Google's new social network Google+ is going head-to-head with the biggest social network of them all, Facebook.
But for Google's new platform to succeed in gaining social marketshare, it has to also entice users by letting them do new things, too, stuff they can't do in Facebook.
After the lackluster reception of Google Buzz and Wave, the Internet giant had to completely rethink its approach to online social interaction before announcing Google+. And it has.
From what I’m hearing it’s been a rocky morning at the social network, which was bought by Newscorp in 2005 for $580 million, as job cuts went deeper than expected. The most significant departure? CEO Mike Jones will be leaving the company and is currently on a two month transition plan. Myspace has steadily lost influence and value as Facebook’s “one graph to rule them all” campaign grew to dominate the space. On a more hopeful note, I’m also hearing that several of the laid off employees have already received calls from recruiters representing a mix of Silicon Valley and Southern California companies. From: Mike Jones Myspacers, Today, we are announcing that Myspace will be acquired by Specific Media, one of the world’s leading online media and advertising platforms. Over the next few days you will be hearing from the team at Specific, including their CEO, Tim Vanderhook, regarding their exciting plans for Myspace and how it fits in with the overall vision of their company. In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce. I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as Myspace CEO. I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for the incredible experience it has been to lead this company and to work closely with all of you over the past several years. While I regret we won’t be working together at Myspace any longer, I am very proud of the work we have done here and believe we have performed with excellence – even under extremely difficult circumstances. My time here at Myspace represents the most engaging and challenging time of my professional career. I have found our team to be comprised of the best people I have come across in our industry. You can read the press release below. Once again, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. Thanks, -M SPECIFIC MEDIA ACQUIRES MYSPACE FROM NEWS CORPORATION Los Angeles, Calif. — June 29, 2011 – Specific Media, a digital media company, today announced it has acquired Myspace from News Corporation. As part of the agreement, News Corporation will take a minority equity stake in Specific Media. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed. “Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.” Specific Media is an innovative global interactive media company that enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways. Founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook, Specific Media is currently headquartered in Irvine, CA and operates offices around the world. http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/myspace-goes-to-specific-media-for-35m-ceo-is-out-press-release/
Myspace CEO Mike Jones just sent out this mass internal email and press release confirming the company’s sale to Specific Media earlier this morning. Kara Swisher is reporting that the sale was for $35 million.
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:26 AM
To: Myspace All
Subject: IMPORTANT COMPANY NEWS
Importance: High
Everyone thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton of fun. That's what I now refer to as the "glamour brain" speaking aka the startup life you hear about from the press. You know the press articles I'm talking about... the ones that talk about how easy it is to raise money, how many users the company is getting, and how great it is to be CEO. Very rarely do you hear about what a bitch it is to be CEO and how it's not for every founder that wants to be an entrepreneur. I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it takes to be a great Startup CEO that is also a founder. Here are some of the traits I've found.
The CEO is the keeper of the company's overall vision. I'm not talking about the vision for the next few months, but the larger road ahead. The CEO needs to be able to keep things on course for the current quarter to make sure that the large overarching vision of the company can be achieved. The takeover the world vision of a startup usually can't be achieved in one year or even in some cases, like Google, in a decade. It takes a great startup CEO to keep the company on track to achieve that vision. A great startup CEO will often judge upcoming initiatives to see if they fit in as a piece of the large puzzle for the bigger vision.
A startup CEO needs to be the personal voodoo doll for a startup. They need to be able to take on a strong burden of stress, pain, and torture all while making level headed decisions. You can't have the troops stressing and worrying about the difficult challenges at hand. A good startup CEO will absorb the stress, so the rest of the team can carry on. He also needs to be able to mask this pain and stress. Not that he should hide or lie to the team- I'm not encouraging that. Most of the day to day nuances+stresses of a startup aren't worth having the entire team worry about and the CEO needs to bear that pain.
A startup CEO has a great knack for finding talent. The key is finding people that are smarter than you on specific topics. It might be technical team members/leaders or it might be a new VP of Biz Dev. A startup CEO has to have the ability to find these people and make relatively fast decisions to hire them. They also have to be able to show the fire and passion to convince them to leave what is most likely a better paying and more secure job to join the company. The real key to hiring as a startup CEO comes after the hire. A great startup CEO will be able to trust the hires that they make and defer to them on areas of domain expertise. It's hard to let go, but you have to learn to, especially when the company grows.
Whether you want to believe it or not, you are not an investor's only portfolio company. Even if you are a superstar, they have a handful of other companies to help and a ton of incoming potential portfolio companies. A good investor will pick 2-3 new companies per year to work with. A good startup CEO will be a good link between progress, issues, and areas where they need help with investors. A good portion of early stage startups that raise money will have a board comprised of 3 people: the CEO founder, the investor, and an independent board member. You are the lone representative for your cofounder and other employees.
I have this unwavering belief that the best companies are those that keep a founder as CEO for the long haul. Not because the founders have the right to be CEO, but because the CEO needs to be close to the product vision of the company. Founding CEOs understand this the best and can carry out that same unified vision over time. To fill in the management gaps a great COO, other board members, and heads of divisions will come along. It's a strategy that Facebook has employed and why Apple has had a great resurgence with Steve Jobs at the helm. It's all about keeping the CEO as close as possibly linked to the product.
Most startup CEOs didn't start out with an MBA or some background in growing a company from nothing to something. The best have an ability to learn along the way and embrace their failures to become a better leader. Zuck started when he was 19 and now 7 years later, runs the most powerful internet company. Don't worry about whether "you're qualified" as it's hard to put typical qualifications on the job. You'll learn the really core stuff along the way. The best startup CEOs will surround themselves with smart mentors to be a sounding board along the way.
