I didn’t realize that Pacific to Eastern time travel had such tiring effects. As a result of said tiredness I’m just getting around to my emails this afternoon and surprisingly they aren’t too bad. This could be good in that it’s evidence I’m slowly making the business model transition I’ve been pursuing or it could be an indicator that business is slow and I’m on the verge of bankruptcy. That would suck.

One of my brother-in-laws, who is the best manager I know, jokes that if he ever writes a book it will be called “I’m Just Really Trying.” It will be an analysis of the ever pervading thought in our culture that you just have to wish and really, really, really be sincere about wanting something then expect for it to mysteriously materialize.

He and I have good laughs over this topic every now and then. So why am I bringing this up now? Because there is a woman sitting next to me at Starbucks who has dropped various iterations of this line at least a half-dozen times within the last 15 minutes. (I think she’s on a job interview.)

“I just really want to be a part of some place that is successful.”

“I just really want to be on a team that values my ideas.”

“I just really want to not settle.”

Now, before you criticize me for being overly-cynical, let me say that I don’t necessarily believe there is anything wrong with the core desire of those statements. Who doesn’t want to experience success, be on a team that values your input and continue to achieve new things?

The problem, as I see it, is that the “I just really” statement carries a sentiment with it that is 1) naive and 2) responsibility shifting.

First, it’s naive because it ignores the fact that the world is filled with insecure, backstabbing suckers who will whack their own mom at a moments notice to save their own skin. If you have never experienced this or don’t know of anybody who has, please tell me where the company is, because I want to work there.

Second, it places the responsibility for cultivating that culture on others instead of putting the onus squarely on your shoulders to actively participate in building the culture you desire. I think people do this to hedge against (accepting) failure. There are exceptions, but I think this logic generally holds up.

Well, that was a quick post and I didn’t edit it, so please forgive me if the thoughts are a little rough. And EJ, if you’re reading this, you’re the first person on my “to hire” list and I guarantee this time around you won’t be surrounded by a bunch of “I’m just really trying” types.

What does Monster do when people start complaining that it’s full of spam and lame jobs? Apparently they start a new job posting site called Flip Dog. It makes me wonder what other “new” sites are just rehashings of older, more saturated ones. Very interesting indeed.

I should have posted this prior to leaving but I was in DC late last week meeting some very good friends and making some new ones. Hope everyone is doing well. We start our weekly doctor’s visits tomorrow which means that we are in full countdown mode to meet our new daughter. Exciting!

I love having kids. Repeat, LOVE it. Being married and having kids simply feels like how life should be lived. I’m not a believer in overlaying personal experience as mandated advice for others so if you’re not married or don’t have kids that is A-OK. In fact, I’ve got lots of friends that are single and kid-less and they are great people. Ok, enough with “parent, married” valuations. Bottom line is that me and my wife currently love married life and children. Hopefully, we’ll daily tend to it so the wheels don’t come flying off at some future date.

So, anyway, my oldest son likes to watch me work on the computer and one of the things he frequently tells me (while watching from over my shoulder or sitting next to me) is “Nice website daddy!” It’s nice to have your kids appreciate what you do, but his design sensibilities are at a point where I could be the worst designer on the planet and he’d probably still like what he sees.

So, what does a three word sentence have to do with anything?

Well, over the last several weeks, some very nice people have asked if I design blog themes and I thought, “that would be fun.” So I started to put together a few designs and thought it would also be fun to call the Adventure “Nice Website Daddy”. So basically, some people have asked for designs, my kids like them and I’ve tried to respond to the market. Yay! I’m being a true Friedman free market capitalist! (i.e. use economies of scale available to you to sell the same products and services for a better price OR sell better products and services at the same price). At least I hope that’s what I’m doing.

Cheesy, lame, expected? I don’t know. What I do know is that it jives in my guts (which by the way I’m trying to use as the barometer for my biz decisions - at least as much as all of the business school “knowledge”. By the way, if you know what that “knowledge” consists of I’ve got twenty thousand dollars and 4 years of my life that would like to know.

Come to think of it, this might be a good time to introduce Youkipedia which is the result (as other forthcoming Adventures are too) of my overly active drive, evil ambition and lack of focus (at least according to some fellow humans who have previously crossed my path).

Well, here’s to those three “vices” - i put in quotations because I think all three critiques are silly - which I’ll take any day over your timid, insecure, careful business acumen.

