Have fun with the New Year
Leave your commments
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It's the time of the year for the obligatory New Year's resolutions. You know, what I mean:
I plan to go on a diet and become chic and svelte by Valentine's Day.
I will go to the gym every other day, so help me Hannah. Muscles and enticing curves, or bust.
I will eschew the delights of eating one sugar-soaked Little Debbie after another.
I will... but you get the idea.
There is something abhorrent about admitting that you are imperfect. I don't like it at all.
New Year's resolutions imply that you have somehow fallen beneath the high standard of perfection, that there is something not quite right about you, a nagging something that needs instant attention.
But what could that be?
Like you, I look in the mirror of a morning and, despite advancing age, I see nothing but the spitting image of one who is, indeed, the fairest of them all. It affronts me to think otherwise.
Thus, while wishing to do my bit to uphold the traditions of Auld Lang Syne and making resolutions, I find it hard to do so... as I have nothing to improve and everything to enjoy.
Hence this modest idea: give up resolution making for yourself... and focus your full attention upon the others, lamentable, imperfect, with a pressing need for overhauls small and large.
Draw up a list of persons known to you with glaring, jarring imperfections.
Do not stint. Remember, you are performing a useful act, a noble act, and act of kindness and empathy. As such, let yourself go... think of your aging peers and their shocking habits... of your relatives who have outlived the excuse of "puppy fat."
Think of your loud, too boisterous, ear-splitting friends... and the motor-mouths whose decided opinions on everything under the sun are, perhaps, de trop.
Think of the always-late delivery boy and those with too many unattended felines in a confined space and the olfactory discomfort thereby occurring.
Think, I say, think of prevaricating politicians... and those with nookie on their minds and an acute inability to contain it. Look around you and weigh in with a will...for you have many resolutions to craft and far too little time in which to offer them. Timing is everything, after all, and New Year's resolutions in March seem, well, tardy. Act now.
Now write the New Year's resolutions -- for others.
This part could be troublesome and demands your full attention and craft. Resolutions must be simple, straightforward, honest and at least potentially do-able. Thus, calling your insufficiently loved and abundantly padded brother-in-law fat just won't do. Try this instead:
New Year's resolution of brother-in-law Bob:
To lose 15 pounds by month's end.
And then your signature and the date.
Keeping your resolutions short, sweet, and to the point is de rigueur.
Mail the resolution... email the resolution. Only ensure that your kind thought for their betterment and perfection reaches them early in January.
Imagine how grateful, how pleased the recipient will be when he of pronounced embonpoint receives this missive and its kind and thoughtful message becomes apparent.
Send your New Year's resolutions even to those near and dear who share your abode and are bosom buddies and dear companions on your earthly journey.
The temptation, even for those expert and experienced in providing life enhancing New Year's resolutions for others, will be to personally deliver, message upon hallmarked silver salver, your resolutions to the people near at hand, spouse, children, impecunious sons in law, etc. You will think of their profoundly grateful responses, you will think of the affection and love in their eyes. You will hear with delight words so lavish and abject that even that practised purveyor of the obsequious Uriah Heep would be put to shame. No, you do not want to miss a moment.
But you must.
For your recipient will need a moment or two to compose himself and, no doubt, let fall the grateful tear, that you should care so much and have gone to so much bother on their behalf. Allow them a moment of reflection in privacy, as they think how grateful, how very grateful, they are to have such a one as you in their (otherwise imperfect) life.
Savor this moment, glass of grog at hand for you have done the very best of deeds. Sing under your breath this little-remembered chorus from Robert Burns' immortal annual anthem of maudlin sentimentality, Auld Lang Syne:
"We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine ; But we've wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne."
And now, gratitude, indeed.
As I was finishing up this practical report, there was a knock at the door... then the telephone rang... then I noticed a decided up tick in my email. I was not surprised... I was expecting such a deluge. After all, I had contacted many with a hearty abundance of resolutions, necessary, specific, in depth, all resoundingly honest to a fault. Now, no doubt, the expected responses, the epistles of gratitude and fulsome thanks were at hand.
Ou la la!
Imagine my surprise upon reading the first of these messages:
New Year's Resolution of Dr. Jeffrey Lant...:
signed
your loving sister
Then the one signed by my (concerned) brother, my (worried) father, one jointly signed by my (still affectionate) niece and nephew, my (who-else-could-tell-you?) best friend, my (long suffering) partners... even my (silent-until-now) driver and his wife.. .and all the very many others.
It was jolting to be sure to learn that so many felt so strongly there was so much of me to enhance and correct. But these messages, profoundly honest, stimulated the only New Year's resolution I shall make this year: to love them all, warts and all, and be profoundly glad I have them in my life.
Happy New Year, 2011!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Mass Money Makers -> http://silver45b.massmoneym.hop.clickbank.net
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The next great economic disruption is coming. Are you ready for it?
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This title is sure to startle people who follow the ups and downs of the economy with care and perception. "Economic disruption," they might say. "Whaaat? It is my distinct impression that things economic are improving, slowly but surely. Am I wrong?"
No, you're right. Things ARE improving, the signs are unmistakable:
Item: Online 2010 Christmas sales rose 15% this holiday season from October 31 to December 23. Online retailers took in $36.5 billion during this period, compared to $31.5 billion the same period a year ago. (Note: apparel sales lead the way with $7.3 billion in sales, up 25.7 percent from a year ago.)
Item: Weekly unemployment applications of around 425,00 signal modest job growth. Such applications peaked at 651,000 in March, 2009.
Item: Companies increased their orders for long- lasting manufactured products by the sharpest increase in eight months, the Department of Commerce reported before Christmas, 2010. Demand rose for computers, appliances, and heavy machinery... with overall expected 2011 growth at 3.5 percent to 4 percent, up from 2.8 percent in 2010. Andante ma non troppo.
The rich are out and about buying things meretricious de rigueur for the country club set.
As retailers to the rich can unhappily confirm, wealthy shoppers, with their penchant for acquiring gaudy and overpriced items the rest of the world gets by quite happily without, were in short supply during the recession. This Christmas season of 2010 was very different. Mere bagatelles such as luxury automobiles and eye-popping ice were snapped up with alacrity -- and no buyer's remorse.
Said Michael J. Silverstein, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. "Many households with incomes above $100,000 don't believe the sky is falling anymore. And when they don't believe the sky is falling anymore, they want things." Amen.
For instance, some national chains and independent merchants expect double-digit increases in jewelry sales for 2010, a dramatic turn-around from the painful 40 percent drops the hardest hit jewelers experienced since 2008.
So, if things are getting better bit by bit, why is this article about the next great economic disruption?
Because, quite frankly, the ease and abundance of good times are like a drug obliterating the painful lessons and memories of bad times... which all contributes to creating the next, inevitable bad times. Instead of losing the lessons of the still clear and painful past, we need to make every effort to remember them.... while preparing for the next great economic disruption for which we must be better prepared than the one from which we're emerging from now.
The great English romantic poet Lord Byron can assist us. One day his lordship received a message from his demanding inamorata Lady Caroline Lamb to "remember" her. Tired to death of her incessant impositions, he sent her this message of unmistakable clarity:
"Remember thee! remember thee! Till Lethe quench life's burning stream. Remorse and shame shall cling to thee, And haunt thee like a feverish dream!
Lord Byron indeed would remember and rearrange matters accordingly ... and so must we all. After all, we all know that such disruptions occur at predictable intervals for which we must be ready.
Here are the preparatory steps to follow starting TODAY!
1) Start a "rainy day" fund. Build this fund by regular monthly additions until it represents at least 6 months of total home expenses and not a cent less. Building this fund in good times takes exceptional determination, not least because in such times you want to "make up" for the things you went without during the recession. At all times, therefore, you must remind yourself that the next bad times are on the way... and that you are determined to be ready for them. Save then as if your life depends upon it... for it does.
2) Survey all expenses. If you think you did so during the bad times, think again. Now you know how many of these things you can comfortably do without. Root them out now... and put the savings in the "rainy day" account. Turning current expenses into income-producing capital is a crucial part of how you'll get comfortably through the next bad times.
3) Review the damage the bad times made. Did you, for instance, borrow against an IRA account or life insurance policy? If so, you must replace these funds by regular monthly payments, not least because such borrowings are likely to have tax and high interest payment implications. These need to be taken care of ASAP.
4) Start your trek ahead with a clear understanding, with a precise, realistic appraisal of where you are today. Many people at this point in the economic cycle are deeply depressed by what they have lost. This is a mistake. Instead of fretting over what is gone from your asset balance, instead review what you have and consider just how you will improve your net worth.
Still more recommendations
5) If you are self-employed, as many people reading this article are, always make the maximum allowable contributions into your retirement account. Treat these as payments, as you would any invoice. And always pay these retirement payments first, before other bills.
6) Make the maximum charitable donations that you can. Your charitable contributions should begin in January of the new year... and not in December. You should set a dollar donation objective for the year (in conjunction, of course, with your accountant.) Start working towards it as the new year dawns and not as it exits.
7) Remove yourself from what I call the "squandering classes." Review each and every expenditure... not just for yourself but for any children still at home and old enough to have jobs. All have a responsibility to think first, determine whether this expense is in fact warranted, and reduce or go without whenever possible.
8) "Batten down the hatches" for 1 month. As a test of your system and habits, live one month in the good times as if it were one month in the bad. Cut expenses accordingly and see how easy (or difficult) your life would be in recessionary times. Such a drill should yield many good ideas as well as clarity on your spending habits.
Death, taxes, bad economic times
When I was growing up people said there were 2 great inevitabilities of life: death and taxes. However, there is in fact at least 1 more: bad economic times. Count on it. They will recur in your life over and over again.
Will you be ready for them?
You certainly will be if you treat them as the certainties they are and prepare accordingly, along the lines of this article. Doing so, when they arrive you will have nothing to fear, and that places you amongst the very smartest and best prepared, the ones destined to ride out the next great economic storm in comfort and with quiet satisfaction.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Mass Money Makers -> http://silver45b.massmoneym.hop.clickbank.net
This title is sure to startle people who follow the ups and downs of the economy with care and perception. "Economic disruption," they might say. "Whaaat? It is my distinct impression that things economic are improving, slowly but surely. Am I wrong?"
No, you're right. Things ARE improving, the signs are unmistakable:
Item: Online 2010 Christmas sales rose 15% this holiday season from October 31 to December 23. Online retailers took in $36.5 billion during this period, compared to $31.5 billion the same period a year ago. (Note: apparel sales lead the way with $7.3 billion in sales, up 25.7 percent from a year ago.)
Item: Weekly unemployment applications of around 425,00 signal modest job growth. Such applications peaked at 651,000 in March, 2009.
Item: Companies increased their orders for long- lasting manufactured products by the sharpest increase in eight months, the Department of Commerce reported before Christmas, 2010. Demand rose for computers, appliances, and heavy machinery... with overall expected 2011 growth at 3.5 percent to 4 percent, up from 2.8 percent in 2010. Andante ma non troppo.
The rich are out and about buying things meretricious de rigueur for the country club set.
As retailers to the rich can unhappily confirm, wealthy shoppers, with their penchant for acquiring gaudy and overpriced items the rest of the world gets by quite happily without, were in short supply during the recession. This Christmas season of 2010 was very different. Mere bagatelles such as luxury automobiles and eye-popping ice were snapped up with alacrity -- and no buyer's remorse.
Said Michael J. Silverstein, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. "Many households with incomes above $100,000 don't believe the sky is falling anymore. And when they don't believe the sky is falling anymore, they want things." Amen.
For instance, some national chains and independent merchants expect double-digit increases in jewelry sales for 2010, a dramatic turn-around from the painful 40 percent drops the hardest hit jewelers experienced since 2008.
So, if things are getting better bit by bit, why is this article about the next great economic disruption?
Because, quite frankly, the ease and abundance of good times are like a drug obliterating the painful lessons and memories of bad times... which all contributes to creating the next, inevitable bad times. Instead of losing the lessons of the still clear and painful past, we need to make every effort to remember them.... while preparing for the next great economic disruption for which we must be better prepared than the one from which we're emerging from now.
The great English romantic poet Lord Byron can assist us. One day his lordship received a message from his demanding inamorata Lady Caroline Lamb to "remember" her. Tired to death of her incessant impositions, he sent her this message of unmistakable clarity:
"Remember thee! remember thee! Till Lethe quench life's burning stream. Remorse and shame shall cling to thee, And haunt thee like a feverish dream!
Lord Byron indeed would remember and rearrange matters accordingly ... and so must we all. After all, we all know that such disruptions occur at predictable intervals for which we must be ready.
Here are the preparatory steps to follow starting TODAY!
1) Start a "rainy day" fund. Build this fund by regular monthly additions until it represents at least 6 months of total home expenses and not a cent less. Building this fund in good times takes exceptional determination, not least because in such times you want to "make up" for the things you went without during the recession. At all times, therefore, you must remind yourself that the next bad times are on the way... and that you are determined to be ready for them. Save then as if your life depends upon it... for it does.
2) Survey all expenses. If you think you did so during the bad times, think again. Now you know how many of these things you can comfortably do without. Root them out now... and put the savings in the "rainy day" account. Turning current expenses into income-producing capital is a crucial part of how you'll get comfortably through the next bad times.
3) Review the damage the bad times made. Did you, for instance, borrow against an IRA account or life insurance policy? If so, you must replace these funds by regular monthly payments, not least because such borrowings are likely to have tax and high interest payment implications. These need to be taken care of ASAP.
4) Start your trek ahead with a clear understanding, with a precise, realistic appraisal of where you are today. Many people at this point in the economic cycle are deeply depressed by what they have lost. This is a mistake. Instead of fretting over what is gone from your asset balance, instead review what you have and consider just how you will improve your net worth.
Still more recommendations
5) If you are self-employed, as many people reading this article are, always make the maximum allowable contributions into your retirement account. Treat these as payments, as you would any invoice. And always pay these retirement payments first, before other bills.
6) Make the maximum charitable donations that you can. Your charitable contributions should begin in January of the new year... and not in December. You should set a dollar donation objective for the year (in conjunction, of course, with your accountant.) Start working towards it as the new year dawns and not as it exits.
7) Remove yourself from what I call the "squandering classes." Review each and every expenditure... not just for yourself but for any children still at home and old enough to have jobs. All have a responsibility to think first, determine whether this expense is in fact warranted, and reduce or go without whenever possible.
8) "Batten down the hatches" for 1 month. As a test of your system and habits, live one month in the good times as if it were one month in the bad. Cut expenses accordingly and see how easy (or difficult) your life would be in recessionary times. Such a drill should yield many good ideas as well as clarity on your spending habits.
Death, taxes, bad economic times
When I was growing up people said there were 2 great inevitabilities of life: death and taxes. However, there is in fact at least 1 more: bad economic times. Count on it. They will recur in your life over and over again.
Will you be ready for them?
You certainly will be if you treat them as the certainties they are and prepare accordingly, along the lines of this article. Doing so, when they arrive you will have nothing to fear, and that places you amongst the very smartest and best prepared, the ones destined to ride out the next great economic storm in comfort and with quiet satisfaction.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Mass Money Makers -> http://silver45b.massmoneym.hop.clickbank.net
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
My heart belongs to great grand daddy. Octogenarian Hugh Hefner to wed 24-year-old Playboy Playmate!
Hugh Hefner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Illinois in 1949... A marriage to Crystal Harris would be his third. Hugh Hefner was married to the former Mildred Williams from 1949 until their divorce in 1959; they had two children, Christie (born 1952) and David (b. 1955). His second marriage was to Kimberly Conrad, a Playboy 'Playmate of the Year,' and lasted from 1989 until their divorce in 2010, although they were separated for the second decade of the marriage; they had two sons, Marston (b. 1990) and Cooper (b. 1991).
