Tag Archives: life

April 13, 2015 · 9:42 am

Do More

This was not at all how I planned to start this week of blogging but sometimes reality rears its ugly head and our plans need to change.

Over the weekend I learned that a friend passed away.  He was relatively young – in his early forties – and while I’m at an age where death pays a visit in my world a lot more often than it used to, this one has shaken me up.  You see, this is a guy whose life was seemingly very much on track up until about 2 years ago.  He had some physical challenges – very bad arthritis – which made his job in golf difficult.  Things started downhill.  He tried to start a business but it never quite got off the ground.  His marriage broke up.  His social media activity became less frequent as did his general communication.  I even heard he was homeless at one point.  While none of the obituaries mention a cause of death, it may have been as simple as a broken heart, deep depression, or as complex as a suicide.  I don’t know that it matters.

I wrote something on this topic a year and a half ago:

We all know a person who displays symptoms of things not being right in their lives. Those symptoms could come in the form of substance abuse or a big weight gain. Maybe their personality has changed – gone from light to dark. If you care about that person, you probably think about a way to say something that asks about what’s going on. It’s hard – people have feelings, after all and they are probably just as aware as you are of what they’re doing. Probably more so.  The ensuing discussion can be hard for both of you.  Sometimes it can derail a friendship.  More often, it begins a healing process, but only if you care enough to say something.

I tried to follow that advice with this friend.  I tried to help with the business start-up, doing the digital work and marketing.  I invited him to come cook with me (he had professional training and loved a kitchen).  Other invitations to meet up went unanswered.  In short, I tried.  And yet I feel as if I could have done more. I didn’t really “say something.”

It’s easy to say that his family should have been helping – he has a lot of family in the area.  Who knows – maybe they were estranged.  Maybe he wasn’t keeping them informed.  How many of us tell our loved ones all is well when the reality is that our world has fallen apart?

I’m sorry to start the week on a down note but PLEASE.  If you have people in your lives who seem to be lost, helping them find their way is really about helping you too.  Be that selfish.  Do more. Don’t wait and don’t be afraid.  They might be gone before you overcome your fears.

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April 7, 2015 · 10:58 am

You Could But You Shouldn’t

You might have missed an item last week although you might very well have been the subject of the report.  Do you know about ad injectors?  I’ve written about them before, most recently when some genius at Lenovo thought purchasers of their laptops would want to have Superfish bundled with their machines.  Besides being a massive security risk it was annoying as hell, as a plethora of ads cluttered up users’ screens.  Well, it turns out that Lenovo doesn’t have a patent on either stupidity (at best) or maliciousness (more likely).  To wit:

More than 5% of Google site visitors have at least one ad injector installed. Of those, half have at least two injectors installed, and nearly one-third have at least four installed, per a study Google conducted with researchers at University of California Berkeley.

In other words, millions of people have code installed that will insert new ads, or replace existing ones, into the pages those people read.  You may be one of them.  How did this happen?  Generally, some miscreant bundled the ad injector with some other desirable piece of software which the user installed.  Tool bars (don’t install them!) and certain software download sites (download.com, for one) do this routinely.  As the Google Security Blog put it:

Unwanted ad injectors aren’t part of a healthy ads ecosystem. They’re part of an environment where bad practices hurt users, advertisers, and publishers alike. People don’t like ad injectors for several reasons: not only are they intrusive, but people are often tricked into installing ad injectors in the first place, via deceptive advertising, or software “bundles.”…Ad injectors are problematic for advertisers and publishers as well. Advertisers often don’t know their ads are being injected, which means they don’t have any idea where their ads are running. Publishers, meanwhile, aren’t being compensated for these ads, and more importantly, they unknowingly may be putting their visitors in harm’s way, via spam or malware in the injected ads.
So why does this happen?  Because it can and because some executive doesn’t have the moral courage to say “no” to an easy buck.  Any of us in business make choices like this all the time.  We could do things that are evil but profitable but most of us choose not to.  We should not be afraid to point out and shun those who do.
Business is hard.  Making the right decisions is part of what makes it so.  We don’t do some things just because we can.  Besides being immoral it’s myopic and as Lenovo found out the backlash can be worse than the original problem.  Make sense?

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March 30, 2015 · 11:15 am

Loyalty Isn’t Stupidity

We’ve been customers of a particular heating oil company almost since we’ve moved into this house. That was in 1985. Sure, on occasion we’ve asked around to see if we’re getting hosed on heating oil prices (not usually) and we’ve found them to be pretty reliable when there is an issue. The service techs show up quickly and are generally pleasant. Given the cost of fuel and the amount we use along with the annual inspections and tune-ups, the last 30 years of our business has probably been worth at least $100,000 to them. We won’t be renewing our contract in a couple of months. Here is why and it’s instructive for any business.

A few weeks ago we noticed some water on the basement floor near the water heater.  Our water heater is just a tank – the furnace actually heats it – so we called the oil company to come take a look.  Admittedly we told them we suspected a leaky water tank which they replaced.  The next day, water on the floor.  Repair comes back – it was a faulty circulator which they replaced.  Of course, that inexpensive part might have been the problem all along but no one actually ever checked it before pulling the tank.  New tank, new circulator and a dry floor.

That stopped after another couple of days.  More water in the same area.  We had the annual boiler inspection scheduled for three days later so we waited to see what it might be – hopefully not a furnace issue.  The inspector came and found the leak – it was a relief pipe and the leak was probably caused by an old or faulty valve.  The water tank?  The circulator?  No, they were fine.  The furnace was fine too.  Phew!

When we woke up the next day the house reeked of oil.  I thought it was just the residual smell from the burner cleaning.  The Mrs. went to look and found oil all over the floor.  Our fourth visit in a week from the fuel company to fix the problem (the cleaner had forgotten to shut something) resulted in a floor now covered in oil-absorbing kitty liter which they just called to come clean up in a few days.

In a sentence – the customer reported a problem which you misdiagnosed twice, selling them thousands of dollars of stuff they might not have needed.  You also screwed up a routine cleaning and now the customer is once again inconvenienced (the smell, having to be home for more service calls, etc).  This customer’s patience and loyalty are at an end.

That’s the lesson for all of us.  No matter how loyal a long-time customer has been, every interaction is an opportunity to win their business again.  When we take that loyalty for granted and are sloppy (a nicer word than dishonest), we make withdrawals from our loyalty bank account.  This company overdrew – we’re closing the account.  Our intention is to explain exactly why to them as we don’t renew.  Who knows – maybe I’ll just send them this link.

Lesson learned?

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