Archive for the Thought for the Weekend Category

Head in the Clouds

On April 4, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

For the past few weeks, I’ve had my head in the clouds. We decided to switch our company files from the large, stationary whirring server in our Wilmington, NC headquarters to a cloud-based server. There’s been a lot of hype around cloud computing, and, although I don’t think anyone truly understands it (who can explain how the internet actually works?), we’re all using it. If you’ve accessed your email via Gmail, AOL, or Yahoo, you’ve used the cloud. If you buy stuff from Amazon, you’re purchasing in a cloud. We may not “get it”,

Superpowers Activate!

On March 28, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

“Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a superpower.” This unattributed quote sparked the idea for our 2014 sales presentation. We may not have the ability to predict the future, control the weather, or time travel, but when it comes to rare qualities like common sense, integrity, trustworthiness and clear communication, we believe we qualify for the 3PL Justice League. I took an informal poll, asking a few friends and Matchmaker team members to tell me the superpower they most desire. Some listed the powers mentioned above that would

The Oracle of Omaha

On March 21, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

He is called “the Sage of Omaha” and the “Oracle of Omaha” thanks to his investment prowess, but Warren Buffett is also known as “the Billionaire Next Door.” Buffett is the world’s richest billionaire investor (worth upwards of $62 billion), yet he is legendary for his modest, frugal lifestyle. He still resides in the same house in Omaha, Nebraska, that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. A man of simple tastes, he likes McDonald’s hamburgers, cherry Coke, and Dairy Queen. Although he could have chosen any venue in the world for his second marriage

Why I’ve Moved Out of the House

On March 14, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

I’m not the only one. The entire family came with me. Why? Because we’re remodeling. When we bought our current home in 2006, we had plans to remodel right away. The house was in serious need of some updates; when giving people directions to my place I usually say: “When you get to my street, you’ll see two lovely brick homes on the left. Mine is the house that looks like it belongs to the Brady Bunch in the middle.” I may live in a Brady Bunch house, but my wife insists that there

The Daily Burrito

On March 7, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

Sometimes things just don’t go according to plan. This week, that’s been the rule more often than the exception. Crazy stuff, much of it beyond our control, just kept happening. For instance, one of our drivers slipped on a patch of ice while walking to his truck. He bruised his tailbone severely, which meant no sitting behind the wheel all day for him! Once we confirmed that he would be okay, the scramble was on to cover that load again. Despite careful planning and seemingly brilliant ideas, the “best laid plans” can still go

Snow for Sale

On February 28, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend

The Olympics may be over, but one interesting fact is still at the forefront of my mind. Somewhere in between bob sledding and speed skating, I heard that Sochi is one of the warmest locations ever selected for the winter Olympics. Weird, isn’t it? One doesn’t think of Russia as warm…. In order to be prepared for whatever weather Sochi might experience during the 2014 Games, the organizers saved 450,000 tons of last winter’s snow under specially designed thermal blankets. In other words, the Olympic organizers created the largest “snow warehouse” in the world

Would You Do This For Love?

On February 14, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend, Uncategorized

Forget hearts and flowers and chocolate. At Matchmaker Logistics, we’ve discovered that we’re not a very romantic lot, at least in the traditional sense of the word. When it comes to sweeping, grandiose gestures worthy of a blockbuster romantic comedy, well…we’ve got nothin’. And, I’m certainly not like Bob Cary, the photographer (above) who traveled the country in a pink tutu just to make his wife laugh during chemo. (Watch the video and learn more about The Tutu Project here.) As rock icon Meatloaf sings: “I would do anything for love, but I won’t

The Danger of Switching Sides

On February 7, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend, Uncategorized

When it comes to the way we work, Matchmaker Logistics has a “distributed team.” Articles like 5 Reasons Why Your Company Should be Distributed and Why Distributed Teams are Making Your Traditional Office Obsolete tout the benefits of this model where a company has both traditional brick-and-mortar offices (ours are in Wilmington, NC and Bessemer, AL) and employees who work virtually (ours work from Virginia and Indiana). Among other things, this set-up allows us to hire the best people no matter where they live and use the latest technology to communicate. For this reason,

I Wanna Be Like Jim

On January 31, 2014 / Thought for the Weekend, Uncategorized

Jim Cantore, of the Weather Channel, that is. He’s been nicknamed the “Rock Star of Meteorologists,” and this week he secured his place in the Rock Star Hall of Fame. While broadcasting live from the College of Charleston on the deep freeze that paralyzed much of the South, a local college student tried to “video bomb” him. Apparently this kid was hoping to create the next great viral news blooper. The unidentified student got his wish, just not in the form he was expecting…. As the student runs and screams toward him, Jim responds