The official Podcast for WWW.PELUSOPRESENTS.COM 

Have you ever watched someone make questionable spending decisions?   That's usually ok if they are the only people who are affected, but what if someone else's life is impacted by poor spending decisions?  This is the story of a potential big financial hangover for a family that spent like a sailor on leave. 

When COVID hit, many business journalists chronicled the outsized impact it had on the Cruise Industry.  What many of them missed was the opportunity cost, not for cruising profits, but for a whole new industry who’s start was now delayed for years if not decades.  

eBay, Blockbuster, Dish Network, and even today's Trucking companies are all carrying on the tradition of putting profits before customers, and not surprisingly, customers are leaving.   It doesn't have to be like this.  

In a world of US vs. THEM mentality, is their a way to get around it? Can we really find a WIN-WIN on the biggest of issues?  I think their is.  It won't come cheap, but it can be done if someone is determined enough, and creative enough, to try and pull it off.  

Some think of it as déjà vu, some just say "Been there, done that".  Today's show explores the options for when you get that sense that what you are doing is not interesting because you've seen it all before.  

Inspired by a surprising moment, today's show is all about the value offered by that advanced degree, both from a traditional institution and by a for-profit diploma mill. It asks the question: Is that 100K Masters and PhD really worth it even if it comes from a place that hands them out as long as you can pay the bill?

Inspired by a song I started to think about the good old days.  Specifically, I wondered what makes 'the good old days' good?  Why do we pine for them and what could you do to make them happen again?

Sometimes there is risk in where we want to go invest our time and money.  The risk is in what we will get as a return on that time and money investment.  Sometimes, we call it risk, but it's not really, it's a near guarantee of a return.  Even so, you'll still have to pay the price in the form of the investment.  The big question is: Are you willing to pay the price? 

Sometimes you'll put in months and years, and work your way up.  Then something happens, a private equity buyout, a market change, or just a new manager. Then the unexpected separation from the company means you have to go somewhere and start from the ground floor.  

We are emotional beings and emotional beings make emotional decisions.  More often than not these emotional decisions can lead to a bad end.  Logic works, but too few people use it.  Listen and hear how emotions rule the world. 

In part one we looked at the career related aspects of having a short term outlook vs a long term outlook in planning and decision making.  This show is part two where we look at the more Life related aspects of short term verses long term commitments. 

In life we can have a short term outlook, or work towards the short term goal.  Sometimes in life we are looking at the Horizon, we are thinking not about tomorrow, but where we want to be years down the road. We can have both these short and long term outlooks in many areas of work and life!  This show is part 1 of 2 where we look at the more work related aspects of short term verses long term commitments. 

In this episode we learn how a YouTube influencer illustrates what is in involved in understanding all the things that they don't tell you at work.  How did they do it? By being Savvy of course.  For some, they are Savvy by nature, for others it takes time and experience.   Listen and learn how we can change our perspective to increase our ability to be Savvy in dealing with work and life!

For the type A personality (like me), a vacation isn't a way to rest, relax and unwind.  It's a great way to get away from the normal demands of life so you can get some work done you've been putting off.  Unfortunately, friends, family, and anyone else you vacation with usually has other ideas.  Their plans and needs tend to get in the way of your vacation productivity goals.   If your type A, listen and learn all about the roadblocks to your plans to get a bit ahead.   If your not type A then listen and learn what frustrates those of us who are.  

Clickbait title aside, the commentary in this episode is, I think, very valuable to really assess the impact of the millions of man woman hours that have been put in to empower generations of females.  Listen to four stories of four supposedly empowered women, who, when all was said and done, still looked to be rescued by their very own prince charming.  Is this normal?  Is all hope lost for the majority of women to become strong and independent?  Did I just happen across four outliers?  Listen an decide for yourself!

I've been fortunate to work with many different people who are in different points in their career.  The most interesting are those that are working after they have technically retired and don't have to work anymore.  What's more interesting than their reasons for working is their attitudes while at work, which are all over the map.  Listen as we explore the effect of retirement attitudes on post working professionals. 

We have lots of life experiences that affect our personality development overtime.  Most reach a equilibrium, i.e. they become the person they are destined to be sooner or later with their interpersonal development.  We tend to get there faster by experiencing life impacting events.  Some are unplanned, and some, like college, are bought and paid for.  The question this show asks, is the price we pay for the personality development parts of college, i.e. the quintessential "College Experience" worth it?  

In the early days of the Pandemic, everything was surreal and it seemed to me the PTB (Powers that Be) were overstating and overreacting.  This show is a look back in time on an article I wrote at the onset of COVID19 where I commented on the behavior of companies in reaction to the virus.  Although many may argue my downplaying of the death toll was where I misread the tea leaves, taken as a whole, It's surprising how well it stands up a year later, or maybe not so surprising as employers are always wanting to get rid of Risk wherever possible.  

Decisions that impact your work and life can be made by supervisors, by committee's and increasingly by software robots.  How do you handle these decision makers?  What should your tactic be?  This show is all about the types of decision makers and what we need to consider when dealing with them!

Often leadership seminars spend a great deal of time discussing understanding the different personality types in the office.  Never do they discuss how those personality types align to leadership, nor do they discuss their long term impact on the culture of the work environment. The Darwinian environment of Corporate America leads to a Caustic Competition which can have a real impact on the lives of everyone at the company.  This article offers a deep dive on what the personality types are that define corporate culture, and how they can make your job challenging, to say the least!

Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook aren't really computer or software companies, they are platform companies.  It's their platforms that are the core of their power and valuations.  Platforms don't have to be the tool of trillion dollar tech companies, we all can, and should have a platform.  Listen to this show to learn what a personal platform is, and how you could benefit from having one!

We see the logos everywhere. They are on T-shirts, on buildings, at the State Fair, and even on the shirts of people who are selling us hotdogs at the local ball park.  You'll see the  the Lions, Kiwanis, Local Fraternities / Sororities, and others.  For the professional, the question is: Are these social groups beneficial to your career and your life?  Why should you join them when you can just hang out with your friends?  This show is all about these groups and everything related to them.  

The Purple Squirrel, or more precisely the Purple Squirrel Candidate is the idea that the perfect person for a job is impossible to find.  Technically anyone can be a Purple Squirrel for a job that matches there highly specific experience and education.  There is a pro and a con to be in that position and that's what this show is all about.   

There are long term trends all around us.  Often they aren't easy to see.  If we train ourselves to be aware of them, they can not only give us insight, but also give us valuable information about the bigger decisions we need to make in life.  Today's show is all about these trends, and what they mean for both our personal and professional lives! 

Private equity, as an industry is a machine that is the business equivalent of injecting nitrous oxide into a car engine.   You get a great deal of performance for a short period of time, but it stresses and breaks the things that make up the formerly reliable engine.  In the case of Private equity, it's enhanced profits, usually at the expense of people who made up the company.  

Three times in the month that I wrote this article I heard stories from three different private equity buyouts.  Counting my own experience, all four were intensely scary, stressful, and ultimately very damaging to the average employee at the respective firms.  This vent piece asks the question:  When can we get Private Equity from a Win-Loose to a Win-Win for everyone involved?