Philosophy

20 Years ago I was a kid working at McDonald's.   Mom came home from the library one day with a book about Ray Kroc.  "You might want to read this," she said. "It's about the guy who founded McDonald's."

Ray Kroc - "Founder" and impresario of McDonald's

This was a truly amazing guy.  He spent his last dime to get a couple of hamburger peddlers from southern California to franchise their business.  They didn't want to do it, but finally they acquiesced.

A few things impressed me most:

• Kroc stuck with it.  He didn't give up.  He kept adopting new ideas and new ways of doing things.  Once he was asked, "What will McDonald's be selling in the year 2000?"  He replied, "I don't know, but I am sure we will be selling more than anyone else."

• His first motto for McDonald's was "K.I.S.S." or "Keep It Simple Stupid".  It was later replaced by a more politically correct motto, but the first one was a very good idea.  Have a simple philosophy.   Make it easy to understand and people will come back.

• Finally, he made his first million after he was age 65.

My philosophy is somewhat the same:

Stick with the technology.  Learn what is new and adapt.  Listen to others and use their ideas.  Try hard to stand up for what is right technically, but understand that there are many ways to do things.  Respect the client's opinion.

Avoid Computer People

After working with computers, computer networking and the Internet for 10 years, one thing strikes me as being consistent:  "Computer People" are always bent on pushing the latest technology while users are struggling to keep up with their current tools.  A user's business process drives how the technology is used, not the other way around.

Traditional "computer people" do not understand this.  They push hard to make you buy the latest box or disk and then they disappear.  I was a victim of this early in my career in television production and public relations.  It didn't seem to matter what you told the "Computer People".  At some point they had their own way of doing things.  The best computer professionals that I have encountered were people trained in a different field that learned how to apply computer technology to problems that they had.  I believe that it is very difficult to learn Information Studies at school.  I believe that if you have the technical training to understand the equipment and the ability to understand people and their use of technology, you are truly a computer professional.

There are a select few people who fit this category.  One of these special people described a mutual acquaintance (one of the "Computer People") as, "Someone who has come up with a solution to a problem that nobody has."  It is difficult to do business with such people.

Answers to Problems You Do Have

If you do own a computer, you know.  The darn things just don't work sometimes.  Sometimes they do work, but not the way you do.   Either way the computer is not helping you get your job done.  Unless your job is working on computers, you shouldn't have to spend your time trying to figure them out. That's were I come in.  I got tired of "computer people" so I became one!  Not one of the "techno-weenies" though.

I have a degree in Telecommunications Production.   To me the computer is a communications tool.  It moves information from place to place.  We got along fine without them some time ago, but now we have sped up life so much that we need them to keep pace.  Within 10 years the computer will be as important to society as the automobile and the telephone is today.

To Hell with Computers.  We need a Toaster.

Over and over I have said it to friends and colleagues. Computers will not become widely accepted until they are as easy to operate as a toaster.   Unfortunately, this is not something that will happen in the near future.

Until then, you need a friend that will help you though your trying times with computers.  Someone who will be around to help you when you need it.  Someone to "give you a push" to try something new.  Who knows, you just might tame that computer.

Let's teach it to fetch and make it bring you back some money.

Contact us and get some help
Buy a Block of Time and ensure support availability
Build a web site and help your marketing effort
Have computers?  Network them and share files and printers.   It is not expensive.  Really.