Guide to invest in art

When buying and collecting art as investment it is important foremost that you like what you buy. Chances are that if you hate a painting, a potential buyer will also hate the painting.

Never buy just signature. The artwork must stand on its own merits irrespective of the artist’s reputation. The value of an artwork is indicative of numerous unique subjective considerations. A potential buyer looking to purchase a quality painting or artwork capable of obtaining strong capital growth should minimize their art collecting risk and be satisfied that the artwork lives up to or exceeds each subjective consideration.

The subjective factors are—

The status or standing of the artist. Is the artist on, or likely to one day be on, the secondary market?

Understand and differentiate between the creative periods within any artist’s life. Their productive output may indeed vary. Focus your attention on those strong artworks or themes from the artist’s best years.

The medium, condition, provenance and exhibition history must impress.

A painting’s subject matter must be neither offensive nor unpopular.

Whether a painting is signed or not.

Collectors must take into account the cyclical nature of the art market and the economy itself. Sell in a boom and buy in a bust.

Know the availability and value of other works by the same artist.

Collectors should know the final price settled upon and ensure there are no hidden costs such as buyers premiums which may distort the final cost.

Understand the vagaries of taste and fashion. An acquired work which delivers a good return on the purchase price usually exhibits universal themes and emotions. — Agencies

Get a Life, Not a Job

Job security has become something that workers have to build themselves rather than expect from employers

Dr Paula Caligiuri is the author of the book titled Get A Life, Not A Job: Do What You Love and Let Your Talents Work For You. A work psychologist, Dr Caligiuri is also CNN career expert, professor in human resource management at Rutgers University, and career counsellor. Here are some interesting and useful highlights from the book:

Dr Caligiuri provides evidence that the old ‘psychological contract’ between organisations and employees is gone forever. This means employees are on their own to create any type of employment security.

Because job security has become something that workers have to build themselves rather than expect from employers, Dr Caligiuri views it as extremely risky to put all your employment eggs in one basket by putting all your energy into one job. For instance, she notes that 80 per cent of the recently unemployed received less than three weeks advance warning, and among them, 60 per cent received no advance warning that they were about to be unemployed. Rather than have faith in ongoing employment from one organisation, she recommends instead multiple career acts.

Dr Caligiuri says that great career share five fundamental elements: (1) Self-awareness of talents, interests, hobbies, needs, motivators, and how you like to work; (2) Continuous self-development of knowledge, skills and abilities; (3) Unique and critical roles to increase your value to employers, clients, or customers; (4) Well-managed time, money, and human resources; and (5) Harmony among work, family, and personal life. She believes you are more likely to attain these elements if you pursue several career acts rather than one.

She gives several suggestions for how to choose and build career acts: (1) Leverage existing expertise or talents; (2) Expand a hobby, interest, or passion; (3) Pursue an occupation (but preferably not focusing solely on this); and/or (4) General sources of passive income such as royalties, affiliate marketing and rent.

Her inclusion of a discussion of career anchors are: Values or drivers that motivate people to seek and ultimately find satisfaction with work. She uses the model developed by Dr Edgar Schein. The eight career anchors are: (1) Technical or functional expertise, (2) Leadership or management of people, (3) Autonomy or independence, (4) Security or job stability, (5) Entrepreneurial creativity, (6) Service or dedication to a cause (7) Competitive challenge, and (8) Work and life balance. Align your work with your most important career anchors and career satisfaction is more likely to occur.

If you are going to take the gamble of limiting yourself to one job, Dr Caligiuri says, “Please be amazing, make it a career you love, and have a safety net.” The safety net is your uniqueness to the business and your centrality to employer, customers or clients.

Some additional Thoughts:

‘Get a life’ is sometimes used as a phrase to demean someone. If a person is feeling emotionally fragile because of difficult employment circumstances, this title might cause them to pass up this excellent book.

While Dr Caligiuri cautions against oven-working because of multiple career acts, anyone who keeps a full-time job while creating a side gig or who is juggling several part-time jobs will tell you that it can be exhausting. Multi-tasking is not the preferred state for most human brains. Other than mentioning sufficient sleep, exercise, good nutrition, and vacation time, readers have wished the book had expanded on more practical strategies to maintain psychological and physical health while simultaneously achieving across more than one domain.

