Time is money

A truism.  And some variations below, noted while waiting for a software fix ;)

1. Wasting time is wasting money.  
• Well maybe, for commercial endeavors.  Otherwise, wasting time is just that.
2. Spend money to buy time.  
• That works for personal and business 'work', from paying someone to clean your home to outsourcing your social media research so you have time for other things.
3. Your time is worth money.
• Depends on what you do with that time doesn't it?
4. Saving time is saving money.
• See #3 above.
5. Saving money is saving time.
• If it is time spent in making money, sure.
6. Spend time to make money.  
• Yup, if what you're spending time on is income-worthy.  Like polishing up your coding skills or 'networking' for consulting gigs or baking cookies.
7. Money is time.
• The reverse of 'time is money' though hardly anyone says that.  Maybe because of the perspective - if you're not hurrying up, you're losing money, but if you're spending money, you're what, losing time?
8. If you don't have money, spend the time.
• Assuming people who don't have money, will at least have the time - why students wait in line for hot concert tickets, and the rich pay the students to wait in line for them.
9. If you can't spare the time, spend the money.
• Again with the assumption that you're the kind of person who is more flush with cash than hours.
10. Money can't buy you time.
• Sounds like a contradiction to #2 doesn't it?  But this is about the time that you don't have at your control and is often controlled by nature, the time for stuff like healing.

Final thought: time is worth more than money.  Especially in relationships, ask any counselor (or mom!).  Spending time on the things you care about gives you experiences to savor, builds memories to cherish and long term happy feelings from both.  Wouldn't you agree?

Equal Value? 

Entrepreneurial attitude

I believe entrepreneurs are distinguished more by their approach to life than anything else.  Here are two stories I ran across recently that bolster that belief, of two very different people who exemplify the 'just do it' ethos of the entrepreneur.

First up, an 'oh wow' account from a young techie about how he went about making a new dice game.  It details how he went from concept to a game that is now ready to buy, pulling together whatever resources he needed (and learning a lot on what they were and how to find them) to make it happen - a departure from delivering software to delivering a physical product.  The 'oh wow' part is not only does the game sound cool, but that he took on the effort, and more importantly, the risk of failure, at building something new.

The second story is more of an 'awww...' one - an 89 year old woman (yes, 89!) who decided to pretty up her walking stick and seeing how everyone liked it, she started a business selling decorated canes to anyone else who wants a little cheer on their stick (cherry on the top - she raised expansion funds on Kickstarter!)  Here's a lady who happily plunged into entrepreneurship when everyone would be expecting her to be sitting back and relaxing in her rocking chair.

How many of us think of products like these and don't ever take them beyond a Sunday afternoon daydream spin?  These may not be ideas that "put a ding in the universe", "disrupt" anything or aspire to "billion dollar market caps", but their creators didn't let modest goals, lack of experience, or age hold them back from bringing them to market - and clearly, they had a lot of fun in the process.

Enjoy the stories on Happy Canes and Space Dice - do you have a story to share?

Image courtesy of Master Isolated Images/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The problem of solving problems

If you want to read upbeat, perky posts about the business of life and a life in business, you might want to subscribe to Claire Diaz Ortiz.  One of her recent posts was about problem solving and it  was definitely something I could relate to.

Claire suggests that you should ask yourself three questions before jumping into solving problems (I'm paraphrasing a bit): Is it really a problem? Do I want to do something about it? Should I do something now or later?

All valid questions, though most of us just jump into solving problems, or, more accurately, reacting to problems, without much thought, unless they tend to be big enough to warrant analysis before resolution.  But, if we do take the time to step back and consider problems, there is one important question that I would add to this list: Who owns the problem?

Answering the question of who owns the problem often changes the definition of, and the resultant solution to, the problem.  For example, you might say 'My coworker keeps eating chips half the day and the sound drives me nuts'.   Who owns the problem?  You might be tempted to say it's the coworker, but he's obviously having fun chomping down on the chips without a care as to what you think about it or what it's doing to his waistline.  It is you who owns the problem, and now the problem is not that he snacks on chips loudly but that you are bothered by it and might be better off investing in noise-canceling headphones.

Of course, if the problem is not owned by you, it can't be solved by you either - something that every parent should remember before taking over their kid's science projects.  Though I must admit there are some of us who actually enjoy solving other people's problems, way more engaging than grappling with Sudoku.  Ah well, we can't all be Dear Abby.

(Image courtesy of photoexplorer / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)