[TriLUG] OT: Education

Mon Sep 26 09:01:45 EDT 2005

So we're not satisfied unless we make the Top 10 richest people in America list?

How about Quality of Life issues?  How about personal happiness?  How
about the enjoyment in doing an honest day's work for an honest day's
pay, coming home and kissing your significant other, hugging your
kids, and having a beer on the porch with the neighbors?

Prediction:  No one on this mailing list is going to become one of the
Top 10 richest people in America.  I'll even extend that to say Top
1000.  Big deal.

Now, on various other topics:

 - "You must have money to make money".  Not true, although the
prospect is much easier if you do, given interest income, investment
opportunities, etc.
 - "I earned the equivalent of an MBA in a weekend/two weeks".  Also
not true (sorry Jon), although the specific tactical knowledge you may
have derived might have scratched a particular itch.  MBA schools are
still somewhat more about abstract processes and having the ability to
apply principles to a broad array of situations, sectors, businesses,
etc.  And to the previous point, in many ways, they are about the
networks you can build--and it costs more to go to Duke than UNC or NC
State in part because of the network you'll build (and the likelihood
that that network will have money in it somewhere)
 - "Most new business startups fail".  True, and usually it's not
because they have a bad idea, but because of execution.  Over a short
period, the market can be very forgiving to a bad idea executed well. 
Over the long term, bad ideas are bad ideas.  Ask the guy that came up
with "New Coke".
 - "Charter schools shouldn't be measured by the same guidelines as
public schools."  What?!?!?  If they are funded by our tax dollars
(which they are) and the DPI is funded by our tax dollars (which it
is), there seems to be a pretty tragic disconnect here.  My experience
with charter schools is basically nil, aside from researching them as
an option when we were deciding where to send our kids.  The turning
point in our decision was when the principal from the magnet school
told us that the charter school we were looking at had a pattern of
hiring the teachers that he interviewed and passed on.  Take that for
what it's worth -- a single data point from a potentially biased
source.
 - "Innovative scientiest don't innovate when they join a team."  I
have no idea what the truth-factor on this statement is, but I highly
doubt it.  Personally, I'm much more innovative when working with
talented folks.  Left to my own devices, the means and the end are
decidedly less fulfilling.
 - "You don't need a college education to be successful."  True, if
you have low standards/goals, would rather learn from your own
mistakes over a longer period of time, or are a genius.  Otherwise,
shut up and go to school.

Okay kids, if I haven't offended you all by now, here's my
earth-shattering statement that you'll all hate:

   The genius of Genius is in its simplicity.

We rush to call our "big winners" in business "Geniuses", but almost
across the board, especially compared to today's climate, these ideas
were all pretty simple.  Sam Walton started a department store (Retail
is not rocket science, although it approaches rocket science when you
do it on the scale that Wal-Mart does it).  Bill Gates (and co.)
created DOS.  Note:  DOS wasn't the first operating system, it was
simply another operating system that achieved mass-market distribution
status very quickly, thanks to a deal with the soon-to-be-huge IBM PC.
 Where would Microsoft be without that original IBM deal?  (Note:  You
were expected to bring two blue books and you'll have 45 minutes to
complete your answer.)  Michael Dell sold commodity computer
parts/assembled boxes out of his dorm room.  So did a lot of us.  He
just did it well, focusing on growth during a rapdily growing market,
taking investment capital at the right time, and then shifting his
focus to cost-competitiveness through optimized processing and bulk
purchasing.

The point here is that these businesses were not beyond the grasp of
anyone on this list.  But many of the concepts, including sales and
marketing, ARE beyond the grasp of many on this list--despite our
collective efforts to belittle the importance of these parts of a
company (or company strategy).  Advanced technologies and years of
research usually don't take the market by storm until they've been
dumbed down so that Joe Blow and his wife can use them cheaply and
easily.  Michael Dell didn't invent the ISA bus--he just sold it.  Ask
someone in bio-tech when they make money...it's not when they invent a
drug that reduces hair-loss in chemo patients--it's when they build a
better "erectile disfunction" mousetrap.

I'll shut up.  And sorry about that final painful mental image...

Shane O.

On 9/26/05, Ben Pitzer <bpitzer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Don't get me wrong. I know that there are hard working people out there, the
> ones who put together a business model and bust their asses through hard
> work, scrimping every cent in order to make things work. Paul Allen went to
> a private high school where he met Bill Gates, and his father was an
> associate director of libraries for the University of Washington (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen). So I'd say there was a little
> money there.
>
> Michael Dell, however, did it on his own, as I understand things. He busted
> his ass, and simply had a great idea at a great time. He had the other thing
> that can make money: a great idea, one that comes along once every 100
> years. Sam Walton had that, too. He started with some money. Not a ton, but
> enough to start up a discount department store in Arkansas, which is still
> more than I probably have. Nevertheless, he had a great idea, busted his
> ass, and made it work.
>
> No, money isn't all it takes. But it sure as hell helps, as most of the top
> 10 will tell you.
>
> -Ben Pitzer
>
>
> On 9/26/05, Mark Freeze <mfreeze at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Bill Gates was going to Harvard when he dropped out so I think he must
> > have
> > had some family cash behind him. I don't think that Paul Allen or Michael
> > Dell had any big family money backing them. I don't know for Ellison or
> > the
> > other guy. The bottom of the top ten are all Waltons. They all inherited
> > the
> > money, but the person they inherited it from was (I think) the proverbial
> > rags-to-riches story.
> > Regards,
> > Mark.
> >
> >
> > On 9/25/05, Ben Pitzer <bpitzer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm going to jump on this dead horse and start a'whippin, just because
> > > it's
> > > Sunday night, I'm bored, and y'all need to know that I still listen
> > around
> > > here so you don't start gettin' all mouthy about me.
> > >
> > > Anyone ever heard the old adage 'you have to have money to make money'?
> > I
> > > think that there's an imporant correlary to be drawn here, and that is
> > > that
> > > having money to start with is the best way to make money.
> > >
> > > My question about each of these on the top 5 (haven't seen the list
> > > myself)
> > > is whether or not they came from wealthy families to begin with. Going
> > > from
> > > big bucks to mega bucks doesn't impress me. Going from my salary to big
> > > bucks does. When you have money, you have connections and/or the ability
> > > to
> > > make connections. That means that you are invited into situations that
> > > allow
> > > you to make money, and which are much more reliable than those that
> > people
> > > such as myself will find. The last time that somebody offered me an
> > > opportunity to invest my money and make (potentially) millions, it
> > > involved
> > > purchasing cleaning products from his online store that he didn't own,
> > and
> > > was the marketing brain child of the family that brought us Amway.
> > >
> > > So frankly I don't think that having a college education always helps
> > when
> > > you already have all the tools you need to be successful, and that is a
> > > head
> > > start.
> > >
> > > Flame on,
> > > Ben Pitzer
> > >
> > >
> > > On 9/23/05, Mark Freeze <mfreeze at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Remember the posts we had a couple of weeks ago regarding education &
> > > > certifications? I was just reading the list of the 10 richest people
> > in
> > > > the
> > > > US and I saw an interesting fact: Out of the top 5, 4 were college
> > > > dropouts.
> > > > (The bottom 5 were all from the Wal-Mart family.)
> > > > I hope everyone has a good weekend,
> > > > Mark.
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--
Shane O.
========
Shane O'Donnell
shaneodonnell at gmail.com
====================