Thursday
Friday
How to Stop Being Lazy and Start Being Successful
By Grant Cardone
All week, I’ve been talking about the concept of “Lazy.” As I stated in a recent Huffington Post article, “lazy” is an entitlement concept accepted by the middle class that’s crushing America's greatness and spreading like a contagion. Lazy is the 'new' adopted “right” of people, supposedly earned because a person worked five days and therefore must take the weekend off. This concept of entitlement runs across workers, management and executives across the country…" to read the rest of my article on Huffington Post, click HERE.
How do you counteract this disease of “Lazy?” First, it’s time to WAKE UP! Laziness and lack of action are ethical issues for me. It’s not right or acceptable for me or anyone I know to be lazy. No one is born to sprint or run a marathon any more than some people are more to take more actions than others.
You must readily take action and not just that, unbelievable amounts of action. Whether it’s by way of getting others to take action for them, getting attention for their products or ideas, or just grinding it out day and night, the successful have been consistently taking high levels of action – before anyone knew of their names – that’s how they became successful!
Stop talking about a “plan” for action but instead, assume that your future achievements rely on investing your time and energy in actions that may not pay off today but when taken consistently and persistently over time will produce unlimited success.
Stop being lazy and start being successful.
Stop being lazy and start being successful.
All week, I’ve been talking about the concept of “Lazy.” As I stated in a recent Huffington Post article, “lazy” is an entitlement concept accepted by the middle class that’s crushing America's greatness and spreading like a contagion. Lazy is the 'new' adopted “right” of people, supposedly earned because a person worked five days and therefore must take the weekend off. This concept of entitlement runs across workers, management and executives across the country…" to read the rest of my article on Huffington Post, click HERE.
How do you counteract this disease of “Lazy?” First, it’s time to WAKE UP! Laziness and lack of action are ethical issues for me. It’s not right or acceptable for me or anyone I know to be lazy. No one is born to sprint or run a marathon any more than some people are more to take more actions than others.
You must readily take action and not just that, unbelievable amounts of action. Whether it’s by way of getting others to take action for them, getting attention for their products or ideas, or just grinding it out day and night, the successful have been consistently taking high levels of action – before anyone knew of their names – that’s how they became successful!
Stop talking about a “plan” for action but instead, assume that your future achievements rely on investing your time and energy in actions that may not pay off today but when taken consistently and persistently over time will produce unlimited success.
Stop being lazy and start being successful.
Stop being lazy and start being successful.
Sunday
7 Unusual Ways to Save Money
Tom Sightings, On Tuesday September 6, 2011, 1:34 pm EDT
Most of us don't have the option to suddenly go out and make more money. Either we're retired on a fixed income, or we're settled into a job with small and predictable or nonexistent salary increases. So how do you put more cash in your pocket? Work the other side of the equation: Cut expenses.
You can do that one of two ways. You can watch your pennies, never splurge, trade down on food, and beat back any generous impulse you have to overtip or contribute to a charity. Or, instead of penny pinching, you can find clever ways to save money that won't reduce your quality of life and will still allow you to be expansive and generous. The key is to cut back where it doesn't hurt, and where you're paying out, but not getting much back. Here are six ideas:
1. Go out to lunch. Everyone likes to go out to a restaurant. No one has to cook or do the dishes. The secret ingredient is to go out for breakfast or lunch instead of dinner. You get the same benefits at half the cost. You're less likely to buy overpriced alcoholic beverages earlier in the day, and you won't feel like you're a poor pensioner who can only afford to eat dinner at the 5 o'clock special.
2. Don't pay for stuff you don't use. Cancel the premium TV package if you really don't watch much TV. Downgrade your cell phone service if you don't use the minutes, texting, or data plan. Consider canceling your life insurance if you have no dependents. Cancel your health club membership, and instead take a morning walk around the neighborhood. You might even meet a few neighbors while you're at it.
3. Forget fees from financial firms. Get rid of check-writing and ATM fees at the bank, annual fees on your credit card, and high expense ratios on your mutual funds. You get no benefit from these charges. And doesn't it make you feel good that you're not letting the bank take advantage of you?
4. If you're going to gamble, do it with friends, not at gambling establishments like a casino, off-track betting, or state lottery, And certainly don't gamble through a bookie. They give you crummy odds and take 5 to 10 percent off the top.
