Today I was talking to a person who brought up a point on how sometimes you have to step back and sharpen yourself up before moving forward again. That then reminded me of this little story I was told about sharpening one’s axe to be more effective. Apparently this story can be told in different ways, but I’ll write the one that I heard.

There is one young guy and one older person who were both cutting wood with their axe. They were both going at the same pace and were cutting the same amount of wood. Eventually though, the older person would stop and go to the side. The younger person just laughed at how he had so much more energy than him to last longer and so he just kept cutting away.

The older person did eventually come back to start cutting again. Similarly though, after awhile he would stop and go to the side. Again, the younger person just laughed at it since he didn’t need to rest and so he just kept cutting.

At the end of the day, there was two piles of wood. The older person’s pile was two times more than the younger person’s. The younger person was dumbfounded on the older person was able to cut so much more wood when he kept taking a break all the time. The older person then mentioned that he wasn’t taken break, but rather he was simply going back to sharpen his axe during those times.

I thought this was great little mind thinking story on how by constantly sharpening yourself up you can be more effective in whatever it is that you do.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

I was talking to an individual today about a person who was generating well over five figures a month in revenue for his business. The interesting thing is that at the end of the month he would often be in the red or basically just squeak by after operating expenses. This wasn’t exactly a low margin style of business like most retail stores as an example.

I was trying to find out more on why exactly that was the case as there must be some overspending somewhere to create that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get exact details. I have heard of similar experiences before and the common theme I usually hear is that the person would base their expenses on what looks correct based on typical setups as oppose to focusing on what they need.

For example, I guess a typical business has say a fax machine and so a lot of people get one because it makes the environment feel more correct. There are people that still use it everyday, so it only makes sense right? Like with this example, there are actually a lot of alternatives such as simply sending and receiving faxes digitally. Save on the paper cost and having to have these large machines which can make sense for a lot of people.

I don’t really know a proper term for that and so I personally label that as aesthetic based spending as it is not so much that you need it, but rather it just makes things look better to you. Good for your eyes but bad for your wallet I guess you can say. Of course, unless this is like an interior design issue then that is a little different. Spend based on what you need is usually the way to go I’d say.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

I just saw this little segment on TV that dealt with food and how people consume too much junk in their lives. The one part that was interesting was how they did a test to see whether or not people eat less if they see a visual pile of how much they ate. Sure enough, that was the case.

I was then thinking about this in terms of money. For some people I guess looking at plain numbers at the end of the day on how much you have spent does tend to encourage you to want to be wise with your money. For myself it usually makes me wonder if I got a good value for my money or not. That doesn’t mean obsessing over it but rather recognizing that at the end of the day there should be a limit on how much you spend.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

The Canadian dollar still seems to be a hot topic here and it looks like people are simply flocking south of the border to take advantage of it. For myself, the benefit I have seen is that I use certain vendors that are US based for particular services and now that the dollar is on an even scale the overall cost is less.

One thing that I have always wondered about though are people who travel south to fill up their gas tanks as it is suppose to be a lot cheaper. I personally question if you are truly saving that much money with you having to actually drive all the way down there and back which eats up fuel. On top of that, having to line up at the border crossing probably eats up a lot of gas as well.

Normally from what I have seen, items are usually about 10% - 15% more expensive here and that is not including the tax. Some people say even after paying duty charges on the product it still ends up being less than trying to purchase the item here. Too bad shipping charges are still pretty high for people who are thinking of simply purchasing them from a US online store.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

It seems like every news that I see and hear in regards to business and finance issues today are revolving around how the Canadian Dollar is virtually even with the US dollar at this point. The general thoughts are basically how it is great for consumers who want to head down to the US to purchase items while it has its negative affects on certain businesses such as tourism.

For myself this doesn’t really impact me too much. For some people that I have talked to it seems like there are a lot of jokes going around in retaliation over the years on how the Canadian dollar has been subject to a lot of ridicule as not being real money compared to US money. Almost sounds like a school yard. It’s going to be an interesting journey.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.