Things That Interest Me
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Things That Interest Me
Not The Best Steakhouse on Long Island -- Prime Restaurant in Huntington
We ate at Prime Restaurant in Huntington this past weekend. The restaurant sites right on Huntington Harbor. The views are incredible. We sat outside and enjoyed the environment throughly. The restaurant itself is beautiful especially the fireplace. The crowd was upscale.
The only problem was the food. I basically followed the recommendation of my waiter figuring that he would not steer us wrong. He recommended the highest priced items on the menu. We wondered whether these were the best dishes or just the ones that would maximize his tip.
That being said, we started with the crab cake, sea scallops and the triple threat sushi appetizer. You may be wondering why we order 3 appetizers. Because even though each of them was delicious, they were extremely small.
With respect to the main course, I order the Tellers Ribeye while my wife order the Beef Wellington. My wife loved the Beef Wellington while I thought that the ribeye was bland. Ribeye should never be bland. We also ordered the skillet potatoes which were extremely disappointed and I have to wonder what they were thinking.
As a result, I was disappointed in the food. I would only recommend Prime if you want to go to a place to see and be seen and do not care about the food. This is an updated version of Steve's Pier 4 in Bayville.
The only problem was the food. I basically followed the recommendation of my waiter figuring that he would not steer us wrong. He recommended the highest priced items on the menu. We wondered whether these were the best dishes or just the ones that would maximize his tip.
That being said, we started with the crab cake, sea scallops and the triple threat sushi appetizer. You may be wondering why we order 3 appetizers. Because even though each of them was delicious, they were extremely small.
With respect to the main course, I order the Tellers Ribeye while my wife order the Beef Wellington. My wife loved the Beef Wellington while I thought that the ribeye was bland. Ribeye should never be bland. We also ordered the skillet potatoes which were extremely disappointed and I have to wonder what they were thinking.
As a result, I was disappointed in the food. I would only recommend Prime if you want to go to a place to see and be seen and do not care about the food. This is an updated version of Steve's Pier 4 in Bayville.
The Managment Mistakes of Willie Randolph
I was reading Conde Nast's Portfolio (www.portfolio.com) and found the following article describing Willie Randolph mistake as a corporate executive. I think most of his points are valid and this article explains how Isiah Thomas lasted so long with the Knicks.
Force Out
by Nelson Wang 
Jun 18 2008
Jun 18 2008 What ousted Mets manager Willie Randolph could have learned from the likes of Dick Fuld.
New York Mets manager Willie Randolph finally got fired Monday evening after months of speculation. The Mets' unprecedented collapse last season—losing a seven-game division lead with just 17 games to go—initiated the death watch, and a poor start this year, despite having signed the best pitcher in baseball in the off-season, proved to be the final straw.
Along the way, Randolph seldom helped his cause, making strategic missteps both on and off the field. Here are some lessons the former manager could have learned from America's top corporate chieftains about hanging on to one's job even when shareholders are calling for one's head.
Throw someone under the bus. For
John Mack at Morgan Stanley, when trouble came, it was him or Zoe Cruz. Cruz got the boot. Lehman Brothers' Richard Fuld, who is presiding over a sinking ship, may have bought some time for himself by getting rid of some of his top lieutenants. But throughout the current crisis, Randolph has steadfastly stood behind his coaches, expressing surprise and dismay last July when Mets general manager Omar Minaya fired hitting coach Rick Down, a close friend of Randolph's, for the team's poor performance at the plate. Now not only is Randolph gone, but so are his pitching coach and first-base coach.
Treat your talent well and they will flourish—and so will you. Last July, Randolph benched and strongly criticized young star shortstop José Reyes for not running out a ground ball. Reyes sulked for weeks and never seemed the same afterward, hitting a paltry .248 over the last three months of the 2007 season and failing to produce in countless key situations during the Mets' epic collapse. Compare this with Jack Welch's renown for hiring and developing key talent while atG.E.—among them, current G.E. C.E.O. Jeff Immelt and current Chrysler chief Robert Nardelli. "It's understood if you're not managing talent effectively, your tenure is going to be short," says Dan Fisher, managing partner of Fisher Rock Consulting, an organizational consulting firm, of Fortune 100 companies. And the same is even truer in professional sports.
