The early part of the generation, born in the second half of the 1990s, were born during a time of declining birth rates; though the youngest of the generation were born during a baby boomlet linked to the Great Recession of the late 2000s.

Due to media attention, a variety of neologisms are used to describe Generation Z including Generation I, Generation Next, The Internet Generation, Net Generation or iGeneration. Within Strauss and Howe’s generational theory they are known as The New Silent Generation.

On the average they are highly connected, many having had lifelong use of communications and media technologies such as the World Wide Web, instant messaging, text messaging, MP3 players, cellular phones and YouTube, earning them the nickname “digital natives”. Generation Z have grown up in a world with in which single-parent families are commonplace, as well as two-income families.

For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task, refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm, or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data.

The term has become popular with businesses, authors, and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals. However, both the term and its underlying business models have attracted controversy and criticisms.

The difference between crowdsourcing and open source is that open source production is a cooperative activity initiated and voluntarily undertaken by members of the public. In crowdsourcing the activity is initiated by a client and the work may be undertaken on an individual, as well as a group, basis. So, the key is in the motivations of individuals to participate in the project.

Perceived benefits of crowdsourcing include the following:

The are four types of crowdsourcing strategies:

So, how you employ great people, actually lots of them, and over the place. How to you find and keep great customers, and great suppliers too.
Want to tap into all that brainpower to solve your most important problems? Want to know how to do it right?

Sources: Wiki, CrowdSourcing Blog, Jeff Howe

. Start with the conclusion!

Echoing Steven Covey’s 2nd habit, it is critical to have the end in mind. In the case
of your speech, ask yourself what’s your message? Are you convincing the board to
say yes to the new IT project? Are you inspiring your committee to work as team?
Are you persuading your customers to buy your product? No matter what speech
you make, however long or short it is, you ALWAYS have a message!

Sidenote: If your speech is a relatively short one (say 5-10 mins), focus on just
one message. In that way, your audience has a higher chance of remembering it.

. Three points max

What are three reasons why this IT project is critical to the growth of your company?
What are three ways your team can follow their heart?
What are three problems that can be solved by using your product?

For every point you made, substantiate with an example or even tell a mini story to
underscore your point.

. Work on an attention grabber

The first 30 seconds of your speech is the most important as your audience will
subconsciously decide if they should listen to you for the next 9 minutes and 30
seconds. So you should always aim to grab their attention right from the start. It can
come in many forms. Here is a list of attention grabbers that you can try for size.

Startling fact
Expert Opinion
Quotation
Dramatic gesture
Rhetorical question
Videoclip
Joke
Anecdote
Reference to a current event
Live demostration

My personal favorite is the use of rhetorical questions because it gets the audience
thinking. There was once I gave a keynote speech that inspires the audience to live
for the moment. I started my keynote with three questions.

When was the last time you sat down and saw the entire sunset?

When was the last time you have ever taste your food?

When was the last time you have called your mum and tell her how much you love her?

That immediately set the tone of my keynote. My guess is that most of them have
not done the above three things for a long long time. Asking these rhetorical
questions gets them interested to know what I have to say next.

Together with your attention grabber is an answer to the following question – “Why
should the audience listen to you?” or “What’s in it for them?” This will create a stake
for them and you will have them eating from your hands.

Lastly…

Practice makes permanence! I cannot emphasize the importance of practice! Try out
the techniques as often as you can. You will find yourself getting increasingly
competent. With the extra time at hand, you can then focus on improving the quality
of your speech or honing your delivery skills. In no time, you will be on your way to
become a highly effective speaker!

“It usually takes more than three weeks to write a good impromptu speech.” American writer Mark Twain

“The very best impromptu speeches are the ones written well in advance.” American writer Ruth Gordon

“Always be shorter than anybody dared to hope!” Lord Reading, English politician

“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt

With these factors in mind, let us look at 10 commonly used attention grabbers.
1. Ask a question
2. Use an anecdote or story
3. Give a definition
4. Use a quote
5. Use an analogy
6. Use humor
7. Relate a personal experience
8. Give a demonstration
9. Do a survey
10. Give a quiz

Source: communicatebetter.blogspot.com
Advanced Public Speaking by Ruth Livingston

THE GIFT OF WORK: The Family Values Journal & Key
It takes a lot of work to keep things running well – whether it’s family life, a business or a volunteer organization. In every group of people, there are usually people who stand out for doing more than their share of the work. They are working hard and know the power of a job well done — and they deserve to get a little recognition for it. Use this Certificate of Hard Work to show them how you recognize and appreciate the efforts they are putting forth. Add a special thank you or even a treat to give along with the certificate to further sweeten the surprise. It’s the type of thank you that works every time!

THE GIFT OF PROBLEMS: Words of Wisdom
In The Ultimate Gift, Red Stevens recalls, “One of the great errors in my life was sheltering many people from life’s problems. If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones.” We each have problems of all sizes in our lives, but it’s the spirit in which we greet them that truly determines their magnitude. Use this day to look for a way in which you can help someone discover this important insight – and also share with them the other inspiring gifts you have received from The Ultimate Gift.
We have so much to learn from those around us, especially those who have lived enough to understand how to handle difficult situations. Wisdom has the ability to turn obstacles into opportunities from which we learn and grow. Ask an older member of your family to share their “story”

THE GIFT OF FRIENDS: I’m Always with You
Friends are people we can count on through thick and thin. They are the ones who support us when we make good choices and tell us the truth when we don’t.
Friends bring us joy and remind us that life is meant to be shared. They feel a lot like family but there’s one big difference – while we can’t choose the family we are born into, we can definitely choose the friends that surround us.
But remember that you have to be a friend to have a friend, and friendships must be nurtured to keep growing to their fullest. In the spirit of The Ultimate Gift, Once Upon A Family® has created a special Friendship Card so you can remind your friends of how valuable they are to you. Download, print and fill out this card then give it to friends as an unexpected surprise.

THE GIFT OF GIVING: Gift of Values
In The Ultimate Gift, Red Stevens explains, “Conventional wisdom would say that the less you give, the more you have. The converse is true. The more you give, the more you have. Abundance creates the ability to give; giving creates abundance. This principle is true in every area of your life.”
There are very few acts of goodness in our lives that compare to the act of giving. That’s because true giving is completely selfless. It comes with no strings attached. Giving is about focusing on the needs of another while leaving your own goals and desires behind. Giving reminds us of how rich our lives are and how easily we can make a real impact on those around us.

THE GIFT OF GRATITUDE: Thanksgiving Album & Leaves
It’s so easy to get caught up in all of the frustrations and disappointments that are part of normal daily life. Sometimes we need a little reminder to help us stay focused on all of the wonderful things we have. Ask each family member to write 10 things they are grateful for on their own personal Golden List. You can help the little ones by writing it for them or having them draw symbolic pictures. Hang these Golden Lists in places where you’re sure to see them everyday, such as the bathroom wall, the bedroom doorknob or the kitchen bulletin board. This simple tradition will make being grateful a daily habit for everyone in your family.

THE GIFT OF FAMILY: Family Tree Poster & Leaves
Then, every Friday night, one member of your family pulls out a card and announces which activity the family will enjoy together over the weekend. It’s a simple, spontaneous way to connect and grow closer – plus have fun while you do so!

