Pizza For A Dream

The End of the Book Culture??

The Houston Chronicle ran a concerning article this past weekend titled, The End of The Book Culture.  The article is based around an interview with author, Larry McMurtry who was making a public appearance in Houston.  In the article Mr. McMurtry states

"...I don’t see kids reading. I think little kids love to have stories read to them, but when they get to 10 or 11 or 12, they run into this tsunami of technology: iPod, iPhone, Blackberries."

The article goes on to discuss how this lack of reading doesn't bode well for the future of our country.

Cause for Concern

We have 3 kids of our own and with regular interaction with their peers, I've observed how over-the-top many families have gotten as they embrace new technologies. Drive down the streets of any town in the evening and notice all the DVD players running as families drive from place to place. Listen to the kids talk with each other and realize how many of families keep gaming consoles in just about every room of their homes.  Kids are immersed in technology from sunup to sundown.  What I struggle to understand is why parents are encouraging this? What redeeming value does playing Super Smash Brothers or Halo for the 1000th time have?  

I Wear Your Shirt

I recently came across a unique business venture that has now caught the attention of the New York Times.  The business is called, I Wear Your Shirt.  The entire concept is that Jason will advertise for one company a day for an entire year by wearing their company shirt.  He also does a webinar and advertises these companies on his website.  Talk about ingenious!!

A common theme of PizzaForADream is business ownership and the power each individual has to take control of their own destiny.  Jason has done this with such a simple idea.  How about you?  What steps are you taking to create a business that's yours instead of counting on the company you work for to keep you around?  You can do it!

Other Related Posts:

• The Chinese Bamboo Tree
• Taxes: Why You Should Own A Business 
• 7 Steps to Eating and Elephant (7 Steps to Starting a Business) 
• Dig Your Well Before You Get Thirsty   
• Are You an Apple or Potato Farmer? 

Stumble It!

¿uʍop ǝpısdn sǝɔuɐuıɟ ɹnoʎ ǝɹɐ

Nearly 7 years ago our finances were totally out of whack!  I had gotten out of the Air Force and had taken a big pay cut while making the transition.  I also had a huge quota increase (98%) in my second full year of the new job.  All of this equated to a $60,000 pay cut that year.  Overnight our finances were upside down!  Since then, we've slowly but surely worked our way back to where we are a month away from being out of debt.  Today we have multiple streams of income with several thriving businesses on top of a full-time paycheck.  While much of the beginnings of this "upside down time" in our life were caused by outside factors, it was our thought process that kept us in this situation much longer than necessary.  Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps gave us a step-by-step plan to follow in order to get us on track.  His books Financial Peace Revisited and The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness helped us completely change our thought process and set us up to win for the long term!

Dad bloggers win $100 at www.dad-blogs.com

 

I just found a really neat new community blog for dads that I think any dads out there should try out.  It's called Dad Blogs.  In order to promote the new community they're running a $100 contest for where anyone is eligible to participate.  Check out the contest details and the site! Stumble It!

A Serendipity of Working From Home and Homeschooling

This last week I wasn't feeling too well and spent alot of time sleeping in between getting the necessities done for work.  My wife and the kids were in another part of the house conducting school as is normal on weekdays for us.  Around lunch time my youngest daughter (7) knocked on the bedroom door and came in and asked if she could get me anything.  I hadn't eaten anything all day and told her that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich would taste great!

Please Tip Your Pizza Delivery Driver, They're Unsung HEROES of the Pizza Industry

TWEET:

Attention Pizza Delivery: When U charge delivery fee, driver does not get tip. It's one or the other. Gas $ is down, now what's your excuse?"

I read the above post on Twitter earlier and thought it important to STAND UP FOR THE DELIVERY DRIVERS OF THE WORLD!!!

With the downturn of the economy and the crazy gas prices of these last couple of years, many companies now add some sort of surcharge or delivery fee.  Pizza places are no exception.  The "delivery fee" added to the bill leads many pizza customers to believe that the driver's tip is taken care of with this "fee."  This is NOT the case.  The driver is being paid minimum wage or less (like a waiter or waitress in some cases) and is counting on your tips to be a big part of their compensation for each hour they work. 

Twitter is the Future of Social Networking. Read this Book!

I read a blog post about 3 months ago that was talking about how neat Twitter.com is.  I enjoy reading this guy's blog and figured I'd sign up and give Twitter a shot.  Since then I spent a couple of months playing around with it and just didn't "get it."  I wondered what everyone in the blogosphere who was "smoking."  Finally, I noticed a book while ordering from Amazon.com called Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online.  I wanted to exceed the Amazon $25 minimum to receive FREE shipping (great program, by the way), so I added this book to my order.

The Puzzle Pieces of Success

Today I spent some time relaxing and watching my wife, her sister, and our daughters put together a very complex 2000 piece puzzle.  Putting together puzzles has become one of the many holiday traditions that have evolved in our family over the years.  Watching them work made me think of how achieving success in any endeavor is just the assembly of one big complex puzzle!

The goal of each and every one of us should be to gather up as many puzzle pieces as is possible in our chosen area of endeavor. A book read here, a conference attended there, and a friendship made tomorrow are all puzzle pieces.  You never know exactly where the pieces are going to come from or how the puzzle will look when finished!

You, You, You, You, You...I Wanna Talk About Me!!!

In yesterday's post, I discussed one of Dale Carnegie's basic people skill's from How to Win Friends & Influence People.  Today will continue this discussion on the concepts of this MUST HAVE book.

The country artist, Toby Keith, popularized today's topic in his Toby Keith, Greatest Hits 2 album with the song Wanna Talk About Me.

What's the MOST Important Word?

I'll never forget walking by the self-help section in Barnes & Noble 10+ years ago and seeing a book titled How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.  I remember thinking to myself that that I would never want to take advantage of people and couldn't understand why anyone else would want to as well?!!  There was NO WAY I was ever going to read this book!!!!

Not too long afterward, I had a good friend of mine recommend the book to me and after several weeks of his prodding I agreed to read it.  I have to admit the book COMPLETELY CHANGED MY LIFE!!  If you haven't read it, it will change your life as well.  I've since called it the "People Skills Bible" and now read it every 2 years or so as a refresher.  I'll cover other concepts from this important book in future posts, but now it's time for "The MOST Important Word..."

It's not A or I or the or any other word you might think.  In fact, it's different for everyone, but I could also tell each and every person out there what it is for them.