Be Brave Not Safe

Isn’t it fortunate that we don’t need to know precisely how electricity works? We can simply flip the switch and the lights come on! That is, someone has figured all of this out long ago.

Did you know that so many other things have also, already been figured out? Meaning, we don’t have to live our lives by trial and error. Or, be an example of Henry David Thoreau’s aphorism, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”.

Down through the annals of time philosophers, teachers, wise men and women, sages, adventurers, business people and the everyday person have clearly documented what works, doesn’t work and other learnings accumulated for virtually EVERY situation we might encounter during our short stay on this beautiful planet.

Most of us simply did not appreciate the benefits of paying attention in school; a primary source of early education. I confess, I was one of the leaders of that pack!

Upon growing older I found myriad sources of knowledge and wisdom that, once applied, can take us virtually ANYWHERE in life we’d like to go. Examples include; the Bible (an early book of wisdom sharing guidance and outcomes of the many mistakes humanity has and will continue to make), Think and Grow Rich, by Napolean Hill, among others. In addition, most of us can easily find adult education and training courses in our locale, on nearly any topic we might be interested in. Top that with the advent of the internet and we have ALL of this at our fingertips!

There is just so much available, allowing each of us to “catch up” with others who have gone before us. We can learn what they did, how they did it, why they did it, their struggles as well as successes. Said another way, we cannot honestly look ourselves in the mirror and say anything but “I CAN make forward progress in my life, towards my goals, if I’m willing to slowly, daily chip away.”

One of my favorite quotes is by Zig Ziglar…

“You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind.”

In closing, we might ask ourselves: Am I doing a reasonable job of catching up?

It is FINALLY official. We have cut yet another hardline!

In prior posts (years ago now) I mentioned that we had cut our:

• Landline phone as it was a completely redundant expense with our cell phones.
• Cable TV as the main channels are available “over the air” for FREE via digital antenna. And, we subscribe to Netflix for any on demand programming we wish to enjoy.

The next hardline I’ve been super anxious to cut is internet cable.

As of today, it is done!

We now connect all our devices (e.g., MacBooks, iPad, printer) over the wireless network offered by the “personal hotspot” on our iPhones.

Over the years I had been monitoring the cost of cellular data plans in the quest to do this. And, until recently the pricing has not been conducive to running a household off an iPhone’s personal hotspot.

Of late, we were paying about $100 / month for a “limited” data plan. During a recent transaction to upgrade Cindy’s iPhone we learned that Verizon Wireless now offers an UNLIMITED data plan for the same price as I was paying for the limited plan.

The switch to unlimited was easy!

Now, all I had to do was test. The testing involved:

• Confirming we can stream Netflix movies over the personal hotspot, via a MacBook, connected to a TV and not have it stall out. Done!
• Confirming Cindy can watch Netflix on her iPad, connected to her personal hotspot. Otherwise, there’d certainly be a murder (mine). Done!
• Confirming we can hook-up our wireless printer and actually print to it. This was the one I was most worried about (unnecessarily). Done!

For years I have been using my personal hotspot to run my MacBook when I’m on the road or in some location that doesn’t offer WiFi, so I knew this would work fine. This includes sending/receiving email, surfing the web and running web conference calls with screen sharing.

The result: we are now ready to cut the next cord…

On calling the cable company to cancel they certainly did NOT want to let us go.

Cable Company: “Mr. Bailey, we can offer you the same plan for $64.99 / month, vs. the $74.99 you are paying now.”

Mr. Bailey: “Thanks, but I don’t need to pay anything more for internet since we already have it on our cell phones.”

Cable Company: “Well, we wouldn’t want you to ever be out of internet if a cell tower should go down. We can offer you a standard plan at $44.99 / month to make sure you are never without internet.”

Mr. Bailey: “I’ve been using cell phones for decades and have NEVER experienced an outage. Thank you, but we are good to go.”

It is done!

Now, let’s run this savings through the “cost / savings over time model.”

So, we “were” paying $75 / month for internet cable. Over 12 months that totals $900. And, over 10 years, that represents a cost / savings of $9,000!

Pack your bags Cindy. This will more than fund a few trips for two, to somewhere tropical 🙂

I love this!

The final cord to cut will be electricity. Once Verizon Wireless starts streaming that we’ll be good to go. To be clear, this is not all that far-fetched…

I remember during the early days of working for one of the first internet companies (back in the 90’s) the CEO said: “One day even lightbulbs will have an IP address” (a.k.a. be connected to the internet). That day has arrived!!!

All the best!

About 18 months ago I posted an article, in the series on Launching a Business, titled: Shamelessly Promote. If you’ve not read that article (or need a refresher) you are encouraged to do so now by clicking here.

This article builds on the above…

As you may know, great ideas come from many sources.

One thing I like to do is scan our local / weekly paper. And, I’m never disappointed in the fact that 1 or more ideas result from doing so. Ideas that I can use in my own business or share with my clients (business and/or SCORE).

This week was no different.

After reviewing this week’s paper I found 2 articles that are examples of simple ways to promote our businesses.