The book’s structure is lovely simple. Fifteen chapters which focus on specific management issues:

Chapter 1 – Adopt a serving attitude: Be humble, serve and love your team (but don’t let your team members to walk all over you either… balance is the key).
Chapter 2 – Teach: Management is a teaching experience. Improving your staff skills, sharing your knowledge, will yield better results. I liked the book’s suggestion about hiring people with potential, rather than focusing solely on experience.
Chapter 3 – Provide Honest and Timely Feedback: This is related to the previous chapter. You have to provide feedback to your people, both positive and negative. However, feedback is a subtle issue (you don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, or to praise them excessively)… regarding this issue, the book provides a few guidelines about how to do it right.
Chapter 4 – Share Information: What’s the point of hoarding information? You have to share information with your team in order to complete projects! This chapter points out the way.
Chapter 5 – Listen: Dedicate your attention to your people. And be an educated listener. They will trust you more easily.
Chapter 6 – Treat People Like Human Beings: They’re not machines (they’re better than machines). Put yourself in other shoes, and you’ll have a better perspective about each of the members of your team.
Chapter 7 – Set Goals, Plan and Execute: You must set the example for your group. Be logical, realistic and organized, and they will follow your approach.
Chapter 8 – Learn: Life is about learning! Don’t ever let any learning opportunity to pass you by. Take your time to read books, articles, to learn from your uppers and from your team.
Chapter 9 – Do the Right Thing: Be good. Be human. You’re not an automaton. You’re a human being. Awareness of your human condition is a key requirement for being a successful manager.
Chapter 10 – Embrace the Uncomfortable: A good manager knows how to approach those boring, complex, uncomfortable tasks. This chapter provides rationale and motivation for doing that.
Chapter 11 – Clean Up your Own House First: You set the example, and teams tend to reflect their manager’s nature. Be positive. Again, be good.
Chapter 12 – Persist: Don’t ever give up! I love a phrase from this chapter: “Don’t succumb to the pressure of those who worship the status quo. You can do better -and so can your organization“.
Chapter 13 – Do What You Say You’ll Do: Good managers complete their task. Good managers set and achieve “realistic” goals (which sometimes means saying “no” to unrealistic requests).
Chapter 14 – Always Follow Up: This chapter discusses the (oftenly overlooked) issue of following up with clients, team members, bosses, etc. Learn here how to do it right.
Chapter 15 – Plan Your Week: Planning is at the core of management. Plan for your work, and plan for yourself.

Further, the book includes 7 appendices, which summarize some ideas of the book, provide some tools for assessing your progress, and offer a few expansions to the knowledge discussed in the book. Overall, the book promotes “balance”. The language is direct. After reading this book, one acquires a lot of rich notions about “practical” (and thereby useful) aspects of management. Reading this book is a first step toward becoming a better manager.

All in all, if you wish to improve your management skills, I totally recommend this book!

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you have to research your potential employer beforehand

…that will give you a very important lead. Get as much information as you can about the business, and also about the potential interviewers (you should research their style and attitude… that’s very important). If you know someone who has previously taken an interview in that company, talk with them about their experiences in the interview. Try to extract pure information, i.e., don’t let them to influence you (specially about the job being impossible or, on the contrary, being too easy).

1. First Approach

Remember that you have to dress with a professional look, according to the nature of the job. You are a professional… thereby each and every aspect of you must communicate that fact. Now, during the interview, take into account that Interviewers will ask questions related to their company, for example, why would you like to work for us? They may ask you about your opinion on the company’s products or history. Typically, this information is available on the company’s website, and by knowing it you demonstrate a genuine interest for the job.

2. Virtues and Limitations

Talk about your virtues, but not excessively. In this regards apply balance and good sense. Answer this question presenting your virtues in the context of the requirements of the job you’re applying to, with a clear and concise language. However, other almost granted question they will do is about your defects, thereby you must also be prepared to answer that. Furthermore, the interviewer may ask about your abilities and limitations: prepare an answer beforehand in order to allow you to present your defects as a new opportunity for keep improving.