Read more: http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?cp=bp7NwpPw
This is the kind of story that triggers universal sniggers, all-knowing winks and nudges, and of course an avalanche of jokes, crude, funny, blue.
The facts
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, 84 years young, announced his engagement on Twitter on Christmas Day 2010. The lucky bride-to-be is 24-year-old Kimberley Conrad, Playboy Playmate of the month for December 2009.
Kimberley, predictably, is a looker in the time tested Playboy fashion, a long-tressed blond, leggy, tanned, a dream come true. No wonder "Hef" looks so smug and self-satisfied in his engagement photo. After all, he has pulled off what every aging (but still red-blooded) American male dreams of and has the eye-catching photographs to prove it.
What's this all about? We all think we know, don't we?
The first thing that pops into our heads is most assuredly NOT good wishes for the happy couple, certainly not. Instead of a match made in heaven, the general premise is something like this:
a man of money, position, and abnormally high testosterone levels, hits the bulls-eye with an All-American stunner who checked the actuarial tables before saying "I will" and liked the life expectation numbers she saw. Thus, she saw a golden future dead ahead should she outlive her groom and keep his attention for just a little time.
In short, they both were licking their chops.
Perhaps they really do love each other.
Americans, at root a very pragmatic people, can understand this quid pro quo, tit for tat, way of life. Many of us, after all, have made similar, if not quite so remunerative deals with the devil. It is something we understand.
But what if this initial, inevitable knee-jerk reaction is wrong? Suppose, in the spirit of science, the (almost) unthinkable, suppose, I say, that he loves her... and that she loves him. When a (typically) judgmental young friend of mind heard this news, his reaction was brief, harsh, absolute: "gross!" It was simply unthinkable, unimaginable that a young stunner could actually love a (by definition) tired old geezer. "Gross" indeed!
However, love, as all those know who partake in this surprising dish, is unaccountable. Every day people wed who find more joys in being together than could be expected from the hostile reaction to their togetherness Call it affection... call it fulfillment... call it love. Fate throws them together and animal magnetism and deep affection keep them together "till death do us part", happy despite a pronounced difference in ages.
Difficult though it is for my inexperienced young friend to assess this possibility accurately, it is not so difficult for me, a spring chicken of only 63.
"Hef" brings more to the table than just a plethora of years and lots of shekels. For one thing, he seems genuinely to like women. Oh, yes, I know what you're thinking...he certainly does. But I mean that he really likes women, not just as a series of riveting curves and surprising revelations. I mean that he likes and respects women... and derives great joy, on many levels, from having them in his life.
If such be the case, then he is truly a fortunate fellow, for love is, indeed, a many splendored thing when it brings about happiness and fulfillment, particularly late in life.
Still... there are those who hope for the very worst. It reinforces their glum view of humans and their twisted relationships. These folks would be completely unhappy at any denouement that made "Hef" and his intended anything other than entirely selfish, degrading, revolting... and so deeply satisfying to the man on the street, who expects the worst and gets it.
Meet the true Hugh Hefner, an important player in one of America's most important export businesses, leisure and entertainment
After the sale of arms (sadly always America's #1 export) the largest and arguably more important business is entertainment and leisure. Not only is it supremely lucrative but, at the same time that it racks up record profits, it also changes the world. Products in the leisure and entertainment field not only help people while away their free hours... they also change the way people think, act, live. They Americanize the globe. Here Hefner is a key player.
Hefner with, of course, the willing aid and assistance of a bevy of scantily clad ladies caught in piquant and naughty poses, has been responsible for billions of dollars coming into this country, not just those directly coming to Playboy and its many enterprises but from all related businesses. These all took their cue from "Hef", tracking him closely, for he was the real deal, a bona fide inventor and seer.
To put it bluntly, "Hef" has been since his first Playboy issue in 1953, an active, engaged participant in the easing and abolition of some of America's more heinous social views, including the domestic repression of women and the ridicule and oppression of homosexuals. Yes, at the same time as he (both directly and indirectly) sweetened our country's balance sheet, he aimed (partly through the magazine's articles which generations of college boys used as their "reason" for reading the magazine), he aimed I say,at nothing less than a social revolution. By removing clothes and creating fantasies, Hugh Hefner (no doubt laughing all the way to the bank) transformed the nation into a place entirely comfortable for him -- and his winsome Bunnies. Surely by this reckoning "Hef" deserves America's highest civilian decoration, the Freedom Medal, the name so very apt for such a man.
Sadly, no president (including his near Chicago neighbor Mr. Obama) will ever dare to give it to him in a White House ceremony with his beautiful young wife in the front row cheering him on, bashful but radiantly alluring. What a ceremony we'll never have.
Still, I think Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hefner will not complain overmuch for there is much yet to do in Playboy Bunny Land... with America's export trade to save... and an abundance of social ills to cure. As wife Kimberley sits on his knee of an evening, no doubt "Hef" is focused squarely on these crucial matters ... and on absolutely nothing else, except his pre-nup, which no doubt he consults often and carefully.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=wu0v1Kef
310.618.8107
Read more: http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?cp=bp7NwpPw
This is the kind of story that triggers universal sniggers, all-knowing winks and nudges, and of course an avalanche of jokes, crude, funny, blue.
The facts
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, 84 years young, announced his engagement on Twitter on Christmas Day 2010. The lucky bride-to-be is 24-year-old Kimberley Conrad, Playboy Playmate of the month for December 2009.
Kimberley, predictably, is a looker in the time tested Playboy fashion, a long-tressed blond, leggy, tanned, a dream come true. No wonder "Hef" looks so smug and self-satisfied in his engagement photo. After all, he has pulled off what every aging (but still red-blooded) American male dreams of and has the eye-catching photographs to prove it.
What's this all about? We all think we know, don't we?
The first thing that pops into our heads is most assuredly NOT good wishes for the happy couple, certainly not. Instead of a match made in heaven, the general premise is something like this:
a man of money, position, and abnormally high testosterone levels, hits the bulls-eye with an All-American stunner who checked the actuarial tables before saying "I will" and liked the life expectation numbers she saw. Thus, she saw a golden future dead ahead should she outlive her groom and keep his attention for just a little time.
In short, they both were licking their chops.
Perhaps they really do love each other.
Americans, at root a very pragmatic people, can understand this quid pro quo, tit for tat, way of life. Many of us, after all, have made similar, if not quite so remunerative deals with the devil. It is something we understand.
But what if this initial, inevitable knee-jerk reaction is wrong? Suppose, in the spirit of science, the (almost) unthinkable, suppose, I say, that he loves her... and that she loves him. When a (typically) judgmental young friend of mind heard this news, his reaction was brief, harsh, absolute: "gross!" It was simply unthinkable, unimaginable that a young stunner could actually love a (by definition) tired old geezer. "Gross" indeed!
However, love, as all those know who partake in this surprising dish, is unaccountable. Every day people wed who find more joys in being together than could be expected from the hostile reaction to their togetherness Call it affection... call it fulfillment... call it love. Fate throws them together and animal magnetism and deep affection keep them together "till death do us part", happy despite a pronounced difference in ages.
Difficult though it is for my inexperienced young friend to assess this possibility accurately, it is not so difficult for me, a spring chicken of only 63.
"Hef" brings more to the table than just a plethora of years and lots of shekels. For one thing, he seems genuinely to like women. Oh, yes, I know what you're thinking...he certainly does. But I mean that he really likes women, not just as a series of riveting curves and surprising revelations. I mean that he likes and respects women... and derives great joy, on many levels, from having them in his life.
If such be the case, then he is truly a fortunate fellow, for love is, indeed, a many splendored thing when it brings about happiness and fulfillment, particularly late in life.
Still... there are those who hope for the very worst. It reinforces their glum view of humans and their twisted relationships. These folks would be completely unhappy at any denouement that made "Hef" and his intended anything other than entirely selfish, degrading, revolting... and so deeply satisfying to the man on the street, who expects the worst and gets it.
Meet the true Hugh Hefner, an important player in one of America's most important export businesses, leisure and entertainment
After the sale of arms (sadly always America's #1 export) the largest and arguably more important business is entertainment and leisure. Not only is it supremely lucrative but, at the same time that it racks up record profits, it also changes the world. Products in the leisure and entertainment field not only help people while away their free hours... they also change the way people think, act, live. They Americanize the globe. Here Hefner is a key player.
Hefner with, of course, the willing aid and assistance of a bevy of scantily clad ladies caught in piquant and naughty poses, has been responsible for billions of dollars coming into this country, not just those directly coming to Playboy and its many enterprises but from all related businesses. These all took their cue from "Hef", tracking him closely, for he was the real deal, a bona fide inventor and seer.
To put it bluntly, "Hef" has been since his first Playboy issue in 1953, an active, engaged participant in the easing and abolition of some of America's more heinous social views, including the domestic repression of women and the ridicule and oppression of homosexuals. Yes, at the same time as he (both directly and indirectly) sweetened our country's balance sheet, he aimed (partly through the magazine's articles which generations of college boys used as their "reason" for reading the magazine), he aimed I say,at nothing less than a social revolution. By removing clothes and creating fantasies, Hugh Hefner (no doubt laughing all the way to the bank) transformed the nation into a place entirely comfortable for him -- and his winsome Bunnies. Surely by this reckoning "Hef" deserves America's highest civilian decoration, the Freedom Medal, the name so very apt for such a man.
Sadly, no president (including his near Chicago neighbor Mr. Obama) will ever dare to give it to him in a White House ceremony with his beautiful young wife in the front row cheering him on, bashful but radiantly alluring. What a ceremony we'll never have.
Still, I think Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hefner will not complain overmuch for there is much yet to do in Playboy Bunny Land... with America's export trade to save... and an abundance of social ills to cure. As wife Kimberley sits on his knee of an evening, no doubt "Hef" is focused squarely on these crucial matters ... and on absolutely nothing else, except his pre-nup, which no doubt he consults often and carefully.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=wu0v1Kef
310.618.8107
Monday, December 27, 2010
What your local school is NOT teaching your children
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Have you considered lately just what your local school is -- or more importantly -- is not teaching your children? Probably not. Like most parents, you take the matter on faith; hoping they're teaching what your children most need to get ahead.
Unfortunately, in at least 4 key areas, your children are learning little or nothing of what they absolutely must know to get ahead and lead profitable, productive lives.
#1 Local schools don't teach necessary interview and job skills, leaving your children vulnerable particularly in tight job markets.
Here are just some of the items on which the school is letting you down:
* how to write a resume and cover letter * how to look for and find available jobs * how to follow up with prospective employers * how to dress for the interview * how to handle themselves during interviews.
Obviously obtaining employment is crucial. Sadly, your school is letting you down.
#2 Your school is not delivering detailed information on financial affairs.
Mastery of basic information about money, debt, investments, etc is crucial. However, here's what your school isn't teaching:
* how to open a bank account * how to use checks, including how to balance a check book * what a home mortgage is and how to get and keep one * how to do a home budget * understanding and benefiting from pensions * understanding mutual funds and other financial investments * how to complete a tax form.
We live in a "capitalist" culture, but the overwhelming majority of our citizens are clueless about how to benefit from it, because our schools teach nothing about it.
#3 How to be a good citizen. Your school isn't telling, leaving this to "catch as catch can" with disastrous results.
Election after election takes place with 40%, or more, of citizens failing to vote. No wonder. Here's just some of what our schools don't teach:
* what is a citizen? What are his/her rights and responsibilities * what is the Constitution? What is the Bill of Rights? * how to register to vote * how to read a ballot * how to understand referenda and other citizen initiatives * how to vote.
We decry low voter turn-out and participation yet fail to teach what is necessary for a healthy democracy.
#4 Basic human relations skills
Have you looked at your children lately? Have you actually listened to them?
EVERY civilization prior to ours was painstaking in teaching young people successfully how to interact with other people. They realized that such skills were absolutely crucial for a successful marriage and life generally. Instead of this sensible system, we let matters take their course with predictable results. Here's just some of what our schools don't teach:
* how to greet strangers and make them feel comfortable * how to look people in the eyes * how to handle a basic conversation * the meaning of courtesy and how to deliver it * how to express appreciation * how to reciprocate.
Get the picture? Without your school's interest or support, your children are left at sea with no assistance or insight whatsoever about necessary questions of human relations. Boorish and self-defeating behaviors are therefore inevitable.
Since The Schools Are Unable or Unwilling To Assist, These Things Are YOUR Responsibility
It is clear that leaving matters to your school is a bad mistake. Public educators are unable or unwilling to teach these matters. Thus, if you want the best for your children YOU must become their recognized, organized "life skills" teacher.
Don't treat this matter casually or lightly. It is far too important for that.
* Think what your children must know but are not getting in school. * Schedule regular meeting with your children. * Be clear on what you want them to know. * Encourage active participation and discussion. * Invite their friends to participate.
It is not the fault of the children that they are being short- changed in schools. Don't compound the problem by short-changing them at home. Start today. You'll be glad you did, and your children will reward you by maturing into better people, with suitable appreciation for all you did!
P.S. If your school district teaches at least some of these things, be glad.... then ask them to implement the rest!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Have you considered lately just what your local school is -- or more importantly -- is not teaching your children? Probably not. Like most parents, you take the matter on faith; hoping they're teaching what your children most need to get ahead.
Unfortunately, in at least 4 key areas, your children are learning little or nothing of what they absolutely must know to get ahead and lead profitable, productive lives.
#1 Local schools don't teach necessary interview and job skills, leaving your children vulnerable particularly in tight job markets.
Here are just some of the items on which the school is letting you down:
* how to write a resume and cover letter * how to look for and find available jobs * how to follow up with prospective employers * how to dress for the interview * how to handle themselves during interviews.
Obviously obtaining employment is crucial. Sadly, your school is letting you down.
#2 Your school is not delivering detailed information on financial affairs.
Mastery of basic information about money, debt, investments, etc is crucial. However, here's what your school isn't teaching:
* how to open a bank account * how to use checks, including how to balance a check book * what a home mortgage is and how to get and keep one * how to do a home budget * understanding and benefiting from pensions * understanding mutual funds and other financial investments * how to complete a tax form.
We live in a "capitalist" culture, but the overwhelming majority of our citizens are clueless about how to benefit from it, because our schools teach nothing about it.
#3 How to be a good citizen. Your school isn't telling, leaving this to "catch as catch can" with disastrous results.
Election after election takes place with 40%, or more, of citizens failing to vote. No wonder. Here's just some of what our schools don't teach:
* what is a citizen? What are his/her rights and responsibilities * what is the Constitution? What is the Bill of Rights? * how to register to vote * how to read a ballot * how to understand referenda and other citizen initiatives * how to vote.
We decry low voter turn-out and participation yet fail to teach what is necessary for a healthy democracy.
#4 Basic human relations skills
Have you looked at your children lately? Have you actually listened to them?
EVERY civilization prior to ours was painstaking in teaching young people successfully how to interact with other people. They realized that such skills were absolutely crucial for a successful marriage and life generally. Instead of this sensible system, we let matters take their course with predictable results. Here's just some of what our schools don't teach:
* how to greet strangers and make them feel comfortable * how to look people in the eyes * how to handle a basic conversation * the meaning of courtesy and how to deliver it * how to express appreciation * how to reciprocate.
Get the picture? Without your school's interest or support, your children are left at sea with no assistance or insight whatsoever about necessary questions of human relations. Boorish and self-defeating behaviors are therefore inevitable.
