Summer Reading List

Work is finally starting to wind down for the summer, and my family and I will be heading off for the much-needed vacation. I like this time of the year because the office is a lot less busy, and it gives me a chance to look at where the business is and where it's going over the next year. It also gives me a chance to read, which I love to do. If you have some downtime, check out these books that I highly recommend.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink. I love Dan's web site and his first book, Free Agent Nation was such a catalyst in helping me to understand that it was time for me work solo. When I started my business, I had no idea that there was already a name for what I wanted to do: virtual assistance. I only knew a couple of things. First, that I wanted to work from home because I had gotten addicted working this way while on maternity leave from a dot.com. Second, I loved certain aspects of administrative work, but only the expressive and challenging parts like creating great PowerPoint presentations. I also loved PR, which is what I had been trained to do, but I not only wanted to do it in a way that helped the little guy, but I also wanted to do PR on my own terms, meaning that I only wanted to work on projects that I found interesting or fun. I knew that I was self-disciplined so I wanted to be free to work on radically different projects that required me to think in vastly different ways. I had no idea that what I was doing was what this book suggests, finding a symphony between two radically different things and making them work together in an innovative way. I have a long way to go but I think I'm on the right path. The book talks a lot about designing work that has meaning, and that's totally where I am these days, and trust me, I'm a whole lot happier.

I've been reading this book for the last couple of days and I can't put it down. Some of the concepts are heavy admittedly (right brain versus left brain), however, it's an easy read and some of the tips you can start applying to your own business or career right now. I know I can't wait to finish the book to see where I am and where I'm going. It's also helping me to look at how I can take these concepts and nuture my kids' talents and steer them in the right direction for the future.

A few more really interesting books that I am either currently reading or have read within the last few months:

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
I am reading this one right now. When Malcolm says the book is about change, he's right. It's all of the seemingly little things that make a big difference. I'm only in chapter two, but I love the story about the return of Hush Puppy shoes.

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki - I read this one last Christmas. The idea of coming up with a company mantra has completely changed the way I look at my business.

Purple Cow - Seth Godin is a genius! I read this book last fall and whenever I have an opportunity, I'm always preaching to my clients to look for what truly makes their business unique, that purple cow! My goal has become making my company truly remarkable. This book can show you how! If you need a daily dose of support in that arena, check Seth's Change This blog, too! It's where I found the excerpts from The Art of the Start.

Two more for the road:

Anything by Tom Peters. He's the closest any of us will get to an all-encompassing mentor. Check out In Search of Excellence, Re-Imagine and/or the Pursuit of Wow.

Good to Great by Jim Collins. Client Carol Johnson recommended this one. I was so floored by what I learned that I've passed this book along to at least three other clients, and what they've done with their companies as a result, has been outstanding.

Our Third Daughter

I'm doing some light house cleaning today in between work projects. Hanifa can't come today because she's doing an internship this summer and has to work late.

Hanifa is our "third daughter." We met her over two years ago in the lobby of our apartment building. I was wheeling the stroller in after picking up my oldest daughter, Chloe, from school. A nice teenager came up to me and said "Bonjour," and I spoke to her. She began talking to me but it was clear that I didn't understand a word she was saying. It must of been that ever-present puzzled look on my face. Then she said the magic words, "I speak English!" Hallelujah, I thought to myself. At last someone around here speaks English, and we became fast friends.

She started off just coming by to help Chloe with her homework because I wasn't much help. Philippe works pretty late each night so it was a blessing to have someone available to drop by after school.

Then Hanifa moved up to babysitting Jillian for short periods of time while I went grocery shopping or to the post office. I remember the first time she kept her. I went to pick up Chloe from school and I left a sleeping Jillian with Hanifa. Apparently Jill woke up in a panic because approximately one block away from the apartment, Chloe and I met Hanifa and a screaming Jillian. She was trying to find me in hopes that maybe I could quiet my little demon baby!