3. Expect the Unexpected

You have to be ready for anything… a group interview, a forum about some specific problem of the company, a written exam, and so on. Carry any material you think you may need: think of the interview as your first day of work.

When entering to the interview, greet to your interviewer with a smile. Visual contact must also be direct and firm (but not exceedingly). Remember that, no matter the circumstances, you have to act formally instead of dared or zany (refer to your interviewer using his title… Dr., Mr., Engineer, etc.), unless they demand you to treat them informally (but that’s relatively rare; read point 6. Be on the alert). Listen to your interviewer very carefully. Sometimes the applicants are so focused in the things they want to say that forget what they are really being asked about. No answer is good if it does not truly answer the matter asked about.

4. Language

Be careful about the expressions and style you use to communicate your ideas. Don’t use inadequate, informal or excessively colloquial phrases.

5. Gestures

Be careful with your corporal language too. A firm handshake transmit self-confidence. A good posture also reflects confidence. Don’t act disturbed or nervous. Lean sligthly towards your interviewer in order to show interest in his words.

6. Be on the alert

Expert interviewers know human nature very well. An expert interviewer will quickly create a relaxed and trusting atmosphere for you, in order to expose your real behavior and ideas. However, never forget that he is there evaluating you, so no matter the confidence and comradeship he shows, you must always act as a professional. Novice interviewers, on the contrary, often act very arrogantly… fight off their arrogance by showing yourself relaxed and breezy (never answer the interviewer’s arrogance with more arrogance!).

7. Keep your moral high

Regarding this point, I recommend reading the posts The Winner’s Mind and The 7 Attributes of Leadership.

8. Secrets of a Critical Thinking Interviewer

Finally, good interviewers know how to distinguish good prospects from bad ones. They know that two people with the same job title may differ in at least one of the following ways:

• ability to perform the work
• interest in the work
• experience with similar applications
• experience with similar tools
• experience with similar techniques
• experience with similar working environment
• training
• ability to communicate with others
• ability to share responsibility with others
• management skills

Each of these characteristics can affect an individual’s ability to perform productively. These variations help to explain why one employee can complete a particular chore in a day, whereas another requires a week. The differences can be critical, not only to schedule estimation, but also to the entire success of the company’s projects. An expert interviewer knows that.

I wish you good luck on your interview and hope that you get the job!

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• A Shining Résumé (7)
• Building a Network of Contacts (2)
• The Winners’ Mind (11)
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• Working in Groups: 10 Keys for Success (10)

Let’s see how recruiters or prospective employers will not put down our résumé.

The Structure of the Résumé

The résumé must have the following organization:

1. Personal information: Name, residential address, contact phone number, e-mail address and date of birth. Sometimes, there is no need to indicate your marital status.
2. Education: It must be structured data about your studies and the titles you hold, in chronological order from top to bottom. Please indicate the study center (school, university, etc.), the town and dates.
3. Training: You must specify the other studies and practices that complement your academic training. It may help if you indicate the number of hours taken in each course. However, include only those courses which are relevant to the job.
4. Professional experience: List your previous jobs, the company’s name, date of start and finish, job title, and your duties and responsibilities. Again, follow a chronological order.
5. Languages: Simply point out the languages you command, and your level. Include proficiency tests’ results, if any.
6. Technical abilities: This section should comprise a brief description or listing of the skills, techniques and tools (e.g., software) that you command and are pertinent to the job.
7. Further details of interest: Driver’s license, availability for traveling, hobbies, and so further. The content of this section really depends on the job’s characteristics.

Often a résumé must be accompanied by a cover letter or covering letter, which simply is a letter of introduction. Cover letters are generally one page at most in length, divided into a header, introduction, body, and closing. The header should include your address and other information, the recipient’s contact information, and the date sent after either yours or the recipient’s address. On its side, the introduction briefly states the specific position desired, and is designed to catch the employer’s immediate interest. The body amplifies on material in the résumé or job application, and explains why you are interested in the job and would be of value to the employer. Finally, the closing summarizes the letter and indicates the next step the applicant expects to take… you can say that you will look forward to hearing from or speaking with the employer.