THE GIFT OF LEARNING: Family Tree Booklets
“In Your Shoes” is a fun activity developed by Once Upon A Family to help your family better appreciate and understand the unique lives of each one of you. Put everyone’s name in a hat and have each family member draw a name. Each person then uses a piece of paper and a marker or crayon to trace the foot of the family member selected, and then writes out three or more things that make that person different from them. These traits could include, for example, the person’s position in the family, what’s important to them, what they worry about, or what makes them happy. Talk over these differences together and create a dialogue about how important it is to respect and appreciate each other’s own special traits. Every member of the family will have a better idea of what it takes to live “In Their Shoes”. And, together, your family will have enjoyed yet another rewarding step on the lifelong journey made possible by The Gift Of Learning.

THE GIFT OF MONEY: The Birthday Book
Money is a confusing thing. Everyone says it’s not important and it can’t buy happiness, yet many act like money is very important and work as if they will be happy only if they had more. We do need a certain amount of money to satisfy our basic needs. But, as we learn in The Ultimate Gift, too much money can make people just as unhappy as not having enough. Today, as you celebrate how your efforts have helped to support a charitable cause, make it a point to explore the Gift Of Money with your family using the three conversation starter cards provided by Once Upon A Family®. They’ll help you work together to share and shape your ideas on what’s truly valuable to each of you. Then, enrich the conversation by also discussing other acts of giving you plan to do as a family in the months ahead.

THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER
Happy people generally have a positive, joyful outlook on life. They tend to look for and think about the positive aspects of people, things, situations, and events. They can laugh at themselves and brush off little setbacks that others will brood over for days. Even in our saddest moments, laughter can be the best medicine to heal our heart and mend our minds. Start a healthy family habit that will help everyone develop a more positive outlook on life. Make the dinner hour, when you are all together, a time to share with each other the best part of your day. Take turns and really listen. This simple ritual expresses a lot about who we are and what makes us happy. Use the Joy Chart to stimulate some healthy competition. Anyone who can think of three or more good things that happened to them that day earns a happy face on the chart. Whoever has the most happy faces by their name wins the best prize of all: a life full of joy and all the good things that come to someone who looks for them!

THE GIFT OF A DAY: Family Fun Box & Family Fun Pad
Although spending time together as a family is one of the most important things we do in our lives, so many other things seem to get in the way. In this modern, fast-paced life, we all need to step back and make the effort to be together. Start a tradition that reminds you of The Gift of a Day all year long, thanks to this family-connection concept from Once Upon A Family®. Place 52 stones in a jar to represent the 52 precious weeks you have to enjoy with your loved ones during the year. Remove one stone each week at a time when the family has gathered together, and share your best moments from that week. Just seeing the jar of stones sitting on your table will make you think twice about how you spend your days and how to make the most of the little time we do have together. And, to add to the sense of connection, make a day out of choosing the stones that will represent your year of togetherness. It’s an unforgettable family experience.

THE GIFT OF DREAMS: Time Capsule
Dreams are an important part of who we are as individuals. The ability to dream and believe in a dream is the foundation for success in every aspect of life. People who accomplish great things all begin with a dream, while those who don’t chase their dream are often disappointed. When we allow the Gift of Dreams into our lives and summon the courage to follow our dreams, we begin to experience life at its fullest. The key to making dreams come true is making them real. This means putting your dreams down on paper, sharing them with others and actually planning the steps you can take to move closer to making your dreams come true. Use this Share A Dream Card to tell a friend – whether that’s a spouse, a sibling or a co-worker – about your dream so they can help support your quest…and enjoy being a part of your accomplishment.

THE GIFT OF LOVE: Dear Sweet Child Letter Box (The Ultimate Gift)
One of the most precious gifts you can give someone you love is your time, especially in today’s busy world. When was the last time you invited your spouse out to dinner or took your mother to lunch? Can you imagine how special it would be if you invited your daughter on a ‘date’ where you help teach her how a man should treat a lady? Or how about planning a fishing trip with your grandson – just the two of you? Couples need to make time for their relationship to keep their love alive and strong. And children crave the one-on-one time that makes them feel cherished. None of us, no matter what our age, ever outgrows the need to feel loved and appreciated. Your time is a Gift Of Love and it’s easy to give. Use this invitation from Once Upon A Family® to plan a date with someone special in your life and let them know just how much they mean to you.

Sources:
The Ultimate Life (The Ultimate Series #2) by Jim Stovall
The Ultimate Gift (2007) DVD
El Ultimo Regalo (Spanish Edition)

When’s the last time you heard somebody in the media or education system say, “We need to build up entrepreneurs,
because new businesses will become the foundation of our communities” ?

For all those who assume us money-grubbing entrepreneurs are driven by greed, selfishness and ego, let me share with you the results of a study by the Center for Data Analysis and the Heritage Foundation:

Charitable Giving by Household Income, based on IRS data:

Income Class Entrepreneurs Non-Entrepreneurs

$65,480+ 3.23% 2.42%
$37,381-$65,480 3.47% 1.84%
$21,661-$37,380 3.29% 1.14%
$10,661-$21,660 2.25% 0.74%
$0-$10,660 1.55% 0.35%
Average 2.53% 1.27%

Looks like entrepreneurs are TWICE as generous as everyone else. ESPECIALLY the ones with low incomes(!)
Why is that? What’s going on here?
It’s real simple.

Most people only understand scarcity. Entrepreneurs understand abundance.

My experience of entrepreneurs is we overwhelmingly tend to take care of everybody else before we worry about ourselves.

My friend, if you tapped every resource to pay everyone, if you went to bed not knowing how tomorrow’s bills were going to get paid, then at least you had faith in the goodness of providence and the power of imagination and resourcefulness to find a solution.

THIS is why people in the modern world have three meals a day and microwave ovens and beds to sleep in and health care
and straight teeth and computers and movies and modern music.

Because… somebody had faith in the power of ingenuity. They dreamed and schemed and innovated and gave until it hurt. Believing that somehow, somewhere, success would show up when it was most needed.

None of us can ever predict when or how solution to some vexing problem will present itself. We just have faith that it will.

I don’t know what problem you face today, but I know that one of two things is true:

1) Someone somewhere has already solved it, or
2) The ability to solve it WILL be given to you

Most of all I want to salute you in pursuing a journey that most people never even have the courage to undertake.

When you find the success you seek, you deserve it.

The talking heads on TV may not appreciate us. But we appreciate each other. And I appreciate you.

Source: Perry Marshall’s Daily Renaissance Newsletter

Basically, the U3-X is a stool with a unique directional wheel system that allows it to travel diagonally, as well as right, left, forward, and backward – a robotic unicycle if you will.

When I read the article and saw how the device worked, I thought, “Nice technology, but stupid… who would ever buy one of those things?”

It reminded me of the General Motors joint venture with Segway to develop the PUMA, or Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (pictured below), which was lovingly described by planetmoron.com as follows:

Combining the range and speed of an assisted living community golf cart with the cargo-carrying capacity of a pair of bike shorts, the PUMA encompasses much of what the federal government hopes to get out of its investments in the automobile industry. A vehicle that is small, green, and will make people want to take public transportation instead.

It turns out, however, that I judged Honda too quickly. Honda didn’t build the U3-X thinking people would actually buy it. Rather, the U3-X is more about showing off an engineering breakthrough. In this case, Honda contributes to the legs vs. wheels debate among roboticists that has been going on for years.

