I’ve been interviewed by Jane over at Debt Management.net. It’s been a while since I did one of these but it’s always fun to take some time and answer questions that I haven’t thought about it a really long time.
Anyway, other than some flattery on Jane’s part, the interview is pretty interesting and you should check it out.
When I was reading every investment book I could get my hands on, I spent a fair amount of time on a website devoted to Phil Town’s investing book, Rule #1. In it, he had a series of calculations that, when met, told him a stock was a buy.
It was a play on value investing and the way Warren Buffett picks stocks, but grabbing all the data from the different financial sites and doing the math was time consuming. And of course very few companies met all the criteria so it was a lot of work with very little payoff.
Anyway, someone on this forum decided to create a spreadsheet that did all the work. And I mean ALL the work.
All you had to do was make sure you had an Internet connection, type in a symbol, and hit enter.
A wonderful thing started to happen: numbers started flowing into all of the various tabs along the bottom. Charts started to form. Cells began to change color. Disease and famine were obliterated.
And on the last tab there was a number that told you what this stock’s true price was (according to his system), and whether or not it was a buy.
It literally took me an hour to do this for each company, and Excel had done it in a few seconds.
Of course, someone with a lot of knowledge and skill had set this spreadsheet up, but I was amazed at how many hours of time this document could save me.
And this was Excel! A piece of software I dreaded using because I thought all it could do was create boring charts that boring people used in their boring presentations.
I had underestimated this piece of software and I started to see why it was so expensive.
My latest run-in with Excel at work showed me how valuable this program can be…all you need is a little bit of knowledge, some patience, and it can take you pretty far.
Microsoft Excel: I salute you.
I am a big believer that everyone should have a blog.
Lots of really smart people think blogging is a big waste of time (Ramit is one of them).
We are both pretty smart guys, so who is right and why can’t we all just get along?
I’ve mentioned this in as many places as I can: blogging is a great way to stand out as an employee. If an potential employer is looking at two different candidates and one has a blog where he/she has explored issues related to the industry, interacted with other people in the space, and thought a lot about certain issues, then that’s a huge plus.
If the other candidate is just as capable but doesn’t have this “added bonus,” guess which one is going to get hired?
These are the kinds of things that make you a better employee.
Blogging about whatever topic you’re passionate about or the field you work in is going to make you smarter and more interesting on that topic. You try coming up with something relatively interesting on a daily basis for one specific topic.
It ain’t easy.
But getting into that habit is a great way to grow and become a bit of an expert in any field. Blogging is like teaching: once you start doing it you’ll get a different perspective on whatever topic you’re writing about. And you’ll become better versed at said topic.
Added bonus: you’re writing will improve, which is important no matter what industry you’re in. Email is how everyone communicates these days and if you can’t communicate clearly you’re going to irritate a lot of people.
If you’re trying to start a business or make some money on the side, then don’t start a blog. When I started this site, I was really looking forward to writing about personal finance on a daily basis. I was inspired by the things Trent and JD had done, as well as some other smaller bloggers.
Way in the back of my head I wondered if I could maybe make some money at it—but that wasn’t my main motivation. If you’re main motivation is to make money, skip the blogging and focus on more important things.
Things like knowing exactly who your target customer is, knowing what appeals to them, and getting that first paying customer.
If you’re in this group, I totally agree with Ramit & Co.—you have no business starting a blog. All you’re doing is killing time on something that’s “easy” compared to the tougher tasks of actually going out there and acquiring your first customer.
Blogging is a great way to improve your writing, expand your knowledge on a given subject, and to meet other people in the field. It can also help you stand out in a job search, although I’m sure this won’t last long as more and more people have something like a blog.
To all the entrepreneurs out there: don’t blog if there are other things you know you should be doing. Like nailing down your product, service, or customer profile. It’s not going to move your business forward in any significant way.
Image by Brian Hillegas
Almost two weeks ago I re-committed myself to Ramit’s Earn1k program and vowed to attack it with ferocity and intensity. I got off to a great start and then the tail end of the week was a disaster.
I was almost done with week 1 and I had a blog post ready to discuss a bunch of stuff I’d “learned.” But here we are, a week later, and I haven’t had any progress.
What happened?
I got sick.
The baby got sick.
M got sick.
Work was busy.
You’ve heard all these before. Where I failed was in handling these setbacks. Instead of attacking the problems and finding a way around them, I just sat back in a daze and let them happen. Hence: no progress.
So here I am, at the start of week #3 and instead of starting with the material for week #3 I’m still on week #2. And yet I still think there are a couple of things to learn from here:
Deal with it or fail.
I was going to try to just “make up” the week I lost by doubling up and faking my way through it. Instead, I’m writing a post that basically says I failed. The sooner I accept that I failed, the better off I’ll be moving forward.
It’s really easy to hit a roadblock like this and say “this course really wasn’t working for me anyway.” Then that one week turns into two and three and the next thing you know you’re grabbing a bag of chips to watch opening day instead of grabbing the laptop to get some work done.
That’s just the way it is.
But if you’re truly committed you have to own up to the failures and just keep plugging along.
This is HUGE and it’s something Ramit actually goes into in the course. He calls it “quick wins” but the idea is the same: you need to build and maintain momentum to make it through large projects where you’re basically pushing yourself to get things done.
In short, the idea to set up smaller, easier goals to get you on your way. This week I lost totally broke up all the momentum I had when I wrote that post two weeks ago. The excitement, the focus, that youthful zeal—I lost it.
Now I have to start over again.
Off I go.
Image by styro