It's almost better to have a blank slate of zero experience as a startup CEO. If you come in with preconceived notions and block out the scrappy methods of a startup founder, it actually hurts you. Traditional education often trains you to be CEO or manager for a much larger company, not for a startup of under 50 people. It's a different kind of leadership and company.
You will be inundated with a list of requests from potential partners, investors, employees, and more. They will all sound absolutely wonderful. As you grow, you will also have the resources to execute more of them. Don't. It's easy to say yes, but so very hard to say no. By having an uncanny ability to say no, you can keep your company on track with the large vision you maintain. It will also keep your team members (notice I don't like to use the word "employees") laser focused and feel more rewarded as they are able to focus on one thing for a good chunk of time. I've seen too many startups sink because the CEO keeps changing what the head of product and engineering should be doing.
A good startup CEO shouldn't be afraid of a little bit of code and a text editor. They don't need to be diving into the source code on a daily basis, but they need to understand the technical requirements. It's easy to say "go build this", but it's a whole other ball game to understand how to build it. What seems simple may be a huge mountain of a technical feat that just isn't feasible with the given resources and deadlines. It can also help lend some street cred with hiring early technical team members too.
Remember that huge unwavering vision that you are the keeper of? Odds are it only makes sense to you and your cofounder. You will need to break it up into sizable chunks and milestones for the rest of the team to understand it. You also need to be able to pick when and where to conquer things strategically. What is the past of least resistance so you can gain traction? What can you do first with your given resources?
Nothing goes according to plan. Things fall through, people quit, shit happens, servers crash, and other random things go bump in the night. You're going to have to deal with it and fast. This is a football term:
"Seen when the quarterback goes up to the line of scrimmage, sees a defensive alignment he wasn't expecting, and adjusts by yelling out a new play."
You're going to come up against things that you didn't expect and just be able to call an audible. Launch faster, spend more money here, or even abandon a project.
People love to talk in this business. People love to talk even more when you're company isn't fairing well. A great CEO will be able to take those moments of public despair and keep the company focused. They will be able to debunk the rumors or even approach them head on by keeping the members of the company focused on the bigger mission at hand. It can come in simple 5 minute talks or motivational emails. The worst thing you can do is avoid the situation and be passive aggressive. I repeat: DO NOT WUSS OUT.
You need to be able to portray the energy and passion that you feel into others...over and over and over and over and over and over again on a daily basis. As a startup founder you need to communicate the vision and hope for the future of your startup to the rest of the world. You need to be able to break down the overall vision of the company into something that mere mortals can understand. You can't speak in crazy technical jargon or industry terms. It needs to be simple, clear, and compelling. You also need to be able to argue your point. Many will pick "fights" with you just to see how strong willed you are. Be respectful, but be very confident in your answer. Often wrong, but never in doubt my friend.
Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, makes a strong case for not being a fake ceo. In short, worry about things that produce results, not fame. If it's between going to a conference/doing an interview or completing a deal, get the deal done. Don't "leave it to someone else". You need to get your hands dirty every single day.
By no means is this an exhaustive or definitive list. In some cases, the traits listed above might be counter-intuitive. What are some traits you've seen in great founding startup CEOs? Not the glamorous job you thought it was, eh?
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/34321/14-Ways-To-Be-A-Great-Startup-CEO.aspx
Get the Giggles
With laughter, you reap the recharging benefits of exercise without having to spend time at the gym. After a good laugh, you experience a momentary surge of energy, which—in addition to reducing stress and boosting immunity—can help your body regenerate more healthful cells over time. To get you started, go to funnyordie.com or huffingtonpost.com/comedy for laugh-inducing videos.
If you gently take handfuls of hair and pull the skin away from your scalp to get blood flowing to that area of the head, you can relieve a lot of potentially tiring tension.
Flushing out toxins helps the body run more efficiently, which also means you’ll have more energy. Simply lie in bed for two extra minutes in the morning and focus on taking deep breaths, since many of our toxins are expelled by breathing.
Tackle a Dreary, Do-I-Have-to-Get-Out-of-Bed Day With a Burst of Color
There are days we need a shot of adrenaline before we even get out of bed, and colors can help with that. By surrounding yourself with bright colors—something as simple as an orange bathrobe or a yellow umbrella—you can give yourself that needed energy boost to face the day.” In general, saturated, warm colors (the red, orange, and yellow of ROY G BIV) are considered most energizing, while cool tones (like green, blue, indigo, and violet) are calming.
You want to use light and stimulation to wake you up for the daytime, then use dark and quiet at night. If you can go outside within 15 minutes of waking for 20 minutes and face east, even on a cloudy day, you’ll get enough light to energize yourself for the day.
Get a Whiff of Citrus
The smells of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits have been shown to be energizing, so simply add a slice or two of your favorite to a glass of water. Or introduce citrusy scents into your morning routine, since several brands now offer citrus-infused, wake-up-the-body washes. For a quick midday refresher, moisten a cotton ball with a few drops of citrusy bergamot oil and inhale.
Your body responds more quickly to a cold stimulus than to hot, so a quick, short blast will perk you up.
What If Caffeine Makes Me J-J-Jittery?
Some people are more sensitive to the beloved stimulant than others. If you notice that a daily cup of coffee leads to restlessness or irritability, try smelling coffee beans. Sniffing the beans will invigorate you through a Pavlovian response. If you associate coffee with waking up, smelling it can induce a similar reaction. For those not willing to give up a morning tea ritual, try this: Before you make your cup of tea, steep the bag in a small amount of water for 20 seconds, then dump that out—65 to 70 percent of the caffeine is in that first dip.
Sure, the sentiment feels a little bumper stickery, but when you do something kind, your energy goes up!
Pop a Peppermint
Smelling peppermint stimulates the trigeminal nerve, which stimulates the area of the brain responsible for arousal and can make you more alert.