And therein lies the difference between a company like Honda and a company like GM. Honda is wildly successful (although it has taken sales and earnings hits recently) because of its forward thinking and long-term (I’ve heard 200-year) strategic plan. GM, on the other hand, which thinks people are actually going to show up and buy the PUMA, is a company stuck in the past. (The director of the PUMA project for GM readily admitted: “There’s no technology that has to be invented here. It’s really just putting the pieces together.”)

Although Honda appears slightly overvalued at the moment in terms of fundamentals and GM does not currently trade, I certainly know which one of these companies I will be investing in a little way down the road. And you should too.

DAVID GALLAND: Could you provide us a quick introduction to generational research?

NEIL HOWE: We think that generations move history along and prevent society from suffering too long under the excesses of any particular generation. People often assume that every new generation will be a linear extension of the last one. You know, that after Generation X comes Generation Y. They might further expect Generation Y to be like Gen X on steroids – even more willing to take risk and with even more edginess in the culture. Yet the Millennial Generation that followed Gen X is not like that at all. In fact, no generation is like the generation that immediately precedes it.

Instead, every generation turns the corner and to some extent compensates for the excesses and mistakes of the midlife generation that is in charge when they come of age. This is necessary, because if generations kept on going in the same direction as their predecessors, civilization would have gone off a cliff thousands of years ago.

So this is a necessary process, a process that is particularly important in modern nontraditional societies, where generations are free to transform institutions according to their own styles and proclivities.

In our research we have found that, in modern societies, four basic types of generations tend to recur in the same order.

DAVID: The four generational archetypes. Can you provide a sketch of each for those of our readers unfamiliar with your work?

HOWE: Absolutely.

The first is what we call the Hero archetype. Hero generations are usually protectively raised as kids. They come of age at a time of emergency or Crisis and become known as young adults for helping society resolve the Crisis, hopefully successfully. Once the Crisis is resolved, they become institutionally powerful in midlife and remain focused on outer-world challenges and solutions. In their old age, they are greeted by a spiritual Awakening, a cultural upheaval fired by the young. This is the typical life story of a Hero generation.

One example of the Hero archetype is the G.I. Generation, the soldiers of World War II, who became an institutional powerhouse after the war and then in old age confronted the young hippies and protesters of the 1960s. Going back in American history, we have seen many other Hero archetypes, for example the generation of Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and President Monroe. These were the heroes of the American Revolution, who in old age were greeted by the second Great Awakening and a new youth generation of fiery Prophets.

After the Hero archetype comes the Artist archetype. Artist generations have a very different location in history — they are the children of the Crisis. For Hero generations, child protection rises from first cohort to last. By the time Artists come along, child protection reaches suffocating levels. Artists come of age as young adults during the post-Crisis era, when conformity seems like the best path to success, and they tend to be collectively risk averse. Artists see themselves as providing the expertise and refinement that can both improve and adorn the enormous new institutional innovations that have been forged during the Crisis. They typically experience a cultural Awakening in midlife, and their lives speed up as the culture transforms.

A great example of the Artist archetype is the so-called “Silent” Generation, the post World War II young adults who married early and moved into gleaming new suburbs in the 1950s, went through their midlife crises in the ’70s and ’80s, and are today the very affluent, active seniors retiring into gated lifestyle communities.

The third archetype is what we call a Prophet archetype. The most recent example of this archetype is the Baby Boom Generation. Prophet generations grow up as children during a period of post-Crisis affluence and come of age during a period of cultural upheaval. They become moralistic and values-obsessed midlife leaders and parents, and as they enter old age, they steer the country into the next great outer-world social or political Crisis. Boomers, for example, grew up during the Postwar American High, came of age during the Consciousness Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s, and are now entering old age.

Finally there is what we call a Nomad archetype. Nomads are typically raised as children during Awakenings, the great cultural upheavals of our history. Whereas the Prophet archetype is indulgently raised as children, the Nomad archetype is underprotected and completely exposed as children. They learn early that they can’t trust basic institutions to look out for their best interests and come of age as free agents whose watchword is individualism. They are the great realists and pragmatists in our nation’s history.

The most recent example of the Nomad archetype is Generation X. This generation grew up during the social turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s and are now beginning to enter midlife. They are the ones that know how to get things done on the ground. They are the stay-at-home dads and security moms trying to give their kids more of a childhood than they themselves had. Their burden is that they tend not to trust large institutions and do not have a strong connection to public life. They forge their identity and value system by “going it alone” and staying off the radar screen of government. It could be very interesting to see the rest of the life story of this generation, particularly as they take over leadership positions.

DAVID: Could you tell us the general age ranges of these archetypes now?

HOWE: One Hero generation that is alive today is the G.I. Generation, born between 1901 and 1924. They came of age with the New Deal, World War II, and the Great Depression. They are today in their mid-80s and beyond, and their influence is waning.

Today’s other example of a Hero archetype is the Millennial Generation, born from 1982 to about 2003 or 2004. These are today’s young people, who are just beginning to be well known to most Americans. They fill K-12 schools, colleges, graduate schools, and have recently begun entering the workplace. We associate them with dramatic improvements in youth behaviors, which are often underreported by the media. Since Millennials have come along, we’ve seen huge declines in violent crime, teen pregnancy, and the most damaging forms of drug abuse, as well as higher rates of community service and volunteering. This is a generation that reminds us in many respects of the young G.I.s nearly a century ago, back when they were the first boy scouts and girl scouts between 1910 and 1920.

DAVID: Then following the Hero, we have the Artist, right?

HOWE: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, one example of that archetype is the Silent Generation, born between 1925 and 1942. This generation was too young to remember anything about America before the Great Crash of 1929, and too young to be of fighting age during World War II.

That 1925 birth year is filled with people like William F. Buckley and Bobby Kennedy, first-wave Silent who just missed World War II. Many of them were actually in the camps in California waiting for the invasion of Japan when they heard that the war was over. Part of their generational experience is that sense of just barely missing something big. Surveys show that this generation does not like to call themselves “senior citizens.” They did not fight in World War II. They did not build the A bomb. They are more like “senior partners.” Unlike G.I.s, they are flexible elders, focused on the needs of others. Many of them are highly engaged in the family activities of their children and grandchildren. In politics, they are today’s elder advisors, not powerhouse leaders.

There is a new generation of the Artist archetype just now beginning to arrive. They started being born, we think, around 2004 or 2005. We did a contest on our website to choose a name for this new generation, and the winner was Homeland Generation, reflecting the fact that they are being incredibly well protected. So we are tentatively calling them the Homelanders.

This generation will have no memory of anything before the financial meltdown of 2008 and the events that are about to unfold in America. If our research is correct, this generation’s childhood will be a time of urgency and rapid historical change. Unlike the Millennials, who will remember childhood during the good times of 1980s and ’90s, the Homelanders will recall their childhood as a time of national crisis.

So, those are the two examples today of the Hero archetype, and two examples of the Artist archetype.

DAVID: What about the Prophet and the Nomad generations?

HOWE: There is only one Prophet archetype generation alive today: the Boomer Generation. We define them as being born between 1943 and 1960. Those born in 1943 would have been part of the free-speech movement at Berkeley in 1964, the first fiery class whose peers include Bill Bradley, Newt Gingrich, and Oliver North. The last cohorts of this generation came of age with President Carter in the Iran Hostage Crisis.

