Guys' Point of View

Lessons from Wimbledon by Bruce King

2008-07-08T03:40:00.007-04:00

I came across this very interesting blog entry written by U.K. author, speaker, and sales trainer Bruce King. The link to the original post can be found by clicking here. King presents six highly important lessons from a popular sport that can be applied to all aspects of our personal and professional lives.

Lessons from Wimbledon

by Bruce King

What does it take for a person to become a Wimbledon champion – or even get the opportunity to compete in those championships? Here are a few key points:

1 – They accept they do not know everything and have more to learn. Even the champion of champions has a coach – several in fact.

2 – They have a superb diet. They know they have to feed their bodies with more than sufficient of the right nutrients to nourish their bodies (which includes their brains).

3 – They train their brain to win the game. Their minds are totally focused on their game and how they can reach and maintain perfect mental functioning and peak performance.

4 – They train their bodies to be working at maximum physical efficiency.

5 - They have a specific daily routine that encompasses all of those points and many more.

6 – Finally, they have my three old favourites which many of you will have heard me speak of before and which are commitment, determination and persistence.

Those are incompatible with failure to achieve great things. So what’s the lesson for us? Ask yourself: How much more awesome would you be if you had a similar and appropriate daily routine to become world-class in your field? What does you routine need to include? What will you do? When will you start? If you know there are areas you need to work on - several maybe, and it all feels a little bit daunting, remember the question: ‘How do you eat an elephant?’Answer: One small chunk at a time.

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Business History: The Wall Street Journal Debuts

2008-07-08T03:15:00.011-04:00

The Wall Street Journal has proven to be the

required daily textbook for the business and investing elite

For nearly 120 years, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has been regarded as a crown jewel in the field of U.S. journalism and a newspaper that is required reading among the business and power elite. On this day in 1889, the WSJ is first published by Dow Jones & Company, a financial information service established in 1882 by Charles Henry Dow and Edward D. Jones.

Recently on December 13, 2007, WSJ shareholders representing more than 60 percent of Dow Jones's voting stock approved the company's acquisition for $5 billion by News Corp headed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The acquisition by Murdoch had many mixed reviews, especially among WSJ employees and its staff of journalists, who thought the integrity of the paper would be severely tarnished under the leadership of their new boss.

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Cramer: What Stocks To Buy In A Recession

2008-07-07T02:14:00.008-04:00

This short video clip was filmed about a month ago featuring Jim Cramer, CNBC's "Mad Money Man" himself. Cramer has some wise words for investors in these trying times. Think soft drink!

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Business History: Don't Leave Home Without Your Traveler's Cheques!

2008-07-07T01:05:00.007-04:00

In 1891 Marcellas Berry an employee of American Express

invented the Travelers Cheque. American Express set the

standard for Travelers Cheques and Gift Cheques.

Above is a reproduction of the first Travelers Cheque issued in 1891.

Since 1975, American Express has been synonymous with its classic advertising slogan "Don't Leave Home Without It" when it was devised by David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather, a preeminent New York City advertising agency. Today, many people are only familiar with American Express as an issuer of a variety of credit and charge cards. However, before American Express issued the first charge card in 1959 (they were the first company to issue the embossed plastic cards that we still use today), it was known for decades as a financial services company. In fact, American Express started out in 1850 and in its early history they enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the movement of express shipments such as goods, securities, currency, etc.) throughout New York State. Over the years, American Express has been in the pulse of many businesses and corporate ventures; and without a doubt the company has a very interesting and colorful history in financial services.

On this day in 1891, American Express copyrights its Travelers Cheque, which will be a boon to globe-trotting customers as a protection against theft and other loss of cash. The cheque business began quietly; in its first year of sales only 248 cheques (worth $9,120) were sold, but by 1909, annual sales were $23 million. During 2000, sales of American Express Travelers Cheques increased to $24.6 billion.

In regards to the creation and patent of American Express Travelers Cheques, inventor and company employee Marcellus F. Berry wrote, "There’s one thing every person does in a distinctive way. That is writing his signature. Therefore the foolproof device for taking money to strange places must carry the signature of the bearer. It must declare that it will be cashed only when a second, and matching, signature is added before witnesses." Berry was granted four copyrights for "the travelers cheque" which he himself named.

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For The Ladies: The $1.45 Million Cell Phone

2008-07-05T17:18:00.012-04:00

The latest in wealth ostentation for people who

have money to burn - the $1.45 million cell phone

Yesterday, I posted a story about a 24-carat gold plated outdoor barbecue made by the Australian company BeefEater. If you read the post, then you may remember that the fully functional outdoor unit is souped up for the Guy in mind and commands a retail price of just over $50k. Now this post (which is dedicated to the ladies unless your a Guy that loves to wear diamonds while barbecuing in style) trumps yesterday's story by $1.4 million!

