Another great post from Everyday Ethics:

Anheuser Busch, makers of alcoholic beverages like Budweiser, have launched a new product named Spykes.

I thought it was a bit tasteless(!) given the crimes around drink-spiking in bars and pubs. Was it intentional?

Other parallels come to mind:
Splatz - the baby capsule for parents with chic for brains.
Slasha - personal security for busy women.
PowerPurge - the detox solution for the fibre-deprived.

Read the …

There are those who believe and expect the best out of others. And there are those who believe and expect the worst. Which are you (most of the time)?

Our beliefs about others determine how we treat others, and how we expect to be treated.

We can approach the world with openness and generosity, and receive the same in return. Or we can expect every …

This is the obviously PR-powered splurge from the CEO of MGA Entertainment when questioned about the dubious nature of their Bratz dolls:

”Unfortunately, it is the polluted mind of some adults who ’see sex’ in everything. If you ask the kids [and we have] what do they think of Bratz, they will tell you they are beautiful, inspirational and multiethnic,” Larian said.“Bratz dolls show the society and the girls …

???????

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop. (Or more literally: Don’t leave home without a smile on your face.)

This is a commonly-quoted Chinese proverb especially in relation to sales.

It also has definite impact on relationship-building. Being nice makes a difference. So is listening (letting the other do most of the talking), being empathic (able to see the other point of view), and respecting …

Ken Warren wrote about the 10 pitfalls of operating a private practice as a counsellor/therapist. Although targeted at a very specific audience, these points are nonetheless just as valuable for other service businesses to ponder.

Here’re some of the pitfalls, with my thoughts on each:

Operating your business like a charity.

There is a distinction between giving everything away for free (especially because you feel sorry …

“In economics an externality is a by-product of a production process that imposes burdens (or supplies benefits), to parties other than the intended consumer of a commodity. For example; air and water pollution are ‘negative’ externalities which impose burdens on society and the environment.” From this article on Wikipedia.

I caught up with a friend the other day and we had an interesting conversation which has bearing on what we have been talking about.

She is a life/personal/business coach/consultant. Over the past three years or so she has been trying to find her place, to clarify what she is about and how she does business. She did courses, created workshops, wrote books, did …

“The first thing that we have to remember is that the good guys need to win – it makes the world better.”

By Max McKeown & Philip Whiteley. ISBN 0-273-65614-7.

There are plenty of oh-too-believable horror stories of show-pony bullies, egomaniacs, and win-at-all-costers who do bad things, hurt people and spoil businesses. More importantly, the authors present plenty of evidence that the nice guys …

Self reflection does not lead to meaning. Meaning requires external/social acknowledgement. “…meaning is socially, not individually, conferred…. If one only tells one’s story to oneself, it remains arbitrary and ultimately without meaning or point, because no one else has acknowledged it, even as a story.”

To make meaning of some thing or some situation, we need some “other” to acknowledge it and pay it attention. “Every act of paying …

GK Chesterton in What’s Wrong with the World:
“There has arisen in our time a most singular fancy: The fancy that when things go very wrong we need a practical man. It would be far truer to say that when things go very wrong we need an unpractical man. A practical man means a man accustomed o merely daily practice, to the way things commonly work. When things will …