For the Nomad archetype, we again have only one example alive today, and that is Generation X. We define Gen Xers as being born between 1961 and 1981. Actually, there may be a few members of the earlier Nomad generation still around – those of the Lost Generation born from 1883 to 1900, but today they would be around 110. This was the generation that grew up during the third Great Awakening, the doughboys who went through World War I. They were the generation that put the “roar” into the “Roaring ’20s” – the rum runners, barnstormers, and entrepreneurs of that period. They were big risk-takers.

DAVID: Is the Millennial Generation the next group up in terms of controlling or being a powerful force in society?

HOWE: It depends what you mean by a powerful force in society.

DAVID: Who is going to be in the driver’s seat?

HOWE: Let me put it this way. The generation that is about to be in the driver’s seat in terms of leadership is Generation X, the group born 1961 to 1981. In fact, we now have our first Gen-X President, Barack Obama, who was born in 1961 and who is in every way a Gen Xer, despite being born at the very early edge of his generation. His fragmented family upbringing, with his father leaving while he was young and his mother moving all over the world, is typical of the Gen X life story. A telling anecdote from his biography is that, when he arrived at Columbia University, he spent his first night in New York sleeping in an alley because no one had arranged to have an apartment open for him.

His life story has a “dazed and confused” aspect. He made his own way against a background of adult neglect and lack of structure. It’s interesting that he is the first leader in America to call himself “post-Boomer.” As a matter of fact, he talks regularly about how he intends to put an end to everything dysfunctional about Boomer politics: the polarization, the culture wars, the scorched-earth rhetoric, the identity politics, all of that. I understand a lot of people do not believe he can actually do this, but it’s interesting that this is the rhetoric he chooses. That rhetoric is one reason why the vast majority of Millennials voted for him.

Obama is the opening wedge of Gen Xers who will assume very high leadership posts. They are not yet the senior generals in control of the military, but they are taking over the reins of government and, of course, the top spots in American businesses.

Source: Casey Research
Other References:
Lost Generation (1883–1900)
Greatest Generation (1901–1924)
Silent Generation (1925–1942)
Baby Boomer (1943–1960)
Generation X (1961–1981)
Millennial Generation (1982–2001)
Generation Z (2001–?)

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Imagine cavemen sitting in comfort before a fire in a communal cave being urged by their mates to go hunting for food on a cold, rainy, winter day. They are being called on to make a sacrifice. They are being asked to give up the comfort of their cave temporarily for greater rewards. Of course, there is initial resistance. But by accepting the task, they discover their rewards far outweigh the comfort they temporarily set aside. For they will come to experience the joy of victory over the foul weather, the exhilaration that follows a successful hunt, the praise of their mates and offspring, the sharpening of their survival skills, the camaraderie of working as a team, and the intense pleasure of returning to the cave.

Life has changed in many ways since the cave dwellers. Yet, in many ways it remains the same. After all, we are bound by an immutable law of the universe that states ALL ACHIEVEMENTS REQUIRE SACRIFICES. Those who refuse to make sacrifices refuse to grow. They refuse to succeed. They refuse to discover the joy of accomplishment. They refuse to establish meaning and purpose in their lives. And when they do so, they pay a heavy price. For the pain of future failure will be far greater than any discomfort a sacrifice would have required. Don’t join the ranks of those who have yet to learn that it’s not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us successful.

We are social creatures. We depend on one another. We cannot achieve our goals without the help of others. Yet, others have their own agendas, goals, and interests. So, how can we work together without compromising? To succeed, we need to learn that we have to let go of one thing to gain another. We have to understand that sacrifice, or doing what we don’t want to get what we do want, is inexorably enmeshed in life. The extent to which we are willing to sacrifice controls the extent to which we will be successful. Or, as James Allen (1864 ~ 1912) wrote, “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”

Most of us realize this, but before we can make a sacrifice, we have to overcome the resistance to doing so. How can we make our task easier? How can we reduce the sting? The greatest favor we can do for ourselves is change our perspective. That is, change the way we look at things. The problem is the word SACRIFICE has a negative nuance. It implies making an effort, doing what we don’t want to, and undergoing pain. Why not put a positive spin on it. Why not focus on the beautiful things suggested by the word?

For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 ~ 1882) had this to say, “Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.” So, instead of calling something a sacrifice, why don’t we call it a MIRACLE? Think about it for a moment. We are the only animals that can willingly do what we don’t want to do. That is a miraculous power. Sacrifice is the miracle that makes great things possible.

The word SACRIFICE is made up of SACRI and FICIO, which means TO MAKE HOLY. So, when we make sacrifices, we are sanctifying our actions, for whenever we raise ourselves to a higher level, we are bringing ourselves closer to our Creator. Rather than looking at sacrifice as something negative, look at it as a miracle, a holy act, a heroic act, a joyous, creative act, the means to our goal, an investment in the future, and a step to greatness. Look at it as a commitment and determination to succeed. When we look at it in these ways, it becomes much more palatable. When seen in this light, we realize that sacrifice is not about LOSS but about GAIN.

Another way of looking at sacrifice is as a source of happiness. And the greater the struggle that sacrifice entails, the greater the happiness that follows. Consider the words of the American Women’s Suffrage Leader, Olympia Brown (1835 ~ 1926), who said, “He who never sacrificed a present to a future good or a personal to a general one can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors.” Yes, those who refuse to let go of their present, transient comfort or pleasure are blind, and don’t know happiness. Their refusal to sacrifice defeats the very purpose of their being. For we are here to experience endless growth, joy, and freedom, all of which are realized by acts of sacrifice.

Yet another way to look at sacrifice is as service. Personal sacrifice for our own improvement is a holy act, but sacrificing for others, for their enrichment, as a parent does for a child, is the holiest of acts. Such sacrifices breed loyalty from those we serve and crown us with abundant blessings. To the enlightened soul, serving others isn’t seen as a sacrifice. Rather, it is viewed as joyful giving.

Those who reject sacrifices, remain enslaved by their own weaknesses. American Author Bruce Barton (1886 ~ 1967) wrote, “What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.” It is bizarre, isn’t it, that some young men and women are willing to make the supreme sacrifice for their country, yet hesitate to sacrifice small things for their own welfare and happiness.

Everyone would like to achieve great things, but the ordinary person sees only the sacrifices that must be made and gives up the struggle. The rash person sees just the prize and jumps into the fray without enough preparation and loses the fight. But the wise see both the difficulties, which they carefully overcome, and the prize, which they win. Once you know what needs to be done, don’t delay, as many prizes have been lost not because of the inability to act, but the failure to act quickly enough.

Willingness to sacrifice is a sign of a strong character and is to be encouraged. A German saying makes this same point, “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, everything is lost.” While we can rightfully be proud of our many accomplishments because of the sacrifices we have made, let’s not forget the sacrifices made for us by others. So, let our achievements be marked by a feeling of gratitude and not one of smugness.

Sometimes, despite the sacrifices we make, we do not reach our goal. If we are stuck in a quagmire, making no progress, it may be time to change direction. After all, persistently pursuing something that was not meant to be merely stands in the way of going after another, even more valuable, dream. Besides, sometimes the best win is to lose. How many times have your past ‘failures’ turned out to be blessings? It has happened in the past and will continue to happen. So be prepared for it and remain upbeat, changing course whenever necessary. And when you do ‘fail,’ use the accompanying feelings of disappointment and pain to empathize with others and offer them encouragement. By approaching life with open eyes and an open mind and heart, we can change ‘negative’ events into positive occurrences. Don’t think ‘sacrifice;’ think joy, growth, and freedom!

