John B. Marek

Many years ago, I had a consulting firm and landed what I thought would be a fun gig: helping turn around a struggling small used book store. It was an opportunity for me to prove that – unlike in the movie "You've Got Mail," (pictured) – a boutique bookstore could compete with a mega-bookstore like Barnes & Noble. The gig did not go well, however, and I learned a lesson: The saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” might be true for some, but a corollary, “Monetize what you love, and you will come to despise it,” rings far more accurate. Read about it here .

I ponder a deep question in my Field Notes column this week: Does the nature of beauty itself change, or is beauty an immutable equation? To answer that question, we need to make a distinction between attractiveness and beauty. Click to read more about an issue that has been pondered since there have been navels upon which to gaze.

I will be offering a special free ebook promotion through my Amazon Author Page starting Friday, November 27th, and running through Monday, November 30th. My Kindle Short-Story Single “White Crow,” usually 99 cents, will be free to download.   www,johnbmarek.com

This week in my Field Notes column,   I look back on the days when my shoes came from a place called   Flippen's . Not most of my shoes, mind you;   all  of my shoes. The store, and others like it, earned that loyalty by doing things like sending gifts to customers who were sick. Well, time passed and my family eventually took our business to a shoe outlet store in the interest of saving a buck. Things did not go well. At all. Read about it here .