Alexandar Tzanov ~ The Titan

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas. It was at our house and it was great. It was just us, the kids and Amanda‘s parents, aunt and uncle. The food was great, so was the company and the time we spend together.

I received an awesome present – my first ever business cards. What made them awesome was the fact that the company’s name was MY company’s name – Innovadix.

This morning I came across this picture of Francisco Dao (founder of StrategyandPerformance.com), at the TechCrunch August Capital Party, giving the finger to the camera. There used to be a time when I found this to be funny. I used to do it myself a lot. I guess it was a comical way to show friendly intentions, that is, if the finder is accompanied with a smile! Thinking about this it seems childish, but I know that many adults do it amongst friends, and apparently at social gatherings or professionals. I occasionally do it as well, but it is rare and the number of people I do it to I can count on the fingers of one of my hands.

I could care less when people utilize their middle finger to express some sort of emotions. But, I do find it inappropriate when amongst professional peers. Despite the fact that the environment is a party, people do notice what others at the event do and say. They do talk amongst themselves and after the party, as well as almost always there is someone recording audio or video or images. Then they get posted and someone writes something about what You did, even those who do not share…

Few weeks ago we had a salesman from Illinois Energy come to the house to give us an appraisal for the replacement of few windows and couple of glass sliding doors. In addition to asking random personal questions, irrelevant to what he does or sells, his presentation and presence lasted just about two and a half hours. We think that was an hour too long.

What topped everything was when he was done with his calculations he asked me if I would like to guess how much it would be. So, knowing about how much things cost, what others have paid, and how much we wanted to spend, I said:

$15,000

A little bit more. - He retorted!

$16,500 – I said.

A little bit more. - He retorted, again.

$18,000 - I replied.

A little bit more. – Was his answer once again.

At that point I became annoyed and I said – “We are past the “A little bit more” point. We past it $1,500 ago!“. So he gave us his figure – $36,000 and few hundred more!!! What the heck? That number does NOT even qualify for a “much more” response. It’s double what I said, plus another $6,000.

That number is unacceptable, even if the windows are guaranteed for the life of the house, and to be replaced for free if an…