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Do As I Say, Not As I Did: Learn from my lifetime of mistakes. A lighthearted look at life, love, sex, money, food, children, animals, media, politics, business, technology, health and more
LAUGH & LEARN
This bestselling book is a collection of amusing anecdotes and useful advice on a wide range of Money, Relationships, Parenting, Business, Work, Cars, Food & Drink, Life & Death, Education, Health, Technology, Media, Aging, Time, Animals, Baseball, Sailing, Sex, Writing & Publishing and Law.
The book is the sad--and also humorous and helpful--story
of what the author did wrong over a lifetime and what he learned from his
mistakes, plus what he learned from observing other people, companies, animals
and events.
In the beginning of the 21st century Michael N. Marcus and his wife didn't think they were rich, but they were "comfortable." They spent money carefully, gave to charities, helped less-fortunate relatives and saved for the future. They had a very nice house and a perfect credit rating. Life was good.
Marcus received a $4 million offer for his telecommunications business. But he was not ready to spend the rest of his life on the beach, he liked what he was doing and didn't want to do the same work for a boss instead of for himself.
He rejected the offer.
And then the Great Recession struck. Marcus's income and savings went down-down-down and debt went up-up-up.
The Marcuses optimistically and foolishly took out a home equity loan to pay off high-interest credit card debts. It was a five-year loan with monthly payments of nearly $5,000 (on top of first mortgage payments of about $1,800 per month).
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Marcus's business had no phone service, email or electrical power for a week. He did no business, he had no income and asked the bank for an additional ten days to make the scheduled huge mortgage payment. The bank said it could take 60 to 90 days to decide on the ten-day extension.
Marcus says, "When you don't need money, banks would love to loan you money. When do you need money or a favor, they act deaf, blind and stupid."
In retrospect, not selling the business was the stupidest of many stupid things Marcus has done about money and more--but like most mistakes, it seemed right at the time.
Marcus often fantasizes about traveling back in time to warn himself not to make stupid mistakes. He says, "The ten-, twenty- and sixty-year-old me might have ignored the advice of parents, teachers, doctors and accountants--but not the advice of me. If I talk to myself I _have_ to listen. While technology will not yet allow me to go back and talk to myself, I can warn and advise anyone else who's willing to pay attention. That's why I wrote this book. And maybe by looking back I can influence my own future."
-----------------
Disclaimer
Introduction
The Best Advice I can Give you
My Worst Mistakes
Money
Love & Relationships
Parenting
Business
Work
Cars
Food & Drink
Life & Death
Education
Health
Technology
Media
Aging
Time
Animals
Baseball
Sailing
Sex
Writing & Publishing
Sum werdz too wotch owte four
Law
About the Author
Also by Michael N. Marcus
Photo Credits
you don't need to own a Kindle e-reader to read a Kindle-formatted book like this one. You can use a PC, iPad or other tablet, smart phone, Nook, etc.
This bestselling book is a collection of amusing anecdotes and useful advice on a wide range of Money, Relationships, Parenting, Business, Work, Cars, Food & Drink, Life & Death, Education, Health, Technology, Media, Aging, Time, Animals, Baseball, Sailing, Sex, Writing & Publishing and Law.
The book is the sad--and also humorous and helpful--story
of what the author did wrong over a lifetime and what he learned from his
mistakes, plus what he learned from observing other people, companies, animals
and events.
In the beginning of the 21st century Michael N. Marcus and his wife didn't think they were rich, but they were "comfortable." They spent money carefully, gave to charities, helped less-fortunate relatives and saved for the future. They had a very nice house and a perfect credit rating. Life was good.
Marcus received a $4 million offer for his telecommunications business. But he was not ready to spend the rest of his life on the beach, he liked what he was doing and didn't want to do the same work for a boss instead of for himself.
He rejected the offer.
And then the Great Recession struck. Marcus's income and savings went down-down-down and debt went up-up-up.
The Marcuses optimistically and foolishly took out a home equity loan to pay off high-interest credit card debts. It was a five-year loan with monthly payments of nearly $5,000 (on top of first mortgage payments of about $1,800 per month).
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Marcus's business had no phone service, email or electrical power for a week. He did no business, he had no income and asked the bank for an additional ten days to make the scheduled huge mortgage payment. The bank said it could take 60 to 90 days to decide on the ten-day extension.
