Stop Whining and Do Something

I am frustrated, and I will tell you why.

My Facebook and Twitter feeds constantly blow up about this issue or that issue. Tons of people visualize themselves as keyboard warriors who hope to change the world with memes.

I’m getting tired of the online whining.

We all live in such a privileged society here in the US that we take our blessings for granted on a daily basis.

Now, I am not against protesting at all. This country affords us the freedom for peaceful protest. Blood was shed for this. So I say protest away.

However, protesting will not effect the kind of change that many perceive as necessary for this nation to move forward.

While social media enables us to communicate our message, it is also very saturated with others’ messages. Guess what form of activism is not?

Volunteering.

There are thousands of opportunities for each one of us to really make a difference in our country and our world.

I am annoyed by many things and see many injustices, but I also remember that there are tons of blessings. Being born in a communist country and having won what I consider to be the “life” lottery by coming to the United States help me to see things from this viewpoint.

How can I help?

While being a social justice warrior online may have some impact, it’s nowhere near what you can accomplish by actively helping out with causes you are passionate about.

Here are some examples of things you can do today to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

1. Volunteer to help at a homeless shelter.
   • Possible Impact: Helping someone who may be at their lowest with a warm meal and compassion.
2. Collect donations for Mexico, Puerto Rico, Houston or Florida.
   • Possible Impact: Helping to feed someone who may have lost everything and reminding them they are not alone.
3. Volunteer to coach a sport for kids.
   • Possible Impact: Being  a mentor for kids who may need a positive role model and a physical outlet.
4. Volunteer to help out in school.
   • Possible Impact: Give overworked teachers some much needed assistance.
5. Volunteer for a political campaign.
   • Possible Impact: Help support and elect someone you feel espouses your beliefs.
6. Smile at everyone you come into contact with.
   • Possible Impact: Show kindness to someone who may be suffering through unimaginable struggles.
7. Pick up trash or do some landscaping or repairs for your neighbors who are older and have a hard time with the physicality.
   • Possible Impact: Care for our elderly because it’s our job as a society.
8. Make cookies for your team, your friends, your neighbors, anyone just because.
   • Possible Impact: A random act of kindness is uplifting and will usually change the dynamic of your relationships with those in your community in a positive way. A lot of the time it will result in others paying it forward.
9. Volunteer to do some light paperwork for any nonprofit that needs the help.
   • Possible Impact: Be the reason paperwork and red tape didn’t keep someone from being fed or given shelter.
10. Volunteer at the VA or other programs for Veterans.
    • Possible Impact: Show a veteran that they are treasured and honored.
11. Buy some extra groceries for a friend or someone you know who may be having a rough time due to a loss of a job or an illness or a death.
    • Possible Impact: Help a mom feed her kids when she is overwhelmed with tragedy.
12. Volunteer to mentor at risk kids.
    • Possible Impact: Be the reason a kid may grow up to also become a positive contribution to society.

I added the possible impacts for a reason.

Here it goes.

Ask yourself if a meme would have had any of those possible impacts as soon as you posted it?

Resources for volunteers

Need more ideas or inspiration?

Here are some places where you can search for opportunities to help and sign up for something that matches your passions and skill levels.

VolunteerMatch.Org

VolunteerMatch.org currently has over 104, 000 opportunities to volunteer with more than 116,000 organizations that can use your help.

Use their search feature to connect with a cause that needs you.

JustServe.org

JustServe.org is a website run by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where the volunteer needs of organizations may be posted and volunteers may search for places to serve in the community.

According to their website, “Neither The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nor its website JustServe.org discriminates based on race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation to screen projects for posting or volunteers who may sign up to serve.”

Share your ideas

Do you have causes you are passionate about that can use volunteers?

I would love to hear about your ideas for ways we can actively make this world a better place.

The post Stop Whining and Do Something appeared first on Danay.

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/stop-whining-something/

What do Equifax and Teenagers Have In Common?

This was certainly an interesting week chock full of insults. The culprits were a teenager and Equifax.

Let’s start with the annoying one, the teen. A boy on our son’s baseball team visibly cringed when I told him his sneakers were phat. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that was an insult. I went into an explanation of how it wasn’t the derogatory form spelled f-a-t, but it was the cool one, spelled p-h-a-t.

