Lyons Leadership

I have been very stressed lately because I have been carrying a lot of debt.  I guess that when I received my first credit card that I wasn’t too disciplined in its’ use.  Now, ten cards later, I have realized that I am getting to a point where I won’t be able to afford the minimum payments starting next month - and I just don’t know what to do.

So, I have been searching the Internet to see if I can find the answers online.  Bankruptcy for me is not an option -  I am a bit too proud to go that route.  Besides, I made the mess, so I feel that I should be the one to clean it up.

I have found a number of sites that offer debt consolidation loans, which would help me to reduce my monthly payments while still paying off the debt.  I have to read up on it a bit more before I take the plunge and get one, though it looks like the most promising solution.  In any case, I need to figure this out soon - thirty days from now, I will start to have a real big problem.

Our dog Rexx has used his dog bed for many years now.  Though it has been a nice bed for him, it is getting a little too worn out and needs to be replaced.

So I decided that I would get him one for his birthday.  I wanted to get one of those easy clean dog beds that I read about online - the old one was just horrible to clean.  I had seen a site somewhere online that offered something that would work, so I decided to check it out.

We ordered one and gave it to him for his birthday.  I would guess that he didn’t really know that it was his birthday, but he definitely loved the bed.  We love it too - it doesn’t smell and is so much easier to clean than the last one - I don’t think we are ever going to get a cloth dog bed ever again.

Over the last couple of years that I have been on MySpace, I have seen layouts for many different interests.  Everything from the latest television shows, to futuristic designs - there seems to be one for everybody.

But today, I saw something that was different for a change.  You see, I came across a MySpace profile that was using religious MySpace layouts instead of the normal run of the mill designs.  It looked different, but I liked it.

It got me thinking that there must be sites that offered these types of layouts, so I did a search for them.  My hunch was right, and I spent some time looking at the various layouts that were available - definitely a large selection.

So for those of you out there that wish to share your religious beliefs with others, or are just looking for a more unique MySpace layout, you should do a search online and get one of these unique and beautifully designed layouts.

I remember the first time that he told me that he loved me. We were siting in his car at a red light and he just looked over and said it. I was more than shocked and I did not know what to say. I had to quickly evaluate what it meant and if I should say it back before the romance in the air was gone.

I decided against that, knowing that love was not something I was never going to take lightly. No one had ever been in love with me before and I was more than a little bit scared at the vastness of his feelings for me. What was I going to do?

I went home and I made a list of all the things I loved about him. I pondered whether this meant I loved him. I knew that there were things I could love about him that did not necessarily mean that I was in love with him.

It took me two more months of pondering, until one day it just hit me like a ton of bricks. He was the only person that could make me laugh and cry with a single look. I felt an immense love for him that was not there before and I knew that I could not wait to tell him.

I’ll have to admit that sometimes I can be a little too cheap.  On one hand that can be a good thing, but on the other, it is not.  You see, I should make a point of getting the best product or service for my company, but there are times when I am more focused on price than the quality.

I got a slap in the face recently, when I went against my instincts and went with the low bidder for the design of my business logo.  I thought that by saving a few bucks that my situation would be better, but I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

You see, the product that was delivered to me was sub-standard, and I could have just done it myself.  Not only did I waste my money, but I had to hire a professional logo design service to fix the mess.

Needless to say, I think that I have learned my lesson - you get what you pay for.

I find it really frustrating when you know the phone number of someone who called, but you don’t know who it is.  You see, I don’t know whether or not my caller ID is on the fritz, or if the caller ID service just doesn’t work so well where I live, but it sure doesn’t work very well.

Thankfully, I have been able to find a solution.  You see, there are a number of reverse phone lookup websites that let you input the number into a form, and it finds out who called you.

Most of the time, these sites work great, but once in awhile you still can’t find who called you.  I guess if it was important, they would call back, right?

Needless to say, I am very thankful that the Internet provides such a useful tool for me to use.  If it wasn’t there, I might miss an important call - and I wouldn’t want that.

Not even six months ago, I changed the focus of my business.  Instead of making the large and elaborate sites that I used to make, I decided that I would make small mini-sites instead.  The reasoning for the decision was that I thought that if I didn’t take so much time making the sites, I could make more of them.

So far, this has been a good decision and my little network of mini-sites has been doing very well.  Sure, they don’t bring in as much as one of my big sites, but as a whole, they do a lot better.

Part of the trick to the success of these sites is that the expenses are pretty much zero.  You see, I have been using some free PHP hosting to host these mini site so that except for the domain registration, they have no ongoing costs.

Let me put it this way - do you think you could create a website that makes just $7 per year?  That attitude has sure paid off for me.

I work a lot on the road, and I seem to have about ten maps that I cart around with me wherever I go.  Though they have been useful for me to get from point A to point B, the one thing that I find is that I always have to pull over to the shoulder to look at them - reading them while driving is much like suicide.

But my job involves sales calls, and I have to make it to client’s homes on time.  Sometimes when an appointment takes a little longer, I can be in a rush, and I just don’t have time to look at my map - I need to get to the appointment as quick as possible.

So, I went out to buy one of those GPS devices, and it has been a lifesaver.  Now, all I do is input where I want to go and the GPS takes care of the rest.  I no longer have to stop on the side of the road to look at the map anymore.

I should have bought a GPS a long time ago.

Having your own business can be a lot of work.  Deadlines are always looming, and the only one on your case to get it done is yourself - who sometimes isn’t very motivating at all.

But, there is some freedoms that running your own business supplies, so I am a happy, self-employed person.

Now, you might wonder why I am up so early, but I have a business meeting at 10 AM with one of my clients.  I am just putting the finishing touches on the website that I have designed for them, and it is a beauty.

It has a DHTML menu, a Flash header, and the content is dynamically generated.  Yes, it is a beautiful site, but it needed a couple of tweaks before the presentation.

I can’t take credit for the whole thing on my own - thanks to my quick and easy web design software, the site looks amazing.

It is so funny to hear our grandparents talk about back when they were kids. They walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways. We have all heard this before and we all still get a kick out of it. The funniest one I have heard yet, though, was when my dad said that back in his days there were no free online dating sites and you had to find a date the old fashioned way.

We joked about the fact that you had to find local singles in high school and get married the day after you graduated, before someone could come and snatch your soul mate from under your feet. This is especially funny in my family, as my dad and his two brothers all got married right out of high school.

I wonder what I will tell my kids one day. It will probably be something along the lines of “back in my day, we had to meet and date” while our kids can probably take DNA from some hot young thing and grow their own date.