Meet the New Fool, Vol. 2
Last round of baby pics for a while, I promise! (Round 1 of photos here.)
Looking around.
Proud mom.
Not thrilled about this outfit.
First carseat ride.
Proud pop.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Nuggets of Doomed Grandiloquence, Vol. 1
When I taught writing at the college level, the end of every semester meant a grading binge that would effectively fry your brain. One coping mechanism we devised to plow through the miles of prose (written the night before, no doubt) was to look for those nuggets of doomed grandiloquence that were so tortured, so terrifically bad as to cause involuntary gagging in the grader.
We would remove the students’ names and bundle the offending sentences into an email to our colleagues, who would reply with a few they found. It was great fun.
Our good friend Nathan is still teaching and is keeping the tradition alive with a Facebook post every semester, which he has graciously allowed me to excerpt below. Nathan would like to emphasize that he is constantly encouraging his students to revise. These few just don’t listen.
If we couldn’t laugh, we might cry. Remember that these snafus occur at the end of an entire semester devoted to learning to write:
- “He had everything down packed.”
- “When he robbed the bank he did not think of how it would enact on his children all he thought about was himself.”
- “Edmund in the first of the novel is scummed by one of the witches spells being Turkish Delight.” (Scummed may actually be genius.)
- “If we choose to undergo torture on a captured foreign insurgent, we should suspect that if any of our men are captured that the same treatments will be used, if not in the same war, then in previous wars to come.”
And now, some juicy ones from past years:
- “The sad truth is that while writing this paper, hundreds of immigrants have entered this country illegally.” (It took hundreds of immigrants to write this paper? Look up “Dangling Modifier” if you don’t get what’s awkward about this sentence.)
- “All of the advertisments were comparable in that they all provided the fastest most efficient pain relief.”
- “I think this ad is very convincing because I hate going to the dentist office along with many people in the United States.” (Is it because of the long wait?)
- “If all our advertisements were about restaurants then we would become to numb to them, which will occur after a long period of time, but not in short sitting sessions.” (Try saying that 5 times fast.)
Until next semester!
Meet the New Fool
Presenting C (not her real name), the newest Fool. We met her for the first time today at 12:11pm. 5 pounds, 6 ounces … a tiny one. Mom and baby are both doing great.
More updates to come as Dad’s brain returns to some semblance of functionality. For now, a few pictures.
Mom and C
C Closeup
C and Grandparents
And one big shout-out to the nurses of Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi. They made it happen!
Round 2 of photos here.
Foolish Ephemera: Past Logos
Our logo has been through at least 4 mutations in a few short years. See below for a gallery of past logos, arranged chronologically with the earliest at the top. The wonderful Beth (Howard) Snyder designed these for us. She does the best handdrawn look around.
We’re considering resurrecting and revising a design from our Foolish past for our next round of T-shirts, just to shake things up. What do you think?
Our first logo.
Logo #2.
This logo made it BIG onto some banners we still have around.
Our last logo, by itself.
Our last logo, in context on a poster.
Notice any trends?
Henry Ford on Competitors
This quote may explain why we create such a stir among our competitors. Because we pay them no mind. Words of wisdom from Henry Ford and this month’s Entrepreneur.
“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.”
Review: Old Smokey Electric Smoker
[Ed. note: If you're looking for some BBQ-related reading to keep you company during an all-night smoke, let us show you the lowest prices on the excellent Backyard BBQ: The Art of Smokology.]
When I want to show off, I smoke a couple of Boston Butts in my old-school Brinkman charcoal smoker (the one that looks like R2D2). The results are amazing, but you have to baby-sit it all day. Aaaalllll daaaayyyy.
When I want good BBQ that’s easy and consistent, I haul out the Old Smokey Electric Smoker. My wife surprised me with one for my birthday last year. I’ll admit to having a mildly snobbish reaction–”Charcoal is the ONLY way to smoke…”–but then I plugged it in. Hallelujah!
http://www.oldsmokey.com
It works without water in the pan because it’s a sealed canister. The moisture (and smoke) circulates throughout the cabin during cooking, so the meat doesn’t dry out and the chips don’t catch fire. It’s a clever design.
