The problem is, if we don’t know what we’re trying to achieve, how do we shape the path to get ourselves there?

Certain groups define success in certain ways. The extent to which we buy into their definitions can seriously alter the course of our lives, and the lives of those around us.

Everyone has their own agenda; it doesn’t have to be yours.

What Success Looks Like For Realtors:

What Success Looks Like Professors:

What Success Looks Life For the Boss:

What Success Looks Like for Carmakers:

What Success Looks Like for the Careerist:

What Success Looks Like for Religious Extremists:

Or…

And countless other groups, each with their own vision of success. From World Series titles to not being picked last in gym class. From making a fortune to making enough for dinner tonight.

What about these:

Or this guy:

I agree there are risks with viewing success purely as a destination too. But without a destination in mind, how do you know where to turn?

If you know where you want to be, you can create a plan to get there.

And enjoy the journey.

Personally, I’m still not sure what my “success destination” looks like, which is creating some challenges. But in the meantime, I’m working on enjoying the little successes along the way.

Even on the state level, their influence is felt from coast to coast:

• Florida (flowery)
• Colorado (“colored”, reddish)
• Montana (montain)
• Nevada (snowy)

And I learned something new: California itself gets its name from a mythical island described in a 16th century Spanish novel.

And now for your entertainment. Some names are spiritual:

• Los Angeles – the angels
• Sacramento – sacrament
• Merced – mercy

Others are based on the local flora and fauna:

• El Cerrito – the little hill
• Vacaville – cow town
• Madera – wood
• Los Gatos – the cats
• Campo – field
• Los Osos – the bears
• Dos Palos – two sticks
• Paso Robles – pass of the oaks
• Los Olivos – the olives
• Casa Conejo – rabbit house
• Calabasas – pumpkins
• Las Flores – the flowers
• Borrego Springs – lamb springs
• Fresno – ash tree
• Salinas – salt ponds
• Alcatraz – pelican
• Sausalito – small willow grove
• Milpitas – corn fields

Some are historical:

• Oroville – gold town
• Mission Viejo – old mission
• Goleta – sailboat
• Corona – crown
• Carpinteria – carpentry

Some tell you nice things about the landscape:

• La Mesa – the table
• La Presa – the dam
• Linda – beautiful
• Tierra Buena – good earth
• El Nido – the nest
• Agua Dulce – sweet water
• Buena Vista – good view
• Chula Vista – cool view
• Campo – field
• El Sobrante – the surplus

Others are more mysterious:

• Soledad – loneliness
• Escondido – hidden
• El Cajon – the drawer/box
• Secreta – secret
• Los Nietos – the grandchildren
• Chico – boy, or small
• Calaveras – skulls

And some of my faves:

• Salida – exit – we gotta get outta here!
• Los Banos – the baths – or bathrooms
• Modesto – modest – we’ll tell it how it is: it’s no Linda Buena Vista
• Manteca – lard – We’re really close to Manteca, how am I just finding this out!

And of course the most famous California place name of all:

You can pick the language you want to learn — there are over 50 to choose from — and your comprehension level.  There is a slider with 5 levels, ranging from novice to fluent.

On the 2nd notch, I end up with bodies of text like this one, from the Seattle Times Mariners coverage:

“Not only le costó his equipo de Seattle an eventual 6-2 defeat la noche del viernes against the New York Yankees, but the non-sinking fastball one-time Mariners mentor Raul Ibanez belted for a three-run homer wound up costing Hernandez bragging rights la siguiente time the pair chat.”

In the live version, you can click on the Spanish text if you don’t understand it, and it will switch back to English.

I’ve found some funky lost-in-translation stuff, but for the most part the app does really well.  It’s really cool.  For me the goal is to maintain the same speed and comprehension, but just adding in some Spanish practice.

I had it set on Intermediate for a while but I found it was starting to slow down my reading so I dialed it back a bit.  Maybe after a little more time I’ll go back up.

Head over to the Chrome app store (it’s free) and try it out for yourself!

Thanks to Ari Meisel for the tip.

http://www.brynashley.com/statistcally-how-hard-is-it-to-get-4-home-runs-in-a-game-or-pitch-a-perfect-game

The book has been recommended to me by multiple people, in multiple circles, over multiple years, so I figured I ought to finally give it a shot.

Actually, this was my second try.  I first tried to read Think and Grow Rich several years ago but couldn’t get it into it.  But I chalked up that failure to my youthful lack of appreciation for the classics.  Maybe back then I just wasn’t ready for the timeless wisdom Hill was about to bestow upon me.

But it wasn’t that.  The problem is the book just isn’t good.

I understand this is heresy among business people, but it really didn’t do it for me.

