Since When Is Success Bad

One of the phenomenon’s I’ve been witnessing over the past decade that really has me concerned is the attitude that hard work and success is somehow bad. In some circles, taking too much pride in your work and what you’ve built is now a source of shame. It’s amazing to me that even the current president’s on the band-wagon with is ridiculous “You didn’t build that, someone else made that happen” speech a few short summers ago. There's the notion that if you're successful and made a lot of money, you screwed someone else. If you want to succeed then there's something "wrong" with you.

AdWeek reciently printed a critique about the new Cadalac ad that asks some of the same questions I’ll be asking here in this post but from the other perspective: “Is Cadillac's New Ad Totally Inspiring or Completely Repulsive? Viewers divided by this guy's view of America” By Roo Ciambriello

There was once a time in my own life that being “this guy” (Neal McDonough) was “the goal.” This is who and what you were supposed to be, someone who picked a career and was driven for success. We were not driven for financial gain - that was just the added bonus – but for personal fulfillment. Being ‘the best’ was it’s own reward and everything else was only the icing on the cake.

Now we’re supposed to hate that guy while we’re trying to teach ourselves and our children that it’s not OK to be successful because you might ‘hurt someone’s feelings’ or it’s not politically correct to be too good at anything and be boastful. Anyone who is at the top of any organization is subject to criticism and public scorn. Business leaders and owners are now the pariah of our society – a step up above pedophiles but just below those people who won’t shut their cell phones off at the theater.

Anyone who is successful and loves what they do are suspect to others, it’s now the safest prejudice to have.

People love to bash entrepreneurs and CEO’s and lump them all together. There are also a number of folks, especially some of my far-left friends that love to bash those of us who started up businesses out of their own homes or garages because they (or we) aren’t playing by ‘the rules.’ What we’re supposed to do is what they’re doing and failing. We’re supposed to go to a job we hate, driving a car that we hate to work in a house that we hate while living with a spouse that we hate who are helping us to raise spoiled brats that we hate and are growing to disrespect us. We do this in the hopes that we get tapped on the shoulder and given the keys to the executive washroom in recognition of our long and almost endless sufferi.

By starting our own business, we’re breaking the rules they live by and what we’re doing isn’t fair, thus we are fair game for criticism and too often I’ve been lumped in with the “villainous” CEO’s  who are taking too much and aren’t paying their own fair share.

Turns out, after examining what these people have to say about “all” CEO’s and small business leaders they don’t know what they’re talking about; which of course reminds me of an anecdote. A while ago I was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with a fellow droid “Bob” talking about how “Jack” the CEO of this company was doing a horrible job, that we were losing market share because of him and that the CEO’s job was so easy even he could do it. I had a huge smile across my face the entire time cause the CEO – Jack - was standing right behind him the entire time.  Jack said – “I really appreciate it when our fellow co-workers” – he regarded EVERYONE as a fellow co-worker – “have ideas on how to make this company better. Please come in Monday morning  with your best suit and take over for the day. I look forward to hearing your ideas.”

Flash forward to four days later; the Tuesday afterwards Bob quit because while he was trying to do Jack’s job, Jack was on the assembly floor and did Bob work for an entire week in just one day. In short, Bob obviously didn’t what the funk he was talking about, he knew it and was embarrassed.

If you took any of these people who think they could do better or that CEO’s or business owners and gave them the similar opportunity they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They couldn’t hit the ground running.  If I offered some of my critics the chance to be in charge of “Eric Fisk CGD” for the day starting the next morning – they wouldn’t know the first thing to do besides make coffee and check the email. Yet these clowns still think they know better than I do about my own business.

And yes, as a freelancer I get a lot of worthless and unsolicited advice from people who know nothing about graphic design, freelancing or running a sole-proprietor business, or even how to self-motivate. If you’re successful and make a decent living doing what you love to do you’ve some how cheated and you need to be brought down with horrible advice by these people who think they know better than you.

A good CEO or business leader is the one who steps in and makes sure that the business doesn’t fail and the company folds – if other employees fail at their job the worst that could happen is that a project might be delayed or that specific employee will be fired. If a CEO fails then the whole company serious loses money or fails. If a lower-level employee fails hardly anyone hears of it, but if a CEO fails there are news articles or even magazine covers devoted to his or her failure.

The same CEO doesn't demand a high salary, he would rather get paid a percentage of the profits and stock options who's value depends only on the performance of the company. If the company does badly, he gets paid nothing but if it succeeds he gets paid what he's worth. Asking for only one one-thousandth of a percentage of the overall company's profits makes him a bastard (or a bitch) and they aren’t playing “fair.” It’s not fair, because those are rules that nobody in their right might would take unless they were willing to gamble on the success of the whole collective.

