“What, me worry?” The Timeless Wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman

I have previously confessed in this blog that I am a man ‘of a certain age.’  So, this should not be a surprise that once again I dig deep into the past to resurrect some timeless wisdom from my youth.  This time from no less a sage than the ageless, and for a time ubiquitous, Alfred E. Neuman.

Don’t remember Mr. Neuman?

He is “…the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad. The character’s distinct face, with his parted red hair, gap-tooth smile, freckles, protruding nose, and scrawny body…” (Wikipedia), quite literally became the face of Mad Magazine over the decades.  According to Wikipedia, Mad has published well over 550 issues and Alfred E. appeared in just about every single one.

He debuted in the magazine in the mid 1950’s, but the actual character, and his immortal tag line (“What, me worry?”, or earlier “What? Me worry?”) was already decades old. Although he was not Alfred at that point, his visage appeared in various iterations for products as diverse as painless dentistry and auto parts.  Apparently, he also did a cameo for then presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt, but in this case he spouted “Sure, I’m for Roosevelt.”

According to Wiki, Mad changed his line only one time, and that to “Yes, me worry!” following the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. ‘Nuff said about that.

Who does he look like?  Again, according to Wiki: “Neuman’s face was assembled, feature by feature, from parts of photographs of well-known politicos, including then-President Lyndon B. Johnson (left ear), Richard Nixon (nose), [former] Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield (eyes), and Ronald Reagan (hair). The gap in his teeth (which was otherwise the grin of Dwight D. Eisenhower) came from “The ‘Credibility Gap’ Created by Practically All Politicians”.

And what does the “E.” stand for?  One source says it stands for Enigma.  Alfred Enigma Neuman.  I’m not so sure about that but you go look it up.

Well, Mad Magazine wound up embedding itself deeply into my DNA, affecting and warping my sense of humor to this day.  Ah, the great ‘fold-ins’, Spy vs. Spy, Don Martin, “The lighter side of… [you name it]” and of course who can forget those immortal movie satires!  Ah the wackiness of my youth!

So, what does any of this have to do with anything?  Good question.

In my opinion it appears good ol’ Alfred E. was right:  why worry?  His kind of weird, gap-toothed smile radiated that “What? Me worry” nonchalance and guess what? Taking that attitude (Three Mile Island aside) is actually very healthy!

Jelena Kecmanovic, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote an article titled “Don’t worry about it—really” (read it here). In it she references a “Gallup poll [which] found that 45% of Americans said they felt worried a lot — about work, relationships, children, health and money, among other things.”

Of course, that did not take into account those who worry less frequently, and that, it would seem, would then include all of us.

 

Kecmanovic writes: “Unrelenting worry accompanied by anxiety symptoms such as irritability, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, fatigue and poor sleep, has been recognized as a condition called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).”

Like many types of behavioral conditions, we can often fall into self-justification to support unhealthy habits.

“Chronic worriers often hold more positive beliefs about the usefulness of worry than the general population. They frequently view worry as motivating, helpful in preparing them for bad outcomes. They even see it as a positive personality trait…Some believe that worry shows to others how much they care. Two frequent manifestations of GAD — perfectionism and workaholism — often are rewarded in our culture” writes Kecmanovic.

Is chronic worry a positive trait?  Hardly.  Worrying tends to not only add stress to life, it can delay action, justify procrastination and lead to severe health problems.

And then there is this to add insult to injury: “A recent study found that 91% of worries held by people with GAD did not come true.”  Not only do we worry but we worry about things that don’t even exist!

I have a little trick for putting worrying in perspective.  I ask myself what I was worried about just two weeks ago. For the most part I can’t recall.   That should tell us all something.

Kecmanovic suggests seeking professional help if worry becomes chronic or a larger health concern.  She also suggests: “Don’t fret, fix it: One way to minimize catastrophizing is by distinguishing between worrying and problem-solving. Worrying is fretting about a bad situation; problem-solving is trying to remedy it.”

Of course, it helps, too, to focus on things we can control and what we can do about our worries just for this day. Our worries of yesterday are likely gone, and the future will have worries of its own.  Today, more than likely, is manageable.

