Bob and Debbie Conroy - Enjoying the Journey Together!

When you feel the sting of the whip on your back does it matter if the whip is held by management or labor?  I have worked for many styles of management and to name a few: benevolent, respectful, absent, incompetent and evil. Regardless of the type of management, the whip was in play. I was a union member (Retail Clerks Local 876 AFL-CIO) while working for a grocery chain in Michigan from 1969 -1976. This merely transferred some control of the whip handle from management to the union but the sting was the same. There was some else, that was at first subtle, but over time was undeniable. The union rules required that the individual submits to the will of the masses and that was always the lowest common denominator. Initiative and hard work was “busting rate” and overtly punished. This inherently impacts an individual’s self-esteem and eventually devalues them to the status of a mere cog to be controlled – and always with a whip. Now that I am self-employed I see that the whi...

The agency is on track to break even and perhaps make a profit in 2013 which is ahead of our business plan. This month I picked up a part-time job as an executive of a small insurance company while Debbie picked up a side job as a bookkeeper for a local insurance association. We may find ourselves pushing a combined Federal/State/Medicare tax rate of 50% again. I swore I would never pay that tax rate again. Where is John Galt when you need him? He never came for me or was I as obtuse as Hank Rearden?

“Cloud computing” or “in the cloud” are phrases that I read almost every day now that many major technology companies have embraced this as their business model.  On the surface the concept is simple: all applications and data are hosted in secure data centers and user access is over a broadband Internet connection. When I hear about clouds I think about something I have first noticed decades ago: that most people already live in a cloud.  They go through the motions of living but it appears as if outside forces are pulling their strings. Commons symptoms include: following the crowd, keeping up with Joneses, believing that reality TV is real, lacking any substantial interest in current news unless it involves a celebrity, and a general lack of curiosity about the world around us.  Picture in your mind a football field with thousands of people standing, sitting, and moving about the field through a low fog bank that is spreading over the field.  Now notice a hand...