There’s a reason why business leaders and entrepreneurs get paid so much – it’s called pressure. It’s the kind of pressure that average people can’t or refuse to understand. When the majority of workers call it quits around 5 or 6 in the afternoon many of us are only half done. I’ve stayed awake for 24 hour long periods just to finish a project and in the end of many instances if I had to put an hourly wage to what I’ve done it (hours worked for the money I’ve earned) it would be less than minimum wage. The compensation I get for great paying jobs is in compensation for the sacrifices I made in the past while learning my trade and craft.

There are some jobs I take that severely underpay me for the work I do and the people I work for couldn’t afford my real wage. I live, eat, and breath projects every waking hour until it’s done and the hours I charge are gross underestimates of the time I takes me to get the work done but I continue to do it anyway. I do it for a reason too many of those clowns can’t understand – it’s pride and ambition above compensation.

So I’m supposed to feel guilty when my wife and I buy a luxury cross-over SUV, or remodel my office, or buy the genuine leather reading chairs for me and my guests and potential to enjoy? I’m supposed to be ashamed when I take my wife on a trip to someplace tropical to celebrate our anniversary with the capital gains earnings from the money we saved and invested? Am I supposed to be embarrassed when I actually enjoy buying a new high-end server to service my client’s needs in cash? I don’t think so.

What’s going to happen we’ve gone too far vilifying people who either want to be or are already successful? What’s going to happen when too many of us want to stay under the radar and not achieve too much nor want to lead? How long will it take for our civilization to completely collapse?

“Space Update”

I wrote the last blog post on the premise of a rule or local law that might not actually exist as  it was explained to me by a professional small business advisor who has been helping me out since I started my home-based Graphic Design business back in 2004.

Each year I’m asked a series of questions about what I do, where I do it, and if I have all of my statements and receipts from the past year. We go through the annual kabuki dance of what’s valid and legitimate, what’s questionable, and what’s not acceptable. For example ; A book that I bought at Barnes and Noble about Graphic Design is OK to take as a deduction, but going to Burger King and eating while I’m reading the introduction to that book is not! (Good to know for the next time.)

Each year I was told by this same professional told me that my home office couldn’t be more than 25% of our homes living space. I was also told that I can only use this space for actual work, not for my own personal recreation. (I jokingly asked, when am I not working?) If there’s anything like a dogs bed, kids toys that are always kept there, anything not directly related to “the business” might disqualify my office from being “an office.” The operative word is might.

These rules or law are both local (The Town Of Rindge) and Federal via the IRS. I took this as gospel. I thought this was written in stone, and that tablet was carved out somewhere here in Rindge, New Hampshire. We talking to other freelancers or people who work from home I would give them this warning; “make sure your workspace/office isn’t too big.”

I admit that I make mistakes, and mine was believing that this was a strict rule handed down by the town and I wrote a blog post asking what I thought were silly questions about the strict rules... along the theme of ‘how do they know, how do they measure, and what if you’re only using 24%?” I’m concerned about government intrusion and to what extremes “they” will go to enforce them.

Zoning issues affect Freelancers working from home. It’s a big subject, how do decisions that come from The White House, The State House, and our Town Halls affect us and how (or if) we can conduct business out of our own home offices. Some of our trade magazines have also devoted huge articles if not entire monthly issues to the top of home offices that echoes some of what’s been said in the comfort of my tax specialists office.

David Lister – a Facebook friend of mine posted this link to the IRS and I found this: “IRS Announces Simplified Option for Claiming Home Office Deduction Starting This Year; Eligible Home-Based Businesses May Deduct up to $1,500; Saves Taxpayers 1.6 Million Hours A Year”

Pretty cool, hu? And then there’s this nugget:

“The new optional deduction, capped at $1,500 per year based on $5 a square foot for up to 300 square feet, will reduce the paperwork and recordkeeping burden on small businesses by an estimated 1.6 million hours annually.

There’s more to it than that… but from what I get out of that paragraph anything over 300 square feet you can’t deduct. If your home office larger than that is fine, I guess, but you just can’t conduct it.

Currently I’m looking for the actual rules and regulations on home offices and I left a message with my advisor to get back with me with some answers. If YOU know where these rules are written, let me know so we can talk about them later. It’s important we know the actually facts – especially during tax season!

I’ll hammer out a rant about the strict rules (with links) later on.

How Much Space Do You Need, Anyway?

