MY FRIDAY STORY

ARE YOU GUARDING A CONCRETE SLAB?

By Sandras Phiri

There was an army barracks that had on its duty roster 4 soldiers to guard at all times a concrete slab in front of the barracks. The soldiers changed shifts guarding the slabs for many years. Different commanders came and went and the tradition continued.

After many years, a new commander was assigned to the barracks. Amongst the things he did was asking why things were done the way they were. When he asked why soldiers were guarding the slab, he was told, "We've always done it this way. It's our tradition. Our former commanders instructed us to do that."

The commander was adamant on finding out why. He went to the archives to look for answers and he came across a document that had the explanation. The document was very old.  It had instructions written by one of the retired commanders who had even passed away.

The new commander learnt that over 80 years ago, the barracks wanted to build a platform where events could be performed. When the concrete slab was laid, wild animals walked over it at night before the slab would dry. The soldiers would fix it the next morning but when evening came the same thing would happen. So the commander ordered that 4 soldiers should guard the concrete slab for 3 weeks to allow it to dry. The following week the commander was transferred to another post and a new commander was brought in. The new commander found the routine and enforced it and every commander that came did the same. Eighty years later the barracks continued guarding a concrete slab.

What beliefs, attitudes, traditions have you carried on that were relevant to certain people or a certain time and they are still being carried out by you? Is your opinion about yourself, people of a different race, the opposite sex, certain business opportunities, new products etc obsolete? Question the status quo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sandras Phiri is a Life Coach, Inspirational Speaker and Entrepreneur. He is the CEO and co-founder of the Sandras and Lelemba Institute (SLI) that is dedicated to research, education and supporting individuals, organizations and communities in their pursuit of growth. He lives in Cape Town with his wife and 2 sons. He blogs about inspiration, relationships and personal development on www.sandrasphiri.com

Information Technology Career Overview

A background in computer science, including facility in writing and interpreting programming code, is almost always the fundamental requirement for this field. As computer technology both becomes more pervasive in Financial Services and changes rapidly, skilled IT professionals are increasingly more valuable.
According to an article in the 12/5/09 issue of The Economist ("Silo but deadly"), the financial services industry was on track to spend over $500 billion worldwide on information technology in 2009. This is greater than any other industry, and also exceeds the aggregate spending by all governments on IT.
In-House Information Technology Staff: One attraction of pursuing a career in information technology is that IT departments are among the most progressive in allowing staff to work from home (that is, to telecommute), being much further along this curve than most other groups in most companies.
Advancing Your Career: To advance in an in-house information technology department, or to create opportunities for a potential switch to the management side of the company, you have to be more than someone who takes directions and writes code. You must develop management skills, beginning with learning all you can about the organizations that act as your internal clients, to anticipate their needs and to suggest solutions. This way you become a valued strategic partner rather than a mere mechanic.
Managing Expectations: The best information technology people do an excellent job of managing their business partners’ expectations. Making accurate, realistic estimates of what you can accomplish, and in what time frame, is a key factor in establishing credibility. Just as failing to deliver what you promise is unacceptable, so is grossly overestimating the time and resources that you need to finish the job right.
Systems Liaison: While the core of systems consulting includes people with expertise in programming and other technical fields, there also are jobs for people to serve as liaisons between the "business side" and the "technical side." These liaison people are able to understand the business requirements for a given systems project, and to communicate them cogently and logically to the technical staff. Likewise, the liaison people must know enough about programming, systems design and systems implementation to advise the business side on their options and to manage their expectations realistically.
This liaison role is also very important within companies that have their own technical staffs, but rarely gets assigned as a full time job. Instead, it frequently ends up being an unofficial side job for people who acquire an aptitude for it. In Financial Services, the systems liaison role regularly falls to people in the financial organization, especially departmental controllers.

SEO Tools Review - Find The Best Value SEO Tools

Finding The Best SEO Software Tools

If you have already read the SEO Introduction page, you will understand that SEO is a fascinating and huge subject, and one which  webmasters ignore only if they are happy to have no visitors to their websites. There are many facets to SEO techniques, but there is no doubt that doing all the things you need to do in order to get to the top of the search engine results pages can take you many hours every day for a long time,  even just for one website. Fortunately there are many tools out there that can help you make this work much easier and faster.
The following SEO software packages have been chosen based on their effectiveness, usability and value for money. Like most things on this site, they are aimed at helping the lone webmaster or individual who is working on their own personal or small business website. You could pay a lot more for other packages, tools or services, but these are likely to be over the top in both functionality and cost. My advice is geared towards people who are not in a position to pay substantial fees to SEO companies to undertake this work for them.  Such large and ongoing costs are only ever likely to be justified by sizeable established businesses. All the following tools give you the power to undertake all the SEO work you need to on your own.

The Most Effective SEO Tools - Reviews and Recommendations:

There are tons of SEO products out there, many extremely expensive and many not very effective. I have therefore cut through the dross to highlight some of the best value ones.

SEO Elite

This is the real pack leader, created by Brad Callen, who clearly puts his theory into practice by ranking number one on Google for an extremely competitive search term. This is a single comprehensive SEO tool covering all the essential aspects of search engine optimization. There is a very clear understanding of what is required to achieve high rankings, and a focus on doing only those things required to get those results. The main thrust is on analysing the sites currently at the top of the rankings to get the information you need to put your own site there. It includes everything you need for submitting your site to links directories and even an article submission programme.
The package includes full support, which many others do not, and there are various video tutorials to help get you started. Not dirt cheap but it costs far less than many, and definitely the best value for money when you weigh the cost against how effective it is. Significantly, there is a money back guarantee if you haven’t doubled your online income inside two months. That speaks volumes for how confident they are about how well the product works. Have a look at the website HERE.

Weblink SEO

Another effective package that covers all the main SEO functions.  It is a cheaper option than SEO Elite, though does tend to focus primarily on the link building side. Weblink SEO helps to automate link building (including automatically creating link directory pages), directory submission, analysis of other websites and keyword research and optimization.  Find out more on their website here.

Top Pick For An All Inclusive Package - SiteBuildIt

The SEO software you choose will depend what stage you are at with your website development, but no review of SEO tools would be complete if I did not mention a market leading website design package that includes all the SEO tools you need too.  SiteBuildIt is a website building package that includes domain name, hosting, keyword tools, search engine submission, ranking tracker, ezine publisher, and everything else you could possibly need build a high ranking website.  For detailed information on all the tools included in the SiteBuildIt package, have a look at this page.
The real purpose and beauty of SBI is that it is essentially a tool to build an online business.  You don't use SBI as just a website design tool or an integrated SEO system, you use SBI to guide you all the way from having no clue how to make a website, to creating a high ranking website, designed from the start to make you money.  I haven't found anything else like SiteBuildIt on the net, and there are tons of ecstatic cutomers out there who swear by it as the key to their successful online business.
It is difficult to quickly summarise everything SBI does because there is so much to it, but the essential beauty (and thing that makes it unique) is that they take you by the hand and guide you right from the start through a step by step process that enables you to identify the best subject for your site, the most profitable keywords, a professional look, a search engine friendly structure and a  lot more besides. I just wish I had known about it when I first started, because it is so ideal for someone who has not done much, or any, website development. If you think it could be appropriate for you, the easiest thing is to spend some time looking at their website, as there is a lot to take in. Their video tour is quite a good introduction to the basic ideas.