She also helps me with a little light cleaning (washing up the morning dishes or supervising Chloe and Jillian as they clean their rooms) but nothing remotely that would make her feel like Hazel, the maid. Although her dad insists that I should make her work hard, I never do. She's a kid and anything she does is a big help for me. Plus the pocket change probably comes in handy since most students here don't work because they carry such heavy class loads.

Hanifa is your normal teenager. She's a great kid and while she steps out of line occassionally, she does all the typical things teens do back in the US, like she drinks all of the orange juice and puts the empty carton back in the fridge. When she's out of line my husband or I just put her back where she belongs. Sure, she gets angry with us (like typical teens) but in a respectful and parental way and not for long. She'll stay away for a couple of days only to return as if nothing ever happened.

She was born in Algeria but came to France orginally as a small child. Her dad is a diplomat so she has lived almost everywhere and she already speaks Arabic, French, Spanish and English. She's even teaching Chloe and Jillian Arabic. I help her with her English homework and she help me with my French homework. She's at the university now, but still drops by after school every day as usual. I'll miss her when she goes on holiday this summer.

Philippe has nicknamed her "Kramer" after the Seinfeld character. Short from having a key to our home, she makes herself at home just as much as Kramer ever did at Jerry's place. For example now when she comes by to help Chloe with her homework, she grabs her regular snack and drink. Afterwords, you're likely to find her strawn about on our sofa watching MTV or some other cable program, or chatting it up with her boyfriend online, applying her makeup in the bathroom while her "little sisters watch" or even washing her hair and changing her clothes before a Friday-night date. A priceless moment comes when she (in her heavy English accent) is trying to tell Chloe the words to the latest Usher song! She spends so much time at our house that when her parents are looking for her, they come to our place first. When Chloe had a birthday party two weeks ago, Hanifa dropped by the local McDonalds to see if I needed help!

That's our third daughter, I guess and we're very protective of her, too! A couple of months ago, I was holding a client meeting at my home. Three very young and attractive guys came as I had commissioned them to work on a project for my client. As I talked to them about the project, I mentioned that I had to leave soon to pick up my other daughter. One of guys said to me, "I thought you only had two daughters." I said that I did. He said, "Isn't that pretty girl in the other room your daughter, too?" I replied with a smile, "No, not exactly however, she's like our daughter. Therefore, you would fair well to think of her as my daughter and treat her with respect." They got the picture. We returned to our meeting, but not without my first putting my "mother" hat back on and reminding my "third daughter" that those guys in the other room were young but way too old for her so stop flirting with them!" I guess I got a glimpse of what I'll be like when my "other two" daughters are old enough to date. Heaven help us!

The French Soldes

At some point, I will have to two write at least two books about my experiences living here in France. If I had to choose titles, one would have to be called, "101 Things I'll Never Understand About the French!" Trust me, I have consulted a truckload of books on the subjects of French culture and thinking. You would think that my marriage to one of them would help me to understand the culture better. Ironically, my French husband is one of the most American-acting people you'll ever meet so he's no help!

Thing number 101 is what I want to talk about here because it's going on as I write. I'm talking about the "Soldes" or sales. I went shopping for a new blouse today because I'm doing a presentation for a new client next week. Boy, was I sorry I went at 2 pm instead of 10 am when the stores generally open. The crowds were insane, and in one store called Zara's, clothes were flying through the air. It looked like Filene's basement when they're holding those $99 wedding dresses! I love to shop but all of those people everywhere all the time literally turns the whole affair into a joyless experience.

Now, here's what I don't get and no one yet has been able to give me a straight answer. Why, are there only store sales roughly four times per year? It is one of the things that has been driving me insane! In the US, if a store decides to put their inventory on sale, they just do it. They don't need what appears to be the government's approval to do it. Usually their competitors follow suit because hey, that's capitalism! Sometimes I feel like I'm living the former Soviet Union.