There’s been a lot of controversy the past couple of months in my region about FEMA, The NSA, Agenda21, HUD grants and the power of the local planning boards. Specifically the questions echo the same theme; on what authority do these organizations have to do what they do? Nobody can argue on behalf of the NSA keeping tabs of our emails and cell phone conversations, it’s inexcusable, illegal and is a clear violation of the constitution. If you think it’s OK because you have nothing to hide, you’ll change your mind when it’s your driveway their parked in looking to ask you questions.

The other organizations I’ve mentioned are controversial due to their claims to authority. The local planning boards, “Agenda21” and HUD; specifically what power do they wield in deciding who gets to build what and do what they please when they’re done. For freelance graphic designers like my self and small business owners who are working out of their houses there are specific restrictions that are imposed by the local, state and federal governments.

First is the size of our workspaces. I was told that only 25 percent of my house can be used to run my business – but that’s only via the town rules or ordinances. I can only allocate one quarter of our home to “The Eric Fisk Graphic Design House.” More to the point, “The Eric Fisk Graphic Design House” can only be one room on one floor and maybe (if I behave myself?) some square footage in my basement.

How do we even begin to measure this space? Are we talking square floor space, or are we talking cubic square feet?

What if I create this beautiful poster and my wife falls in love with it, has it framed and then hangs it on the wall of our stair case? Does that count as some of my work space? Does it depend on who hangs it, or does it count because I created it for work?

Sometimes I have to use the glass top table that used to be in our dining room that’s now in the basement. I use that space to cut back core black matte board for finished projects – does that count as my 25%? When does it count if it does? I also like to sit in the big comfy chair and catch up on emails or read the trade magazines while the rest of my family is doing something else like watching TV. How much of that chair counts towards my space? If we get a matching ottoman, does that count when I put my feet up on it?

The town of Rindge has the ‘right’ to tell me how much of my house I can and can’t use to run my graphic design business. Do I get credit for only using 24%? What’s the penalty if I use twenty-five and a half percent. Or… heaven help me if I notch it up to TWENTY-SIX percent!

What if this room or space isn’t always used for my Graphic Design business? There are times when my wife’s parents and family members come over and just drop stuff off – without my permission – on the floor of my office when they come to visit. There are also times when my wife comes through the door at the end of the night and she leaves her lap-top bag on the floor in my office. Who gets punished, me or the company she works for?

The IRS gets involved when I try and claim some of our housing costs for expenses. Specifically I can only use the aforementioned 25% of my house for when I’m working. When I’m not working I can’t ever be in this room, period. I have to shut both the doors and keep people out. Because of our open floor concept of our house that’s not practical; I would have to make everyone walk around the long way to get to the kitchen from the stairs.

To complicate things, if we were to take these IRS rules seriously then we need to qualify what’s “work.” I’m going to college to get another degree in graphic design; does that mean I can’t do homework in this office? I have to have a separate space to do work-work and home work?

Who are these people and organizations to impose these rules and how could they be possibly enforceable? When can I expect the uniformed inspectors to come through the door for a spot inspection?

Because I ask these questions, I’m a “fringe lunatic” to some people. I’m an anarchist, a contrarian. Some might even say I’m an idiot, a right-wing conservative member of the tinfoil hat brigade! I don’t realize that these rules are for “my own good” and are in place to “protect me.” These rules are a good idea, but when I ask why are they a good idea and to whom… I get blank stares.

I’m just asking questions so I’m the bad guy.

I also have questions and concerns about Agenda21 and HUD Grants. I’m not out to run people out of town yelling “Ya niggrahs! Git outah mah town, ya hear!” I just want some answers to a couple of questions.

What is Agenda 21? What does it mean for me as someone who is trying to build a business and might want to hire some people and move into office space outside of my house someday? By merely asking the question, I’m a right-wing radical conspiracy theorist who believes the United Nations is trying to ‘take over the world!’ Could we just settle on the fact that - OK, maybe I like to entertain conspiracy theories around a campfire once in a blue moon – could we please nail down some answers about what is Agenda 21?

Nope. By simply asking for the facts I’m clearly in the wrong and the time for discussion is OVER!

I also want to know what are the strings to my town accepting HUD grants.; what does it mean to my town, the tax rates, the building codes and regulations.. does anything change? What are the benefits and the costs/consequences of accepting HUD grants? I want to hear both sides of the issue while I keep an open mind.

For merely asking these questions about HUD grants I’m a tinfoil hat brigade according to my good friend’s good friend… both of whom also happen to be “blog spotters.” “Susan The Bruce” hammered out a poison pen post about folks like myself who have questions. Some of us have gone too far by wanting us to vote on whether or not we ask for and accept grant money for the likes of HUD.

Wait… I thought voting was a good thing in a democracy.