Take a golf ball and roll it between your desktop and your hand, from the base of the thumb, where your hand webs out, down to the wrist. There’s a really sensitive spot there. Stimulating it will perk you up.
Sit Up Straight
Poor posture puts uneven pressure on your spine and causes some muscles to work extra hard, which makes them tight and tense and so they use up extra energy. Realign your spine by simply lifting your rib cage away from the top of your hips.
Oil the Squeaky Lock
Think of all the little things that really bother you, like that loose doorknob that you have to fuss with every single day. These things take energy from you that you could expend on something else. So glue the broken frame, throw out the dead plant, move the chair you always bump into, and you’ll never again waste energy on groaning about them.
Dab on a Jasmine-Infused Fragrance
Jasmine increases beta waves, which make you more awake and alert...
Crank Up the Music
Brain-imaging techniques have linked music and its effects on our nervous system to improved mood and well-being,” says Karas. “Your mental and physical energy get a big boost every time you immerse yourself in music that moves you.”
“Everyday People,” Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
“Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance),” Craig David
“That’s Not My Name,” the Ting Tings
“River Deep, Mountain High,” ...
New research adds credence to the adage ‘whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,’ a well-known saying, that had little scientific evidence to support it.
A national multi-year longitudinal study of the effects of adverse life events on mental health has found that adverse experiences really do in fact appear to foster subsequent adaptability and resilience, with resulting advantages for mental health and well being.
Details will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and is currently available online.
The study examined a national sample of people who reported their lifetime history of adverse experiences and several measures of current mental health and well being, and found those who were exposed to some adverse events reported better mental health and well-being outcomes than people with a high history of adversity or those with no history of adversity.
“We tested for quadratic relationships between lifetime adversity and a variety of longitudinal measures of mental health and well-being, including global distress, functional impairment, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and life satisfaction,” says Mark Seery, assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo.
“Consistent with prior research on the impact of adversity, linear effects emerged in our results, such that more lifetime adversity was associated with higher global distress, functional impairment, and PTS symptoms, as well as lower life satisfaction.
“Our findings revealed,” he says, “that a history of some lifetime adversity—relative to both no adversity or high adversity—predicted lower global distress, lower functional impairment, lower PTS symptoms, and higher life satisfaction.”
The team also found that, across these same longitudinal outcome measures, people with a history of some lifetime adversity appeared less negatively affected by recent adverse events than other individuals.
Although these data cannot establish causation, Seery says the evidence is consistent with the proposition that in moderation, experiencing lifetime adversity can contribute to the development of resilience.
“Although we studied major lifetime adversity,” he says, “there is reason to believe that other relatively mundane experiences should also contribute to resilience.
www.futurity.org/society-culture/a-little-adversity-goes-a-long-way/
Old School - 2003
Many argue Ron Burgundy should be at the top of any Ferrell list. Their love of the character is obviously not unfounded. However, Frank "The Tank" is better for two reasons: 1) Old Schoolestablished Ferrell as a legitimate box-office hit and put him on comedy's A-list; 2) The character shows more of the actor's range. Ferrell gives the cartoonish party monster a human side. You really believe the guy is hurting inside as he downs beer bongs. We all know a guy just like that -- albeit not as funny.
Choice cut: "Honey, you think KFC is still open?"
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - 2004
Ron Burgundy -- a pompous, chauvinistic, Scotch-swilling '70s anchorman in San Diego -- is one of the most unique characters ever to be committed to celluloid. And that includes all genres going back to the days of Charlie Chaplin. He's big, loud and has more memorable lines in five minutes than most have in entire films. Ferrell really went out on a ledge taking anything this far, but his risk has paid off, a hundred-fold.
Choice cut: "I'll have three fingers of Glenlivet, with a little bit of pepper... and some cheese."
Saturday Night Live - 1999
Ferrell wasn't the star he later become when taking over the George W. Bush impression on SNL. In fact, at first, it seemed an odd choice since he was only known for loud characters. However, Ferrell nailed W.'s boyish "ah-shucks" attitude and mispronunciations -- doing it in a way that didn't anger either political side. That may have changed when he took the character to Broadway and did a scathing one-man show of Bush's politics. Still, it's hard to argue the hilarity of the impression alone.
Choice cut: "We'll smoke 'em out."
No.4 Gene Frenkle
Saturday Night Live - 2000
Whoever thought the word "cowbell" could become an international punchline? You can travel to Mongolia and get a laugh with it. Christopher Walken could have stolen this scene as the producer behind Blue Oyster Cult's hit, "Don't Fear the Reaper," as he does with most things. However, Ferrell took his role of Gene Frenkle, cowbell player, and knocked it out of the park. Even watching this sketch on mute is still funny with Ferrell's body movements alone.
Choice cut: "If Bruce Dickinson wants more cowbell, we should probably give him more cowbell!"
Wedding Crashers - 2005
Fans already knew Ferrell plays a man-child better than anyone else, but Chazz Reinhold takes things to another level. On one side, he's a complete loser who lives at home with his mother. Yet, he also seems to have cracked the secret of happiness. He picks up the most beautiful women by simply going to weddings and funerals. Prior to meeting Chazz, the character is only spoken of in whispers, building the audiences expectation levels extremely high. Ferrell rises to the challenges and disappoints no one.
Choice cut: "Maaaaa! Meatloaf!!!"
Zoolander - 2001
If this movie never existed, it honestly wouldn't surprise us if the actual Mugatu suddenly appeared as a judge on America's Next Top Model. At the same time, it wouldn't surprise us if he appeared as a villain in the next Star Trek film. He just finds a way to make it seem funny rather than nauseating.
Choice cut: "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills."