Are you worried about your receivables?  Many of our clients are this time of year. Remember that we are coming into one of the best periods of the year to recover your bad debts. Let us worry about them for you.  When the boss comes in and asks about the state of your bad debts, just say “I turned them all over to A. Alliance: What, me worry?”

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

US Economy Grows along with 2019 Holiday Spending

I finally finished wrapping the last present and I’m happy to say I am officially ready for Christmas and have spent all I’m going to spend—that is, unless I have to make a last minute trip to the grocery store to pick up some whipped cream or other forgotten item.

According to the National Retail Federation annual report, consumers plan to spend a total of around $1050.00 (on average) for Christmas this year. That will amount to a total of about 730 billion dollars (!) up 4 percent from last year.

“The U.S. economy is continuing to grow and consumer spending is still the primary engine behind that growth,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.

Money spent will go towards presents ($659) non-gift holiday purchases like food and decorations ($227) and non-gift items for themselves ($162). I’d like to say I find the non-gift items for themselves category a bit ridiculous, but, in full disclosure, I did find a couple of nice things I bought for myself on Saturday. (It’s hard to pass up those kinds of deals, am I right?)

The NRF report also said that 91 percent of consumers are celebrating the winter holidays this year and 73 percent will use their smartphone or tablet to research purchases.  I fall safely within these statistics, but it also said that 19 percent started their shopping in or before September and 39 percent started before November. I’m an outlier in those two stats.  With Thanksgiving falling so late this year I did not start my shopping until December, and I felt a little rushed because of it.

I am a big online purchaser so when I read 56 percent will buy gifts online, I wasn’t surprised.  If anything, I would have thought that number would have been higher.  But 92 percent wanting to take advantage of free shipping was a no-brainer.

Thankfully, the holiday season isn’t just about stuff, stuff, and more stuff.  I am happy to report 68 percent of us are engaging in some kind of charitable endeavor. Yay!

We, here at A. Alliance, want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

 

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 14 years.

 

 

Choosing a Charity Worthy of your Donation

It’s easy to be generous this time of year, especially since opportunities knock on your door—both literally and figuratively—daily. But picking a charity can be difficult if you want your hard earned money to go to a reputable, deserving organization.

With all of the choices out there it’s sometimes difficult to separate the phony from the legitimate and the wasteful unproductive charities from those worthy of receiving your donation. Charities are not in short supply so you don’t need to open your wallet to the first one that strikes your fancy. It’s important to do a little investigating.

When scrutinizing a business, profits are taken into consideration, but what about non-profits? You could ask about the number of people served by the charity or the size of the grants they award, but what I find helpful is simply understanding what percentage of donated money goes to the cause. I want to know exactly how much of my donated money will go to feeding those starving kids in Africa.

You might be surprised to find out that there are professional fundraisers out there who call on behalf of charities, but keep 25-95 percent of money collected. I remember a time when I was called and asked for a small donation of five dollars for what seemed like a very worthwhile charity. I asked my standard question about the percentage of my donation going to help the charity and the fundraiser replied, “$25,000.” I laughed and said, “Well, that’s not a percentage. Are you saying you could collect $5 million dollars, but only $25,000 would go to the charity?” He replied, “Yes, that’s correct!”

The charity watchdog, American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP), also known as CharityWatch, suggests you support charities that have at least 60% of donations going to the cause. With that being said, it’s important to note that sometimes newer startup charities need more administrative money when getting established, that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of a contribution. And just because a charity’s percentages look good, doesn’t mean they aren’t being creative by, let’s say, labeling fundraising efforts as “educational.”

So what’s a person with a fistful of money to give to do? If you would like some assistance, there are charity watchdogs out there like Charity Navigator and CharityWatch that donors can use to help them evaluate charities.

Once you’ve picked your charity, please remember to never provide a credit card or bank account numbers over the phone—unless you initiated the call yourself. Same goes for responding to an email solicitation. Sometimes bogus charities pose as legitimate ones with similar names and artwork. If you want to give online, be sure to go to the charitable site yourself and look for their secure payment page before providing your payment information.

If you receive any suspicious looking solicitations, please report them to your state’s attorney general or secretary of state so they are stopped and not able to continue to dupe unsuspecting humanitarians.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 14 years.