The consensus among online reviewers is that a traditional charcoal smoker produces better results but that the Old Smokey makes the best smoked meat for the price and amount of effort you put in. I couldn’t agree more. The meat from Old Smokey doesn’t have that characteristic bark of charcoal or wood-fired smokers, but it’s consistently good/great and is completely set it and forget it.
If you want competition-grade smoked meat, get a small loan from the bank and ask for some time off work. If you want to create restaurant-quality meat on your own schedule, look into the Old Smokey. Good price, too!
The Results
Here is our creation from today. Pork Loin, rubbed with Rendezvous Famous Seasoning and wrapped in bacon, which was then sprinkled with more rub. Before:
3 hours later:
And yes, it did taste as good as it looks. We’ll have y’all over for Boston Butt and sweet potato biscuits sometime. Which reminds me, I’ve still got to perfect my sauce recipe. I have not been successful with my applesauce-based concoctions thus far.
Foolish Ephemera: Humble Beginnings
When we rolled out the new site design about a month ago, we also rewrote our About page. It was hard to let go of the old page copy, but it was time for a change. However, we have had several requests to preserve the text from the original site. Like so…
Humble Beginnings
BookFool.com was NOT created by the spurring of a valiant young man who would later become the President of the United States.
In 1898, America was going to war with Spain. Theodore Roosevelt left his post with the Navy to form a ragtag group later named the Rough Riders. The Rough Riders comprised a mixture of cowboys and Ivy League scholars. The Rough Riders are famous for their valiant assault of San Juan Hill, Cuba in July of 1898. The term Rough Riders would have been familiar in popular culture in the USA due to Buffalo Bill’s traveling show named “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.” Buffalo Bill then went on to open his own hotel in Cody, Wyoming named after his beloved daughter, Irma. During a visit to the Irma Hotel, Teddy Roosevelt reminisced on his days with the Rough Riders and recalled something that was discussed during a campout at the base of San Juan Hill, Cuba the night before the historic charge. The Ivy League scholars were discussing books and the old cowboys were grimly staring at them. One of these cowboys, gritty and greasy from days outside, turned to Roosevelt and stated, “Them’s a bunch of Book Fools.” Roosevelt, being the utmost fool for books, then named his company BookFool.com.
Again, this did not happen.
However, BookFool.com WAS founded by a young gentleman during his third year of college as he noticed that many students were not getting a fair shake at other bookstores during textbook buyback. Fortunately, he had an idea and it worked.
Salute the Fools: Taylor Graham
Just saw this incredible story on NBC News about Taylor Graham, a boy from Florence, Oregon who collects donated books to sell and then donates the proceeds to charity. He calls it “Read for the Need” and this is its fourth year.
NBC says he has raised $43,000 for local food banks so far. More from the Register Guard:
Taylor’s annual campaign is a two-pronged affair. After the book sale, community members participate in a Need for Speed Shopping Cart Derby, a race in which local businesses sponsor teams of shoppers to buy groceries for Food Share. All the money from the book sale goes into the derby event, and businesses sponsor carts for $50, $100 and $150. Teams of shoppers fill two carts, the first with items specifically needed by Food Share, and the second with a shopping list equal to the sponsored amount of the cart.
BookFool.com salutes you, Taylor. The world will always need creative and constructive solutions to our problems. Keep up the good work!
PS–In case you’re wondering: At the bottom of our About Us page, you can read why we use the word Fool as a compliment.
[Salute the Fools is a running series here on the blog.]
From Small to Small Giant
A few days ago we had a vendor drop the names of 10 big companies he’s worked for and ask us, “Don’t you want to be big like them?” To which Lou replied, “We don’t want to be big. We want to be great.” Good answer!
