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11 People that Will Piss You Off

Written on July 13, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: book, searchengineguide

by Stoney deGeyter

No matter where you go in life, you’re sure to find people who seem to make it their life’s joy to make you angry. They probably don’t even realize what they are doing… it just comes naturally. Two conflicting personalities at work.

I find it fun to think of people who you can’t stand the most, then think of their spouses, friends, or children who love and support them, and probably don’t have the faintest clue that you think they are an ass.

I remember the first time I met my ex-wife, she found me rude and annoying. I was teaching a card game to a group of kids after church and she came up to talk to one of the girls, the daughter of her best friend. Here I was trying to herd cats, so to speak, and I finally got everybody to listen to the rules when she interrupts not once, but twice.

So I stopped talking and (politely) waited for her to finish her conversation before resuming my discourse of the rules of “idiot”. According to her, however, I was the idiot. She interpreted my silence as a glare that said “how dare you interrupt me!”

She stayed well clear of me for some time after that. But, it wasn’t long until she was around me enough to see the charm and wit hidden underneath the “rude” behavior demeanor I portrayed. For a while at least.

There is no doubt that I could have reacted differently during that interaction. The same is likely true of most people that we find irritating. Most of the time it’s minor personality flaws that just don’t allow us to see eye to eye.

Life dishes these people out to us through business, related friendships, social events, on the beach, and even church. In your personal life you have some control over who you interact with. Not so much in business.

In his book High Maintenance Relationships, Les Parrot discusses several types of people that have personalities that tend to get under our skin:

Critics who constantly complain or give unwanted advice.
Martyrs who are forever the victim and wracked with self-pity.
Wet blankets who are pessimistic and habitually negative.
Steamrollers who are blindly insensitive to others.
Gossips who spread rumors and leak secrets.
Control freaks who are unable to let go and let things be.
Back-stabbers who are two-faced.
Green-eyed monsters who seethe with envy.
Volcanoes who build steam and are always ready to erupt.
Sponges who are always needy and never give anything back.
Competitors who always keep track of tit-for-tat.

Many books have been written about how to deal with or prevent hostile work environments. The book, The No Asshole Rule talks about having a completely asshole-free work environment. It talks about how to deal with these people, and the solution generally comes down to firing them.

But what this and other books often overlook is how not to be one of these 11 types of people. We can learn how to be better managers, better communicators, better leaders, better workers and whatever else. We can read books on how to create a more productive work environment, how to reward your employees or make your co-workers feel special.

But often the best advice for any manager boils down to one thing:

Don’t be that guy!

I can see myself in any number of these personality types, and I’m sure many of my friends and colleagues do to. So, what can I do? Recognize which tendencies I have, and make a deliberate effort to act contrary to my nature.

This is crucial for anyone looking to get ahead in business, whether you’re an employee, manager, or business owner. Continuing with any of these 11 personality traits simply makes people not want to work with or for you.

The more you temper your personality to be the type of person that people want to be around, the better success you’ll have in your relationships and life and business in general.

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11 People that Will Piss You Off

Here’s How You Make the Most Money With $5 and 2 Hours

Written on October 30, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: blackhat, seo

Via Hacker News we have this video out of the Stanford technology venture program.

****** Spoiler (also from hacker news) ******

She teaches a class at Stanford and offers each team $5 of ‘funding’ in an envelope. She tells them that once they open the envelope, they have 2 hours to make as much money as they can.

She cites three teams’ approaches:

1) First team opens a free stand that offers to check peoples bike tire pressure for free, then charges $1 to inflate if necessary. This team changes midstream to accepting donations instead of charging, and makes more money. Lauded for rapid iteration.

2) Second team makes lots of reservations at local restaurants, and then sells them to people waiting in line for same restaurant. Didn’t use the $5 at all. Lauded for realizing that the $5 constraint was artificial, and that using it constrained their thinking.

3) Third team skipped the exercise, and sold their 3 minute class presentation time as a advertisement to a local company. Made the most money. Instead of presenting, they recruited. Lauded for realizing that the 2 hours was also artificially hampering their thinking.

She hands out two artificial constraints, and then praises the teams who ignore the constraints. “Thinking outside the box” is a great skill and all, but basically all these teams are doing is finding creative ways of breaking the rules. It means the puzzle isn’t “make the most money in 2 hours with $5″, it means the puzzle is “find out how far you can stretch these rules without being disqualified”.

Ignore the rules that don’t matter. Is that something holding you back real? or is it just in your head?

What artificial constraints will you chose to ignore today?

Our only limits are in our minds.

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Here’s How You Make the Most Money With $5 and 2 Hours

Wireless Industry Target of FCC Probe

Written on August 28, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing, seo

Imagine this. You are in the wireless industry and you are on the verge of actually fulfilling all of the prophecies about your industry being the future of the Internet and communications in general. The smart phone is now becoming more the norm and the introduction of the iPhone has moved the growth along at an ever accelerating rate of speed. It looks like finally everything is falling into place. So could possibly slow you down now? Take one guess ….. that’s right …. the government.

Ah yes. What would a day in business be these days without the long arm of the government making sure that everyone plays by their rules rather than the rules that might stimulate a recovery? MediaPost tells us that the FCC has decided that the wireless industry needs to be looked into because, well, here’s their reasons.

After months of controversy surrounding wireless companies, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to launch a wide-ranging probe of the wireless industry.

“We are transitioning from a voice-centric world to a world of ubiquitous, mobile Internet access,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “This transition promises to increase the pace of innovation and investment, but only if we have an open and competitive marketplace that gives every great idea a chance to make its way to consumers so that the best products or services win.”

So we are to assume that the same government that hands out money to big business who totally screwed the pooch in the financial sector will have the competitive best interests of all in mind? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

The investigation, which could pave the way for new regulations, will encompass a variety of matters, including spectrum availability, wireless networks, devices, applications, and business practices. In addition, the FCC said it’s seeking comments about “how the public has used wireless services and technology to solve real-world problems in areas such as health care, energy, education, and public safety.”

Other concerns have been expressed about keeping net neutrality across the wireless spectrum. What advocacy groups are concerned about is pricing and roaming charges across networks etc. As long as the government doesn’t hinder our ability to actually use these services (and make the CHOICE to pay for them if we so wish) they can do what they want.

The US government is more of an M & A machine these days than an overseer. That’s not going to work in the wireless industry because it is growing and not dying. No saves need to be made here. Of course, there needs to be protections for consumers but at what cost? We are in the middle of an economic morass that has very few bright lights but the Internet and wireless services are among them. The last thing we need is the government coming in and making sure everything is working correctly. If that’s not the classic case of ‘those who can’t do teach’ then I don’t know what is.

So let’s here it Pilgrims. Where should the government be on the wireless industry? Will an FCC probe serve to accelerate growth and open up competition or will it grind things to a halt and stymie progress? I have to suspect that there are more than a few differing points of view out there so let’s solve the world’s wireless woes right here and now. Or we could just call it an early Friday and start the weekend? You make the call (but maybe on a landline so you won’t be ‘probed’).

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Wireless Industry Target of FCC Probe