The documentary IOUSA will be shown in select theaters August 21, 2008 along with a live discusion with the following people:

• Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
• William Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute
• Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP
• Pete Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation
• Dave Walker, president & CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Comptroller General

The panel will be moderated by Becky Quick, co-anchor of CNBC’s morning news show Squawk Box.

I’m going in Branford CT. Find your location here.

Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie but it was recommended by someone I respect and the list of names is pretty significant.

Takeaway:

1. If you’re reading this after the 20th you can see the movie’s web site at http://www.iousathemovie.com/ or http://www.agorafinancial.com/iousa.html

[tags] finances, entrepreneur, warren buffet, iousa [/tags]

• Yes there is an element of luck. Just like Ferriss, I’m also a Remote-Control-CEO and I know it can’t work to this extreme with every business – although it does for me. I truly believe every business can benefit tremendously from the things he shares.
• And of course there is a bit of hype, but it’s well written just the same. And the concept of a 4 hour work week is actual reality for him. Not just fluff.
• No it won’t work for everyone, but the main reason for that is most people won’t believe it (so they won’t even try) or won’t be as honest with themselves as you need to be to make it work.

Now the Good News

• There are a lot of great concepts in the book that can be useful to all entrepreneurs.
• It’s well written and enjoyable (if a bit too long)
• It requires a massive attitude change for most people. But Ferriss is grounded enough to know you have to change your actions as well. He gives a lot of detailed, step-by-step actions you can take.
• He’s a bend the rules type of guy which should resonate with most entrepreneurs. He says the concepts will work for employees too and gives some adaptations to use if you’re one of them. Never having been a employee, I can only guess how well they’d work. As a boss, I can tell you I’d love it if an employee wanted to do this.

Best Practical Concept: (so far – I’m only half way done) Mini-retirement
Why work for 40 years at something you hate trying to amass enough money and retain enough health in order to finally have a life you hope to enjoy? Instead, Ferriss aims to distribute “mini-retirements” throughout life instead of hoarding the recovery and enjoyment for the fool’s gold of retirement. By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable, It’s the perfect example of having your cake and eating it too.

He does give a lot of practical advice on how to actually do this.

Best Philosophical Concept: Happiness = Excitement
Obviously if you’re going to make such a drastic change as to only work 4 hours a week, you’ll have a lot of time to fill with other things. You’d better know what you want from the other 36, 56, or is it 96 hours you’ll free up. Ferriss gives a lot of practical tips on how to do it, but if you don’t know why you’re doing it you probably won’t even try.

But asking people what they really want or what their ultimate goals are is often too vague in a context like this. Most people will say their ultimate goal is to be happy. That’s where Ferriss’ insight about happiness is so powerful. I’ll use his words and his italics.

Bear with me. What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so are happiness and sadness. Crying out of happiness is a perfect example of this. The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is – here’s the clincher – boredom.

Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your ‘passion’ or your ‘bliss’, I propose that they, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement.

This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking is not, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”

Takeaway – Free Offer

• If you’d like to get your work week down to 4 hours, and need a boost, I’ll give you a free hour of phone coaching to help. Here’s what to do.
• Email me: john [at] sbcoach [dot] com and tell me your situation and how I might help. Tell me you’re writing about this free offer since I do get other requests as well. Please give me enough details to go on – what do you do, what excites you, have you read the book etc.
• If I don’t’ think I can help I’ll let you know by email. If I do think I can help we’ll schedule a call. If I can’t tell, I’ll email you back with more questions.
• When I’m ready to rescind this offer, I’ll post a note here to that effect.

[tags] CEO, small business, Entrepreneur, time management, work week, happiness [/tags]

Now there’s Bitsdujour which does the same thing for software.

As I write this (Oct 25 2006) they are offering FlowBreeze for $20 (HALF PRICE). FlowBreeze lets you make flow charts simply using excel. I wrote about it here. Highly Recommended.

If you’re reading this after Oct 25, I’m sure they’re offering something else at a good price.

The trailer is here

Takeaways:

• Learn about the movie and find a theater near you here
• Then see this follow up. It starts off with a stand-up routine that’s surprisingly funny given the comedian, and ends with things you can do to help. But that part won’t make much sense till you’ve seen the movie.

[tags] inconvenient truth, environment, global warming[/tags]

When it finally rusted out I decided to buy a new one. I even splurged the extra $5 to get red instead of black. I got it home and unpacked it and noticed a couple small bubbles in the paint. No big deal. But being a business owner I value customer feedback. So I actually filled out the customer registration card (which I rarely do) and mentioned the paint bubbles.

A couple days later I got a phone call from Weber. The woman told me the product was guaranteed for life and that I could return it for a new one. It really wasn’t a problem I said, very small and only cosmetic. Besides I’d already put mine together and didn’t want to lug it back to the store.

That didn’t satisfy her. She said she’d be happy to send me the new parts free, and I wouldn’t even have to send the bad ones back. It was obvious she didn’t have to check with anyone for approval to make this offer. Well, the parts in question were the bowl and the top which make up the guts of the unit (except for legs and grills). So they practially sent me a whole new unit for free, just to keep me happy – which I already was. I ended up giving the new “grill” away to our nanny and her boyfriend.

I’ve moved a few times since this happened, and I don’t remember where the red weber is (I think my ex-wife has it). But I can tell you I still cook on a weber. I’ve got two of them in fact.
Takeaways:

• They used to say that advertising doesn’t cost – it pays. I think that’s true of customer service. Especially when you treat people like people.

I’ve emailed support requests several times. Each time I hear back very quickly and, more importantly, in English – not techspeak. They read my whole question and tell me exactly what I need to know in the right context. At one point they even changed the main domain of my account for me – something that I didn’t think they’d do, at best, would tell me to do it myself, but they did it right away.

Now I get an email saying they are increasing their support hours from 24/6 to 24/7 Way to go.

Takeaways:

• I know tech support is a cost (COGS) but I can’t imagine how much lower their COGS is because they do this right the first time. Not to mention the improvement in customer satisfaction, referals and sales.
• Use them if you want a responsive web host (as always I have no financial stake in this company).
• They’re inexpensive and have lots of features.