they’re all inter-related. The ‘biggest single point
drop ever’ that happened on Monday was actually the 17% largest in history. To
match the drop in 1987, it would have to have been 3x larger. And the Dow
itself isn’t the best indicator of the US market. It’s only 30 companies,
and it’s price-weighted, so a dollar gain in a lower priced company (which
would be a larger percentage) would be negated by a dollar drop in a higher
priced company. So while it’s a widely accepted barometer of the US stock
market, it’s not the end-all answer to what’s going on. Look at the S&P
500, or the Wiltshire 5000 to get a better perspective. And while you’re at it,
include the 10 year bond yield, the FTSE (London
exchange) and the MSCI EAFE (a broad European and Asian index) for
good measure. And let’s not forget the CDS (Credit Default Swap) market, which
is a $46 trillion (with a T) dollar unregulated market (in contrast, the NYSE
is $25 trillion). In other words, market analysis is a full time job, not
reading a headline. ]]>

Well, it seems that everyone has an opinion regarding the
recent financial mess. That’s to be expected, considering that this has a very
far-reaching effect on way more than just the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But
after reading various news reports, blogs, op-ed pieces, forwarded emails,
tweets, and everything in between, I’ve come to a realization: most people are
idiots, and shouldn’t be listened to.

Last night, I celebrated

It is undeniable that the ability to network is a great skill. With the right connections, careers are launched, deals are sold, and problems are solved. Whether the network has been developed on-line or in the local community (hopefully both), these folks can make or break a situation. You read articles on an almost daily basis about how to grow and use your network to your advantage, say when you’re job hunting. However, what are YOU doing for people in YOUR network?

I’ve got a nice little Saturday planned. The brief outline:

• Setting up a wireless network
• Replacing a hard drive and installing RAM on a laptop
• Reviewing mortgage paperwork and
  

Brazen Careerist. Then there is Second Life, which I know almost nothing about. Include places like flickr, twitter, and numerous other niche sites, blogs, and forums, and you’ve got a lot of choices to throw in your time, efforts, and opinions. But what to all of these virutal communities lack?
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