Steve the Owl's Blog

This is a new feature here at Steve the Owl’s blog. I’ve noticed that there are people looking to add to their record collection, and they wonder where to start. They may already have some of the “classics” and want to listen to something that is not on the canon just to increase their appreciation of music.

A Tale of Two Albums

Let me tell you the story of two pop singers in the 2000′s. The first one performed standard boilerplate material, and was seen as part of the big resurgence of the overly produced pop that was in vogue at the time. For her second record, she decided to go in a new direction. While not completely going over to rock, she had more rock elements in her follow-up, and she penned a much more personal album, writing or co-writing most of the songs on the album. The record company executives were not happy, but they decided to release it anyway. To their surprise, M!ssundaztood outsold its predecessor, and opened up an artist to a new audience while maintaining the original audience. This is not that album.

Getting Personal

Most people know Kelly Clarkson as the winner of the first American Idol competition in 2002. I never watched the show, but I remember hearing one or two of her songs on Armed Forces Radio in 2003. The big thing that I noticed, which is the flaw of most pop tarts (and not surprising considering her path to fame which involved singing others’ songs as part of several themes), is that she sounded like she didn’t know who she was as an artist. By the time her second record came out, she was a bona-fide star. However, she decided to go in a different direction for her third album, My December. Rather than churn out the same sugary pop that made her famous, she decided to get personal, using the emotions of a painful breakup to fuel her songwriting.

The Backlash

This is where the story diverges from the first album mentioned. Rather than support their artist, 19 Entertainment and its label head Clive Davis instead tried to get Clarkson to change the album. She refused. Then, there was a tug-of-war between the label and the artist over whether the album should even be released. Eventually, the record was released, but the damage from the controversy had already been done. Instead of going full-throttle to promote the album, the label promptly cancelled her 2007 tour citing poor ticket sales. With no tour to generate excitement for the new album, sales were respectable, but a far cry from either of her first two records.

The Music

I am a rock guy through and through, so while I appreciate Kelly Clarkson’s vocal talents, most of her music just isn’t my taste. However, she is one of my wife’s favorites (she owns all four of her albums), so one day while we were on a long road trip, I thought I would listen. After all, I had a lot of hours to kill, and I was curious about the album Clive Davis didn’t want you to hear. From the opening bars of “Never Again” to the driving rock of “Hole” (my favorite song on the album) to her plaintive heart-rendering vocals on “Irvine,” this is an album that stays with the listener, and it was something that I was not expecting. If you’d like to listen, here is a fun YouTube fan-created video with a literal interpretation of “Hole”

Unfortunately, her fourth album, All I Ever Wanted, seems to show some fatigue with the fight with the record company, as she returned to her normal pattern of mostly power pop. So, like some of the other great one-off albums in music history, this is one to appreciate even more because it is like looking at a time capsule of a moment where something great happened. While it does not reach the level of the two most famous one-off performances in music history, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Derek and the Dominoes, this is one that I think will stand the test of time. It will certainly be there on my next big road trip.

Recently, I had the chance to read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. Unlike some books that talk about wealth creation, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind was very pragmatic in its orientation. Rather than talking about different methods of specific businesses, Eker instead focuses on the reasons why some people fail even though they are doing things that should make them a success, and how some people can waste millions of dollars a year and end up bankrupt and in the newspapers as a cautionary tale.

Sabotage?

Have you ever thought about what you really think about money, wealth creation, the rich, and why you think that? One of the things that The Millionaire Mind demonstrates is the way that negative attitudes about these things will guarantee the subconscious sabotage of everything someone tries to do to get ahead in life. While we may make efforts in our conscious mind to move up the ladder, build a successful business, learn how to invest, etc., Eker argues that our subconscious mind will do battle with our conscious mind, and the subconscious will always win. For example, say you had a parent who didn’t ever want to spend any money, even if it was on a necessity. What would you do? Usually one of two things: 1) play out the exact same pattern of having all of the money in the world and letting it sit around while ignoring the needs around you, or 2) become a spendthrift and never save for the times it is necessary.

Attitude Shift

Eker argues that it is a change in attitude that is necessary to begin this transformation. While some of his suggestions are harsh and things that I would never recommend anyone do (I don’t think that looking for rich friends just because they are rich is particularly beneficial, and the thought of seeking friends based on their balance sheet makes me uneasy.), he demonstrates practical things that one can do to change attitudes, which will lead to changed results.

Another example of this is the “financial thermostat.” There are some people who will always be able to spend whatever they make at a certain level no matter what. There are others who seem to always bounce back from every setback. The reason for this, Eker argues, is that this is a level that people are comfortable with, and this means that people will always gravitate towards it. This is an idea that makes a lot of sense to me, because I have lived in places that have a very low cost of living (West Virginia) and places with a very high cost of living (Long Island and suburban Philadelphia). There are times when I would balk at paying something that people who lived there saw as a bargain.

Conclusion

As with every self-help book, there are things that seem familiar, things that seem off the wall, and things that make you wonder why you didn’t think of them first. However, I think that some of them stumble by focusing on theory. By explaining theory, as well as practical ways to apply the theory, T. Harv Eker wrote a book that will help anyone as they pursue their financial dreams.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” I Timothy 6:10a (KJV)

“My poor dad said money is the root of all evil. My rich dad said lack of money is the root of all evil.” Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

As a person of faith, one of the hardest questions to address is the role that one should take in the financial world. There are some who believe that money is an absolute evil, and they try to avoid it at all costs. I know of some people who refuse to earn any more than a subsistence living because they feel that is greedy. There are still others who believe that the Bible actually calls people to be wealthy. I think that most Christians would fall somewhere in between these two extremes, but this contrast is something that can be very enlightening for those of us who have decided to pursue a career in business.

