MacGetIT

I recently received an email that had a company’s signature and Apple’s data detectors picked it up, but because of the way this person wrote their email signature the data detectors did not pick it all up and thus caused me time and energy to get things right. Here’s their signature:

John Doe

My Company, LLC – My Consulting

E-Mail:       mycompany@mycompany.com

The problem with this is Mail’s data detectors is that because of the spacing it saw the address and ONLY the “My Consulting” and not the rest of the line “My Company, LLC”. If this person had not added the “My Consulting” tag line for below their address then the data detectors would have picked up the whole business name and address. The correct way for the data detectors to work is to have the address as such:

This way ALL of the company address data is picked up. Adding other information before and after the address

The previous method left me having to work with many more mouse clicks that I was willing to endure, but a simpler solution is adding a vCard to his email signature which takes up far less of my time, and my perception of their view of my time, and thus improves my view of their business.

Or, do both. This allows one to cut and paste and address into something else such as another email or into a document and drag and drop the vCard onto Address Book with no typing needed.

Your thoughts?

Just had a discussion with a software engineer that stated the younger generation of college kids, and to a larger extent, people in general are having difficulty with their thinking processes. Namely, the difference between critical thinking and cynical thinking.

Critical thinking is where you analyze a problem and determine a solution using cause and effect of various processes. You take “no sides” of an issue and move forward with what’s best toward a vision of what’s possible.

Cynical thinking is where you lack or do not take into consideration various aspects of a problem and consider all of the alternatives to come to a logical and appropriate answer to a problem. A contemptuous or mocking attitude of various ideas or solution. Henry Ford told his engineers to work on an eight cylinder engine and they stated it could not be done. He said work on it until you solve it. It took them over a year, but they did it.

To often those in “political circles”, and we’re not just talking liberal versus conservative, but we also need to include businesses in this, both start-up and Fortune 500 companies, swap the definition of cynical and critical to fit their purposes. What is critical becomes cynical and visa versa.

So, which thinking do you have?

When asking someone what they do you often hear “I work for Apple/Microsoft/IBM as a software engineer” or you hear them say “I’m a doctor/attorney for such-and-such company.” On occasion you’ll hear someone say, and somewhat with pride, “I own my own car detailing business.” At the more aggressive person they’ll say “I’m a serial entrepreneur!”

What’s a serial entrepreneur? That’s someone that has started a company and grew it until another company bought them out. In some cases, they failed and have started again. And that’s the good thing. They keep going and learn from their failures and move on.

But what I recently heard by someone was they called themselves a “Parallel Entrepreneur.” While I could figure it out myself, I had to ask what he meant by it.

He stated that he had three companies that he was working on building and was looking to add more.

So there you have it. As an entrepreneur you are a parallel entrepreneur when you have two or more companies that you are building and growing.

So, a parallel entrepreneur builds multiple streams of income. Nice.

Is this what you are striving for?

I can’t say this any better. Napoleon Hill’s comments from an Andrew Carnegie meeting about success.

You have  a new year, begin it anew.

Here’s a good list of being innovative from a list of books by BusinessWeek.

You can get the answer here: Professional and Business Services!

….and this is a chance for you to discuss your business and using a Mac to start up your business. Your business story covers what you are thinking about using the Mac and can answer such questions as:

• short description of your company
• how and when did you first starting to use your Mac in your startup
• the good and the bad, strengths and weaknesses about using the Mac
• what lessons you have learned about startups
• what advice you’d give to people considering starting up a business
• anything else you can think of

The length of the story needs to be around 450 500-700 words or less (or more if you want me to edit it down some) and may contain one graphic/photo. Use iWork Pages so that I can insert it into my upcoming 6×9 sized book.

I’m looking for a mixture of businesses and even out of the ordinary businesses, for example animal husbandry, that tells how a Mac can be used in that business or industry. This is an idea I had and putting it out to see what Mac users want to talk about using the Mac and see what you all have to say about this idea.

Let me know what you think and what issues you see. I’m winging this as I go, so be prepared for changes, but I’m looking for suggestions as well.

P.S. Also think of this as a short introduction to who you are and I’ll figure a way of pointing your information to your company’s web site or blog so you’ll have more information to discuss your company with future customers.

Update #1: Think in terms of telling your story to others, tell it compelling enough so that people are entertained and enlightened at the same time. Also, enjoy writing it, have some fun.

Take a look at this video and see what you think.

What are your thoughts?

I have had a number of discussions recently with various types of entrepreneurs from graphic artists, videographers, restaurants owners, to construction owners and one thing that keeps coming to mind is what separates the good entrepreneurs from the great ones. But before I get to the issue at hand, let me tell you a story.

I was at one point very interested in Linux as my operating system of choice in the late 90’s. Why? Because the Mac OS was going to be based on FreeBSD UNIX based on it’s historical roots (you have got to see the lineage of UNIX). I wanted to learn the ins and outs of how it worked, getting “under the hood” of the OS. Going from the original Mac to Linux was like going from grade school math to calculus! Man, did I pull my hair out learning the command line interface (CLI). But that learning experience, as difficult as it was, made a profound affect on my understanding what a computer COULD do. I also began to understand Open Source Software (OSS) as it pertains to it’s development. Fast forward a few years while using Linux. I was talking with a photographer and I had mentioned that GIMP was a good OSS solution to try and it was FREE for his Windows system. He asked some more questions and as he was leaving he stated “If GIMP has one tool that PhotoShop does NOT have and it’s free then I’ll be getting it for sure!”

Fast forward to today. Talking with entrepreneurs I have stated that my book covers business essential steps and using the Mac to start a business. Because I was writing for a Mac nearly all have dismissed my book because I’m writing for a Mac, but only a few stated “Are you going to write one for Windows” and only one asked the most important question of all.

Can you tell the difference? Can you see where this is going? Can you see the progression?

If you have seen Dan Pink during his TED presentation he discusses the concept.

It’s about viewpoint and the degrees of viewpoint, focused versus broad.

I’ve bolded the hints, do you see it now?

So here’s the question:

What can I learn from your book?

That’s the difference maker between average entrepreneurs and good ones, the good ones learn from anywhere how to improve their business and apply it if it works and works for them!

But what about great entrepreneurs?

The difference between good and great entrepreneurs is the cost factor!

A good entrepreneur sees only a cost, a great entrepreneur sees the Return On Investment (ROI) of what they are purchasing.

Great entrepreneurs see the investment value of what they are buying, not the cost. A good entrepreneur sees a $20 cost, a geat entrepreneur sees a $40 investment if it saves/earns him $200!

So, which are you?

If you think this is wrong, here’s further info to back my comment up.

Just a quick comment. As an entrepreneur, how good are you at doing things? Are you good at only one thing? How about  some things? Are you good at everything?

As a startup you might not have the bucks to shell out to others to do things in the beginning, but as a leader it does come down to the most important question: while you may be good at doing everything, as a leader, SHOULD you be doing everything?

A great leaders learns to tell the difference over time and knows when it’s best to “let go” and someone else to do the doing.