All that changed yesterday.  I never thought I would say this, but please leave me voice mail!  I just discovered a service called PhoneTag.  PhoneTag intercepts your voice mail (you actually transfer your voice mail service to them) then transcribes the message into text.  The service then emails the text of the message to you and attaches the original message as a WAV audio file if you really want to listen to it.

The best part is that it is crazy accurate.  I received a 40 second message this morning that was letter perfect including punctuation — very impressive.

PhoneTag offers a free 30 day trial membership then you have paid options thereafter.  You can choose from a per message fee of $0.35 each, a flat fee of $9,95 for 40 messages ($0.25 each if you go over) or $29.95 per month for unlimited messages.

Give them a try.  If you sign up using the links here you’ll get 30 days free.

Non competes can be daunting if you are asked to sign one.  Some things to keep in mind are how specific the agreement is and how long is the non compete in force.  Regardless of which side of the table you are on, you want to be specific when it comes to non compete agreements.  If you sign or write an agreement that is overly broad, it will be less likely the agreement will be enforceable.  I’ve signed a few that pretty much say, you agree not to compete with us in any respect for what we do today and anything we might imagine to do in the future.  It’s too broad and it won’t stand.  Non competes also won’t work if you are being asked to refrain from doing what you do for a living.  If you’re an electrician, for example, a non compete is not likely enforceable if you’re being asked to not do what you do for a living.  Now, say, you are an electrician that does a specific installation based on your employer’s proprietary method, that’s a different story.

The next thing to consider is how long your non compete is in force after you leave the company.  If you have highly specialized training or information this period can be as long as three or more years.  if you’re a generalist, I wouldn’t expect that period to last more than 6 months.  Remember, you may be required to sign a non compete as a condition of employment, but you can always try to negotiate its terms.

If you find you are being asked to sign a non compete, be sure to review it carefully and employ competent counsel for their opinion as well.  Don’t just sign this kind of document carte blanche.  Read it, understand the terms, negotiate better terms if possible and most important understand its enforceability in general and in your state in particular.  The peace of mind you’ll gain by going through these motions can be invaluable.

This week is off to a roaring start on all fronts.  I’m juggling three different initiatives and all have substantial momentum.  I wish I could share more, but at this point mum is the word indeed.

Today, I was looking through a contract from an agency that would not disclose their partner prior to the agreement’s execution.  Now, I’d never sign anything like this anyway.  You have to be super careful when it comes to warrants, reps and indemnities especially if you have a third party who is not party to your agreement. I’m not a lawyer, but my lawyer is and I wouldn’t even put something like this in front of her.

Here’s the fun part.  If you choose File -> Properties in say, Word or Excel, a document summary dialog box pops up.  In this case the original author (the undisclosed third party) was actually the author of the agreement.  Check it out:

Normally, that wouldn’t be all that important, but I was already in the middle of direct negotiations with that previously unknown party.  The point is, while I would have had to puke on the agreement in its current form, I saved myself a ton of time by walking away by using the old, “the economics aren’t right” excuse.  On the other hand, if I hadn’t been working with them directly, this would have enabled me to circumvent the agency.

This is really amatuer stuff.  There’s a ton of meta data attached to all kinds of files.  It pays to know where to look if you’re curious or if you want to erase it before sharing files/documents.

A watch that tells you it’s day or night can help lend perspective to your on and off time. Daytime = working. Nighttime = not working. I think that was the principle philosophical goal of the watchmaker as well (not to mention some smart marketing). If we evenly split our 24 hours into two distinct 12 hour blocks we have on duty and off duty or as the Website puts it:

A new interpretation of Time based around two Tourbillons operating sequentially. The Day Tourbillon operates during the day, defining the wearer’s period of activity, and stops after twelve hours, handing over to the Night Tourbillon dedicated to man’s own private sphere.

Makes a lot of sense since many of us normally work 12 hour days. But that’s just for regular people like you and me. What can we learn from this philosophical timepiece?

For the super wealthy, they have actually bought a lot of time for themselves. Time is a resource that can be bought, borrowed, sold or lost. We buy time by having someone else launder our clothes. We borrow time when we engage in reciprocal favors. We sell time when we offer a product or service that reduces a consumers expenditure of time. And, we lose time when traffic is heavy. As one builds wealth, time itself moves from something concrete and tangible (think “I have two more hours before I can go home.”) to the abstract (think “I’m not bound by time commitments so I have many choices as to how I’ll spend my time.”). The abstraction of time enjoyed by the filthy rich is a reflection of the fact temporal boundaries can be overcome. If you don’t have time, it means you do not have choices of how you will spend your time. You have to go to work, you have to prepare meals, you have to walk the dog etc.

What does this mean for us mere mortals? Principally, we need to have a tangible understanding of what our time is worth. One could start by calculating one’s earnings per hour, but I feel that’s a little too simplistic of an approach. Rather, I would look at the likely hours you will live and divide those hours into your lifetime earnings from this day forward and your accumulated assets.

The average life expectancy (based on 2004 CDC data) for males was 75.2 and 80.4 for females. For the sake of a simple example, let’s say I earn $150k annually from age 35 to 65 with no salary increase. That’s $4.5M in earnings. Along the way I invest 5% of my earnings and yield a lousy 6% annually. Add to that the value of my home with no mortgage at $500k. That would be about $5,227,000. How many more years do I have? About 40. How many hours in a year? About 8,760. So, I have 350k total hours left. Now, let’s net out that useless luxury called sleep to get 234k waking hours. That means my time is currently worth about $22.34/hour ($5.227M/234k). Compare that with $25.68/hour if you just divided your wage by your waking hours in a year. An interesting side note here is you can clearly see the importance of making wise investments. If you can get your lifetime dollar per hour to equal or exceed your annual wages per hour, you are probably making sound financial decisions for your future. However, I digress.

