DrContrarian

I thought I would shut this down. But since my official blog is pretty dry affair with lots of tips and hints on business/ retail productivity - I find that I miss the opportunity for the occasional rant. I think I will come back here from time to time. For no, this insight: Ignorance + Arrogance = Toxic workplace culture.

I attended the ‘Presentation Day’ at my son’s primary school today. As a matter of principle I put all my children through the public school system (as opposed to private schools). There are probably 300 or so kids in the school and has reasonable ethnic diversity. It was the principal’s last presentation day – not sure where he is going but he is leaving. The cadre of female teachers appeared scarily close to 5 years from retirement. It was my first presentation day – you should know that too. I have successfully avoided any involvement with the school (from parents’ nights to fundraising events to presentation days) for the better part of 14 years now. My deal with the school is that I will educate my children (including a solid set of values) and the school can provide the schooling: call me if you have a problem, otherwise we leave each other well alone. This is not as weird as it sounds at first; but as an educator myself I feel that riding shotgun for my child while the teachers ...

We are presenting on "Brand Me" up on the Gold Coast next week, and is my wont, I have been doing some research. I came across a blog The Buzz Machine (click on the link above) - which does not have anything to do with branding per se, but made a very interesting observation. I quote from the blog: For young people, writes [Dov] Seidman, this means understanding that your reputation in life is going to get set in stone so much earlier. More and more of what you say or do or write will end up as a digital fingerprint that never gets erased. Our generation got to screw up and none of those screw-ups appeared on our first job résumés, which we got to write. For this generation, much of what they say, do or write will be preserved online forever. Before employers even read their résumés, they’ll Google them. If you are a parent, this is pretty important to communicate to your children. Now along with the talk about condoms, drugs and not getting into strangers' cars, you also...

Drove my son to the football training yesterday. As we passed a bus, he asked me whether they earned a lot of money. "About $20 per hour", I ventured. He was impressed. (He is 9.) I then proceeded to tell him that it wasn't that much - not with a mortgage and such. Then came the million dollar question: "How much did you make today?" The truthful answer was ... "nothing". He did not seem to really get that tomorrow or next week I might make$10k or $20k, which makes up for the all the 'nothing' days. "I am never going to go into business," he ventured. "I am going to be a sport star or an actor or a musician or something like that." I might not have made any money yesterday, or even the day before; but I got to drive my son to the football, AND sit and watch him play. Priceless - as they say in the ads. The joys of being an entrepreneur. (No footy pic on this computer...)

I read an article on the net that has me (mentally) running for the hills. Check it out: http://www.collegejournal.com/aidadmissions/newstrends/20050425-kronholz.html In essence it highlights the lengths that college-hopefuls are going to in order to secure a place at the better tertiary institutions. There is evidence that Australia is already heading that way; to wit: the fierce battle for selective school places, the after-hours tutoring colleges, and the private school enrollment boom. Simply put, people are putting their lives on hold to get access to what is perceived to be a better education. People are spending a fortune and accelerating the learning curve to secure a foothold in the ‘good’ schools. The most obvious question is of course: does it really work? There are a dozen things wrong with this hyper-competitive approach, but if it works, none of those arguments will stack. The answer is so obvious that it boggles the mind: There is absolutely zero correlation betwe...