Steve Jobs earned a $1 annual salary every year since he rejoined Apple in 1997. While many $1-a-year CEOs reap big back-end stock and options packages, Jobs was almost a financial ascetic: He collected no stock awards most years, no cash bonuses and no perks, even turning down a 401(k) match from Apple.
Apple’s market cap has risen from less than $2 billion to over $355.6 billion under Steve’s leadership, making it the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
”…having reinvented the personal computer, music business, phone, and personal computer (again), Steve Jobs has demonstrated and re-demonstrated his genius for us.”
This short article that I wrote last year was published on ManCouch.com. With back-to-school in full swing I thought I should repost it.
A great new method to prepare for a test or a big presentation… have sex.
A study about blood pressure recently used blood pressure as a measure of stress responses during public speaking or challenging math problems situations that often elicit stress. It was found that those who had recently had intercourse tended to have either lower baseline blood pressures, less of a blood pressure rise during stressful events, or both. These findings suggest that having sex can lead to less of a stress response during challenging situations, which is a good thing.
Along those same lines, another study looked at women’s heart rate as a measure of stress response, and found that women exhibited less of a stress response after ‘positive physical contact’ with a partner. Emotional support alone didn’t have the same effect.
Women all say the same thing, they totally dislike or worse yet fear the dating scene today.
They often state three main sources of concerns, the quality of the pool of guys available, the sheer energy they have to undertake to self promote, and the incredible amount of competition that they face.
Let’s begin by looking at the available men.
There seems to be several problems for single women today. First, they meet men who are already in relationships but who take off their wedding ring to appear available. Or, there are men who say that they are single but then secretly text their girl friend or girl friends saying that they are still out with the guys and will be out late…”players” as Match women call them.
Second, many complain about meeting men who only want sex, some of these men pretend to want a relationship, but ultimately it’s a ploy to get more sex. I can hear my friends grumbling under their breath, “Why the heck are you revealing this fact?”
In general, there seems to be a perception that there are only a few good men out there left. To win these few good men, they have to improve themselves and compete with other women who are trying to get the same guy. And, because there are only a few good ones out there (at least in their eyes) they don’t want to be overly demanding and now in many cases seem to be openly forward.
When questioned about what they would ask for if they could, most women mention romance. Do they really mean that?
I believe that they want to feel that they are the center of the guy’s world, that we can’t help but fall in love with them, and that it is them and only them that we want. Basically they want the guys to be crystal clear about love without sending some cryptic text that is laden with ambiguity.
Some do mention sex, but usually it follows from falling in love. I think these women want to live the plot of any romantic comedy movie or romance novel….I am sure you have a few favorites.
When you ask a woman whether they think of themselves as romantic, the answer most likely is no. So does that mean women want the men to be romantic, but aren’t themselves?
They tend to believe that men really don’t care if they are romantic, so why bother?
The second issue is one centered on the women themselves. Many feel exhausted from all the various activities they undertake to look good and to make themselves seem as desirable as possible. In my field of marketing this is called self promotion because the woman or “Brand X” is trying to promote herself as being the best option on the market.
Listening to women who are active daters they often reveal the effort that is involved simply in terms of improving physical appearance. Of course there is the financial cost of that undertaking like gym memberships, clothing, salon visits, teeth whitening, cosmetics and wonder creams are not cheap.
Many women also feel unsure how to ‘be’ when dating – what personality characteristics should they display and hide?Is it ok to have a loud laugh or not? There is even a Seinfeld episode about this one.
Is it ok to be intelligent, or does playing dumb improve one’s chances? Should they be honest about their profession if it’s one that is high in status it could signal that they are too challenging?
Together, trying to put the best foot forward is not an easy undertaking if you are making the effort to find a good mate, especially if you are particularly self-conscious or have been away from the dating scene in some cases for a whole generation.
The third issue is competing with other women for a good mate. This is where the issue of romance resurfaces. Yes, by using good clothes and a winning personality one is competing against potential rivals for the seemingly minuscule pool of men. However, that pales in comparison to the competition women are in when it comes to sex.