Since The Schools Are Unable or Unwilling To Assist, These Things Are YOUR Responsibility
It is clear that leaving matters to your school is a bad mistake. Public educators are unable or unwilling to teach these matters. Thus, if you want the best for your children YOU must become their recognized, organized "life skills" teacher.
Don't treat this matter casually or lightly. It is far too important for that.
* Think what your children must know but are not getting in school. * Schedule regular meeting with your children. * Be clear on what you want them to know. * Encourage active participation and discussion. * Invite their friends to participate.
It is not the fault of the children that they are being short- changed in schools. Don't compound the problem by short-changing them at home. Start today. You'll be glad you did, and your children will reward you by maturing into better people, with suitable appreciation for all you did!
P.S. If your school district teaches at least some of these things, be glad.... then ask them to implement the rest!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Five Things You Don't Know About Closing Sales Which Are Eviscerating Your Profits
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It isn't just that most people are lousy at sales... far more shocking is the fact that most SALES PEOPLE are lousy at sales.
If you're one of them, this article is for YOU!
The plain fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of sales people rely on their charm, gift of gab, and ability to "wing it" to make sales... instead of being prepared to make sale after sale. STOP IT! Following these sensible steps means more money:
1) Closing sales is not a matter of motivation or pressure. Instead, it's a question of having the right information readily at hand, so you can answer customer questions quickly, easily, thoroughly.
Thus, consider what you have readily available when you are talking to a customer.
2) Do you have (readily available, mind) a sheet of "you gets", that is a list of PRECISELY what your customer gets when using your product/service?
Dollars to doughnuts, neither you nor any member of your business has sat down and written out the features of what you're selling; then converted each and every feature into a benefit that the customer gets. Treat each and every benefit like scoops on an ice-cream cone; the higher you stack 'em, the more enticing to the customer!
3) Do you have a sheet of offers?
Products do not sell themselves; a sales person bragging "Our product sells itself" is wrong, naive or both. What sells products is offers; the better the offer the faster the sale.
Thus, have you got a sheet of offers; "add-ons" you can use to motivate immediate customer action? This list should make it very clear just what the customer gets for fast action. AND when the customer must act, for ALL offers must be limited by time, quantity, etc.
4) Do you have a sheet of results testimonials?
People what to be assured and re-assured about what they will get when using your product. Here's where "results" testimonials come in. These not only provide a happy customer's experience in using your product ("I loved it"), but the specific results that customer achieved. The greater the specificity and the benefits, the better and more effective the testimonial.
Note: whenever possible ALL testimonials must include full customer and such relevant details as title, location, etc. In short, testimonials must be detailed and complete to be completely credible.
5) A page of objection responses and rebuttals
Face it, not every customer will leap for joy upon hearing of what you are selling. That's why you must be prepared for the nay-sayers, the procrastinators, the cautious, and the merely foolish. For these folks, a list of every possible objection and your strongest response is required.
Commmon objections include:
"I must ask my spouse."
"I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks."
"I have to check you out."
"I don't have the money."
Now hear this: there isn't an objection under the sun which cannot be effectively answered, only not by "winging it." EVERY successful sales person knows that preparation here is mandatory; the rebuttals may seem spontaneous... but they must ALWAYS be rehearsed. Brainstorm all objections; then work on the responses. As new objections surface, add them to your list... and, again, perfect the perfect, objection- demolishing response.
Last Words
The key to sales success is NEVER a "wing and a prayer." It is ALWAYS a matter of total, complete, deliberate effort. Such effort can turn a mediocre sales person into a stellar performer. That, of course, is precisely what your goal must be, and now you know how to achieve it!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=wu0v1Kef
310.618.8107
It isn't just that most people are lousy at sales... far more shocking is the fact that most SALES PEOPLE are lousy at sales.
If you're one of them, this article is for YOU!
The plain fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of sales people rely on their charm, gift of gab, and ability to "wing it" to make sales... instead of being prepared to make sale after sale. STOP IT! Following these sensible steps means more money:
1) Closing sales is not a matter of motivation or pressure. Instead, it's a question of having the right information readily at hand, so you can answer customer questions quickly, easily, thoroughly.
Thus, consider what you have readily available when you are talking to a customer.
2) Do you have (readily available, mind) a sheet of "you gets", that is a list of PRECISELY what your customer gets when using your product/service?
Dollars to doughnuts, neither you nor any member of your business has sat down and written out the features of what you're selling; then converted each and every feature into a benefit that the customer gets. Treat each and every benefit like scoops on an ice-cream cone; the higher you stack 'em, the more enticing to the customer!
3) Do you have a sheet of offers?
Products do not sell themselves; a sales person bragging "Our product sells itself" is wrong, naive or both. What sells products is offers; the better the offer the faster the sale.
Thus, have you got a sheet of offers; "add-ons" you can use to motivate immediate customer action? This list should make it very clear just what the customer gets for fast action. AND when the customer must act, for ALL offers must be limited by time, quantity, etc.
4) Do you have a sheet of results testimonials?
People what to be assured and re-assured about what they will get when using your product. Here's where "results" testimonials come in. These not only provide a happy customer's experience in using your product ("I loved it"), but the specific results that customer achieved. The greater the specificity and the benefits, the better and more effective the testimonial.
Note: whenever possible ALL testimonials must include full customer and such relevant details as title, location, etc. In short, testimonials must be detailed and complete to be completely credible.
5) A page of objection responses and rebuttals
Face it, not every customer will leap for joy upon hearing of what you are selling. That's why you must be prepared for the nay-sayers, the procrastinators, the cautious, and the merely foolish. For these folks, a list of every possible objection and your strongest response is required.
Commmon objections include:
"I must ask my spouse."
"I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks."
"I have to check you out."
"I don't have the money."
Now hear this: there isn't an objection under the sun which cannot be effectively answered, only not by "winging it." EVERY successful sales person knows that preparation here is mandatory; the rebuttals may seem spontaneous... but they must ALWAYS be rehearsed. Brainstorm all objections; then work on the responses. As new objections surface, add them to your list... and, again, perfect the perfect, objection- demolishing response.
Last Words
The key to sales success is NEVER a "wing and a prayer." It is ALWAYS a matter of total, complete, deliberate effort. Such effort can turn a mediocre sales person into a stellar performer. That, of course, is precisely what your goal must be, and now you know how to achieve it!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=wu0v1Kef
310.618.8107
Saturday, December 25, 2010
'How come you do me like you do, do, do?' What your customers are saying about YOU!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
In 1924 America's first crooner, red-hot pop star Rudy Vallee (and his Connecticut Yankees band) had the nation humming along with the catchy rhythm of his latest hit: "How come you do me like you do, do, do?"
The legions of liberated "flappers" who followed Vallee everywhere (unleashing a national debate about the "new woman") sang along with America's boy next door:
"Why do you try to make me feel so blue? I ain't done nothing to do!"
"You better treat me right, or let me be! 'cause I can beat you doing what you're doing to me."
It was a phenomenon, and a golden marketing model was born that in due course produced Crosby, Como, and Sinatra.
The flappers, and Vallee himself, are now history... but the song's lyrics carry on as insistent questions customers ask business owners worldwide:
"WHY do you do me like you do, do, do? WHY do you do me like you do?"
Your customers are talking about you. Do you like what they're saying?
Now hear this: EVERY customer who steps through your door, calls you on the telephone, writes or emails you is going to talk about what happened. Were they treated properly, professionally, promptly.... or was it a case of "Why do you do me like you do, do, do?" Remember, what they say is a direct result of what you do. Thus, you have it in your power to ensure that they never say -- and you never suffer from them saying -- ANY of these:
1) "They never returned my call!"
Not so long ago, every business made it a point to return calls promptly and have the information the customer needed readily at hand when they did. No longer. Now, there is not even the pretense by most businesses that they return every telephone call... much less promptly and thoroughly.
Yet, let's be clear, customers WANT their calls returned... and they are certain to complain to friends and family when YOU don't!
Make it a point to return all calls within 24 hours, even if you only report that you are working to get what the customer wants. The returned call itself signifies volumes!
2) "I filled out their online questionnaire and heard nothing."
This really bugs your customers... and rightly so. This is how the customer reckons: "you posted a questionnaire on your web site. I took the time and trouble to complete it. Then nothing, absolutely nothing, from you." Oh, yes, you can be sure the customer will tell the people he knows with a "can you believe this?" slant to a tale which you may be sure will lose nothing in the telling.
3) "They promised to send me... but never did!"
Customers are literal. They expect you to do what you say you're going to do... and they will shout it from the mountain tops when you don't. So, do.
If you can handle the customer's request today, do so. If you can't, then explain to the customer when she may expect to hear from you.
Don't just promise action, however; deliver it. Otherwise, in the words of the song "why do you try to make me feel so blue? I ain't done nothing to you." Believe me; they will start doing something, something you won't like, if you don't come through!
4) "They never told me what was happening."
When a customer says this, what they are really saying is this: "Can you believe this? Can you believe that those yahoos would treat ME like this... ME the all-important customer?" In short, the customer will make it clear to everyone who will listen that you are little better than a jerk and certainly far from delivering the prompt professional service they have every right to expect. Ouch!
Solution? If you want to impress your customer, instead of providing the fuel for the fire that ends up scorching you, then follow-up and keep the customer in the loop. Always.
5) "I waited and waited for service while the staff gossiped about what they did over the week-end."
Want your customers to see red... and tell the world? Then ignore them. Don't bother to show your staff how to treat customers; don't treat them properly yourself. Just continue to ignore them while chatting away. This is an absolutely sure-fire way to lose a customer and launch a stream of comments, the worse because they are absolutely true.
You and your staff do gossip in front of customers.
Indeed, you seem to not even see the customers, much less regard them.
As a result, thoughtless, avoidable rudeness by rudeness you are helping your customers create the negative image that kills your profits and enriches your competitors. Ouch again!
6) "He was texting his girl friend while I waited for assistance!"
Inappropriate and untimely text messaging has become a worldwide problem and a sure-fire way to get your customers to bad-mouth you and your business.
Be assured that if you text message in front of customers, particularly about personal matters, you will tap into the rich, inexhaustible vein of customer irritation, exasperation, and rage. Text in front of customers, and you can be sure the customer will retaliate in ways that hurt your bottom line. Count on it! "cause I can beat you doing what you're doing to me!"
7) "He left for a break right in the middle of 'helping' me!"
More avoidable customer exasperation and disbelief. OK, so you want your break! OK, you "need" that cigarette... or that sugar high RIGHT NOW. But must you make your feelings about your acute boredom with and disdain for customers quite as clear as you do by walking away from them when you're supposed to be assisting?
We live in rude, vulgar, selfish, acute me-centered times. These are getting worse and worse as general acceptance of boorish behavior grows. Customers, however, continue to expect businesses like yours to exhibit service and civility... the more so since they get so little of it otherwise.
Last Words
So, WHY do you do your customers like you do, do, do when they are the life blood of your business? WHY do you allow behaviors and actions which not only irritate customers but hurt yourself and your business? You see, every negative situation cited above is entirely avoidable. Instead of doing things which infuriate customers, start singing them Rudy Vallee's greatest hit -- "My time is your time" . With that as your focus, they'll stop moaning "How come you do me like you do, do, do?" and start whistling a tune you'll like a whole lot better.
Rudy Vallee's Official Web Site: For biographical details about the man who made the megaphone and raccoon coats fashionable, America's first crooner, visit www.rudyvallee.com
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8108
Skype Lawrence.rinke
In 1924 America's first crooner, red-hot pop star Rudy Vallee (and his Connecticut Yankees band) had the nation humming along with the catchy rhythm of his latest hit: "How come you do me like you do, do, do?"
The legions of liberated "flappers" who followed Vallee everywhere (unleashing a national debate about the "new woman") sang along with America's boy next door:
"Why do you try to make me feel so blue? I ain't done nothing to do!"
"You better treat me right, or let me be! 'cause I can beat you doing what you're doing to me."
It was a phenomenon, and a golden marketing model was born that in due course produced Crosby, Como, and Sinatra.
The flappers, and Vallee himself, are now history... but the song's lyrics carry on as insistent questions customers ask business owners worldwide:
"WHY do you do me like you do, do, do? WHY do you do me like you do?"
Your customers are talking about you. Do you like what they're saying?
Now hear this: EVERY customer who steps through your door, calls you on the telephone, writes or emails you is going to talk about what happened. Were they treated properly, professionally, promptly.... or was it a case of "Why do you do me like you do, do, do?" Remember, what they say is a direct result of what you do. Thus, you have it in your power to ensure that they never say -- and you never suffer from them saying -- ANY of these:
1) "They never returned my call!"
Not so long ago, every business made it a point to return calls promptly and have the information the customer needed readily at hand when they did. No longer. Now, there is not even the pretense by most businesses that they return every telephone call... much less promptly and thoroughly.
Yet, let's be clear, customers WANT their calls returned... and they are certain to complain to friends and family when YOU don't!
Make it a point to return all calls within 24 hours, even if you only report that you are working to get what the customer wants. The returned call itself signifies volumes!
2) "I filled out their online questionnaire and heard nothing."
This really bugs your customers... and rightly so. This is how the customer reckons: "you posted a questionnaire on your web site. I took the time and trouble to complete it. Then nothing, absolutely nothing, from you." Oh, yes, you can be sure the customer will tell the people he knows with a "can you believe this?" slant to a tale which you may be sure will lose nothing in the telling.
3) "They promised to send me... but never did!"
Customers are literal. They expect you to do what you say you're going to do... and they will shout it from the mountain tops when you don't. So, do.
If you can handle the customer's request today, do so. If you can't, then explain to the customer when she may expect to hear from you.
Don't just promise action, however; deliver it. Otherwise, in the words of the song "why do you try to make me feel so blue? I ain't done nothing to you." Believe me; they will start doing something, something you won't like, if you don't come through!
4) "They never told me what was happening."
When a customer says this, what they are really saying is this: "Can you believe this? Can you believe that those yahoos would treat ME like this... ME the all-important customer?" In short, the customer will make it clear to everyone who will listen that you are little better than a jerk and certainly far from delivering the prompt professional service they have every right to expect. Ouch!
Solution? If you want to impress your customer, instead of providing the fuel for the fire that ends up scorching you, then follow-up and keep the customer in the loop. Always.
5) "I waited and waited for service while the staff gossiped about what they did over the week-end."
Want your customers to see red... and tell the world? Then ignore them. Don't bother to show your staff how to treat customers; don't treat them properly yourself. Just continue to ignore them while chatting away. This is an absolutely sure-fire way to lose a customer and launch a stream of comments, the worse because they are absolutely true.
You and your staff do gossip in front of customers.
Indeed, you seem to not even see the customers, much less regard them.
As a result, thoughtless, avoidable rudeness by rudeness you are helping your customers create the negative image that kills your profits and enriches your competitors. Ouch again!
6) "He was texting his girl friend while I waited for assistance!"
Inappropriate and untimely text messaging has become a worldwide problem and a sure-fire way to get your customers to bad-mouth you and your business.
Be assured that if you text message in front of customers, particularly about personal matters, you will tap into the rich, inexhaustible vein of customer irritation, exasperation, and rage. Text in front of customers, and you can be sure the customer will retaliate in ways that hurt your bottom line. Count on it! "cause I can beat you doing what you're doing to me!"
7) "He left for a break right in the middle of 'helping' me!"
More avoidable customer exasperation and disbelief. OK, so you want your break! OK, you "need" that cigarette... or that sugar high RIGHT NOW. But must you make your feelings about your acute boredom with and disdain for customers quite as clear as you do by walking away from them when you're supposed to be assisting?
