The best business advice one can ever receive does not involve following matrixes, cornering markets, grabbing low hanging fruit or any of the other things we so often hear. All businesses need a mantra. This should be yours: Give a damn.

I’m pretty sure I could expand this thought into a fifteen chapter business pep-talk and get it published by Get-Rich-Quick-Scheme-of-the-Week Publishers. I would give it a snappy four-word title, (of course, the four word title will be followed by a colon and a sentence that contains the words “how to”, “prosper” and “success”). Chapter four would be about how much damn should be given. Except that it most likely wouldn’t sell well, as this is not an easy mantra to implement.

Think about how you think about your customers/clients. If you’re not genuinely concerned about what you’re providing to them, you need to be. What do you do to show them how much you care?

But it doesn’t end with customer appreciation. You must apply this mantra also to your own work. Good enough never being good enough. All projects must end, but giving a damn about what you’re doing is what will make the difference in your work.

Also, I’m not talking about saying you give a damn. I’m talking about giving a damn. It doesn’t work when you fake it. You must truly care about your clients and your customers. You must really care about what you are doing.

Stop acting concerned. Start being concerned. Give a damn. You will succeed.

I’ve heard people say that a book changed their lives. I don’t think the book changed their lives, I think it was the words printed on the pages. Yet, the book itself has value. The way it smells. The typeface. The tactile quality of the page. The cracking sound the spine makes when opened.

Last night I found myself at a bookstore and decided to replace my missing book. There were three copies available: two paperbacks and a hard cover. I didn’t even pick up the low-end paperback. I considered the second paperback because it would tuck neatly into the bookcase next to my others of the same collection. I ultimately decided on the hard cover.

Generally, I’m a library fiend. Not only to save money, but also reduce clutter in my house. But this book I’ve read at least five times in eight years, and I know I’ll want to read it several more times. I want it in my house when I need it and I want a durable copy. Plus, the text in the hard cover was set with more generous leading and the margins had more room for my thumbs. So I figured it would be easier to read. It’s fastidious I know, but if it’s an object that I’ll be spending hours looking at and it will be in my house for probably a decade or more, a few extra dollars is worth it.

The thought of owning anything for a decade or more is odd. Especially considering the temporary nature of 90% of my purchases. I have books that are decades old (well, I have books from the 1800s but that’s for another story). I have CDs that I’ve owned for 15 years or more. But I can’t think of a single thing which requires batteries that I’ve had that long.

I suppose I’m an exception to the rule. On my way out the store I glanced at the “best sellers” rack. I couldn’t help but think most of the books there wouldn’t be kept for more than a decade. A lot of them dealt with politics or this week’s get-rich-quick scheme—or vampires. Several promised an answer to life’s deepest questions. These books have a shelf life slightly longer than that of bread.

I’ve heard it said: We don’t need good newspapers; we need good journalism. And I believe that. The CD is not what is important, the music is. Most of the news I now read is on the internet. I still listen to CDs, but more often I listen to MP3s for the convenience.

MP3s sound crappy. Hopefully someday there will be something that is as convenient as MP3s, but sounds like CDs. CDs will go away. The music is what’s important, not the object.

But I love the object. I love reading the little booklets in CDs, unfolding the packaging. I love the feel of paper. MP3s do not have the tactile experience of a physical object.

If I had read The Sound and the Fury for the first time on a Kindle, the experience would have been very similar. I reacted to the story and words, not the paper. But the object still has value. A book is somehow more than words, more than a story. That is why I bought the more expensive copy.

The Beatles, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan would fall into the former. Dylan eventually settled into doing the americana cowboy band thing. Tom Waits continues to try new things. The Beatles eventually broke up into four less-than-awesome parts.

Frank Sinatra did one thing, and did it really well. Tom Petty always did one thing, and did it really well. Frank Sinatra sang. Tom Petty led a band that played rock and roll.

That’s about as abstract and categorical as I feel you should get. I suppose in the world of criticism you must stretch the language in order articulate where a particular musician falls in the music pantheon. You must also use BS terms like “music pantheon”.

So there should be  a warning issued. Tom Petty is releasing a live anthology on December 8. It will be preceded by a lot of articles postulating on he is a “Rock God”. Some will call him a “Rock Icon”. A whole slew of articles will ask where he stands in the hierarchy of great music. Some will ask if he belongs there at all. Not many will talk about how good his band is, how hard is it to keep a band at the top of their game for 30 years. It’s sad how many people, especially those writing about music, miss the point.

Taking a decent photo is pretty easy. If you follow these simple steps, you can take a decent photo. These steps will not make you the next Henri Cartier-Bresson. These steps will not give you great results every time. But these steps will move your photos from crappy to decent. Digital verses film will not really matter in this tutorial.

1. Get familiar with your camera.

If you have to, break out the user manual. Here’s all you really need to know: How to adjust the shutter speed. How to adjust the f/stop to properly “meter” the shot.

2. Turn off your flash.

Don’t use your flash. Don’t do it. If the room is too dark, go outside. If it’s too dark outside, wait for the sun. Do not use the flash.