Face down your detractors. Randolph's been on the hot seat for months, forcing him (and all his players) to answer questions from the press about whether Randolph was worried about losing his job. While Randolph couldn't have guaranteed his own job security, it might have helped if he publicly accepted responsibility for the team's struggles, and more forcefully answered questions.Lehman's Dick Fuld did just that this week, and it seems to have kept him out of the line of fire, at least for now.
Be careful when playing the race card. Back in May, Randolph, who is black, angered the Mets' owners by suggesting in a newspaper interview that SportsNet New York, the Mets' cable station, had portrayed him negatively compared with white managers. The owners felt he was bringing up an unnecessary and unwarranted distraction, and held a private two-and-a-half-hour meeting with him to berate him for it. Randolph should probably have taken a page from successful black executives likeAmerican Express' Ken Chenault or former Time Warner C.E.O. Richard Parsons, who seldom, if ever, brought up race and certainly not in discussions of how they were being evaluated. While Randolph may have been right about having experienced racism, as an executive, it rarely helps your case to publicly call it out.
New York Mets manager Willie Randolph finally got fired Monday evening after months of speculation. The Mets' unprecedented collapse last season—losing a seven-game division lead with just 17 games to go—initiated the death watch, and a poor start this year, despite having signed the best pitcher in baseball in the off-season, proved to be the final straw.
Along the way, Randolph seldom helped his cause, making strategic missteps both on and off the field. Here are some lessons the former manager could have learned from America's top corporate chieftains about hanging on to one's job even when shareholders are calling for one's head.
Throw someone under the bus. For
John Mack at Morgan Stanley, when trouble came, it was him or Zoe Cruz. Cruz got the boot. Lehman Brothers' Richard Fuld, who is presiding over a sinking ship, may have bought some time for himself by getting rid of some of his top lieutenants. But throughout the current crisis, Randolph has steadfastly stood behind his coaches, expressing surprise and dismay last July when Mets general manager Omar Minaya fired hitting coach Rick Down, a close friend of Randolph's, for the team's poor performance at the plate. Now not only is Randolph gone, but so are his pitching coach and first-base coach.Treat your talent well and they will flourish—and so will you. Last July, Randolph benched and strongly criticized young star shortstop José Reyes for not running out a ground ball. Reyes sulked for weeks and never seemed the same afterward, hitting a paltry .248 over the last three months of the 2007 season and failing to produce in countless key situations during the Mets' epic collapse. Compare this with Jack Welch's renown for hiring and developing key talent while at
G.E.—among them, current G.E. C.E.O. Jeff Immelt and current Chrysler chief Robert Nardelli. "It's understood if you're not managing talent effectively, your tenure is going to be short," says Dan Fisher, managing partner of Fisher Rock Consulting, an organizational consulting firm, of Fortune 100 companies. And the same is even truer in professional sports. Face down your detractors. Randolph's been on the hot seat for months, forcing him (and all his players) to answer questions from the press about whether Randolph was worried about losing his job. While Randolph couldn't have guaranteed his own job security, it might have helped if he publicly accepted responsibility for the team's struggles, and more forcefully answered questions.
Lehman's Dick Fuld did just that this week, and it seems to have kept him out of the line of fire, at least for now. Be careful when playing the race card. Back in May, Randolph, who is black, angered the Mets' owners by suggesting in a newspaper interview that SportsNet New York, the Mets' cable station, had portrayed him negatively compared with white managers. The owners felt he was bringing up an unnecessary and unwarranted distraction, and held a private two-and-a-half-hour meeting with him to berate him for it. Randolph should probably have taken a page from successful black executives like
American Express' Ken Chenault or former Time Warner C.E.O. Richard Parsons, who seldom, if ever, brought up race and certainly not in discussions of how they were being evaluated. While Randolph may have been right about having experienced racism, as an executive, it rarely helps your case to publicly call it out.Top Ten Resume Blunders
From what I have seen, job seekers tend to make several mistakes on their resumes. Some of these mistakes cost people potential jobs. Please avoid these mistakes at all costs.
- Troublesome Typos and Grammatical Errors – Hiring managers view your resume as your introduction and your attention to details. It only takes one or two typographical errors to remove you from consideration from a job.
