AMTIFY™

≈  The Real Value of a Company – The Lesson of The Susquehanna Hat Company  ≈ ∞  Leadership and Building a Business, AI Aside  ∞ Anybody ever heard of the Susquehanna Hat Company? Yes, I understand you have to be older than dirt and I understand even if you are that old, you still have to possess a certain sense of humor to have heard of it. The Susquehanna Hat Company made, well, hats, but the people that owned the company weren’t nice. Abbott and Costello's routine demonstrated what happens when a company doesn’t do things the right way. Click here for that classic routine and the context of this Blog. (And please remember, it was the 1950’s…).  So, what’s the relevance of an old vaudeville comedy routine to the real value of a company? Actually, it’s simple. Value reaches deeper than numbers. The Harvard Business Review provides a textbook description of how to determine the value of a company. There are formulas examining cash flows, market caps, enterpris...

  ≈  Can We Take Down the For Sale Sign on America? ≈ 🎵  This Land Is Our Land 🎵 I’m told to avoid politics here. Not because I don't have opinions, I have enough opinions to make pretty much anyone uncomfortable about anything, but this Blog’s mission statement is to be “foundationally committed to supporting a lifestyle centered around mindfulness, selfcare, and being active”. But every once in a while something wanders out of the political world and into the mindfulness, self-care, and active-lifestyle neighborhood. When that happens, it's hard to pretend it doesn't live next door. So, throwing caution to the wind, here's my opening question. Raise your hand if you think ordinary citizens should have more influence over which people represent them in our government than Political Action Committees, nonsensically wealthy individuals, and corporations. Every Dog Deserves Their Own Spot I'll wait. Take your time. Don’t rush. Think about it. OK, raise your hand...

  ≈ Dreams Evolve But Their Meaning Doesn't Diminish ≈ ∞ Research Suggests They Help You To Live Longer ∞ “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old; they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”  Gabriel García Márquez I love quotes like this: pre-packaged, ready-made intriguing conversations presented in a single sentence. This one comes courtesy of Gabriel García Márquez, the author of nearly two dozen books and whose life’s work earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature. If Mr. Márquez were still around, I’d happily buy him a drink - OK, a couple of drinks - in exchange for some time to discuss the word dreams . And to be clear, we’re talking about life dreams, not the kind where you hit a walk-off home run in the World Series only to wake up and find you didn’t. When you’re young, dreams seem fairly easy to define. As a child, you might dream of becoming an airline pilot, a firefighter, a professional ballplayer or, in my case, a cowbo...

  ≈ Father’s Day – It Has It's Own History ≈ ∞ My List of Thoughts ∞ So, I did some research and have now added a bit of Father’s Day history to my vast fund of useless knowledge. It turns out Father’s Day began with Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, who wanted to honor her father for raising six children on his own after her mother died. Inspired by Mother’s Day, she proposed a day to recognize fathers and the role they play, with the first official Father’s Day taking place in 1910. Over the years, the idea gained support from presidents including Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge, until Lyndon B. Johnson officially proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day in 1966. The decision was made to finally recognize that fathers actually do play a role in the type of people their children turn out to be. Not so coincidentally, the effort also enjoyed the enthusiastic support of companies that sold men’s clothing and other Father’s Day gift-related items. Battery Dr...

  Manhattan, New York Musings on a Trip to "The City" In the old days I took the train into Manhattan and back. Every day. I drove to the station, parked the car, walked to the platform, and got on the train. An hour and twenty minutes in, an hour and twenty minutes back. Rain, snow, heat, cold. Every day. I read the paper and some stuff in my obligatory briefcase, took a nap. No devices to play with, this was back in the dark ages. I never liked it much, but it was part of the price of rural living, so I traded time for woods and gardens. I wasn’t alone, many of my friends did the commute, and between them, the train friends created on the 6:18 every morning and then on the 8:28 every night, the routine went by fast, invisibly, leaving only a deeply entrenched dislike of traveling into Manhattan by any means whatsoever. A few weeks ago, I took the same train into The City, (not the 6:18 am, but it might  literally have been the same train…), but without carrying the planned ...

≈ May is Mental Health Awareness Month ≈ ∞ It’s Important  ∞        This Blog is really late, and I apologize. As I mentioned in my last Blog, we hosted a "Big Chill" at our home, pretty much a week of very old friends (literally and figuratively) all tied in some way to a small private college in late 1960’s Vermont. We didn’t party quite like we used to, but I think we delivered a respectable performance that honored the old days… (Checkout the soundtrack, one of the best) Rain dominated most of the week. It kept us inside together playing various “highly competitive” games, talking for hours, together and individually, walking the woods between storms, essentially a week-long reunion of longtime friendships, aging bodies, memory lapses, and stories that somehow improve with time.   Missing a week of blogging is hardly a crisis, but May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and that matters. The Month exists to emphasize the importance of mental well-be...