The Style of the Résumé

Here are a few recommendations for preparing our résumé:

1. The writing style must be direct and positive. Your writing should be in the third person.
2. Use a simple and concise vocabulary. Don’t recur to contrived or rarely used words. Be as clear as possible.
3. Beware of orthographic and grammatical errors… They decrease dramatically the professional feeling of our résumé.
4. Learn to organize your information in sections. Title such sections effectively.
5. Leave out any information unrelated to the job you’re applying to.
6. Don’t use colors. Don’t use “funny” typefaces, or unprofessional mixtures of fonts.
7. Nowadays, if a résumé is not redacted via a word processor then it is considered unprofessional and unacceptable.

Résumé Caveats

• The résumé should not be longer than two full sides of A4 paper.
• Do not write anything pejorative about other persons, businesses or your previous employer.
• Keep in mind that the résumé is a marketing document, not a bibliography, and certainly not a biography.
• If we are applying for a specific position, we must not forget to accompany the résumé by a cover letter explaining one’s suitability.
• Never comment on your economic expectations.
• Do not write about the reasons for this change of job or why you’re not working … reserve such information for the personal interview.
• Include a photo only if they ask to do so.

As always, your opinions on this topic are entirely welcome. Best of lucks with yor résumé.

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• The Quest for Making Money Online (11)

I do strongly believe that blogging is about living (in the net, that is), not about bragging. These undoubtedly clever guys nourish from the naivety of some people. For them, it’s a perverted kind of pleasure to read about “how to make tons of money online.” They say: “Look! This guy is making so much money with just a web page!.” Their natural reaction, of course, is “I can do better!.” Some have quit their jobs to pursue the role of “entrepreneur”. To have the motivation to improve is nice and all, but it’s even nicer to have a clear and down-to-earth mindset. We can win money. Yes. We can. We have all the required abilities. But we’d be better off if we take every net’s thing with a bit of salt. Building self-confidence demands taking risks… but illusory, unattainable goals knock-off self-confidence atrociously.

Being an entrepreneur requires a clear vision about the business we want to undertake. Being an entrepreneur needs courage and accepting risk. But above all, being an entrepreneur requires good capacities for planning and self-discipline. Entrepreneurs have the abilities for being their own bosses. And not everyone is prepared for that. And it also requires courage to be able to accept our current limitations. But if you believe in yourself, you can overcome any of these obstacles.

Trust & Betrayal

It’s indeed possible to make money with a blog. How much? I really don’t know as of the time I’m writing this. Life, Money & Development is fairly new. Some sites report a huge success, and seem credible. On the contrary, the above referred “bragging” sites are liars and it’s easily verifiable: their inbound links, relative status and rankings reveal poor traffic and linking data, which would not really allow for a sustainable income. They are clever, though, in trying to attract readers and advertisers based on the buzz about “how much money they are doing”.

As told, winning money online is viable. Take, for instance, e-commerce. Internet has turned into the ultimate platform for modern businesses, mainly because of lower costs and wider reach. In turn, some notable websites and blogs, not directly related to e-commerce, have achieved considerable popularity, and declare notorious income levels. But that’s not an easy chore. It’s true that pop culture madness reveals affection for miraculous sites and net ventures with a quick and nearly immediate cash return. Those sites, though, require considerable traffic and a broad reader-base. Gaining and maintaining readers is not easy. Then, Traffic is the first nourishment of any web venture. Conversion is the other mandatory requisite for online success.