3. Find every switch that denotes an automatic function. Turn it off.

The automatic function should actually be labeled “guess function”. Because that’s what the camera’s doing: It’s guessing what you want. The below steps will tell you how to get what you want.

4. Make sure no one has messed with your camera, and turned the flash back on.

Do not use the flash.

5. Make sure you shutter speed is above 1/30s (usually denoted as “30″ through the viewfinder).

If it is at 1/30s, prop your elbows on a table or chair and hold your camera as still as possible. If it’s below 1/30s, get a tripod. If you own a tripod, you’re either too rich, or this tutorial is too basic for you. Move along. Everyone else: make sure your shutter speed is above 1/30s.

6. Double check that the flash is still turned off.

Natural light is best, but turn on lights in the room if you must. Do not use the flash.

7. Point your camera at your subject, and push the shutter button.

It’s a good idea to make sure your subject is centered, but not necessary. Also, pay attention to the objects surrounding your subject. Remember, they are part of the photo.

8. Don’t use the flash.

This is most likely not a good bye, but rather a see-you-later. There may one day be a resurrection of sorts. Until then, thanks for reading and see you soon.

Not long ago, I found myself on a rooftop with the awesome architect Mark Heinz. I snapped this shot of the James White Parkway.

I then have an un-elaborate series of folders to which I file the to-do items after they’ve been competed or responded to. Since everything is automatically date-stamped, I can see which items I’ve been “putting off” at a glance.

Occasionally I reach what is affectionately called “inbox zero”. Nothing in my inbox (which would seem to indicate I have nothing left to do, but it’s rarely the case). We all have systems. This is my system.

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Some say that in order to stay on top of the deluge of email a normal, computer-oriented person receives in a day needs to reach inbox-zero at the end of each workday.

Personally, I reach inbox-zero once every two months or so. The past several months, I’ve been disciplined enough to quit working five minutes before leaving and just file all the insignificant messages I’ve received (and also try to clean my desk) and the rewards have been great. Opening my “to-do” list first thing in the morning and seeing immediatley what I had in store for me for the day is a big benefit to productivity.

The primary advantage of this system is that it’s self-generating. It requires less management than anything I’ve ever tried. If someone needs something, they email me. It’s automatically in my to-do list. It requires nothing of me. When the task is completed, or I respond with a question, I file the message in it’s appropriate folder.

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Which brings me to filing. Apple has great email client called (rather unimaginatively) Apple Mail which features “Smart Mailboxes”. These are folders which do a certain amount of automatic filing. For instance, one can create a smart box which automatically files all messages from Aunt Gertie into it. In Apple-speak “smart” means “automatic”, I guess.

This has HUGE potential as far as efficiency is concerned, especially considering how much email I receive on a given day. I’m incredibly interested in the automation, yet incredibly frustrated. The inherent flaw is that you can auto-sort on a variety of criteria, but some criteria simply requires a manual system.

I, as all my co-workers, file on a “client based” system with project folders within client folders. I must say that I’m very dependent on smart folders. I have my “Recently Viewed” folder, my “Recently Sent Folder” and even a few “smart” client folders. But the majority of the folders are the old-fashioned kind.

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I still live and die by a simple system with two rules: 1. Have only one calendar. 2. Have only one to-do list. Using my inbox as a to-do list pretty much prevents me from reaching “inbox zero” at the end of each day, which some may argue is a productivity drain, I would argue differently. And I spend probably too much time manually filing away completed “to-dos”, but currently I don’t think the smart-mail boxes feature is robust enough to replace my organization method. So although I would love to rid myself of the tedious task, I simply can’t get around not having project-based folders, and therefore I continue to live in the arcane world of manual filing.

Further Reading:

Inbox Zero

Apple Mail

The building was at best, pretty much unremarkable. After it was torn down, I would drive by and think to myself “wasn’t there a building there.” Eventually a “KFC Coming Soon” sign appeared and I realized what was underway. In the fashion of building construction these days, the new KFC was up and functioning in what seemed like about two short months. Just shy of completion, the signage went up.

The Colonel’s Chicken Shack has been long suffering from what could honestly be called an identity crisis. Firstly, the identity is tied to an antiquated “Southern Gentleman” (which is about as un-cool as it gets) and secondly, the word “fried” reminds us too much of how unhealthy the specialty-of-the-house is. Eventually the Colonel himself got broken down into a cartoon and placed in some pretty embarrassing commercials. More famously, Kentucky Fried Chicken started going by its initials.

I’m not sure any of this had anything to do with the new signage… but I like to imagine two marketing experts arguing for days over what to call it: Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC. Until finally they said “Screw it, we won’t call it anything.”

I, for the record, am really turned off by the creepy illustration of Colonel Sanders, but I find it really interesting that the company decided they had enough equity in the “Colonel Sanders” brand that they did not need to show their own name anywhere that’s obvious. The little black awnings have words like “hungry?” and “Welcome” written in a script font. The company colors of bright red and black are unmistakable. And of course, there’s the Colonel. But thats it. No text. No “sign”.

Amazingly, and interestingly enough, that’s really all that’s needed.