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - 2006
The rumour is Ferrell and producer Adam McKay sold this movie with the simple concept, "Ferrell & NASCAR." The outrageous fans and characters surrounding the sport created a fertile ground for this comedy team to run rampant around. They even thought of a catchphrase that still hasn't become stale after four years, "Shake & Bake!"
Choice cut: "Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish god! Help me Tom Cruise!"
Saturday Night Live - 1998
The singer/songwriter Neil Diamond is known for being a bit conservative. Ferrell remakes him as a wine-swilling xenophobe who sings about murder and drug use. He has the unique ability of making his insane characters completely unaware to the fact they're insane.
Choice cut: "I wrote this one after I killed a drifter to get an erection."
Saturday Night Live - 1996
This impression includes everything that Will Ferrell does best: over-the-top, absurd and physical. He takes the odd mannerisms of the beloved, but crazy, Chicago Cubs announcer to new levels -- making old punchlines seem completely fresh. Viewers knew Ferrell had struck gold with Caray the minute he appeared, head bobbling, on Weekend Update and asked Colin Quinn, "Hey, if you were a hot dog and you were starving, would you eat yourself?"
Choice cut: "What's your favourite planet? Mine's the sun."
Whether they’re playing a pair of dimwitted NASCAR drivers or half-witted stepbrothers, this perfectly matched pair always leaves us in stitches with their outrageous slapstick humour. Like many successful tandems, their chemistry is borne out of mutual admiration.
“I have real genuine affection for Will,” Reilly says. “We’re really good friends, besides any kind of like professional relationship. Just as guys, we really like each other and we share a sense of humour.... He’s a really down-to-Earth guy, very real. As successful as he’s gotten, none of that has gone to his head.”
http://uk.askmen.com/top_10/celebrity/top-10-will-ferrell-characters.html
Manpower surveyed 64,000 human resource directors and senior hiring managers from public and private concerns worldwide. It asked about their expectations for hiring in the first quarter of 2011. Almost half, 47% of them, came from 10 countries in the Americas, 24% from eight countries in Asia and the Pacific, and 29% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "This is very much a macro-economic look at new job creation," says the staffing firm's chairman and chief executive, Jeffrey Joerres.
The results are striking, if not surprising. India has pulled ahead of China since last quarter to take first place, with a whopping 42% net hiring outlook for the first quarter of 2011. China follows close behind at 40%, a 2% decrease from last quarter.
Taiwan comes in third, with a net employment outlook of 37%.
Next in line,
after Brazil: Turkey, at 27%."There are 75 million people in Turkey," Joerres notes, "more than people realize." And so, despite a lingering debt overhang, there are plenty of consumers buying stuff and driving growth and hiring.
Next up after Turkey: Singapore, with a net hiring outlook of 26% for the first quarter.
The countries rounding out the list include Peru, Costa Rica and Argentina as well as Australia and Hong Kong.
www.forbes.com/2010/12/14/best-countries-jobs-hiring-leadership-careers-employment.html
Taiwan: Ginger Tea for Cold and Flu Symptoms
Dosage: Mix 2/3 cup of boiling water with 2 teaspoons of grated ginger and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Add a few slices of fresh ginger root and drink the tea.
Verdict: Helps with some symptoms. Ginger can stimulate your circulation, which will help your body get rid of a cold faster. It’s also been shown to reduce nausea, and drinking liquid when you’re sick can help with congestion, Dr. Kemper says. Adding to that is a 2009 Iranian study that found women who were nauseated and vomiting decreased their illness by 50 percent after taking 1,000 mg of ginger daily.
US: Chicken Soup for Cold Symptoms
Dosage: Sip on as much soup as you can manage, and repeat as necessary.
Verdict: Chicken soup inhibits white blood cell movement by a whopping 75 percent, which can reduce the symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection, according to a study by University of Nebraska researchers.
Greece: Chamomile Herbal Tea with Honey and Brandy for Cold Symptoms
Dosage: Fill a pot with 2 cups of boiling water, add a teaspoon of loose chamomile tea, a cinnamon stick, three cloves and either an orange or lemon peel. Let steep for five minutes. Pour the combination into a cup and add a teaspoon of honey and a splash of Metaxa, a Greek brandy. Drink.
Verdict: This could help, says Kathi Kemper, MD, author of The Holistic Pediatrician and director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine in North Carolina. Chamomile has relaxing properties, honey can help with a cough, and orange and lemon are used in cleaning products to zap germs, Dr. Kemper says. And the brandy? “It would probably be an enjoyable addition,” she adds.
Spain: Garlic Herbal Tea with Honey for Cold Symptoms
Dosage: Bring 3 cups of water with 3 cloves of garlic to a boil. Turn off the heat, and add ½ cup of fresh lemon juice and ½ cup of honey. Drink ½ cup of the warm mixture three times daily.
Verdict: Each ingredient can help with a cold or the flu, Dr. Kemper says. The garlic has antibacterial properties, lemon is loaded with vitamin C and the honey will soothe your cough. “But it sounds like it will taste terrible,” she adds.
South Africa: Honey and Cinnamon Paste for Acne and Facial Blemishes
Dosage: Mix 4 tablespoons of honey with 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Before going to sleep, apply it to your face; leave it on overnight. Apply as often as needed.
Verdict: The cinnamon is the most important part of this mix because it acts as an anti-inflammatory, and will take down the redness and puffiness, says Dr. Hirsch. But honey is also known for its healing and moisturizing properties when it’s applied to the skin.
How you spend has a greater effect on your happiness than how much you spend, researchers say.
So one day she stepped off. Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number.
