Shaine Mata Blog

I've come to terms with my need to do more. I let Liz know that I will be looking for other opportunities in 2006. I am doing all I can to prepare the team so that they can work without me. For the most part, they do a great job. There are some things that I do that they don't. I want to fix that. I also have some ideas that I wish to implement before leaving the store. This was a tough decision for me. I like working with everybody at the store. That's what made it so tough. I want to do other things, and I wish I could take them with me. I can't. I don't anticipate how long it will take me to find the right place to work. I don't want to just jump from one place to another. I want to take my time. So, it may possibly take me months to get out. The point was to let Liz know that I am looking and may find something so that everybody is prepared when it does happen. It's a way of quitting without quitting. The reason for giving such advanced notice is that so...

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You know, sometimes it's tough to see what is important when you are being pulled in a thousand directions at once. You lose sight of where you want to go and wind up getting sidetracked. There are basic demands that a person has that must be met before delving into side ventures. You need to decide what is important and do that. If there is time left, you can do other non-essential work. This applies to your time and your money. This realization and simplification of life came about when I realized what the financial books were talking about when they say you need to save a part of your money for you and use what is left over for necessities. We have chosen what is important to us in spending our money. If we can, we will cashflow our essentials before delving into our savings. Now we have savings, by the way. So, we distinguish between spending money and our money. Spending money goes to pay for our wants and needs. Our money consists of our savings. We decided we will only spend...

I recently came to a realization that took more than 6 years. This has to do with personal finance. I had read a book titled The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. This book is a classic amongst the personal finance books. There is one lesson in there that has eluded me. The lesson is that a part of what you earn is yours to keep. It's a simple lesson. I understood the idea very well when I read it years ago. It is only recently that it not only makes sense. It actually means something to me. I don't know how you do it. I learn things the hard way, usually. Here is what I mean. Typically, I would cash my meager paycheck and separate 10% into savings. For a while, I stashed cash in a safe deposit box. The stash was basically meant to cover emergencies. And it often did. I would have to pull out money from savings to cover a big bill, or to avoid overdrafting. The net result would be that I would have spent all the money I had worked so hard to earn. So, when an emergen...

I figured out my problem, lately. I was just reading the latest issue of Entrepreneur. It's an article called Close Quarters, which is about twentysomethings. The article is a plug for a book about the Quarterlife crisis. This crisis is about some of the following issues: student loans uncertain job market insane housing costs search for meaning and direction Although I am past the twenties, I identify with the issues. The quarterlife crisis is different from the midlife crisis in that in the latter, you feel like you're running out of options. In the former, you're paralyzed from all the options from which to choose. That's me right there. I feel like I can do more, and I get offers from people who want me to join their teams. I just don't know where to go. So I don't go anywhere. I'm tired of the safe, secure job route. It sucks for me. I want to work where I can go out, find a job, do it, and move on. This is why I was thinking about doing the door-to-doo...

I read all kinds of books about business, leadership, and money. You could say I am a voracious reader of these kinds of books. I usually learn from and use the information I read. Some books are worthless. I've rarely had a book speak directly to me. I finished reading "Who Took My Money?" by Robert Kiyosaki. Some of it is a repeat of old stuff, which is expected. There is one page that reached up and smacked me in the face. Here are excerpts from it. ----------------------- Poor people and lazy peple use the word can't more often than successful people. They use the word can't because its easier than saying can. If you say you can't do something, you don't have to do it... even if you can. It's easy to work hard and go nowhere. It's easy to stick to a job and blame your boss for not giving you a bigger raise. It's easy to say 'I can't afford it.' It's easy to say 'I can't do that.' It's easy to blame your husba...