Here it's like capitalism isn't encouraged at all. If I'm wrong about this, and there are some English-speaking French people reading my post, please feel free to comment and set me straight. It is my understanding that the government regulates pricing here. Therefore, if you're looking for that new iPod at Darty's it's the same price at FNAC or Virgin Megastore, with the tax added. Even if you buy it online at any of these stores, the price is still the same regardless. The only difference is will the store of your choice actually HAVE that beloved iPod in stock? Nine times out of the ten, my experience has been no! This of course, frustrates me further, makes my hair stand on end like the heat miser, and sends me off on a four-letter-word tirade that using ends with "I'm going home where I know how things work!" My husband hates to the see the annual sales coming.

Here's something else about the sales I don't understand. Why are they in August when most French people are not even in the country? Everyone is on vacation someplace else. I know this because I had the misfortune of spending my first August in Paris. I guess it's for the tourists, but I'm willing to bet they can get the same things cheaper in their own countries in many cases. Like last year, my friend Priscilla was so excited about a pair of Gucci shoes she picked up during the sale. When she told me how much she paid on sale, I nearly gasped aloud. I said that's no sale, girl, that's a rip off! The luxury tax here makes products so much more expensive. A word to wise, buy your Gucci back home because it's cheaper, and I don't mean from some rip-off street vendor either.

Chuck Berry sings "I'm so glad I'm living in the USA," and when it comes to shopping, it has become my anthem. That's because it's true when he says "Anything you want we got it right here in the US of A." When I get back home for vacation, I'm going shopping at Old Orchard, River Oaks, Orland Square, the Mag Mile or someplace. What's more, I just might kiss the ground in the process!

I want my Air Conditioning

It's another hot day here in Paris. Today's temperature is 32 degrees celcius or roughly 90F with blazingly hot sunshine. I guess I can take comfort in knowing that it's almost as hot in Chicago right now, but with a whole lot more humidity.

I hate to be a baby about this, but I WANT MY AIR CONDITIONER. Dire Straits said it best with "I want my MTV," but you get the picture. I know someone out there is rolling their eyes to the high heavens. It's true because if you've had one your entire life, it's pretty darn hard to get adjusted to living here without one. France isn't an exception. Most countries throughout Europe don't have air conditioning so the people just take it all in stride.

More than that, the heat is hard on your computer equipment. Today, I had a project due for one of my clients back in Chicago, and I couldn't complete it because of the heat. I was converting some training manuals to PDF and just as I was about the save the first one to my jump drive, I could have sworned I heard my computer groan out the word, "Noooooooo!" Then my jump drive fell silent. I went out and bought another one, but it still delayed my project deliverable by one day, which sucks! Thank goodness for extremely understanding clients. When I called Kelly to explain the delay, she said, "Well don't kill yourself! Get it to me when you can because I can wait!"

If there is any comfort in all of this, it has to be the fact that it is not nearly as hot as it was two summers ago. That was the year when almost 500 people died (mostly the elderly) from heat exhaustion. The temperature must have stayed above 90 degrees for most of that August, and I was just distraught. If one more person had walked up to me and said, "The weather is really unusual this year. It's never this warm!" I think I would have slugged them! But I guess if you stay anywhere long enough, you follow the old saying "Do as the Romans do!" Before long I was giving the kids quick showers every hour, keeping the shades drawn, and putting ice cubes in the water bowls for the pets. Eventually the hot air gave way to cooler temperatures.

I'm a quick learner but I don't care, I still want my air conditioning!

Fed Up With Technology

I'm turning back into a Luddite! That's right, a Luddite. Those people who hate anything technological. To think that I would be blogging or running a virtual company using my computer would have been unimaginable to me around this time 14 years ago when I about to graduate from college.

I wanted to become a writer, and back then journalists and reporters still didn't rely on computers for word processing all that much. Fortunately, I had a PR professor who made a wise decision. She told me that I had turn in my senior thesis in PR would only be accepted on a floppy disk. She said, "Carolyn, if I let you graduate without being computer literate, I will have failed as an educator!" When you want something badly enough, you learn and quickly. With my sister as my guide, I learned WordPerfect - well enough to get that final paper written and saved to a floppy. I graduated on time, too.