The Visitors’ Lounge

If you own at least a website or blog, you are likely familiar with the hardships associated to growing up the site’s visits log. Friends and family are usually the first members of the reader-base. Beyond that, it’s more difficult. You have to follow several strategies, and discover the ones that work best for you. We have to submit our information to news sites and networks, to register in directories, to leave comments in other people’s blogs (a nice way to promote your site without being too intrusive; thanks to Robin for this recommendation), and so further. Hopefully, new readers will also act as promoters of your site. Search engines will drive some traffic too. And spammers will discover your site someday

The Trail of Victory

Getting visits is not enough. If you want to promote your business, to convey your ideas to the world, or to win money, it’s necessary to accomplish successful conversions. Simply put, a conversion means that a visitor performed a desired, target action (clicking a banner or reading your post, for example.) Gaining traffic requires hard work, but conversion is an art. Alas, conversion shall be forevermore linked to experimentation. Implementing a successful conversion scheme requires visualizing the flow of actions of our visitors. It means we have to anticipate (somewhat) our readers’ actions… where they will look at, where they will go after reading something, and so on. Layout of the site (including considerations about the best type of advertisement) is very important to direct the flow. Also, we have to be specially careful not to abuse our visitors’ trust.

Online Marketing & Advertisement

It’s the most common source of revenues for sites not directly related to e-commerce activities, such as this blog. Online advertising uses electronic media to deliver marketing messages and, ideally, attract customers. Online advertising has several distinct flavors, some of which are very bitter. Typical online advertisement schemes include, but are not restricted to, the following:

** Contextual ads constitute a very popular advertising variation. This type of ads display text or images that are (likely) related in semantic terms to the keywords of a search, or to the content of the page on which the ad is included. It’s believed that such ads offer a greater chance of attracting customers because their content is related to the user’s interest. Widely known programs of contextual advertisement are Google Adsense, Yahoo! Publisher Networks, and AdBrite, for instance.

** Non-contextual Banners are not intended to be related to user’s interest. They tend to be very disruptive of user experience, and adopt several forms. However, if the layout is arranged in a way allowing clear and natural distinction between the banner and the content, it could be a very effective approach to monetize a site.

** Inline Text Links are my preferred approach. As of the time I’m writing this, I’m combining the Adsense Contextual Frame with some inline text ads. This kind of advertisement is not very disruptive in visual terms. Conceptually, though, it’s not very honest… I concede that. Nevertheless, I think they integrate neatly with the current layout of the site. A future shift in the blog’s approach may require discontinuing this scheme. The advertisement networks I’m currently using are:

Kontera

LinkWorth

** Link Blurbs is other name given to a collection of advertising links. Strictly, it’s a frame filled with links. Typically correspond to direct sales, and are obviously related to banners.

** Affiliate Networks pay you for referring other publishers, or even advertisers. A few of the above links correspond to my membership in some affiliate networks.

** Email marketing is other way for delivering advertisement content. The mechanism is obvious. Legitimate email marketing is frequently referred to as opt-in email advertising in order to distinguish it from spam, grayware and general malware.

There are other popular schemes, such as Chitika eMiniMalls and other widgets, but I have yet to experience with them. I think it would be a very bad idea to burden our sites with all these advertisement schemes and companies. It would be a total mess, both visually and conceptually. Our visitors would have to dig up the actual content. And there is a golden rule for content-delivering: high hurdles to access content decrease the readers’ interest in the media (in our case, blogs).

I’m experimenting with the ads here, trying to keep the balance between visuals, concepts and marketing. Let’s practice and share our results. We cannot expect our practice to be always clear of obstacles. I’ll expand on this topic in upcoming posts.

Thank you very much for reading.

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Seeing the list of billonaires, people tend to ask themselves about how did the guys in the list become so wealthy? For some people, such question only triggers envy. Thereafter they release their imaginations, and more often than not, fall prey to bad sense… they initiate a harmful monologue, attributing every member of the wealth rankings with some weird, defaming twist “perhaps he achieved richness by exploiting his workers and other people”, or “perhaps evaded taxes”, and other similarly negative and envious thoughts. Every man has his own quirks and twists. Nevertheless, during the time that the envious person is wasting by unfruitfully thinking of others, the rich people is likely thinking of how to become rich or even richer. And surely even at the expense of them all, because while the losers are filling up their minds with lot of stupidities, the rich guys are thinking about how to convince us to purchase their goods or services; that way, they become even richer.

