This evening I came across a site with a concept that I hadn't heard before, but it makes so much sense...
We've all heard the adage that to be happy, we should do what we really love to do. Sounds good, but is that realistic...or even right? What if you aren't very good at what you love to do? What if there is no viable market for what you love? Then what?
That's where this concept comes in. It has an odd name, but great idea. The problem with the old adage is that it doesn't take into account all of the areas involved.
You see...it's at the intersection of all 3 areas where we find fulfillment, happiness, and success.
Read more on the Hedgehog Concept here.
So, yeah...the new site is up. Will be some minor tweaking later tonight, but there it is! What do you think?
Class is now in session. Yes, I'm sure you've read all kinds of books, some of which may have actually held decent information. But I'm about to reveal something revolutionary, something that very few companies know about, and even fewer demonstrate.
Prepare to be schooled.
One of the key seekrits to business is this: be nice.
That is all.
So about a minute ago, I'm checking email and browsing, when I very clearly hear gunshots...4 shots. Run out to the porch, and it's quiet...no cars gunning it away from that direction, no yelling, nothing. And to think we aren't even on Hilltop...welcome to Tacoma.
Realized I am reliant on my calendar more now--not just to keep track of things (which I need to work on...and that Blackberry from Naarah will certainly help that when it finally arrives...), but just to remember what day of the week it is!
PS Off to a client shortly!
Turns out that there are are multiple cars along our street with similarly broken-out windows, over the length of a couple miles (from at 39th to 72nd).
My guess is that few (if any) have bothered to attempt a police report, given our previous experiences with the lack of willingness on the part of the Tacoma Police Department to actually taking reports.
So they are none the wiser and don't have to be burdened with doing anything about it, and the politicians don't have to worry about crime stats reflecting poorly on them...and both groups can continue to lay claim to the safety and security of Tacoma.
Every once in a while a book comes along that is not only written well, but is impacting. That is Billy: The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith that Almost Changed Everything by William Paul McKay and Ken Abraham. This is the third book I've reviewed for Thomas Nelson Publishers, and this book is indeed an absolute treasure.
When Billy Graham began his ministry, no one could have imagined what the future held for him, no one would have expected him to have preached the gospel to millions across the world. Not even Charles Templeton, who was at the time a big-name evangelist and had befriended Billy in those early years. This friendship would prove to be foundational and lasting for both men, despite Templeton's struggles with faith and his subsequent leaving ministry and turning his back on God.
The book is an examination of Billy's life and ministry largely from the perspective of Charles Templeton, and is a part of what makes this book so amazing. Despite their diverging paths in life, their friendship remained. Despite leaving ministry and becoming a self-professed agnostic, Templeton had the deepest sense of respect for Billy, his integrity, and his faith. In the interviews of Templeton, we get the true sense of Graham, which in our world of fallen men of faith, is a huge breath of fresh air, because he truly is as we've seen him for decades.
It is a story of friendship, of faith, of struggles of faith by both men, and of choices made. There are several passages in the book I've marked as being particularly profound, and several others that hit me emotionally. But those pale in comparison to the ending of the book, which I'll not give away. Needless to say, the ending is both profound and emotional, and is essentially the culmination of the decades of friendship between the two men.
Here in Tacoma (and I'll safely assume with other cities across the country as well) stats like to be touted about falling crime rates. We've been here, and in the same house, for almost 10 years now, and I can tell you without any doubt that the stats are misleading if not just outright fabrications.
Some progress has been made. For instance, when we first bought the house and moved in, we regretted it almost immediately. In the middle of the night, there was a 2-on-1 brawl in the middle of the street in front of our house. The police who responded at that time were far more open than current, and informed us of the background, and the fact that the house was occupied by gang-affiliated people. That part has gotten much better, mostly in part to some good people moving into the neighborhood and helping transform it.
Property crime, though, is another story. Through the years we've had cars broken into (2), cars run into by hit-and-run drunk drivers (2-with 1 totaling the car and sending it up into the neighbor's yard), windows broken out (3 or 4, with the most recent before last night just being a few months ago), and things stolen from our porch.
We no longer report them. And if our experience is similar to that of other people in Tacoma, I'm absolutely positive few report. Why? The Tacoma Police Department prefers to make excuses for why they can't take a report than to actually do things about the problem. (They like to claim that a) they are too busy with higher-priority crimes and b) that the Prosecutor's office will not prosecute for anything under $1000.)
In two different cases, we've had to engage our City Councilman (and thank God for him) in order to get ANYWHERE with them...and oddly enough, once politics is involved, things happen quickly.
So where do stats come in? I'm mentioned in previous posts about one of my favorite little books in college--How to Lie with Statistics. I tend to be skeptical, and this book, though written in the 50's, definitely helps fuel that. Essentially, here's the issue: if, because of apparent Tacoma Police Department apathy toward "lower" crime, people report fewer crimes, the stats show a drop in crime rate. Politicians love this, and love even more to take credit for it.
But that doesn't make it true.
So I'm on the couch tonight at around 10:20 working remotely on a client's server. Kids and wife are asleep, and I'm about to wrap it up for the night when I hear something outside on the street. [The front of the house is about 35-40 feet from the street.] Was a little bit of an unusual sound, but I initially disregarded, thinking it was just some debris on the road (like a flattened aluminum can) being run over by the car going by.
But it bugs me a little. I finish shutting down for the night, brush my teeth, and then decide that it's bugging me a little too much to ignore. I go outside and check the cars--mine first, not because it's mine but because a few months back, it had a window smashed out in the middle of the night. No, my car's fine. Check the van...and find out that the rear window is smashed out.
Yeah, the van. The kid carrier. The vehicle that can carry the entire family.
So this one's going to be a doozy, and enough that we're most likely going to need to use insurance. But even still, that's $500 for the deductible. It also happens to be a lot of money at this point in time...
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