5. Buy more things that have gone up less than inflation, and fewer things that have gone up more. One obvious example is technology. You can buy a good computer or TV for half the price you used to pay. You can get a better car for less money than you could 15 or 20 years ago. Meanwhile, spend less on energy, vacations, housing, and health care if you can. The prices for all these items have skyrocketed. Want to go back to school in retirement? Forget the price-gouging private colleges. Your state university is a much better bargain, and community college is even more affordable.
6. Make it a sport. You can buy a book for full price at Barnes & Noble. But you can probably get a better deal from Amazon, Costco, or a used book store. In retirement you have time to look around and compare all the options. Maybe there's a better price on a website or at an outlet store. Think of bargain hunting as a game. The seller is trying to get you to pay a high price. You're going for a low price. Play the game, and be a winner.
7. Don't be embarrassed to use your discount. At age 55 you start getting senior citizen discounts at the multiplex or the municipal golf course. You get more discounts at 62, and again at 65. Get over any reluctance to use these discounts. Nobody else cares how old you are and not speaking up will cost you money.
Tom Sightings is a former publishing executive who was eased into early retirement in his mid-50s. He lives in the New York area and blogs at Sightings at 60, where he covers health, finance, retirement, and other concerns of baby boomers who realize that somehow they have grown up.
Source:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/7-Unusual-Ways-to-Save-usnews-4226910424.html?x=0
Most of us don't have the option to suddenly go out and make more money. Either we're retired on a fixed income, or we're settled into a job with small and predictable or nonexistent salary increases. So how do you put more cash in your pocket? Work the other side of the equation: Cut expenses.
You can do that one of two ways. You can watch your pennies, never splurge, trade down on food, and beat back any generous impulse you have to overtip or contribute to a charity. Or, instead of penny pinching, you can find clever ways to save money that won't reduce your quality of life and will still allow you to be expansive and generous. The key is to cut back where it doesn't hurt, and where you're paying out, but not getting much back. Here are six ideas:
1. Go out to lunch. Everyone likes to go out to a restaurant. No one has to cook or do the dishes. The secret ingredient is to go out for breakfast or lunch instead of dinner. You get the same benefits at half the cost. You're less likely to buy overpriced alcoholic beverages earlier in the day, and you won't feel like you're a poor pensioner who can only afford to eat dinner at the 5 o'clock special.
2. Don't pay for stuff you don't use. Cancel the premium TV package if you really don't watch much TV. Downgrade your cell phone service if you don't use the minutes, texting, or data plan. Consider canceling your life insurance if you have no dependents. Cancel your health club membership, and instead take a morning walk around the neighborhood. You might even meet a few neighbors while you're at it.
3. Forget fees from financial firms. Get rid of check-writing and ATM fees at the bank, annual fees on your credit card, and high expense ratios on your mutual funds. You get no benefit from these charges. And doesn't it make you feel good that you're not letting the bank take advantage of you?
4. If you're going to gamble, do it with friends, not at gambling establishments like a casino, off-track betting, or state lottery, And certainly don't gamble through a bookie. They give you crummy odds and take 5 to 10 percent off the top.
5. Buy more things that have gone up less than inflation, and fewer things that have gone up more. One obvious example is technology. You can buy a good computer or TV for half the price you used to pay. You can get a better car for less money than you could 15 or 20 years ago. Meanwhile, spend less on energy, vacations, housing, and health care if you can. The prices for all these items have skyrocketed. Want to go back to school in retirement? Forget the price-gouging private colleges. Your state university is a much better bargain, and community college is even more affordable.
6. Make it a sport. You can buy a book for full price at Barnes & Noble. But you can probably get a better deal from Amazon, Costco, or a used book store. In retirement you have time to look around and compare all the options. Maybe there's a better price on a website or at an outlet store. Think of bargain hunting as a game. The seller is trying to get you to pay a high price. You're going for a low price. Play the game, and be a winner.
7. Don't be embarrassed to use your discount. At age 55 you start getting senior citizen discounts at the multiplex or the municipal golf course. You get more discounts at 62, and again at 65. Get over any reluctance to use these discounts. Nobody else cares how old you are and not speaking up will cost you money.
Tom Sightings is a former publishing executive who was eased into early retirement in his mid-50s. He lives in the New York area and blogs at Sightings at 60, where he covers health, finance, retirement, and other concerns of baby boomers who realize that somehow they have grown up.
