E-Zine Street
Volume 1, # 18 The Service Professionals Resource - November 2, 2005 - $2.95

Road Map

Ave-A-News
Road Improvements
One for the road
Watch "The Road" buddy
The Boulevard
The Wire's Conduit

Mark's Highway
OK, OK, OK! (ala Joe Pesci)
Enough about the new book already.

A special treat for all you coaches out there. My buddy, Swen Nater, has a new book out, too. You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned is about Swen's experience teaching John Wooden on the hardwood, in the classroom, and in life.

Oh and don't forget FFFF! You can read the first two chapters by going here.

AVE-A-NEWS
This fall has been my busiest ever. I have logged more air miles in the past two months than I can remember. As I pause and take a big deep breath I am so grateful for all the wonderful new (and old) friends. Pardon me while I count my blessings.....

What are you grateful for? Take a few minutes and write in your journal or on a 3X5 card the five things (or people) you are grateful for.

Road Improvements

Rip and Read

As the legend goes, Bill Gates and Paul Allen were at Harvard playing cards instead of studying or going to class. Gates was taking Econ 301 as a freshman and never went to class. Rather, he crammed during the last two weeks and passed the class by acing the final. Paul Allen saw a copy of Popular Science magazine (January 1975), and it had a picture of the Altair 8800 on the cover. The kit cost $395-with no monitor, no keyboard, no disk drive, and no printer-just switches and lights.

He devoured the article and then quoted Shakespeare:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures."

They convinced the owner and designer of that Stone Age machine to let them write the code for it and-before Bill or Paul had even got their hand on an Altair-the first PC software was born.

Many years ago, a mentor, Tom Peters, said to me, "I read five daily newspapers and 20 to 30 magazines a month." I fell out of my chair. "How?" I asked incredulously. "Oh, I don't read them cover to cover. I skim, scan; I am searching." I wrote as fast I could in my journal. This was good stuff. "I am searching for topics, issues, trends, people, and companies I am interested in." He paused, looked at me writing and smiled. "When I travel, in the airport, I grab five magazines I don't subscribe to or normally read. Then I rip and read."

What he didn't say was that newspapers and magazines don't take much time to write, so don't take much time to read them. Like a variable speed motor that automatically adjusts its speed to meet the demand, increase your speed for light reading, and slow down your speed for great business books, technical information, and how-to books.

Ripping and reading affords you the opportunity stay abreast of trends and ideas in your industry, region, or community. One client, a television executive, began reading industry magazines on his stationary bike at the gym each day. He told me over lunch that in six months, he knew more about what was going on in his industry than almost any other general manager he met at trade gatherings. He was hooked on the value of rip and read.

I sit down once a month and read two or three articles from each magazine. I read them at odd moments in waiting rooms, banks, and friend's homes. Like Tom Peters, I will read almost ANY odd magazine: law, construction, dentistry, trucking, insurance, banking, and restaurant magazines. I can usually find at least one interesting article. I am especially fond of the Sunday edition of the New York Times. THAT is like reading a great book.

Charlie "Tremendous" Jones tells us, "All leaders are readers." Stephen Covey writes, "Those people that don't read are no better off than those that can't read. It is a sort of chosen illiteracy." Business philosopher Jim Rohn says, "Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it."

What are you reading and why? Would you like to ascend in our industry faster than any of your peers? Rip and read on a regular basis and watch out. You will be astonished at the quantity and quality of ideas that you generate over time.

Say, can I borrow that Popular Science magazine?

As we mentioned, this month's best read is Swen Nater's newest book.

You'll find it here: click here

Watch "The Road" Buddy!

Matteson Avenue is changing and growing. We have a new site search tool on the Site Map page to help you better find resources.
The E-zines are now subtitled.
This month we needed a little more humor.

The Boulevard

This month's site, for Larry Winget, is a bit off the usual. He calls himself an "Irritational Speaker". If you have a few minutes, check out his sample video. We think you'll agree he is different but good. http://www.larrywinget.com/

The Wire's Conduit

This month's Wire tip is about PowerToys. No, not the little battery powered kind. This is a deluxe set of tools that are compliments of Microsoft. Most people know about the Windows "registry", that spooky place inside Windows where you can do all sorts of trick things.

Tweak UI will safely get you in and out of the registry and allow you to change settings for the mouse, Internet Explorer, desktop, and other aspects of the look and feel of XP. Tweak UI by itself would be a great tool but, Microsoft also has image re-sizer, html slideshow, power calculator, and others.

Here's the link: click here

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End Construction

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