All I want to know is the answers to some questions about the people “in charge” in appointed positions and the authority they’re exercising when it affects me, my business, my clients and even my competitors. Could the Federal or State government dictate to me what I can and can’t do in my own house via the strings attached to grants issued to my town? Can they dictate to us what I can or can’t do in my own backyard – or can they even dictate the size of my property by demanding that my town rewrite our zoning laws after we accept the aforementioned funds?

This is all about my space and my ability to use it and the gnawing feeling that our rights are being whittled away by unelected officials and those of us on both sides of the political isle are being vilified just for asking questions about the rules, what they mean and who is making them. If that makes me crazy, so be it. I’m not alone and in good company with other well meaning, considerate and passionate people who are also being driven crazy by the same concerns.

Vintage Computing Nostalgia: Strange Server Locations

Elsewhere I was taking part in a conversation about servers of all things and the subject came up; where was the strangest place where you’ve seen a server installed? I commented that I’ve seen servers and media storage devices installed in some really weird places. Not the usual IT Server rooms with controlled atmosphere and temperature, but in some place where you would least expect them and put there by people who you think would know better.

One of the problems I encounter with other entrepreneurs is their false sense of omnipotence. It’s a quality in myself I’m not too fond of, either. Just because we’re an expert in one field doesn’t mean we’re the master of everyone else’s. The biggest problems have always started with me muttering the words; “come on… how hard could it be?”

Just because someone is smart enough to start a business like a restaurant or construction company doesn’t mean they know enough about computers and servers and not put them in odd places.

A restaurant owner I used to work for DEMANDED that his media storage device (where he kept all his records for tax purposes) be installed in the boiler room. No matter how hard we tried to explain why this was a bad idea he insisted it be put where he wanted it.

As you can imagine, he came up to me 6 months later and asked; “Do you know anything about computers?” That was just the beginning of his merriment and mirth. Why would you keep your media storage devices in the same room as the furnace or “Boiler Room”?

While I was doing my morning routine, I was trying to remember all the other craziest places where I’ve seen servers installed. My Dad’s friends who were all Ham Radio operators would work on two-way repeaters on the top of hills and mountains. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s “Pac Net” was becoming popular – people sending data back and forth over specific bandwidths. I saw someone install some DEC server racks mounted in a converted hayloft of an old barn, another system in a junked Ambulance parked on the top of a hill, and the basement of a mountain observatory… I think I’ve seen servers for two-way communication installed on the top of Mount Graylock, Mount Equinox and Mount Washington.

Hobbyists – like myself – are different breeds. “Back in my day…” hobbyists would take whatever they could get their hands on, usually discarded equipment from their own IT departments, surplus or junk shops, swap-meets, and put those machines to work anywhere. I think that’s the time I caught the computing bug and I’ve been trying to mimic what they were doing back then to service my own interests.

I’m still working with my 13 year old server trying to teach it new tricks, just like my mentors and role models did decades ago. There are just some things we can’t let go for sentimental reasons.

Night Of The Living Wage

I have a problem with talking about what people are worth. It’s a difficult subject and one that can cause hard feelings and accusations of class warfare. The worst of all is being called an apologist for “The Rich.” – As an aside, when did it become fashionable to attack successful and wealthy people who aren’t athletes or performers?

I’m really conflicted by this issue because I know of a lot of people who work in restaurants and they really do a good job and they keep me coming back for more. The best example I can think of is a small restaurant here in my town. I want the people who work in this diner – especially the chefs – to make enough money for my own selfish reasons. I want them to be happy enough to work there forever and never want to find greener pastures so they can keep making amazing eggs benedict for me whenever I arrive. Folks who work in only my favorite restaurants should be making enough money so they’ll never want to stop doing what they love because of my own enjoyment. I’ll admit it.

I will also concede that there are depressed parts of the country where there aren’t a lot of jobs that pay very well, I’ll tackle that later in this rant.

Recently there has been a call to raise the minimum wage for everyone. Not to raise people’s level of education or the quality of their work – but to simply pay people the same for what they’re already doing. I’m not sure I understand this.There’s one group of people who I think are just fine right where they are – those people who made a joke out of education and didn’t take it seriously when they had the chance. Just as our teachers said in school, there are consequences to you actions; or in this case – inactions.

I find it atrocious that there are some people who are caring the banner the minimum wage to be raised to a “living wage.” You want people who didn’t work hard and go to college like I did to be paid the same amount of money as some of us who sacrificed and went without and did to college? I hope I don’t sound too resentful, but during my teen years I worked and studied hard. Instead of getting laid, drunk and stoned during my off hours studying. I wrote, I drew, I read, and I went without so I could get the tools to further my education or paid to take night courses.

