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Your solutions to wasp challenge

August 22, 2011 in Inventions, No More Mondays with 1 Comment

Last week I posted a challenge for creative solutions.  There was this picture of me holding a Wasp spray can with a nest on the side of it.  And here was the challenge:

*Okay – the other day I was confronted with wasps and mud daubers at the front entrance of the Sanctuary.  After getting an immediate and painful sting I ran over to my barn to grab a can of spray and found a nest secured to the side of the can of spray.  I’m looking for some creative suggestions here.  If you’re one of the 5 most creative answers by Monday, August 22nd at 9:00 AM Central Time I’ll send you a copy of the new best seller — Heaven is for Real – provided to us by our friends at Thomas Nelson Publishers.  Read more »

Is this an opportunity?

July 19, 2011 in Inventions, Job Search, No More Mondays with 8 Comments

Last week Joanne and I were strolling along the shops on St. Armands Circle, just out from Sarasota, Florida.  And I emphasize that we were “strolling”.  I found a shirt that I liked at $175 and a decent looking pair of shoes for $450.  And I left them right where I found them.  Anyway, I noticed that when we got about ten feet away from any shop door we felt the blast of cool air from inside.  I talked with one of the shop owners who had an all pink store for little girls.  She said that for the previous two hours no one had entered her shop while the glass door was closed.  As soon as she propped the door open people starting wandering in – but she was losing all that cool air and killing her profits.  Read more »

Don't give me your penny…but

July 15, 2011 in Inventions, No More Mondays with 6 Comments

“If you have a penny and I have a penny and we exchange pennies, you still have one cent and I still have one cent.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, you now have two ideas and I now have two ideas.”

I read this quote years ago and have never been able to identify the author.  But I love the principle.  Concepts and ideas are meant to be shared.  You become richer by sharing them than by hoarding.  Principles don’t operate like money – but shared freely they ultimately put money in our pockets.

Does “Education” expand or limit your options?

June 27, 2011 in Business Start-Up, Finding Passion, Inventions with 30 Comments

Of course we assume that any degree expands our possibilities.  Someone with an M.D. behind their name certainly has far more options than someone without a graduate degree or even a B.A.  A person with any college degree has more opportunity than a person who has never invested the time, energy and money to get that valuable piece of paper.  Or do they?

Some of the most difficult clients I encounter have multiple advanced degrees.  But what happens in times of change is that they see their options as very limited.  The dentist sees his only option as continuing the practice of dentistry even if he hates every single day and has failed miserably in prospering financially.  The attorney assumes her only choice is to continue in law even though she knows she went to law school for all the wrong reasons.  Read more »

Deprive a child – feed a brain?

April 11, 2011 in Business Start-Up, Inventions, Personal Development with 23 Comments

A few years ago, Pinon, Arizona Middle School science teacher Rochelle Silvers asked her seventh-grade students if anyone would like to do a science project for the state science fair. The only student to raise his hand was Garrett Yazzie.

Garrett, a Navajo Indian, thought maybe he could get a trip off the Indian reservation where he lived.   While 13 years old at the time, Garrett also dreamed of being able to help his little sister who suffered asthma from the fumes of their coal burning stove.  The trailer he and his family lived in had neither running water nor electricity.

For his project, Garrett made a solar-powered water heater out of 26 aluminum cans and a car radiator from a 1967 Pontiac, which he had found at a junk yard. His heater was able to heat water for bathing and could raise the inside air temperature by 45 degrees Fahrenheit.   Now known as “the junk-yard genius” Garrett’s efforts attracted the attention of Extreme Makeover, resulting in a new green home for his family and a new Ford SUV.  Read more »

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