Flash forward to 1995, I was working for my first dot.com. Dr. Kay Felkins, if you're out there reading this, thanks! Back then Luddite was the catch phrase throughout the industry for people unwilling to embrace this thing called the Internet. It clearly explains why I'm I'm dropping out of technology. Besides the fact that I simply don't want to be accessble to anyone 24/7, I just hate when technology backfires. Here's what happened to me today.

I went to see Dr. Evil, like usual, at 9 am in the 7th arrondisement. From there, I hopped on the Line 14 toward Bercy to meet my favorite Scottish client, Susie Hollands of Bonapart Consulting.
I had a few moments to kill, so I was sitting in the Café Bercy jotting down some blog entries. Then it occurred to me - my Palm died while I was in Dr. Evil's office. Susie's phone number and office door code where in my address book.

I'm lazy. I still haven't transferred all of my contacts to my cell phone (shame on me because I certainly know how), but who has time to that? I call up my husband in a panic. He's gotten used to these mid-day phone calls. I ask him to go to Susie's web site to see if he can locate her phone number so I can call her. No luck because only her company email address and contact form are present. Luckily, I have memorized her personal address, so I have my husband to send her an urgent email. She didn't see it because she's in the kitchen making tea. We're set to have our PR meeting in a matter of minutes.

Two minutes later my phone rings. It's my husband. He googled Susie and found her phone number by only the Lord knows where! I call her up and she says, "Hey, darlin' where are you?" I tell her that I'm downstairs. I explain what happened. She gives me the door code, we go on with our three hour meeting. Thanks to Philippe's quick thinking, crisis has been averted! I hate rescheduling meetings - especially if I'm already at the meeting place.

Now as I think about this, maybe I not ready to return to Luddite status just yet. After all, it was technology, with a little help from my husband, that saved the day!

Commitment Pays Off

It's been three months since I started seeing Dr. Evil. I guess he knows what's he doing because I've lost almost 15 pounds. I guess that's a good start. If I keep it up I could be back in that size 8 dress before the summer ends.

To be fair, he shouldn't take all of the credit. I mean, it's me who's trying really hard to stick to that crazy Zone diet. But also, my dear hubby has been great too. In fact, he's a bit of a new-age, vegetarian, workout, health nut! How he ended up with me, I'll never know. Anyway, he's been great in advising me on the things I can and cannot eat - especially when I've grown tired of salads, spinach and most green veggies.

My sister, Rainy, back in Chicago has been a big help too. She's always reminding me to keep my portions the size of my fists. That's been good advice because now I can cheat one day a week with a meal and even a dessert.

We're still feuding, Dr. Evil and I. Last week, he was mad because I missed my 9 am appointment. What he didn't know was that I had strep throat. The pharmacist accidently prescribed penicillin and I broke out in a terrible rash! There was no way I was going any place. I was spending all my time cursing and wondering why the hell Benadril wasn't sold over the counter in this god-forsaken place!

When I did see him today, he was frosty. He told me that he got my husband' s message but was disappointed that I didn't show. I would have taken that okay until he said, "And if I 'ad known you weren't coming, I would not 'ave come into work so early!"

I said, "It was nine o'clock! Where I come from, that's the time all able-bodied working people ought to be in the office, whether you have appointments or not. And anyway, you live upstairs over your office! What, it was too much trouble for you to commute one floor down?"

Again, nothing but laughter from him. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just the crazy American or if something is amiss here. Not just with him, but in the cultural differences in general. Rainy swears that all of my doctors are going to line up and put me on the first plane back the US. I don't know, sometimes that not a bad idea! Anyway, I think Dr. Evil enjoys getting me worked up. We've since made up and he's very pleased with my progress.

Now it's time to move him toward visits twice per month...not a chance at 85 euros per hour, but one can dream.