As aforesaid, to become rich is not an unattainable goal, but we have to realize that it’s not an easy goal either… it’s a difficult goal, indeed. But it frequently happens that we are mentally entrapped in a fake duality: easy vs difficult. This may lead some to sustain the following wrong thesis: “Why should I burden myself with such huge task at this time of my life… perhaps I’m just too old for this.” Conversely, youngsters would say “I have plenty of time for that, and if I’m going to be rich it simply will happen… time will say.” Unfortunately, this situates us in other popular and dangerous frame: to settle for an unambitious life…. that is, to keep a monotonous and routinary life, day by day. That’s not the mind of winners.

In order to be rich, we have to forget about all these poor thoughts, and start enriching our minds right now, no matter what our current age or financial condition is. The only prerequisite is to set the right goals and, little by little, to build the basis of what can be a golden castle. For instance, Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$ 62 billions, and 77 years old, is an American investor, expert in stock markets. I’m sure his goal was not to be the richest person in the world, but to succeed in his work with passion. He followed and improved his masters’ advices and lessons, including his father’s, persevered, and now he has the privilege of topping the list of world’s billonaries.

We also know Hiroshi Yamauchi, 80 years old and former president of Nintendo (he’s still Nintendo’s larger shareholder despite stepping down), and currently is the richest man in Japan. He holds a fortune of about 7.8 US$ billions, in a country relatively small in territorial terms, but relatively big in demographics, culture and passion for work. Perhaps we could think that becoming rich requires a lot of time, and you’d only see the fruits when reaching an advanced age, after spending all your life working. Not necessarily. Age is not a mandatory term in the wealth’s equation: Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is only 24 years old, and already has a net worth of US$ 1.5 billions.

Wealth is like love… any age is good for opening our hearts to love… and any age is good for opening our minds to richness. We could start by reading this entry on the mind of the winners. We only need motivation and perseverance. It’s nice to pursue the goal of monetary, material richness… you will be rich. But those who know how to love nature and mankind are even richer.

So long. Be happy

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Previously, we presented an article about the basic elements of a successful approach to blogging (we called such approach the Samurai approach.) Nevertheless, universal strategies don’t apply to blogging. Each blogger has to discover, hone, innovate her own approach to blogging. Our Samurai approach should only be taken as a starting point. By no means it’s a general strategy, universally valid. As suggested, blogging success can only be achieved through evolution. Don’t take for granted that once you have a solid reader-base, those readers will follow you forever if your blog is a static one. People devour content, including images, layout, ideas, and above all, approaches to problems and concepts. Successful bloggers calm such hunger. Summarizing, to grow our blogs we have to discover an approach we can apply to blogging, hone and refine such approach continually, and keep adding new, interesting features to our blog (including layout and content.)

I recommend two basic activities for evolution of our blogs:

• Observation: We have to observe and critically analyze what are doing the successful bloggers (not necessarily in our niche.) Perhaps by following some of their tactics and methods we can accomplish a bigger and more satisfied reader-base.
• Experimentation: The only way to verify that some tactics and methods would work for your blog is to test them out. Fortunately, blogs are very dynamic structures, and hence it’s relatively easy to essay new things and modify the approach continually. And if something is not working for you, remove or restructure it as soon as possible. Don’t let bad strategies to kill your blog.

Now, let’s conquer the blogosphere

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1 The Laptop

Albeit my experience with the Toshiba has been good, I think it’s time to go Apple. The problem with the Toshiba is that one is forcefully restricted to Windows environment; we may also install Linux but it would be too cumbersome for my needs. On the contrary, by using an Apple machine I have access to the powerful Mac OS X operating system, and besides I can compile and test some applications originally targeted at Linux, without doing separated installations. The Mac runs all the software I need. Someone may also add that the Mac is stylish, but that really is not my motivation as I prefer functionality over appearance. For example, it is evident that the relatively new Mac Air is very stylish, but it is also evident that it relinquishes an important quota of computing power. Therefore, I think I will choose the Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A, which boosts a display of 15.4″, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, and DVD SuperDrive. Just all I need. I’m aware about the direct relation between big displays and laptop weight (this MacBook weighs 5.4 pounds), but I prefer to reduce any strain on my eyes.

