Seriousness of Human Gas...

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.(Hardly seems worth it.)

If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!)

Calculate Your World Rank by your Salary

Here is a weblink that will calculate where you rank in terms of your annual salary versus the rest of the world.

It really puts things in perspective and shows me how much we tend to take for granted. It doesn't ask for any personal info except your salary last year (not even a name). And it doesn't send any cookies for tracking purposes. Try it -- you'll be surprised.

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Franchise Opportunities - Mailboxes Etc. (UPS Store)

Mailboxes Etc. owned by UPS seems to be a very good market to get into. For one, I am in an area that does not have one but desperately needs one (you should see our crowded post office) and it is in a prime area for development.

Mailboxes Etc. requires around $145,000 in capital to start. (Franchise Opportunities) With cash or liquid assets of $50,000. Here is the breakdown:

• Start up Cash Required = $7,500
• Investment Required = $145,825-247,000
• Franchise Fee = $30,000
• $50,000 financing available for fixtures and equipment.

Seems out of my league but I know that my boss might be able to pull this off. Then again, after looking at this, maybe I should just find a job with very little risk...

MBA + Franchise Opportunities = Success?

I am just weeks away from finishing my MBA at Liberty University. In fact, graduation is on the 14th. The President of the company I work for has flown down to my area to give an evaluation. He knows that I will be graduating soon and I think he might have a proposal for me. A little background is in order first.

I work for a small business that contracts services with the military. I have dubbed myself the Regional Director because I usually work at more than one military installation at a time and pretty much run all the operations.

If any of you are familiar with contracting with the DoD (Department of Defense) you know that contracts are usually awarded yearly and, well, our year is coming up. I can tell the people at the base are itching to get someone else other than us in there because they are trying to shake up the mix a little and because we have had the contract 3 years.

I am going to meet with my boss tomorrow about the future of the company. I am going to inform him that I am and will continue to seek employment elsewhere that will allow me to utilize my skills and give me the opportunity to advance my career.

Since I do have some leverage, he doesn't want to loose me, I am thinking of asking him to possibly become an investor in a franchise. I know this is something that he has been interested in the past but never pursued. If he takes me up on this he has some definite advantages, namely:

• A franchise is a long term investment with long-term rewards (not year-to-year).
• A franchise with a well known company is guaranteed 90% to be profitable.
• A franchise will allow him to increase his wealth (especially since he just bought a $400k house).

Of course, I am not going to just come out and ask him to invest. I will ask him if this is something he would be interested in. And, if he is, would he like me to create a strategic plan and feasibility assessment of such a venture. Right now it is a matter of getting to a 'Yes' and working out the other details later.

Wonder what my wife would think of this kind of risky investment? :)

What is an MBA worth?

Graduation is just around the corner and I have caught myself asking the question, "Is it worth it?"


I am sure there are plenty of people who would think an MBA would enhance their career and surge their resume to previously unattained heights. I have discovered, however, that this is not the case.

I recently was recommended to a publicly traded company by one of the Vice President's of the company. They have a management training program for college graduates. I interviewed with two of the Senior VP's for this position and felt everything went well.

Let me explain. The management training program is a 6 month training program. And here is the kicker, the program pays more for training than I am currently making!! I figured, after the 6 month training, that I would definitely be making good money.

BAD NEWS: I talked with the VP 5 days after my interview to find out how everything was going. Well, he had bad news. He said the Senior VP's felt that, after the training program, I would not be satisfied to work as a manger but would probably move up to upper management OR use the job as a stepping stone to another job somewhere else. WHAT?!?!?

The Senior VP's are looking for someone to work in a management position but not be ambitious enough to want to succeed within the company! I don't understand this mindset. The CEO of the company said he had to stick with the decision made by his VP's. Needless to say, I am disappointed. We will see what happens in the near future.

So, you see, an MBA degree on your resume might, just might, make prospective employers think you are overqualified for the position. Maybe a little stuck on yourself.

If they only knew how much I wanted the job. To tell you the truth, I could work on the management level of the company and not seek any higher positions if I got paid what they were paying!!!

In conclusion, an MBA makes you undesirable for "common" jobs (i.e. 90% of jobs out there) and an MBA with little experience in the field makes you "under qualified". With this dynamic you can't win.

Stay tuned to see if a $20,000 education REALLY pays off or does it just hurt you in the long run.

Save the Environment

WorldJumpDay.org is a great website.
Scientific research has proven that a change in planetary positioning would very likely stop global warming. All we have to do as the citizen's of Earth is have 600 million people jump on the earth at the same time.

Currently, only 115 million people have joined up. We need you!!

20 July 2006 11:39:13 is the time of the great jump. Be prepared!

http://worldjumpday.org

This website will no doubt be one of the prime sponsors of AlGore's new broadcasting company. Who know's maybe Air America Radio will start a campaign of cooperation. Together we can end global warming!!

ANOTHER DAY

I will be officially graduating from Business School one month from today. It is great to finally realize I am almost finished with the education aspect of my life. Still looking for a good job, though. I was recently dumped from a management training program because they felt I would not stay "at the dealership level". They were basically wanting to train a college graduate for 6 months so that they can be an ordinary manager selling vehicles. I know, I know. What do they mean by dealership level. I guess they believed I would want to advance in the company. Far be it for them to hire anyone with drive or ambition.

So it is back to the road if looking for a better job. My brother-in-law has submitted my resume to a software contracting firm in Texas. We will see how that goes.

Graduation Speaker has been ANNOUNCED!

The much awaited graduation speaker for May's commencement at Liberty University was announced at Thomas Road today!! The speaker will be...drum roll....Sean Hannity.

Sean Hannity is the conservative ABC talk radio host as well as the co-host of the Hannity and Colmes show in FoxNews. Pretty cool. I would have liked someone a little more high profile, but he is not bad. I talked to my Uncle who lives in Virginia. We are offically staying with them while we are in Virginia.

Another Picture

Picture from the church towards the main road.

New Parking Lot!

We now have a new paved parking lot at our church! It has been many years in the making because there is over 24,000 square feet of pavement and it is 2 inches thick over the entire area. It looks great. Right now they are setting up a basketball court behind the church. Seems the instructions for the installation of it is hampering any progress at the moment.

The church parking lot from the road.