Why should we pay people a “living wage” to those people who brushed off school and made a joke of it and didn’t learn a trade or a skill? Those people who made bad choices, disrespected their opportunities for an education, and didn’t do what I did to get ahead actually deserve what they are getting now. That is the consequence we were warned about; if you don’t do well in school that’s what’s going to happen to you. If you made fun of the people who work hard in school and you thought it was funny when you earned D’s and F’s then I can make a case that you’re getting what you deserved. You were warned that this could happen and you should have listened.

People say to me, “Yea, but what about those people who learned their lessons and want another shot at it?” College and universities want to help those kinds of people find grants, scholarships and loans and have special programs to help those kinds of people succeed. Those kinds of people have tasted how horrible life is without an education and always do well, like me.

Then there are people who retort by asking “what about those people who are homeless or have difficult situations at home?” Well, I was homeless and I managed to get myself out of the whole I was in, and I also have one of the hardest of hard luck stories about growing up. I wasn’t alone, I was sitting in a class room where this topic was brought up and the room was full of adult students who had similar or even hard luck stories that are actually worse than mine. The notion that your situation is so bad that you can’t get out of is – in a word – bullshit. If I can do it, so can you. If other people with even harder situations can do it, so can you.

There’s something to be said about having grit; when I read statistics about people in their 30’s working minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants I can’t help but wonder if these people ever stop and ask themselves isn’t there a better way? Where is their “fire in the belly?” Where is their “eye of the tiger” and their willingness to fight to get out that situation and work to get out of it?

I hate talking about a problem without offering some kind of a solution, but this time before I can offer an answer let me present this other problem – it’s hard to start your own business in this environment of rules, regulations, punitive taxes and fees. We talk about the economy and how it needs to improve but everything something bad happens our government imposes new laws as a knee-jerk reaction. Why not make it easier for small businesses to start and grow?

Instead of demanding a rise in the minimum wage, shouldn’t there be more incentives for businesses to actually grow a smarter workforce and combine forces with local colleges to help improve the lives of the people who work for a living. Smarter employees will eventually lead to more productive employees and innovations that will eventually change the world and foster new fields of industry. Programs like that might actually be more efficient and cost effective than artificially raising the minimum wage.

Or are we just going to leave the situation the way it is because it’s too hard change the system? What’s your answer?

New Year’s Revolution: Reboot Your Workspace.

I’m doing a series of rants called “New Year’s Revolution.” Not a resolution, but revolution… there’s an aspect of our lives as graphic designers that some of us should change to make this coming year better than ever…

The week before and after Christmas is usually the time when our lives have come to a complete stop. All the projects are supposed to be done and everyone is on some kind of break or vacation visiting relatives or having guests over. This is also the time when many companies become reclusive and evaluate what’s happened in the last 12 months and whether they need to change or stay the course. For one reason or another, we’ll have a lot of time on our hands with nothing to do.

What do we do with this extra time? Well, you could buy a few tutorial books and get up to speed with your most recent edition of Adobe Creative Suite?

Or you can do what my wife and business partner, Carol, and I have been rebooting our workspaces starting with my office and workshop in the basement. The red color of my office was getting on our nerves and might have been responsible for my lack of concentration from time to time – we searched for the closest shade of blue that we could get to perfection, (Who uses this color?) and took two weekends (two walls each) and brought a new sense of calm to the room. We also cleared almost everything away from the windows to allow more natural sunlight and space for us to stand there to enjoy the view.

We also made some tough decisions and threw out many things that we neither wanted nor needed any more. We had a handful of things that were broken that we intended to fix someday but never got around to it. We also removed a lot of obsolete hardware that we couldn’t use with our legacy server (more on that later…) and sorted out all of the hardware into different piles and categories before putting them in marked drawers so we can find them later. In the process we found a handful of things we thought we lost forever and would have to replace.

The results are stunning; we now have an office everyone wants to be in with the space so people can join me in this room. We have also expanded our workspace without putting on an edition or renting a storage shed.

I totally admit that this isn’t a project to be taken lightly; there were times I had to finish projects in a chaotic room with paper taped the floor and drop cloths over some of our furniture. It was chaotic but we still made it happen. After the chaos was gone we were left with a room with fresher, cleaner energy and a new flow to the rest of the house.

As a brief aside, I didn’t believe in “Fung Shui” until I actually rearranged my office and repainted the walls to a different color and I finally think there’s something to this ancient art.

If there’s something you want to do with your office, this is the time to do. There’s no better time to go to your local hardware stores and shop for paint since it might be the slowest time of the year and they have special deals or sales. After Christmas and New Year’s there are some of the best deals on furniture and office accessories.

Just be sure to get everything back together before the New Years rush when everyone heads back to work.