Emirates Business News featured the GoldVish Le Million cell phone, which costs $1.45 million and is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive phone in the world! Designed by Emmanuel Gueit, production was limited to three units. Called “LeMillion”, it is handcrafted from 18-carat gold and is available in rose, yellow or white gold, with 120-carat diamonds encrusted all over it. The units are handmade in Switzerland where they are equipped with 2GB memory, quad-band for worldwide reception, an 8x digital zoom camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth and FM radio.

To read more about the latest in "icy communication" click here. Now it's time to go broke in America - but at least you'll be in style while doing it!

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Business History: Making Home Movies Just Got Easier 85 Years Ago

2008-07-05T03:49:00.011-04:00

Many decades before You Tube and the handheld

digital camcorder made stars out of almost anyone,

the Kodak Model A camera (pictured above) started America's

passion for making home movies in an easy to use and portable unit

Home movie lovers and You Tube addicts of the world unite! On this day in 1923, the 16-mm Kodak Model A camera and projector are introduced in America for the first time. Although home movie equipment had been available in Britain since 1896, the Kodak equipment was cheap and infinitely easier to use, and therefore accessible to a much wider audience. Thanks to this type of technology, the movie world has benefited greatly from the aspiring efforts of such contemporary and famous filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Both Spielberg and Lucas played around with home movie cameras in their youth which inspired them to be filmmakers (and rich beyond their wildest dreams as a result).

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What The Bling! The Golden Throne For Guy's

2008-07-04T13:52:00.009-04:00

Bling done right? Grillin' taken to a whole new level of luxury!

For generations, the outdoor barbecue has been the particular expertise and passion for the American Guy; grilling has become both an institution as well as a tradition - particularly with our leisure time such as the holiday we are celebrating today. In this tough American economy, if you are lucky to have about $50k lying around in the bank and need the latest jaw dropping gadget to impress those in your life, then this outdoor Guy gadget may be for you.

The famous Australian barbecue maker BeefEater has recently unveiled the ultimate in backyard bling - the world’s first fully operational gold barbecue. BeefEater commissioned the glittering grill (valued at over $50,000) in time for the Sydney Home Show as a wacky and fun way to celebrate recently being named the World’s Finest Barbecue in a global review of the world’s finest luxury products across a number of categories. The unique barbecue featured a six-burner barbecue and wok burner, roasting hood and warming rack, high output burners, quartz start ignition, vaporizer grid and reflector system, all individually plated in 24-carat gold.

To read more about the golden throne for all Guy's (and gals), click here.

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Today Is An Ameribration!

2008-07-04T03:16:00.006-04:00

Today is the 232nd birthday of our nation! In light of the bleak economy, massive job losses, and gas prices, America is still the greatest nation on earth to live and enjoy freedom! I want to wish all my readers and friends the best of everything this Independence Day! As for me, I will barbecue this holiday and watch some cool late night fireworks by the river near my home. Blessings to you all!

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Dollar Rising Today

2008-07-03T23:33:00.002-04:00

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Business History: The "Witch of Wall Street" Dies

2008-07-03T21:28:00.007-04:00

While Henrietta Green (above) was the richest woman in America during the first decade of the 20th century, she was legendary for being extremely tight with her fortune. It was well noted that Henrietta's son lost a leg because she refused to pay for proper medical treatment until it was too late.

It takes many, many years in order to properly build wealth. Watching your pennies, cutting corners on expenses, and spending and investing wisely is a great start to propelling wealth over the long haul. While the secret to building wealth is not such a mystery, one woman over a century ago became legendary for being way too tight with her money. On this day in 1916, Henrietta Howland Green (a.k.a. the "Witch of Wall Street") dies in New York City as the richest woman in America with an estate worth over $100 million. She was 80 years old and miserly to the very end. Despite her enormous wealth, she lived the last two decades of her life in a tiny apartment in Hoboken, dressed shabbily, haggled with shopkeepers, and avoided medical treatment other than what she got at charity clinics. Her practice of maintaining a large pool of liquid assets for lending allowed her not only to survive the panic of 1907 but to thrive. Many investors at the time of the panic were highly grateful to Green and found themselves in debt to her.

To read more about the highly unusual but fascinating story of Henrietta Green and the fortune she built, click here.

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Business History: The First U.S. Savings Bank Opens

2008-07-03T21:21:00.006-04:00

On this day in 1819, the Bank for Savings in the City of New York - the first savings bank in America - opens for business. The first day's receipts were $2,807 from 80 depositors. The statement for the first six months showed a loss of $27, suffered as a result of accepting counterfeit money and a short change loss of nearly $24.

