Murphys’ Law…….
Posted by Leeb - 13/07/10 at 07:07:05 amAs part of the ongoing boat reconfiguration saga - a major piece of work to be completed comes in the ‘kills-you-if-you-screw-it-up’ variety - namely the electrics.
MV San Diego was a fishing boat and as such she required lots of power at sea. Therefore she is wired like a power station, big 3phase leads, 50KVa Genset, a distribution box and gen-shore auto-changeover gear which wouldn’t look out of place in a large factory….. you get the picture.
All the old wiring needed to be disconnected in order for me to install 2 new bulkheads in the main cabin and I planned to do this over a few weeks, bit by bit, so to allow us to continue living amongst the tangle of overhead cables we need to run hairdryers, comms [for movies, email etc], lights and MOST important -the kettle and HWC.
So I decided yesterday to start the initial process at 2pm. “lots of time till dark” I thought to myself and guess-timated a couple of hours for moving the distribution boxes.
Power was finally restored at 6pm. Only just. The last hour of the process being done by weak leadlamp and in the freezing cold.
Anyway, the moral of this story- either pay someone to do the whole lot and go to Fiji…….or do it on a saturday morning so I have a whole weekend to work through the little issues without adding stress to a job - which lets be honest…could have serious implications if rushed and done improperly.
Don’t over estimate your abilites. Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will.
30 seconds….
Posted by Leeb - 02/07/10 at 08:07:18 amNope, not Dr. Phil post about my awesome bedroom skills….but rather another problem [not that I have a problem!] which I need to do some work around…
…Seems a most difficult task to get my head around at the mo’- trying to create an elevator pitch which basically says “I don’t have a job, I don’t really want a job but if you want some help with your particular ‘thing’ -I will astound you with my powers of fast-comprehension and delivery, so even though you don’t know me from a bar of soap, lets talk further”
mmmm. Pitch development today methinks. I would love your help.
First Day…..
Posted by Leeb - 21/06/10 at 05:06:49 pmWas awesome.
Walked a lot…..talked a lot…….. tried to not look too amateur in my BD meeting….hard to “sell” if one knows only what they had learn’t about their brand new employer less than 2 hrs previous.
I asked for a learning curve and some level of ‘mental uncomfort’, be careful what you wish for lol….
“just reflect back what they say…”, yeah thanks for that MC ;) Business Development and selling 101….here I come.
The great trickster…..
Posted by Leeb - 21/06/10 at 08:06:47 amTrying to do a great job at something with only a toe in the water -so to speak…is a very hard task.
My entrepreneurial streak has been trying to burst out over the past few years but it has had a hard time trying to get past my internal gatekeeper - “the great trickster”, or my Mind according to John Kehoe.
You know the one, the little guy in our heads who continually reminds us of why not to do something…
Well he’s gone on leave, buggered off, left the building….well I’m ignoring the voice this time and I have finally resigned from TVAL.
I love the job and the people, but its time to leap feet first into a new pond -sink or swim! Great mechanism for learning. …
Thoughts are real forces -just like Gravity!
It’s a steel mate……..
Posted by Leeb - 07/06/10 at 09:06:10 pmYup certainly was for the buggers who stole all of my 316 stainless steel boat fittings from the top of my 20′ container here at seaview marina.
Radar mast 2.5m 4 post triangular construction 40kgs
gunwhale tops - 4 x 6m x 6mm thick u-channel about 100-150kgs
Anchor winch mount - 450mm diameter, 12mm thick wall, 1.5m long machined flange- 150kgs,
bollard mounts - 2 off cylinders -35kgs
total at $2.20/kg current scrap price = $825.
Price for me to get the stolen items fabricated again - probably around the $5K mark…
I wasn’t the only person stole from…they also took my friends’ rubbing strips off his new boat build and get this……they apparently chopped up and took the NEW COPPER WIRING for the brand new building going up on the hardstand…..
I really hope it was good Meth. The best in fact, the most fantastic stuff in the whole wide world. so good in fact they never wake up.
Harsh you say?… Nah, lets face it -they aren’t going to be funding their kids future degrees or supporting the World Wide Fund for Nature with the proceeds are they now? Do us all a favour and drown in your sleep …losers.
Execution……..er. No thanks.
Posted by Leeb - 02/06/10 at 08:06:56 pmGrabbed your attention aye? thought “oh no, Lee’s going to rant on about crime and punishment again”?…
Well, much as I love that subject -equally as much as Pat Condell does Atheism www.patcondell.net
I’m not going to talk about it.
I am going to have a brief exploration around a phenomenon which aflicts me and many of -I’m sure- ‘my type’ personality types out there in the World, that is- I have about a gazzillion ideas for businesses or schemes per day - but only a few ever make it to light of day. Time, resources and -lets be honest- plain enthusiam -or lack thereof for an idea, are to blame here. Surely this is a waste of ideas?
MC always tells me that ideas aren’t worth very much if you can’t - and here is the title line- EXECUTE ! I would like to disagree…..and I can because she’s not here and for that matter -probably doesn’t read my blog anyway so I’m all good. lol
Anyway, horses for courses I say, some people have ideas all day, some people sort numbers all day and some people drive business planning along to a conclusion. Wouldn’t it make sense for my otherwise wasted ideas to be put in a FREE centralised web-based repository so as to inspire further ideas, or even just making it easy for a ‘non-ideas’ person can just run with one [for FREE]?
