Do you consume more than you produce?

“We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” ~ George Bernard Shaw


I often talk about saving for retirement.  Taking advantage of the 401k program to get the company match.   Taking advantage of the match = giving yourself a raise.   Not taking advantage = saying, “nah, I don’t need an extra 4%, my future is SOLID.”   My point when talking about saving for retirement is that you have to produce money and set it aside if you expect to be able to consume it at a future time.  If don’t right that 5%-10% can amount to a very comfortable retirement.  

That same concept applies to happiness yet people often fail to accept it.   If you walk around all day every day putting out negativity, talking about people or being grouchy at some point that will begin to accumulate into a wealth of negativity.  Everyone has a friend or family member like that.  Why not produce happiness little by little, day by day.   Over time that too will accumulate.


Produce -       1.  make or manufacture from components or raw materials.
                        2. cause (a particular result or situation) to happen or come into existence.

You have the raw materials to manufacture happiness around you.  Each one of us can make a conscious decision to produce positive things.   We all have these abilities naturally.   We can be nice, smile, donate, help, volunteer, be there for friends and family.   You can spend your entire day producing happiness.


Consume -      1. To destroy or expend by use.
                          2. to use up (eat, devour, ingest, swallow, gobble up, feast on)

You also have the raw materials to destroy happiness.   To use up all the happiness that is around you which will impact those around you.


When speaking about money, if you consume more than you produce you go into debt.  That debt almost always comes with the extra expense of interest, compounding over time that interest costs people a lot more money than they can afford.   If you make your money work for you have a nest egg of savings.  When you have a bad month you can just dip into your savings.   In my opinion happiness works the same.   If you are known for negativity and you just start being nice people won’t necessarily trust that right away, you have taken so much that you still have to pay off your negativity interest.   Some of us may have a lot of interest to pay off.  Start producing today and get yourself out of happiness debt!

Excuses are like a.....

A plague.   They’re like a plague!

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

George Washington Carver

Nothing good can come from excuses.  Whatever bad thing you did still happened.    The problem with excuses is they don’t allow you to grow.   We grow from our failures.   In sports most great athletes will tell you they learn a lot more about themselves when they suffer a loss.   It is incredibly easy to be great when everything is going great. 

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

Benjamin Franklin

I’m sure you don’t have to think very hard to find someone in your circle of friends who always has an excuse for everything.    I have a friend who’s never been fired for a good reason, in his 24 years of working he’s had about 100 bosses that “don’t get it” or are “stupid.”     You know what?   Maybe it’s you!   Maybe it would be easier if you’d just work a little more.   Look at yourself and figure out what needs improving.   Because quite simply…. We ALL need improving.  

Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.

David E. Kelley

The stuff we come up with sometimes is pretty amazing.   I say all the time the #1 reason I let people go is attendance.   I have a handful of employee’s who have been with me for 4+ years and have maybe been late 4 times.     I have others who are late 10 times in the 1^st month.    They have great excuses.   But the bottom line is that as employee’s WE are responsible for being to work ON TIME.   If we don’t answer the phones Magazines.com will cease to be.  J

I read too many stories like this...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/10/16/she-bought-a-sofa-on-installment-payments-now-its-straining-her-life/

Focus on the big picture. 

If you give that a read it is about a fairly common poor family.  If you've been around Magazines.com for a few months you've probably heard me rant about rent to own places before.  I hate them.  

If this couple had never walked into a Buddy's.  If they'd saved the money rather than paid interest.  They could have bought the sofa, the IPAD, a bedroom set for the kids and probably had another $500 left over.   Nice things are awesome.  But look at the big picture here.   Do you think those children would rather have an awesome sofa?   Or 3 hot meals every day?   Heck, go buy a couple bean bag chairs for a year and save that money.

The title of the article "Why the poor pay $4,150 for a $1500 sofa"  should say it all. 

I went our to Buddy's rent to own and pulled up the furniture.   Not sure which sofa this family bought but I just picked this one.

http://www.buddyrents.com/furniture-rent-to-own/living-room/sofa-loveseat/?buddys_page=BHF_PID_127_CID_1130_MID

$38.99 per week for 75 weeks.   Sounds cheap!  $40 a week, I could do that.   If you do the math on that you will pay just under $3000.00 for that sofa.

I then googled the name of the great deal from Buddy's and found the same thing for $1223.50.

http://www.furniturecart.com/presley-cocoa-reclining-living-room-set-31501-lr-set-signature-design.html?gclid=CK65oeGJucECFahr7AodU1EA_g

If you were to save your $40 per week you could have this one in just 30 weeks. 