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Business History: World's First Legal TV Commerical Airs

2008-07-01T23:19:00.014-04:00

Television sets such as this Philco receiver (built before 1942)

aired the first commercial for Bulova Watches

Since the beginning of television, the bread and butter for any broadcast station is the revenue that comes from advertising. If you have seen nostalgic TV commercials from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, (check out You Tube for a good sampler of vintage commercials) then you know that television advertising and design has come a long way since the first commercial aired in 1941. Today, the commercials that interrupt our viewing pleasure run the gamut of being funny, glossy, provocative, entertaining, and just downright annoying (think "Head On" rub on aspirin that looks more like the paste we used to bind construction paper pieces together in kindergarten - Head On commercials are annoying but very effective).

If you noticed recently, the commercials for LG's new line of Scarlet TV sets are made to be more of a high-end Hollywood movie premiere and its hard to tell that they are trying to sell you a product - very clever and sexy marketing!

On this day in 1941, for-profit commercial television is first broadcast legally in the United States, as the licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission becomes effective. Ten stations have received licenses a few months earlier on May 2. License number one was issued to W2XBS, NBC, which telecast from the Empire State Building over Channel 1.

At 2:29 p.m. New York City NBC affiliate WNBT aired a 10 second spot before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, displaying a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voice over of the company's slogan "America runs on Bulova time!" The advertisement cost a whopping $9 for 20 seconds.

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Business History: General Electric Stock Is Traded For The First Time

2008-06-28T02:07:00.007-04:00

American Genius: Thomas Edison harbored a big grudge when the

newly formed General Electric Company was not named after him

Founded in 1892, the General Electric Company (GE) was an early innovator in electric lighting and power and set out to dominate the American electrical industry. On this day in that same year, GE is traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time - about two months after the Edison-Houston merger that created it and arranged by financier J. P. Morgan. World headquarters for the company were established in Schenectady, New York.

Miffed that his name did not adorn the new company, Thomas Edison attended his first, last, and only board meeting in August 1892. "I will not go on the board of a company that I don't control," he growled before selling all his GE shares. Edison did remain as a consultant to the company so that he could continue to collect royalties on his patents which remained. Four years later in 1896, GE was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly-formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE is the only one that still remains today.

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Business History: Chew On This! The Commercial Bar Code Debuts

2008-06-26T02:57:00.014-04:00

The barcode changed the face of inventory control and retail

shopping sales (and almost everything else in our lives) everywhere

It goes without saying that almost every facet of our lives involves the use of a bar code in some way for the purpose of identification and tracking control. From the goods and services we buy in a store, electronic records, mail, membership cards, and even the driver's license, the barcode has proliferated the global landscape. Since its commercial debut 34 years ago, the bar code has earned its place as an essential tool for business and communication as much as the personal computer and the telephone are.

Besides such things as shopping and personal identification, most people seem to be aware that bar codes have other handy and essential uses as well. Rental car companies keep track of their fleet by means of bar codes on the car bumper. Airlines track passenger luggage, reducing the chance of loss (believe it or not). Researchers have placed tiny bar codes on individual bees to track the insects' mating habits. NASA relies on bar codes to monitor the thousands of heat tiles that need to be replaced after every space shuttle trip, and the movement of nuclear waste is tracked with a bar-code inventory system. Bar codes even appear on humans and animals!

So with those facts in place, it's time for a celebration! On this day in 1974 at 8:01 in the morning, a barcode reader made by the National Cash Register Company is used for the first time at a supermarket checkout. A 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum is passed through a scanning machine in Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The pack of gum wasn't specially designated to be the first scanned product. It just happened to be the first item lifted from the cart by a shopper whose name is long since lost to history. Today, the pack of gum is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Be advised that barcode technology wasn't a new idea in the 1970s when that pack of Wrigley's chewing gum went through the scanner at Marsh Supermarket. In 1932, some students at Harvard University came up with a system that utilized punch cards as a way to track and manage the sale of merchandise. This ambitious project was the beginning that paved the way for advances that we now know as UPC in bar code history. To read more about the first commercial scan of Wrigley's gum, click here.

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Going Greener: India and China See Highest Jump In Millionaires

2008-06-25T09:59:00.003-04:00

Did you know that the population of global millionaires grew five times as fast in emerging markets as it did in the U.S. last year? This is according to the World Wealth Report survey released Tuesday by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Capgemini. That was the largest divergence between the U.S. and the big emerging markets since the comparisons were first published in 2003. In fact, India and China saw the biggest growth in the millionaire population. To read more, click here.