Source: Chuck Gallozzi

It will most likely infect 30-40% of the U.S. population, or about *100 million people* according to flu expert Ira Longini, from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

Initial supplies of the swine flu vaccine, which will be available sometime between mid-September to late October 2009, are expected to be very limited — barely enough to inoculate the 160 million people who are at high risk of becoming infected. An even bigger concern is whether the fast-tracked vaccine is safe and effective — since it’s being rushed to market without the appropriate testing and safety evaluations.

A new book, “The One-Minute Cure: The Secret to Healing Virtually All Diseases,” offers compelling evidence
that the swine flu virus can be rendered powerless in the body when one self-administers a natural oxygenating substance.

Madison Cavanaugh, the book’s author, states that public fear is incorrectly placed on the swine influenza
virus itself. “Microbes, germs, harmful bacteria and viruses, such as the swine influenza virus, do not cause disease in and of themselves,” Cavanaugh states. “They do seek their natural habitat — such as an oxygen-deficient body — rather than being the cause of the disease. It’s no different from the way mosquitoes seek out stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant.”

Cavanaugh’s assertion is consistent with the findings of Dr. Rudolf Virchow (1821 – 1902), also called the “Father of Pathology.” It is also supported by Louis Pasteur, the notable 19th century French chemist and microbiologist best known for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of disease, who recanted his germ theory of disease at his deathbed, stating, “The microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything.”

The terrain of which he spoke refers to an oxygenated environment in the human body, which makes for a strong immune system. A weakened or suppressed state of the immune system only occurs when the human body lacks oxygen, thereby allowing viruses, such as the swine influenza virus, to breed.

It therefore stands to reason that the swine influenza virus does NOT cause disease, but rather seeks out an
environment where it can thrive best — and that is in oxygen-deprived bodies. “A sufficiently oxygenated body is uninhabitable by disease,” Cavanaugh states, and viruses can neither survive nor thrive in it.

Therefore, the best defense against microbes, germs, harmful bacteria and viruses, such as the swine flu virus, is to keep the body oxygenated.

Cavanaugh’s book, “The One-Minute Cure,” discusses the therapeutic use of the only natural substance which stimulates the movement of oxygen atoms from the bloodstream to the cells to a dramatically greater degree than is usually reached by other means. This action creates an oxygenated environment that enables the body to cure itself of virtually all diseases ranging from influenza to cancer, heart disease, asthma, diabetes and arthritis.

The natural oxygenating substance which is the core subject of the book has a long history of therapeutic use dating back 170 years ago when it was used to reverse a wide variety of illnesses — from minor ones like colds and flu to serious ones like cholera and malaria. It has even been used to help stop the Spanish Flu of 1918.

Over the past 70 years, this safe, inexpensive and powerful healing modality has been administered by an
estimated 15,000 European doctors, naturopaths and homeopaths to more than 10 million patients to successfully treat practically every known disease. The natural remedy can be self-administered at home in less than a minute, and costs only 1-1/2 cents a day to use. For more information, click here.

Our past and future picks are a provocative and comprehensive challenge to anyone who thinks the age of prosperity is behind us. But, as always, we value your views. Post them to our 85th Anniversary discussion forum.

As this is an anniversary event, we’ve drawn up an vintage Forbes covers to recall and classic cover stories to read.

Finally, try the When Was That Invented? quiz and see how you do against other readers.

What are the greatest breakthroughs of the last four score and five years? A collection of people, products, services and companies that have changed our lives in a profound way. This is not a list of the greatest business minds–that’s why you won’t find Bill Gates on it. It is not a roster of the deserving (Gandhi) or the powerful (Stalin) or the biggest empire builders (Kaiser). It is a history of lightbulbs that went off and changed the world. The transistor gave rise to a trillion-dollar piece of the economy and a potent deflationary force. The pill altered human behavior; the polio vaccine and protease inhibitors altered life spans; the discount brokerage changed our capital markets.
–
1917 Sneakers
When U.S. Rubber introduced Keds, the first mass-marketed rubber-soled sneaker, the company used the reigning color scheme for men’s leather shoes: black soles and brown canvas uppers. Keds remained a big seller until the late 1960s, when sneakers got a face-lift from University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, whose waffle-soled running shoe would form the foundation of Nike and trigger an explosion in the athletic shoe business.

1923 Business Management
Long before Steven Covey and Tom Peters, Alfred P. Sloan (1875-1966) created modern corporate management as he rescued an ailing General Motors and made it the most powerful corporation in the world. He reinvented governance with an independent board of directors and executive and finance committees–a balance of power that has slipped lately. He decentralized decision-making for divisions that met financial benchmarks, a style widely imitated.

1923 Multiplane Camera
With his brother Roy, Walt Disney (1901-1966) turned a small animated cartoon shop into an entertainment epic, first with silent Mickey Mouse strips, next with feature films (Fantasia, Cinderella, Peter Pan), then with theme parks, his playgrounds of fantasy. Though Disney will always be remembered for characters like Goofy and Donald Duck, his biggest contribution to filmmaking was developing the multiplane camera. Traditional animation stacked cells on top of each other, giving little sense of depth. The multiplane camera got around that by placing each cell at a different level, allowing elements of a scene to move independently, giving them more realistic dimension. Moviegoers first experienced the magic with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.

1924 Frozen Food
1924 Mutual Fund
1925 Bell Telephone Laboratories
1926 Rocket Engine
1927 Television

1928 Penicillin
After working in field hospitals during World War I, Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) struggled to find a cure for the infections that killed more soldiers than bullets did. He came up empty–until one day, cleaning up his cluttered lab and sifting through old petri dishes, he discovered that a mold killed staph bacteria. Penicillin landed him a Nobel Prize in 1945.

1929 Synthetic Rubber
1930 Jet Engine
1933 Frequency Modulation
1933 Wallboard
1934 Value Investing
1934 Nylon
1935 United Auto Workers
1937 Blood Bank
1937 Pulse-Code Modulation
1938 Xerography
1939 Automatic Transmission
1939 Helicopter
1940 Radar
1942 Electronic Digital Computer
1945 Nuclear Power
1947 Cellular Phone
1947 Microwave Oven
1947 Instant Photos
1947 Transistor
1947 Tupperware
1948 LP long player
1949 Magnetic Core Memory
1950 Diners Club Card
1951 Levittown
1951 The Pill to prevent ovolation
1952 Thorazine to reduce shock suffered after anesthesia

1952 The Conglomerate
Seeking protection from the business cycles of the textile industry, Royal Little considered diversifying into nonrelated businesses in the 1920s. But it wasn’t until the early 1950s that the ailing textile business made the idea a necessity. Little’s Textron would go on to acquire 70 companies, including Bell Aircraft and golf cart maker E-Z-Go, becoming a template for modern conglomerates like GE, ITT and Tyco. The form survives, despite a crash in conglomerate stocks in the 1970s and the recent travails of Tyco.

1952 Holiday Inn
1954 Fortran
1954 Polio Vaccine

1955 Fast Food
Though he had a nice business selling commercial milkshake machines, Ray Kroc (1902-1984) figured he’d make more money flipping burgers. In 1955 he opened his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Ill. The Golden Arches changed the American landscape, doing to restaurants what Kemmons Wilson did to hotels: making them predictable. The franchise concept caught on, and Kroc went national with just a dollop of capital.