Many of the ideas in this book require an entrepreneurial mindset and business savvy to succeed. However, a majority of families not only fail to teach entrepreneurship, they actively discourage it because they are stuck in an old school thinking that the only ‘good’ career is a linear one where you study something in school that directly leads to a practical job. For people interested in something different, family and educational systems have a long way to go to teach the necessary functional skills and psychological perspective needed to succeed.

As unemployment rates are high and job stability is low, creative approaches such as those offered by Dr Caligiuri are useful. Overall, this book is well-worth the small investment of purchase as it will likely spark ideas and for many readers, help them to weather economic storms. — Agencies

Dress Etiquette at the Workplace

Proper attire speaks volumes about your professionalism

Professionalism at work can be shown through our behavior and attitude, but also observed in our manner of dressing. Although many offices have casual environments, it is necessary to be in proper work attire. Understanding what is meant by ‘appropriate work attire’ will help us know what to wear and what not to wear in the office.

For corporate offices, it is always recommended to wear business attire. Ladies should wear pants or skirts, over collared tops. Sleeved dresses of appropriate lengths are also good. Earth shades and black and white combinations are best for a corporate look. Shoes should be heeled; bright colours are best avoided for footwear. Men appear decent in pants and long sleeves, with well-polished shoes. Hairdo should be neat.

For casual offices that do not come face-to-face with clients and customers, it is not necessary to were formal attire. Slacks and tops will do for women, and jeans and polo shirts are good for men. As long as the clothes you were are not too revealing or casual, it is perfectly all right. The problem with causal environments is that people tend to abuse their privileges in terms of what they should wear.

Below are no-no’s for work attire:

1. Showy belts
2. Slippers
3. Scuffed shoes
4. Body and face piercing
5. Showing tattoos
6. Ripped jeans
7. Very tight pants and tops
8. Shirts with offensive prints — Agencies

Achieving The Desired

As a little red-haired boy growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, there was nothing I wanted more than a pony. That was my life’s dream, ambition and obsession.

While other boys were trading baseball cards. I was collecting miniature horse statures. When friends wanted to go the movies or roller skating, I had to first rule out any horse shows. By the age of eight, if anything was clear to me it was that If I didn’t get a pony, everything would be wrong in my world. And I understood my only chance was to win one. Thankfully, thought our apartment was too small, with a rent too small, with a rent too large, my parents seemed happy to buy me a ticket for every win-a-pony contest that came along. They also were quite good at reminding me how greatly the ‘odds’ were stacked against me.

From a toddler until the age of 10, I entered every pony contest I could. Whether it was just stubbornness, or the beauty of innocence, or some kind of soul-certainty I was a factor. No. What I believed, with every cell in my body, was that all I needed to do was stay focused on my plan and purpose, and keep trusting my heart. What I knew was that there was a pony stabled in my soul, waiting for me to find her. And that’s what I prayed for every day.

I did finally win pony! What happened was … one day while watching my favourite western theme children show on TV, I was shocked and surprised to hear the cowgirl hostess announce that the station was offering a free pony to any boy or girl who could make the best cattle brand out of their initials.

‘Yee-hah! This is it!’ My heart sang out. ‘My pony is calling to me!’ I was ecstatic! Fuelled by a decade of longing, it only took me a couple of hours to take my initials — TAN — turn the A into a rounded upside down horseshoe, stretch the N across it like a lightning bolt, name it the ‘Lightning - T – Horseshoe’ and race to the mailbox. Though I ‘knew’ instantly, it was three weeks later before the station announced, ‘Congratulations, Tommy, you won the pony!’

I appeared on TV to receive my pony, we found a little barn we could use. By the time the universe had wrapped up granting me this great gift to myself, all my younger brother and I needed to do was — walk about a mile to the barn, throw the red saddle on our beautiful Shetland, and joyfully gallop around the country side — of course, flying off now and again.