Other People’s Burdens

Simultaneously the same issue came up between my wife and I and the media: Someone lost their job over something that was said.

Every morning my wife and I like to sit on the bed and chat about things over coffee. By the time she’s on her first cup I’ve been up for a while since I get up sometimes an hour or two before she does since I often do my best work while everyone is still asleep. Since I’ve been up since 4 or 5AM I’ll fill her in on what’s gone on in the world since we went to bed or I’ll update her on my project. Yesterday morning we had a really deep conversation about my wife’s concerned about someone else in our circle of friends and how he’s having a hard time with our mutual occupation; since s/he’s having a specific problem now will I have the same problem in the future? Will I run into the same issues that our friend ran into, or am I destined to skip over these tribulations because of my experience and knowledge of not only knowing how to avoid the professional landmines but also knowing where they are in the first place?

I have a suspicion that one of the reasons why our friend can’t hold down a job for very long is because they are opinionated and this friend says exactly what he thinks sans self-editing. At the same time, one of the men on a popular reality TV show was released from his contract from something he said in an interview with a magazine – an interview with a man known for his strong opinions caused him to be fired from a show that features his strong opinions. As a side note this seems more like a publicity stunt or someone with an ax to grind was just looking for any excuse to let this show go because of its politically incorrect nature.

Nobody cares what you think at the workplace what you think about the project you and your fellow Adobetrons (employees who use Adobe for a living…) are working on. Employers and fellow employees could not care less about what you think about topics that have nothing to do with the company, the companies realm in the business world, or how the business makes money. The only thing an employer cares about – as far as your opinions are concerned – are your thoughts about how you’re going to get the job done.

You, my fellow graphic designers, are Abodetrons – worker bees who function in the realm of the Adobe Creative Suite. It’s your job to put your equivalent of the Sistine Chapel one whatever product package or procure they need you to work on, in the least amount of time and money.

Fact is, nobody wants to be burdened with my opinions at the workplace. Wherever I work nobody cares about my political and religious affiliation, whatever non-existent problems my wife and I are having and our sex habits, where we want to go on our vacations or what we did on our honeymoon. Nobody cares about my favorite TV shows (unless they are “Mad Men” and “The Pitch,” two TV shows that tie directly into graphic design, advertising and marketing…) or if I follow any teams.

I do have my favorite teams, maybe you have heard of them? Adobe, Wacom, HP… just to name a few, but my all-time favorite “team” is the one I’m working for now because they literally pay me to follow them and participate with them. Period.

The problem with many people at the work place is that you MUST know many things about them. You MUST know where they stand on specific issues. You MUST know where they take a stand on political candidates and how they are voting to the point that their cubes look like that specific candidate’s campaign headquarters. You must know everything about them from their sexual ordination and how their lifestyle defines how they vote. Then there are the people who are just so proud of their children or grandchildren – or worse… their special “animal children” and you have to know everything they have done, they are doing, and what they are going to do.

Nobody wants to hear it. Those who act like they do are either being polite or are just too weak to tell you to keep it to yourself.

In short, there are certain people who use the workplace to evangelize, either literally or figuratively. These are the people who see their coworkers as an untapped, unexploited resource and it’s up to these individuals to go on their crusade, jihad, vision quest, or recruitment drive to suck you in. They even have leaders outside the workplace that encourage them to go after you – their fellow coworkers. Some of these people are specially trained to go after some of us, the polite people who will listen only out of courtesy and are avoiding rudeness, as the low-hanging fruit.

Then it’s your manager, your supervisor, and human resources job to find a way to get rid of you in a tactful way to make sure you’re not a legal liability and to make sure you know that the reason why you’re getting “laid off” has nothing to do with your political or social views. Sharing your political and social views created a hostile working environment is what caused your termination!

Bottom line - like surgeons, athletes, pop music performers – nobody cares about you, people care if you can do the job. Nobody cares who you vote for, what your hobbies are, and your ordinations or habits, they only care about your ability to do the work well and on time. It should be of no surprise that if we become a problem at work we would find ourselves having a problem to find a box to put our things in before we turnover our employee ID card and work computer.

Don’t burden people with your thoughts and beliefs that do not belong at work for the simple fact that you will eventually alienate fellow coworkers and employers. If someone wants to know my opinion on a controversial opinion then cross my palm with silver – pay me. Make it worth my while to tell you what I really think about any given subject that does not have anything to do with work.

6D Art Pen: The Right Tool For Several Different Jobs.

Wacom 6D Art Pen

Part number: ZP600
In stock, ships within 24-48 hours
$69.95

The original stylus pen that comes with the Intuos3 is a pretty awesome tool but there are times when I just want something different for different tasks. It seems unnatural to be holding the same tool for countless hours each day and the 6D Art Pen is what the doctor ordered.