1956 Containerized Shipping
Trucking magnate Malcolm McLean (1913-2001) tired of the slow speed of transporting cargo across country and overseas. Adapting a truck-trailer design to railcars and ship cargo holds allowed quick loading. The first containerized cargo ship set sail from New Jersey in 1956–spawning a new industry that set a precedent for the likes of FedEx.

1956 Disk Drive
1956 Fiber Optics
1956 Ampex VRX-1000 for analogue video tape recording
1958 Implantable Pacemaker
1958 Laser
1959 Three-Point Seat Belt
1959 Integrated Circuit
1961 Pampers
1962 Telstar I satellite telecomunication
1962 Modem

1962 Point-of-Sales Data
Former J.C. Penney management trainee Sam Walton (1918-1992) opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Ark. Four decades later the retailer has sales of $238 billion and 4,300 stores. He married a genius for efficient distribution and inventory with point-of-sales databases. In the mid-1980s Wal-Mart began sharing store-by-store sales info with vendors so they could tweak product lines–and let Wal-Mart leverage better prices from its biggest suppliers. If Walton were alive today, he’d be the richest man in the world.

1964 Mainframe Family
IBM’s System/360 product line was the first that consisted of a family of commercial computers using a common program language, so that customers moving up the scale in computer power could take their software with them. The creator of the 360 line, Gene M. Amdahl, left Big Blue to create a mainframe competitor in 1970. He later went on to found three additional computer companies.

1965 Consumerism
Long before he became a presidential election spoiler, Ralph Nader was America’s chief corporate scold. His Unsafe at Any Speed targeted GM’s Chevy Corvair. The book influenced Congress to pass the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. Perhaps more important, it provided a template for “activists” looking to target corporations for a variety of ills–real or perceived–and bolstered the market for plaintiff lawyers.

1968 Mouse

1969 ATM Automated Teller Machine
Bankers talked about automated cash dispensers for years, but Donald Wetzel, a former minor league baseball player and IBM salesman, gets credit for the first working model. The vice president of product planning at Docutel, then an automated baggage-handling equipment maker, installed the first ATM at a Long Island branch of Chemical Bank. The first machines were offline, but today some 1.1 million units are linked together across the globe. Wetzel left Docutel to start his own companies that sold banking equipment like vault doors.

1969 Charge-Coupled Device

1969 The Internet
Who knew that the military-industrial complex would become the midwife for Web porn? Designed to let scientists working for the U.S. military communicate via computer, the Arpanet started small, connecting terminals at Stanford and UCLA. The National Science Foundation later took the technology and created a network that could handle greater traffic; it still helps support the Internet today. As it became less military and more commercial, the Arpanet morphed into the Internet.

1970 Compact Disc

1970 Relational Database
Oxford-trained mathematician Edgar F. (Ted) Codd developed the concept of the relational database while working as an IBM researcher in 1970. Earlier computer databases had fields of data arranged in a rigid way; Codd’s notion was that disparate data sets could be combined by linking fields they have in common (say, a customer number). Codd clashed with his bosses at IBM, who were pushing a more primitive system. But the relational database is now standard–and the basis for Larry Ellison’s Oracle fortune.

1971 Answering Machine
1971 Microprocessor
1972 Computed Tomography Imaging
1972 Ethernet to describe the system of wires and microchips that allow computers linked locally to talk to one another
1972 UNIX/C Programming

1972 E-Entertainment
Nolan Bushnell (b. 1943) gave geeks another reason to stay indoors by introducing Pong, a crude electronic tennis game, which was later miniaturized for the home. Bushnell’s Atari dominated the videogame market, but he eventually sold out and started the Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza parlor chain. The game brand he created is more visible today on hipster T shirts than on TV screens. But the industry he started, now dominated by Sony and Microsoft, generates more money in the U.S. than the movie business gets at the box office.

1973 Discount Brokerage
It’s unlikely taxi drivers would have turned into day traders had it not been for Charles Schwab (b.1937). He positioned his company as the anti-Wall Street firm, dumping all the trappings of a typical brokerage house–the commissions, front-end loads, markups and fees–in exchange for simple, low-priced, per-trade fees. Today his San Francisco-based outfit serves 8 million investors who control $800 billion in assets.

1974 Catalytic Converter
1974 Index Fund, a basket of stocks made up of the 500 largest companies.

1976 Personal Computer Chic
Apple cofounders Steven P. Jobs (b. 1955) and Stephen Wozniak (b. 1950) helped usher in the era of the PC by making their machines accessible and cool–as desirable, in their way, as sports cars. But because Apple never made a serious stab at the business market, it has always been a shrimp compared with larger outfits. Those same competitors, though, were always ready to adopt Apple’s innovations in user-friendly design and clever marketing. Wozniak retired in 1985; Jobs was forced out of the company in 1985, but returned in 1997 to lead Apple’s latest incarnations.

1976 Recombinant DNA
Robert Swanson, then a 29-year-old venture capitalist, teamed up with University of California, SanFrancisco professor Herbert Boyer to commercialize Boyer’s breakthroughs in “recombinant DNA” technology–splicing together strands of DNA to whip up marvels like human insulin for diabetics, growth hormones for children and antibodies for cancer patients. The two founded Genentech, the first in a wave of biotech companies. It went public in 1980, raising $35 million. Swanson died in 1999. Today his $17 billion (market cap) company does $2.2 billion in sales.

1977 Cash Management Accounts
After a meeting with members of the Stanford Research Institute, Merrill Lynch chief financial officer Thomas Chrystie came up with the idea of an all-in-one account that included check-writing, money-market benefits, a Visa card and brokerage services. The idea was slow to take off, and Merrill nearly abandoned it. But it eventually became copied to the point of ubiquity, giving inspiration to those who harbored dreams of creating megabanks.

1977 Original-Issue Junk Bonds. Michael Milken opened up the capital markets to fledgling firms by putting together a $30 million bond issue for a small oil company called Texas International. The bait for investors: a high yield of 11.5%.
1979 Spreadsheet
1984 Liquid Crystal Displays

1984 Customized Mass Retail
Michael Dell got into the disintermediation business–bypassing distributors–during his freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin. He bought overstocked IBM PCs at cost from local dealers, then sold them to consumers at 10% below list. He dropped out of school that year, and started selling his own homemade versions of the computers for $795–built to customer specs. Now Dell dominates the PC market, posting $31 billion in annual sales. More impressive, his customized retail strategy, once an anomaly in the computer business, is now standard practice. That’s good news for customers and for the mass distributors who parcel out the machines, but worrisome for conventional retail outlets.

1987 Mevacor
It took more than 35 years for scientists at Merck to conjure up Mevacor, the first widely used drug that reduced cholesterol. The pill worked by blocking an enzyme from creating mevalonic acid, thwarting the liver’s production of cholesterol. Under Chief Executive P. Roy Vagelos, Merck researchers developed Zocor, a second generation of the drug, and proved that it, as well as other cholesterol-lowering drugs, reduced the risk of heart attack. Zocor sales jumped in 1995 when the FDA approved it as a product to prevent heart disease in patients who already suffered a heart attack.

