“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.” ~ Oliver Goldsmith ( 1730-1774, Writer and Poet )

There are only 16 more Selling Days in August and 37 remaining in the Quarter!!! 

In the category of human achievement there are many antidotes, words of wisdom, and quotes from famous people, some long gone, and some still living. But rather than merely reciting these cool phrases, and motivational hot buttons as I usually do in this space daily, perhaps you and I  should stop talking about it all, stop sitting in committees, stop proposing “what if’s”, and just write down what you have so far, and commit to doing something about it. It’s easy to get ready, to take aim, to go back and get ready again, but sometimes it is most important to just pull the trigger; to start.

You can’t win if you never try, and talk is cheap in business, talk is cheap in  sports, about the only thing talk is good for is the courtroom or the political podium. If you are a politician, perhaps you can keep on talking yourself into a higher office, or if you are a lawyer maybe you can convince the jury that you actually have the better argument for the case. But if you are someone who would like to achieve something in your life, something worthy, then isn’t it about time you go out and do something?

Now then, we both know all the quotes off the top of our heads, and we know all the slogans such as; go for it, or just do it. And yet those words and phrases don’t mean anything if you don’t take action. Look, we all have  people that come to us all day long with ideas, concepts, and even inventions, and I never know what industry they will be in, but generally there’s always an excuse why the individual, group, or business did not act on their innovation.

What good is a great idea sitting on a sketch pad, or on the back burner in the back of your mind, or sitting on a white board with a 20 person committee brainstorming and shouting out ideas, if you are never going to act on a single one of them – tell me that question – or don’t tell me, let me tell you. It is no good, it’s worthless, it’s junk. If you don’t do something about it will never happen.

If you want to achieve anything in life you’ve got to get out and do it, you’ve gotta want it, you have to care, you have to set your sites, and you have to start with passion. Indeed, rather than me continue this article and harp on something you already know to be true, let me end this article right now, and you get off the Internet, stop procrastinating (I said to myself) and go do it. That’s all I have to say.

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

Are you kidding me I thought recently, because for several hours, Dropbox, a popular service for storing documents and other files in the so-called computing cloud, allowed anyone to log into any of its 25 million user accounts using any password. The company tried to keep the glitch quiet but was exposed by a security researcher. No wonder concern about Internet security from Americans has jumped sharply in the past few months. Technology professionals are getting cold feet about moving more operations onto the cloud when poor corporate security practices are exposing customers to devastating identity theft and fraud. This vulnerability could stymie the Internet economy.

There is no fail-safe technology that is immune to hacking. Online security will evolve as hackers and security experts work continuously to outwit each other. Still, current standards are too low. Companies — and the government — must devote substantially more resources to security, making it integral to every new application, rather than patching it on as an afterthought. There are some signs of progress. Security experts are deploying a new worldwide system to identify Internet addresses that will make it very difficult to forge or spoof a Web site. In May, the Obama administration proposed legislation with sensible provisions to ensure that companies running critical infrastructure — like the nation’s power grid — have adequate systems to reduce the risk of an attack online. The proposal would standardize 47 state laws on breach reporting, requiring notification of customers whose accounts were compromised. This could be a powerful incentive for firms to take security more seriously.

Other tactics are also needed. The Federal Trade Commission wants rules to force companies to minimize the information they collect from customers and to dispose of such data as soon as possible. The stolen Sony data, for example, had been on dormant servers for years. We are putting our lives in the cloud, as companies and consumers store everything from family photos to corporate business secrets on remote servers. Beefing up online security is of paramount importance.

As a Record Manager you have to think not only about hard copy storage and destruction but about items that stored daily on your servers – your computers and yes now your phones. Technological innovation, tighter regulation, and a variety of new content channels have all increased the demands placed on electronic archives. Today, archives must address a range of challenges that go beyond its traditional function as a storage facility for email. Archives must serve multiple purposes across all enterprise content, which includes deriving value from information, automating business processes and facilitating compliance and eDiscovery. Therefore, archiving today requires advanced strategy and technology to help you be intelligent about how you manage your enterprise content.

There are many issues that The File Room has to take into consideration as they help companies develop and implement a very specific archiving policies and practices, including:

• Handling all document types and formats, including email, rich media and social media
• Auto classification
• Retention Management and Content disposition
• Corporate governance and Legal mandates (federal/state/local laws and industry regulations)
• Legal holds
• The impact of the Cloud
• End user access and Mobility

These are just a few elements that face all record managers today, issues that we did not have to face 10 years ago or even 5 years ago for that matter. So the questions are: have your reviewed your current policies? Do have a written policy? Are you even following and enforcing that policy? These are critical questions that must asked and answered in the world we live in today so that you remain ready.