Babysitting Still Big Business
I just read about a plug-in mini-computer the size of a lime.
The manufacturer doesn’t quite know what to do with it, but he assumes it will succeed. It runs the open Linux operating system, so millions of software engineers can develop applications without interference.
You are Bill Gates, and you developed the best-selling “closed” operating system in the world: Windows. Your company, Microsoft, is watching its sales and profits sink, and the open-system revolution, or evolution, depending on your viewpoint, is well underway.
How do you compete against “free?”
Isn’t it a matter of time before the world shifts its allegiance to Linux, and to others like it?
Where do you go from here?
Bill Gates, with or without his billions, has an ego, and a huge one at that, given what I have heard from insiders. Unless he is genuinely retired, Mr. Gates is at square one, almost like that kid he once was, who with a cohort, invented DOS and changed the world.
But does he have the next killer application in his pocket?
Even if he does, is he willing to give it away, free?
That challenge is the same one nearly every knowledge worker is facing, today. The question used to be, “How can America, with its high business costs, compete against people that will sacrifice and live on a bowl of rice a day?”
That question is out of date.
How can we compete against people, in and outside of America, who will give away their knowledge and products for free, hoping that there will be a payday in it for them years, if not decades hence?
You’re familiar with freeloaders, those that are seeking handouts. Gates, and many others, are competing against free-unloaders.
Once you have enjoyed “free,” you feel like a fool or at least resentful, if you have to pay for that which came to you, gratis.
For a buck each, I rent movies from a kiosk at the supermarket. Comparatively, at nearly five dollars, Blockbuster looks like a rip-off.
But only a few months ago, Blockbuster was a bargain compared to the cost of two people going to a movie, hiring a babysitter, and fighting the crowds for a good seat.
I wouldn’t want to be in the video rental business today, unless I could figure out how to rent them out for a quarter, or less, and still prosper.
Would Bill Gates, just starting out today, go into the operating system business, knowing what he knows, and facing stiff competition from “free?”
If a genuine genius like Gates would face daunting challenges, consider what mere mortals are confronting as they enter any knowledge field where the biggest free-unloader of all, the Internet, is their competition!
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, negotiation consultant, attorney, real estate broker, TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books, including SIX-FIGURE CONSULTING: HOW TO HAVE A GREAT SECOND CAREER. He is the creator of Nightingale-Conant’s successful audio seminar: THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS: HOW TO MAKE SUCCESS INEVITABLE. See: http://www.nightingale.com/prod_detail~product~Law_Large_Numbers.aspx His original class, “Best Practices in Negotiation,” is offered at UCLA & UC Berkeley Extension and at a number of other fine universities and organizations. See: https://www.uclaextension.edu/r/Course.aspx?reg=U8637 Gary conducts seminars and convention presentations around the world and can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com
When hubby’s older kids visit us for the weekend…….?
….they tend to wander downstairs to the family room to watch videos or chat online, and ignore their own kids ages 2, 3 & 6. Hubby suffering from cancer & chemo, and we have a 6-year-old boy. That leaves me (not their biological grandmother) wondering if I should just go ahead and watch/entertain all 4 of them, or make an issue out of the inconsideration of the parents just abandoning them and assuming that “somebody” will watch them. I run a business out of my home and usually have either desk work or household chores to get done, and frankly don’t enjoy babysitting kids at all. I do enjoy cooking big meals for the gang. I prefer not to make a huge deal out of it, and I especially don’t want to be seen as selfish with my time or uncaring of my “grandkids.” But it’s getting so that their visits, usually once every month or two, are something I dread entirely, while my husband is very excited to seem them all, as much as possible, but he can’t really tend to the young ones.
I have a problem similar to yours. However, my step children don’t visit often, and they are teenagers. My husband gets excited when they are coming, but when they get here, it’s like they do whatever they want to do. If I try to set them straight, it causes problems between my husband and me. The best thing you can do is sit your husbands kids down and have a heart to heart talk with them. You have a life too, which includes more than just your step children. Tell them that they need to try and help out with the grandchildren when they are there. If they respect you enough, they will listen and not be upset with you. Good Luck!