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Business History: Martha Chopping Her Salad

2008-06-25T03:10:00.010-04:00

An iconic image: Martha trying "to focus on my salad"

on national TV in the midst of her insider trading allegations

Remember the wave of business scandal the plagued many of the powerful and well-known American companies only a few years ago? Yes, as everyone knows, this wave of scandal even touched an iconic person that caught many people by surprise and caused a national sensation in the process: Martha Stewart. If anyone has leaped into the annals of global culture by making the largest impact on the way people live, cook, decorate, and entertain, then Martha Stewart is certainly somewhere toward the very top of the list. But do you remember that on this day in 2002, Martha made that famous clenched-face appearance on the cooking segment of CBS's The Early Morning Show? Martha grimly chopped cabbage with an enormous knife during that segment while host Jane Clayson ambushed and angered her with questions about her alleged insider trading of ImClone stock. It was very apparent that Martha did have a sour side and showed it in front of the camera (all the rumors about Martha's nasty iron side that had circulated for years before was now confirmed). To read more about that memorable TV event, click here.

Yes - as many people predicted - Martha made a quick and highly successful comeback after her prison sentence ended in early 2005. However, only three years after the fact, it is rumored by many experts that Martha and the lifestyle she advocates is past prime and seems to be slowly fading toward black. A good clue to this is the stock in her company. Have you looked at shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia lately? The price per share has significantly dropped over the past year. Could this be the beginning of possibly another end for Martha? Can she survive another comeback? I guess the jury is still out on that one!

As a business student, the Martha Stewart company is a fascinating study in how one woman became a modern day alchemist by turning cookies and decorating into serious cash - all from the comforts of her own home. Martha is definitely the legendary and iconic entrepreneur. As a Guy, however, when it comes to decorating and cooking, I can find better deals by stopping by my local Big Lots and Wal-Mart stores. Sorry Martha!

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Business History: The 9 to 5 Workday Becomes Legal!

2008-06-25T02:41:00.009-04:00

Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, signs the first

legislation for the eight hour workday benefiting all federal employees

For the working men and women of our nation - especially in the halls of government - this is a memorable day in the history of work and human resources! Did you know that on this day in 1868 the first federal law relating to an eight hour workday is enacted by Congress and was signed soon after by President Andrew Johnson? This law was highly beneficial to people such as postal employees when the United States Post Office was then a cabinet level government agency. The United States Post Office became an independent agency beginning in 1971 when Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.

In the new work law that President Andrew Johnson signed, it stated in part that, "eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics who may be employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States."

Hundreds of eight-hour leagues formed coast to coast during and after the Civil War pressuring eight states to pass eight-hour day’s legislation and helping to persuade the U.S. Congress to create a law for federal employees in 1868. This worker formation inspired the NALC (National Association of Letter Carriers) in 1889. It’s easy to forget that not so long ago, workers had no protection to stop employers from enforcing 12 hour shifts, sometimes 7 days a week. If you could not keep up, you were fired. When the law passed, the Post Office interpreted it to mean 8 hours a day for 7 days a week- or 56 hours a week. The NALC sued the federal government and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the union. It awarded the letter carriers a total of $3.5 million, settling thousands of overtime claims.

Guys' Point of View

Lessons from Wimbledon by Bruce King

Business History: The Wall Street Journal Debuts

Cramer: What Stocks To Buy In A Recession

Business History: Don't Leave Home Without Your Traveler's Cheques!

For The Ladies: The $1.45 Million Cell Phone

Business History: Making Home Movies Just Got Easier 85 Years Ago

What The Bling! The Golden Throne For Guy's

Today Is An Ameribration!

Dollar Rising Today

Business History: The "Witch of Wall Street" Dies

Business History: The First U.S. Savings Bank Opens

Business History: World's First Legal TV Commerical Airs

Business History: General Electric Stock Is Traded For The First Time

Business History: Chew On This! The Commercial Bar Code Debuts

Going Greener: India and China See Highest Jump In Millionaires

Business History: Martha Chopping Her Salad

Business History: The 9 to 5 Workday Becomes Legal!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Cobb!

Business History: The "Low Price" Concept is Born

Crushing The Big Guy's: Mortgage Justice

Business History - Publicity You Just Can't Buy

The Red Scare - A Lesson for Marketers

Business History: Prodigy Paves The Information Superhighway!

Top 50 Tech Visionaries

Business History: A Lesson About The Competition...

The Midnight BBQ - Guy's Love Continues

A Guy's Love for BBQ!

Good Night, Sweet Prince

Business History: They Finally Get Al Capone

One Perspective On The Cost of Fuel

Buffett's Banking Wisdom

"The Accidental Millionaires"

Great Moments In Art Theft History - Part Two

Great Moments In Art Theft History - Part One