I also like the DVI video output, which would allow connections with the digital projectors I use in meetings and seminars. Additionally, it includes a DVI to VGA adapter to connect with legacy equipment. It also includes many facilities for video conferencing with built-in iSight camera and the required software. The only thing that worries me a bit is the battery life. According to its technical specifications, this MacBook Pro’s battery is able to provide up to 6 hours of untethered work… but with so many add-ons and functions that number is hard to believe.

Overall, I think this is the right laptop. If you have had some experience with it, please share.

2 The Camera

I mostly shoot films, but a good digital camera is nice to have. And I’ve always believed that photos integrate with blogs better than videos do. However, regarding digital cameras I don’t have much experience. Nevertheless, I prefer a photo-quality of at least 7 Megapixels (MP.) A friend of mine has recommended the Canon PowerShot SD750 which, although is somewhat pricey (200 US$), has 7.1-MP quality, 3x zoom, and works fine for both expert and novice photographers (like me.) Besides, she says that the 3″ LCD screen of the camera is very crisp. I’ve had no good experiences with Canon products in the past, but I’ll give this a chance… let’s hope I can find a good discount, though… 200 US$ for a camera… yikes!

3 The Disc Burner

I think it’s also time to replace my DVD burner for a higher storage, modern and HD unit. This time my choice is firmer. I’ll be purchasing the LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue, which can burn and read Blu-ray, and also read HD DVD, DVD and CD. Great. I have a lot of things in my hard drive, and it would be nice to backup them in Blu-ray discs, which can hold up to 50 Gb. Finally I can have all my seminars in one disc… one disc to rule them all

4 The Projector

Mandatory tool for meetings and conferences. I love the Viewsonic brand, and of course, I will pick up a projector by Viewsonic. As the budget is already restricted by the above items, I will focus on the ViewSonic PJ503DB DLP projector.

I’ve already used this projector, and its setup is pretty easy and is relatively lightweight. It’s HD compatible, and has a good selection of video input ports. It also boosts excellent display, colors and clarity. The only cons, however are its inability for XGA resolution, and the lack of a zoom lens… things that I really, really don’t need.

I think these 4 items are reasonable companions for the tasks I’m currently developing, and for my upcoming plans. What do you think about my choices?

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Good sense is the primary and the conditio sine qua non of a better and longer life. Thanks to it we are able to avoid wars, conflicts, hunger, and getting into troubles in general. It is only a matter of just applying it. The converse, i.e. a bad sense of life balance, turns us into fragile souls, easy preys for evil, envy, and lies. A lack of good sense provides a fake sensation of power… power which indeed is only a cheap mask for selfishness. A lack of good sense separates us from our family, our friends and from the entire world. Moreover, that fake power may lead to an hyperactivity which ultimately will burn us.

Good sense helps us to be true humans, as it improves our self-confidence. Those of us who act prudently, weighing up risks and outcomes, tend to turn into better parents, better sons, and real forgers of avant-garde societies. As aforesaid, good sense involves a keen sense of management and prudence. But it also requires sensibility: we have to be open and responsive toward others and toward our environment. Insensible beings are not only ignorant about others’ emotions, but they are also blind to their own wounds.

It’s my view that good sense is related to permanent consciousness. We should NOT live a routinary life, doing things the Nike-style: Just do it We have to find pleasure in our activities. We have to be always focused, always concentrated in the task at hand. Every problem and every task must receive its quota of time and attention. Don’t work thinking of anything else, as that leads to poor performance, and a progressive decrease in our quality of life.