The Cintiq 6D Art Pen has a unique feel; it’s lighter and fatter than the original pen and the tip is wider much the same way some of our favorite graphic pens had in a generation past. Some other reviewers have complained about the pen being lightweight as if that’s a drawback; once you get used to it you’ll be able to fly though a lot of tasks as if you were only using your finger. The lightweight might seem like a drawback for other users but at the end of a long day it’s almost soothing to use. For that reason alone I think the modest weight is intentional.

Functionality speaking; After a couple of hours of using the 6D Art Pen you’ll be wondering what you ever did without it especially when working with Photoshop/Illustrator brushes that rely on different angles and rotations to get the right look of a line that needs varying thicknesses.

The “Inkwell” holder that’s just like the original pen holder is a nice touch.

There are only two detractions to this tool.

First, the felt tip nibs: I love the fact that this pen feels almost exactly the way the felt tip graphic pens of long ago felt but the felt nib that replicates the felt-on-paper touch is a bit too far. I couldn’t swap the original one installed fast enough and replaced it with the plastic nib that’s similar to the plastic tip of the original pen. I have three felt-tip nibs but only one plastic one… not a big deal because I since I won’t ever swap the tip out again.

Second: While it’s worth the little extra cabbage, I wish the 6D Art Pen was originally included with my Intuos3 tablet. Since it’s so essential to my work now I can’t help but wonder why this tool isn’t standard. More importantly and as I wrote before, there are something that can be done with the 6D Art Pen that you can’t do with the original pen – most notably the aforementioned rotations.

You buy a tablet so you can do things that you can’t do with a mouse; you are able to do even more with this 6D pen that you couldn’t do without it on your Wacom. It seems so incredibly necessary for me that I wish I bought it sooner.

Just like good cowbell, you’re gonna want that 6D Art Pen!

Shocking News About Drug Use In My Home State

One of the consistent themes of my written work is about the environment that some students are raised in that’s actually prohibitive towards intellectual growth. Perfect example is the disproportionate career opportunities throughout regions of country.

For graphic designers, there are some parts of the country where there are more opportunities for us than we could ever imagine where there are some other parts of the country that are underserved but there aren’t enough job opportunities nor are there the economic resources to pay a graphic designer enough to make it worth their efforts to live and work there. (It’s not just graphic design; it’s almost everything. But since this is a blog about graphic design and being a graphic designer… there you go.)

I was shocked (Shocked, I tell you!) to read a new article that proclaimed that my home state has the highest drug use in the country.

“Here's Why Vermont Has The Highest Rate Of Illicit Drug Use In America,” PAMELA ENGEL OCT. 13, 2013, 9:12 AM

“This trend is a consequence of factors including weather, politics, and proximity to big cities, according to Barbara Cimaglio, the Vermont Department of Health's deputy commissioner for alcohol and drug abuse programs.

"You have everything from the colder climate, which tends to be a reason some people give, to more liberal attitudes, to higher income levels, to people having more access, but I don't think anyone knows for sure," Barbara Cimaglio told Business Insider.

This is incredibly painful to read because people like Barbara Cimaglio know exactly why drug use is so rampant in Vermont and she doesn’t want to admit it. I’m actually embarrassed for Ms. Cimaglio.

The rampant drug use in Vermont is systematic to a much larger problem since there really aren’t a lot of career opportunities – too many young people the only work that’s available are in the tourism industry. Especially in Central Vermont like Rutland; if you can get a job working a chairlift at the Killington Ski Resort you’re “set for life” during the winter months. Northern Vermont has it even worse than southern Vermont since there isn’t a lot there.

Not only that, but the social folkways does more to push ambitious and intelligent kids out and causes what’s known as “brain drain.” From my experience – you’re not considered an “honest” person if you want to get an education and follow a career that doesn’t involve manual labor. An ‘honest’ job involves waking up before the crack of dawn, putting on your Carhartts, going to a job you hate with a boss you hate, doing work you can’t stand for money you can’t live on much less get ahead, to support a house or apartment you can’t stand with a spouse you can hardly tolerate any more and raise kids you don’t relate to anymore. That’s an “honest” Vermonter’s life.

If you love what you do and you’re good at your job that doesn’t involve you wearing your “Carhartt” outfit 6 days a week then you’re somehow dishonest. You’re not a “real man” in the social circle I was brought up in. ‘Working with computers’ or something that involves more brain power means you’re cheating. If you came from a lower economic or social class you were considered a “faggot” or “retarded” if you wanted to do something more than what was expected from you.

