Luke ‘n’ Bill

So I will officially have to work if I still want to make top 10, being that there are now 14 registrants for my age group in the mini triathlon.  However, it’s more important to me that I just finish it.

The only thing that slightly worries me is the “open water” part of swimming.  Open water is a bit of an issue due to the lack of lane lines (to keep you swimming in the right direction), multiple people (49 to be exact) around you (splashing water into your face when you turn to breathe, accidentally kicking and elbowing you as you jockey for position).  I’m seriously considering just hanging back for 10-15 seconds to let everyone else swim in front of me.  It’s the same strategy I used for my first couple motocross races and it seemed to work fine.

Anyways, after I finish that it’ll just be a matter of a fun little bike ride and a nice run.

So far the last week of prep is going good and I’m confident that it’ll be a fun day!

I really love completely rocking out in the car while going down the interestate.  Especially good when you’re in the passenger seat.  There are two advantages to it: 1. you get to rock out and 2. everyone you pass gets a good laugh.

Lisa and I have started watching some episodes of a show called Secret Millionaire on Hulu.  The basic idea of the show is that they take extremely well to do people and place them into areas with extreme poverty.  They take on aliases and dress down to fit in and everyone is told that these people are just other poor people and that they are doing a documentary on poverty or something related.

With their cover set up, these “Secret Millionaires” get to talk to different people in the area and learn their personal stories.  By the end of the show, the secret millionaires have to choose who they will write checks to (from their own personal account) and how much. The lower limit is $100,000 for how much they give away but they can choose to give more.  Of the few shows we’ve seen so far, people have given away as much as $300,000.

Here’s where the tool “G” shows up.  First sign he’s a tool, he refers to himself as “G”.   That’s his brand that he’s given himself.  His real name is Gurbaksh Chahal and he has created quite a few internet start ups to make his fortune.  Now most of the secret millionaires have given themselves aliases to go by, so that someone doesn’t recognize who they are (even though they traveled a good distance from their home town).  Not this failure.  First, instead of traveling to some other location he goes to just the poor portion of San Francisco…his home town.  Then, instead of using his real name or possibly his Americanized name that he used to start his initial companies, he opts to use his brand name “G”.  Next, to add to the ridiculous he walks around these poor communities in designer jeans and a fashionable hoodie.  At some points it really just gets comical how insecure this multi-millionaire really is.  That is, until the end of the show when he stakes his claim as king in the land of Douche and it becomes more enraging than funny.

Keep in mind, all of these millionaires end up giving away tons of money…because they see the personal stories and have the ability to do so.  Also keep in mind that conservative estimates put this guys net worth at somewhere around $100 million.  What does he end up giving away?  $90,000.  The show requires that they give away $100,000.  $70,000 of what he gave away was completely tax deductible and you know he pays more than that in taxes each year and in total he gives away $90,000.  Supposedly there were more donations that were edited out (which I find hard to believe).

But even so….really?  You gave away .1% of your net worth (without taking into account the fact that $70,000 was tax deductible, so it was more like .03%).  I hope those fake tears that you shed on camera helped you sleep at night.

I have always tried to adhere to two rules when spending my consumer dollar.  First, I try to buy locally, from a family owned business if possible.  Second, I reward companies that provide good service with more business, along with the inverse.

One great example of the best customer service is what I found at Faini Designs in Sioux Falls, SD.  This place is complete class in all ways you could imagine.  The store front is almost aesthetically perfect and the people are what make it exceptional.

A little over a year ago I was in the market for an engagement ring.  I had done all my research, knew my 4 C’s, knew about what I should expect to pay for a diamond and had some very very vague direction from my soon to be fiance.  After checking around at a few other places in town and being bummed out about either their prices, their service or both I went to check out Faini after a good review from one of my good friends.

Everything went excellent with them.  Not only were they great to work with, but they made a custom ring for the same price or even less than what I was seeing around town and it was exactly what I was looking for.  Fast forward to a year later.  I had been in there once before to get the ring cleaned and being that it had been a while since the last cleaning, I brought the ring back to Sioux Falls with me and stopped by to have it cleaned.  Now what inspired me to write this post and what blew me away, was the fact that, Lisa, one of the people who helped me out initially actually greeted me by name.  I can’t imagine how many customers they have go through their store daily, but it blew me away that a year later they could greet me by name.  That is just one of the reasons why I’ll deal exclusively with them from now on, even though they’re 3 hours away.

As some honorable mentions…Honest Bike Shop (Rochester) and Oertli & Pleschourt (CPA’s in Rochester) have also treated me well.