Every year the night before my birthday I promise to call my parents the next day at 4:36 AM so they can relive the glory of the birth of their favorite son. For the past forty some odd years my failure to come through has put a smile on their face, but that may not happen this year.
That is because we live in different time zones and at 6:36 AM C.S.T. I will definitely be awake and more than happy to remind them that their bouncing baby boy is hungry and ready for breakfast.
Sadly we won’t be able to share that meal together or any meal on my birthday but I do have a potential solution. They could print out the picture above and place it at my seat at the table and sing my praises.
You can consider that my last silly suggestion for year number 43. Did I mention that 43 is the smallest prime that is not a Chen prime. It is also the third Wagstaff prime.
Where Should You Focus Your Attention
That picture was taken in early March of this year. I have mixed feelings about it. I don’t like my hair, my pants are falling off and I really should have worn a different pair of shoes.
Does any of that matter? Is any of it significant or any material import?
It really depends on who you are speaking with. Friends and family might have some interest in those things and someone who is into fashion might have comments or questions about my attire.
But what happens when you look at my face? Does it look honest, trustworthy, warm, intelligent and or friendly?
There Is a Business Lesson/Comment Here
Ignore the narishkeit (foolishness) of the beginning and think about how your business and how many different parts make it go. Think about how much information is being thrown at you at breakneck speed and then ask yourself where do you focus your attention.
Ultimately the question of where to focus our attention is one of the most critical ones we face on a daily basis because time is a limited resource and how you spend it has a significant impact.
The most successful companies I have worked with and people I know have all been very good at mastering time and controlling the flow of information so that it did not overwhelm them.
Information Overload
A couple more thoughts/comments to share with you and then it will be time for me to focus my attention on my kids.
If your business has a website and you haven’t installed some sort of analytics package you are making a huge mistake. If you have installed an analytics package and haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it you are making just as big a mistake.
Data can be great but if you don’t know what you are looking at you can succumb to information overload and lose you ability to determine what really is important. There is no real distinction between not having data and not understanding it.
What do you think?
I think that people should all focus on the human, not the trousers/suite/hairstyle. Of course, you mustn’t look weird or dissocial but I think that your outfit is quite okay;)
Hi Hanna,
I agree The human side is critical. It is a big part of developing a relationship with our readers.
Interesting topic, and I totally admit it, the huge amount of information we can get by analytics packages about our blog/website can mislead us, if we don’t know which graphs are important for us. For me, especially, targeted traffic is the most important, I blog about my hobby, 3D printing and parametric 3D modeling, so I don’t need visitors from mom blogs or teenager sites. That’s why I don’t focus on advertising or stuff like that, I believe in the content.is.king theory; if my content is valuable, people will find me. (at least I hope so)
Hi Josh
Happy Birthday and 43 is NOT old. I am sure your parents would be thrilled to be woke up in the wee hours of the morning…destroying their REM and making them tired all day long! LOL
We are always critical of ourselves as I think that picture looks really good.
Making better use of our time and knowledge could help to produce better results.
Mary
Hi Mary,
My parents got lucky and I decided to give them the gift of not calling. Besides I wanted them to be awake to baby sit.
Appreciate the birthday wishes and kind words. You are right, we are often our own worst critics.
Hey Josh
Happy Birthday!
I’m getting to grips with Google Analytics. I’m not sure entirely what I’m looking at but I’ll get there.
I really wish they’d make all of the search keywords available to view that people get to your site from. That would really help but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.
Hi Tim,
Thank you.
Have you watched any of the GA YouTube webinars? They have some that are designed to help teach us how to use it more effectively. They are free, just have to find time to sit and watch.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!
I’ve actually been diving in to Google Analytics … blown away at the information you can garner from it 😮
Some of us are slower than others!
Cheers!
Hi Mark,
Thank you.
GA is a tremendous resource but if you are not familiar with it there is a bit of intimidation factor. It really does offer enormous amounts of information.
I just think it’s time to sing Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear JJ, Happy Birthday to you. Cheers! Kaarina
Thank you Kaarina. It was a good one.
Hey Josh,
I don’t see the bad hair day, I really like that picture. But, I understand what you’re talking about, because I almost never like any pictures of myself either, and it’s all in the tiny details. I have installed Google Analytics and Clicky on my sites, and look at the numbers once a week to see how I’m doing.
Hi Jens,
Thank you, I appreciate it. I expect that people are naturally their own worst critics.
I use Clicky, GA and Statcounter. It is sort of interesting to me to see where they cross over and where they differ.