One of the most significant issues that I hear these days is how we men are not really displaying any romance and therefore women are feeling increasingly pressured to have sex earlier in the relationship.
I think perhaps the women don’t necessarily want to have sex, they just don’t want to be single again or they want to have a little more time to see if he’s a keeper. And these days, it seems that the ‘sex’ date is number two or three – a far cry from the courting days when I was in high school…only fast girls from the wrong side of the tracks had sex.
Many women must try to determine what potential rivals are doing so that they can be unique, but not too unique as to become freakish. Sugar and spice, and everything nice, that’s what girls are made of? I think not.
What does this all mean? Well, basically, in today’s dating scene, romance has been pushed to the side. Women tend not to display it, and they tell me it’s because the men they are meeting don’t care about romance at all. Men aren’t displaying it because women don’t expect romance from them.
My advise to men is to use romance (as so long as it’s not paired with a tan line from where your wedding ring should be) because you might seem like a very good catch, and you’ll stand out as being different, but in a good way.
If romance is dead, what comes next? I don’t even pretend to know, but it looks like the routine is to have sex and then hope that there is some emotional connection afterwards. Our society has streamlined everything imaginable (even social relationships are now efficient thanks to match.com) there’s just no room left for romance.
My friend from London sent me this…
Our father, who art in prison, only mum know’s his name, thy riots come, read it in the Sun, in Birmingham, as it is in London, give us this day our welfare bread & forgive us our looting, as we’re happy to loot those who defend stuff against us, lead us not into employment, but deliver us free housing, for thine is the spliff, the blackberry & the lager, forever & ever ……….. innit
I just watched “The Family Man” with Nicolas Cage tonight. In the movie Cage’s character is given a glimpse of the life he passed up to pursue success on Wall Street.
Watching this film and few others that Hollywood has released lately portraying the same theme made we rethink the whole concept of the Midlife Crisis dilemma.
We generally think of a midlife crisis as a time of irresponsible behavior. You’ve heard all the stories, the 45 year old runs to the South America with a young, hot blooded babe, a senior exec takes off with his secretary and so on. Even the married Governor of South Carolina snuck down to Argentina to be with his “soul mate.”
Questioning one’s life can be disturbing, leading to major changes or divorce. But midlife crisis can also be a time for healthy changes that lead to a fulfilling middle and older age.
We all spend the first half of our lives almost on auto-pilot, doing what we were taught to do by parents, teachers, and society. We got a job, we went into the military, went off to college or trade school, we got married and had children (I am just now a grandfather,) We then bought a home and went into debt. We developed our skills, proved to ourselves and to others that we could succeed in a world that was created for us by others before us.
We experienced life and and we would like to believe that we gained some modicum of wisdom. But then we begin to question the truth about the old adages like work hard and you will succeed, good guys finish first, people get promoted by merit, rich people deserve what they have, and so on.
Then something happens, a death of a friend, divorce, or in today’s economy a job loss smacks us square in the mouth and we realize that life is short and moving much too fast. As George Carlin once put it we have built up so much speed after we “turned” 50 that we will “hit” 60.
We have however gained enough experience to reassess our life and ask ourselves, “What do I want for the rest of my life?”
There is a Chinese proverb that says, “Midlife is the old age of youth and the youth of old age.” If this is true then many people are standing on the threshold of a “new youth.” It is what Gail Sheehy in her book, New Passages, calls the “second adulthood.” We all have a second chance at becoming the person we always thought we were meant to be. This second chance is called midlife. However, midlife is new and often dangerous territory.
A more appropriate moniker for Midlife Crisis could be perhaps a Midlife Quest in which there is a challenging adventure of seeking, exploration, and discovery.
Or perhaps it is a Midlife Metamorphosis where there is profound change or reformation and transformation. Another could be Midlife Renaissance with a new birth, a new beginning, and a chance to start over. 
Going back to Chinese for a moment, the ideogram for crisis is made up of two separate characters. One character represents “danger” and the other represents “opportunity.”
Any crisis in our lives provides the chance for change and growth yet the opportunity also brings with it a certain degree of danger.