It’s mindboggling to think how many ideas must be generated every minute by the 6 billion or so people on the planet….if even only a single idea of the billion thought of in that instant, is good and could be somehow nutured into fullness, surely that would be great thing?
Hey here’s an idea……….why don’t I put a web-based ideas reposit……….?
Comment please> Does this already exist? I googled and got techo stuff and the arts……but nothing “business-y”…….and before you say it…”halfbakery.com” doesn’t count…its just a little silly [I like it tho']
CVs…..n stuff
Posted by Leeb - 31/05/10 at 11:05:19 amWow, I’ve done a lot of stuff….and thats even after leaving out all the <irrelevant> garbage….like who really cares if I won a gold badge for swimming 50m with 3 rubber-brick duck dives when I was 12 
…just shows how long ago I wrote my CV.
I found it really hard to keep it relevant and to summarise what I do as a matter of course in my life into a format that really sells it….and to fit my life into the 345 characters specified by linkedin.
I’m with Josh Harris on this one, just put me on camera 24 x 7, and you prospective peeps - who I would just lurve to help with your stuff can “interview” me [view being the operative word here]….and you can base your opinion upon what you see and hear, not what I sanitise in my CV for you all…should save you some interviewing time methinks
Cheers and thanks for watching……what? you mean you’re not watching me on my little laptop camera whist I write this….
a day early…..
Posted by Leeb - 24/05/10 at 02:05:30 pmOK, I can’t wait ’til tomorrow….I’m sooo excited about opportunities that seem to be all around, popping up like trout at twilight - a huge juxtaposition to my depressive period I found myself wallowing in last week…so yeah, go opportunities.
Unfortunately most of them are not really paying opportunities. Actually let me clarify, none will be paying off immediately in hard cash, or for the foreseeable future for that matter - but delayed gratification is the order of the day methinks and I shouldn’t measure everything in $$$s. The learning opportunities are immeasurable when I look at the talented individuals I get to learn from.
Back in my dark and dingy past I wanted paying for everything I did for other people, “what’s in it for me?” I used to think….short sighted to say the least. Not the Earl Nightingale/Nepoleon Hill way, that’s for sure…
Now I like to hope I think somewhat differently, sure I need to buy groceries and pay my rent like the next guy, but I try and structure my deals [opportunities] in such a way that I can provide a service which my client will be ecstatic with, provide me my grocery financing and go tell their network about my service! Better still - I try and aim for equity in the ventures they are trying to grow, so the better I service and the happier my client [who is also providing a service to someone], the more revenue is generated!
This surely is a better model, than my previous one. I think Iget it, by Jove!
Service more people needs i.e. a life of service = more rewards.
In my day job [40hrs/wk] I provide service to one person alone, this nets me a reasonable standard of groceries - [but only because my level of skill/experience means I'm not that easily replaced]
The person I service, combines the fruits of my labour with all the other products my co-workers produce, combines them together into a nice 2hr experience and thus provides millions of people who enjoy that experience with a service. This means that my [one] client has his groceries flown direct in his G550 private jet -if he so wishes.
Basic, when put in black and white aye? So why don’t we all do it? Service as many people in out lives as possible? I am from now on. How cool.
I am back! New and improved receipe……mmmm
Posted by Leeb - 24/05/10 at 09:05:50 amWell I have finally got my A into G and started with my blog again.
New and improved as advertised, from now on only the positive will be emphasised, the negative need not apply!
Doesn’t mean to say that the discussion might not make your blood boil or get your minds’ little voice echoeing “what?, nah, never!, what is he on about?”……
here we go> well tommorrow anyway.
Oh thanks you we do, Sire….for leaving us a sheep from our flock…
Posted by Leeb - 06/07/09 at 09:07:42 pmOn the return daily commute today, my partner had a rant. She ranted on for at least 25 minutes.
Today she [her business www.vaultconsulting.co.nz] received a bill from the lovely guys at the IRD for money she might make in the future based on what the business has earned so far. Provisional Tax.
So let me get this straight and please comment if I am wrong about this - I would love to broaden my financial savvy….so
- She takes a step out of the comfy norm, risking everything to set up a small company which may or may not work in the current [engineered?] financial climate
- Now as well as the increase risk and workload, there is supposed to be rewards right?
- So why now does the small business owner have to pay PAYE [income tax] and Provisional tax? Surely it would be better served to let the small business keep this cashflow intact [lets say to $100,000K non taxable] so she can emply more staff, produce better products through R&D, Marketing etc and put MASSIVE tax on things like Utes/cars which everyone knows are tax dodges….
In fact wouldn’t a better policy be to COMPLETELY scrap the income and provisional taxes? Ah but how will we fund out teachers? Cops? lolly pop ladies [what I hear you cry...]
Simple. We make GST/VAT/whatever you call it 35% [figure example only - pulled out of my proverbial]. This way low income earners and non-consumers would have more cash to invest in the ailing institutions and charities etc and we would have a User Pays GST system. The more you buy with your now huge cash reserves the more you pay in the hidden tax. Simple isn’t it?
Small business should be left alone to grow, the guys who go it alone and risk everything - don’t really need the slap in the face when they are trying to get ahead….its hard enough already!
Democracy surely means free market business. If we wanted politicians to dictate what goods are produced and when consumed - we could have stuck with the Nazi Party! If it really is a democracy we operate under the guise of - then surely we can put through a bill for the abolishment of Income Tax.
Gone are the days of the King and his cronies helping themselves to our produce and leaving little behind.
Lets have a Taxation referendum - see what people think.