- Overly Casual Conversation – If you are not professional in your communication, hiring managers will view you as unprofessional and not worthy of their company
- Lies – Do not overstate your responsibilities or background. If a hiring manager verifies your resume and finds a lie or overstatement, you will not be hired for that position.
- Personal Information – Employers research their candidates including checking your Facebook page and your personal blog. What you say or post on a social networking site or a blog can come back to haunt you.
- References – If you list a person as a reference, you need to know what the person will say about you. The last thing you need is a bad reference.
- Juvenile E-mail Address – if you have had a cute or suggestive email, you need to get a new one from Yahoo or Google. Sexy69@aol.com will been seen as a negative for any hiring manager and another question mark on your professionalism.
- Lack of Specifics – A vague description does not help promote your skill sets and will not differentiate you from any candidate.
- One Size Fits All – If you build your resume for all employers, you end with a vague resume that will be briefly and discarded right away. You need a resume targeted for the company and the job.
- Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments – A hiring manager is less interested in your duties as opposed to what your accomplishments.
- Too Long or Too Brief Resumes – You need to provided a hiring manager with a good understanding of what you accomplished and what you are looking for. If you make your resume too short, then you lose the substance of your resume. If you make it too long then you no one will read it.
Anatomy of a Dead Deal
If you have been following the Yahoo-Microsoft merger discussions as closely as I have, you will not be surprised that the deal fell through. Skipping the personalities involved, the financial terms and strategic fit, I felt that the deal would not go through for one simple reason -- time.
Typically, deals that get consummated are those that are negotiated and closed quickly. If a deal takes a long time to develop, it usually never gets done even if it makes the most sense. As time passes, people start to question the business terms and thought process involved. People start to crawl out of the woodwork to question the deal.
As a result, the negatives on a deal continue to build over time while positives stay constant (or decline).
Looking back to the Yahoo-Microsoft discussions, one of Microsoft's biggest mistakes was to allow the discussions to evolve slowly overtime. If they pushed the discussions harder and faster, they would have had a better chance to reach a deal with Yahoo!
Typically, deals that get consummated are those that are negotiated and closed quickly. If a deal takes a long time to develop, it usually never gets done even if it makes the most sense. As time passes, people start to question the business terms and thought process involved. People start to crawl out of the woodwork to question the deal.
As a result, the negatives on a deal continue to build over time while positives stay constant (or decline).
Looking back to the Yahoo-Microsoft discussions, one of Microsoft's biggest mistakes was to allow the discussions to evolve slowly overtime. If they pushed the discussions harder and faster, they would have had a better chance to reach a deal with Yahoo!
Icarus and Execution
Who is Icarus and what does he have to do with execution? According to mythology, Icarus along with his father, Daedalus attempted to escape their exile in Crete. He and his father were imprisoned by the King because Daedalus built a faux cow for the queen so that she could have sex with a bull. This did not please the King.
According to the legend, Daedalus fashioned a pair of wax wings for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the Sun which, melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near an island southwest of Samos.
So what can we learn about this? If you aim for the sky then you run the risk of failing to achieve your objectives and you could crash and burn instead (or in the case of Icarus, drown in the sea). If you try to accomplish too much, you run the risk of failing to achieve anything. As a result, you need to set objectives according to your abilities.
You should set your goals that are achievable and if necessary, set the initial goals and once achieved then set your secondary goals. Always keep in mind what you are trying to achieve.
According to the legend, Daedalus fashioned a pair of wax wings for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the Sun which, melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near an island southwest of Samos.
So what can we learn about this? If you aim for the sky then you run the risk of failing to achieve your objectives and you could crash and burn instead (or in the case of Icarus, drown in the sea). If you try to accomplish too much, you run the risk of failing to achieve anything. As a result, you need to set objectives according to your abilities.
You should set your goals that are achievable and if necessary, set the initial goals and once achieved then set your secondary goals. Always keep in mind what you are trying to achieve.
The Favor Bank and a Start Up
I have seen many a friend start a business and use the favor bank in the process. Typically, when you are starting a business, cash is at a premium and you would rather spend your
available cash as sparingly as possible. The best way to grow your business is to preserve your cash and tap into your favor bank.
