Perspective

Last night I watched a 60 minutes interview with Chris Martin, lead singer of a popular band called Coldplay. They won three Grammys last night.

But the interesting part for me was what Chris said about how he judges the success of a new song. When he’s onstage performing, he can’t really see the crowd but he can clearly see the exit signs. When he starts a new song, he checks the exit doors to see how many silhouettes are in the doorway. If the doorway is empty, it means no one is leaving, and that indicates his song is a winner.

This is how …

You can’t turn on the news without hearing about one “Ponzi scheme” or another. Who is this Ponzi guy and how did he get to be forever associated with defrauding little old ladies out of their life savings?

Well, the answer is on the SEC website. Apparently it all started with Charles Ponzi who duped New England residents out of funds using international mail coupons. Believe it or not, this happened in 1921. He promised a 40% return and would use money from one investor …

There is no better gift than a nice warm security blanket. But unlike our favorite Peanuts character, we need more than a blanket to get that warm, fuzzy feeling of security.  Now is the time to take a look at your processes to see where you might tighten up your procedures, review roles, or change passwords.

We’re fortunate to have our own Certified Fraud Examiner (aka Inspector Gadget), …

I’m not from around here.
Napa Valley can be an intimidating place. If the idea of wine with its white tablecloths and sommeliers weren’t intimidating enough, there’s all of that terminology that you need to understand. There are “appellations” (not to be confused with the Appalachians) and “terroir” (which isn’t to be confused with terror unless you’re a southerner who doesn’t speak French very well.) I’ve barely managed to adapt to the new directional perspective required when the coasts changed sides …