Tyler Jorgenson

I am in the middle of reading The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. I have heard this book spoken of and recommended for years and recently came across a copy. I am deeply enjoying the simple yet sound principles of financial success.

The following two paragraphs are from freewld.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a book by George Samuel Clason which dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set in ancient Babylon. Through their experiences in business and managing household finance, the characters in the parables learn simple lessons in financial wisdom. By basing these parables in ancient times, but involving situations that modern people can understand and identify with, the author presents these lessons as timeless wisdom that is as relevant today as it was back then.

The book began in 1926 as a series of informational pamphlets. Banks and insurance companies began to distribute these pamphlets, and the most famous ones were eventually compiled into this book.

Over the next few days I will share my notes and thoughts from each chapter. I am hoping that by writing out my thoughts and sharing the principles the book teaches that not only will I become more committed to the tenants but that others may learn of them also.

I was thinking today about how depressing the unemployment numbers are. Almost as sad are the number of people that are under employed or who are working well below their potential. Most bosses, at least the ones worth working for, don’t enjoy letting people go. They especially don’t like letting good employees go. I’m a member of a network on Forbes.com and this poll was on the sidebar today. The question was asked to a forum of CEO’s.

How does this information give you the edge in being the most useful and valuable employee? Could acting on this information effectively potentially save your job?

For the record, I agreed with the majority of voters. I hate red tape.

During church today the troubled economy came up 643 times. I’m exaggerating, it couldn’t have been more than 625. I know these times are tough and that they try the character of Men but I am confident that we will overcome and appear on the other end better and stronger than before. For the past year I have been working with some friends to create a sustainable financial services company. When other companies are shrinking we have been hiring 3-4 employees per month and look to pick up the pace through ’09. Our goal is to ensure that the company remains agile enough to adjust to market conditions. We believe that in any market there is an opportunity to make money and strive to be prepared for what may come.

One of the few magazines I get is FORTUNE and I enjoy the issue that comes this time of year spotlighting the top 100 places to work in the United States of America. It is my personal goal to have Ascension on this list by 2014. (I was going to say 2012 but according to some that’s going to be a tough year, and I didn’t want to be misunderstood for stating said year.)

We’re working on an updated purpose statement and ‘10 commandments‘ for our firm. I’ll share them when they’re done.

With unemployment up and the job market weak I knew that I would get a lot of responses to a recent post on Craigslist. We are looking for somebody that is tech savvy, detail oriented and sees things through to the end. Since every applicant lists at least one of those as their strengths I wrote the add to self filter. Here’s what I wrote:

“We are currently looking for another Assistant. The qualified assistant must be very task oriented, a planner, able to work in chaos and be skilled in the MS Suite and general computing. Applicants with experience in Finance, Real Estate, Mortgage Origination and/or telemarketing are desired.

To be considered please follow these guidelines closely (If your email does not meet these guidelines your application will not be considered complete):

1. Submit a resume in PDF format via email

2. In the email you send state why you feel you are perfect for the job

3. Include your cell phone number and times you can be reached

6. Point out what is wrong with this list, and include a photo of yourself

4. Include the date you can begin working (we need somebody immediately)

5. Please state in the email your favorite ice cream flavor

Following these application guidelines will help us weed out applicants. We will schedule interviews promptly.”

In 24 hours I have had 20 resumes sent over and only 5 of them have hit each of the 6 points. For the record, I don’t care if the applicant actually sends a photo or tells me their favorite ice cream flavor as long as they acknowledge that they read that part of the instructions.

Last time I posted a similar listing only 15% of the applicants got everything right. I guess things are looking up.

That’s an optimistic headline, I know.

Here’s a link to the article. It is accurate as to how I survived the real estate crunch, but fails to mention the other companies we now have in the building. I was hoping it would mention the company name, etc but I’ll take what I can get.

Oh, and that’s not my office pictured.

Nearly at the end of the day the girls at the office started wishing me a happy boss’s day. I’d never heard of such a thing, so I thought they were joking. Turns out its real, so I apologize to all of my former managers and the like that never got a card from me. I found these delightful goodies in my email at the end of the day.

Visit GoAscension.com

Visit tdfinancialcorp.com

Thank you girls!

A few months ago when the economy really started getting bad and the housing troubles had really spread a few partners and I launched TD Financial. We have a lot of vision for where the company is going but right now we are focusing on note modifications and other ways of assisting homeowners remain homeowners.

In reflecting on my post on gas prices the other day I thought about getting an diesel vehicle and running it on WVO (waste vegatable oil). I was on Craigslist the other night and found the car I wanted. I emailed the ad poster and asked if perchance he would be in need of my services and would he be willing to trade the Mercedes. Long story short, here’s my new ride.

I know, I know. You can be jealous. By the way, if any of you have left over vegatable oil after cooking french fries, floutas, etc just let me know. I get about 30 miles to the gallon on that stuff now.

Edit:Here’s a cool snippet about what I’ll be running this on.“Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The use of biodiesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter compared to emissions from diesel fuel. In addition, the exhaust emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates (major components of acid rain) from biodiesel are essentially eliminated compared to diesel.” Source: Biodiesel.org

I’m off to San Jose. My flight leaves Ontario at 7:45am and I’ll be back to Ontario by 1:30pm. Isn’t it great that we can travel over 600 miles and have a meeting all within 6 hours. To do that in my car I’d have to drive 100mph and have the meeting on the phone.

This is a great ‘ad’ recently featured on Godins blog. I found it rather amusing as it reminded me how much I dislike dog and pony shows in the corporate realm.If you’re in that realm, make sure you’re at least making decent money while you eat the free donuts and enjoy this funny commercial for The Ladders.

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