Book Reviews

Been doing a lot of reading and listening. I am an audio book addict. Audible.com is a truly great place.

Anyway. I have torn through Seth Godin's two latest books Tribes & Linchpin. Both books are amazingly inspirational to a new entrepreneur. Tribes talks about the leadership of groups of people and how we are lacking those leaders in this day and age. Linchpin talks about being someone that isn't part of the factory as Seth puts it. These Linchpins work outside the everyday practices and always seem to be the most valuable people in an organization.

Also I recently completed Drive by Daniel Pink. Drive speaks to how there is another motivational force at work other than survival and monetary. This force that acts when you give people the power and responsibility to do great things. I found this book really played into another book The Oz Principle by Rodger Connor, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman.

Daniel at the end of Drive went through a complete reading list on other books. One of the books and authors Danial mentions during the book was Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Mihaly's works revolve around this concept of flow. Flow is when you get in the groove. When time seems to melt away. I love that description. So as a follow up I found Mihaly's book Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning on Audible. The only book I can find of his on Audible. Come on Audible I need more of his work.

I'll write some more reviews when I get to them. Currently I'm listening to Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim. I alos have to read Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz and Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch.

Is Development Dead in the Southeast?

With years work of lots plan or platted on the ground and thousand of houses empty is residential development dead in the southeast for the next 10 years?

Even though most of the big house builders (Beazer, & D.R. Horton for example) showing profits does this mean the market is back. I don't think so. I think these "profits" are just a result of the tax credits and getting rid of the loses on the books. A profit of 8% is something because at least it isn't the 20% lose of the last quarters but it's also not the 20% gain of the boom. Are we trying to beat a dead horse back to life?

Let's face it. The hay-day of 2005-2006 is gone for a while. The inventory will get eaten up in the years to come because the southeast is still seeing a large influx of people from the rest of the country. But we don't need to build anything for the next few years.

This also holds true for the commercial market. With countless businesses going out out of business and shopping centers and office parks sitting 50% or more empty I see no reason to develop anything for the time being.

Water Water Everywhere!

Since 2000 Georgia we have experienced droughts to one degree or another. But this past two years have set records. The sad part is all that water makes the public forget about the drought times. All the reservoirs that were planned are shelved till the next drought when the public screams for them again. The thing is that these things take years (8) to plan, permit and build. Just ugg!

I mean look at some of the development that has been built near and in flood plains. Then all of a sudden it rains and rains some more. Oh my front yard is flooding. Call the city or county. NO! Come on people look at those subdivisions next to water ways.


The community and public needs to recognize these places. Take a look at the FEMA website for tips and explanations.

Tools

To keep myself organized and motivated and I would like to share some of those tools with everyone.

First, I am a huge David Allen fan and devoted follower of Getting Things Done. If you haven't read the book and want to organize your life it's a must.

To go along with GTD (Getting Things Done) I use Evernote and Requall. They are amazing tools and cost $45/year and $25/year.

Evernote allows you to keep pictures, audio notes and notes and list of all types. They are online and I use the desktop app and the android app on my phone to access it all from anywhere. You have 500 gb of space with the Pro account. I can't live without it now.

Requall is a great way of taking notes on the road. You call a number and record the note. It transcribes it and emails it to you. Really handy.

I'm also a huge fan of Google apps. Docs, Voice, and Bookmarks. Not sure what I would do without them. If you haven't tried them I encourage you too.

Introduction

I am starting this blog to feed the need I have to write about stuff with a little more freedom than to be tied down to a blog subject.

Here nothing is off topic.

So who am I? My name is Kevin Clark and I am a P.E. in Georgia. I am currently a partner in InMotion Consulting. The company is currently me and my partner Joshua Modglin. I love doing stuff for my self and not under a company. Hopefully it will pay as much as my previous careers working for establish companies. Out of college I worked for a land development company in Atlanta that later got bought out by HDR inc. I worked mostly on site development projects in the metro Atlanta area. When the office space market started to dip after 9-11-01, I moved to an A/E firm (CDH Partners) in Marietta GA. I learned a ton about architects and MEP engineers while there. Mostly worked on churches and schools. Lots of fun! 2005 moved to Hayes, James & Assoc. a company based in Norcross but I was located in a branch office in Cartersville, GA. Through what I call battlefield promotions I became the Branch Manager of that location. The economy started to tank and I eventually closed the office in 2008. After leaving HJA on to Inmotion. So that's professional background.

So as far as personal background goes. Working for yourself and out of the house there is kind of a blur between work and home. I have 5 kids and they range from 4 to 13. I help homeschool them all so my house is never quiet, but it's always a fun. My wife Stella manages a local IHOP. Rough work but after 10 years in the house she likes interacting with adults.

So that is enough for an intro I will post some current interest and ideas later.