1987 Prozac
Ray Fuller, a researcher at Eli Lilly, developed a drug that blocks serotonin, a neurotransmitter thought to cause depression. Today Prozac is the world’s most widely prescribed antidepressant, with over 40 million users in 90 countries. The pill also challenged traditional concepts of psychology and identity, igniting a debate between enthusiastic advocates and those who believe that mental states are too complex to be treated like a common virus.

1991 World Wide Web
Software consultant Tim Berners-Lee developed Enquire, a program that linked documents from various computers around the world, effectively granting a visa to the masses to travel through cyberspace. Marc Andreessen brought further order in 1993 by creating Mosaic, a program that allowed people to view pictures as well as well as words. Two years later, Netscape: a point-and-click browser that made surfing an indoor sport, and ushered in the era of high-flying Internet public stock offerings. Yeah, and you think it hasn’t changed the world forever?

1995 Protease Inhibitors
In December pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche received approval for Invirase, the first protease inhibitor for patients suffering from HIV. The new class of drug disabled the protease enzyme from duplicating the HIV virus in cells, offering the first glimmer of hope for an AIDS cure after nearly two decades of searching. Years later doctors used the drug as part of a triple cocktail that includes AZT. When taken, the cocktail virtually wipes out signs of the HIV virus in most patients.

1995 Internet Business
Lured by the promise of a new business paradigm, Jeffrey Bezos started selling books online at Amazon.com, and Pierre Omidyar launched Ebay, an online marketplace. Hundreds of other entrepreneurs followed suit, selling everything from bicycles to bubble gum. Most flamed out, often in spectacular style, but Amazon and Ebay endured.

1998 Viagra
Working in Pfizer’s Sandwich, England office, researchers Peter Ellis and Nick Terrett noticed an uplifting, if unintended, side effect in test patients taking sildenafil citrate, a drug being developed to treat angina. They patented Viagra, making erectile dysfunction part of the national conversation and Bob Dole an unlikely celebrity spokesman. Approved by the FDA in March 1998, 3 million prescriptions were filled in the first three months. Since then some 16 million men have taken the drug and an average of nine tablets are dispensed every second. Sales to date: $5.8 billion. Viagra imitators and drugs for female sexual dysfunction are in the works.

2000 Automated Sequencing Machine
Using 300 high-speed DNA-sequencing machines, gene guru J. Craig Venter stunned the scientific world when his company, Celera Genomics, deciphered the entire human genetic code in just over two years and with a research budget of $270 million (it took Uncle Sam 13 years and $2.5 billion). By studying the genetic variations among humans, scientists will be better able to diagnose and ultimately cure diseases like diabetes and schizophrenia.

Source: Forbes
–
What will the next 85 years bring?
The last century has seen only a few major display innovations, among them the move from black-and-white monitors to color and the introduction of flat, liquid crystal displays to replace cathode ray tubes. If Richard Friend’s discovery lives up to its promise, the LCD will someday be tossed aside in favor of the OLED–organic light-emitting display.

OLED could open new areas of art or, more prosaically, lead to a new kind of camouflage bodysuits, even constantly updated newspapers that look and feel like the original thing. “One always falls into the trap of going into the straight-replacement mode,” he says. “But with a revolutionary technology you should not simply map it on to existing products. Not if you are an optimist.”

“It is my desire to inspire people of all ages and social demographics to think about leadership on a broad level, contemplate what it means to them and what individual impact they can have when it comes to leading,” said Nitin Nohria and Amanda Pepper of Harvard Business School.

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Why continuos learning?
1) The average person will increase their salary by only 2-3% annually.
2) Each year inflation increases by approximately 2-3% annually.
3) That means that, without lifelong learning, it’s virtually impossible for the average person to get ahead.

However…
1) Top Achievers, people who are continually learning and growing, DOUBLE their income every 3-5 years.
2) This is why the top 10-20% earns more than the bottom 80%! To separate yourself from the pack, you often need to know just one additional skill…and that will make all the difference in your pay scale.

“The greatest success principle in history is ‘Learn from the experts’, you’ll never live long enough to learn it all yourself” by Brian Tracy

What is your Entertainment VS Education Ratio?
Do you know what your EVE ratio is? this is your entertainment vs education ratio. How much do you spend every month on cable tv, movies, sports, hobbies, vacations, dining, drinking, internet, video games, social clubs, etc? What do you spend every month in continuing education or personal improvement? The average person has a ratio of 50 or 100 to 1! Do you think this could partially explain the cause of the current economic turmoil?

Grab a piece of paper and find out what YOUR EVE ratio is! Create columns similar to the graph below and do your very best to think of all your expenses in these areas and be as accurate as possible. List all of the items and the time and expenses associated with each. When you have completed the list, add up the totals, and you have your EVE Ratio!

iLearningGlobal.TV officially began its journey in March of 2008 when months of ideas, concepts, and dreams turned into reality. After a meeting with success legend Brian Tracy and his business partner, it was clear that the perfect storm of ground breaking technology and the teachings of the worlds leading personal development experts combined would change the way people learn forever. Brian Tracy joined the founders and original executive team of 4 as the iLearningGlobal Chief Learning Officer and dozens of the world’s top speakers, authors, and trainers followed suit to create the most respected online faculty ever with over 50 topics.

Source: iLearning Global

Thoreau believed that as we get older we fall into a routine, gradually and mindlessly beating a track for ourselves. Bogged down with daily trifles, we lose our gusto for living.

The great mass of men, he wrote, live lives of quiet desperation.

More than 150 years ago, Thoreau blamed this on the rat race and materialism:

* Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

* Men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasure which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.

Thoreau wanted to avoid this trap. So he escaped to Walden Pond for two years “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” he writes, “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.”

Of course, vanishing into the woods isn’t a realistic option for most of us. Some might even say it smacks of running from your problems rather than confronting them.

But Thoreau believed that personal peace and serenity are only found in communion with nature. It is where the great truths and existential secrets are discovered.

For Transcendentalists, nature is the key to spiritual attainment. It offers the solitude to think about how we spend our time. It provides the silence where Thoreau’s “different drummer” can be heard.

Do not live foolishly like other men, he warned, but according to universal laws. That meant studying the ancients, revering wisdom, and living according to its dictates.

A successful life, Thoreau argues, is built on simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and meaningful work.

Reading him today awakens something inside us that modern society suppresses. Thoreau asks us to make a new estimate of ourselves, to think bravely about our lives, and boldly ask, “How shall I live?”

My friend John – and others suffering from the same ennui – might benefit from answering his call for personal renewal.

Thoreau reminds us that human life is a great privilege. We have the whole world to devour and explore, if we will only awaken to it.

Some may call the Transcendentalists dreamers. And there is certainly an element of idealism here.

But they were also chroniclers of the human spirit. And their advice to scorn appearances, conduct your life with wisdom and integrity, and transcend the often-deadening effects of modern culture is timeless.

We’re only here once, they remind us. Life should be an ecstasy.

Or as Thoreau famously said, “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

Source: Alex Green

Optimize
I must get better.
Take a deep breath and remind myself we live in an abundant world
Focus on revenue producing activities
This is not a time to slow down. This is a time to speed up.
Take massive action now!
Where are my best opportunities right now?
What would God want me to do?
Embrace change
Be resilient
Buyers are still buying
Find a man with a problem

1. The age of instant communications.
2. A world without economic borders.
3. Four steps to a one-world economy.
4. Internet commerce and learning.
5. The new service society.
6. The marriage of big and small.
7. The new age of leisure.
8. The changing shape of work.
9. Women in leadership.
10. Your amazing brain rediscovered.
11. Cultural nationalism.
12. The growing underclass.
13. The active aging of the population.
14. The new do-it-yourself boom.
15. Cooperative enterprise.
16. The triumph of the individual.
All 16 trends are fully developed in chapter one of  “The Learning Revolution” by Gordon Dryden and Dr. Jeannette Vos.