We live in rude, vulgar, selfish, acute me-centered times. These are getting worse and worse as general acceptance of boorish behavior grows. Customers, however, continue to expect businesses like yours to exhibit service and civility... the more so since they get so little of it otherwise.
Last Words
So, WHY do you do your customers like you do, do, do when they are the life blood of your business? WHY do you allow behaviors and actions which not only irritate customers but hurt yourself and your business? You see, every negative situation cited above is entirely avoidable. Instead of doing things which infuriate customers, start singing them Rudy Vallee's greatest hit -- "My time is your time" . With that as your focus, they'll stop moaning "How come you do me like you do, do, do?" and start whistling a tune you'll like a whole lot better.
Rudy Vallee's Official Web Site: For biographical details about the man who made the megaphone and raccoon coats fashionable, America's first crooner, visit www.rudyvallee.com
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8108
Skype Lawrence.rinke
Friday, December 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Of Adam B. Wheeler and how this youthful con man extraordinaire made the world's greatest university -- and others -- see red.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This is the story of the world's greatest university, rich, secure, inviolate, invulnerable... arrogant... ripe for the taking.
This is the story of a talented young man, not merely good at lying, deception, prevarication and hoodwinkery... but (though connoisseurs of such matters may cavil) great.
This is the story of a young man so keen to have the good things in life that he was willing to sell his soul to get them... and of parents who so loved their son that they were willing to put him in prison to redeem him.
This is the story of the highest university officials who thought this unthinkable thing could never happen... and who drank deep from the chalice of chagrin and public humiliation when it did.
This is the story of peers who, when forced to confront this tale found that the perpetrator was cute and desirable... and therefore deserving of understanding, absolution, and a date.
This is the tale of Adam B. Wheeler. And I suspect you will find it as riveting as I did for, verily, it is a true tale of our times and, therefore, irresistible and completely appalling. Ole!
Adam B. Wheeler, a boy in a hurry
Adam B. Wheeler, by all accounts, was an average student, neither good nor bad, outstanding in no way, prosaic in all. However, such a boy could dream... and Adam B. Wheeler did so dream... of a place called Cambridge and a college called Harvard, where sport the irresistible jeunesse doree. Adam dreamt... then despaired... for Harvard looked for the exceptional and Adam was merely average and hence beneath Harvard's notice.
So this average boy took the first extraordinary decision of his life: he decided to risk all to escape from the usual, the hackneyed, the average, the dull, the prosaic. He decided, in short, to invent the vehicle that would give him escape; he decided to craft himself.
Years later, at Adam's fraud trial, his lawyer Steven Sussman, Esq. said "There is no answer to why Adam did this. " But Mr. Sussman, like so many adults involved in this case, was wrong. Sussman has forgotten what it is like to walk high school corridors and be nothing more than one of a mass, faceless, dull, average, forgettable. Adam knew that feeling... and, with growing insistence, was ready to do everything, anything to rise and get out of this situation... to take his place, however wrongly, amongst the best and brightest of his generation. The quickest way to do that, he concluded, was by mastering the potent and practical arts of the fraudulent presentation, prevarication, deception.
And so, Adam B. Wheeler commenced, by diligent study, an ascension of trickery where each step successfully encountered fueled the next. He submitted a plagiarized school essay and winning the prize discovered the ease of deceit, thereby engendering more and greater boldness.
Audacity, he discovered, could be created by successful deceptions, which also delivered a plethora of benefits -- money, social recognition, the compliments of teachers and peers, the thrilling feeling that he was "somebody"... and, all important, further insights into how to rise higher still on his new skills and expanding confidence. Adam B. Wheeler was moving... so fast that goals once unimaginable were now within his grasp.
And so he grabbed.
Proud Bowdoin College with its picture-perfect campus gave Adam a place by deceit. But Adam wanted, had always wanted more. For such damnation as he was willing to risk, he demanded the very best.
So, then, fair Harvard's turn. Adam, now almost through his apprenticeship of deft manipulation, doctored his College Board scores and forged letters of recommendation. These were panegyrics of such transcendence that in a more perfect world they would have moved Harvard to contact him rather than he condescending to contact them.
And so Harvard, confident its summit could not be so breached, became Adam's trophy, too... and , with its welcome acceptance, gave him, he well knew, life's ticket to privilege, deference, and open doors everywhere. It was thrilling, heady... dangerous because the very ease and extent of success caused hubris, the most dangerous thing of all.
Adam B. Wheeler became an Icarus with no Daedalus to counsel and advise. But even Icarus, with such a wise and seasoned advisor at hand, was so fueled by arrogance and the certainty that only the young possess, even well-advised Icarus flew too high, too soon, too close to the sun... and so, his wings melting, plunged into death.
What chance, then, had still-learning Adam B. Wheeler to know, so soon in life, the virtue of restraint? Icarus-like, he chose to fly too fast, too high, eschewing restraint because constant victories were so exciting and gratifying...and, he had proved, so easy.
However his fall, inevitable though he never knew it, was, in the classical tradition, sharp, painful, ironic. Continuing to want the best, he fabricated a fake straight A Harvard transcript and aimed to grab a Fulbright or even a Rhodes scholarship, much desired, achieved by only the elite, amongst whom he insisted to be.
However, grinning fate was at hand with Adam's nemesis.
It was his parents, the good, decent, profoundly appalled creators of Adam B. Wheeler, his mom and dad. To save him, they laid him low, beginning his unravelling with a call to the chagrined Harvard officials whose certainty and carelessness had moved Adam so appreciably forward. They, powered by revenge and sanctimonious moralizing, happily pounced, determined to end his career and make sure This Could Never Happen Again. His Harvard status was rescinded.... his trial ensued. His conviction inevitable, he plea-bargained, admitting culpability and accepting restitution for all funds and prizes falsely won. Prison was avoided but shame was not. It was the end of Adam B. Wheeler.
Or was it?
In the blog of the Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper, another stream was unexpectedly running. Here the story took another turn, for many bloggers (not just women either) saw what "Daniel" saw: "He really is totally adorable. He probably gets away with half of his shenanigans because people look into those big blue eyes and see the floppy hair and think he's adorable". Ah, too fetching to be guilty, much less locked away.
It was, under these circumstances, no doubt wise of the judge in his sentencing order of December 16, 2010 to prevent Adam from enjoying any financial gains from his story from books, stage, and screen. It's sad, though, for local boy-made-good Matt Damon, who would have done full justice to this tale of Cambridge, a place he knows so well. However, no doubt in due time, Adam B. Wheeler will find a way around this (temporary) obstacle. I hope so, for I long to see this film.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://silver45b.PopDom.hop.clickbank.net
310.618.8107
This is the story of the world's greatest university, rich, secure, inviolate, invulnerable... arrogant... ripe for the taking.
This is the story of a talented young man, not merely good at lying, deception, prevarication and hoodwinkery... but (though connoisseurs of such matters may cavil) great.
This is the story of a young man so keen to have the good things in life that he was willing to sell his soul to get them... and of parents who so loved their son that they were willing to put him in prison to redeem him.
This is the story of the highest university officials who thought this unthinkable thing could never happen... and who drank deep from the chalice of chagrin and public humiliation when it did.
This is the story of peers who, when forced to confront this tale found that the perpetrator was cute and desirable... and therefore deserving of understanding, absolution, and a date.
This is the tale of Adam B. Wheeler. And I suspect you will find it as riveting as I did for, verily, it is a true tale of our times and, therefore, irresistible and completely appalling. Ole!
Adam B. Wheeler, a boy in a hurry
Adam B. Wheeler, by all accounts, was an average student, neither good nor bad, outstanding in no way, prosaic in all. However, such a boy could dream... and Adam B. Wheeler did so dream... of a place called Cambridge and a college called Harvard, where sport the irresistible jeunesse doree. Adam dreamt... then despaired... for Harvard looked for the exceptional and Adam was merely average and hence beneath Harvard's notice.
So this average boy took the first extraordinary decision of his life: he decided to risk all to escape from the usual, the hackneyed, the average, the dull, the prosaic. He decided, in short, to invent the vehicle that would give him escape; he decided to craft himself.
Years later, at Adam's fraud trial, his lawyer Steven Sussman, Esq. said "There is no answer to why Adam did this. " But Mr. Sussman, like so many adults involved in this case, was wrong. Sussman has forgotten what it is like to walk high school corridors and be nothing more than one of a mass, faceless, dull, average, forgettable. Adam knew that feeling... and, with growing insistence, was ready to do everything, anything to rise and get out of this situation... to take his place, however wrongly, amongst the best and brightest of his generation. The quickest way to do that, he concluded, was by mastering the potent and practical arts of the fraudulent presentation, prevarication, deception.
And so, Adam B. Wheeler commenced, by diligent study, an ascension of trickery where each step successfully encountered fueled the next. He submitted a plagiarized school essay and winning the prize discovered the ease of deceit, thereby engendering more and greater boldness.
Audacity, he discovered, could be created by successful deceptions, which also delivered a plethora of benefits -- money, social recognition, the compliments of teachers and peers, the thrilling feeling that he was "somebody"... and, all important, further insights into how to rise higher still on his new skills and expanding confidence. Adam B. Wheeler was moving... so fast that goals once unimaginable were now within his grasp.
And so he grabbed.
Proud Bowdoin College with its picture-perfect campus gave Adam a place by deceit. But Adam wanted, had always wanted more. For such damnation as he was willing to risk, he demanded the very best.
So, then, fair Harvard's turn. Adam, now almost through his apprenticeship of deft manipulation, doctored his College Board scores and forged letters of recommendation. These were panegyrics of such transcendence that in a more perfect world they would have moved Harvard to contact him rather than he condescending to contact them.
And so Harvard, confident its summit could not be so breached, became Adam's trophy, too... and , with its welcome acceptance, gave him, he well knew, life's ticket to privilege, deference, and open doors everywhere. It was thrilling, heady... dangerous because the very ease and extent of success caused hubris, the most dangerous thing of all.
Adam B. Wheeler became an Icarus with no Daedalus to counsel and advise. But even Icarus, with such a wise and seasoned advisor at hand, was so fueled by arrogance and the certainty that only the young possess, even well-advised Icarus flew too high, too soon, too close to the sun... and so, his wings melting, plunged into death.
What chance, then, had still-learning Adam B. Wheeler to know, so soon in life, the virtue of restraint? Icarus-like, he chose to fly too fast, too high, eschewing restraint because constant victories were so exciting and gratifying...and, he had proved, so easy.
However his fall, inevitable though he never knew it, was, in the classical tradition, sharp, painful, ironic. Continuing to want the best, he fabricated a fake straight A Harvard transcript and aimed to grab a Fulbright or even a Rhodes scholarship, much desired, achieved by only the elite, amongst whom he insisted to be.
However, grinning fate was at hand with Adam's nemesis.
It was his parents, the good, decent, profoundly appalled creators of Adam B. Wheeler, his mom and dad. To save him, they laid him low, beginning his unravelling with a call to the chagrined Harvard officials whose certainty and carelessness had moved Adam so appreciably forward. They, powered by revenge and sanctimonious moralizing, happily pounced, determined to end his career and make sure This Could Never Happen Again. His Harvard status was rescinded.... his trial ensued. His conviction inevitable, he plea-bargained, admitting culpability and accepting restitution for all funds and prizes falsely won. Prison was avoided but shame was not. It was the end of Adam B. Wheeler.
Or was it?
In the blog of the Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper, another stream was unexpectedly running. Here the story took another turn, for many bloggers (not just women either) saw what "Daniel" saw: "He really is totally adorable. He probably gets away with half of his shenanigans because people look into those big blue eyes and see the floppy hair and think he's adorable". Ah, too fetching to be guilty, much less locked away.
It was, under these circumstances, no doubt wise of the judge in his sentencing order of December 16, 2010 to prevent Adam from enjoying any financial gains from his story from books, stage, and screen. It's sad, though, for local boy-made-good Matt Damon, who would have done full justice to this tale of Cambridge, a place he knows so well. However, no doubt in due time, Adam B. Wheeler will find a way around this (temporary) obstacle. I hope so, for I long to see this film.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out PopUp Domination -> http://silver45b.PopDom.hop.clickbank.net
310.618.8107
Monday, December 20, 2010
'Suffer the little children.' How the Vatican's good old boys protected Ireland's most notorious pedophile priest, Father Tony Walsh.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
We have been accustomed for years now to the steady drip, drip, drip of stories of pedophile priests -- known, protected, unrelenting, sickening. The drill goes something like this:
First, the abuse.
Then the denial.
Then the acknowledgement.
Then the settlement.
Then the cash payments.
Then the (ordinarily too weak) promises of new oversight and reform.
Surely, there could be nothing new under this cloud.
Think again.... for now you will meet (then Father) Tony Walsh... a priest with a penchant for impersonating Elvis... and a rapacious sexual appetite rivaling Don Giovanni. But this is not so much a story about Tony Walsh as it is the tale of how the Vatican, knowing much and fearing more, winked for nearly 20 years at a man known to many as Ireland's most predatory pedophile priest. This is the Rosetta Stone of pedophile priest stories... for understanding this, reveals all.
The joy boy of Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot is part of Dublin. It is grim, poor, but fertile for those seeking the very young and winsome, for they are omnipresent and without voice or influence, the choicest morsels, available, helpless.
These were tailor-made for Father Tony Walsh. As such, he lost no time making good use of them when he took up this parish in 1978. He molested his first boy there just two days after he started. It was simple and oh so easy. He knew he was on to a very good thing.
Father Tony honed his approach and his solicitation skills. He toured as Elvis in a traveling Catholic song-and-dance production. He ran the Boy Scouts (de rigueur for pedophile priests) and brought boys to the Dublin seminary, Clonliffe College. Through such means, an embarrass du choix, he kept a steady flow of what he desired while keeping up appearances so that those who would not see would have no grounds for suspicion. It was all very well organized, cynical, loathsome.
Bit by bit, the story of Father Tony seeped out. Ballyfermot was rife with noisome rumors. So much incessant seduction spurred an avalanche of saucy tales, which lost nothing in the telling, not least because they were true.
This went on for 19 years, between 1975-2004 by which time the matter was widely known, conspicuous, flagrant. Yet Father Tony continued to work his cynical magic with the boys of Ballyfermot. He had a system that worked, and he enjoyed it accordingly while his superiors discussed, dithered, procrastinated... then postponed, delayed, and discussed some more. It was the Catholic version of Dickens' Circumlocution Office... and, of course, was perfectly created for Father Tony Walsh. He was one of the boys, he was inside the charmed circle... he had protection, tolerance, cover, right up to and including his eminence Cardinal Desmond Connell, Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of All Ireland.
What did his eminence do?
Over time, stories like those of Father Tony and his ilk became general knowledge; so general that even the Primate of All Ireland was forced to pay attention. But he moved too little too late so that reformers, despairing of Church-lead reform, turned to the Irish government instead. The findings of the state-ordered investigation shocked the nation and raised profound questions about how so much abuse could have occurred with so little and so ineffective response.
Item: Church officials knew of widespread abuse.
Item: Church officials shielded the perpetrators and ensured that abuse cases be treated internally, which meant they were not treated at all.
Item: No abuse cases or sexual crimes were reported by the Church until the mid-1990's. Not a single one.
And what of blissful Father Tony Walsh?
Investigators focused their attention on 46 priestly abuse cases occurring between 1975-2004. Of these cases, all heinous, the most flagrant of all was Father Tony Walsh, who in his Elvis impersonations gave a whole new meaning to "Love Me Tender..."