I'm not saying its easy.  When I was making $6.35 an hour and sleeping on the floor because I has ZERO pieces of furniture and no TV there were several times I took a long look at some kind of $30 per week items.   Like anyone else, I want it now!   Add in kids and as a parent you don't want them sitting on the floor.  You don't want them sleeping in your bed.   You want them to have the best.  

This article mentions an IPAD.   $1400 people are paying for a $500 or $600 computer.    YIKES!

Look, if you know me you know I have a deep hatred of interest.   If I could get away with it I'd never pay one penny in interest.  EVER!   There are some things that happen.  Life happens sometimes and no one is perfect.   But paying three times what something is worth.  People walk into those stores every single day.   According to the article some locations see as much as 75% in repo's.   

Today is Someday

People say "someday" all the time.   Someday I'll do this.   Someday I'll do that.

Well, today is someday.  Just as good as any other day.  If you wait a few days that day will still be called "today" on that day.  That day right now is someday.  Which can really be any day.   Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all someday right now and they'll all be today on that day.  

Honestly, brutally honestly, any reason that someday can't be today is an excuse.  Rationalize it any way you'd like, but the reality is that you can do something today.   Write some goals, take a step. 

Want to lose weight?    Walk for five minutes.  If you already did five do ten. 

Want to quit smoking?   Smoke one less.   Two less.

Trying to save money?   Put away $5.   $10.  Set up an extra savings account, probably take $25 to open, then add a little.  

Want to go back to school?   Look up the costs for a class or two.  Look at the class schedules.  Check into online.

Something.   You can do something today.    Because in all honesty, today is someday.  Its also any day.  Could be THE day.   The day you made a difference in your own life. 

Tomorrow will NEVER come.   Every time we get there it magically turns into today.   And tomorrow is once again a day a way. 

Are YOU worth five minutes of your time?  Ten minutes?    You have 100% control over your time.  YOU choose to make today someday.  

The Right Path is Often the Harder Path

Good Morning Class!

It is often harder to do the right thing.   If you want to be healthy you should eat right.   But ice cream tastes WAY better than broccoli.   I think everyone grasps the fact that smoking is bad for you, but people do it.   I love it when you offer someone junk food and they say “well, I don’t NEED a cookie.”    I mean, nobody NEEDS a cookie.  It isn’t like anyone’s ever been at a doctor, he looks down at the chart and says “you know what you need?   You need a cookie.  STAT!”   But they’re pretty good so I’m gonna keep eating them.  

The same can be said at work.   So easy to NOT put a note in.   Takes longer to put the note.  The chances are this customer wont call back, so we probably don’t need the note.    But is it right?   Part of customer service is taking full care of the customer.   We’ve probably all had a situation where we had to repeat ourselves because a rep at Verizon or Comcast or Directtv didn’t do what they said they were going to do.    It would have been more work for them to follow up like they said.   That is why customer service has a bad rap now a days.  

“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.” ~ John F. Kennedy

We all know we need to save money for our future.  But going out on the town it FUN!    Hard work to stay home when everyone is out.   Being a parent and disciplining your child is really hard.   You want them to always be happy and to have all the things you didn’t.   But giving them the world often isn’t the right thing to do.   Letting them get away with stuff isn’t the right thing to do. 

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”  ~ Buddha

To steal a line from Dave Ramsey  -   “Children do what feels good, adults do the right thing.”      Many people grow up without learning to be an adult.  

Like many things I talk about this is 100% up to YOU.   Even if you haven’t been the most adult of the adults you can make a decision right now to get on the right track.  With any aspect of your life.   You can pull out your QA form and make sure you are doing everything the customer AND the company want you to do.   You can eat right, quit smoking, save for your future, go back to school or whatever you want to do.  

I believe that if you get on the right path, and you do the right things….. You’ll improve yourself each and every day in some small way and in time you will have made a difference in your life and in those around you.

A Simple Question

What are you worth working for?

This is important for you.   You probably have some dreams.   Some people have goals.   A wish list or a bucket list. 

During the interview process I always ask people “What do you want to be when you grow up.”    Younger people typically still have aspirations of going to college, many people say some type of social work.    Then I ask what are they doing to get there.    “Well, nothing.”     You’re not just going to become a social worker.   You’re not just going to wake up one day with a law degree or the knowledge to be a doctor.  It takes work. 