What about Web Trends

We’re well into the current era of the Web, commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Features of this phase of the Web include search, social networks, online media (music, video, etc), content aggregation and syndication (RSS), mashups (APIs), and much more. Currently the Web is still mostly accessed via a PC, but we’re starting to see more Web excitement from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) and television sets (e.g. XBox Live 360).

What then can we expect from the next 10 or so years on the Web?
Here we have 10 Web trends to look out for the next decade.

1. Semantic Web
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Virtual Worlds
4. Mobile
5. Attention Economy
6. Web Sites as Web Services
7. Online Video / Internet TV
8. Rich Internet Apps
9. International Web
10. Personalization

Our society is about to go through major transformation. It’s not just about new trends in technology, relationships, economy and lifestyle. We will think differently and perceive things very differently in a short while. Those who understand upcoming changes have a better chance to succeed in the future.

What do you thik is going to change in your environment, in your industry, in your life?

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

Thanks to his parents, who ignored the advice of doctors that he would live life in a persistent vegetative state, and Tufts University engineers, who recognized that his sense of humor indicated intelligence, at the age of 12, Rick was able to learn how to use a special computer to communicate, using movements from his head. The first words he typed were, “Go Bruins!”, and the family learned he was a sports fan. They entered their first race in 1977, a 5 mile benefit run for an injured lacrosse player who was a schoolmate of Rick’s.

Dick is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard. Rick earned a college degree from Boston University in special education, and now works at Boston College. They continue to compete in races, and are also motivational speakers.

Sources:

http://www.cjcphoto.com/can/

http://www.squidoo.com/dick-rick-hoyt

http://www.teamhoyt.com/

Just couldn’t pull it off, because of random acts of viciousness and distraction ladled upon my poor vulnerable head by the universe.
Visited last year. Might go next year, too.
I’ll see this Burn, though, through the sky-cam there in the smoldering Black Rock desert, if I see it at all.
However, just thinking about that amazingly unique event generated a familiar thought about survival.

I call it “The Hard Knocks Lesson Of Three’s“.
It applies to stuff like attending an event like Burning Man… which is a week-long freak show in the middle of the playa, way the hell in the middle of the northern Nevada desert.

Nothing you’ve ever done in your life, to this point, can totally prepare you for the experience.
One day before the event, the desert is a wasteland, free of humans. One day into the event, it’s suddenly a Mad Max-styled city of 40,000 partiers who stay up all night torching stuff and dancing themselves into madness to blaring trance music (which goes 24 hours a day out there).

Lots of art, and street theater, and comraderie, and general naughtiness ensue, at levels you simply are not prepared for.
Man, it’s fun. But daunting fun, at first.
You gotta bring every drop of your own water and food (or barter for it from others — no money is allowed inside Black Rock City)…
… and you’re on your own dealing with the sand storms, the brain-melting heat, the absolute lack of basic resources, and all the other details of maintaining good-animal health in the middle of Hell.

Trust me, it’s a blast. People arrive from every corner of the globe, eager to get the party started again.
Burners take the self-reliance code to heart. They truck in everything they need, and truck it back out again when the show’s over. No trace is left of the massive city, or the party.
This once-a-year bacchanalia has been going on since the 1980s, with little or no mayhem or tragedy.

Self-reliant partiers. It’s a concept.

The lesson, however, applies to all sorts of new experiences. Like starting a new job. Or putting together a market launch of a new product. Or engaging in a new course or mentoring program.

Here’s what I’ve found:

1. The first time you do anything new, your senses are kind of overwhelmed. You may not even realize if you’re having a good time, or a worthwhile experience, until after you’re done and you can look back on it.
This first time is essential to the process.
Just get it done. Do the best you can, and expect nothing and everything, while allowing the experience to wind out as it will.

2. You will either have a good experience, or a bad one.
It doesn’t matter which (unless you’re a pussy and the bad experience sours you on going further into the process forever).
If it’s good, you have a benchmark for what a “good” experience is about. And you may want to attemtp to repeat it the next time out. Or top it.
If it’s a bummer, you have a benchmark for what a “bad” experience is about. And you will want to take steps to avoid it next time.

3. After you’ve had two rounds, you have accumulated a little storehouse of insight, knowledge and hands-on experience. It could be all good, all bad, or a mix.
But it’s the third time out where you can now call yourself “experienced”.
You have context, now, to judge and adjust and feel at home with the process.
I’ve lived in many different cities in my time. Had many different jobs, started many different relationships, gone on many different adventures.
And all these different experiences started out overwhelming… and got dramatically easier to maneuver through on the third time around.

I even used it as a way to build up familiarity in strange towns. The third day in a row you go to the same cafe for lunch, sit in the same place, and order the same thing… you’ll get noticed. You’re no longer an invisible face in the crowd.

You are now seen in context.

(When I first moved to Virginia City, I stopped by the Bucket O’ Blood saloon once a day on my daily walks around town for a beer. On the third visit, the bartender leans over and whispers “Are you a local? Damn, I’ve been charging you ‘tourist’ prices for that beer. This one’s on me.”)

In even the scariest new job, the third day gives you solid hints to what your daily routine will become. Getting there on time, knowing the rules, figuring out who the assholes are and who the cool kids are.

It’s a process of collecting and consciously analyzing incoming data.

At Burning Man, the dramatic self-reliance required can be shocking the first time out.

By the third year’s journey, you can probably call yourself a veteran Burner. Sure, there will always be unexpected stuff. But while alarming, the new tweaks to the experience will fit into the greater perspective you have from having been there before.

Just knowing this rule can take a lot of heat off your stress levels.
As a rookie, you’re a liability to the people around you. You’re encountering everything for the first time, and you have no context for how you’re going to react.
The next time, you’ll do better.
And by the third go-round, your comfort level with the very stuff that may have alarmed you before will be astounding.

It may occasionally take more than three attempts to “get” any given situation or experience down pat.
You certainly will not be an “expert” at it yet.
But you will have some history, good or bad, and that allows you a little internal reference library of experience to draw on.

During those stretches in my life where I was constantly experiencing upheaval, radical change and emotional turmoil, keeping this simple rule of 3’s in mind helped a lot.
I never put pressure on myself to excel right out of the blocks. I took it slow, kept copious notes, and built upon every minor success while correcting the mistakes.

People fear change and new things. It’s in our DNA.
The key to beating fear is to acknowledge it, and engage in the experience anyway. Know that you’re probably not going to ace it this first time out… but what you learn will give you a foundation to becoming more confident and comfortable each successive time.
I’ve been a rookie, a lot. I welcome most opportunities to try new things.

And I’m a grizzled veteran of nearly everything I’ve experienced and liked (or needed to like, to further my goals).
I’m also a pro at dealing with a lot of the bad shit that can come crashing down on you. Been there, done that.
It’s a process.
Just a little advice to help you navigate the dusty road.
Stay frosty.

Source: John Carlton