He was, the investigators concluded, "probably the most notorious child sexual abuser" of all... a man who knew the system well, knew that he was shielded from repercussions, and took full advantage of his superiors' penchant for shuffling, disregarding, and willingness to tolerate any abuse, no matter how young the victim or revolting the act. The man, the abuser, was a priest, elect of God, and that was enough. It was a passport to mayhem.
But the luck of Father Tony Walsh was even now not exhausted. In the report of the state-ordered investigation the chapter on Father Tony was excluded. Why? Because his criminal case was then before the courts and his rights must be protected. Indeed.
However, at long last, the case of Father Tony was heard in all its lurid, sordid, riveting detail. The nation watched, angry, sorrowful, wondering how so many could have done so wrong for so long. How parents and teachers, how priests and cardinals could have known so much and done so little... creating the fetid environment in which Father Tony et al had flourished. How could this have happened in Ireland, to all its good people? How?
Tony Walsh, no longer a priest, was convicted and convicted yet again. First he was convicted of a May, 1994 assault on a boy in a pub restroom following the funeral of the boy's grandfather. Then, later, he was convicted of sexually assaulting several more boys, receiving a further 10-year sentence.
In its wisdom the court saw fit to reduce this sentence, giving Tony Walsh instead a term of just 6 years. Just six years, after a lifetime of abuse and assault.
And what of the victims, all young, all innocent susceptibility? Who is to reduce their term by 40 percent, or by any number? Who can eradicate Father Tony Walsh from their minds and lives by even a moment? Who will be there for them when devastating memories surface and terrorize in depth of night? For they who needed the most help, got the least... to the shame of all Ireland and all its holy clerics and princely potentates who are hereby sentenced to remember and regret.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
We have been accustomed for years now to the steady drip, drip, drip of stories of pedophile priests -- known, protected, unrelenting, sickening. The drill goes something like this:
First, the abuse.
Then the denial.
Then the acknowledgement.
Then the settlement.
Then the cash payments.
Then the (ordinarily too weak) promises of new oversight and reform.
Surely, there could be nothing new under this cloud.
Think again.... for now you will meet (then Father) Tony Walsh... a priest with a penchant for impersonating Elvis... and a rapacious sexual appetite rivaling Don Giovanni. But this is not so much a story about Tony Walsh as it is the tale of how the Vatican, knowing much and fearing more, winked for nearly 20 years at a man known to many as Ireland's most predatory pedophile priest. This is the Rosetta Stone of pedophile priest stories... for understanding this, reveals all.
The joy boy of Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot is part of Dublin. It is grim, poor, but fertile for those seeking the very young and winsome, for they are omnipresent and without voice or influence, the choicest morsels, available, helpless.
These were tailor-made for Father Tony Walsh. As such, he lost no time making good use of them when he took up this parish in 1978. He molested his first boy there just two days after he started. It was simple and oh so easy. He knew he was on to a very good thing.
Father Tony honed his approach and his solicitation skills. He toured as Elvis in a traveling Catholic song-and-dance production. He ran the Boy Scouts (de rigueur for pedophile priests) and brought boys to the Dublin seminary, Clonliffe College. Through such means, an embarrass du choix, he kept a steady flow of what he desired while keeping up appearances so that those who would not see would have no grounds for suspicion. It was all very well organized, cynical, loathsome.
Bit by bit, the story of Father Tony seeped out. Ballyfermot was rife with noisome rumors. So much incessant seduction spurred an avalanche of saucy tales, which lost nothing in the telling, not least because they were true.
This went on for 19 years, between 1975-2004 by which time the matter was widely known, conspicuous, flagrant. Yet Father Tony continued to work his cynical magic with the boys of Ballyfermot. He had a system that worked, and he enjoyed it accordingly while his superiors discussed, dithered, procrastinated... then postponed, delayed, and discussed some more. It was the Catholic version of Dickens' Circumlocution Office... and, of course, was perfectly created for Father Tony Walsh. He was one of the boys, he was inside the charmed circle... he had protection, tolerance, cover, right up to and including his eminence Cardinal Desmond Connell, Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of All Ireland.
What did his eminence do?
Over time, stories like those of Father Tony and his ilk became general knowledge; so general that even the Primate of All Ireland was forced to pay attention. But he moved too little too late so that reformers, despairing of Church-lead reform, turned to the Irish government instead. The findings of the state-ordered investigation shocked the nation and raised profound questions about how so much abuse could have occurred with so little and so ineffective response.
Item: Church officials knew of widespread abuse.
Item: Church officials shielded the perpetrators and ensured that abuse cases be treated internally, which meant they were not treated at all.
Item: No abuse cases or sexual crimes were reported by the Church until the mid-1990's. Not a single one.
And what of blissful Father Tony Walsh?
Investigators focused their attention on 46 priestly abuse cases occurring between 1975-2004. Of these cases, all heinous, the most flagrant of all was Father Tony Walsh, who in his Elvis impersonations gave a whole new meaning to "Love Me Tender..."
He was, the investigators concluded, "probably the most notorious child sexual abuser" of all... a man who knew the system well, knew that he was shielded from repercussions, and took full advantage of his superiors' penchant for shuffling, disregarding, and willingness to tolerate any abuse, no matter how young the victim or revolting the act. The man, the abuser, was a priest, elect of God, and that was enough. It was a passport to mayhem.
But the luck of Father Tony Walsh was even now not exhausted. In the report of the state-ordered investigation the chapter on Father Tony was excluded. Why? Because his criminal case was then before the courts and his rights must be protected. Indeed.
However, at long last, the case of Father Tony was heard in all its lurid, sordid, riveting detail. The nation watched, angry, sorrowful, wondering how so many could have done so wrong for so long. How parents and teachers, how priests and cardinals could have known so much and done so little... creating the fetid environment in which Father Tony et al had flourished. How could this have happened in Ireland, to all its good people? How?
Tony Walsh, no longer a priest, was convicted and convicted yet again. First he was convicted of a May, 1994 assault on a boy in a pub restroom following the funeral of the boy's grandfather. Then, later, he was convicted of sexually assaulting several more boys, receiving a further 10-year sentence.
In its wisdom the court saw fit to reduce this sentence, giving Tony Walsh instead a term of just 6 years. Just six years, after a lifetime of abuse and assault.
And what of the victims, all young, all innocent susceptibility? Who is to reduce their term by 40 percent, or by any number? Who can eradicate Father Tony Walsh from their minds and lives by even a moment? Who will be there for them when devastating memories surface and terrorize in depth of night? For they who needed the most help, got the least... to the shame of all Ireland and all its holy clerics and princely potentates who are hereby sentenced to remember and regret.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Tips for profoundly irritating your customers. Here are the words that'll do it.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This is an article a lifetime in the making. It's about the power of words... in this case the power of words to irritate your customers and make them see red. It's about carelessness, arrogance, vanity. It's about the needless loss of one customer after another, thoughtlessly thrown away, repulsed, antagonized. And all by you... you who worked so hard to get them in the first place!
Irritating words: "I will get back to you at my earliest convenience."
Want customers to call you to do business? Then undoubtedly you have an answering machine message for those times you are unavailable. (You do have such a message, don't you?). And if you do, there's a very real chance you are irritating your customers with it. Take a look at the message above.
The irritant is "at my earliest convenience". Customers, not surprisingly, want you focused on THEIR convenience, not yours. Thus, this message should read:
"I will get back to you today. Leave a detailed message and phone number with area code where I can reach you now. I'm anxious to assist you!"
See the difference?
The selfish marketer never does... and pays a very real price as a result, as he affronts and loses customers with every message. To avoid this sad situation, review all your marketing messages (and, yes, your answering machine message must be marketing copy, 100% focused on your customer.) Nothing should be focused on you; everything must be focused on the customer.
Irritating Words: "Something important came up."
Tens of thousands of would-be customers will have to call back businesses like yours again today... after being blown off yesterday. When they call back and ask why it was necessary, many will be insulted with these offending words. As a result many will, quite simply, decide to take their business elsewhere. Wouldn't you?
(calling back customer): "Why didn't you call me back yesterday?"
(offending business person): "Something came up."
Let's examine this irritating phrase carefully.
What the business person is saying is... "you are distinctly less important than what I decided to do. No doubt I should have called you back, but I didn't. Buy from me any way and support my selfish ways."
Of course, returning all customer calls before you leave would ensure that the offending words wouldn't have been said at all. Failing that, the key is NEVER making the customer irritated by suggesting that their business is less important than yours.
Irritating words: "I can't do that because..."
"I can't do that because my car ran out of gas."
"I can't do that because I have to run Pookie to the vet."
"I can't do that because I stubbed my toe."
These little factoids of total insignificance deeply irritate and rankle. And no wonder. Consider, the person in touch with your business wants a thing accomplished.
Your pithy excuse not only tells them that what they want has not been accomplished (bad enough)... but calls on them to commiserate with you about an incident both trivial and banal. Understandably, they are deeply irritated being forced to do so.
Irritaitng Words: "You know how it is. I got tied up."
Every day businesses like yours ask their customers to condone and forgive their inept and unsatisfactory behavior with these words.
Now think a moment. Why should a customer, any customer, give you their empathy and understanding for your ineptitude? Yet ask for it you do, each and every time you use these irritating words.
First and foremost, customers want to know, have the right to know, just when you will be accomplishing the task for which they have contacted you. Your communications, your messages, your total focus should be on 1) doing the task, and 2) informing the customer that the task has been accomplished. ALL other words are entirely beside the point. Failing to understand this and communicate accordingly, gives your customer a very good reason for eschewing you and your services in the future.
Irritating Word: "Whatever!" The most irritating single word in the language.
(Would-be customer): "I have called your company on three separate occasions about this matter."
(You): "Whatever!"
Or how about...
(Would-be customer): "I have been on hold for nearly an hour waiting for customer assistance."
(You): "Whatever!"
Never before in the long history of customer irritation has a single word, so short, generated such universal execration and raised blood pressures. It is a cosmic ultra-irritant delivered with total disdain, insolence and an infuriating shrug.
This single word is an unmistakable stink bomb thrown at your customers. Short though it is, it combines full portions of hauteur, arrogance, condescension, selfishness, and the full insult of the all-American raspberry.
Oh, and by the way, it costs you every time uttered, eliminating immediate sales and long-term, profitable relationships. Is this what you really want?
Every word you use either helps your business, or not. No word, no action is neutral.
Billions of words are uttered in business every day around the globe. Having read this article, you may well speculate on just how many of them are inappropriate, hasty, wasteful of the funds expended to attract customers and therefore destructive to your business and profits.
To avoid this sad result, be chary of your language. Do not allow yourself the luxury of language misuse with the expectation that your customers will "understand." They won't... and why should they? You are irritating them, profoundly irritating them, and, believe me, they will repay the favor and happily so.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
This is an article a lifetime in the making. It's about the power of words... in this case the power of words to irritate your customers and make them see red. It's about carelessness, arrogance, vanity. It's about the needless loss of one customer after another, thoughtlessly thrown away, repulsed, antagonized. And all by you... you who worked so hard to get them in the first place!
Irritating words: "I will get back to you at my earliest convenience."
Want customers to call you to do business? Then undoubtedly you have an answering machine message for those times you are unavailable. (You do have such a message, don't you?). And if you do, there's a very real chance you are irritating your customers with it. Take a look at the message above.
The irritant is "at my earliest convenience". Customers, not surprisingly, want you focused on THEIR convenience, not yours. Thus, this message should read:
"I will get back to you today. Leave a detailed message and phone number with area code where I can reach you now. I'm anxious to assist you!"
See the difference?
The selfish marketer never does... and pays a very real price as a result, as he affronts and loses customers with every message. To avoid this sad situation, review all your marketing messages (and, yes, your answering machine message must be marketing copy, 100% focused on your customer.) Nothing should be focused on you; everything must be focused on the customer.
Irritating Words: "Something important came up."
Tens of thousands of would-be customers will have to call back businesses like yours again today... after being blown off yesterday. When they call back and ask why it was necessary, many will be insulted with these offending words. As a result many will, quite simply, decide to take their business elsewhere. Wouldn't you?
(calling back customer): "Why didn't you call me back yesterday?"
(offending business person): "Something came up."
Let's examine this irritating phrase carefully.
What the business person is saying is... "you are distinctly less important than what I decided to do. No doubt I should have called you back, but I didn't. Buy from me any way and support my selfish ways."
Of course, returning all customer calls before you leave would ensure that the offending words wouldn't have been said at all. Failing that, the key is NEVER making the customer irritated by suggesting that their business is less important than yours.
Irritating words: "I can't do that because..."
"I can't do that because my car ran out of gas."
"I can't do that because I have to run Pookie to the vet."
"I can't do that because I stubbed my toe."
These little factoids of total insignificance deeply irritate and rankle. And no wonder. Consider, the person in touch with your business wants a thing accomplished.
Your pithy excuse not only tells them that what they want has not been accomplished (bad enough)... but calls on them to commiserate with you about an incident both trivial and banal. Understandably, they are deeply irritated being forced to do so.
Irritaitng Words: "You know how it is. I got tied up."
Every day businesses like yours ask their customers to condone and forgive their inept and unsatisfactory behavior with these words.
Now think a moment. Why should a customer, any customer, give you their empathy and understanding for your ineptitude? Yet ask for it you do, each and every time you use these irritating words.
First and foremost, customers want to know, have the right to know, just when you will be accomplishing the task for which they have contacted you. Your communications, your messages, your total focus should be on 1) doing the task, and 2) informing the customer that the task has been accomplished. ALL other words are entirely beside the point. Failing to understand this and communicate accordingly, gives your customer a very good reason for eschewing you and your services in the future.
Irritating Word: "Whatever!" The most irritating single word in the language.
(Would-be customer): "I have called your company on three separate occasions about this matter."
(You): "Whatever!"
Or how about...
(Would-be customer): "I have been on hold for nearly an hour waiting for customer assistance."
(You): "Whatever!"
Never before in the long history of customer irritation has a single word, so short, generated such universal execration and raised blood pressures. It is a cosmic ultra-irritant delivered with total disdain, insolence and an infuriating shrug.
This single word is an unmistakable stink bomb thrown at your customers. Short though it is, it combines full portions of hauteur, arrogance, condescension, selfishness, and the full insult of the all-American raspberry.
Oh, and by the way, it costs you every time uttered, eliminating immediate sales and long-term, profitable relationships. Is this what you really want?
Every word you use either helps your business, or not. No word, no action is neutral.
Billions of words are uttered in business every day around the globe. Having read this article, you may well speculate on just how many of them are inappropriate, hasty, wasteful of the funds expended to attract customers and therefore destructive to your business and profits.
To avoid this sad result, be chary of your language. Do not allow yourself the luxury of language misuse with the expectation that your customers will "understand." They won't... and why should they? You are irritating them, profoundly irritating them, and, believe me, they will repay the favor and happily so.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Sunday, December 19, 2010
'I wonder who's kissing him now.' Marine Commandant General James Amos' inconvenient jeremiads on 'Don't ask, don't tell.'
Come Meet the author and made your comment
The winds of change are blowing through the military establishment. It is clear that openly gay service personnel are an inevitability and that "Don't ask, don't tell" is on its way out.
These days Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a man trusted by both political parties and the service chiefs, has a message for them all: if we are to manage the end of "Don't Ask, don't tell" the way we want it... we had best act quickly before the civilian courts step in and tell us what to do. Change is inevitable, he says, but handling it our way is not.
Right now, various judges, their itchy fingers and intrusive court orders at the ready, are giving the military time to sort out their own house. But the clock is ticking... ticking.