Her mother called her crazy. Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing, they live in Portland, Ore., in a spare, 400-square-foot studio with a nice-sized kitchen. Mr. Smith is completing a doctorate in physiology; Ms. Strobel happily works from home as a Web designer and freelance writer. She owns four plates, three pairs of shoes and two pots. With Mr. Smith in his final weeks of school, Ms. Strobel’s income of about $24,000 a year covers their bills. They are still car-free but have bikes. One other thing they no longer have: $30,000 of debt.
Ms. Strobel’s mother is impressed. Now the couple have money to travel and to contribute to the education funds of nieces and nephews. And because their debt is paid off, Ms. Strobel works fewer hours, giving her time to be outdoors, and to volunteer, which she does about four hours a week for a nonprofit outreach program called Living Yoga.
“The idea that you need to go bigger to be happy is false,” she says. “I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness.”
While Ms. Strobel and her husband overhauled their spending habits before the recession, legions of other consumers have since had to reconsider their own lifestyles, bringing a major shift in the nation’s consumption patterns.
“We’re moving from a conspicuous consumption — which is ‘buy without regard’ — to a calculated consumption,” says Marshal Cohen, an analyst at the NPD Group, the retailing research and consulting firm.
Amid weak job and housing markets, consumers are saving more and spending less than they have in decades, and industry professionals expect that trend to continue. Consumers saved 6.4 percent of their after-tax income in June, according to a new government report. Before the recession, the rate was 1 to 2 percent for many years. In June,consumer spending and personal incomes were essentially flat compared with May, suggesting that the American economy, as dependent as it is on shoppers opening their wallets and purses, isn’t likely to rebound anytime soon.
On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.
If consumers end up sticking with their newfound spending habits, some tactics that retailers and marketers began deploying during the recession could become lasting business strategies. Among those strategies are proffering merchandise that makes being at home more entertaining and trying to make consumers feel special by giving them access to exclusive events and more personal customer service.
While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently adjusting their spending based on what they’ve discovered about what truly makes them happy or fulfilled.
“This actually is a topic that hasn’t been researched very much until recently,” saysElizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia, who is at the forefront of research on consumption and happiness. “There’s massive literature on income and happiness. It’s amazing how little there is on how to spend your money.”
CONSPICUOUS consumption has been an object of fascination going back at least as far as 1899, when the economist Thorstein Veblen published “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” a book that analyzed, in part, how people spent their money in order to demonstrate their social status.
And it’s been a truism for eons that extra cash always makes life a little easier. Studies over the last few decades have shown that money, up to a certain point, makes people happier because it lets them meet basic needs. The latest round of research is, for lack of a better term, all about emotional efficiency: how to reap the most happiness for your dollar.
One major finding is that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.
“ ‘It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch’ is basically the idea,” says Professor Dunn, summing up research by two fellow psychologists, Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich. Her own take on the subject is in a paper she wrote with colleagues at Harvard and the University of Virginia: “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right.” (The Journal of Consumer Psychology plans to publish it in a coming issue.)
Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor of public affairs, population, health and economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently published research examining nine major categories of consumption. He and Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.
Using data from a study by the National Institute on Aging, Professor DeLeire compared the happiness derived from different levels of spending to the happiness people get from being married. (Studies have shown that marriage increases happiness.)
“A $20,000 increase in spending on leisure was roughly equivalent to the happiness boost one gets from marriage,” he said, adding that spending on leisure activities appeared to make people less lonely and increased their interactions with others.
According to retailers and analysts, consumers have gravitated more toward experiences than possessions over the last couple of years, opting to use their extra cash for nights at home with family, watching movies and playing games — or for “staycations” in the backyard. Many retailing professionals think this is not a fad, but rather “the new normal.”
“I think many of these changes are permanent changes,” says Jennifer Black, president of the retailing research company Jennifer Black & Associates and a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors in Oregon. “I think people are realizing they don’t need what they had. They’re more interested in creating memories.”
She largely attributes this to baby boomers’ continuing concerns about the job market and their ability to send their children to college. While they will still spend, they will spend less, she said, having reset their priorities.
While it is unlikely that most consumers will downsize as much as Ms. Strobel did, many have been, well, happily surprised by the pleasures of living a little more simply. The Boston Consulting Group said in a June report that recession anxiety had prompted a “back-to-basics movement,” with things like home and family increasing in importance over the last two years, while things like luxury and status have declined.
“There’s been an emotional rebirth connected to acquiring things that’s really come out of this recession,” says Wendy Liebmann, chief executive of WSL Strategic Retail, a marketing consulting firm that works with manufacturers and retailers. “We hear people talking about the desire not to lose that — that connection, the moment, the family, the experience.”
Current research suggests that, unlike consumption of material goods, spending on leisure and services typically strengthens social bonds, which in turn helps amplify happiness. (Academics are already in broad agreement that there is a strong correlation between the quality of people’s relationships and their happiness; hence, anything that promotes stronger social bonds has a good chance of making us feel all warm and fuzzy.)
And the creation of complex, sophisticated relationships is a rare thing in the world. As Professor Dunn and her colleagues Daniel T. Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson point out in their forthcoming paper, only termites, naked mole rats and certain insects like ants and bees construct social networks as complex as those of human beings. In that elite little club, humans are the only ones who shop.
AT the height of the recession in 2008, Wal-Mart Stores realized that consumers were “cocooning” — vacationing in their yards, eating more dinners at home, organizing family game nights. So it responded by grouping items in its stores that would turn any den into an at-home movie theater or transform a backyard into a slice of the Catskills. Wal-Mart wasn’t just selling barbecues and board games. It was selling experiences.
One reason that paying for experiences gives us longer-lasting happiness is that we can reminisce about them, researchers say. That’s true for even the most middling of experiences. That trip to Rome during which you waited in endless lines, broke your camera and argued with your spouse will typically be airbrushed with “rosy recollection,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Professor Lyubomirsky has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on the possibility of permanently increasing happiness. “Trips aren’t all perfect,” she notes, “but we remember them as perfect.”