There was a genuine defeatist attitude. I started drinking heavily when I was 13 for a whole handful of reasons – mostly because my mother and her boyfriend where genuine assholes who left it around for me to abuse – but the other good reason was there was a sense of futility. What’s the point? What’s the point in doing well in school since the most we could hope for is a dishwashing job?

I was shocked at how un-shocked I was when I read that heroin is huge in Rutland. I lived there for two years and I can tell you that because the economy is so depressed with the “Keep Vermont Green” mentality there’s nothing to do and nothing to work towards beyond keeping the tourists fed and sheltered.

The question I’ve always asked is; who are we keeping Vermont “green” for? Not the generations who are growing up in that region. Are we keeping it “green” for the tourists? Keep in mind also that folks love the idea of renewable energy but will protest if anyone wants to put electric wind turbines on the side of any mountains where they could help to offset the demand for energy – I guess they would rather drink water laced with tritium from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant because that’s something the tourists from New York and Connecticut can’t see from the road side…

I remember sitting at the bar of one of the restaurants where I used to work and discussing with the bartender/fellow employee why I was leaving for better education and work opportunities. “I can’t say as though I blame you, what’s here for ya besides more dirty dishes?”

Is there a solution? Is it mine to offer? There are times when I get nostalgic for that region and the periods of time that I spent there and how I would love to start a business there. Each time I look into doing something like that I find out the hard way that it’s not an effective use of my time. Starting a business is almost impossible because of the prohibitive laws, rules and taxes.

It’s up to Vermont to fix Vermont’s problems; sadly they’re driving out too many of the people who might want to help.

Why Personal Appearance Counts

I had this conversation with a genuine arrogant jerk a couple of years ago about how I discriminate and how I’m prejudice against certain types of people and how, as a potential business owner, I would and should get sued. But my discrimination and prejudice has nothing to do with color, race or gender – it’s about personal, unprofessional appearances.

Let’s just suppose for a minute that I put out an ad that my company – Eric Fisk CGD Advertising and Marketing – is hiring. Three people show up, one guy shows up in normal attire for a job interview with an above average portfolio and some kid wearing his hat on backwards on top of a hankie with his pants half-way down his legs has a much better portfolio; but the one with the best portfolio is genuinely odd, like a vampire – dressed in all black and his face caked with white foundation and black make up. Who am I going to hire?

For those of the people who say that I should hire the kid with the better portfolio is wrong. I wouldn’t hire him, and neither would you? Why?

Whether you want to believe this or not,  your employees are a reflection of you and your business. Their quality of work is just as important as an employee’s appearance. It’s a reflection of you and what a tight ship you run. If you let your employees look like an extra for “The Walking Dead” or a gangbanger – then what other areas of their lives are left wanting?

What kind of employer am I for letting that kind of shenanigans happen in my place of business? How your employees look and behave, how clean their work spaces are and what they overhear says more about your leadership skills than it does about them. I know of plenty of people who have lost potential clients because they allow their people to run amok, companies have lost business because someone wore pajamas to work on casual Fridays, or that someone was listening to misogynistic music in their cube.

Am I wrong? Is it fair or right that people discriminate against employees who dress odd to work? Is it wrong that a company would not hire another one because of the appearance or behavior of one of that companies employees? We could be having an argument about how the world really should be and how we should just let people (especially artists) be themselves and let them express themselves through their personal appearance and wardrobe; but such an argument would be futile.

It doesn’t matter for the simple fact that it’s the way it is and the person who writes the checks has all the power. We shop with our feet and our decisions; I chose not to shop at a specific chain of grocery stores because of the horrible attitudes of their employees and depressing atmosphere so it’s not hard to imagine that a potential client would choose one graphic design company over another. A client might just use any excuse to eliminate one potential company for superficial reasons to make it easier to choose which one to hire.

As an employer I might use the same tactic to eliminate candidates based on inappropriate attire to narrow down my choices.

Are we catering to people with money and power? You bet we are, especially when this argument isn’t just an academic exercise when we have bills to pay and a potential client has cash in hand to get a job done.

The real question is, why handicap yourself? Why hinder your potential as an artist, graphic designer, or an employee in general by wanting to make a ‘fashion statement.’ Shouldn’t you be making a statement through your work? If you want to prove to the “world” that you are an individual than do so by finishing your work with your own individual style. Make a statement by doing it on-time, under budget and better than your client or employer hoped for. And save the ultra-low hanging jeans for the weekend and the vampire make up for Halloween.

As for the jerk preaching about fighting conformity; he fell off the face of the earth and I haven’t heard from him after he posted about how he quit his job because he was tired of being critiqued for dressing like The Green Lantern one too many times. Someone told me that he’s out of the Graphic Design field and is now serving java at a Starbucks at minimum wage.