Learning Aptitude Lessons From Government Mistakes

Costly Lack of Knowledge
In 2006, headlines blazed across the New York Times newspaper: Army admits design flaws in New Orleans levee system.

The Army Corps of Engineers and several outside engineering panels found extensive flaws in the design, construction, and maintenance of the levee system, according to the report numbering more than 6,100 pages. And the severe IT flaws evident in the newly opened Affordable Care website are arguably two of the most widely-known examples of what can happen when workers are ill equipped to handle assigned job tasks.

For instance, the description of how design issues were not addressed in New Orleans bear a disturbing similarity to the written account of what can happen when engineers, unaware of aptitude conflicts, land jobs they can’t handle effectively.

References

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/01cnd-corps.html?_r=0

…the Disaster Didn’t have to happen…
The Daily Beast
http://tinyurl.com/lr74v64

Out of Print/Amazon Photos

 




Business Lessons from 2 TV Show Plotlines

The Big Valley
This 1960s western can be found in reruns on nostalgia TV, and a particular episode had me shaking my head ran recently. You what had happened was… a large Berkeley holding, a Gold mine flooded and the solution is for a family member to travel across country to a government auction to buy a special pump. Without that machinery the mine will be lost.

Auction’s Opening bid: $5,000. But it’s the weekend and they don’t have cash on hand but they are able to borrow $5,000 from the bartender in order to get to the auction and get the equipment. The family believes they will be the only bidder for the equipment and so they will only need $5,000, a sum mentioned continuously throughout the show.

Take Away Lesson: In real life this would be a situation ripe for Murphy’s Law.
Because in real life, someone else could unexpectedly join the bidding… and
that $5,000 would not be enough… Hard to believe they would travel across country without making allowances for that issue.

Finally, probably the most implausible business related plotline comes from
The Cosby show spin-off about the students of an African-American college.

A Different World
Episode: Don’t count your chicken before they’re axed, 1992.
Consider:

Whitley Gilbert-Wayne remains in school an extra year to gain experience and study the business side of art acquisition, a field she knows and loves. She is determined to become a buyer for the corporate arena. And she is an excellent student.

Newlywed, she spots a painting that she is positive will increase in value, and she persuades her math PhD., always cautious with a buck, always researching the angles husband to co-write a check for several thousand dollars so that she can make the purchase. They buy the artwork, Whitley is laid off soon after, and when the couple returns from dining out, they discover burglars had been there before them.
No TV,
No Stereo
No Microwave
No Computer…which Whitley’s husband named Poindexter
No Designer Clothes from Paris,
and with a wail, Whitley discovers her mink coat is gone, too.
And..the couple stare at the blank walls and realize…
No investment painting…

Take away lesson: After interviewing an insurance agent recently, the plot line is even more ridiculous, (the episode aired recently) when you consider that an inexpensive renters’ policy would have protected the investment artwork that Whitley knew would increase in value.

People do make mistakes that outsiders find difficult to understand, but no way Whitley Gilbert would have failed to take out renters’ insurance to protect at least her treasured coat and designer clothing.

References

The Big Valley
IMDB.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058791/

A Different World
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0560134/

Amica.com
http://www.amicaconnections.com/Home.aspx




Baby Boom

Entrepreneurial Lessons from Film & TV
Failure to look before leaping is a common theme often played for laughs in Hollywood.

Consider

J.C.Wyatt graduates from the top of her class at Harvard with an MBA. She develops a reputation as a savvy businesswoman, and climbs the corporate ladder in New York. But she’s forced out of her job and decides to buy a 200 year-old farmhouse in Vermont… sight unseen…

After moving in, day by day, Wyatt discovers she’s apparently bought a
turkey of a property, which is draining her bank account because of expensive repairs.

Wyatt briefly considers arson… her funds are drying up fast, and she’s unhappy in her new environment, which is worlds away from the hustle and bustle of New York City.
Then she finds an entrepreneurial niche… and success making natural baby food.

Takeaway Lesson: Research: Research, Research.
Hard to believe that a character nicknamed the Tiger Lady would have bought a house on 65 acres of land without first checking the business particulars of her decision and learning beforehand what exactly the getting into involved.

Note: Arson in Vermont is punishable by fine and anywhere from two to 10 years depending upon whether the act is intentional or negligent.

Reference

Baby Boom 1987
IMBD.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092605/




Motherhood & Self-Employment

Why Some U.S. Moms Choose to Leave traditional 9-5 Jobs
Much has been written for decades about support and family friendly policies in the U.S. or lack thereof. And lists featuring family support systems in European and Scandinavian countries often leave the U.S in the dust by comparison.

Now in Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink, author Katrina Alcorn offers an insider look at what can happen when human beings…[serfs]… are hammered day in and day out for the purpose of building up the [King’s] coffers, ..um… bottom line.

Unless, one is fortunate to work for a company whose CEO appears on Undercover Boss spouting a humane workplace philosophy, medical research will continue to show how a counterproductive workplace structure erodes personal life creating health issues of all kinds with negative fallout for society as a whole.

In the 21st century, technology has accelerated the pace. And Acorn outlines the consequences vividly using her personal experiences as a mother with a good corporate job, but who had to leave the workplace and seek an alternative.

Alcorn is now happily self-employed.
For some would-be entrepreneurs choosing self-employment is a matter of life and health

Katrina Alcorn/Book.tv.org   44 min
http://tinyurl.com/m54wczn

The Atlantic.com
The Secret to Findland’s Success…
http://tinyurl.com/mx26bof

Alcorn’s Blog
Workingmomsbreak
http://www.workingmomsbreak.com/about-2/




Music Business Pitfalls

I Want my Name Back!
How many times will this story be told but the lessons not learned?
PBS host Tavis Smiley recently asked this question of Master Gee, one of the original founders of the internationally known Sugar Hill Gang, who lost the rights to their music and generated millions of dollars for the people who signed them to contracts with promises of fame and fortune.

One of the original group members was still in high school and 17-years old at the time. And now they have produced a visually arresting documentary titled I Want my Name Back, which chronicles their 30-year legal fight. See Tavis Smiley interview for an excerpt of the film. Perhaps the documentary will serve as a learning tool for budding entrepreneurs entering the music industry.

Takeaway Lesson: Musicians don’t have a head for business? Not so, Lloyd Price and Jay Z are two examples, and ironically Master Gee, who later learned about business and achieved success in the direct marketing industry.

Two-thirds of students surveyed across the country have stated they would like to learn about entrepreneurship but don’t learn anything in school, according to Time.com.
So whatever business a student enters, lack of knowledge will continue to be profitable for the person who draws up the contract and not so for the signor with little business know-how.

PBS Tavis Smiley
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/sugarhill-gang/

MTV.com
About the Sugar Hill Gang
http://www.mtv.com/artists/the-sugarhill-gang/

http://tinyurl.com/bpr76mk




Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela– Madiba.

Go Well, Great Leader