You've got questions? Well, I've got my own answers, and you can see if they work for you or if they spark a contradiction or idea that works for you.
Some common and not-so-common questions related to technology that can help you get things done, not just faster, but with the smarts you already have!
Technology is constantly evolving, how do we keep up? Well, as some of the larger companies know, you have to diversify the products and services you offer and provide a means for them to all connect together in some way or another. (This is meant to spark interest in areas that I will be mentioning so that you become your own boss, at least when it comes to what to educate yourself about.)
Apple iTunes is an example of this. They came up with an idea to not only make it easy to download music, but to make it almost exclusive to their products. They also, if you've noticed, don't sell a lot of products. They pick a basic setup for the hardware of any of their devices and stick to it until its well enough to release and are consistent with providing updates. They also appeal to the part of us that cheers for the underdog. Believe it or not, Apple isn't much of an underdog anymore. Sure, in terms of numbers of computers running their operating system they have a small percentage compared to Microsoft, but they make everything as intuitive as possible and are highly innovative.
Take the iPad for example in terms of investing in technology. Read below for clarification on what investing REALLY is. The iPad is a great idea, right? So what does that mean? Buy stock in apple? Not a bad idea, but you'd need keep in mind the price per share being in the upper $200s, which means that the usual short-term fluctuations do not produce a high yielding percentage. Don't you think a lot of people are going to buy apple stock? (7% of stock trading is done by non-institutions, or specifically, individuals). Yeah apple might be a good purchase, but if you know anything about Steve Jobs who is somehow still miraculously alive when he has pancreatic cancer, to my knowledge, which is statistically among the worst type of cancers you can possibly get. Maybe he has an "iRemoveCancer" device in him. Unsuccessful jokes aside, bless his heart, he is a great role model in most ways, but one has to wonder if something might happen to his health in the near future...and he's the one that basically turned Apple around and made it the powerhouse that it is today. Would you trust the next person to do it as well, or even better? There aren't many people out there like Steve Jobs working in a niche market he has created himself. Just one of those "not gonna read about it when researching the finances and managerial success of the company etc." that I think one ought to consider, and remind you to consider everything, even if it means dismissing it. At least you considered it enough to make an informed decision to dismiss it. When/if you become an expert, that will probably be second-nature for you, Warren Buffet style.
But if you read below, you'll see that if you're going to invest, INVEST, don't TRADE. I've watched thousands of dollars in stocks go down, and it was disheartening, but I was confident in what I knew about the company relative to its competition, so I stuck with the stock and it went back up to where it was, and then slowly continued to increase. If you want a good stock to buy and not have to do anything to accumulate money, while I cannot guarantee that it won't go down considerably (the Dow Jones Industrial Index Average (technology stocks are primarily in the NASDAQ) is actually expected to go down considerably over the next few months, but you know whats interesting? I heard its also supposed to go up considerably in the next few months. I trust both sources, but what I know tells me that it will drop down, then slowly and steadily go up to heights people did not expect. How do I buy an index, you ask? You can't really. But there is a way to invest in a sort-of stock know as the "Diamonds Trust Series..." with the stock/ticker symbol being DIA, just so you know that's not an L, it an " i ." dia in lower-case. Read about it, its basically the top 30 stocks as considered by a group of individuals, and if any of the companies in that 30 goes under, its promptly replaced (to my knowledge). If you go to yahoo finance and look at the DJIA or DIA (which I believe is relatively new) so look at the data for dow jones industrial index and there will be an option under graph/chart for "1d, 5d, 1wk, 2wk, 1m, 6m, 1y, 5y, MAX." Most finance sites have a max option. Just look at the graph, and if you want to cut out the first 50 years or so, so that you can get a better idea of its more recent path, not much will be different. It's not a straight line up, but if you average it all out, it may as well be. The question is, can you be confident enough, and have a strong enough stomach to watch it go down if it does, even if it goes down by a lot? (which, btw, when a stock goes down a lot, unless it's a company that's gone from like 20-1000 down to 5$ or less per share, is at a serious risk for failing, or if you buy it and that does happen, it might be bought, like HP buying Palm so that they can release their iPad competition.