You may not attain the goal of the Quest, the Metamorphosis may never be completed, and your Renaissance period may be a complete bust. The dangers of midlife are very real and a successful transition to the next life stage is not at all guaranteed.
What am I going to do about my midlife crisis? I am going to acknowledge the reality of death and I am going to use that awareness to help me cut through the bull crap of life and make authentic decisions for the rest of my life…and hopefully the “rest” in that statement will be a very, very long time.
Midlife should be a door to a life of greater purpose and authenticity.
I believe that the only crisis we see at midlife is when the stirrings of the soul are ignored and we refuse to answer the call of change.
Destin, Florida, my hometown, is #4!
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/best_places_USA/good-morning-americas-10-beautiful-places-america/story?id=14235228#.TkmOixFtlhU.xanga
The Cupertino, California municipal website is attracting buzz this weekend with a slew of new material about Apple’s proposed new “spaceship”-inspired mega-campus for 12,000 employees.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at a Cupertino City Council meeting in June to announce plans for a major expansion of the company’s headquarters, on a parcel of land formerly owned by Hewlett-Packard. The city’s website now has posted material related to Apple’s submission of a development proposal for the new “Apple Campus 2″ on a 175-acre area.
Included in the proposal were downloadable PDFs of floorplans and renderings of the proposed circular building, which is expected to be completed by 2015. Here is the link to the PDF’s.
http://www.cupertino.org/inc/pdf/apple/Renderings.pdf
“Apple is growing like a weed,” Jobs told the council in June. “It’s a little like a spaceship landing,” he said of the futuristic design.
After the presentation, Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong said, “Cupertino is ready for this. … There is no chance we are saying no.”
I saw this article today and wanted to pass it along…it is not my usual post but thought it was interesting…
Sometime this year taxpayers will once again receive an ‘Economic Stimulus’ payment.
This is indeed a very exciting program let me explain it in terms you will appreciate…
What exactly is an ‘Economic Stimulus’ payment? Of course it is simply money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. But where will the government get this money ? From you and me…the taxpayers.
The plan is for us to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China or Japan?
Think before you spend. Here are a few tips on how to best help the U.S. economy by “not” spending your stimulus check in the following manner.
1) If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money may go to China or Sri Lanka.
2) If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.
3) If you purchase a computer, it may go to India , Taiwan or China (LENOVA).
4) If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will almost certainly go to Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Guatemala .
5) If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea .
6) If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.
Keep the money in America.
Spend it at yard sales. Go to ball games. Spend it on strippers, beer
and tattoos.
Better yet go to a ball game with a tattooed stripper that you met at a yard sale and drink beer all day!
The on-going recession still has not affected the sexual-accessories business and in fact it may have helped.
Data continues to show that such things as his-and-hers lubricants and mass-market sexual-enhancement devices are producing fireworks in supermarket and drug-store aisles.
Second-quarter sales of personal lubricants soared 38% to $51.4 million, according to Information Resources Inc., led almost entirely by continued strength from last year’s launch of Johnson & Johnson’s K-Y Yours & Mine his-and-hers lubricant and this years run away success K-Y Intense.
That makes sense in this economy, make love, not reservations.
The first major mass-market female-arousal gel, a product which has gotten major end-aisle displays in such surprising places as Walmart! Yes, Walmart, we all remember they banned a Green Day album but made space to sell arousal gel!
“Meanwhile, the small but suddenly booming ‘sexual-enhancement devices’ category in food, drug and mass-market stores is growing even faster, albeit off a very small base, up 74% to $10.1 million, according to IRI, with Church & Dwight’s Trojan and Durex products leading the way.” Durex reports that drugstore sales of their condoms were up 6%.
“With a crippled economy forcing millions of cash-strapped Americans to entertain themselves at home,” said Charisse Jones of USA Today, “it’s not surprising that one particular product is seeing a sales increase—condoms.” A relatively inexpensive form of birth control, condoms are especially popular in tough times when struggling couples want to avoid “having more mouths to feed.”
“‘When the economy goes down, sex goes up,’ said a Johnson and Johnson spokesman by way of explanation, but he and the brand team declined to elaborate on why their products seem to be booming when the economy isn’t.”
