So, a psychologist sends me an email in response to our blog post on toxic behavior of yesterday, says, “Good start, Big Red Car, but you left out a few key ideas.”
“Oh, I did?” says I.
“Yes, don’t be such a snowflake. Take criticism as it’s intended — for your own good.”
So, under the influence of a pal who I accused of being a bit toxic in his behavior and the power of craft beer, here are some rules with which to lessen the toxicity.
He asked, “Why don’t people like me?” Here is what I told him, with the profanity edited. [Actually people do like him, but he needed a good kick in the ass.]
1. Stop comparing yourself to others who are better positioned from any perspective. Cut the envy, but do study how they became better positioned and, if you want that outcome, do what they did. Earn it.
Have you done the best you can with what you have? If you take that attitude, you own your own life.
2. Stop being such a snowflake and taking everything so damn personal. If somebody disagrees with you — trust me, this will happen — it is not because they hate you. It is because they have a different view of things that may be based on different facts or a better analysis.
Stop taking everything so damn personal.
Hail, Uber! Uber went public last week with great fanfare befitting the third largest Initial Public Offering in US history. Hoorah, Uber! All hail Uber!
Then, they ran into reality and reality drowned them with surge pricing.
Uber came public at the low end of the proposed range (already a huge disappointment when compared to the investment bank courtship days) and promptly fell, making it the largest first day IPO loser in US history. Hello, America.
In fairness to Uber, the markets have been reeling with the US-China trade treaty negotiation news and the imposition of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. [Trump’s fault?]
Lyft — a competitor — was also tanking adding to the cloud over the market and the IPO world.
Nonetheless, Uber has some problems.
In case you have not heard, Harry’s has been sold to Edgewell Personal Care Company in a $1,370,000,000 stock-and-cash deal.
The founders of Harry’s — Andy Katz-Matfield and Jeff Raider — will head up Edgewell’s US operations as co-presidents.
Edgewell is also the owner of Schick and Wilkinson shaving products and thus this is a strategic acquisition.
Big Red Car here on a cloudy ATX day thinking about shoes.
The gold standard for measuring feet — since 1927 — is something called the Brannock Device. It can be purchased from the company on their website www.brannock.com.
You know all about it. Here is the Brannock device in all of its ambidextrous loveliness. Look familiar?
Big Red Car cruising the international military sites and stumbles on a troubling issue — HYPERSONIC WEAPONS.
OK, there are other things out there like Venezuela and the idea the Russians might have already slipped nuclear weapons into the country — Big Red Car is a huge skeptic — and be ready to trigger Cuban/Venezuela Missile Crisis Redux. This could get dicey quick.
But, there is something we need to get on top of now. NOW. Hypersonic weapons.
Here’s a picture of Vlad Putin overseeing the testing of an Avangard hypersonic missile that Russia claims is capable of Mach 20 — 15,340 MPH. For the record, the Big Red Car is skeptical of all Russian weapons claims. Of course, the American military establishment uses such info to get Congress to take their hands off the checkbook.
The test was conducted at the Kura Test Range which is significant as it is a real test range that Russia uses frequently. It was observable from space. The total travel distance was 3,800 miles, so this was a full scale test when you think how accessible all of Europe is to Russia.
Hey, Germany, why the Hell are you buying natural gas from a country that has weapons that can nuke you?
It is also significant that Putin kept his shirt on and he wouldn’t have come for a dud.
OK, so I admit I haven’t been writing too much about Satanic Worship for the last few years, but something caught my eye the other day and I need to weigh in on it.
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service recognized The Satanic Temple as a tax-exempt entity — yes, you read that correctly — challenging the adage that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. Now, if you want to worship Satan, The Satanic Temple doesn’t have to pay taxes.
Competition — it’s what’s for breakfast these days.
Your Big Red Car sometimes feels like folks who are “in the fight” think they have to cede certain territory to their competitors without a fight. I am often reminded of a snippet of wisdom once placed before me by a Sergeant Major, “Lieutenant, when you get in a fight, remember to fight.”
That has always stuck with me which brings me to some interesting statistics from Q1-2019 related to advertising revenue growth, digital advertising revenue on the Internet.
One assumes that advertising revenue is owned by a few big companies — talking to you, Google. In case you didn’t know, Google has a new logo.
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