A few weeks ago I was listening to a small business podcast that said every business should be using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to grow sales. “Oh crap”, I thought, although I had accounts at all three, I only used LinkedIn regularly. So I decided to amp up my social media activity for my business, Inside…
Someday You Will Have a Driveway as Nice as Mine
After my parents divorced when I was 5, my mother sold our house and we became perennial renters. I remember our first rental in Swissvale. I shared a bedroom with my sister until I was old enough to move into the unheated “sunroom”. It was so cold I’d sleep in a sleeping bag to keep…
Why I Love To Walk
My love affair with walking began before 1st grade. Back then, my Aunt Essie would take me hiking in the woods of Tamaqua. She showed me how to find birch bark and sassafras plants to chew on. We’d hunt for teaberries. We’d break open hunks of shale to look for fossils.
What’s the Worst That Could Happen?
The remote lock for the driver’s side door on my trusty 2004 Scion (aka “the Toaster”) stopped working recently. This was the 3rd lock to fail on me. Both locks for the rear doors had already stopped working last year. Until my driver’s door lock failed, I applied the following Ainslie auto repair logic: “Nobody rides…
How I Met My Wife
29 years ago I walked into a Mail Boxes store to interview for a job and met my future wife. I didn’t realize it at the time. I walked up to the counter of the store and was ran smack into a beautiful woman with a big wide smile and sparkling blue eyes. I could…
Too Much Information Is Making Me Stupid
Back in the dark ages, during the dotcom boom of the late ’90s, business was booming at Stargate where I ran the sales team. It was so busy that our challenge was keeping up with the demand while handling our company’s exponential growth. Like the employees at many startups, we adopted a “do whatever it takes”…
The Scrap Man & Sales Partnerships
In my neighborhood bulk trash pickup is the first Monday of every month. People pile up old furniture, appliances, yard garbage and debris at the curb. The weekend before pickup, the Scrap Man drives up and down our streets to pick anything metal that he can take to sell to the recycling center. It’s an example…
How I Stumbled Into A Career in Sales
I loved living there. I had lots of friends, family, security and stability. It was a great place to be a kid. My career objective at the time was to become a truck driver so I could drive big rigs and blow loud air horns. My parents divorced when I was 5, remarried each other a…
Buy a Cheaper House & Retire Early
I hate spending money. It actually upsets my stomach when I think about making a big purchase. I’ll spend weeks thinking about spending $50 or $100 on an item that would be nice to have but is not necessarily a must have. So you can imagine how difficult it is for me when I go…
Mr. Nobody Man
Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to be a superhero. When I was four I’d run around and jump off of furniture in the house in my underwear, my sister’s kneesocks and a makeshift cape shouting out that I was “Mr. Nobody Man!” Then when I was a little older, I became…