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Career, Economy, News

The Human Chess Piece

February 12, 2009

In the game of chess, each player gets 16 chess pieces. With those chess pieces, it is the players goal to take the other players king. Most chess players will tell you that chess is made up of calculative moves with each player thinking of all possible situations and scenarios that might happen two to three plays later. In comparison to the game of chess, companies function in a similar way.

Similar to the game of chess, a company has rankings withing itself that signifies power and influence. Just like the king is the most important piece in chess, the CEO or the corporation itself can be considered in the same way. Likewise, a company also has those that would be considered pawns. In today’s economy we have a very unique but also scary reality. On one side we have a corporation and on the other we have our opponent, the economy.

If we were to look at the situation as a chess game, the economy is pressing us hard and threatening each and every company. Whether its the small mom and pops stores or the large corporations, everyone feels the pressure of the economy bearing down on them. Like pawns getting picked off a chessboard, corporations are forced to layoff workers in order to stay alive and ‘protect the king.’

Their is no easy way to ‘defeat’ our opponent, but like in chess we must evaluate our the options and make the best choice we can. I believe that Grand Master Chess Player, Emaunel Lasker said it best when he said:

“When you see a good move, look for a better one” – Emanuel Lasker

While the situation is dire and we must make swift decisions, it is not without saying that we must think not only about the instant ramifications of our decisions but also the long term results as well. When certain moves seem like the right one, we must scrutinize it till exhaustion and make sure that we can’t make a better one. Learning from mistakes only makes us smarter and capitalizing on great ideas makes us stronger.

While I have compared corporations and its employees to a chess game, the same can be applied to anyone. Whether it be an individual, a family, or business, everyone in their own certain way is playing against an invisible opponent. Understanding your opponent and the situation is key to success. Without understanding what is going on is like trying to play a sport without knowing the rules.

While some may say that the saying “if at first you don’t succeed try try again” is the best way to approach things, I would disagree and say that it is not always the best approach. What I feel is wrong about that quote is that it says nothing about doing your best or giving it your all. What it should say is:

“Try your best, and if you don’t succeed, try again.”

For some chess players, they can win without even trying. Still, we must not take the ‘game’ we play lightly and must realize that the biggest difference between losing in chess and in real life is that we don’t get a rematch with it.

Career, Economy

Drop For Me!

February 9, 2009

Have you ever wanted to start an online business, but don’t know how? From finding the right personnel to run your daily operations to networking with the right individuals, starting an e-commerce business can be difficult. Understanding how hard it is to start a business, we have launched DropForMe.com. Drop For Me was started with the purpose of helping others who want to start drop shipping or an online business by providing them with a free supplier list.

One of the most difficult parts of starting an online e-commerce site or drop shipping is finding suppliers. While they do exist, it can be time consuming and also frustrating. We realized this and thus DropForMe.com was created.

So how does it work?

1. Go to DropForMe.com
2. Sign up for our free email list
3. Get emailed 3 new suppliers twice a day, 5 days a week!

Simple as that!

The suppliers we have are great for anyone interested in starting their own drop shipping business or even looking for suppliers for their current ones. Not only do our sources drop ship for you but many also offer wholesale.

We also took into account that some of our subscribers may not want to wait 30 days to get the full months list so we do offer the whole list for a small fee of $20.00 with an additional 80 suppliers on the list for a total of 200 suppliers.

I must give credit as well to Peter Shankman who inspired the idea through his “Help A Reporter Out” (HARO) free newsletter. Similar to his goal of helping others, it is our goal at DropForMe.com to help others who are looking for a quality supplier time and money so that they have more time to become successful!.

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Follow us on Twitter: DropForMe

Economy, Lifestyle, Shopping

Where Last Season’s Style Goes

January 27, 2009

In a time where getting the most out of your buck is key, shopping for consumer goods is an area that has most consumers re-thinking where they decide to shop. While malls continue to be packed, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people are spending money. On the contrary, with once dominant department stores like Macy’s and social hangout spots like Starbucks closing stores to save money, consumer spending has changed radically.

With consumers looking at how to save money, they have begun to turn toward outlet malls. For the consumer that has never shopped at an outlet mall, let me introduce you to the world of affordable prices for designer and name brand goods. While affordable is only applicable to certain situations, examples are the best way to show the huge bargain opportunity that is to be had at outlet malls.

