Yesterday I was sitting on the beach drinking coffee in Athens, Greece when upon paying the bill the Greek waiter inquired as to whether my father and I were American.  Never disputing the markedly obvious, I affirmed we were, and the ensuing discussion left me appreciating my country and every opportunity that’s presented to me.

This waiter, in his very broken English, with every word carefully chosen, explained to my father and I that he dreams to go to America to talk with someone about some ideas he has.  He wanted nothing more than to supply someone with money and ability nothing more than four or five entrepreneurial possibilities he’s dreamed up.

Upon further explanation, he revealed that it is common knowledge in Greece that there are ultimately 5 families that control all the money in the country.  They also control businesses, government and ultimately the people of his country.

It is those families that dictate who starts a business, who benefits from the risk of sticking your neck out and who succeeds in financial and entrepreneurial endeavors.

If one were to set out and independently form his own business, the families would step in and by way of taxes bankrupt the company.  Hence, the desire to make his pitch to someone, anyone, in the United States.

To any extent possible he wanted to make his own way, and more apparent, get away from pouring coffee in that beach side cafe in Greece.

I must say, the beaches of Athens are exquisite.  But it is these experiences gained while traveling in foreign lands that make the otherwise desolate plains of the United States look so much more beautiful than any painting the sunset over the mountains of Greece could ever inspire.

Our government here in the United States is as corrupt as ever. Never before has money has such a visible influence in politics, and yesterday on the beach I realized that despite all that, living in the United States is still pretty damned… good.

Business, Marketing, Travel Business, entrepreneurship

My group at work is being provided new laptops to replace our old and outdated equipment that can no longer run out processor intensive programs.

It’s a nice perk to be issued a company laptop, and from the looks of it, fairly common place these days.

A subtle ping of my coworkers reveals that the cross-utilize their company issued laptops for personal use at home as well.  And while that can seem like an indirect perk all together, I wonder if the move is all that wise.

The equipment is in fact, company property, and given the economic climate today it’s not out of the question to be relieved of ones duties at a moments notice, with or without cause.

Which should segue into the rhetorical question, is it smart to use your company computer for personal use?

Sure, answering web-based email may seem transparent enough, although you should be aware that even that data technically belongs to your company.

Banking, storing personal documents, family photos, music and contacts of the personal and business sort may leave you wishing you hadn’t when your IT department puts your account on lock down.

Typically when an employee is excused from their job, the first thing that happens is a complete wipe out of their computer. In a sales or marketing based position, emails may be retained for legal reasons, but other than that, the ones are flipped to zeros without any regard to what those bits and bytes really represent. 

It is, after all, the companies data.

A couple suggestions for those who use a company laptop for personal use:

Save everything you don’t want to lose to a flash drive. Memory is cheap these days, and music files, contact lists and photos can easily be backed up onto portable media.

Clip that thumb drive to your key chain so you can’t leave work without it.  You never know, this Friday might be your last.

Think about what data you could live without.  Bank statements, phone lists, family photos probably should be secured outside of your companies network.  At least make a copy every couple weeks.

Laptops are cheap and getting cheaper.  Get one.

Business Business, Technology

It’s been a rough week, and to cap it all off, I’ve been stricken with a cold for the last several days.  No, it’s not the swine flu.

Friday seemed to kick me in the groin like a rough Monday usually would.  Not having any motivation to pack my lunch like I usually do, I made my way to the local Arby’s for a French Dip sandwich.  Unbeknown to me, the server put the “dip” portion of the meal (I think they call it a-jus) in a cardboard container, upside down in the to-go bag.  The fact that the container had a hole in the cover should pretty much finish off the story for me.

A jus all over the carpet of my vehicle, and nothing to “dip” my “French” in for lunch.  Bummer.

Then, I get chewed out by a co-worker for not filling out a form before working on a project.  He’s the team lead of another group in our building, so I don’t work for him, but he decided to “chew my a$$” for not filling out the form because my boss “chewed his a$$” for his guys not filling out the same form.

Rather than stir the pot, I vehemently admitted that I should have filled out the form, despite the fact that I really didn’t need one, and he would have known that if he would have asked a few questions prior to commencing the “chewing”.

This guy is former military, where jumping down someones throat seems to lead to results, but those tactics generally don’t work in the civilian world.  Further, it shines of poor leadership skills to “chew someone’s a$$” just because someone else chewed on yours.

For the trifecta, the weather is beautiful this weekend and I’m stuck inside with Sudafed head and a sore throat.

On the bright side, the market was up this week, and despite some bad employment numbers that were better than expected, things might be off to a good start on Monday.

Business, Health and Fitness Business, health, leadership