Source:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/7-Unusual-Ways-to-Save-usnews-4226910424.html?x=0
Saturday
4 Misleading Pieces of Personal Finance Advice
David Ning, On Wednesday September 21, 2011, 9:41 am EDT
There are a few pieces of seemingly fail-proof advice that personal finance experts like to give when they are asked about important habits you should develop to retire well, but blindly following them can still get you in trouble. Here's why retirement isn't a sure lock even if you follow these pieces of advice to the letter.
Don't buy a latte every day. Coined by author David Bach, the "latte factor" quite simply points you to the fact that investing $5 a day for 40 years will earn you close to $1 million if you manage to get a return of 10 percent. Yet not drinking coffee doesn't mean you will become a millionaire automatically. If you can't hang on through the ups and downs of the market (even for decades at a time), you will never get the average annual return of the market. If you don't buy a latte but instead buy other things, you won't even save that $5 a day. And if you stop contributing once you feel like you are quite rich even before you become a millionaire, it's much harder to get there.
Live below your means. One of the most important habits to develop in order to retire well is living below your means, but it's not enough to merely live below your means if you want to retire well. To come up with the monthly savings you need to deposit into that retirement stash, you need to go above and beyond. I mean, having $1 left over on every paycheck is living below your means, but you can clearly see that you won't ever get ahead.
Stick to your asset allocation and diversify. Asset allocation and diversification work their magic over time because you are forced to buy low and sell high. However, you need to be careful because you can be very diversified with the recommended asset allocation for your age and still miss the boat. For example, a person who is young can own a ton of individual stocks and still fit the asset allocation recommendation, but if all of the individual stocks are duds, he will never get ahead.
Don't keep up with the Joneses. One of the fastest ways to deplete your future retirement savings is by keeping up with the Joneses, but merely ignoring those around you isn't enough to rack up enough savings to retire comfortably. How about actually keeping up with the Joneses, but just the ones who work hard to make money and diligently save? When you hang out with people who are motivated to save for their own future, you will be encouraged and the good vibes will rub off on you.
It's hard to find the discipline to save for retirement, but when everybody you know is doing it, you will, too.
David Ning runs MoneyNing, a personal finance site aimed at helping others change their habits for a better financial future. He suggests that everyone to sign up for an online savings account to get more out of our hard earned money.
Source:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/4-Misleading-Pieces-of-usnews-4007154657.html?x=0&mod=pf-sp14c
There are a few pieces of seemingly fail-proof advice that personal finance experts like to give when they are asked about important habits you should develop to retire well, but blindly following them can still get you in trouble. Here's why retirement isn't a sure lock even if you follow these pieces of advice to the letter.
Don't buy a latte every day. Coined by author David Bach, the "latte factor" quite simply points you to the fact that investing $5 a day for 40 years will earn you close to $1 million if you manage to get a return of 10 percent. Yet not drinking coffee doesn't mean you will become a millionaire automatically. If you can't hang on through the ups and downs of the market (even for decades at a time), you will never get the average annual return of the market. If you don't buy a latte but instead buy other things, you won't even save that $5 a day. And if you stop contributing once you feel like you are quite rich even before you become a millionaire, it's much harder to get there.
Live below your means. One of the most important habits to develop in order to retire well is living below your means, but it's not enough to merely live below your means if you want to retire well. To come up with the monthly savings you need to deposit into that retirement stash, you need to go above and beyond. I mean, having $1 left over on every paycheck is living below your means, but you can clearly see that you won't ever get ahead.
Stick to your asset allocation and diversify. Asset allocation and diversification work their magic over time because you are forced to buy low and sell high. However, you need to be careful because you can be very diversified with the recommended asset allocation for your age and still miss the boat. For example, a person who is young can own a ton of individual stocks and still fit the asset allocation recommendation, but if all of the individual stocks are duds, he will never get ahead.
Don't keep up with the Joneses. One of the fastest ways to deplete your future retirement savings is by keeping up with the Joneses, but merely ignoring those around you isn't enough to rack up enough savings to retire comfortably. How about actually keeping up with the Joneses, but just the ones who work hard to make money and diligently save? When you hang out with people who are motivated to save for their own future, you will be encouraged and the good vibes will rub off on you.
It's hard to find the discipline to save for retirement, but when everybody you know is doing it, you will, too.
David Ning runs MoneyNing, a personal finance site aimed at helping others change their habits for a better financial future. He suggests that everyone to sign up for an online savings account to get more out of our hard earned money.