Unless you are one of the extremely fortunate people who win the lottery for the jackpot  more than likely a big pile of money isn’t going to fall into your lap.   You, like the rest of us have to work for it. 

Some of the things on your list you probably don’t want to work for.   That’s OK, the choice is yours.   I think it would be pretty cool to be a teacher.   But at this point in my life it probably isn’t going to happen.  I haven’t worked toward that.  I could.   But I won’t.    For me, that’s OK.     Maybe you want to do that.  That’s OK too.

I believe that the quality of live you will have is in direct proportion to the amount of work you are willing to put into it.   Social workers tend not to make a great amount of money.  But they are driven to help people and over the course of a career they can help a tremendous amount of people.   They put in the work and the few that I know are extremely happy with their lives.   They work hard for other people and their quality of life is terrific.   

“Fact: If standard of living is your number one objective, quality of life almost never improves. But if quality of life is your number one objective, standard of living invariably improves.” ~ Zig Ziglar

In a nutshell, figure out what you are passionate about and then work for it.   

This Little Light of Mine

I try to let mine shine.   Let it shine let it shine let it shine.

You should too.   But what are you shining it on?   We’re funny critters, often pointing out the worse parts about ourselves.   Seeing the bad qualities and focusing on our failures.  

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”  ~ Elbert Hubbard

Literally and figuratively if you look toward light the darkness will immediately be out of your vision.   Literally = your shadow, if you are looking at the brightest light your shadow is behind you and you cannot see it.   You know it’s there, but you cannot see it.   (I’m probably going to see Bill spinning around in his office later like a dog chasing his tail.)   Figuratively = when you focus on the positive things you don’t have time to shine light on the negatives, you are moving forward.   

In church you may hear it a little different.   Fill yourself with the Holy Spirit and the Devil can’t get in.    Same message, focus on the things you know to be good in everything that you do.   If you consume yourself with the good things the bad can’t get it there.

If you wanted you could drive your car in reverse all the way to work every day.   Would not be easy, but you could make it.    Seems incredibly stupid to do something like that but I’m sure if you think real hard you could think of someone who lives their entire live doing things backward.

Positive and negative are both directions.   And you can’t go in two directions at the same time.   So pick one.   The choice is yours.

Determine YOUR Response

This is one of those emails that I always seem to get flack for.   But here we go……

Situations aren’t stressful.   Situations are annoying.   They aren’t embarrassing or frustrating.   Your response can be, but the situation isn’t. 

Every day I go pick Riley up from day care and there’s Miss Amy sitting behind her desk with a big smile on her face.  Not more than 3 feet away in any given direction all hell is breaking loose as a room full of 5-10 year olds run a muck!   She’s always calm, always asks how I’m doing.  I’m in there for about 1 minute and I’m wanting to smack a child.  J    Miss Amy sits in there all day every day.   The situation is the same for me as it is for her.   She just handles it better than I ever would.   I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that if I were to bring her down here and listen to some of what we have to go through it would probably drive her up the wall.   But we manage. 

YOU determine how YOU respond to things.   Here’s the one that gets everyone riled up -   Person cuts you off in traffic what do you do?????   Speed up, ride their tail, flip them off, yell at them through the window???    Pull over, get in a fist fight???    Yeah!!!    You could.   You could also just let it slide.     That situation isn’t hostile.   You might be.  They might be.   Both might be.   But the situation is just the situation.  You can do with it what you please.   When I see someone driving like a maniac I usually just get out of their way.   It isn’t worth to me to get in an accident or a fight.  Honestly that person and situation isn’t worth me even getting riled up about it.  So I make my choice.    (that isn’t to say that I’ve never lost my cool or experienced some road rage)  

I’m not saying you have to.  I’m just saying you could.    You can go home tonight and just pre-determine that you are going to have a GREAT night with your friends and family.   Any given situation does NOT control your response.   You determine that.   You decide what and how your behavior is.  

I believe that the more good I put out the more good I get back.  I truly believe that.   It isn’t a 100% formula, but most days I think go pretty well.  When I’m having a bad day and I just feel like being in a bad mood…….  I think bad things tend to happen.  

The Journey to Greatness?

“Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American Dream. That's the greatness of this country.” ~ Rafael Cruz

If you live in this country you have it better than the vast majority of the people on the planet earth.   So that’s pretty great.   Every once in a while I send out an email that compares our lives to some other places.     Here’s one – About 2.5 billion people, or 35% roughly, don’t have access to a toilet.    I know right!