To do so, you need to have built up credits in the favor bank. What this means is that you need to have performed favors to people in the past. If not, then you are going to go into debt with someone. This ...<< MORE >>
To do so, you need to have built up credits in the favor bank. What this means is that you need to have performed favors to people in the past. If not, then you are going to go into debt with someone. This ...<< MORE >>
Fresh Pets and the ASPCA
I was on FreshPets.com (http://www.freshpets.com), and noticed that they have a new partnership with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Under this partnership, FreshPets is soliciting donations for the ASPCA and 100% of the donations go to the ASPCA. Very noble and I would hope that most of the customers on FreshPets would make a donation to the ASPCA during their check out.
What also interests me is that almost all of the pet retail websites have some form of foundation to help animals. I wonder if they are all charitable people or whether they just using these charities to look good to their customers. I would have to believe that some of these sites fall into one category or another.
It is interesting how electronic stores do not support charities. Are only pet supply businesses caring?
What also interests me is that almost all of the pet retail websites have some form of foundation to help animals. I wonder if they are all charitable people or whether they just using these charities to look good to their customers. I would have to believe that some of these sites fall into one category or another.
It is interesting how electronic stores do not support charities. Are only pet supply businesses caring?
Don't Be the Last One to Find Out that Your Company is in Trouble
I have a friend who lost his job along with everyone else in his department. Now he is scrambling to find a job. He needs to put together his resume, conduct his job search and deal with the emotional consequence of not having a job anymore. In our world, you seem to be defined by your career and family life. As a result, if you lose your job, you end up losing some your perceived social status. How do you avoid this?
The main answer is to make sure that you never end your job search. I know of very few people who plan to retire from their current job. As a result, you will need to find new employment at some time. You have all heard that you need to approach the search for a job as a real job. You need to look at the classifieds both online and offline, network your connections as well as many other things. If you only focus on this when you need a new job, it will take longer and be a more emotional process. And unfortunately, I have experienced this more than once.
The answer is to continue your job search all the time. It is always easier to find a job when you have one. I used to work for someone who was a marginal performer at best but had a great network. When it came time for him to look for a new employment opportunity, he always seemed to land on his feet with one good job after another. The secret to his success was that he continued to work his network each and every day.
So the advice is work the process even during good times so that you will not be the last one standing at the unemployment office.
The main answer is to make sure that you never end your job search. I know of very few people who plan to retire from their current job. As a result, you will need to find new employment at some time. You have all heard that you need to approach the search for a job as a real job. You need to look at the classifieds both online and offline, network your connections as well as many other things. If you only focus on this when you need a new job, it will take longer and be a more emotional process. And unfortunately, I have experienced this more than once.
The answer is to continue your job search all the time. It is always easier to find a job when you have one. I used to work for someone who was a marginal performer at best but had a great network. When it came time for him to look for a new employment opportunity, he always seemed to land on his feet with one good job after another. The secret to his success was that he continued to work his network each and every day.
So the advice is work the process even during good times so that you will not be the last one standing at the unemployment office.
Best Bagel on Long Island -- Bagel Boss in Hicksville
As a major bagel aficionado, I am always on the lookout for a good salt bagel as well as a bialy. Bagel Boss has always been my bagel place. As I tried a whole bunch of bagel places, I have not found a bagel shop that compares to the Bagel Boss. Even better, Bagel Boss is open 24 hours. That means that they continually have warm and fresh bagels.
The appetizers are great as well especially the whitefish salad.
The appetizers are great as well especially the whitefish salad.
Number One Jobsite
In the online careers world, there are over 45,000 job boards that offer a variety of services. How do you choose the right one? Should I go to Monster, CareerBuilder or HotJobs or go to TechCareers, Jobing or The Ladders. A very difficult question to answer.
As I work through this issue, I came across Number One Jobsite, which is located at www.numberonejobsite.com. It is a site that provides information about leading job boards as well as tools to help facilitate your job search. It is worth a look especially in this troubling economic times.
Their categories include
General Job Sites
Geography Sites
Industry Sites
Executive Sites
Resume Help Sites
Work At Home Sites
Career Analysis Sites
As I work through this issue, I came across Number One Jobsite, which is located at www.numberonejobsite.com. It is a site that provides information about leading job boards as well as tools to help facilitate your job search. It is worth a look especially in this troubling economic times.
Their categories include