Hey, I’m going to be on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on Tuesday night, June 20th. Dawn Fratangelo and I will be discussing how to deal with email overload. Make sure to tune in!
Posted by Stever as Misc at 12:54 PM EDT
June 19th, 2006
Stever on NBC Nightly News, Tuesday, June 20th
June 16th, 2006
It’s Father’s Day. Feel guilty. Feel very guilty.
Today’s Metro had a full-page display ad claiming that Father’s Day is getting Screwed. It explains that even little Groundhog Day gets more attention. At the end of the two-page missive, the way out of this painful quandry is happily revealed-buy HBO DVDs. Whew! What a relief that the holiday will not go neglected.
But this public service does not go far enough. Let’s be very clear: a big part of why Father’s Day is being neglected is that we’re spending our money on the Fathers themselves.
One of the worst forms of this poor judgment is, for example, budgeting. Some people look at recent inflation figures and boyir that for most of us, real income has continued creeping downwards. So they think they’re doing dad a favor by not spending his hard-earned money on frivolous mind-numbing entertainment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dad’s needs are beside the point. The needsof the holiday are what matters. Or, more accurately, the needs of the company who realized there’s a holiday whose commercial aspect still has no natural ‘owner.’
I would like to respectfully point out another holiday that is even more neglected than Father’s day. It is Stever Day. A little known, lonely holiday, it is traditionally celebrated by sending large aims of money to Stever, or buying his products or services. It is a floating holiday that occurs by remarkable coincidence on the very day you read this. So get out those credit cards. Though I would never ask for money myself, the holiday is lonely and desperately craves your immediate attention.
Posted by Stever as Misc at 6:28 PM EDT
June 1st, 2006
Your worth as a human being is determined by how much money you have
Money! If you have it, you’re a worthwhile human being. If you don’t, well, then, you suck.
So says the cultural undertone at Harvard Business School. At least when I attended HBS, there was a subtle attitude of money = worth. You’ve simply got to be an investment banker, consultant, or Fortune 500 CEO, or your life is wasted. No one says it out loud, of course. In fact, many who most deeply embody that thinking would proclaim that self worth has nothing to do with money. Some would actually believe their own denial.
At the five year reunion, the undercurrent is: who’s making how much, doing what? The competition is on! Everyone smiles graciously, while making sure that everyone else knows Life is Perfect and Success Has Arrived.
The ten year reunion, rumor had it, would tone down the hyper-achievement. And so it did. Somewhat. After all, we were just coming off the internet bubble and had several hundred-millionaire-and-above classmates who’d cashed out in the frenzy. So much of the conversation was still about money.
Our 15-year reunion starts tonight. They claim that finally, this reunion isn’t about the money, but about life and family and friends. So this morning, I receive a letter from the HBS development office listing every classmate who gave more than $10,000 and the dollar range of their contribution.Am I the only person in the world who finds this crass and tacky? What’s the point? For low-income classmates to stare at the list of well-off doobies and realize that they (the low-incomers) will never get their name on the Big Board as being a major donor? For people who have served on committees, taken an active interest in the school, etc. to realize that it’s the size of their endowment contribution that counts, not the size of their commitment to the school? Or is this simply a reminder that if you don’t give, you aren’t worthwhile, so give give give, because look how much your classmate Alan gave.
I’ll tell you what. Your worth as a human being is related exactly, precisely, to YOU. You aren’t one bit more valuable because you have, give, or receive money. Bill Gates gives millions to cure maleria? That’s nice, and not to be discounted. But it doesn’t make him a better person. It simply shows that if you’re worth $100 billion, you can give $40 billion to your foundation and still be the richest man in the world. It would be rather like a middle-manager giving $10,000 to charity or to HBS. It gets noticed, but it isn’t exactly sacrifice.
So go build your worth as a human being by being a better one. Find ways to make the world better for your having been here. Find your potential to do something great and go do it. Climb Mt. Everest. Invent renewable, clean energy. Smile at your children. Love your friends.
And for goodness’ sake, if you insist on believing that your worth is related to how much money you give, fine… give it to someone who aspires to Be Themself in a Grand Way. It will go a lot farther than sitting on the wall of an ultra-rich institution, a monument to ego and endowment.