Another reason that scholars contend that experiences provide a bigger pop than things is that they can’t be absorbed in one gulp — it takes more time to adapt to them and engage with them than it does to put on a new leather jacket or turn on that shiny flat-screen TV.
“We buy a new house, we get accustomed to it,” says Professor Lyubomirsky, who studies what psychologists call “hedonic adaptation,” a phenomenon in which people quickly become used to changes, great or terrible, in order to maintain a stable level of happiness.
Over time, that means the buzz from a new purchase is pushed toward the emotional norm. “We stop getting pleasure from it,” she says. And then, of course, we buy new things.
When Ed Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois and a former president of the International Positive Psychology Association — which promotes the study of what lets people lead fulfilling lives — was house-hunting with his wife, they saw several homes with features they liked.
But unlike couples who choose a house because of its open floor plan, fancy kitchens, great light, or spacious bedrooms, Professor Diener arrived at his decision after considering hedonic-adaptation research.
“One home was close to hiking trails, making going hiking very easy,” he said in an e-mail. “Thinking about the research, I argued that the hiking trails could be a factor contributing to our happiness, and we should worry less about things like how pretty the kitchen floor is or whether the sinks are fancy. We bought the home near the hiking trail and it has been great, and we haven’t tired of this feature because we take a walk four or five days a week.”
Scholars have discovered that one way consumers combat hedonic adaptation is to buy many small pleasures instead of one big one. Instead of a new Jaguar, Professor Lyubomirsky advises, buy a massage once a week, have lots of fresh flowers delivered and make phone calls to friends in Europe. Instead of a two-week long vacation, take a few three-day weekends.
“We do adapt to the little things,” she says, “but because there’s so many, it will take longer.”
BEFORE credit cards and cellphones enabled consumers to have almost anything they wanted at any time, the experience of shopping was richer, says Ms. Liebmann of WSL Strategic Retail. “You saved for it, you anticipated it,” she says.
In other words, waiting for something and working hard to get it made it feel more valuable and more stimulating.
In fact, scholars have found that anticipation increases happiness. Considering buying aniPad? You might want to think about it as long as possible before taking one home. Likewise about a Caribbean escape: you’ll get more pleasure if you book a flight in advance than if you book it at the last minute.
Once upon a time, with roots that go back to medieval marketplaces featuring stalls that functioned as stores, shopping offered a way to connect socially, as Ms. Liebmann and others have pointed out. But over the last decade, retailing came to be about one thing: unbridled acquisition, epitomized by big-box stores where the mantra was “stack ’em high and let ’em fly” and online transactions that required no social interaction at all — you didn’t even have to leave your home.
“I think there’s a real opportunity in retail to be able to romance the experience again,” says Ms. Liebmann. “Retailers are going to have to work very hard to create that emotional feeling again. And it can’t just be ‘Here’s another thing to buy.’ It has to have a real sense of experience to it.”
Industry professionals say they have difficulty identifying any retailer that is managing to do this well today, with one notable exception: Apple, which offers an interactive retail experience, including classes.
Marie Driscoll, head of the retailing group at Standard & Poor’s, says chains have to adapt to new consumer preferences by offering better service, special events and access to designers. Analysts at the Boston Consulting Group advise that companies offer more affordable indulgences, like video games that provide an at-home workout for far less than the cost of a gym membership.
Mr. Cohen of the NPD Group says some companies are doing this. Best Buy is promoting its Geek Squad, promising shoppers before they buy that complicated electronic thingamajig that its employees will hold their hands through the installation process and beyond.
“Nowadays with the economic climate, customers definitely are going for a quality experience,” says Nick DeVita, a home entertainment adviser with the Geek Squad. “If they’re going to spend their money, they want to make sure it’s for the right thing, the right service.”
With competition for consumer dollars fiercer than it’s been in decades, retailers have had to make the shopping experience more compelling. Mr. Cohen says automakers are offering 30-day test drives, while some clothing stores are promising free personal shoppers. Malls are providing day care while parents shop. Even on the Web, retailers are connecting on customers on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, hoping to win their loyalty by offering discounts and invitations to special events.
FOR the last four years, Roko Belic, a Los Angeles filmmaker, has been traveling the world making a documentary called “Happy.” Since beginning work on the film, he has moved to a beach in Malibu from his house in the San Francisco suburbs.
San Francisco was nice, but he couldn’t surf there. “I moved to a trailer park,” says Mr. Belic, “which is the first real community that I’ve lived in in my life.” Now he surfs three or four times a week. “It definitely has made me happier,” he says. “The things we are trained to think make us happy, like having a new car every couple of years and buying the latest fashions, don’t make us happy.”
Mr. Belic says his documentary shows that “the one single trait that’s common among every single person who is happy is strong relationships.”
Buying luxury goods, conversely, tends to be an endless cycle of one-upmanship, in which the neighbors have a fancy new car and — bingo! — now you want one, too, scholars say. A study published in June in Psychological Science by Ms. Dunn and others found that wealth interfered with people’s ability to savor positive emotions and experiences, because having an embarrassment of riches reduced the ability to reap enjoyment from life’s smaller everyday pleasures, like eating a chocolate bar.
Alternatively, spending money on an event, like camping or a wine tasting with friends, leaves people less likely to compare their experiences with those of others — and, therefore, happier.
Of course, some fashion lovers beg to differ. For many people, clothes will never be more than utilitarian. But for a certain segment of the population, clothes are an art form, a means of self-expression, a way for families to pass down memories through generations. For them, studies concluding that people eventually stop deriving pleasure from material things don’t ring true.