Secretary Gates reminds all that "Don't ask, don't tell", that invidious, unconstitutional, discriminatory policy that has kept military gays locked firmly in the closet since the Clinton Administration is moving inexorably into the scrap heap of history's lousy ideas. He aims to be on the right side as inevitability unfolds.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen knows it, too. He's on board with the new political realities as are all savvy officers who can see the way the wind blows.
But, conspicuously brand-new Marine Commandant James Amos is not. To the increasing embarrassment of the military establishment, General Amos has become a fountainhead of notoriously unpersuasive insipidities on the subject:
One by one, the panjandrums of the military have thrown in the towel and taken up the new party line, admitting that gays (imagine!) have been serving, are serving and will serve in every service with distinction... what is the big deal, after all?
General Amos, new kid on the block, Bourbon-like, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Bourbon-like he has now become the problem... and you know what happened to these clueless French monarchs.
If his military brethren have weakened and strayed, he most assuredly has not. Why just the other day he uncorked this sour vintage, designed to frighten Marine parents everywhere:
"I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda (Naval Medical Center) with no legs be the result of any kind of distraction."
This, of course, is demagoguery of the worst kind... seeking to support an outmoded policy through fear mongering. It defines the man's approach to this issue. If he cannot have victory, he can at least have the last word. (But there is that in him which feels that even now, against all odds, he can still have victory. After all he is a Marine... and that is enough.)
Should we abolish "Don't ask, don't tell," he emphasizes, your Marine son, who needs to focus on winning the engagement and staying alive, could well face and would have to respond immediately to unwanted sexual advances from deviate members of the corps who could use war to get sex. Thus, instead of moving against the enemy, your comely lad would be distracted... even unto the ultimate sacrifice.
"I wonder who's kissing him now."
In 1909 America danced to and hummed along with a catchy Gilded Age pop tune, "I wonder who's kissing her now." This lilting waltz, with changed gender, now appears to be running through General Amos' fetid mind:
"I wonder who's kissing him now, I wonder who's teaching him how? Wonder who's looking into his eyes? Breathing sighs! Telling lies! I wonder if he's got a boy? The boy who once filled me with joy, Wonder if he ever tells him of me? I wonder who's kissing him now."
Fascinated, revolted, the licentious scene is painfully clear to the general. As the enemy's attacks intensify, as the enemy moves in, as your son's full concentration is earnestly required... he has to fend off an amorous corpsman intent on nookie instead of self-protection... and victory. Oh, my.
Imagine, they sleep together. The general cannot forget.
The Marine Corps, unlike other services, houses a pair of people in a room, collegiate style. This, they say, promotes "unity." Perhaps, as the general worries, too much so. Here's what he said in November, 2010 in a statement that alerted the politically sensitive to the problem they faced in General Amos:
“There is nothing more intimate than young men and young women and when you talk of infantry we’re talking of our young men laying out, sleeping along side of one another and sharing death, fear and loss of brothers,” General Amos said. “I don’t know what the effect of that will be on cohesion. I mean, that’s what we’re looking at. It’s unit cohesion, it’s combat effectiveness.”
It's buncombe.
The general says, and no doubt believes with all the power of the last pterodactyl, that men of a certain sexual orientation will during combat do things other than everything they can to stay alive. Does anyone else concur with this lapse of insight and intellect?
Let's be clear: men, women, gay, straight during combat they will all focus on staying alive, then on achieving the objective. Sexual orientation does not change this truth one iota.
As a result, basing his case on a rancid fallacy, this general of antiquated views and big mouth lumbers on, embarrassing the president, the military establishment, and every thinking Marine; all of them with gay friends and colleagues and absolutely no problem serving with them worldwide.
Then what of General Amos? So newly installed, he has already committed political hara kiri, still walking and too much talking, but of no earthly consequence. The Marine Corps deserves better. Fortunately, in due course, as General Amos keeps talking, they will get it. For such a man with such views has besmirched Semper Fi. And that will never do.
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
The winds of change are blowing through the military establishment. It is clear that openly gay service personnel are an inevitability and that "Don't ask, don't tell" is on its way out.
These days Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a man trusted by both political parties and the service chiefs, has a message for them all: if we are to manage the end of "Don't Ask, don't tell" the way we want it... we had best act quickly before the civilian courts step in and tell us what to do. Change is inevitable, he says, but handling it our way is not.
Right now, various judges, their itchy fingers and intrusive court orders at the ready, are giving the military time to sort out their own house. But the clock is ticking... ticking.
Secretary Gates reminds all that "Don't ask, don't tell", that invidious, unconstitutional, discriminatory policy that has kept military gays locked firmly in the closet since the Clinton Administration is moving inexorably into the scrap heap of history's lousy ideas. He aims to be on the right side as inevitability unfolds.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen knows it, too. He's on board with the new political realities as are all savvy officers who can see the way the wind blows.
But, conspicuously brand-new Marine Commandant James Amos is not. To the increasing embarrassment of the military establishment, General Amos has become a fountainhead of notoriously unpersuasive insipidities on the subject:
One by one, the panjandrums of the military have thrown in the towel and taken up the new party line, admitting that gays (imagine!) have been serving, are serving and will serve in every service with distinction... what is the big deal, after all?
General Amos, new kid on the block, Bourbon-like, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Bourbon-like he has now become the problem... and you know what happened to these clueless French monarchs.
If his military brethren have weakened and strayed, he most assuredly has not. Why just the other day he uncorked this sour vintage, designed to frighten Marine parents everywhere:
"I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda (Naval Medical Center) with no legs be the result of any kind of distraction."
This, of course, is demagoguery of the worst kind... seeking to support an outmoded policy through fear mongering. It defines the man's approach to this issue. If he cannot have victory, he can at least have the last word. (But there is that in him which feels that even now, against all odds, he can still have victory. After all he is a Marine... and that is enough.)
Should we abolish "Don't ask, don't tell," he emphasizes, your Marine son, who needs to focus on winning the engagement and staying alive, could well face and would have to respond immediately to unwanted sexual advances from deviate members of the corps who could use war to get sex. Thus, instead of moving against the enemy, your comely lad would be distracted... even unto the ultimate sacrifice.
"I wonder who's kissing him now."
In 1909 America danced to and hummed along with a catchy Gilded Age pop tune, "I wonder who's kissing her now." This lilting waltz, with changed gender, now appears to be running through General Amos' fetid mind:
"I wonder who's kissing him now, I wonder who's teaching him how? Wonder who's looking into his eyes? Breathing sighs! Telling lies! I wonder if he's got a boy? The boy who once filled me with joy, Wonder if he ever tells him of me? I wonder who's kissing him now."
Fascinated, revolted, the licentious scene is painfully clear to the general. As the enemy's attacks intensify, as the enemy moves in, as your son's full concentration is earnestly required... he has to fend off an amorous corpsman intent on nookie instead of self-protection... and victory. Oh, my.
Imagine, they sleep together. The general cannot forget.
The Marine Corps, unlike other services, houses a pair of people in a room, collegiate style. This, they say, promotes "unity." Perhaps, as the general worries, too much so. Here's what he said in November, 2010 in a statement that alerted the politically sensitive to the problem they faced in General Amos:
“There is nothing more intimate than young men and young women and when you talk of infantry we’re talking of our young men laying out, sleeping along side of one another and sharing death, fear and loss of brothers,” General Amos said. “I don’t know what the effect of that will be on cohesion. I mean, that’s what we’re looking at. It’s unit cohesion, it’s combat effectiveness.”
It's buncombe.
The general says, and no doubt believes with all the power of the last pterodactyl, that men of a certain sexual orientation will during combat do things other than everything they can to stay alive. Does anyone else concur with this lapse of insight and intellect?
Let's be clear: men, women, gay, straight during combat they will all focus on staying alive, then on achieving the objective. Sexual orientation does not change this truth one iota.
As a result, basing his case on a rancid fallacy, this general of antiquated views and big mouth lumbers on, embarrassing the president, the military establishment, and every thinking Marine; all of them with gay friends and colleagues and absolutely no problem serving with them worldwide.
Then what of General Amos? So newly installed, he has already committed political hara kiri, still walking and too much talking, but of no earthly consequence. The Marine Corps deserves better. Fortunately, in due course, as General Amos keeps talking, they will get it. For such a man with such views has besmirched Semper Fi. And that will never do.
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Kids in your life? The Life Letter is for them -- and for you. Start yours today.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I knew the late Mrs. John (Elizabeth) Edwards was particularly devoted to her children and family... but when I learned from her funeral coverage that she had left behind a long letter which she had been writing for them over the course of many years, my admiration for the lady rose still more.
In my family we call such a letter, the Life Letter and encourage particularly parents and grandparents to start one as soon as you know a little one is on the way. It will quickly become one of your own most valued possessions... as it will become, in due time, valuable for the kids you leave it to. This article will help you get started with your own Life Letter, the gift of generations, assisting you to create a masterwork.
What is a Life Letter?
A Life Letter is a letter written by you to your children and/or (in due course) your grand children. It is "one-sided" in the sense that you are writing it for your dearly beloved without any expectation that they will either respond to it or even see during your life time. A Life Letter has a specific mission. It is to let the recipient into both your own life... and into theirs from your unique standpoint as parent or grandparent.
A Life Letter is neither a personal journal nor a regular posted letter. Nor is it either an email or random jottings and particular information as found in a baby book. It partakes of certain elements from these genres and types. However, it is very much its own thing, sui generis, as you come to see and enjoy as your Life Letter takes shape over time.
Get going, keep going
For a thing destined to rank amongst the most important possessions of your life, a treasured heirloom, surprisingly little is needed for its creation except for two must have features: the willingness to start creating your Life Letter at once... and an iron-clad determination to keep working at it for the duration of your life. A labor of love it may be... but the work involved is real nonetheless and must be properly organized.
What you need to start today
Before writing a word of your Life Letter, gather what you'll need:
fountain pen a ream of lined paper a folder with pockets a "writing place".
A quick word about these items:
fountain pen. Remember, your objective is to reveal yourself through your Life Letter and create a thing of beauty and insight for your family. For this a fountain pen is desirable. However, in recommending this essential tool, I know full well that today copperplate writing is as rare as a hen's tooth. As such, if you cannot rise to the elegance and style of a fountain pen... make sure you have a typewriter (my IBM Selectric II is a gem) or email.
There are trade-offs here. Your handwriting (execrable though it may be, like my own) is a better indicator of who you are than typed words. Moreover, your Life Letter must be spontaneous and "of the moment." Typing and email smack too much of deliberation -- and business. Unfortunately, too many people today have my problem of illegible scrawling. Thus, for us, while our Life Letter may be less personal if not hand written, it will be infinitely more readable. So, how about a compromise?
If your poor handwriting warrants, write the headings and special notes and salutations in ink. Type the rest. Thus you retain the special bond with recipient that comes with words handwritten.
Proper storage is crucial.
That's where the folder with pockets comes in. As you write, number the pages and put them away in folders. Each folder must be dated for the time covered... and always kept in the safest place in the house. (Unsurprisingly people who have spent decades on their Life Letters keep them in a safety deposit box, thereby indicating their value.)
Your warm, confiding "writing place".
When you sit down to "talk" to your children and grandchildren via your Life Letter, you need a warm, inviting, confiding place in which to do it. In such a place you are completely and entirely at home. It should be comfortable... with a family pictures, books, mementoes, a room redolent of cherished memories and always of cherished people.
Here favorite foods and liquids are de rigueur, with stains and spots proving use and personal title. Here shoes are kicked off and shirt collars opened. Here there is always a place for you... and as such the words flow thick and fast as you tell your posterity and record for yourself your journey on this planet... a journey that has brought you to this time and place and which you, no matter how imperfectly, want to share. Such a place is for you and the very carefully selected only, the people you value most and profoundly. They deserve your best... and you must give it to them, for their good and for your own soul's sake.
Begin today
Most people leave nothing on this globe but their genetic footprints implanted in their successors. You have chosen to leave more, a record of tales and occurrences, of items significant, hilarious, mundane, heart rending.
Start today.
Ready your writing place. Place before you the most challenging item in any writer's kit... the blank page. Then begin your Life Letter.
Write the date you have commenced on your folder. Write your salutation... and begin. Where? It doesn't matter for this is a letter. It has a place for everything... and tolerates random disclosures as well as lapses in communication, just as we do with old and valued friends who, loving us, abide our infirmities and inefficiencies, too.
And if such lapses occur, don't blame yourself, no matter how long it has been since you have written in this lifelong epistle. Simply pick up your pen and begin again. Your reader, your flesh and blood, will be fascinated by whatever you share, for in sharing yourself so you not only fill gaps in their personal intelligence... you illuminate and reveal their own lives. Begin this voyage now for you have much to tell:
Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage. -- Joachim du Bellay.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant's is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
I knew the late Mrs. John (Elizabeth) Edwards was particularly devoted to her children and family... but when I learned from her funeral coverage that she had left behind a long letter which she had been writing for them over the course of many years, my admiration for the lady rose still more.
In my family we call such a letter, the Life Letter and encourage particularly parents and grandparents to start one as soon as you know a little one is on the way. It will quickly become one of your own most valued possessions... as it will become, in due time, valuable for the kids you leave it to. This article will help you get started with your own Life Letter, the gift of generations, assisting you to create a masterwork.
What is a Life Letter?
A Life Letter is a letter written by you to your children and/or (in due course) your grand children. It is "one-sided" in the sense that you are writing it for your dearly beloved without any expectation that they will either respond to it or even see during your life time. A Life Letter has a specific mission. It is to let the recipient into both your own life... and into theirs from your unique standpoint as parent or grandparent.
A Life Letter is neither a personal journal nor a regular posted letter. Nor is it either an email or random jottings and particular information as found in a baby book. It partakes of certain elements from these genres and types. However, it is very much its own thing, sui generis, as you come to see and enjoy as your Life Letter takes shape over time.
Get going, keep going
For a thing destined to rank amongst the most important possessions of your life, a treasured heirloom, surprisingly little is needed for its creation except for two must have features: the willingness to start creating your Life Letter at once... and an iron-clad determination to keep working at it for the duration of your life. A labor of love it may be... but the work involved is real nonetheless and must be properly organized.
What you need to start today
Before writing a word of your Life Letter, gather what you'll need:
fountain pen a ream of lined paper a folder with pockets a "writing place".
A quick word about these items:
fountain pen. Remember, your objective is to reveal yourself through your Life Letter and create a thing of beauty and insight for your family. For this a fountain pen is desirable. However, in recommending this essential tool, I know full well that today copperplate writing is as rare as a hen's tooth. As such, if you cannot rise to the elegance and style of a fountain pen... make sure you have a typewriter (my IBM Selectric II is a gem) or email.
There are trade-offs here. Your handwriting (execrable though it may be, like my own) is a better indicator of who you are than typed words. Moreover, your Life Letter must be spontaneous and "of the moment." Typing and email smack too much of deliberation -- and business. Unfortunately, too many people today have my problem of illegible scrawling. Thus, for us, while our Life Letter may be less personal if not hand written, it will be infinitely more readable. So, how about a compromise?
If your poor handwriting warrants, write the headings and special notes and salutations in ink. Type the rest. Thus you retain the special bond with recipient that comes with words handwritten.
Proper storage is crucial.
That's where the folder with pockets comes in. As you write, number the pages and put them away in folders. Each folder must be dated for the time covered... and always kept in the safest place in the house. (Unsurprisingly people who have spent decades on their Life Letters keep them in a safety deposit box, thereby indicating their value.)
Your warm, confiding "writing place".
When you sit down to "talk" to your children and grandchildren via your Life Letter, you need a warm, inviting, confiding place in which to do it. In such a place you are completely and entirely at home. It should be comfortable... with a family pictures, books, mementoes, a room redolent of cherished memories and always of cherished people.