What’s the point? The point is that if I can save an hour by paying $22.34 or less for that hours’ time, I’m actually gaining some time for myself. If the time costs more than $22.34, then I’m actually losing time I’ll have to recoup elsewhere or I’m making a choice to value that time more highly than I value my own. How do you value time with which you do whatever it is you like? Well, that’s for the philosophers. I’d simply say you can’t put a value on time you spend enjoying life. It truly has no value.

All that being said, it would appear making $300k watches might be a good use of all that free time.

Most of us have one job.  We go to work each day and diligently perform the duties before us.  If we’re smart, we participate in our employer’s 401(k), contribute to an IRA and save at least three month’s salary.  That is the most common strategy work-a-day slaves guard against loss of income and plan for retirement.  And, that’s fine for most folks.  However, it’s a position I find to be untenable in my situation for the short and long term.

There is no guarantee if you lose your job you’ll be able to find a new job that matches your skills, interests or even expected income level within your three month cushion.  Sure, you can take a penalty a draw against your 401(k) or IRA, but you pay a steep penalty for doing so and it probably won’t buy you  a lot of time anyway.  Take my wife for example.  She left a job nearly six months ago and has not found a suitable place to land since.  Granted, she has had the advantage of my income to cover her expenses, but imagine if that were not the case.  What would she have needed to do in order to meet her monthly outlay?  Anything from working a couple part-time jobs to temping to taking a lower paying full-time job are all options she might have needed to exercise.  That just sucks and it happens to lots of people every day.

If you are an executive, three months’ salary won’t cut it.  You need to have a six to twelve month reserve.  The higher you soar, the harder you fall and the more difficult it becomes to find the right fit as well as adequate compensation.  That’s me in a nutshell.  As I mentioned in my post on transitioning, if you are forced to move on, you have to have a game plan to replace your current income.  In my case, it’s my start-up.  What if you knew that you wouldn’t have a job in six months?  What would you do?

It’s crazy not to diversify your income sources.  It’s crazier still to accept your current income as sufficient.  If I’m hiring a sales guy or business development guy, I always ask him what his income target is.  If I get a response that isn’t titanic (better yet, infinite), it’s a real turnoff.  Where is the hunger?  You must be hungry to succeed and excel at whatever it is you do.  It’s about passion.

Run through all the “what if” scenarios you can think of in your own life and start to consider how you can take active steps to mitigate risks.  Think about it, it’s the very reason we buy insurance or extended warranties on big ticket items.  Start working on an insurance plan for your income and do it today.  The only thing that’s in your way is you.  Find a few hours here and there and just get moving.  Then, let that momentum carry you forward.

What are you doing to actively diversify your income?  Tell me in the comments below!

Now, as I look to the next several months and navigate my impending transition, I’m starting to get requests for my resume.  Well, truth is, it’s a little out of date.  So, I’ve spent the last few hours updating it and trying to reconcile all of my experiences, challenges and accomplishments while doing so.

What’s interesting is that going through these motions has only made me more resolute to never need a resume again.  Sure, I’ll jump through the hoops and do what needs being done — including getting professional help — but I just really don’t want to have to sell myself anymore.  Pick up the phone, give me a call and in fifteen minutes you will know what I’m all about.  In twenty minutes, you’ll be reallocating your budget to try and figure out how you can hire me.

Another job?  i don’t need another stinking job!

You see, LinkedIn can serve simply as a business curiosity or become a powerful way to maintain connections with the people you know, connect people you think might like to meet one another or connect you to people that can help you in some way.

Now that I’m over 150 connections (mind you, I know every single connection I have), it’s been interesting to see who others know and find people that are interested in or doing the things I’m contemplating or currently working on.  Best of all, it’s a great ice breaker.

Lots of people choose to be open networkers (LIONs as LinkedIn users call it).  I can see positives and negatives to this approach.  On the positive side, you can meet A LOT of people you wouldn’t otherwise connect with.  On the negative side, it doesn’t accurately represent your true network and you are essentially vouching for strangers.

If you haven’t given it a try, I strongly suggest you do.  It never hurts to grow your network and you never know who you might meet.

Let me know if you’ve had a positive experience with LinkedIn, I’d love to hear your story.

• Yahoo! Confirms MS Merger, Name Change
• Announcing Project Virgle – Virgin Group and Google team up to colonize Mars
• YouTube Rickrolls all featured videos – sweet!
• Gmail Custom Time
• eHarmony Founder Finds Love on Match.com
• Flying Penguins Found by BBC Programme
• Google Australia lets you search content before it’s created
• BMW Canine Repellent Wheels
• World of Warcraft Molten Core for Atari 2600
• NASA – Liquid Water on Mars!
• Google Book Search Now Smells Better
• ThinkGeek – Betamax to HD DVD Converter
• Shoemoney tells us how to make $1,000 in an hour
• Paul at UberAffiliate (tries to) Rickroll his readers
• Google to Acquire U.S. Government

And, of course Wikipedia has a very comprehensive list of today’s pranks.  If you need even more, here are the Top 100 of all time courtesy of Museum of Hoaxes.

Also, don’t click on those emails you might have received today wishing you a Happy April Fool’s Day.  The link is malware known as the Storm Worm.

Happy April Fool’s fools!