Went to Pike Place Market yesterday and saw a booth selling leather wallets. The vendor was eating a snack and there weren’t any other customers. I picked up a decent looking leather wallet and started a onversation:
Me: How much is it?
Vendor: $29. It’s on the price tag.
Me: Ah here it is. Ouch… too expensive. I’ll give you $10.
Vendor: [Seems a bit taken back] No!!! [in a hurt tone]
Me: [Thinking to myself, Crap, she's either taking it personally or really a good actor] Too expensive for me then. [Begin to walk away]
Vendor: How Rude!!!
Me: [Controlling an urge to laugh in her face]
Ok here’s a lesson to street vendors everywhere. When a customer offers a low ball bid, don’t become insulted and get on a moral high horse. Instead leave the room open for negotiation.
Buy low, sell high. Screw the market price. Throw enough wild offers, and eventually something’s gonna stick. See example below. Bought the stock recently at $1.40. A couple of days ago, it soared to a peak of $1.97, triggered my sale order, and then plunged back to earth I felt like a 6 year old kid who got locked in a candy store.
Ok another year went bye-bye. 2007 was a year of changes…
Took a huge risk and left a lucrative job at Portent Interactive to focus on my own publishing business. Being on my own forced me to be creative and learn a bunch of new stuff. Elance is a big help. Instead of doing everything by myself, I can outsource a lot of work to contractors. The catch is that I need to provide very clear & detailed instructions. Otherwise it could cause some headaches… But my aim is more managing and less doing…
Stock investment fits perfectly, I’m not talking about sitting in front of the monitor checking prices for most of the day. Nope, that’s technical, and I’m all about value investing. Or buy stocks on bargain. I can read the financial statements, analyze future growth potentials, and more importantly wait to buy and sell only at attractive prices. Heck at this rate, I’m on track to be the next Warrant Buffet. 
Warning, rants ahead! Efficient Market Theory sucks BIG TIME. An old fellow in Omaha once said, “Be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy.” Well the recent crashes have made me very greedy. It’s time to load up on shares so that I can afford some vices that make life interesting.
Now putting on my lecture hat, yes kids, addictions can dangerous. For example, drugs usually kill, stupefy, and bankrupt. But other addictions can be fun and not so bad. For me that’s Salsa! I’ve been hooked for the past 8 months, taking about 1-4 lessons per week. Now assuming that the song isn’t one with insanely elusive beat, I’m a fairly good dancer! And hey who needs to go to gym when you’re dancing 3-5 nights a week! Plus new friends and beautiful dates are the icing on the cake.
Like I said earlier, 2007 was a year of changes… 2008, I’m going to kick some serious ass! Stay tuned!
Warren Buffet once mentioned:
Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.
That’s pretty profound, isn’t it? If we really exam ourselves carefully, we probably all could find some bad habits. The key though is to find them sooner rather than later and then change them into good habits that will instead empower us.
So do a self examination. What are some of your bad habits that you want to eliminate? And what are habits that you want to build? Do this exercise this daily and soon you will have a habit to build good habits and get rid of the bad.
Aunt Janee was here on Thursday & Friday. Besides dancing at Century Ballroom, we talked quite a bit. Or rather she mainly talked, and I listened… For example,
Aunt Janee: Here’s what I learned from a $150 voice lesson. 1) You should pull back you jaw to relax your throat. 2) Open your mouth as you hum through your nose. 3) Fill your body and expand your hips… Now try it.
me: Ok… hummmmmmmmmm
AJ: No, open your month, renonate your voice. Now expand your hip.
me: Ok… HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
AJ: No that’s not it. You’re not doing it right. You should have a higher tone. Now pay attention and repeat what I just told you.
This monolog went about 15 minutes, and had to end as she headed to the airport. There were other topics that lasted even longer. The structures were pretty much the same… Besides “Ok,” I also heavily used ”really,” “interesting,” “wow.” Aunt Janee was definitely very energetic and opinionated. So I looked at the situation as an opportunity to practice my listening skill…
I like myself. It’s kind of funny writing this. But yeah I feel comfortable being me. For most of my life, I had lingering self-doubts on just about everything. But now I’m a lot more confident, not cocky, but just sure that whatever happens, I can haddle it. These days I’m a lot more calmer and mellow, but on the inside, I’m pretty focused on my goals and dreams. I don’t go around and lecture others. And I definitely mind my own business and demand honesty with my self and the people in my life. Maybe all this means that I’ve finally matured…
Finally feeling a lot better after catching a cold last Wednesday night. Stayed at home for pretty much all that time. But I’m better now and ready to go out and have some fun!
Does it ever seem that life is moving so fast that it’s like a blur sometimes? This hyperdrive can sometimes make it hard to remember things. Don’t believe me? Ok, just what did you do a couple of weekend ago?
I think that it’s worthwhile to periodically sit down quitely and reflect. It helps me to learn from my experience and and understand how I might improve. Because let’s face it, we’ve all made mistakes. And it’d be a shame & expensive to ignore and repeat them.
The reflection is best done at a quiet place with no distractions and some writing material to make notes. It’s not a time for self-pity, but instead self examination. Try to be objective, and think from a third party perspective if possible, then just write the events down whether in a journal or blog. But the key is to keep things positive. And this could be a tremedously useful tool in life.
TV, computers, Internet, books, and small print text messaning all require concentrated vision, often for extended period of time. This most likely leads to poor vision. There are various methods that supposedly can improve vision naturally. Many are complex and requires habitual exercises. I’m definitely curious and will try something simple by massaging my eyes daily. Let’s see what improvement, if any, this will have…
Had dinner with my friend Bill Kong last night at the King & I. We talked about career, family, business, investments, and the future. First time we met was almost 2 years on a flight back to Seattle from Las Vegas. It turned out that we attended the same business conference, and had similar background & common interests.
Haven’t seen him in a while. His family & career responsibilities definitely keeps him busy. Looking at his life, I kind of wonder if that’s how I might end up… not that it’s bad or anything. But I guess I better focus on building my fortune & have some fun before other life priorities kick in.