Looking back as a white-haired grandfather who is still sharing pony stories with my children and their children, I am happy to remind everyone that the best way to realise your dreams is to trust your inner wisdom.

— Thomas Newnam

Will You Marry Me?

A romantic proposal is perhaps every girl’s dream. Here are some stories of people who were elated with their proposals. The stories are varied from funny to romantic and oftentimes a little bit both.

Cherise and Steven

Cherise and Steven went through a lot of rough spots in their relationship, but they stuck it out and made it work.

From Cherise, “Steven and I probably broke up five times in our first nine months in our first nine months of dating. He was always late, loved hanging out with his boys, just didn’t seem to have enough time for me. I told him that I didn’t think he was in it for the long haul, so it was best to end it for good.

“Two days after we split up, I met up with about five or six of my girlfriends at a local bar for my friend Jessica’s birthday. We were kicking back, laughing and having a few drinks, while listening to some bad karaoke singers.

“When I heard, ‘Nest up on the stage, Steven.’ I didn’t think twice about it since Steven is a popular name. But when I looked up, I saw MY Steven. He began to belt out, Bryan Adams’ Everything I Do I Do It For You and I was in shock.

“At the end of the song, he said into the mic, ‘Cherise, I just wanted you to know that I AM in it for the long haul.’ And there, on the stage in front of everyone, he asked me to marry him.

Melissa and Eric

Melissa and Eric now run a wedding favours website (among other ventures), so it’s no wonder their wedding proposal was so romantic.

From Melissa, ‘Eric had planned it for like four months completely unknown to me, of course. It was on our three-year anniversary of dating and he took me down to Shelter Island to a restaurant that was in a hotel (AJ’s Bar and Grill) — great food that overlooked a private beach the resort owned.

“So we eat dinner and he is totally smiling at me the entire time and can’t stop gigging, it was too cute! So we finish and he tells me that there was a surprise back at our house and that’s what he was excited about. Well he had me completely convinced we were going home, so we get in the car after dinner and start driving down the street, when we come to a round-about that takes you off this little island. He keeps going around, doesn’t leave and just returns to the hotel! (That is totally Eric and his ‘sly’ moves.)

“So we pull into the parking lot and I am completely confused wondering why we returned and he said we were staying for three days! I was so excited because we had never really gone on a trip like that. Little did I know he had packed my bags, which were hiding in the back seat. We go into the hotel and go straight to the room, we get to the door and he tells me to close my eyes … that’s when I KNEW IT! And of course I start to tear up as I close my eyes.

“He led me into the room. And when I opened my eyes the room was filled with roses and candles and he was on his knee asking me to marry him. It was the best night of my life, the roses even had little cards in them that read ‘Will you marry me?’ — sweetest thing EVER.”

Tim and Monika

Monika and Tim had been working in the same office for a year when he finally asked her for a first date. Though it took him a long time to ask her out, he wasted no time with the marriage proposal.

From Tim, “We moved very quickly. After our second date, we were pretty much living together because we couldn’t stand to be apart. After five weeks of dating, no one in our office knew that we were even seeking each other (it was against company policy).

“One day we were in a staff meeting with our boss and about 30 other employees, I was giving a presentation using a slide projector, crunching numbers about a huge project we had coming up. As I was wrapping up the presentation, I said, ‘I have one more thing.’

“I flipped to the final and there it was for the whole office to see. The slide said, ‘Monika, Will You Marry Me?’

“She was so shocked that she almost fainted. After catching her breath, Monika accepted and we got married four months later.”

Veronica and BO

Veronica always dreamed of romantic proposal and she definitely got it from Bo.

From Veronica, “One afternoon Bo took me to our favourite park — Paris Park. The story behind the name: I had always day dreamed about how romantic it would be to meet my future husband in Europe. I envisioned my crossing a bridge one way and he coming across it from the other direction, the two of us meeting in the middle and then us deciding to travel on together forever.

“Our first time at the park, about a months into our dating relationship, I told Bo what I had imagined and he had us re-enact it. We pretended a football goal, near our bridge was the Eiffel Tower. It was really sweet.