The book Small Giants by Bo Burlingham has had a big impact on the way we talk about BookFool.com internally. It’s like Good to Great for small companies who don’t buy into the belief that constant growth is the #1 goal of business.
But consider this conundrum: Focusing on greatness usually produces the growth and bigness that everyone thinks is the goal of business, while focusing on getting big usually just produces burnout.
Simon London says it well:
“How big can we get before we get bad?” asked advertising executive Jay Chiat of his eponymous agency. Managers at any growing business will empathise. Success fuels growth. Yet growth breeds complexity – more employees, departments, product lines and business units. Managing complexity diverts attention from the real work of business: attending to customers.
Burlingham’s list of companies that choose to be great instead of big includes Clif Bar, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.
He identifies 7 commonalities among Small Giants:
- They have their own idea of success and don’t allow others to define success for them.
- The people in charge remain in control and don’t sell a stake to outsiders. Some do sell to the employees, though.
- They have an “extraordinarily intimate” relationship with the town they’re based in that goes “well beyond the usual concept of ‘giving back.’”
- They cultivate personal relationships with customers and suppliers, and the leadership is accessible to everyone who wants/needs to get in touch with them.
- They create intimate workplaces that address a wide range of employees’ needs (like childcare, exercise facility, and opportunities for advancement). Employees feel cared for and respected.
- They create their own unique corporate structure and mode of governance.
- The leaders bring passion to their subject matter and are emotionally attached to the business and its workers.
I think we identify with Small Giants because we’re already putting these 7 into practice (to some extent) and have plans in the works to build a community of businesses like Zingerman’s. However, the book did help clarify our thinking and sharpen our focus.
Here’s a quote from the discussion about choosing to remain small, private, and closely held:
Clearly there’s a certain discipline here. For any competitive individual—and entrepreneurs are competitive by definition—it becomes quite tempting to chase growth at a certain point in a company’s life. The financial indicators are, after all, the most convenient, and objective, measures of success available. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you’re maximizing growth, you’re also maximizing success. It feels like you’re winning, and who doesn’t like to win?
In addition, getting caught up in the growth game helps to assuage one of the least recognized and most underrated hazards of company building: boredom. That is, I believe, what leads many entrepreneurs to embark on acquisition binges, take their companies public, launch new ventures, become angel investors, and get involved in various other pursuits—some of which are constructive, some of which aren’t.
(cc) Flickr user: Stephen Poff
The quote above represents my favorite aspect of the Small Giants philosophy. It’s a natural antidote to the rockstar entrepreneurialism that’s giving all small businesses a bad name.
I was reading tech company press releases recently (everyone needs a hobby!) and came across one whose writer’s main purpose was to chide the reader for continuing to refer to his company as a startup, even though he has lots of employees. This company is not yet profitable and won’t be for at least 2 years, but this owner couldn’t stand the word startup.
Well, I’ve got news for you. If you’re not yet profitable, you’re still a startup, no matter how many employees you have. Besides, what’s wrong with being called a startup? It implies potential. If this guy had read Small Giants, he might not be losing sleep over a word. He might even be focused on building a company that people actually want to work for.
The same press release went on to hint that an IPO was in the works, even though (did I mention this?) he’s not profitable and won’t be for years. Honestly, what are these people thinking? Is it really all about the Benjamins? Doesn’t the quality of your work life matter too?
Rockstar entrepreneurialism is all about the entrepreneur, not the customer. It’s about being cool enough, fast enough, and big enough to justify a few sports cars in your garage and a few flipped companies on your resume.
Smart growth is about providing for your customers’ and employees’ needs so that standards stay high. I would never say it’s wrong to grow big quickly — BookFool.com is growing like an athlete on HGH right now — but it’s clear that many small businesses need a radical shift in priorities.
Find a copy of Small Giants and read it with your crew. It’s a great way to start a conversation about what you really value in life.
