Day 31 – Social Climber

As I’ve got into writing this blog I have found myself surfing through other blogs on the net, some of the stuff is interesting, some mundane, some favour only one topic while other rattle on about a family and what the dog did this morning. Personally, I have been more interested in what their page looks like and being a novice at this have often wandered how they got it too look like it does.

I suppose if I was little more computer or internet savvy I could work it our quiet quickly but I’m not. What I have found though is the poll thingy that you see here on the right of these words. Every now and again I’ll change the question but in the mean time feel free to cast your vote. Also, a while ago, T said that she wished that there a “like” button – you know as in facebook – well, I discovered this quick reaction thing and you’ll see it at the bottom of each days edition. So once again, feel free to click away to your hearts content. Oh, and also it would also be quite helpful to me if you too shared this link to your fb friends.

A week ago this morning, the world woke up and found that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a firefight with American forces in Pakistan. Has anyone else noticed how that during the week the story has changed somewhat from the original breathless announcements? Now I understand that we are all human and hence prone to excitement and over exaggeration at times, but – there is always a but – people at the top of the food chain should surely know by now that what they say in the heat of the moment will be shoved down their throat by the media when the story changes. You would think that they would have got it by now; you would think that politicians, having been burned at the proverbial cross on more than occasion before, would have tempered their initial blurbs to the world until all the information was out there. This, I suppose, is not an example of my favourite topic, persevering stupidity but more the folly of excitable mankind. What does amuse me with politicians though is their propensity for this persevering stupidity, to think they can get away with it. Year after year, well known politicians are caught with their pants down, often repeating the same mistakes that others have been caught at. As I‘ve said before, in this age of an insatiable appetite for news and online gossip, they’ve got no chance. Someone, for a grudge or for a price, will talk. And someone on the inside of that mission in Abbotabad will at some point put their hands up and claim the glory. Mark my words.

I’ve also discovered, whilst writing this blog, that there is apparently money to be made from it if you get it out to a wide enough audience. Urban legend has it that there is more than one person in the mother city that does nothing but write and climb, it seems, the social ladder. It is said, in hushed tones I’ll have you know, that these people are sponsored by major players to drop into their blogs, mentions of certain products. Another, I’m told, does little but visit restaurants and coffee shops and blogs about them, receiving in return payment in kind. I assume? What a great life that would be, perhaps not too secure for the bank managers or mortgage lenders liking but a great life non the less. I have also found out that there are organizations for free lance writers and that one gets paid per word. My first question was, how big does the word have to be? Does a or the count? And apparently it does. I suppose I should know this, you probably already know this.  I find it quite interesting. Maybe this is a new income stream, what do you think?

The other thing that I am learning about all the time is the power of personal relationships in business. We sort of take this for granted, sales reps are taught it, repetitive visiting enforces the principle I suppose but how often do we credit it for the business we receive. How often do we credit it even for the enquiry and quote request? I’m quite involved in a networking organization (BNI) that has this relationship principle as its core focus. I am, through this, constantly meeting people and let it be said, I am continuously surprised by the people who just don’t get it, who even after being presented with irrefutable evidence of its working still don’t grab it with both hands. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person and so I pitch the benefits according to who I’m speaking too and adapt the pitch as I learn more about the subject.

Maybe it’s a South African thing? New Zealand, which is about the size of my lounge, has about double the number of members and double the number of chapters as South Africa has. I don’t believe that they are brighter or more intellectually in tune with business than this nation’s business people so what could it be? If you have any great ideas on this subject please share? I would love to hear them.

That’s about it for today, tomorrow it’s all about my assault on the Amanzimtexas night life and the people that I have met. A wise man once told me how to make a small fortune. He said, take a large fortune, put it into a restaurant and watch it become a small fortune.

Until tomorrow.