Hold My Feet to the Fire!

“Play to your strengths,” the business journals exhort us; and so in that vein I have decided to set aside Hold My Feet to the Fire for now to focus on my professional career and newest endeavor Web Biz Finance.  The blog will utilize my experience as a practicing CPA to explain and teach finance and accounting issues that are essential for entrepreneurs endeavoring in the e-commerce area and for professionals who have migrated their practices online.  I would be delighted and grateful if you could take a minute to poke around and leave me a comment.  Thanks for the support and best of luck with your own endeavors, Tyler

This month has brought us the demise of Rev. Frederick Eikerenkoetter, the man better know as Reverend Ike.  I confess that I had never even heard of the man before his death and hearing this entertaining story on National Public Radio but it immediately struck a cord with me and left me hungry to know more.  The old debate about the Bible either condemning or condoning the rich has become tiresome to me, but Ike cut a fine figure, someone who unequivocally and ostentatiously came out on the side of the rich.  Oh yeah, and he looked sharp doing so.

Whether or not you agree with his message is not within the purlieu of this blog, we need to look at him as someone who got things done.  This man knew his audience and knew how to market.   Ike reminds me of a natty Donald Trump, someone who made his own name his brand and then built his image around it.  It would be difficult to imagine a more shameless self-promoter, although Shoemoney is definitely trying, but I give him grudging credit for being true to his message.  After all someone with the gall to say something as outrageous as “The Bible says that Jesus rode on a borrowed ass. But I would rather ride in a Rolls Royce than to ride somebody’s ass!” can never be accused of not practicing what he preached.  Also, if he’s wrong, he’s pissing of the Big Guy up there!

So, in honor of the great Reverend and his marketing prowess, I have below a few quotes that I scrounged up online.

“I’ve paid the cost to be the boss.”
“You can have the pie in the sky in the sweet by and by, but I want something sound on the ground while I’m still around.”
“Get out of the ghetto into the get mo”.
“If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven,” he would often say, citing Matthew, “think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in, He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”
“The Bible says that Jesus rode on a borrowed ass. But I would rather ride in a Rolls Royce than to ride somebody’s ass!”
“The LACK of money is the root of all evil.”
“Forget about the pie in the sky, get yours here and now.”
“Everything is a condition of the mind.”
“If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”

Two great scandals have beset our nation this month and two otherwise very intelligent and respected men have a little egg on their faces because of it.  First, Barack Obama comes out and supports a Harvard professor who accuses a police officer of being racist.  Then David Beckham antagonizes his own team’s fans by inciting one of them down onto the pitch.  The common thread is the utter lack of discretion by both men, who each have thrown gasoline onto the flames merely because they couldn’t stay silent.

Mea Culpa

Since his now notorious comments President Obama has backpeddalled furiously, inviting both men to the White House for a beer and has tried to diffuse the issue.  The college professor he professed to support, however, has been eagerly soaking up the limelight, appearing on talk shows and taking full advantage the publicity.  The President’s detractors have watched him squirm with great gusto.  The issue here is not whether the officer or the professor is in the right, the issue is that the President showed incredibly poor judgement weighing in at all.  The issue was not nationally significant, was not an area of government that was under the President’s purlieu, and its only importance was the hype that was generated by the media.  President Obama may as well have come out and weighed in on the true cause of Michael Jackson’s death, an issue one can imagine he was equally well informed of.  Even the great Bill “Heathcliffe Huxtable” Cosby came out and said “If I’m president of the United States . . . I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

Take that, Riot Squad!

Mr. Beckham’s guffaw is, if anything, even more understandable than Mr. Obama’s because at least he didn’t have plenty of time to deliberate his discourse.  For those of you who are not soccer fans, Mr. Beckham, an English soccer player who has been the darling of American media since his arrival in the States two years ago, decided last winter he didn’t want to play for his American team anymore and headed over to play in Milan, Italy.  After some discussion and hyperbole in the media, he was coaxed back to play the second half of the season.  Shockingly, the fans of Mr. Beckham’s team were not exactly supportive of him on his first match back.  Some fans sang songs and hung banners calling Mr. Beckham a traitor.  If you have watched any international soccer you would know that this is pretty tame stuff, no one insulted Mr. Beckham’s race, religion, nationality or family.  Yet he still felt compelled to go over to the sidelines after the first half and exchange insults with the fan’s and, according to them, invite them down on the field to settle it man to man.  One drunken fan idiotically jumped down and was immediately overwhelmed by security.

Again, the point here has nothing to do with whether the fans were wrong to insult a player who we can all assume was trying to win a match for their team.  The point has everything to do with Mr. Beckham’s total lack of discretion, after all, the fans are paying his enormous salary!  A wise player would have gone out to play well and then hoped to eventually win the fans over by showing results.  Now he has burned an important bridge and brought national attention on himself for the wrong reason.  As a further point, if his intention was to silence the fans the exact opposite is the most likely result.  The good news it that it should add a little spice to the next match.

The moral of the story, when in doubt don’t let it out, guard your tongue, and think twice before you speak.  The judgement and popularity of both men have suffered because they spoke irresponsibly or in anger over issues that were best left untouched.  I would caution anyone to, before speaking, ask themselves “what do I hope to gain by speaking out.”  Too often all of us react in anger or out of habit in manners and thus end up hurting ourselves without helping the underlying situation at all.  Mr. Obama and Mr. Beckham could have much more deftly handled their situations by exercising their right to remain silent and letting things blow over.

What ambiance does your blog create?  Do you plunge your readers into adventure with action photos or do you calm and sooth with soft colors and elegant imagery.  Is your blog matter-of-fact or is it a social gadfly?

Continue reading Create the Ambiance that Sells Your Blog

Last week was a dismal one in terms of moving on toward the dream. From Tuesday through Sunday I did not log a single hour on the website! Excuses, I got a few. My 1 year son was sick Tuesday through Wednesday, waking up every night crying. Continue reading Dream Deferred

It is easy to start the 1,000 mile journey, just take the first step. But what if you don’t know what direction to begin? To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat, if you don’t know where you are going, it really doesn’t matter which way you go. So to begin… the destination. Continue reading Give me a kick in the pants!