We have some pretty cool advantages when we are born here.  But are you on a journey to greatness?

To me the journey to greatness is overcoming your challenges.   Accepting that you are not perfect and fighting to improve on your life.  Even if you start small you achieve a goal, and another, and another and pretty soon you almost begin to feel like you can accomplish anything.  

Basically – Be on a constant mission to increase your own expectations. 

How good of a parent are you?    Want to get better?   Hopefully you said you are a good parent AND you want to get better.   Think for a minute about how you can be better.    Could you spend another 10 minutes reading to your child if they are younger?   Could you be just a little more patient?

Do you want to be a better child?   Sibling?  Cousin?  Friend?  Spouse? Employee?  Employer?   

If you really tried to be a little tiny bit better every single day how much could you gain in a month?   Or a year?  

These are all challenges.    It takes work to be a better parent.   To be a better child.   To be a better employee.   Challenges are uncomfortable.   UGH!  I hate work!  

If you focus on these small challenges and making yourself a bit better each and every day you’ll be amazed at where you end up in a year.  Or five.  Or ten.  Or twenty.

Everyone Makes Mistakes

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan Arguably the best basketball player to ever play the game. He missed 9000 shots. Loser! A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. B. F. Skinner You’d be amazed how many times in my interviews when I ask a person about the biggest mistake they ever made, they sit back, take a deep breath and say “gosh, I just can’t think of a mistake I ever made.” Really? You never had a typo? Never placed an order wrong? Worked fast food and never made the wrong sandwich or accidentally poured coke instead of diet? Really? I consider myself pretty good at what I do and I make mistakes all the time! Just today Bill came into my office and said one of the new reps didn’t know what her goal was, he went to the board and the goals posted are September goals. My fault! Why is it so hard to just admit that for some people? We spend more effort trying to cover up our mistakes than we do just learning from them. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Albert Einstein A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous. Alexander Hamilton

The Time Has Come For Everyone to Clean Up Their Own Backyard.......

Hey Troop! Before They Go Knocking On Their Neighbors Door. One of my favorite quotes of all time. True words to live by. You may have heard it another way, "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Basically it means that unless you have all your stuff together you shouldn't go around telling everyone how to live their lives. We see it all the time from our leaders in this country. The guy telling us the loudest how it is wrong to be gay.... Turns out, he's gay. A guy on the tax committee, always telling everyone to pay their taxes... Turns out he didn't pay his taxes in decades. Doesn't matter what political party, seems like every month or so we catch someone doing something they get on their soap box about. On a smaller scale I've seen it for years in the work place. Some of you may have heard of Pat, she used to work here and most of the time she had top sales. When Bill was still on the phones Pat was on the night shift and all the day shifters would say "the day shift gets all the cancels, night shift gets all the sales." One day, Pat wanted to come to the day shift, so we moved her and almost instantly all the night shift people would say "night shift gets all the cancels, day shift gets all the sales." Couldn't just be that Pat was doing something a little better could it? Nah! Must be the customers. If you follow UFC at all you may know who Chuck Liddell is, he was the Light heavyweight Champ for quite sometime. There was a point where he went 9-2 with 9 knock outs. People would say "man, that guy keeps getting lucky with that punch." In and interview someone asked Chuck about that and he basically said 'I must be the luckiest guy in the world because I've landed that lucky punch 9 times in a row.' Of course fighters often don't want to admit that on that day someone was better than they were. So it had to be some cosmic force. Had to be luck. Its so easy to just chalk up a loss to something else. So easy to say "so and so gets better customers than I do." Piece of cake to throw your hands up and say "well, it just isn't my day." "I'm unlucky." Why not put in a little effort and see if you have room to improve? What? Effort? He wants me to put out effort? Shocking I know, but there are people who make this a successful career at Magazines.com. There are people who work here for a few years and put the money toward college and move on to something they've been wanting to do their whole lives. Putting in a little effort can reap huge rewards. So, clean up your own backyard before you go knocking on your neighbors door. The funny things is, your backyard should really never be fully clean. You should strive to always get a little better.