Source:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/4-Misleading-Pieces-of-usnews-4007154657.html?x=0&mod=pf-sp14c
Thursday
Live within your means!
How to calculate what you can really afford
You've found the perfect sofa for your living room. You need a sofa, right? A person has to sit somewhere. But can you afford the new sofa? For many people, 'afford' means having room on the credit card. Unfortunately, there is a big difference between having the means to pay for something and being able to truly afford it.
In today's consumerist society, living within one's means can seem like a quaint, old-fashioned notion, like paying cash for everything. However, knowing your financial limits and living within them remains the primary secret to attaining wealth and financial security.
You can probably justify any purchase to yourself — if you really want it. By denying the limits of your income and expenses however, you can quickly find yourself in serious financial trouble, on the basis of just a few too many purchases that you erroneously thought you could afford.
Your TDS ratio
There is a simple way to calculate what you can afford - or how much you have available to spend — on a monthly basis. It's called the Total Debt Service ratio or TDS, as those in the financial-know like to say.
The rule of thumb for TDS is that all your monthly debt payments should be less than 40 per cent of your gross monthly income. This 40 per cent should include your housing costs (rent or mortgage payments), your car payments (leases or loans) and all the other credit payments you make each month - including credit cards (yes, those too!), lines of credit, student loans and other personal loans.
If you can keep your debt payments within 40 per cent of your income, then the remaining 60 per cent can be allotted to 'discretionary' spending — such as groceries, clothing, entertainment, transportation costs and your shopping habit.
Here is how to calculate your TDS ratio in three easy steps, so you can see how you're currently faring; either do it personally or with your spouse to determine a household figure. S
Step one: your salary income
Check your pay statements to determine your gross monthly salary. This means what you earn in total each month, before deductions such as taxes and CPP are taken off. If you are calculating your household TDS, rather than just your own, then add your hubby's gross monthly salary as well.
Step two: add any other income
Now add any income that you receive on a regular, monthly basis. Maybe it's child support payments, investment income or cash from a part-time job. (Maybe trust fund payments or royalties from the songs you wrote for Beyoncé? Don't we all wish!)
Step three: multiply by 0.40
Take your total income (step 1 + step 2) and multiply the total by 0.40. Voila! The result is your total debt service ratio — the maximum amount you can afford to spend on your monthly debts and expenses.
The upper limit
Suppose, for example, your TDS calculates to $1800. If you find you are actually spending less on your housing, loan payments and expenses - say $1500 a month - then congratulations frugal girl! Technically, you are living within your means. Just remember, that TDS calculation represents your upper limit. On the other hand, if you are actually spending more than your TDS figure on monthly debt obligations, then your ability to afford the rest of your life probably feels severely constrained. Try to re-negotiate loan payments and make it a priority to pay down those debts and get your TDS back in line.
The other 60 per cent
The less you spend within your TDS ratio, the more disposable income you will have to enjoy each month. If your expenses and monthly obligations keep you at the 40 per cent limit, then you still have 60 per cent of your income for the business of daily living. By outlining a simple monthly budget of how much of that money has to go toward gas money, subway fare, groceries and other essentials, you can quickly estimate how much you have left each month to spend on fun stuff — like shopping (and SAVING, of course).
Your bottom line
Living within your means starts with knowing your means. With a credit card in hand, it's so tempting to make purchases and tell yourself you can afford it by cutting back in other areas. The trouble is, that kind of impulse spending often leads you to dipping into money that is earmarked for paying bills — and your finances quickly get messy. Know your limits and live well!
Article taken from the Golden Girl Finance website.
http://www.goldengirlfinance.ca/monday/2011/07/25/how-to-live-within-your-means
GoldenGirlFinance.ca is a free personal finance and education site for women. Nothing contained herein is intended to provide personalized financial, legal or tax advice. Before implementing any financial strategy, you should obtain information and advice from your financial, legal and/or tax advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances.
You've found the perfect sofa for your living room. You need a sofa, right? A person has to sit somewhere. But can you afford the new sofa? For many people, 'afford' means having room on the credit card. Unfortunately, there is a big difference between having the means to pay for something and being able to truly afford it.
In today's consumerist society, living within one's means can seem like a quaint, old-fashioned notion, like paying cash for everything. However, knowing your financial limits and living within them remains the primary secret to attaining wealth and financial security.
You can probably justify any purchase to yourself — if you really want it. By denying the limits of your income and expenses however, you can quickly find yourself in serious financial trouble, on the basis of just a few too many purchases that you erroneously thought you could afford.