Good sense follows the bounds of reason, reigning over natural appetites for the pleasure of senses. No real success can be accomplished and sustained in the face of inability to control oneself. Finally, we have to understand that good sense is the only way toward justice. And only fair people will prevail in happiness. Remember, though, that justice starts with ourselves. Our names may be linked to problems, to difficulties, but never should be associated with unfairness, bad sense or sadness.

Next time we have to cut a flower, let’s remember that good sense means acting with wisdom. Is there anything superior to the wisdom that nature shows in a flower?

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Money has to be tightly controlled. We must know where money comes from, and where it goes to. We must strive to know the way our money flows, the paths it travels, and the drains taking most of our income. By closely watching our money’s nature, we’ll learn to control it. Control is a keyword of personal finance. Control refers to checking the errors we are incurring with our money’s management, and to take the corrective action to rectify any deviation from our desired goals. Setting goals is other important requirement for saving, and it answers the question what are we saving for ?

In the following, we’ll review 12 recommendations for a better saving:

1. Register Everything: Write down a (complete and exact) list of your monthly spendings. When the month ends, examine your list, sort all the expenditures and you’ll notice those spots and activities which represent an opportunity for saving. The list will also allow you to see at a glance how consistent you truly were distributing your money. The general idea is to detect new opportunities for saving. You’ll be surprised of the great opportunities that knowing our money’s flow offers. Furthermore, the list is the first step into making a monthly and annual budget. Preparing budgets is also an art, and we have to start to hone our planning skills as soon as possible.
2. Review your Invoices: Please, review all of your services’ invoices. A few decisions or changes may yield miracles. For example, turn off lights when they’re not in use; leaving your lights on when no one is in the room is a huge waste of energy and money. These are simple measures that every member of the family can contribute to. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned.
3. Tune up your Services: Besides reviewing our invoices, we could benefit from analysis and more drastic actions. Do you really need the long-distance calls service? Do you really watch all the channels included in the platinum subscription of your cable service? Check if your communications provider offers more economic plans, adjusted to your real needs. We should also apply a similar approach to banks’ services: let’s look for financings with lower interests and compare different banks to open a savings account. Additionally, try to save in water and gasoline.
4. Amortize your Credit Card Debt: Decide on the right amount of money you might assign to amortize your credit card balance. Try to lower a bit your nonessential expenses in order to pay more than the defined minimum proportion of the bill. Remember, amortizing your credit card balance may be a wise investment. Other step you may take is that if you have several credit cards, cancel the ones you are actually not needing: this will save you from the fee and other commissions of the credit card, and additionally prevents wrong uses of your credit capacity.
5. Create a Plan of Pensions for the Future: Research if the company where you work offers a contribution retirement plan (e.g., 401(k)). Under such plan, your employer will start “deferring” a portion of your wage. Typically, you also are able to select from a number of investment options (stocks, bonds, etc.) A nice side of this type of retirement plan is that the company does all the bureaucratic steps for you. Needless to say, a retirement plan is a form of saving.
6. Review your Insurance Contracts: Are you paying the right cost for insurance? An insurance coverage is very important for our mental relax. But compare the types of insurance policies, including life, home, disability, health and even those covering small business, and select what you indeed require. And specially, reject insurance policies that are too pricey or that contain too many exclusion clauses.
7. Write a List of the Things You Have to Buy: Next time you go shopping, prepare a list of the things you have to buy. Else, you may yield to compulsive purchases, and acquire things you perhaps don’t need in that moment, such as movies, cellphones, clothes, etc. If you have to purchase a dear item, please research your options thoroughly, compare prices, and choose the offer providing the best relation price/quality.
8. Prefer Automatic Payments: Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user’s bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds. Take into account that when we have to go out to do payments, we are subject to the business pressures to purchase things we don’t need. And transport also represents an expense, of both money and time. Furthermore, automatic charges prevent us from paying extra commissions for late payment. All your services could also be automatically charged, and by the end of the month, you’ll have saved a lot of money, and avoided plenty of worries. Be careful, though, not to forget to keep the source account with a proper level of funds.
9. Recognize the Impact of Inflation: Inflation results in a rise in the general level of prices over time. Watch out for inflation as it can erode the real value of your savings. Inflation is a hidden risk pressure for those with savings to invest them, rather than have the purchasing power of those savings erode through inflation.
10. Setting goals: For example, a possible long-term goal is “retire at age 60 with a personal net worth of 300,000 US dollars”, and a mid-term one is “buy a house in 5 years paying a monthly mortgage servicing cost that is no more than 23% of my gross income.” Besides retirement and a house, other goals could be related to paying off credit card (as told above), college and university costs, medical expenses, etc. Such financial goals help to direct financial planning.
11. Planning and Executing: After setting the goals, the next step is to define the financial plan, which should describe how to accomplish our goals. Regarding this how-to, we could follow the guidelines stated in the previous points. Now, execution of the personal financial plan often requires discipline and perseverance. Don’t hesitate to look for professional help (accountants, investment advisers, lawyers, etc.) if you have some doubts.
12. Monitoring and Assessment: As time passes, the personal financial plan must be monitored for possible adjustments or reassessments. Try to improve all the suggestions I’ve given above.

