The One-Day Entrepreneur's University

Fancy yourself an entrepreneur? Or thinking of becoming one?

Here's a one-day course that beats a two-year programme, courtesy my boss a few years ago (when I had a boss):

1. Leave home in the morning, neat and spruce, with nothing more than your clothes and your visiting cards on you. No wallet, no cash.
   
2. Come back home in the evening with at least one coin, after having had your meals in the fashion to which you are accustomed.

I haven't had the guts to do it yet.

Deepak

Smokin' Joe's redeems itself

Out of force of habit I called Smokin' Joe's. At 10 p.m.

I'm getting a freebie because they couldn't cater to my request a couple of nights ago. What the freebie is I don't know. I'll know in about ten minutes.

But it's nice to get a freebie.

And especially nice to know they listened when I called to complain.

Deepak

Smokin' Joe's sucks

I called at 10:35 p.m. (their leaflet, shoved under my door, says they're open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.)

No answer.

Tried again at 10:36 p.m.

No answer.

Kept trying every minute till I got this mind-boggling response:

He: Thank you for calling, Sir, but you're calling too late

Me: But your leaflet says you're open till 11 p.m.

He: Yes, Sir, that's the maximum time by which we'll deliver. That means you need to calculate
in advance that we deliver half-an-hour after booking, so you should have called before 10:30. Thank you, Good Night. *click*.

Good-bye, Smokin' Joe's.

If you have half a hope I'm ever going to call you again or say anything positive about you, or, God Forbid, recommend you to anyone, it's a wasted half-hope. Now multiply that by your customer base.

Smokin' Joe's sucks.

Don't ever order from Smokin' Joe's. They're rude.

Deepak

RIP, Ronald Hunter

I never met Ronald Hunter personally, though I hoped I would before I exited planet Earth.

I fully expected to go before he did. He was decades older than I but possessed of a spirit that humbled me - and anyone who knows me is aware that that's a difficult platform to achieve.

I met Ronald Hunter virtually, through a business network, and it really shouldn't matter to me if he's on earth or not.

But he's not and I have lost a hero.

He was a man struggling with health issues, yet he adopted and raised more children (in addition to his biological children) than I'd be willing to deal with in a classroom. He interacted with people with a gentleness that is difficult to fathom in a man who would have to lay down the law in a household populated by a constant stream of teenagers.

RIP, Ronald Hunter, I wish I were 1/10th the man you shall always be.

Deepak

UK Vs. US eating

Strictly speaking, it should be drinking but people do frown upon it so.

Thing is, my Brother in Law (BIL) in the US [the one whose drinking preference I know] prefers to eat, then drink. His logic is impeccable: After you've had more than you can take, you pass out. So you can't eat then. Better to eat first, so you can drink until you pass out and be assured that you've had your daily ration of protein, pulses and whatever the heck they say we must have daily.

I've been doing that for ages and, if I am to believe everyone I meet, I should have disappeared long ago.

I mean:
1994: You've lost weight!
1995: You've lost weight!
1997: You've lost weight!
1998: You've lost weight!
Do I really need to go from '98 to'07? It's always, "You've lost weight!".

Heck, if I started with a weight of 100 kg., I'd still be about -50 kg, if you believe the "You've lost weight" Brigade.

Anyway, I was saying... I was intoduced to the UK way when I was, perhaps inadvertently, certainly to their regret, invited to Keefieboy's hearth and home and got to experience the UK way of intoxication.

It's WAY better than the American way. Here's how it works:

First you have a drink.

Then you watch a movie or play a game or something, drinking all the while. Somewhere halfway into the fun and games, you notice a strange thunder. It seems to come from a distance.

Ten minutes, no more, later, you realise the thunder is as distant as your tummy is from your ears, as indeed it is.

By this time, the host/hostess has announced the salad.

Darned if I didn't dig in! And after that, whatever was the course, I ate it, squid included. I suspect Keefie is missing a couple of shoelaces I thought were strands of spaghetti (which, of course, were NOT on the menu) but I did eat everything in sight that seemed edible. And quite a bit that didn't really seem edible, like the squid.

Anyway, what I was trying to say is, I now endorse the UK way of eating.

Expect fatter fingers in six months.

Deepak