Here favorite foods and liquids are de rigueur, with stains and spots proving use and personal title. Here shoes are kicked off and shirt collars opened. Here there is always a place for you... and as such the words flow thick and fast as you tell your posterity and record for yourself your journey on this planet... a journey that has brought you to this time and place and which you, no matter how imperfectly, want to share. Such a place is for you and the very carefully selected only, the people you value most and profoundly. They deserve your best... and you must give it to them, for their good and for your own soul's sake.
Begin today
Most people leave nothing on this globe but their genetic footprints implanted in their successors. You have chosen to leave more, a record of tales and occurrences, of items significant, hilarious, mundane, heart rending.
Start today.
Ready your writing place. Place before you the most challenging item in any writer's kit... the blank page. Then begin your Life Letter.
Write the date you have commenced on your folder. Write your salutation... and begin. Where? It doesn't matter for this is a letter. It has a place for everything... and tolerates random disclosures as well as lapses in communication, just as we do with old and valued friends who, loving us, abide our infirmities and inefficiencies, too.
And if such lapses occur, don't blame yourself, no matter how long it has been since you have written in this lifelong epistle. Simply pick up your pen and begin again. Your reader, your flesh and blood, will be fascinated by whatever you share, for in sharing yourself so you not only fill gaps in their personal intelligence... you illuminate and reveal their own lives. Begin this voyage now for you have much to tell:
Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage. -- Joachim du Bellay.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant's is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Six things you can do to ensure constant good service. Hint: tipping isn't one of them!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
How often do you complain about poor service? About businesses that seem to specialize in gratuitous irritants and mind-boggling ineptitude in the care and feeding of worthy customers... like you! Such commentary in our rude days is voluminous, constant, and largely pointless. After all, what is to be done with what is so obviously a general, universal melt-down and daily deterioration in manners?
Plenty!
That's why this important article is so important. Constant complaining won't do much. However, there are things you can do every time you visit any business that'll ensure constant good service. Let's dig in:
1) Smile.
Have you looked at the members of the human comedy as we (for I include myself) go about the business of living. Review the faces you see. How many exhibit such off-putting expressions that would make Ebenezer Scrooge seem like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? Answer: a number that seems to grow by the hour. Indeed, the "get lost; leave me alone; don't you dare speak to me" expressions are so characteristic of our time that the Rolling Stones hit "I can't get no satisfaction" should become our national anthem. That's why we need to put "smile" at the top of the list.
Smiling costs nothing and opens a world of possibilities and easier-going relationships. Thus, your goal is to proffer a smile whenever possible... and, by smiling, motivate the people around you to return the favor.
2) Always greet people, whenever possible by name.
People like to be called by their names. This being the case you have to wonder why more people haven't figured out that greeting a person by their name not only is courteous; it's a vital way to ensure good service. So, how do you get the name?
In many businesses personnel either wear name tags... or else they often have a name plaque (like banks). Make a point of looking for the name... and then using it. "Good morning, Betty. You look cheerful today!" In such a simple beginning is a future replete with good natured help and assistance from Betty; which is just what you want.
3) Offer a cheerful remark.
If you want cheer from otherwise morose and self-centered personnel, make it a point to break the ice with a positive comment, like the one above delivered to "Betty": "You look cheerful today!"
Count on the fact that you will be one of the few people in contact with this person today who will be cheerful, upbeat, with a hail-fellow-well-met attitude. Remember, the run of homo sapiens will be scowling instead. Thus your remark is guaranteed to stand out... and get the response you want, namely regular good service from someone positioned to assist you, if she would!
4) Look the person you are addressing in the eye.
The general population moves listlessly through life eyes cast resolutely down, making a point to avoid eye or any other contact. This makes it difficult to secure the best service possible; in fact, it is a prescription for the exact opposite. That's why you must look your potentially helpful but current unhelpful person in the eyes. Eye contact is crucial in establishing long-term good relations and the superior service you desire.
5) Has someone been helpful to you? Tell the manager or responsible individual before you leave.
Every day most employees manage to do a reasonable job. If you want good service from these people, tell their supervisor that they were most helpful to you.
Now here's the key point. Maybe these employees have been particularly helpful... or perhaps they are just a tad above horrible. If you want to make a good impression and open a bridgehead to better service in future, you will find something to commend to the person in charge; you will tell the employees you intend to put in a good word for them...and you'll put in that good word before you leave the business.
Doing it now -- and letting the employee know you've done so -- marks you as an action oriented individual... and a person to be remembered and treated with the kind of respect only a few holy persons and an occasional monarch get. A live commendation puts you in this select society... and gets you the superior service you desire.
6) Write a congratulatory note or send an email.
In a society as service-challenged as ours, there ought to be a law ordering congratulatory comments like those above. Sadly, there is not...which is why so much good service never gets more than a thank-you at best. But not from you...
Your job, if you are determined to secure better service from the establishment and its employees, entails getting the good employee's name, the manager's name and mailing or email address. Then writing a brisk, focused message lavishing compliments and praise. In such messages there cannot be too many compliments or excessive flattery. Use both... for they are important in getting you the better service you desire. Make sure such messages are sent the very day of the good service. Delay diminishes their value, which would never do.
So, who gets superior service... and why?
The bottom line: if you want a lifetime of superior service... become a superior customer. Don't expect the people you deal with in business to give you what you will not give them: good manners, an ease of manner, not a jolting "I exist. Serve me" attitude.
Thus, the key point of this article is not merely to provide helpful hints that guarantee superior service, but to make it abundantly clear that those who get superior service are those who deserve it. And by "deserve" I do not mean that they are big shots who arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine. Indeed, no.
People deserve better treatment because they give better treatment. And that's the way it should be!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
310.618.8107
Check out Zero Cost Commissions-> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=lp2bJ1nL
How often do you complain about poor service? About businesses that seem to specialize in gratuitous irritants and mind-boggling ineptitude in the care and feeding of worthy customers... like you! Such commentary in our rude days is voluminous, constant, and largely pointless. After all, what is to be done with what is so obviously a general, universal melt-down and daily deterioration in manners?
Plenty!
That's why this important article is so important. Constant complaining won't do much. However, there are things you can do every time you visit any business that'll ensure constant good service. Let's dig in:
1) Smile.
Have you looked at the members of the human comedy as we (for I include myself) go about the business of living. Review the faces you see. How many exhibit such off-putting expressions that would make Ebenezer Scrooge seem like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? Answer: a number that seems to grow by the hour. Indeed, the "get lost; leave me alone; don't you dare speak to me" expressions are so characteristic of our time that the Rolling Stones hit "I can't get no satisfaction" should become our national anthem. That's why we need to put "smile" at the top of the list.
Smiling costs nothing and opens a world of possibilities and easier-going relationships. Thus, your goal is to proffer a smile whenever possible... and, by smiling, motivate the people around you to return the favor.
2) Always greet people, whenever possible by name.
People like to be called by their names. This being the case you have to wonder why more people haven't figured out that greeting a person by their name not only is courteous; it's a vital way to ensure good service. So, how do you get the name?
In many businesses personnel either wear name tags... or else they often have a name plaque (like banks). Make a point of looking for the name... and then using it. "Good morning, Betty. You look cheerful today!" In such a simple beginning is a future replete with good natured help and assistance from Betty; which is just what you want.
3) Offer a cheerful remark.
If you want cheer from otherwise morose and self-centered personnel, make it a point to break the ice with a positive comment, like the one above delivered to "Betty": "You look cheerful today!"
Count on the fact that you will be one of the few people in contact with this person today who will be cheerful, upbeat, with a hail-fellow-well-met attitude. Remember, the run of homo sapiens will be scowling instead. Thus your remark is guaranteed to stand out... and get the response you want, namely regular good service from someone positioned to assist you, if she would!
4) Look the person you are addressing in the eye.
The general population moves listlessly through life eyes cast resolutely down, making a point to avoid eye or any other contact. This makes it difficult to secure the best service possible; in fact, it is a prescription for the exact opposite. That's why you must look your potentially helpful but current unhelpful person in the eyes. Eye contact is crucial in establishing long-term good relations and the superior service you desire.
5) Has someone been helpful to you? Tell the manager or responsible individual before you leave.
Every day most employees manage to do a reasonable job. If you want good service from these people, tell their supervisor that they were most helpful to you.
Now here's the key point. Maybe these employees have been particularly helpful... or perhaps they are just a tad above horrible. If you want to make a good impression and open a bridgehead to better service in future, you will find something to commend to the person in charge; you will tell the employees you intend to put in a good word for them...and you'll put in that good word before you leave the business.
Doing it now -- and letting the employee know you've done so -- marks you as an action oriented individual... and a person to be remembered and treated with the kind of respect only a few holy persons and an occasional monarch get. A live commendation puts you in this select society... and gets you the superior service you desire.
6) Write a congratulatory note or send an email.
In a society as service-challenged as ours, there ought to be a law ordering congratulatory comments like those above. Sadly, there is not...which is why so much good service never gets more than a thank-you at best. But not from you...
Your job, if you are determined to secure better service from the establishment and its employees, entails getting the good employee's name, the manager's name and mailing or email address. Then writing a brisk, focused message lavishing compliments and praise. In such messages there cannot be too many compliments or excessive flattery. Use both... for they are important in getting you the better service you desire. Make sure such messages are sent the very day of the good service. Delay diminishes their value, which would never do.
So, who gets superior service... and why?
The bottom line: if you want a lifetime of superior service... become a superior customer. Don't expect the people you deal with in business to give you what you will not give them: good manners, an ease of manner, not a jolting "I exist. Serve me" attitude.
Thus, the key point of this article is not merely to provide helpful hints that guarantee superior service, but to make it abundantly clear that those who get superior service are those who deserve it. And by "deserve" I do not mean that they are big shots who arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine. Indeed, no.
People deserve better treatment because they give better treatment. And that's the way it should be!
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
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Monday, December 13, 2010
An appreciation of the life of Lewis H. Clark, dead at 85, and the community bank he helped craft, Cambridge Trust Company.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
After the economic debacle so many banks contributed to in the last few years, one may wonder whether they deserve any good words at all, much less a stellar recommendation. Most don't, but Lewis H. Clark and the bank he helped create, certainly do. For here the virtues of old-style community banks are revered, practised, perfected.
Location, Location, Location
The headquarters of Cambridge Trust Company are right across the street from the main gate of Harvard University, right in front of the house General George Washington used as his command post while turning the feisty colonials hereabouts into the soldiers who, in due course, humiliated the greatest empire on earth. It's a special place... and like everything in Harvard's neighborhood requires equally special services, banking not the least amongst them.
Any banking chain might like... and many banking chains have unsubtly coveted ... this location, replete with its hordes of style-challenged Harvard students, the best and the brightest worldwide. It is one of the planet's signature locations.
However, thanks to the vision of James H. Clark this location and its bank remain resolutely community- centered, Cambridge-centered, service-centered. This is why a tribute is due to James H. Clark, not because he was president and chief executive officer of Cambridge Trust (1980-1991)... but that he used his power and position for maximum community service.
About Lewis H. Clark
First and foremost, he was a Cambridge man. Born in Boston (no one held that against him), he was brought up in Cambridge, went to Harvard College (class of 1947), and went to work at Cambridge Trust Company immediately following World War II service in the US Navy.
During his 45 years with the bank, he served in almost every job, each one being a stepping stone to the next... and each one giving him insight into why a community bank was infinitely preferable to a chain. It was a conviction that would be sorely tested during the go-go years when a cacophony of voices shouted that to get along Cambridge Trust must go along... as one bank merger followed another.
Clark was plain-spoken and adamant. According to retired senior vice president Robert DeGregorio, "He thought the best way to serve the community was to remain independent and not become part of a larger institution. He wanted to be able to control the product and service that was delivered to the community." Thus, small(er) was always better. Today Cambridge Trust has more than $1 billion in assets with 11 locations.
What makes Cambridge Trust special
Service
Service
Service.
I know whereof I speak.
For about 40 years now, I've been an enthusiastic customer at Cambridge Trust. Why? Because they are just so incredibly good at what they do and because other banks are, well, banks. Cambridge Trust understands what other banks mouth but never implement: that banking is first and foremost about people. I have exhaustive information about one of these community people and his particular banking needs. This person is -- me!
Item: one day I was toodling around Harvard Square when I told my chauffeur Aime Joseph that I needed to run an errand but had no money. He advised me to call one of the bank officers on the car phone and ask her to withdraw some funds from my checking account so I could just run in and get them.
But Cambridge Trust did better than that. They had, in minutes, the funds at the drive through window for me, no paperwork required. They knew me... and they helped, at once.
Nowadays I often send Mr. Joseph to the bank by himself after I've advised an officer on the phone about the funds I need. He picks them up without a signature and brings them to me... so that I don't have to break into my demanding work schedule. Cool.
Item: One wire after another to Europe sending funds for my burgeoning art and artifact collection.
I am an obsessive collector of European art and artifacts from the 17th-19th centuries. I required a bank equally obsessive about assisting me. Cambridge Trust does... often.
One way is by the very frequent wires they send to auction houses around Europe paying for my latest acquisitions. Over time it became apparent that the volume of wires (not to mention the amounts being wired) necessitated an individual system. Cambridge Trust, truly customer-centered, obliged.
As a result, I could handle everything on the telephone: authorizing the wire amount, faxing auction house paperwork, helping helpful officer Helen Van Nostrand create a system that met my highly particular needs, not least being able to provide those shipping my merchandise with a whole lot of detailed information required by both tax authorities and British and US customs officials.
Item: crystal glass ware
During my first visit to the Trust Department water was requested and duly arrived in... plastic cups. I made a point of mentioning to the senior officer that such glassware was infra dig and should be replaced by appropriate crystal glassware. At the next meeting, I was pleased to note that my water was served appropriately... in (practical) crystal.
Item: special help for a man who has never balanced his check book in his life.
There are many things in life that one really cannot ignore. You'd think that balancing one's checkbook would be one of them. But, as I have amply proven, you can, for decades, go without doing so... if you have observant, tolerant, frequently forgiving bank officers... like I do at Cambridge Trust. Such folk, always more friend than mere banker, with a nudge, a gentle reminder, and constant flow of information help me appear what I am frequently not: organized.
The banker as friend.
How many of you think of your bank and its many personnel as your friends? I do, because Cambridge Trust Company makes this plausible, likely, and eminently desirable. I have no reason to think the above-and-beyond service I regularly receive is unique; indeed, I know otherwise.
I am now greeted by name as the front door; every teller knows me (and the state of my credit reserve balance), officers and trust officers ask me intelligent questions about my latest acquisitions and are as regularly invited, along with the greenest teller, to come see.
Recognition to Lewis H. Clark and thanks for his vision.
Human institutions are often flawed and far from perfect. Even Cambridge Trust has matters that could be better; (how about at least one day a week when open until 6 pm, instead of just 5?). However, these matters are minor, microscopic in the big picture. And that is the picture that Lewis Clark, grounded, clear headed, a man who knew the value of predictability and conservative habits, kept in mind through decades of service. It was all about anchoring his bank firmly in the Cambridge community and operating accordingly.
Other banks, often to their detriment, merged into nothingness, divisions within divisions, loyal to nothing and no one, rootless. Lewis Clark kept his bank firmly and deeply planted in the community, which was always the focus of his perspicacious eye and cheerful manner.