Let me clarify something first. I suggest you get a copy of Graham's revised and newest edition of "The Intelligent Investor" so that you know what it means to be an investor. In a few words, it means knowing the market you're investing in, knowing the company you want to invest in, as well as their competition and any up and coming companies that can eat away at your company's market share enough to make almost no profit, which generally, in this economy, means losing money with the rate of inflation staying at a relative high. I loosely explain inflation in the paragraph below.
Inflation basically means there is more money being printed and in circulation, which logically and almost always leads to the US dollar having less worth.) Inflation is inevitable in our growing market (and I would say economy, but search google for the unemployment rates by state and you'll see what I mean...keeping in mind that these are the people that are reporting that they are between jobs and/or collecting unemployment aid until they can get back on their feet. Some people seem to think that there just aren't enough jobs out there. I personally don't believe that is true. But I do think that you have to make some huge sacrifices if you want a job immediately and can't find one in your area of expertise. So, can you find a job? Yeah, but probably one that pays a lot less, is in an area you don't to move and/or drive to, and almost definitely is one that doesn't challenge you like your previous job did. I'm going to repeat the following sentence several times because it applies to just about everything. DIVERSIFY YOUR ASSETS. That can mean literally your potential liquid assets in terms of your financial situation, or even your knowledge of topics. Some say that its better to be an expert in one thing than mediocre in a handful of things. Why not both? You are probably already an expert in something, why not apply that or extend it to another related area and learn more about how just about everything in this world is related in some way or another.
If you are out of luck with a job, I say you find a job to interview for. Chances are, you know how to interview for a job well enough since you managed to get your previous job. If not, you'll learn. BE PERSISTENT, but be wise in your persistence. BE CREATIVE. When you go to a job interview, start to practice answering questions in a job interview with different answers. You'll likely still come up with some good answers, but who knows, one of those new ones during your experimenting and exploration could be so unique that the employer can't forget your name when they are deciding who to hire. Another important thing to do, which you may already know, is to do extensive research on any job you are applying for, even if it is McDonald's. Remember, you want to demonstrate your intelligence and creativity, but make sure that the person interviewing you isn't someone that stands to be threatened in terms of losing their job if you are making suggestions about improving an area of the company where that person is actually contributing to stagnation and not growth. Then again, if you want to justify it in a Darwinian sense, go for the job; survival of the fittest. BE CONFIDENT. That's easier said than done and is NOT to be mistaken with being arrogant or cocky or a flat our liar in terms of knowledge of a certain area. The more you examine how you think and what you believe and are willing to be humble and say "Yeah, that's good, but I can do better in these areas..."
HUMILITY and PERSISTENCE will get your far. I'm not saying they are the only thing that you ought to have, but they can go a loooong way in helping you either create a job for yourself, start your own business as a consultant in the area that you are an expert in. Remember, PERSISTENCE, but be wise in your persistence. I remember when I was a kid, I read about Benjamin Franklin, and I used to talk to my dad about him. My dad had a lot of admiration for him because he wasn't the jack of all trades, he was pretty much a master of all trades. You know what I remember most about him? Other than the fact that he was not a serious politician and is the man on the $100 (the only non-president on our money, let alone our largest unit of currency on a sheet of denim (yeah, money is made with denim, not paper). Weird, isn't it? But then think about older money that looks so wrinkled it ought to have torn but didn't. It would have if it were standard paper, but the type of denim used for our currency is pretty fascinating. Back to Benjamin...he was also asked to participate in drafting the United States of America's Constitution. Check out our federal website's LOC which you and I are paying taxes for it to exist,as it should. I am leaving a lot of this up to you by not giving you direct links, but if you look up the Library of Congress (LOC) on a search engine like Google or Yahoo or Bing, you will find a .gov address which is likely to be the one you are looking for.
