From Contracts to Cupcakes: A Wall Street Career Change

While cleaning up the kitchen after a nice family meal that we shared
with a friend, I heard that comment again.. " you should open a
restaurant".. my felony... was a mouth-watering salmon bake ( bite
sized pieces of salmon, marinated lightly with ginger, garlic, cumin
and coriander paste and baked at 350 with light EVOO for about 20 mins
and then broiled for 3)..

But wait, this post is not about that dish.. it about a wall street
career change....
---
When David Arrick thought about using skills gained at an elite Wall
Street law firm to transition from one job sector to another, real
estate development in Dubai was his next logical career choice. When
that didn't pan out, it was cupcakes. Mancakes, to be exact.
After getting laid off in 2008, Arrick went on job interviews in
Dubai, where he hoped to get in on the real-estate boom there. He
accepted a job, returned to the States to pack up his things, but his
offer was then rescinded because of the local financial crisis.
Just when things looked bleakest, Arrick found his calling. Strolling
around one day in the West Village, a neighborhood in downtown
Manhattan, Arrick spied people lining up around the corner for
Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes. This piqued his interest in the business.

And then, reading an article about cupcakes shortly after, he found
himself disgusted when the writer called them "pink and magical."

"Why did cupcakes need to be magical? They're not magical for me.
Where's the masculine aesthetic?" Arrick said. "We needed to butch it
up, buttercup." And so Butch Bakery, an online delivery "masculine"
cupcakery was born.

The bakery sells the usual fare, but with a twist. It offers flavors
like kahlua-soaked vanilla cake with Bailey's Bavarian cream,
brandy-soaked lemon cake with orange-infused chocolate ganache
filling, and chocolate and beer-infused cake with beer buttercream.
Not every cupcake is drenched in alcohol: Butch Bakery offers caramel
cake with salted caramel filling; and maple cake with milk chocolate
ganache and crumbled bacon.

Right now, Arrick has a staff of five, including the baker. He runs
the operation out of a commercial kitchen space in Queens. There's no
storefront yet, but he hopes to open a store downtown in Manhattan
this spring.
---
Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704479404575087420338070854.html?mod=WSJ_Small+Business_LEADNewsCollection#articleTabs%3Dcomments

The guy seems to have a natural motivation for marketing .. if you see
his website... And as he "admits".. he is capable of drafting complex
agreements and contracts... that always helps...
I would love to order one, and see what the fine prints says... some
of these are "CUPCAKES"... you have to be of legal drinking age to eat
it.

So how many cupcakes does it take to turn the economy around?

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How to fill up a bucket..

This is probably one of the most discussed topic... but proper
planning and budgeting the appropriate amount of time seems to be
always among the top three root causes of failure for all projects...

There is a term that many people who are in the business of building
software use, :"Change Control"... wonder if this is a used
effectively ? Most cases, its adding to the scope with no change is
timeline... of delivery. And then again, we discuss a change control
for 12 hours, and the real change probably can be one in 1/2 and
tested in 4 hours.. ha!
Few days back, I asked my kids if you have a 12 gallon bucket , how
many pounds is that?
My thought was around a mathematical response.. you know... ( US
gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds) .. but guess what kids being
kids... they said, if you take a lot of news paper and keep stuffing
them into the bucket you can fit in more.. and then another responded
that you can actually wet the news paper in water ( making a paper
pulp) and it will be have more pounds to it.

What great answers...

I am thinking about keeping a bucket of water at work, and every time
a change control comes in, print it out.. and let it soak into the
bucket... lets see how many we can fit in...

And then again, change is a fact of life.. ( others being death and
taxes) ... so it is expected.. and must be handled... so a proper
analysis is needed, and that can only be done with a partnership
between the end user and the team to is building the tool/software for
the end user... However, we (including yours truly) seem to have the
habit of getting a signoff on a contract .. when we really need the
collaboration.

Agile.. Anyone?

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this is another new post

Posted via email from InnovationActs

Crunchy Triangles

Crunchy Triangles -
Ingredients - leftover stir-fry, s fat free Floor tortilla, some olive oil, water to soak, and some innovation...

Cut the tortilla into triangle shapes, make a cone, and stuff the stir-fry into it.. use some water to moisten the ends and fold it into a triangle... rub olive oil on it, and then bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes... you get your crunchy triangles..
Its almost like the Indian snack ..samosa.. but not exactly... works for me..