Coach for example is well known for being a hot spot at outlets for shopaholics. Not only are their prices well below the MSRP’s but their selection is quite vast. It is true that among the plethora of bags their is a fair share of ugly bags, but the prices are the ones that dictate what is ugly and what is not.

Outlets get most of their merchandise from their affiliate stores after they either go out of season or are overstocked. Many consumers are aware of this and don’t mind wearing last seasons styles. The truth is that to look rich, you don’t have to be rich. Brands like Calvin Klein, Gap, Hugo Boss, Bebe, and even Juicy Couture have all realized this and have begun to tap the huge consumer base that shops at outlets. With small outlet stores beginning to be replaced by designer outlet stores, what was a once in a while stop for families and consumers has now become regular trips when they need to buy something.

In a way, outlet malls can be seen as the place where last season’s style goes to be reborn into an ‘affordable’ style. From electronics to clothing, it seems that you can find anything at an outlet mall. While most outlet malls may not have the ambiance or decor of most shopping malls today, they make up for it by allowing consumers to feel like they really got the most out of their dollar.

Economy, News

Death of The Newspaper

January 18, 2009

As a child, reading the LA Times was a big part of my morning routine. As I grew older, the sections I read also grew with age. From only reading the comic section, to reading the Lifestyle and Sports sections, the newspaper had always been a way for me to get my news for the day or week. Newspapers played such an important role in society that it is sort of odd to think that now their are talks that the days of waking up and reading the Sunday sports section or even the latest movie review maybe over.

With the Tribune filing for bankruptcy, the fall of the newspaper industry has commenced. Just the other day on my way home I was listening on the radio how one newspaper was forcing its writers to take non-paid days off just to stay in business. While it is easy to blame the economy for companies going out of business, their are many reasons why the newspaper industry is where it’s at right now.

The Speed of Information

For every newspaper, their is a website for it. With that said, who would pay for something they can get free. This is an obvious reason to why the newspaper industry is struggling to survive. With individuals being able to read articles that are in the newspapers for free online, people see no reason to pay for a newspaper subscription. Not only does it save money, but in most cases you can find out about a story even before it reaches newspaper stands. The speed of the information travels faster than the newspaper companies can put them on stands. As a result of this, fewer and fewer people subscribe to them.

While newspapers have made the transition to news online, they have entered a market where they cannot win. The reason for this is simple. The market they are trying to dominate is already dominated by other websites. For example, newspapers used to make a decent revenue from the classified section. Today, when people need to post something to the classified section, they go straight to Craigslist.org and list it their. Why? Because it’s free. The age of information has two basic elements. The first is speed. People want information as fast as possible. Even waiting 5 minutes for information is considered too long of a wait in some instances. The second element is cost. People now consider their options and weigh the cost against benefits. With information being so readily accessible and free, newspapers that charge people to post ads automatically become unreasonable.

No Real Content

Of the newspapers I still read, my local newspaper is one of them. The reason I read it, is because I want to learn what is happening in my city and because I feel like what they write about has value and the writers opinions. When you look at the LA Times or even the NY Times, you will most often find the same articles. What most newspapers do now is take articles from the Associated Press or even Reuters and just insert it into their newspaper. For them, it saves time and money. Still, for the reader it brings no real value if you can find it any newspaper or even just hop online and read it from the AP or Reuters directly. If the newspapers wanted to keep readers, they would have written ‘real content’ that would have been engaging to their respective cities.

With companies going out of business, many will now wonder if it is the newspaper industries turn. Since it is now feasible that such a collapse is near, the newspaper industry may follow the steps of automakers and large financial corporations and ask for the same kind of help that the government gave them: a bailout.

If it comes to that, it is my opinion that the government will not help the newspaper industry. The reason is this: one of the key determinants to who has been getting bailouts are those that are deemed crucial to our economy as well as to society. Carmaker’s were able to make the argument that millions of jobs and hundreds of smaller industries would fall as a result of their collapse. The financial corporations made the argument that the economy would never recover if they collapsed. So what about the newspaper industry? If they collapse, the result would obviously be layoffs, but other than that, people would turn toward the internet for their information or to watching the news on TV.

If it does come down to the newspaper industry collapsing I will miss picking up the newspaper early in the morning and reading the sports section as I get ready for my day. In the end it is not that we don’t like reading the newspaper, but that all in all, newspapers have become obsolete.