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How many of you have watched House Hunters on HGTV?  That's what I thought, nearly everyone.  As a guy, I can guess that if you're married to a gal that you own real estate with, the TV stops on House Hunters often.  Or your wife is DVR-ing House Hunters - because let's face it, seeing what that first time home buyer with 200K in Toronto is going to do is pretty important in the big scheme of things, right?

But I digress - I gladly play along with Ms. Dunn when the remote stops on House Hunters.  It's all good.  There's just this one little thing that is driving me crazy about the show.

Here's the profile that's driving me insane.  Couple is a first time homebuyer, and the GUY proceeds to whine about what he can't get for his money in EVERY home they go in.  They've got 200K to spend in Toronto, and he's bitching about the fact that he can't have a completely renovated kitchen with stainless steel applicances.  He doesn't like the "flow" from the kitchen to the living room.  You get the drift.  His wife is the practical one, wearing the... wait for it... big boy pants in the family.  He's a first time homebuyer and everything he learned, he learned from....wait for it again - House Hunters.

Dude, you've got 200K to spend in Toronto.  You're lucky you're not living in a trailer on the lake.

Here's your connection to human capital.  That House Hunter guy is exactly like the overeducated, over-read new manager at your company.  Maybe that person is part of a manager training program, maybe they were a high performer in an individual contributor role and you just promoted them to be a manager of people.

Now they're complaining about the tools you have in place to manage people.  They don't think you're doing enough from a training investment perspective for them or the people they manage.  They just forwarded you that article from the Harvard Business Review about developing competency maps for the organization as part of the human capital strategy.  They're vocal about what they need, and more to the point, what you don't provide.

Meanwhile, they've managed people for about 2 months.  They are the organizational equivalent of the whiny first time home buyer with 200K in Toronto.  Like Jed Clampett used to say, they've got a lot of "book learnin".  Unfortunately, they're focused on what's not present related to what they've learned in theoretical environments rather than being intent to learn everything they can by engaging their team on a day to day basis.

The best way to deal with the House Hunter guy and that new manager?  Hand the House Hunter guy a hammer and a map to Home Depot.  Redirect the new manager to what he's doing with his team with the tools and resources he has rather that worrying about macro-strategies.

And for the love of Jeremy Lin, please stop talking out loud about the "flow" of the second floor of a house, House Hunter guy.  Compare and contrast.  Make a decision and shut up about what you can't have for your money.

Man up.

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This can be tough because of all the things that go into the first year of a business. You have to figure out your finances and loans, which software you want to use for your business, complete background checks on all candidates, and figure out a way to get your name out there all at the same time. In other words, it may be a good idea to have all of these components in place before you put your heart and soul into a business. What’s the easiest way to make that happen? Buy an already established business.

Top Three Reasons to Start Your Business By Taking Over Someone Else’s

Less Financial Risk – Although is can be costly to buy a business, you know exactly what you are getting yourself into. When starting your own business you often have to put in a lot of money at the start without fully knowing what the outcome will be. In addition, it is generally less expensive to buy a business than to start from the ground up. It seems overwhelming at first because most of the money is paid upfront when buying a business, but rest-assured if you started your own the money would quickly dwindle.

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