Hill spent years of life studying the nation’s most successful people, and compiled his learnings into Think and Grow Rich.  The book is presented as the 13 principles of personal achievement.

The basic premise is this: if you really want to be rich, like really REALLY have this burning desire, you’ll find a way to make it happen.

OK.

Great.

The book is at it’s best when Hill is sharing his anecdotal lessons from Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison.  The book is at it’s worst when he’s talking about the subconscious mind and “Infinite Intelligence”.  There was a lot of skimming going on there.

Some of the stuff just didn’t make any sense.  Hill says faith allowed us to harness lightning and turn it into the electricity that fuels industry.  I don’t get it.

Ultimately it’s a lot of fluff and not a lot of actionable advice. Believe in yourself. Don’t let fear get in the way of your dreams. Be persistent. And on and on and on.

It bothered me too that the book was overly focused on financial wealth (though what did I expect from a book with “Grow Rich” in the title?).  All the talk of accumulating “riches” made me picture Uncle Scrooge’s moneybin from Duck Tales.  I guess the self-help books about happiness and personal fulfillment were still a couple generations away.

One thing that Hill does include that you won’t find in most business books is an entire chapter on sex.  It would be an oversight, he explains, to ignore the most powerful of human emotions as a motivator.  I would have put that as the opening chapter, as a hook to get people’s attention.

So read it if you must.  It probably won’t change your life.

Am I missing the boat on Think and Grow Rich?  If you’ve read it, please let me know what you thought.

Advertisers love direct mail because it’s a really cheap way to reach customers (one reason the post office is failing), and can generate a positive return on investment even if only 1% of people respond.

But what about the 99% of junk mail that gets immediately round-filed (or otherwise ignored, recycled, or shredded)?  Millions of tons of it ends up in landfills every year.  It’s unwanted, unsolicited clutter that creates a burden of pollution to produce, deliver, and dispose of.

Oh yeah, and it’s made out of trees.

Paper Karma is an app that aims to help stop junk mail.  I just downloaded it this past weekend and have already been taken off the mailing lists for 5 different companies!

It’s super-easy to use.  You just snap a picture of the junk mail you don’t want to get anymore, and Paper Karma does the legwork to get you off the list.

Obviously opening the app and taking the pictures will initially cost more time than simply dumping the stuff in the recycle bin, but I think in the long run it will be a net time-saver, plus help eliminate excess environmental damage too.

Direct mailers should be on board too, because it will help them save on printing and postage costs by eliminating the subscriber base that wasn’t reading their material anyway.

Pretty cool app.  When I downloaded it, it said “free for a limited time” so check it out soon, and do your small part to reduce clutter and help the planet.

The laces are really thin so it makes sense they might be a weak point on the shoes.  My first couple attempts of tying the two ends back together didn’t last more than a few hundred yards.

I learned that REI sells a Salomon replacement lace kit (apparently this is a common problem!).

But after reading some accounts of frustrated customers, I thought I’d try one last DIY effort.

I tied the best square knot of my life, pulled it tight with my teeth, and then grabbed a lighter and fused that knot together.  Really felt like I was making good use of some boy scout skills.

And so far, it’s held up for about 10 miles.  So if your Salomon laces broke, try this method first to give your shoes some extra life.

1. The Unsubscribe Button is Your Friend

Like I’ve mentioned before, no one has 500 real friends.  You’re not going to be any worse off if you don’t read every status update from people you barely know (or in some cases, don’t know at all).

Digital clutter is clutter too.  Cut off the people who aren’t posting interesting or entertaining or useful stuff, and those who you don’t have a meaningful relationship with.

If it’s a struggle to figure out who to unsubscribe from, try a doing a full-fledged friend audit.  Identify those who you haven’t communicated with in the past year.  Or make it 5 years, it’ll still be a ton of people.

If you haven’t had any meaningful communication with someone in 5 years, it’s probably safe to stop receiving daily updates on their life.

To clarify, I’m only talking about unsubscribing, not unfriending.  I think the latter would be poor form.

To unsubscribe from someone, mouse over the right-hand side of their status update.  Click on the little arrow that appears and choose Unsubscribe From so-and-so.

By cutting out the clutter you’ll end up spending less time reading updates that don’t matter and more time on the people that mean something in your life.

2. Only Check 2-3 Times Per Day and Close the Tab the Rest of the Time

This is similar to Tim Ferriss’ rule for email.  Limit yourself to a couple visits a day and close the application the rest of the time.  Resist the temptation to leave it open and constantly see what pops up in the feed.

Like email, Facebook does have value. But it has a cost too, and the cost is time.  Cheesy, but arguably your most precious resource.

