Author: Chris Matheus

Freedom of Speech or Freedom of Religion

I thought this was a good perspective on the issues raised by the Charlie Hebdo attacks:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11348033/This-isnt-about-free-speech-its-about-the-freedom-to-live-in-a-secular-society.html

If you don’t like images of the Prophet Muhammad, fine. Don’t draw them. But don’t tell me I can’t draw them. If you don’t want to marry someone of the same sex, don’t. But don’t try and tell me who I can and can’t marry. If you don’t think shops should open on a Sunday, don’t go to the shops. But don’t tell me I have to sit at home and make peace with your god.

This is the line that needs to be drawn. Not around free speech, but around our right to have our own set of beliefs, rather than have them imposed as part of a de-facto theocracy.

Howard Kurtz on media coverage of terrorism events

Howard Kurtz writes eloquently about the media coverage of the terrorism events pointing out that the media should stop mentioning their names, stop giving the terrorists attention and focus on the victims and mock and criticize the terrorists.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/12/saturation-coverage-are-media-playing-into-terrorists-hands/

Quotes out of context

Another set of quotes from a particularly great meeting for quotes taken out of context:

Sucked in the backdraft
– Elizabeth Thiele

Selling ice cubes to an eskimo.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Slow that mustang down.
– Elizabeth Thiele

We gather up our foo foo nuts.
– Elizabeth Thiele

I’m a corn cob from the Midwest.
– Elizabeth Thiele

If you hear something, say it.
– Elizabeth Thiele

People need to follow what they need to do.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Bob.
– Fred Naids

It’s Jonathan.
– Jonathan Goldman

Charles.
– Fred Naids

Ask Sherwood Williams.
– Unattributed

To go into places we’ve never been before.
– Deb Nichols, channeling Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise

Grabbing all these balls and moving forward with them.
– Adrian Pencak

Shrink wrap that.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Paul is from Buffalo, he doesn’t know what the Super Bowl is either.
– Provided by a contributing editor

Check back for more postings. If your name is mentioned and you’d like it removed, please email me at chris@focmnetworking.com and I’ll give your request strong consideration and may even might possibly act on it. Seriously, though I will remove it if you want me to.

Background: This all started at a US Sales meeting and in order to stay focused on what was being said, I started writing down the business cliches, like “let’s circle the wagons”, “let’s table that”, “always be closing” and then count how many times they were said. As I began paying attention, I would hear a phrase that was appropriate for the context in which it was said, but wow, it sure was amusing to see the phrase just sitting there by itself. That lead me to put them into a slide show show so the phrase was seen in its purest form along with the person who said it.  As this practice became known, the slide set became the unofficial and humorous wrap-up presentation, kind of a summary of the things stated over the course of the meeting.

The importance of your resume

FOCM Member shared this info on LinkedIn. Peter Newfield, the President of Career-Resumes.com and a writer/blogger on this topic wrote a very good article, see the link at the bottom of this post.

A copy of his first two paragraphs are below.

Let’s get right to the point — Yes, you really do need a resume and it better be a good one. A resume is the career version of the “Get Out of Jail” card in a Monopoly game. If you don’t have one, you may be doomed to sit in that same go nowhere job while your friends and co-workers merrily skip past you to new opportunities and brighter futures.

Too simplistic? Not really. Without a resume, companies have no idea that you exist. You may be a whiz on the computer, the best salesman who ever lived, or a dynamite CEO, but without a professional resume highlighting your accomplishments and achievements, you may as well be invisible!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141208154939-1242130-do-you-really-need-a-resume-by-peter-newfield?trk=object-title

Common words used incorrectly

I liked this blog by Jeff Haden entitled: 40 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb. You can read the full article at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141203134446-20017018-40-incorrectly-used-words-that-can-make-you-look-dumb?trk=object-title

A few examples are:

Adverse and averse

Adverse means harmful or unfavorable: “Adverse market conditions caused the IPO to be poorly subscribed.” Averse refers to feelings of dislike or opposition: “I was averse to paying $18 a share for a company that generates no revenue.”

Affect and effect

Verbs first. Affect means to influence: “Impatient investors affected our roll-out date.” Effect means to accomplish something: “The board effected a sweeping policy change.”

How you use effect or affect can be tricky. For example, a board can affect changes by influencing them and can effect changes by directly implementing them. Bottom line, use effect if you’re making it happen, and affect if you’re having an impact on something that someone else is trying to make happen.

Compliment and complement

Compliment means to say something nice. Complement means to add to, enhance, improve, complete, or bring close to perfection.

I can compliment your staff and their service, but if you have no current openings you have a full complement of staff. Or your new app may complement your website.

Discreet and discrete

Discreet means careful, cautious, showing good judgment: “We made discreet inquiries to determine whether the founder was interested in selling her company.”

Discrete means individual, separate, or distinct: “We analyzed data from a number of discrete market segments to determine overall pricing levels.” And if you get confused, remember you don’t use “discretion” to work through sensitive issues; you exercise discretion.

 

Views on Immigration

Saw this analogy somewhere and thought it was quite good.

“What if the owners of the New York Giants discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers were but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected.  Furthermore, what if the Giants’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary food and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Giants had to provide free medical care and shelter?”

I suppose there are people who would say: oh these poor people just want to see a football game, what’s the harm, they’re fans, too.  It’s not fair that they can’t afford to go.

Then it’s also not fair that they would get in free when others work hard to earn money in order to be able to go.

This is a country with laws and the laws should be enforced.  If the laws are stupid/dumb/worthless then we need to demand our Congress people to change them.