Taken to Extremes?

One thing that I have noticed that is very interesting among those who argue that Paul is wrong about this issue is that they have a tendency to misquote the Apostle Paul’s famous statement. Paul never said that “money is the root of all evil,” but that “the love of money” was the root of all evil. Of course, there are those who say that this means to go ahead and try to build a huge fortune.

A More Balanced Approach

Unless society returns to the barter system, I think that it is safe to say that it is impossible to live life without any money at all, but I think that it is clear from this passage that motive plays a huge role in the process of building a fortune. In what is often considered the greatest movie ever made (and for good reason), Citizen Kane, the newspaper reporter is trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle of Charles Foster Kane’s life through a series of interviews and reading private journals.

At one point, he interviews Mr. Bernstein (his first name is never given in the movie), who was one of the few who remained loyal to Kane, “before the beginning, and now, after the end.” When he discusses Mr. Thatcher, the banker who handled Kane’s finances, Mr. Bernstein described him as a fool. When Mr. Bernstein is reminded that Mr. Thatcher made a lot of money in the world of finance, Mr. Bernstein tells the reporter, “Making a lot of money isn’t hard, if all you care about is making a lot of money.”

Why Are You Doing Your Business?

I have heard people talk about the “reason why” as the most important factor in finding the motivation to build a successful business. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know this: no one will ever be happy if his/her only goal in life is to make more money, because there can always be “more money” to be had. However, if one can understand that money is a tool, and not the ultimate goal, business can be conducted in an ethical way, and a lot of pure greed can be avoided. I have seen greed tear families apart, and I know that, in this sense, the Apostle Paul was right, and the preachers of the “prosperity gospels” are wrong. However, it is important never to lose sight of why you are in business in the first place.

I have lived in the Philadelphia area for nearly three years. I lived in a dorm for the first two years while I was finishing my master’s. Because of this, I didn’t really have to deal with parking issues. However, after I got my master’s and got married, we moved into an apartment with on-street parking. This gave us a lesson in the study of human nature, and it helped demonstrate the free-rider problem in its purest form.

The Snow Comes

Philadelphia is a city that does not get snow very often for a city of this latitude in North America, but we got three blizzards that hit this city really strongly this past winter, and those three were enough to set the city record for snowfall for one winter. When the blizzard came in February, snowfall started to come on a Tuesday evening. Eventually, it would measure nearly two feet in certain parts of the city.

The Problem

When the snowfall came, we had a new problem. People still had to go to work the next day, and people had to dig out of the snow. Many people did dig out of the snow, but they were also fearful that they would lose their parking spaces when they came home. In a lot of neighborhoods, the method of protecting one’s parking space was to mark the space with anything they could, whether a chair, garbage can, etc.

The Law vs. Social Custom

According to city law, a public parking space is just that: available to the public. However, our mayor, Michael Nutter, acknowledging the social custom of many neighborhoods, defended the practice of saving parking spaces. After all, the city has been short on funds, and they weren’t about to try to plow parking spaces, especially in places that were residential. (In order to make up for this, some of the high-traffic areas had free parking.) So, despite the law, residents of many city streets decided to continue with this practice.

The Results

Not every neighborhood in Philadelphia condoned space saving. As a matter of fact, this wasn’t even true of every block in the same neighborhood. My block was one that encouraged space saving; the block perpendicular to mine did not. Many people would assume that the neighborhood with no space saving in place would be more crowded because of space saving. After all, the “free rider problem” argues that any time everyone benefits from the actions of a few, no one will act because the cost is too high.

However, it turns out that this was not how the free rider problem played itself out. Rather than focus on the fact that someone would “steal” a parking space, the non-saving block dug out literally weeks faster than my own. On my block, people would insist that they shoveled out a space when they did not. (For example, someone accused my wife of stealing a space that they dug out, even though she dug it out that very morning.)

On the blocks where people saved spaces, people actually stayed parked longer because of paranoia over a stolen space, and those who saved spaces only dug one space (if they dug at all) while my wife and I dug a total of five spaces either together or individually.

The Lesson

While many would assume that every one from themselves would be the best method, it turns out that cooperation, and acknowledging a parking space as something that was shared is what fixed the problem. Rather than a focus on “me,” the ones who thrived were the ones who focused on “we.” This is similar to the way network marketing works. There are some who insist on going it alone, and hoarding up whatever profits possible, but what they don’t realize is that they are surrounded on all sides by a mountain of greed, while those who learned to cooperate are the ones who were able to free themselves and be able to go wherever they wanted to go.

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Hello, everyone out there in blogging land. My name is Steve Nicholas, aka Steve the Owl. I am new to wordpress, so I will let you know a little bit about me. I am a doctoral student at Temple University, studying early church history. I am an alumnus of West Virginia University and Palmer Theological Seminary.

I married the love of my life last year in Ripley, West Virginia. We got married exactly two years and one day after we met, and she is the best thing that ever happened to me.

I also love to read and watch movies and TV. I have a passion for learning (Hence, the doctoral studies.) and I love being able to learn about so many new worlds. However, being a graduate student means that there are times when one just needs to relax and unwind.

I also own my own network marketing business. I have tried other businesses, but it was the wrong place and the wrong time. This time, I know I am in the business that is right for me, and I will not stop until I reach my dreams.

So, come over to the blog. I will offer updates on a variety of things that interest me, so maybe there are things here that you will find of interest as well. If you like what I have to say, don’t forget to tell your friends. Welcome to my blog, and I hope to see you again soon.