Remember that saving is an art, and as such, it requires to be a genius or a lot of practice. The ultimate goal is to combine skill, craft, and wise judgment, in order to distribute our money in the best possible way.

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What do we achieve by thinking of ourselves as “supermen” or “wonder women”? Too little, indeed. Trying to act (and even feel) like fiction heroes, in a frantic rush to enjoy something that really is too tiresome to be enjoyed. There is little reward in demanding ourselves the compliment of being perfect, effective, productive, attractive and winsome people who have no real problems at work or at home, and who always ignite the life of the party. Needless to say, there is no reward in working frenetically until our minds and bodies cannot handle it anymore: we would weaken and become sick. But we already know that time is unstoppable: other people would carry on our duties, and someday, we would be simply forgotten. In other words, no matter how much effort and blood we devote to our jobs, we are always dispensable for the furious wheel of businesses.

I’ve worked as a business manager for a long time, and have had the chance to meet a lot of people who burn-out very fast. That’s no surprise as they were but machines for working. Apathy and frustration resulting from prolonged stress and overwork will, sooner or later, lead to health problems. Absolute fatigue is an enemy of health and self-confidence. There are crowds yearning for turning into winners; they pretend series of victories, and are not willing to tolerate any flaws. But the winners’ mindset totally differs of this approach. They are obsessed with a need of self-confidence, wealth, fame and success, beyond any reasonable limit. Albeit they are free to do so, I think that these people are ruining their life: they have not learned to relax, to slow down, and to enjoy the wonderful things life reserves for those with true self-confidence.

What are the questions that motivates our work and related actions? The following are dangerous questions:

• How much have we earned?
• How much have we progressed in relation to other people?
• Are we going to be famous?
• Is it possible to win more money?
• Are we the best already?
• Did we ring up the cash correctly?

The problems is that, when these people reach their mental and physical limits, self-confidence hesitates and weakens because they suddenly discover that they are not absolutely flawless beings… and such reality does not match with their (fake) perfection. Thus, self-confidence is hurt.

Rather, we should be asking ourselves what have we done today? What are we doing right now? Better yet, let’s don’t ask… let’s answer and do the right things that we know should be done. Advance, perhaps slowly, but firmly. None of our steps should reveal fear. Let’s visit and share with our friends. Let’s improve our working, resting and familiar environments. Let’s enjoy our family. Let’s strengthen our ecological practices; by loving all living creatures, we are loving ourselves. Keep your mind young. Follow a healthy lifestyle. Obliterate panic and stress. Listen to your favorite music. Take a walk with the person you like. Breathe. Love.

Finally, we are heroes. Yes, indeed. But heroes in the epic adventure of learning to live well. Brave heroes. But above all, human heroes.

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