One thing you have to remember is that if you are to start any sort of small business or sell products or promote yourself as a professional or whatever it may be, I suggest you JOURNAL (typing it would save time) your process of learning how to best advertise for the cheapest and highest yield. That way, when your business goes booming, you can go back to your Journal, spend some time here and there editing your journal and either kindly share it with others, or sell it for a decent price for all your hard work! I still think that the best way to advertise, maybe not in numbers like online advertising (which you'd be a fool not to learn about and utilize, to be blunt), since you can maybe get thousands to take a look at your new writing, but only hundreds to pay for it. The best way to get the best ratio of return on investment is to learn to be more sociable with anyone and everyone, but to do so in a cheerful, humorous, and INTERESTED way. Remember, a seemingly (genuine) INTERESTED person is an interesting person. I have had one-sided conversations with others and just because I am barely doing any of the talking, I am still showing them that I care and that I am listening. I was apparently blessed and/or lucky enough to be the type of person that is interested in literally everything in this world. If I don't find something interesting, I keep looking. Anyway, that personal touch, and having several of your own business cards to give people can be helpful. Oh, and you know what, if it seems like its okay, when you get someone's business card, either get two, or make a copy of the one you get with your camera phone or type in the number or write it down or save it or something. Wouldn't it be great to hand out your own, but specifically someone else's business-card (with their prior permission, I would suggest) so that they in turn potentially return the favor? The same goes for the person to whom you are giving the cards.
Do not be fooled by the "get rich quick schemes." Just look at the United States, one of the most successful countries now and in history. It's by no means the best it can be, but its still pretty amazing. When you look at the demographics in terms of occupation, culture, ethnicity, gender, income, region, state, cities, etc., you will see that most people make a decent living. After reading about that, consider this: most people have some form of access to the internet and if these get rich quick schemes actually worked at the rate/% that the scheme is promising, you would have heard of it without even asking anyone, not by randomly coming across it on the internet. That doesn't mean it won't work, but often the "get rich" part depends a lot on luck, and the "quick" part actually becomes a time consuming job that may or may not pay out in the end. The odds are against you, my friend. Then again, it doesn't heart to be a serial reader of get rich quick schemes to see what you can utilize to make your own get rich quick scheme that yields better results! Or, if you have a site, you can simply attract others by explaining to them all the trickery involved in most of the get rich quick schemes and how to find out if they are bogus or not. I'll tell you one thing. Aside from this new and awesome knol (short for knowledge I'm assuming), Wikipedia is unbelievable when it comes to people coming together to write something about popular get rich quick schemes that take advantage of you. Or jumping to an almost completely different subject, learning more about a medical procedure that is going to be done on you.
Choosing the right doctor. First of all, do not use the yellow pages unless you're trying to jog your memory of someone you already know that is reputable. See, that's what you want; someone that has a good reputation with a variety of people AND is well-qualified to address your issue. While you can learn a lot on the internet, there really isn't an internet substitute for working hard through undergrad, medical school, residency, and the several years after that to establish a good reputation. In the end, if you are using collateral information about a particular doctor to find out if he/she is good enough...rather, more than good enough, you can tell that doctor about those that spoke well of him/her and suggested that doctor, and while I haven't used this word yet because it has been corrupted by social NETWORKING sites like facebook, although that can be a way to network, but still lacks that personal touch. It's better than nothing though, as long as you're not wasting time on it and using it for fun more so than habit or obsession. It lets me keep in touch with my colleagues and friends around the country! But the best way to do that, which really has no competition when it comes to that, is e-mail. Use your e-mail, too! Come up with a very professional "signature" to put at the bottom of your e-mail. Look at some of the e-mails you receive to see what I mean, or Google it! I highly recommend using it to inform others. You aren't necessarily advertising, but if you are including a few or so words that cover what you do, and include an official title (either self-given with your own business or the title from the business you work at, and you can be making quite an impressive impression on people when they read your e-mail.
I've got a lot of ideas to throw your way, but I'm going to rest my eyes. Feedback is not only welcomed, but encouraged! Though I hope any criticism given is constructive. Have a wonderful day!
J
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