“No way,” says Hayley Corwick, who writes the popular fashion blog Madison Avenue Spy. “I could pull out things from my closet that I bought when I was 17 that I still love.”
She rejects the idea that happiness has to be an either-or proposition. Some days, you want a trip, she says; other days, you want a Tom Ford handbag.
MS. STROBEL — our heroine who moved into the 400-square foot apartment — is now an advocate of simple living, writing in her spare time about her own life choices at Rowdykittens.com.
“My lifestyle now would not be possible if I still had a huge two-bedroom apartment filled to the gills with stuff, two cars, and 30 grand in debt,” she says. “Give away some of your stuff,” she advises. “See how it feels.”
Tammy Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, in their pared-down, 400-square-foot apartment in Portland, Ore.
http://nyti.ms/fPkB6d
To produce this annual Index International Living considered nine categories: Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate. This involves a lot of number crunching from “official” sources, including government websites, the World Health Organization, and The Economist, to name but a few.
Below are the countries that win our top 10 in this year’s Quality of Life Index and the final scores for each country in every category.
For the fifth year running, France takes first in our annual Quality of Life Index. No surprise. Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care.
France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don’t need number-crunchers to tell you its bon vivant lifestyle is special. Step off a plane and you’ll experience it first-hand.
I always wish quality of life indicators could measure a country’s heart and soul. But it’s impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering for hours over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie. Or strolling beside the Seine on a spring morning, poking through the book vendors’ wares. Or buying buttery croissants in bohemian Montmartre…hearing Notre Dame’s bells…walking antique streets paved with poetry.
Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services don’t fall away in Alsace’s wine villages…in wild and lovely Corsica…in lavender-scented Provence. Or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight.
Provincial French properties are often keenly priced and lifestyles are less expensive than Paris. The Southwestern Midi-Pyrenees region is a particularly good hunting ground for village homes for less than $100,000—and classic three-course lunches for $14. Houses cascade with wisteria blossom; outdoor markets are everywhere. Foie gras, pink garlic, Armagnac, and crystallized violets aren’t gourmet fare for locals. Rather, just another day’s shopping.
They don’t call it the “Lucky Country” for nothing. Australia is famous for its large beaches and temperate climate. Across the continent, Aussies and those who’ve chosen to emigrate there have access to an active and healthy lifestyle. But urban dwellers will find plenty of great culture and excellent food in Sydney and Melbourne, and a cost of living below that of some of the world’s other great cities.
Australia’s economy has managed to weather the Global Financial Crisis better than any other Western country. For tourists and travelers, this means you’ll be dealing with a strong Aussie dollar, making your visit there more expensive. But if you plan to stay, you’ll find that few English-speaking countries with quality health care and good infrastructure will benefit as much as Australia from the economic booms in Asia and China.
The Australian economy is powered by agricultural, mineral, and energy exports that feed the voracious appetite of rapidly industrializing populations in Asia. Housing in Australia remains expensive by global standards. But there are plenty of jobs for skilled expats who can ride the Asian boom from the sandy, sunny, and safe beaches of the land Down Under.
For Harry Lime, in Graham Greene’s story The Third Man, all the Swiss have to show for five centuries of peaceful neutrality is the cuckoo clock. The rest of Europe, meanwhile, stumped on through rivers of blood to create art, history, and civilization.
This is rubbish. Switzerland is an award-winning country because it turned all its natural disadvantages to its own advantage, ending up as a super-efficient, high-tech society while still managing to play Alpine inn-keeper to the world. Moreover the cuckoo clock comes from the Black Forest in Germany.
Lacking natural frontiers or a unifying religion, and divided by five different languages, it sensibly decided that internationalism was its calling, quickly adding English to the French, German (two kinds), Italian, and Romansch (like ancient Latin) its people already speak so that foreigners of every linguistic persuasion could feel at home. Altruism followed from this and Geneva became home to the United Nations and the Red Cross.
Landlocked, mountainous, and without natural resources (except cheese), Switzerland still needed more than tourism to provide a living. So it developed secretive banks, whose potential clientele is numberless and efficient engineering and pharmaceutical industries whose appeal similarly knows no borders.
Such achievements reinforce each other. Tourists gladly clamber into Alpine cable cars because they trust their Swiss steel cables and electric motors. Jump on a Swiss train and you know you will arrive on time. Swallow a Swiss pill and you know it won’t poison you. Likewise, you know the bank will always be discreet and the hotel room spotless. You also know everyone will speak your language. The Swiss succeeded because they made everything work.
Some Americans (often ex-military) retire to Germany. One forum poster mentioned being thrilled that youth culture hasn’t taken over. Techno-throb Berlin and numerous summer rock festivals refute that, but this is the land of Goethe and Beethoven. Theater, art, and classical music concerts aren’t considered elitist.
Will your medical insurance fund a health spa stay? Probably not, but it happens here with a doctor’s recommendation. Despite the global downturn, Germans have it pretty good. Along with 30 days paid annual holiday, the average employee earns €41,509 ($61,433).
In Germany, everything works and works well. Its houses are built to last, and their legendary autobahns are still mostly without speed limits. If you enjoy sports, even small towns have numerous facilities. Some odd ones too—the Harz Mountains now has a specialist hiking trail for nudists. From spas to parks to North Sea beaches, Germany is arguably the world’s most naturist-friendly country.
Romantics adore its Christmas markets and fairytale towns of half-timbered houses. Some favorites are Quedlinburg and Wernigerode in Saxony, and the Black Forest spa town of Baden-Baden. The latter has a posh reputation, but you could buy a 55-sqaure-meter apartment for $160,000. Or rent for $673 monthly.
From Auckland’s waterfront to the Southern Alps, English-speaking New Zealand boasts some of the most pristine landscapes on earth. Much of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was filmed here. For younger migrants with the right skills, it’s a wonderful place to relocate and raise a family. There’s huge emphasis on sports, beach-life, and healthy lifestyles.