“So on this particular day, Bo went to Jim’s (local dinner) and bought tortilla soup (my favourite) and packed it and blanket and would only tell me that we were going on a picnic. We got to the park and went to a spot near our bridge at which point Bo presented me with three gorgeous sunflowers.

“We ate lunch and then Bo asked me if I wanted to go for a walk, like we did the first time we ever went to the park. We went over the bridge and Bo stopped in the middle of it and kissed me — our first kiss on our bridge.

“Then Bo said, ‘Do you remember when you told me about your day-dream of meeting your future husband on a bridge in Europe?’

“Then he went to re-enact it, which I at first didn’t think anything of because Bo is sweet and sentimental like that. But as I walked across the bridge to go to my side of it for the reenactment, it suddenly occurred to me, ‘Wouldn’t this be a super romantic way to propose?’

“I met Bo in the middle of the bridge and he was narrating the reenactment and he said, ‘You’re in Europe on the bridge and crossing it. You see a guy…’

‘A really good looking one,’ I interjected.

“Bo went on, ‘You run into each other and then he gets on his knee and ask, Will you marry me?’ By this point Bo was on his knee holding out towards me the most gorgeous engagement ring ever. And I said, ‘Seriously????? Yes!!!!’” — Agencies

7 Signs You Need to Change That Job

Take radical action to revamp your career

Often dissatisfaction at work is just burnout and can be fixed by adjusting your mentality or taking a decent vacation, but sometimes there is something wrong that is more fundamental — you are in the wrong role, wrong industry or wrong career path entirely.

Telling one from the other can be tricky, especially for those who are new to the workplace and unsure about what is a normal level of malaise.

So how can you tell garden burn-out from a real need for career change? Watch out for these warning signs and if you suffer from several of them, consider talking radical action to revamp your career:

1. Your Mondays ruin your Sundays: Is your job so daunting that you wake up Sunday morning already dreading Monday morning? If so, get out now.

2. You do not respect your superiors: While you may not always like them, you should always have respect for your superiors — they represent where you would like to be one day. If you do not, then the pay-off for all your hard work may not be what you wanted.

3. Lack of satisfaction or accomplishment: After hours and hours of work, you should be proud of yourself for a job well done. Even for the most trivial of tasks, if you are happy knowing that you contributed in some way to your company, your job is worth it. But if you are continually having ‘What does it all mean?’ moments and never finding satisfaction or feeling accomplished in any of your tasks (granted, not every cup of coffee or copy made will feel meaningful), then maybe two-weeks’ notice is in order.

4. Boredom: By boredom we do not mean you are sick and tired of making copies everyday — that is a task no one enjoys. No, what we mean is you have become bored with the industry; you look at what your superiors are doing and do not find any interest in it and the job descriptions for positions above you should dull as dirt.

5. Misery loves company: Do you find yourself gravitating towards the disgruntled employees of your company, bonding over the anger you have towards your job? You tend to be the company you keep, so if you are attracted to a more miserable crowd, you should get out before you become permanently bitter and cynical.

6. Conflicting ideas: Try to pick a career that is relevant to your ideas. If you find that your job conflicts with your principles, then save yourself the sleepless nights and restart your career search.

7. Your life has taken a turn for the worse: If your animosity towards your animosity towards your job is affecting your personal life, end this career now. Your job should not force you to take frustrations out on the people you love.

Hugs All Around

There’s something in a simple hug
That always warms the heart.
It welcomes us back home
And makes it easier to part
A hug’s a way to share the joy
And sad times we go through,
Or just a way for friends to say
They like you ‘cause you’re you
Hugs are meant for anyone
For whom we really care,
From your grandma to yourneighbour,
Or a cuddly teddy bear
A hug is an amazing thing –
It’s just the perfect way
To show the love we’re feeling
But can’t find the words to say
It’s funny how little hug
Makes everyone feel good;
In every place and type,
It’s always understood
And hugs don’t need new equipment,
Special batteries or parts
Just open up your arms
And open up your hearts.

— Johnny Ray Ryder Jr