Start Small and Test Thoroughly

This morning I attended a training meeting from one of our vendors where they talked about a number of their product offerings. They highlighted the various tools available and when you would use one versus another. As I listened to the different options, I realized that a small proof-of-concept implementation is really the best way to gain experience with the various tools.

There are a number of recent examples where engineers didn't understand the technology decisions they made and failed miserably. The big one that comes to my mind is the original healthcare.gov website. On the first day it immediately crashed because of all the traffic. Comedians and late-night-talk-show hosts used it as joke material for a long time claiming they should have hired porn-site developers who know how to create high-traffic websites. Another service that had issues when it started is Disney+. Fortunately they had a much easier time scaling up to meet customer demand.

Starting small and testing thoroughly is not reserved for building computer systems. It is a principle I use in my own investing. Lately I have been looking at buying dividend stocks that pay periodic cash simply for owning it. While most companies pay quarterly dividends, there are some that pay monthly. That sounds pretty good doesn't it? Well you do have to be careful. I found one stock that is paying the equivalent of 25% annually. Instead of dumping a lot of money into it, I bought a few shares and watched it carefully. Yes, I received my monthly dividend but the price of the stock dropped more than the dividend paid. It dropped so much, the company did a reverse 5 to 1 split. That means instead of owning 10 shares of the stock, I now only own 2. Furthermore, the stock continues to fall. This is why I am glad I didn't dump thousands of dollars into it.

I have had some success with other dividend stocks and that is because I have started small. If I see one performing well, I reinvest in that same stock when I receive the periodic dividend. I am using now to learn what strategies work and not listen to over-hyped ones that don't. My hope is that I'll have it figured out when it comes time to retire and my income is based on my investments.

Don't Sell Yourself Short

This morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn for a conference call that involved people from around the world. For the past couple of years I have been involved with a company that created software to quantify how salespeople are successful. Once you know why, you can then coach your other salespeople to be more like them. This morning's call was with our management and the management of another large company interested in buying us.

I sat in my office watching a Webex demo of our software thinking how glad I was that it was someone else giving the demo. I have watched plenty of software demos using Webex or GotoMeeting but have never had the pleasure of starting the demo. I'm sure I could figure it out, I just have never done it.

The whole experience made me think back to a spreadsheet I once saw at a friend's house. I thought I was a big Microsoft Excel user until I saw what my buddy was using to keep track of his daily bicycle rides. The spreadsheet was a work of art. There were lots of different colors with graphs showing day-over-day performance increases. I knew Excel could do all of that but had never seen anyone use all of those features.

Amazingly the person giving this morning's demo and my friend with the elaborate spreadsheet don't consider themselves as knowledgable computer users. Given the choice of rating themselves as novice, intermediate, or expert, they would both choose novice. I think they deserve better.

Anyone that uses a computer daily deserves more than a novice self score for computer proficiency. You may only use your computer for e-mail or writing a BLOG, but that gives you some experience. So if you see yourself as a computer novice but are a frequent user, then don't sell yourself short. The next time someone asks you about your computer skills, confidently reply, "I'm a BLOG reading expert."