Comfort is in the eye of the beholder

Are you comfortable where you are? You should be. And yet, you shouldn’t be. The argument for “You should be” – ”There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” ~ Jane Austen There are certainly times you should be comfortable. You should strive to have some comfort in the home that you have provided and with the family you have. You should be somewhat comfortable with your place in life and you direction. Please don’t take the rest of this email as NEVER being comfortable with where you are or who you are. But do understand that life begins on the outer edge of your comfort zone. If you are living your life too comfortably, you’re probably missing out on something. The argument for “You shouldn’t be” - “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. You should develop a little bit of an edge to get beyond what you know. Meet new people, try new things. Challenge yourself on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Do you know what you are capable of? I hope I don’t yet know what I’m capable of. If you have children they probably amaze you from time to time. I mean really make you sit back and go “how the heck did they know that?” We get too caught up in the old saying ‘can’t teach old dogs new tricks.’ I think you can teach anyone anything at anytime. Given the right amount of effort, time and tools. Don’t ask me how, but this is how my dog sleeps. He looks so ridiculously uncomfortable like this, but every night…..there he is, on his back and all twisted up. Who am I to tell him to roll over and curl up like every other dog. Like you, he gets to choose what comfortable is. Apparently for him comfort is whatever the heck he’s doing in this picture. Rock climbing sure doesn’t look comfortable to me, but a lot of people love it. When I tell people I do Ju Jitsu they look at me like I’m crazy and the truth is that grappling is one of the places I feel most comfortable, also where I feel the most challenged. Ultimately who cares what anyone else thinks of your comfort and your challenges. Just get out there and do it! “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. You should develop a little bit of an edge to get beyond what you know. Meet new people, try new things. Challenge yourself on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Do you know what you are capable of? I hope I don’t yet know what I’m capable of. If you have children they probably amaze you from time to time. I mean really make you sit back and go “how the heck did they know that?” We get too caught up in the old saying ‘can’t teach old dogs new tricks.’ I think you can teach anyone anything at anytime. Given the right amount of effort, time and tools.

Do or Do Not - There is No Try

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. Michael Jordan If you don’t know who Michael Jordan is he may be one of the worst basketball players of all time. He missed 9,000 shots in his career. Horrible. The guy lost 300 games. He MISSED shots with the game on the line 26 times. His teammates trusted him with that last shot and he blew it. Of course, while missing all those shots and losing all those games he also won 6 championships. Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. John Wooden If you don’t know, John Wooden was a college basketball coach who lost 162 games. His 1st year of coaching at the high school level he went 6-11. Kind of surprised he stuck with it. Of course, after sticking with it all those years he did bring UCLA to win Championships in 1964, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and 75. Soooo, I guess that’s pretty good. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas A. Edison If you don’t know, Thomas Edison was known for saying “I’ve never failed, I have succeeded in proving 10,000 ways a light bulb will not work.” Of course, he did invent the first practical light bulb. Like Mike says, everyone fails at something. Each one of us will fail from time to time. It is fine as long as you continue to move forward. Continue to get back up and keep trying. I can’t imagine being in Thomas Edison’s shoes. Everyone thinks you’re crazy and you’ve failed that many times. The quote changes but there’s no doubt it took him forever to create it. Historians will tell you he failed around 3,000 times. How many of you would try to do something 3,000 times without success? I think an argument can be made he was a little insane! DO NOT GIVE UP! Chase your dreams. Figure out what you want and go get it!

Monday Mayhem

Hello all, We've had about 5 people call out. Different area's have been hit different. Overall it does seem like the roads aren't bad if you just sloooooow doooooown. If you are out there, drive slow. Like really slow. People going fast are wiping out. Funny how speed + ice doesn't seem to work in a 1500 pound vehicle. Something about momentum from high school science class? I don't know. #1 priority - BE SAFE!

March, in like a lion.

A very cold and icy lion! Here's the deal. I have no power and Ice everywhere. I'm watching the news on kristas phone. According to the the ice line ice right about where I 40 is. So north of that is messes up. Is seems like south of town is not icy. So I'm going to open at the normal time but above all else be careful. Drive slow and give yourself plenty of time. Ill be leaving shortly. :)

It's Ffffffffffff

FRIGID out there! Magazines.com will be open today. All 3 news stations are saying to take it slow but the major roads are pretty good. Keep it slow and steady on some of the side streets. they called out Hendersonville as some of the bad roads in the area. Just saw a report from LaVergen where they said roads were passable, just sucked that it is 9 degrees. -10 with the wind chill. Bundle up and head on in. :) Warm up your car and give yourself some extra time.

Monday - January 6

Hello all, Wanted to let you know that I'm on the snow storm, keeping an eye on everything and I'll post something before 5:30am. As usual if we are open make sure you give yourself plenty of time, be safe and take care. As of right now most schools seem to be closed and all the counties except for Davidson and Williamson. You can check channel 2, 4 or 5 news for school closings.