Marcus says, "When you don't need money, banks would love to loan you money. When do you need money or a favor, they act deaf, blind and stupid."
In retrospect, not selling the business was the stupidest of many stupid things Marcus has done about money and more--but like most mistakes, it seemed right at the time.
Marcus often fantasizes about traveling back in time to warn himself not to make stupid mistakes. He says, "The ten-, twenty- and sixty-year-old me might have ignored the advice of parents, teachers, doctors and accountants--but not the advice of me. If I talk to myself I _have_ to listen. While technology will not yet allow me to go back and talk to myself, I can warn and advise anyone else who's willing to pay attention. That's why I wrote this book. And maybe by looking back I can influence my own future."
-----------------
Disclaimer
Introduction
The Best Advice I can Give you
My Worst Mistakes
Money
Love & Relationships
Parenting
Business
Work
Cars
Food & Drink
Life & Death
Education
Health
Technology
Media
Aging
Time
Animals
Baseball
Sailing
Sex
Writing & Publishing
Sum werdz too wotch owte four
Law
About the Author
Also by Michael N. Marcus
Photo Credits
you don't need to own a Kindle e-reader to read a Kindle-formatted book like this one. You can use a PC, iPad or other tablet, smart phone, Nook, etc.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2014
3 people want to read
About the author
Michael N. Marcus
47 books3 followersMichael N. Marcus is the author of more than 40 books—including many bestsellers. He has been an editor at Rolling Stone magazine and has written for many science, music, business, electronics, automotive and general interest magazines, as well as newspapers.
He's also an award-winning advertising copywriter who has worked on such brands as Pioneer, Acoustic Research, Columbia Records, Maxell, Volvo, Castrol, and Perdue chicken. Active on Facebook, Michael founded and administers over a dozen popular groups, and a few unpopular ones.
Michael has long been a successful and popular explainer. Before the Internet, he was an online adviser on CompuServe, and later on MSN. He is a contributor to many online groups and publications. He has provided the words for more than 50 websites and blogs.
At the urging of a misguided guidance counselor, he went to Lehigh University to become an electrical engineer, and was disappointed to learn that engineering was mostly math—and slide rules were not as much fun as soldering irons. He quickly switched to journalism.
Michael has written professionally for over 40 years. He was one of the first writers to humanize electronic hardware, describing equipment with emotion, not math. At Rolling Stone, his popular reviews of hi-fi equipment departed from the traditional laboratory tedium, and used humor and slices-of-life to describe the components. His novel approach came from necessity—because he didn't have a testing laboratory.
Michael lives in Connecticut with his wife Marilyn, the ghost of Hunter the Golden Retriever, indoor and outdoor telephone booths, a "Lily Tomlin" switchboard, lots of books, CDs and DVDs, and many black boxes with flashing lights. Marilyn is very tolerant.
1948
Michael N. Marcus.
He's also an award-winning advertising copywriter who has worked on such brands as Pioneer, Acoustic Research, Columbia Records, Maxell, Volvo, Castrol, and Perdue chicken. Active on Facebook, Michael founded and administers over a dozen popular groups, and a few unpopular ones.
Michael has long been a successful and popular explainer. Before the Internet, he was an online adviser on CompuServe, and later on MSN. He is a contributor to many online groups and publications. He has provided the words for more than 50 websites and blogs.
At the urging of a misguided guidance counselor, he went to Lehigh University to become an electrical engineer, and was disappointed to learn that engineering was mostly math—and slide rules were not as much fun as soldering irons. He quickly switched to journalism.
Michael has written professionally for over 40 years. He was one of the first writers to humanize electronic hardware, describing equipment with emotion, not math. At Rolling Stone, his popular reviews of hi-fi equipment departed from the traditional laboratory tedium, and used humor and slices-of-life to describe the components. His novel approach came from necessity—because he didn't have a testing laboratory.
Michael lives in Connecticut with his wife Marilyn, the ghost of Hunter the Golden Retriever, indoor and outdoor telephone booths, a "Lily Tomlin" switchboard, lots of books, CDs and DVDs, and many black boxes with flashing lights. Marilyn is very tolerant.
1948
Michael N. Marcus.
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