Being a cool, well traveled Miamian, I thought that maybe folks in this part of Virginia weren’t hip to the “PH” deal. Yes, I was being judgmental.

via GIPHY

Apparently, I’m the one who isn’t hip. I learned, compliments of said teenager, that the word to use is actually “phresh” or even plain old “fresh”.

If being told I was old isn’t insult enough, Equifax threw out a big whopper of one aimed straight for my intelligence as an unwilling customer. That’s right. I don’t want to be their customer, but I HAVE to be if I want to buy anything or even be considered for certain jobs.

The offending item was not that they were the victims of the largest personal information leak in history to the tune of 143 million people. It was that they assumed I just plain stupid. And they did it several times.

Insult #1: Free (Not Really) Monitoring

They offered victims of the leak a free credit monitoring account for a year. That seems like a good first step until you read the fine print in their terms which states that you agree to not sue them for being negligent.

Luckily, the interwebs shamed them into adding an opt-out clause. Here is what the small print says which used to have no opt-out.

AGREEMENT TO RESOLVE ALL DISPUTES BY BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION. PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE SECTION CAREFULLY BECAUSE IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS BY REQUIRING ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES (EXCEPT AS SET FORTH BELOW) AND A WAIVER OF THE ABILITY TO BRING OR PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION, CLASS ARBITRATION, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. ARBITRATION PROVIDES A QUICK AND COST EFFECTIVE MECHANISM FOR RESOLVING DISPUTES, BUT YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT IT ALSO LIMITS YOUR RIGHTS TO DISCOVERY AND APPEAL.

My suggestion is to sign up for the free year of monitoring, which is the least they can do, and opt out of the clause.

Insult #2: Executives Getting Greedy

I bet you’re totally surprised by this one.

Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble, President of U.S. Information Solutions Joseph Loughran and President of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder all sold shares worth almost $1.8 million days after they discovered the security breach on July 29th.

The hack was not disclosed until six weeks later. They all deny knowing of the hack at the time of the sale.

If you believe that one, I have some oceanfront property in Idaho I’d like to sell you.

Several U.S. Senators are requesting that the SEC and the DOJ investigate. Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General, has opened an investigation into the hack.

Insult #3: False Positives & Zero Support

This is the biggest whopper of an insult, eclipsing the previous two.

When you screw up and allow a breach of your customer information, and you offer them a way to check to see if they were impacted, don’t just put up fluff with no real way of checking.

Thanks to the twittersphere, several folks found and shared this little faux pas where the site they used to check if your account was potentially hacked was a pure fail.

Just wow. If you enter "Test" and "123456" on Equifax's hack checker page, it says your data has been breached. pic.twitter.com/cTjTs7Frjv

— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) September 8, 2017

I tested it out and made up several different last names and social security numbers and they all came back with positives. I wish I would have taken some screen shots.

Check out this in depth look by ZDNet.

And because they are on a roll with the screw-ups, they decided to give ZERO support once you check your information and enroll in TrustedID.

It’s up to you to be on top of your enrollment as they will not send you any reminders.

 

I took a few moments to lick my wounds and rant and now it’s time for some action, because a victim I am not.

I will allocate some time this weekend to making sure I’m on top of things.

• I will check my credit report across all agencies and making sure all is copacetic.
• I will be updating passwords across all banking and credit accounts and make sure I have two-factor authentication set up with them all.
• I will be heading over to UrbanDictionary to get woke and update my slang vocabulary.

 

The post What do Equifax and Teenagers Have In Common? appeared first on Danay.

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/equifax-teenagers-common/

Latina Entrepreneurs Share Lessons from Failure

After encountering a win the other day when my son’s baseball team emerged as league champions, it got me thinking.

What about failure?

Everyone loves a win. That’s what we all strive for as entrepreneurs. We are led to believe that the road to success is a straight path. Those fairy tale versions of the boy wonder who became a billionaire within a year of working out of his dad’s garage usually leave out the part where his first 20 apps failed miserably.

For some reason, we don’t discuss how important it is to fail in business. It’s ironic because this is where you gain your most important lessons. That boy wonder probably made an amazing app because he figured out exactly what NOT to do with the first twenty.

I thought about reaching into my memory banks for the many stories of failure I have to my name. Frankly, I have a slew to choose from, but I’m just one person.

