"We're Not Really Done With It Just Yet."

On a recent trip to her local Albertson’s grocery store, my mom purchased the People magazine that she regularly buys, which happened to be the 9/11 Anniversary issue. As the clerk scanned the magazine, she said to my mom, “Can you believe it’s been a year already?” to which my mom replied, “No,” not really giving the question much thought at that instant. The clerk then said, “Well, maybe now that it’s been a year, we won’t have to hear about it so much...I’m kind of getting tired of always hearing about it in a way.” My mom stood there in stunned silence, not knowing what to say to which the clerk then asked, “You know?” My mom then replied, “We lost friends and our friends lost family in the attack, so we’re not really done with it just yet.” Of course, the clerk became apologetic at this point, but I mean, really, how do you take your foot out of your mouth after that one? That clerk is just lucky that it wasn’t me buying that People magazine because the tongue-lashing I would have given her would have driven her right out of the country just as quickly as her comments and feelings should have, let alone the fact that this is how she is representing her company and her store to one of their best customers.

The Interesting Journey Of The Body Of The Father Of Many Of Our Fonts

John Baskerville lived an interesting life, but the after-life of his “earthly” remains is a Gothic tale of Poe-tic proportions.

Baskerville had a lifelong passion for beautiful lettering and books. Around 1726, Baskerville moved to Birmingham, England and in 1738, he began experimenting with different types of papermaking, ink manufacturing, typefounding and printing. Baskerville invented his first of many typefaces in 1754 and most “serif” style fonts, even Times New Roman which was developed for the London Times newspaper, have been adaptations of Baskerville fonts. 

Baskerville would later go on to be the printer for the Cambridge University Press, and ironically for an atheist, is best known for his C.U. printing of the Bible. Baskerville even became a close friend of Benjamin Franklin while working with Cambridge University.

Baskerville died in 1775 after a long, interesting life, but he could not have even imagined the journey his body was in for. Baskerville’s will decreed that he did not care in which manner he was buried, but only that he not be buried on consecrated ground, so he was placed in a lead coffin and buried on the grounds of his home.

In 1791, the Baskerville home was destroyed in the Birmingham riots and the land was sold to John Ryland who left it to his son Samuel, who sold it to Thomas Gibson who cut a canal through the grounds to create wharf land.

In 1821, workers came across Baskerville’s coffin and though Baskerville’s descendants didn’t want it, Gibson did not want to bury it in consecrated ground per Baskerville’s original wishes, so he placed it in his warehouse, where after eight years it was placed in John Marston’s plumbing shop. Baskerville's coffin was placed in a corner and sometimes even used as a workbench.

After eight years in the plumbing shop, Martson’s curiosity got the best of him and he opened the coffin only to make on-lookers ill at the sight. Once having opened it, Marston didn’t want the coffin around anymore, so he applied to have it buried in his family’s vault at St. Philip’s Church, but permission was refused.

A bookseller by the name of Nott who knew and appreciated Baskerville’s work agreed to bury the coffin in the Nott family vault, so Marston put it in a wheel barrow, wheeled it across town and left it on the floor of the Nott vault at Christ Church.

In 1892, Baskerville’s coffin was finally encased in cement, of course after being opened by the curious again, and placed properly in the Nott vault. Then, in 1899, after only seven years of proper burial, nearly 125 years after his death, the Christ Church was demolished to make way for a shopping district and Baskerville’s remains, along with the remains of 600 others were finally laid to rest permanently at the Warstone Lane catacombs, although still against his wishes, in consecrated ground.

His body’s legacy and journey lasted much longer than Baskerville’s actual life.

Attacking Credit Card Debt

There are far too many Americans asking themselves how they can attack their credit card debt.

The first thing you need to do is to stop charging things!

Now, I know how difficult this can be, but it really is the only way. You will need to get out of the red before you attempt to better your financial standing. If you absolutely have to use your cards, then you’re not ready to get out of debt yet.

Trust me, you won’t get out of debt unless you want to and you won’t do it by continuing to charge.

Once you’ve stopped charging, take a look at your accounts and their interest rates. Transfer all that you can to the lowest rate cards, then once you’ve done so, call every credit card company you still have a balance with and ask for a lower interest rate.

When you are denied, threaten to transfer your balance with them to another card and they will usually comply. I was able to get Capital One to drop my card from 18.9% to a fixed 12.9% in just a single phone call.

Once you’ve gotten your interest rates as low as you can, determine how much you can send towards the credit card bills each month. Make sure you can make at least the minimum payment on time for every card to avoid late fees and penalties.

Attack the highest rate card first with as much money as you can spare after you have made your minimum payments on everything else. Be diligent and dedicated. It will take time, but if you can avoid charging and attack your balances, even if it’s only one at a time, you will win the war against your credit card balances.