Your TDS ratio
There is a simple way to calculate what you can afford - or how much you have available to spend — on a monthly basis. It's called the Total Debt Service ratio or TDS, as those in the financial-know like to say.
The rule of thumb for TDS is that all your monthly debt payments should be less than 40 per cent of your gross monthly income. This 40 per cent should include your housing costs (rent or mortgage payments), your car payments (leases or loans) and all the other credit payments you make each month - including credit cards (yes, those too!), lines of credit, student loans and other personal loans.
If you can keep your debt payments within 40 per cent of your income, then the remaining 60 per cent can be allotted to 'discretionary' spending — such as groceries, clothing, entertainment, transportation costs and your shopping habit.
Here is how to calculate your TDS ratio in three easy steps, so you can see how you're currently faring; either do it personally or with your spouse to determine a household figure. S
Step one: your salary income
Check your pay statements to determine your gross monthly salary. This means what you earn in total each month, before deductions such as taxes and CPP are taken off. If you are calculating your household TDS, rather than just your own, then add your hubby's gross monthly salary as well.
Step two: add any other income
Now add any income that you receive on a regular, monthly basis. Maybe it's child support payments, investment income or cash from a part-time job. (Maybe trust fund payments or royalties from the songs you wrote for Beyoncé? Don't we all wish!)
Step three: multiply by 0.40
Take your total income (step 1 + step 2) and multiply the total by 0.40. Voila! The result is your total debt service ratio — the maximum amount you can afford to spend on your monthly debts and expenses.
The upper limit
Suppose, for example, your TDS calculates to $1800. If you find you are actually spending less on your housing, loan payments and expenses - say $1500 a month - then congratulations frugal girl! Technically, you are living within your means. Just remember, that TDS calculation represents your upper limit. On the other hand, if you are actually spending more than your TDS figure on monthly debt obligations, then your ability to afford the rest of your life probably feels severely constrained. Try to re-negotiate loan payments and make it a priority to pay down those debts and get your TDS back in line.
The other 60 per cent
The less you spend within your TDS ratio, the more disposable income you will have to enjoy each month. If your expenses and monthly obligations keep you at the 40 per cent limit, then you still have 60 per cent of your income for the business of daily living. By outlining a simple monthly budget of how much of that money has to go toward gas money, subway fare, groceries and other essentials, you can quickly estimate how much you have left each month to spend on fun stuff — like shopping (and SAVING, of course).
Your bottom line
Living within your means starts with knowing your means. With a credit card in hand, it's so tempting to make purchases and tell yourself you can afford it by cutting back in other areas. The trouble is, that kind of impulse spending often leads you to dipping into money that is earmarked for paying bills — and your finances quickly get messy. Know your limits and live well!
Article taken from the Golden Girl Finance website.
http://www.goldengirlfinance.ca/monday/2011/07/25/how-to-live-within-your-means
GoldenGirlFinance.ca is a free personal finance and education site for women. Nothing contained herein is intended to provide personalized financial, legal or tax advice. Before implementing any financial strategy, you should obtain information and advice from your financial, legal and/or tax advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances.
Friday
A Message to García
1899
A Message to Garcia
By Elbert Hubbard
In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.
What to do!
Some one said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."
Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.
The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.
Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio".
Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:
Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don’t you mean Bismarck?
What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.
Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.
Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.
Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?
"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.
"Yes, what about him?"
"Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for."
Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?
We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.
Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.
It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.
I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."
Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.
Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.
Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.
I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.
My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
THE END-
Taken from: http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm
A Message to Garcia
By Elbert Hubbard
In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.
What to do!
Some one said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."
Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.
The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.
Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio".
Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:
Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don’t you mean Bismarck?
What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.
Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.
Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.
Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?
"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.
"Yes, what about him?"
"Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for."
Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?
We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.
Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.
It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.
I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."
Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.
Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.
Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.
I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.
My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
THE END-
Taken from: http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm
Tuesday
Determination
In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.
Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.
Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.
The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.
"We told them so."
"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."
"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."
Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.
He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.
It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.
For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.
Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.
Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realized with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.
Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.
Article found in the Indian Child
Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.
Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.
The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.
"We told them so."
"Crazy men and their crazy dreams."
"It`s foolish to chase wild visions."
Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.
He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.
It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.
For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.
Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.
Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realized with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.
Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.
Article found in the Indian Child
Friday
Kill Procrastination or it will kill YOU
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Kill procrastination
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