New Zealand’s immigration department sums up the attractions perfectly. “In many ways it’s not what we have that’s important to our quality of life—it’s what we don’t have. We don’t have high crime rates, our police don’t carry guns and instances of corruption are virtually unheard of. We don’t have abject poverty or hunger and we don’t have the pollution, congestion, health issues and cramped city living that we see elsewhere.”
Unless you buy your way in as an investor, it’s difficult for retirees to get permanent residency. But you could rent or purchase a home and live there part-time. Seasons are reversed, so it’s possible to enjoy two summers a year. However, property prices are rebounding. Taken nationally, latest figures show the average home costs $274,881.
If we judged quality of life by a nation’s Michelin-starred restaurants per square mile, the winner would be the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. A founder member of the EU, its national motto is Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin (we want to remain what we are).
Only 51 miles long and 35 miles wide, landlocked Luxembourg is relatively unknown to Americans. Yet with per capita GDP of $88,000, it’s among the world’s richest countries. Most apartments in its postcard-pretty capital—also called Luxembourg—cost at least $7,400 per square meter. But they come with an operetta scene of medieval turrets, bridges, and flower-filled squares.
Ruled by a Grand Duke, a third of Luxembourg’s 420,000 inhabitants were born elsewhere. Add cross-border workers, and foreigners account for 60% of its labor force. Although the official language is Lëtzebuergesch, English, French, and standard German are widely spoken—cosmopolitan Luxembourg is an international finance center and tax haven. However, its bank secrecy laws are now under scrutiny.
From Florida’s palm-lined coasts to Alaska’s snow-covered crags…from the dazzle of New York to the big skies of Montana…the U.S. has, arguably, something to offer everyone.
And no question: It is the land of convenience. No place else on Earth is it easier to get what you want, when you want it.
The U.S. is safe. It’s comfortable. It can even be affordable. As readers will on occasion point out: It’s possible to rent a place in central Nebraska for the same price you’ll pay in Merida, Mexico. (Though that does beg the question: There amid the cornfields, can you see the opera, enjoy the café culture, or be at the beach in half an hour?)
It’s hard to beat the day-to-day ease you enjoy in the U.S. You can buy eye drops at a pharmacy at 3 a.m. and have dinner delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less. We are efficient. (And, if you’ve ever tried to shop on a Sunday in France or get a driver’s license in Italy in under 45 days, you appreciate the merits in that.) But—as our editors and readers living overseas are quick to point out—convenience (and the frenetic pace that comes with it) is often overrated.
Divided into Flemish-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia, Belgium also boasts high scores. Since medieval times, its merchant cities have prospered. The capital, Brussels, grabs most attention, but Bruges and Antwerp (famed for diamond trading) also flaunt stepped-gable houses and splendid guildhalls.
Employing thousands of foreign staff, Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. A dreary place of paper-shuffling bureaucrats? Not at all.
Ringed with parks, it’s Europe’s greenest capital. Along with many international schools, it delivers all an expat could desire: theater, English-language cinema, sports centers, great public transport, Trappist-brewed beers, numerous gourmet and ethnic restaurants, and fast trains to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. As they rarely plan to stay, most expats rent. In central Brussels, one-bedroom apartments start at $740 monthly.
Like its delectable chocolates, Brussels has a soft-centered heart. The municipality not only sterilizes stray cats, it appoints someone to feed them. Its main library offers storytelling in sign language for deaf children. And disadvantaged citizens can attend cultural events at hefty discounts.
Stretching from the islands of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the east to Vancouver Island in the west and north to the Arctic Circle, Canada is a diverse country of incredible natural beauty and resources.
Health care and living standards are among the highest in the world. Canada’s economy is based on vast natural resources, a robust financial industry, and innovative manufacturing including the renewable energy sector. Canada has remained resilient through the global financial crises. The banks are considered “more Swiss than the Swiss banks,” and property markets are “on fire.”
Canada’s major cities (like Toronto and Vancouver) offer fantastic entertainment. Sports, theater, and concerts are widely accessible and affordable and there’s a rich offering of free festivals.
Cost of living is affordable, although the strong currency has made it relatively more expensive in recent times. Canada’s real attraction comes in the form of nature and outdoor activities. In summer, there’s hiking, boating, golf, and fishing. Winter offers outdoor activities like skiing, snow mobiling, and ice fishing. Canadians are warm, welcoming, and fun, and the country still retains many of the charms brought by her early visitors from Europe.
What Italians don’t know about la dolce vita (the sweet life) isn’t worth knowing.
OK, trains are often in ritardo (late), workers frequently strike, corruption isn’t unknown, and red tape comes in slow-moving triplicate. But balance that against Rome, Venice, and Florence…against mountains reflected in sapphire lakes…against golden beaches and hill towns cobbled with secrets.
Then throw in 60% of the world’s art treasures. A national health care system rated second in the world by the WHO. Sunflowers, vineyards, and opera. And the best espresso, pizza, and ice cream you’ll ever taste.
Admittedly, major cities and tourist hotspots are expensive. But the Mezzogiorno, Italy’s deep south, is different. Although unemployment is high and incomes far less than in the north, it’s just as colorful. As historic, too. Phoenicians, Greeks, and Saracens all left traces of their passing.
Southern winters are short and mild, summers are scorching hot, and jugs of wine cost $6.50. On Sicily and in slow-paced regions like Puglia, Basilicata, and Campania, affordable homes abound. Even farmhouses with a couple of acres surface for $60,000. Many village houses cost even less. Decent rentals start at $550 monthly.
http://internationalliving.com/2010/02/quality-of-life-2010/
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
Recent Comments