Geographic Diversification In Investing

There are so many things in our everyday lives that we are looking at differently now, after 9/11.

Financial Journalist Andrew Feinberg captured the new way that we must look at portfolio diversity best when he wrote, “In the post-9/11 world, I fear that our painstakingly diversified portfolio is actually dangerously concentrated. I mean, we are overweighted in Manhattan big-time.”

This is something new in investing, but a very valid point in the world we are living in today. Every analyst will preach non-stop about the importance of your portfolio being diversified. In yesterday’s world, diversifying amongst different countries, different sectors, different companies, different sized-companies and different company philosophies was enough, but with terrorism threatening U.S. cities, investors even need to diversify where their investments lie in the U.S.

Business in Manhattan literally ground to a halt on 9/11 and some investors learned that their diversified portfolios were extremely heavily invested in companies that resided in Manhattan. Investors need to check their portfolios to ensure that their U.S. investments are spread out over the geography of the nation as well.

Eye-Opening Comment On 9/11

I think even after all the time we’ve had to ponder since the morning of September 11, 2001, it is still hard for the average American to truly grasp what happened that morning.

I believe eSpeed, Inc.’s Executive VP Joseph Noviello really put the events of that fateful morning into perspective for me in a way I hadn’t really thought about yet.

Think about where you work, the people you work with, and the tasks that you share at your job as you read Noviello’s comments:

”People did whatever it took. Those whose managers had died showed their skills as natural leaders. Their instincts for what to do were so strong.”

That’s not a military officer talking about soldiers, but a business executive talking about his employees.

While September 11th showed us the worst of mankind, it also showed us the strength in the average American.

Fred Alger, An American Hero

My thoughts are with all Americans today as any true American will be in mourning for the loss of our collective innocence one year ago today...Let us never forget the tragic and heroic events of that fateful day as we push forward into our future...

Seven years ago, Fred Alger, the founder of Fred Alger Management decided it was time for some rest after taking himself, investors, and his company to the forefront of the investment world.

Fred handed the reigns over to his brother David who had been with him all along and then made his way to retirement split between Switzerland and parts of the U.S. This past September as Fred and his wife were getting ready to leave the house in East Hampton, New York, which they had leased for a month’s vacation, Fred glanced at the television and saw One World Trade Center ablaze.

Fred Alger had chosen the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center for his offices and recalls that it took him quite some time to realize not only that his brother and former colleagues were in harm’s way, but that they had been killed in the attack. Nearly all of the firm’s employees perished.

Fred Alger Management was virtually wiped out on September 11th, but in the typical Fred Alger style, instead of leaving his investors in peril, he immediately cancelled retirement indefinitely and is now working to get the firm back on its feet.

Former employees who had moved on after coming into their own at Fred Alger immediately lined up to help run the now-leaderless funds and pensions. Today, almost a year later, Fred Alger Management is pretty much back on its feet and pushing forward, a symbol of the spirit and determination of American will.

Are You STILL Talking About Race In The Business World?

I opened up the latest edition of Fast Company, a magazine that is supposed to be on the cutting edge of business only to read the following:

”Diversity Without Excuses. Yes...there are qualified minorities for top jobs. If you want to find talented people of color for your organization, you can. But you have to make it a priority.”

Those words made me shake my head and wonder why so many people refuse to get out of the stone age and catch up with the times.

Maybe we have been blessed with our Orange County marketplace and an acceptance of diversity in color that they do not enjoy in other parts of the U.S., but doesn’t that sound like a line straight out of the dark ages of business? 

Maybe there wouldn’t be so many people hung up on color in business if there weren’t so many people who refused to stop complaining about the hang-ups of color in business.

I truly feel color in business is a self-defeating philosophy. If you can’t get along with purple people, then you suck, but if you refuse to look at purple people the same way you look at yourself, you have no place in the business world.

Any self-respecting business professional knows there are actually two kinds of people in the business world...those who want to succeed and those who don’t...and that’s got nothing to do with a person’s color.

What’s In My Wallet, Huh? Cash, You Damned Vulture...

