This morning, I didn’t have time to write my post because I had to meet the insulation installers across town. As I watched them stuff insulation into every crack and corner and saw insulation blowing around in the attic as though it were a giant snowglobe, all I could think of was

Asbestos! Vermiculite! Lung cancer! Poison! Death!

(dun dun dun)

Now I KNOW that modern companies don’t blow that stuff into our houses any more; it’s been banned for years. Yet I can’t help but wonder what IS being put into our houses and lives that we don’t know the safety of. We trust others to make the judgment call for us–usually the business itself. Of course, being interested in business and money ourselves, you and I kind of know what most businesses usually focus on–the money. How can we know who to rely on?

It’s like everything in our lives is marked “low fat”. Sometimes I feel like I’m STILL trying to convince some people that low fat doesn’t mean (1) no sugar, (2) low calorie, or (3) chalk full of nutrients. Yet the candy isle is filled with reminders of low fat content. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see “low sugar” on a hunk of cheese? So we have this idea that it’s okay if the label says its okay, and marketers and businesses know this fact and they use it against us.

The silence… the deadly silence… of American industry has been shown in Libby, Montana where asbestos was mined. From the research and personal stories I’ve had over the years, I gathered that miners were encouraged to wear breathing masks, but the masks got so clogged that the men quit. These same men were sent to company doctors when they started to hack, and when these men came home from work, wives would shake the clothes out on the porch, sending the asbestos into the air. The stuff did wonders for gardens, too (hmm, wonders), so the company often donated to community members. NOW that the town is all getting sick and losing citizens, the EPA has an entire directory that educates newcomers to the superfund of Libby. Funny thing, though, do you think anyone actually thinks of moving there any more??

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what industry REALLY tells us.

It seams like most people have a horror story they are willing to share about financial services of some sort. It could be a bank, a credit card company, or online services such as paypal. Beyond that, many more people have had bad experiences with their customer support. Which kind of makes you wonder what their end goal is. Seth Godin has been having some problems with paypal freezing his account for having a successful project.

If you do get to talk to an actual person, they are usually a gatekeeper with limited abilities beyond answering simple questions. Then you will often be transfered to another person who asks you the same questions and also has limited decision making powers.

With paypal for example if your account is frozen you will have to go through a large hassle in order to free it back up. The idea is they are doing it to stop scammers and conmen. Naturally with any data there is a balance somewhere between security and usability. Any company must make trade-offs between the two, but alienating customers as a result is never a good plan.

As Seth puts it

The question I’d be asking is, “Do people who go through process and manage to prove that they are not criminals end up doing more business with us as a result of the way we treated them?” If the answer is no, you’re probably doing it wrong.

If you would like to read more about his ideas on customer support lines as well as learn about his story, check out “Thanks for calling, please go away.“

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Aridni.

We’re thankful for the great time and great lessons gained through this website and your ideas.

Best Wishes,

Katie and Todd

Take out a pen and paper and write this down:

I want to be wealthy so that I can ______________________.

To reach my goal, I am willing to sacrifice the following: _____________________.

Your thoughts establish the role of money in your life, and I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while. If you feel good about yourself and the efforts you are making, your positive ideas can cultivate more change and more satisfaction. Having money just to have money doesn’t provide much purpose, so it’s important to define why the heck we’re working so hard toward these goals.

Do you make/want to make money by creating value for other people or by competing and cheating other people?

Do you devote yourself to the highest good, not just for yourself, but for as many people as you can possibly touch?

Would you get satisfaction signing up for multiple rewards cards from companies who don’t catch your trickery because it means more money for you?

Do your methods of making money imply selfishness and greed in the eyes of others?

Does every dollar that you make equal a dollar that another person loses?

And finally, years from now, if you were to teach a thousand people how to become wealthy the way you did, would you have done these people and society a disservice?

Today we celebrate blog action day with 15,500 other blogs. The focus—our environment.

Many businesses say that they’d love to follow practices that are better for our environment and local community… but they say that those ideas simply cost too much. I doubt that. Most environmentally aware companies actually make MORE money through their efforts.

The immediate expenses would be higher during your implementation, sure. But in the long run? I bet your business would benefit even more. The same goes for any huge purchase like equipment and training courses. Bigger initial cost, better long-term results.

A lot of small town businesses aren’t going to make these changes on their own. You, the consumer, have to urge them. I have made it a habit to speak to managers and owners of local businesses. I tell them my concern and ask if it’s something that they’re addressing or planning on doing something about. Local produce? Locally-made foods? Recycling? Pesticide-free products? Programs that give back to the community’s development and sustainability?

Most employees just shrug me off. Mangers listen (or at least seem to pretend to!). If you keep going home miserable, complaining to yourself, nothing will change. If you start speaking out, things can start to change.

After years of Styrofoam at every function, my local church has quit purchasing Styrofoam. We spoke up. Today shouldn’t just be a day to post about the environment. Blog Action Day means we ought to be taking action, don’t you think?

The SBA (U.S. Government’s Small Business Association) even offers two environmental loan programs to (1) help engineer, manufacture, market, install, or service energy conservation measures or (2) allow the ability to plan, design, and install a pollution controlling facility. So what’s the excuse?

And how about all those local businesses that keep handing out Styrofoam…

I ran into this little post over at Medallia Blog a few months back and wanted to share the idea with you. A large pharmacy company wanted to tap into the market for aspirin in the middle east. The problem was that many of the people are illiterate so using words is out if they want to go for the maximum amount of people being able to understand the ad.

What they did was place this on many billboards…

After running the campaign for a few weeks, the advertising had no effect whatsoever. After a bit of market research, (Also known as asking people!) the problem dawned on them. Arabic is read from right to left, so the pictures were being read in the wrong order making it look like the medicine actually causes the discomfort.