Business and Society Articles

Press enter or click to view image in full size The simple things are profound. Hello friends, hope this finds you well and in good health. I remember seeing this comic strip where an older man with a gut and grey hair saw a “hiring” sign at a fast food restaurant and thought it was a good opportunity. The theme of the strip was that he was a plugger — plugging along. That must have been about 20 years ago it seems, but it stuck with me in my journey of plugging along myself. So much was said in that little one picture comic strip. Our journey down here on God’s earth is full of plugging along moments; where our attitude and perspective really make the difference in the type of life we live. Not everyone gets the glory or the recognition. Most of us just work in the shadows plugging along with our lives, trying to do the right thing, trying to keep our heads afloat in the waters of hustle and bustle. I think what I liked about that comic strip was the humility of the cartoon character....

An old-time pioneer amid modern vanity and "progress." The man stood tall in the wind with the sun beating down on his flat-brim cowboy hat. He was a working man, focused on his pioneer family in the western country they called home. Building and designing structures high and wide, the man skipped across wooden beams high in the air, under shadows cast only by moving clouds; wide open spaces watched the scene as death-defying feats were carried out in relative obscurity, as just another day of work. The man was an old-timer with relatively few years to boast, a before his time pioneer with an adventurous and loving wife plotting business in sagebrush lands far beyond the hyped city life bustling with seemingly meaningless activities. His skin was as leather, scorched in the sun and beaten with high winds containing drifting sand mixed with alkaline dirt. The dry mountain air in the high desert cleansed his heart with comfortable respite from the high temps and harsh weather e...

Maybe this is a perspective only older people can relate to.  When I was in high school in the mid-90s, I used a typewriter to accomplish my essay assignments that needed to be typed. This really wasn’t that long ago, yet how things have changed. Part of this change is people’s perspectives when it comes to being entitled to write online. Not only do they now expect to be published on sites like Medium, but also make money. And if the money isn’t enough for them to make a living they are critical of the entire platform, like it owes them something. I realize writers need to make money to live, so write a book or submit articles to magazines and other paying publications. Sign a book deal with a publishing house or self-publish, etc. There are so many different ways to make money writing now; the difficult part is everyone else is doing it too, which makes it hard to stand out and find an audience. Even on Medium, the competition is thick with so many different types of people tryin...