With these two tips, I bet you can easily save 15 minutes a day.  Hey, it adds up.  Use that time for something positive, healthy, productive, or educational.

The sender was “Automated Email“.

The subject line was “Service Plan Agreement for Dell Purchase“.

I ordered a new computer in January, but knowing much money companies make selling extended warranties, I declined all the add-ons I was offered.

Even more confusing was the text of the email:

“Thank you for your recent purchase of a “TWG In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis Service Contract” from Dell. Attached is important information about the service contract that you purchased, including a copy of the actual contract that you purchased.”

OK, I’m getting a little scared and defensive at this point. I definitely didn’t purchase any service contract.  At least not on purpose!

Worse, I open the pdf file that’s attached am I shocked to find out they apparently charged me $54 for this Service Contract I swear I didn’t buy.

After a couple phone calls and a long discussion with the live chat customer support rep, we determined that this was merely the fine print on the included 12-month Dell warranty, delivered in the worst possible way.

There was no extra or additional charge, the rep explained.  The $54 was included in the overall price, it’s just the amount Dell allocates to cover any warranty expenses.

If I Were In Charge

My customers would get whatever fine print they need for their warranty claims electronically immediately after purchase, NOT 3 months later.

The $54 would NEVER be visible to customers.  If it’s included in the price of the computer, include it and don’t break it out in a way customers will ever be able to see.

My customers would NEVER get such a scammy scary looking email from “Automated Email”.  Dell.com, Dell Customer Support, Dell Warranty Info, etc are all acceptable sender-names… why pick such a terrible one?

]]> http://www.nickloper.com/2012/05/a-lesson-in-how-to-confuse-your-customers-courtesy-of-dell/feed/ 0 http://www.nickloper.com/2012/04/how-does-5-hour-energy-work/ http://www.nickloper.com/2012/04/how-does-5-hour-energy-work/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:30:55 +0000 Nick http://www.nickloper.com/?p=4038 Does 5 Hour Energy Work?

In my experience, it really does work. You feel more alert and have more energy almost instantly.  I don’t drink it very often, but it’s come in handy on long drives and after red-eye flights.

How Does It Work?

5 Hour Energy works in a couple ways.  The first is most familiar: caffeine.  Each 2 ounce shot contains approximately 200mg of caffeine. For the sake of comparison, a tall (12 ounce) Starbucks drip coffee has about 240mg.

The second energy source is their proprietary blend of B Vitamins and amino acids.

A B Vitamin deficiency can lead to fatigue, depression, and poor concentration. Each shot of 5 Hour Energy contains 2000% of your daily value of B6 and 8333% of your daily value of B12, so it immediately reverses any deficiency you may have.

These vitamins are water soluble so you should continue to hydrate after drinking 5 Hour Energy.  It is possible to overdose on B6, which could result in brain damage.  The FDA recommends no more than 100mg per day; one 5 Hour energy contains 40mg.

Some users report feeling flushed after drinking 5 Hour Energy.  This sensation is caused by the niacin, which temporarily increases blood flow near the surface of the skin.

Did You Know?

When you drink alcohol you lose a lot of B Vitamins, so supplements like 5 Hour Energy can be effective at preventing or curing hangovers.

Energy Blend

The proprietary “Energy Blend” contains taurine, amino acids, and citicoline, a naturally occurring brain chemical thought to improve mental function and blood circulation.

Despite these claims, some researchers assert that good old caffeine is the only 5 Hour Energy ingredient medically proven to improve mental alertness.  Because of that, I was surprised to a caffeine-free version was recently introduced.  I’m curious to see if it works as well as the original.

No Sugar

One thing that separates 5 Hour Energy from energy drinks like Red Bull, Monster, and Rock Star, is that it is completely sugar free.  Because of that, you don’t get the spike and crash in blood sugar levels, and you don’t end up consuming a bunch of garbage calories that make you fat.

Business Success

5 Hour Energy is a massive success story.  Since launching in 2004, they’ve grown into a $600 million company, even spawning one-upping competitors trying to cash in on their strategy.  There’s no way they could have achieved that level of domination if the product didn’t work as advertised.

Where to Buy?

Most people buy 5 Hour Energy at convenience stores; you can find them at the checkout counter of nearly every gas station in the country.

You can buy it direct from the company online, but it’s kind of a rip off. You’ll pay $14.99 for a 6-pack, plus $5.95 for shipping.  It works out to about $3.50 a shot (or $0.70 for every hour of energy, if you want to look at it that way).

For a better deal, try Costco or Amazon.  At the time of this writing, a 12-pack was around $22 and eligible for free shipping on orders of $25 or more. (Less than $2 a shot.)

Your Thoughts?

Have you ever tried 5 Hour Energy? Does it work for you?