Journal Entry

It’s odd in my life I have been eased into soccer.  I played soccer one year when I was in 4th grade.  Then my cousin David was playing in Sacramento when we moved there.  My chemistry teacher in high school was the soccer coach.  Then I started watching my brothers play on club teams, and then in high school.  It was fun to watch and I started to realize this was one of the biggest sports in the world.  All over the world kids grow up knowing only about soccer.  They don’t play basketball, baseball, hockey or volleyball.  There are small pockets of these sports around the world but they are not that big of a deal.

When my daughter Paige started playing soccer my wife started getting into it.  A couple of years ago we started getting free satellite and we had access to all kinds of soccer.  We started watching Barcelona play.  Lionel Messi was amazing to watch, and then we started seeing other players that I had heard about.  Rooney, Christiano Renaldo and then I began to learn many more.  Diego Forlan, Mezzit Ozil, Danny Alvez, Iker Cassias, Ibrahimavic, Van Persie, Chicarito, Marcello, Cesc Fabragas, and others.  I started to learn about teams and managers(coaches).  I also learned about the leagues and tournaments.  Once I got a decent job, we even bought some season tickets to our local club here in Salt Lake, RSL (Real Salt Lake).  I know now why they call this the beautiful game.  There are big egos, big money, and fanatics that behave very badly.  However, 99.9% of the whole deal is beautiful.

Sometimes I wish that I had the exposure to soccer when I was eight.  I wish I could have been inspired with the vision of what soccer in the US would become.  I could have been part of it, not just the admiring spectator.  I am now drawn to the game.

This morning started with going to Paige’s Impact Cup, finals game.  Her team had earned the right to play in the finals because they beat a much better team.  They lost in the finals, 0-2, but they played hard and it was fun to watch.  I shot video of the game and you can see that online.

Then we had the opportunity to watch the USA soccer team play Cuba.  USA won 4 -1.  It was a double header and Costa Rica played Belize.  That game concluded with Costa Rica 1 and Belize 0.  Costa Rica should have had more goals, there were several misses by inches, and the goalie for Belieze was brilliant.

The other thing I had to deal with today was my Leaf.  I got it back from the dealership.  I had problems a couple of time charging on public chargers.  It would charge for about 1/2 hour and then quick charging.  I took it in, the dealership gave me a loaner car for a couple of days and they got it fixed.    It’s nice to have my car back.   I really enjoy it, it’s got some pickup because the electric motor is much better at getting the power from the engine to the wheels.  I am hoping the technology improves and we will be able to, in the very near future, be able to drive exactly like gas cars.  In the first month I only saw 3 other Leaf’s on the road.  This week I saw five.  I am sure there will be many more on the road soon.  It’s nice now because charging is free in most places.

Until tomorrow.

The first thing I need to get accomplished today is to get my sign up in the window of Shelton Photography.  I am hoping he will be in before 9AM.  If he is not, then I will have to wait until he gets in to put up the sign.  I will give more details as things with that project work themselves out.

This morning I had a thought about trying something new.  Mike my brother explained to me that someone had gotten a group of people together, provided them a meal and then pitched them the product he was selling.  He said that he wouldn’t ever do a one on one or small groups again.  I thought this would be a good idea for Mike.  However, my new idea is to try this for my pay for performance idea.  So I will be working through some of those details today.  I need to see if I can find a list of business owners with over 50 employees.  With this list create a mailer that I can send to each business owner.  I also need to work up a basic outline for the presentation.  I could possibly do that here.  I will need to provide each person with a small note pad to figure out some calculations.

The other thing I need to do is write down that speech to see if I can get it below 7 minutes.

I guess the first part of this is put in the disclaimer, Maybe put the disclaimer that if your business already has a pay-for-performance strategy in place this is not something that will be beneficial.

The first part of the presentation I will ask them to write down how many hourly employees they have and then to times that number by $5000 and that is the amount of extra profit you will get out of your business by implementing a p4p plan.  For instance if you have 17 employees, by implementing a p4p plan you will be able to create an extra $85,000 a year in profit.  The next calculation is the write down the number of salary employees.  Add up what you are paying them per year.  Then times that by 20%.  That will give you another opportunity for profit.  So if you have 5 salaried employees and their combined payroll is $375,000 a year times that by %20 which is $75,000 a year in extra profit potential.

I have waited until the next day to post from the day before, So I am catching up today.  So this will be posted on the day I wrote it.

Yesterday, I went to hang up the sign, but Kent doesn’t open on Monday.  During the week he is only there after 10AM.  So I will have to wait until Wednesday when I am going to be in the area a bit later.

Here’s todays comment on society.

As human’s, steven hawking being the smartest, we keep slapping each other on the backs and reveling in how smart we think we are.  Between 2000 and 4000 BC we figured out how to domesticate horses.  Then 100 years ago we discovered how to make engines that replaced the power of the horses.  However, we did not replace the horse smarts.  My great grand father told me a story about going to a dance. After the dance he took the girl home and then fell asleep, as he did every dance night, as the horse would take him home. This particular time the horse returned to the Church where the dance was held. He was awakened the morning as parishioners arrived at church. Maybe my son with tell his kids about the time he accidental pushed the church address on the GPS and fell asleep after taking his date home, only to we awakened as church goers arrived to worship the next morning.

4000 years ago some power, I believe it was God, others may say mother nature or evolution, created a beast with power and smarts.  Technology that is still far superior to our cars.  Our cars are only more powerful and faster.  Think about the horse.  It runs on stuff like grass and water, wouldn’t it be cool if cars could run on grass and water.  Horses need to be trained, but can live 25 to 30 years.  That’s longer than a car.    Horses can get better with age, if they are cared for properly.   Maybe our cars will be that good in the next few decades.

I am still looking forward to self driving vehicles.

Because today is 7-11 the convenience store chain hands out tiny free Slurpees.  I haven’t ever taken part.  Today I might have tried if I wasn’t so busy.

My first problem over the past week has been that a couple of my teeth have been very painful at night.  This has upset my sleep drastically.  I thought I was getting over it but the pain moved into this day today and It has been extremely distracting.  I called my normal dentist, but they don’t really have time for me so I am going to look for a dentist closer to my house that can look at me earlier.

Paige had two soccer games.  She scored in the first one, it’s too bad I was not filming.  The second game I arrived late because my Leaf was giving me a warning light so they gave me a rental car so they can look at my Leaf.  When my Leaf is put on public chargers

I missed most of the first half because I had to go home and get my snow cone stuff so I could take that to a work party.  I also arrived late to that party because of the soccer game and I stopped to get some tylenol because my teeth were hurting.

I talked to Mike my brother about selling these night flyer toys.  I think we have a small window of opportunity to sell these before everyone starts to sell them everywhere, because they are cool.

Another reason my life was busy today because I gave my speech at toast masters about becoming a “Rock Artist.”  I was able to tell the story in about 7 1/2 minutes.  Just barely under the wire for time.  I need to make that story more interesting and get it told quicker.  I added an ending to try and invite people to find ways to implement piece rate.

I was surprised I hadn’t thought to look for this earlier.  I read an article today about getting kids to do work Apps That Help Kids Like Chores.   I think businesses should do something like this.  Because there are goals that should be communicated more effectively.

I will report back on this after giving it a try.