Late! (sorry, I’ve had a little pent up moxy that needed to get out).

So without furthr adieu, here is the first Nice Website Daddy theme. I don’t have an official name yet. Any suggestions? You can purchase the theme here (I’ll email you zip file of theme within 24 hours). If you’re wondering why it’s not free, check out Youkipedia to get the lowdown.

I hope you have a good day! Brandon

Bad news is this is the weakest blog update ever. Good new is hopefully I’ll have some nice things to update everyone on in the coming days.

I bookmarked PunchyTime about 9 months ago, but never tried it out, largely because DW Turner has a very robust internal time tracking mechanism. However, as a result of us relocating, I am working on a contractor basis and needed a solution for time tracking (at least one that is more efficient than a pencil and pad of paper.)

PunchyTime seems to fit the bill. It is simple, intuitive and notifies me when I’ve reached certain hourly limits. The jury is still out on whether it lacks things I might need, but so far I have no complaints.

I noticed an ad on Styleboost this morning for Tick. Has anybody used this app? Any suggestions for other time tracking apps?

You may recall a rambling post about “voices in my head” that equated to a bunch of business ideas. If you’ve got a few minutes to waste you can read it here. Otherwise, feel free to keep reading.I’ve been having so much fun slicing CSS that I decided to create a little website to manage the projects that I’ve been doing. There’s a cool little admin interface that allows people to post projects, upload files, track progress, leave feedback, preview their files and pay their invoice.A couple of cool benefits of using the Doc (haha, so cheesy), include getting every 10th slice free. I am also slicing for a wide variety of CMS apps like Blogger, WordPress, Drupal, Movable Type and Joomla!. So if you’ve got a custom design for one of these or another site and don’t want or have the time to do the slicing yourself feel free to give the Doc a try.Overall, I’ve had fun putting this project together and am excited about how it will streamline the current project flow and am looking forward to how the service will grow and evolve.Cheers!

Thornburg is working with creditors, increased its 2007 loss by 69% and the feds have once again tried to bail out the ailing economy - just as Murf predicted in his comment from last week. All of this and Thornburg’s share price shot from $0.80 on Friday to $3.50 this morning. If you want an explanation for how a company’s share value can increase by 300% while its annual loss increases by 69%, well, I’m not the guy. It doesn’t make any sense. You may want to, however, read Benjamin Graham’s book The Intelligent Investor in which he equates (I’m paraphrasing here) the market to being a bi-polar salesman that is entirely irrational most of the time. Warren Buffett calls it “by far the best book on investing ever written.”

PS - this is my last post on business and the stock market for a while. I need a short reprieve from all the yo-yo action taking place.

I read Mr. Peters‘ book Re-imagine during my junior year of business school, and regardless of his sometimes over-the-top cheerleader approach, I generally love what he has to say. I’ve told many people that Re-imagine should be required reading for business school students - especially if coupled with Revolutionary Wealth, which despite the “get rich quick” sounding title, is actually a very thorough and intelligent analysis of globalization and its future (and present) implications on business, countries, families and life in general. Revolutionary Wealth turned out to be a GREAT recommendation from my father-in-law and is currently in my Top 5 list of books.

Anyway, to get back to Peters, he has a long, but funny and accurate post about the “geniuses” running the Fortune 500 companies. If you remember, I touched on this a few days ago. His post is longer and a little more rant filled than mine, but he still manages to get this classic blast off in relation to the failure of several of these CEO’s:

“Dodger, my 5-year-old Aussie, could have done a better job. (He could have bitten anybody who tried to make a $500K loan to someone who had never had a job or paid a bill and signed his name with an “X”; and peed on the pants of any 22-year-old University of Chicago PhD who said, “With my clever algorithm I’ve designed that’s called a ‘derivative’—it’ll make risk a thing of the past.” Yes, had Dodger bitten and peed on schedule, the likes of Citigroup would be ten or twenty billion ahead of their current position.)”

Ha ha ha. Regarding derivatives, I’ll always remember my MGT 476 professor lecturing me for being lazy after I dropped his class following a take home mid-term that required nearly 30 hours to complete. Word on the street (or campus) was that his take home final was twice as long and considering we just had our second son and I was trying to get my first business off the ground I wasn’t having any of that. This is also the same professor who docked me “attendance” points for flying to New York to meet with a client who I had picked up while in business school. Go figure.