It’s more interesting to learn about the failures of multiple entrepreneurs and how they helped them eventually achieve success.

So I reached out to my community of Latina entrepreneurs. They shared their failures and the valuable lessons that followed.

Alex Tabar – Founder Yucalab Digital Media & Latinas in Media

“Definitely, every failure has its lesson. Last year I lost one of my main clients; they decided to end the contract because of budget reasons. I got very disappointed, frustrated and started doubting if that was the main reason or if I did something wrong. After few days of feeling down, I decided to keep hustling and guess what? Shortly after I got not only a new client, but a few more, and I discovered something: I was spending so much time working for that client without being fairly remunerated. After I let that go, I got smaller projects that were better paid, so that “failure” actually brought me new opportunities. So, in business, don’t take failure personally and be open to what’s really behind that situation.”

Alex Tabar is the founder of Yucalab Digital Media. With more than 10 years of experience, Alex has developed a diverse portfolio of projects ranging from entertainment to education, creating content for digital media, television, and publications. This year Alex launched Latinas in Media, a bilingual community for female entrepreneurs and women in media.

Find Alex on Social Media

• Blog: www.latinasinmedia.com
• Facebook: @latinasinmedia
• Twitter: @latinasmediaweb
• IG: @latinasinmedia
• Pinterest: @latinasinmedia

Maricia Rodriguez, MBA: Vice President of Business Development at Del Alma Publications, LLC, & Co-Owner EMY Construction and Trucking Services

“When I was in my twenties, I joined a MLM (multi-level marketing) organization. I was so excited to start my own beauty business. However, I foolishly allowed others to convince me what was the right amount of inventory I needed to maintain to operate my business, which was way more than I could afford. So I financed my inventory with high interest credit cards. I overspent and under-performed. The stress of carrying that inventory and the mounting debt and interest charges paralyzed me. Slowly, I dug myself out of that situation.

As a result of this experience, I realized I needed better business training. I decided to go back to school and I obtained my Master’s in Business Administration. There I learned many lessons including how to adequately plan for business success and proper inventory management. I vowed that I would not repeat these same mistakes in my next business ventures. Since then, I have co-created and manage two other successful small businesses. My advice would be, ‘Do not let others define success for you.’ ”

Maricia Rodriguez, MBA is the Vice President of Business Development at Del Alma Publications, LLC, an award winning, Latina owned, independent publisher of bilingual, bicultural books relevant to today’s US Hispanic population. An environmental scientist by trade, Rodriguez is also Vice President and co-owner of EMY Construction and Trucking Services, an earth moving and transportation company.

Find Marcia on Social Media

• Facebook: @delalmapublications
• Instagram: @delalmapublications
• Twitter: @delalmapubsllc

Cita Rodriguez: Founder Pink Orchid Wedding and Event Planning Services

“My first big event, my mentor let me plan the entire event and she took credit for it and I wanted to stop then because with everything that was wrong in my life at that time, I felt helpless, I felt small, and I felt that if I said anything to anyone about it, no one would really care. I trusted her because it was she who assisted me in starting the business, but realized the lesson was that emotions had no place in the business world.”

Cita Rodriguez is founder of Pink Orchid Wedding and Event Planning Services. She founded her business while in a homeless shelter after her home of 41 years collapsed. She compelted a program called Pathways to Independence” which helped women like herself who had experienced domestic violence in some way start their business.

Find Cita on Social Media

• Facebook: @apinkorchidevent

It’s clear that failure has taught these Latina entrepreneurs some very important lessons.

1. Alex learned that sometimes losing a client can be a blessing in disguise.
2. Marcia learned the power of educating yourself and not letting others define you.
3. Cita found out that sometimes doing business means toughening up and not taking things personally.

That championship game we won came after many seasons of being close to the worst team. It taught the coaches to focus on specific strengths and work on weaknesses in the next seasons. The losses also gave the kids humility and taught them to work harder.

One of the best lessons of failure is gratitude. When we found that we had a great group of parents and kids, we planned parties and brought treats because we were grateful for the camaraderie and experience. This led to an amazing season and the magic that happens when everyone involved truly enjoys the journey.

The win was just icing on the cake.

The post Latina Entrepreneurs Share Lessons from Failure appeared first on Danay.

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/latina-entrepreneurs-share-lessons-failure/