Gold cards are out and platinum cards are in. Credit card companies are already working on their next wave of smoke and mirrors to rope people into the “prestige” of high-end credit card patronage. Titanium cards allow you to carry a balance of $100,000, have no annual fee, and perks like free internet access and magazine subscriptions. The vultures are trying to market titanium cards to law and medical students who they are hoping will rack up large bills now, but have the earning power later to eventually pay them off. If that’s not enough, ultra-elite cards like diamond, quantum, infinite and black are also making their debuts with credit lines that start at six figures. American Express Black has benefits like roadside assistance and guaranteed airport parking, but carries an annual fee of $2500. My advice on credit cards? Whether your card is gold, platinum, titanium, or Ukrainian, don’t carry a credit card balance, and always try to get cards without an annual fee. If you’re looking for a status symbol, how about being able to say you have no credit card debt in a nation where the average household carries $35,000 in credit card debt? If you need to carry a balance, look for a low-rate card, which is not necessarily going to be a “metal” or “element” or “smoke & mirrors” card. Watch out for “rebate” cards. Sure, you might get a free tank of gas every month, but are you paying $300 in finance charges instead of just spending your own $30 on gas? Always pay your minimum due and pay it on time...if you don’t there are clauses in the credit card application you signed that are there just to stick it you. Always be firm, almost a problem customer to your credit card companies. Be courteous, of course, but also demanding, and always threaten to take your business elsewhere Call your credit card companies and tell them you are going to transfer balances away from them if they don’t lower your rate. You’d be surprised at how quickly they may lower your rates if you scare ‘em.

You Would Not Have Believed It, Even If You Had Seen It...

A couple weeks ago, the Check Engine light lit up on my parents’ Jeep Cherokee that they purchased through my uncle’s dealership in Oceanside, Balboa Jeep. With the dealership being such a drive away, we felt driving that far without knowing why the light was on was a bad idea, so my uncle called in a tow truck company to bring us a rental car and pick up the Jeep. So, the saga begins with calling the towing company to give them directions to the house and to see what time they will arrive. This is about 2:00 p.m. We receive a call about 3:00 p.m. saying the guy will be up at about 7:00 p.m. that night. So, about 8:00 p.m. we get a call from the driver who says he got lost, ended up 30 miles farther north than he should have been and figured he could make it down at about 10:00 p.m. So, of course, the guy finally shows up at about 11:30 p.m. That’s a seven-and-a-half hour drive from Oceanside to at Huntington Beach. When the driver showed up, he took the minivan rental off the rig (I even parked it for him) and I gave him the key to the Jeep so he could hook it up. The driver got into the Jeep, started it, pulled it out of the driveway and into the street, then began hooking the Jeep up to the truck. I offered him something to drink, to which he said he was fine and for us to have a good night. So, we go in the house, thinking that though its been a long night, it’s done. Not by a long shot! About five minutes later, we hear screeching tires like someone slammed on their brakes on our street. We look out the window to see the tow truck stopped about four houses down in the middle of the street. I go outside to see what’s happening and just as I begin to walk towards the tow truck, the driver jumps in and starts driving off. The problem is that the Jeep’s back wheels aren’t moving, thus the screeching sound, and this idiot is driving off with the Jeep like this! No joke, this guy drives to the end of our street, makes a left hand turn and a quick right hand turn to get out of our neighborhood on to a main street, all the while, dragging the Jeep, tires screeching. I’m standing in the middle of the street, wondering how long this genius is going to drag the Jeep before he stops and tries to fix it. Ever had to literally chase someone down in your car? I ran in the house, got my keys, hurried into the garage and took off to chase this moron down. I find him about a quarter of a mile from the house, pulled over to the side of the road, just about to get into the Jeep. It is then that I see the Jeep is still running! Of course, genius boy is trying to explain to me that he thinks he forgot to take the 4-wheel drive off, but it’s in Park, it’s running, and this guy who tows cars for a living is towing it like that! At this point, I tell dumbass to just take the Jeep off the rig, leave it where it’s at and go. Of course he’s apologizing and saying that after how long it’s taken, he’d really rather try to fix the problem and finish the job. Perhaps he should have been concerned with finishing the job much earlier in the night before he went to whatever bar or drug dealer’s house that turned a 2 hour drive into a 7 1/2 hour drive and put him in such a condition that this is what he did! What makes me so mad is that he stopped halfway, got scared that we’d figure out what he did, and ran like a five-year old child so we wouldn’t know what he did! At this point, I don’t know if this guy was high, was drunk, tired, or was just really that bad at his job. How bad was dumbass? Get this...the minivan he picked up from the dealership was brand-new. We couldn’t even use it because by the time it got to us, it had a damaged oil pan and was leaking oil all over our driveway.

“Is that daddy?”

Now, for the latest installment in our “Are you working too much?” series. Last Wednesday, while discussing Quietly Working strategy at the Ruby’s in Newport Beach, we were seated next to one of the Newport wives and her two children. While waiting for Tim to retrieve his cell phone from his car, I took out my Palm Pilot to make some schedule changes. The three-year-old boy at the table next to us asked his mom what I was doing. She told the boy that I was using a Palm Pilot like Daddy. The boy then asked, “Is that Daddy?” I thought to myself, is someone’s daddy’s Palm Pilot so full of appointments and long hours that his three-year-old son doesn’t even know what he looks like from five feet away? Don’t get me wrong, we work 80 hour weeks, but our loved ones can still pick us out in a restaurant.