So, today, I thank Lewis H. Clark for resisting the glib and trendy... for staying firmly where a bank's focus should always be: on a community and its people. For all could use a bank like his, and mine, Cambridge Trust. Now you know why.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
After the economic debacle so many banks contributed to in the last few years, one may wonder whether they deserve any good words at all, much less a stellar recommendation. Most don't, but Lewis H. Clark and the bank he helped create, certainly do. For here the virtues of old-style community banks are revered, practised, perfected.
Location, Location, Location
The headquarters of Cambridge Trust Company are right across the street from the main gate of Harvard University, right in front of the house General George Washington used as his command post while turning the feisty colonials hereabouts into the soldiers who, in due course, humiliated the greatest empire on earth. It's a special place... and like everything in Harvard's neighborhood requires equally special services, banking not the least amongst them.
Any banking chain might like... and many banking chains have unsubtly coveted ... this location, replete with its hordes of style-challenged Harvard students, the best and the brightest worldwide. It is one of the planet's signature locations.
However, thanks to the vision of James H. Clark this location and its bank remain resolutely community- centered, Cambridge-centered, service-centered. This is why a tribute is due to James H. Clark, not because he was president and chief executive officer of Cambridge Trust (1980-1991)... but that he used his power and position for maximum community service.
About Lewis H. Clark
First and foremost, he was a Cambridge man. Born in Boston (no one held that against him), he was brought up in Cambridge, went to Harvard College (class of 1947), and went to work at Cambridge Trust Company immediately following World War II service in the US Navy.
During his 45 years with the bank, he served in almost every job, each one being a stepping stone to the next... and each one giving him insight into why a community bank was infinitely preferable to a chain. It was a conviction that would be sorely tested during the go-go years when a cacophony of voices shouted that to get along Cambridge Trust must go along... as one bank merger followed another.
Clark was plain-spoken and adamant. According to retired senior vice president Robert DeGregorio, "He thought the best way to serve the community was to remain independent and not become part of a larger institution. He wanted to be able to control the product and service that was delivered to the community." Thus, small(er) was always better. Today Cambridge Trust has more than $1 billion in assets with 11 locations.
What makes Cambridge Trust special
Service
Service
Service.
I know whereof I speak.
For about 40 years now, I've been an enthusiastic customer at Cambridge Trust. Why? Because they are just so incredibly good at what they do and because other banks are, well, banks. Cambridge Trust understands what other banks mouth but never implement: that banking is first and foremost about people. I have exhaustive information about one of these community people and his particular banking needs. This person is -- me!
Item: one day I was toodling around Harvard Square when I told my chauffeur Aime Joseph that I needed to run an errand but had no money. He advised me to call one of the bank officers on the car phone and ask her to withdraw some funds from my checking account so I could just run in and get them.
But Cambridge Trust did better than that. They had, in minutes, the funds at the drive through window for me, no paperwork required. They knew me... and they helped, at once.
Nowadays I often send Mr. Joseph to the bank by himself after I've advised an officer on the phone about the funds I need. He picks them up without a signature and brings them to me... so that I don't have to break into my demanding work schedule. Cool.
Item: One wire after another to Europe sending funds for my burgeoning art and artifact collection.
I am an obsessive collector of European art and artifacts from the 17th-19th centuries. I required a bank equally obsessive about assisting me. Cambridge Trust does... often.
One way is by the very frequent wires they send to auction houses around Europe paying for my latest acquisitions. Over time it became apparent that the volume of wires (not to mention the amounts being wired) necessitated an individual system. Cambridge Trust, truly customer-centered, obliged.
As a result, I could handle everything on the telephone: authorizing the wire amount, faxing auction house paperwork, helping helpful officer Helen Van Nostrand create a system that met my highly particular needs, not least being able to provide those shipping my merchandise with a whole lot of detailed information required by both tax authorities and British and US customs officials.
Item: crystal glass ware
During my first visit to the Trust Department water was requested and duly arrived in... plastic cups. I made a point of mentioning to the senior officer that such glassware was infra dig and should be replaced by appropriate crystal glassware. At the next meeting, I was pleased to note that my water was served appropriately... in (practical) crystal.
Item: special help for a man who has never balanced his check book in his life.
There are many things in life that one really cannot ignore. You'd think that balancing one's checkbook would be one of them. But, as I have amply proven, you can, for decades, go without doing so... if you have observant, tolerant, frequently forgiving bank officers... like I do at Cambridge Trust. Such folk, always more friend than mere banker, with a nudge, a gentle reminder, and constant flow of information help me appear what I am frequently not: organized.
The banker as friend.
How many of you think of your bank and its many personnel as your friends? I do, because Cambridge Trust Company makes this plausible, likely, and eminently desirable. I have no reason to think the above-and-beyond service I regularly receive is unique; indeed, I know otherwise.
I am now greeted by name as the front door; every teller knows me (and the state of my credit reserve balance), officers and trust officers ask me intelligent questions about my latest acquisitions and are as regularly invited, along with the greenest teller, to come see.
Recognition to Lewis H. Clark and thanks for his vision.
Human institutions are often flawed and far from perfect. Even Cambridge Trust has matters that could be better; (how about at least one day a week when open until 6 pm, instead of just 5?). However, these matters are minor, microscopic in the big picture. And that is the picture that Lewis Clark, grounded, clear headed, a man who knew the value of predictability and conservative habits, kept in mind through decades of service. It was all about anchoring his bank firmly in the Cambridge community and operating accordingly.
Other banks, often to their detriment, merged into nothingness, divisions within divisions, loyal to nothing and no one, rootless. Lewis Clark kept his bank firmly and deeply planted in the community, which was always the focus of his perspicacious eye and cheerful manner.
So, today, I thank Lewis H. Clark for resisting the glib and trendy... for staying firmly where a bank's focus should always be: on a community and its people. For all could use a bank like his, and mine, Cambridge Trust. Now you know why.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
An appreciation of the life of Elizabeth Edwards, a great lady who unexpectedly touched our lives.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It wasn't supposed to end this way. John and Elizabeth Edwards had a plan.... and were entirely, happily focused on its achievement.
Having failed to achieve the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 (which didn't worry this effervescent pair one whit), their task was clear: persuade Massachusetts senator Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry that they (for then they were always a couple) were what he needed for victory.
Then work relentlessly to move up.... a second vice presidential term in 2008.... then the heady joys of the 2012 Democratic presidential nomination... then, as they strode into their inaugural ball, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States and the First Lady, Elizabeth Edwards."
Theirs was more than a plan... it was a reality so clear and certain they could taste it.
In these days, Elizabeth Edwards did as she was told. Her task (unannounced of course) was nothing less than helping America swallow John Edwards, preparing the way for his all-but-certain coronation.
Even in the early days, America was cautious about Edwards... he was too handsome, too glib, that Southern golden boy smile flashing too often, too automatically. We might be persuaded to like him... but we didn't entirely like him yet.
Which was where Elizabeth Edwards came in. She we could identify with at once. Her smile was warm... her manner congenial, believable. People didn't know her then... but as they did, they liked her. While catty commentators purred that she looked like his mother, mothers everywhere thought: "if he could truly love this good woman of a few extra pounds, he was indeed a good man and worth a second look."
It was a winning formula.
But, it was threatened from its earliest days.
John Edwards, you see, had the wandering eye... and Elizabeth now had cancer. Fate, the master of irony, was not such an easy thing as they had supposed.
Now choices had to be made. Elizabeth needed constant treatment... John Edwards, in the time-tested behavior of men who did not stand by their gals, decided to give infidelity a whirl, with his own particular bedside manner. Why not? He was, after all, the golden boy... and Elizabeth would, he knew, stand by him whatever he did to her.
Bit by bit the facts came out. Had the senator had an affair?
No, he said, he had not. It was all a tissue of lies perpetrated by his political opponents.
Are you sure, senator? Well, okay, I erred but just (he was adamant) for one night and the child being hawked as his own was... someone else's. Not his, so help me God.
Are sure, senator? Well, okay, the affair was longer than I said... but, I swear, the child is not mine.
Are you sure, senator? Well, okay, it is my child, sure as shooting.
And what of Elizabeth Edwards? Struggling as she was with an illness getting more and more serious she had, at that exact moment, to confront the fact that her husband, the man she believed in, had lied to her and lied and lied again, always confident of the forgiveness that golden boys believe is theirs when their mates are plainer with extra pounds. There was here, as there always is, the whiff that she was lucky to have him, then flash that thousand-volt, always-winning smile, the one that makes friends and influences people.
This time it didn't work... for, in Elizabeth Edwards, America was already aware of what she had that was so deeply lacking in her unrelentingly cynical and prevaricating mate. She was real, genuine, authentic, a woman confronting the failure of her body and her mate with self-control, dignity, and honesty. Thus, John Edwards learned the hard way that you cannot cheat on the woman you have lied to when that woman is in the process of becoming a saint.
In her last Facebook session, Elizabeth Edwards said a graceful good-bye to her many friends worldwide, people whose lives her authentic behavior and courage had inspired:
"I have been sustained throughout my life," she wrote "by three saving graces -- my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that."
Thus, simply, Elizabeth Edwards ended a life of events spectacular and heart-rending. At the end, she was no longer defined as John Edward's wife, the designated junior partner. She had long ago surpassed him in importance and stature. It was she America looked to for inspiration, kindness and care.
Scourged by the tragic death of her beloved first-born son, by the blatant betrayal of her mate, and by insistent, weakening health crises, Elizabeth Edwards showed us all how to grow while confronting issues which cripple and demoralize so many. In private, she no doubt gave way to doubt, pain, and that sickening feeling when one confronts the loss of life and love. But whatever her private demons, publicly Elizabeth Edwards moved towards her destiny with a manner invariably gracious and an unshakable message of inspiration and joy.
Thus, at her deathbed, there was the feeling that a great lady was passing. Thousands worldwide stopped to inquire how she was... and to wonder at her unfailing generosity even at this penultimate moment.
And what of John Edwards, now separated from the woman he had spurned and lied to? "A family friend said John Edwards was present." Did he flash his mega-watt smile, that now seemed so contrived? Did he whisper death-bed condolences to the woman he had insulted and who knew just what any of his words were worth?
I think in the end, seeing for him a long life without any of his dreams achieved... or even an ability to dream at all; I think she smiled at him, knowing all, forgiving much, and held his hand for a moment, ready for an eternity she did not fear.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. John and Elizabeth Edwards had a plan.... and were entirely, happily focused on its achievement.
Having failed to achieve the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 (which didn't worry this effervescent pair one whit), their task was clear: persuade Massachusetts senator Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry that they (for then they were always a couple) were what he needed for victory.
Then work relentlessly to move up.... a second vice presidential term in 2008.... then the heady joys of the 2012 Democratic presidential nomination... then, as they strode into their inaugural ball, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States and the First Lady, Elizabeth Edwards."
Theirs was more than a plan... it was a reality so clear and certain they could taste it.
In these days, Elizabeth Edwards did as she was told. Her task (unannounced of course) was nothing less than helping America swallow John Edwards, preparing the way for his all-but-certain coronation.
Even in the early days, America was cautious about Edwards... he was too handsome, too glib, that Southern golden boy smile flashing too often, too automatically. We might be persuaded to like him... but we didn't entirely like him yet.
Which was where Elizabeth Edwards came in. She we could identify with at once. Her smile was warm... her manner congenial, believable. People didn't know her then... but as they did, they liked her. While catty commentators purred that she looked like his mother, mothers everywhere thought: "if he could truly love this good woman of a few extra pounds, he was indeed a good man and worth a second look."
It was a winning formula.
But, it was threatened from its earliest days.
John Edwards, you see, had the wandering eye... and Elizabeth now had cancer. Fate, the master of irony, was not such an easy thing as they had supposed.
Now choices had to be made. Elizabeth needed constant treatment... John Edwards, in the time-tested behavior of men who did not stand by their gals, decided to give infidelity a whirl, with his own particular bedside manner. Why not? He was, after all, the golden boy... and Elizabeth would, he knew, stand by him whatever he did to her.
Bit by bit the facts came out. Had the senator had an affair?
No, he said, he had not. It was all a tissue of lies perpetrated by his political opponents.
Are you sure, senator? Well, okay, I erred but just (he was adamant) for one night and the child being hawked as his own was... someone else's. Not his, so help me God.
Are sure, senator? Well, okay, the affair was longer than I said... but, I swear, the child is not mine.
Are you sure, senator? Well, okay, it is my child, sure as shooting.
And what of Elizabeth Edwards? Struggling as she was with an illness getting more and more serious she had, at that exact moment, to confront the fact that her husband, the man she believed in, had lied to her and lied and lied again, always confident of the forgiveness that golden boys believe is theirs when their mates are plainer with extra pounds. There was here, as there always is, the whiff that she was lucky to have him, then flash that thousand-volt, always-winning smile, the one that makes friends and influences people.
This time it didn't work... for, in Elizabeth Edwards, America was already aware of what she had that was so deeply lacking in her unrelentingly cynical and prevaricating mate. She was real, genuine, authentic, a woman confronting the failure of her body and her mate with self-control, dignity, and honesty. Thus, John Edwards learned the hard way that you cannot cheat on the woman you have lied to when that woman is in the process of becoming a saint.
In her last Facebook session, Elizabeth Edwards said a graceful good-bye to her many friends worldwide, people whose lives her authentic behavior and courage had inspired:
"I have been sustained throughout my life," she wrote "by three saving graces -- my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that."
Thus, simply, Elizabeth Edwards ended a life of events spectacular and heart-rending. At the end, she was no longer defined as John Edward's wife, the designated junior partner. She had long ago surpassed him in importance and stature. It was she America looked to for inspiration, kindness and care.
Scourged by the tragic death of her beloved first-born son, by the blatant betrayal of her mate, and by insistent, weakening health crises, Elizabeth Edwards showed us all how to grow while confronting issues which cripple and demoralize so many. In private, she no doubt gave way to doubt, pain, and that sickening feeling when one confronts the loss of life and love. But whatever her private demons, publicly Elizabeth Edwards moved towards her destiny with a manner invariably gracious and an unshakable message of inspiration and joy.
Thus, at her deathbed, there was the feeling that a great lady was passing. Thousands worldwide stopped to inquire how she was... and to wonder at her unfailing generosity even at this penultimate moment.
And what of John Edwards, now separated from the woman he had spurned and lied to? "A family friend said John Edwards was present." Did he flash his mega-watt smile, that now seemed so contrived? Did he whisper death-bed condolences to the woman he had insulted and who knew just what any of his words were worth?
I think in the end, seeing for him a long life without any of his dreams achieved... or even an ability to dream at all; I think she smiled at him, knowing all, forgiving much, and held his hand for a moment, ready for an eternity she did not fear.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
How to prepare for your dreaded class reunion
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Ok, it's time you acknowledged that inconvenient truth you've buried for so long. In high school, in college you were not the most popular kid on the block. And it hurt.
That acne!
That hideous hair!
Those clothes! Yikes!
And the nickname! (One of my room mates was called "The Worm" and for good reason).
The elect called you
dweeb
nerd
loser
They called you everything but on the telephone where the in-crowd disseminated the latest designed-to-exclude patois and invitations to its (unauthorized and therefore highly desirable) parties.
It is not a pretty story.
Still time for damage control
You can't erase those grotesque memories of yore (and your own psychological damages)... but you can significantly modify them IF (and it's a crucial if) you ace your class reunion(s). This primer of must-follow advice is just in the nick of time to do so. Kool.
You see, class reunions give you the opportunity to put unsettling ghosts to rest. They both help reshape your personal history while updating you on the have-to-know histories of your classmates, particularly the ones you didn't like.
The 18th century sage Voltaire wrote that "history is a pack of tricks the living play on the dead." If he'd had class reunions to attend, he might have added that such events are occasions where the olds play tricks on the young. As such, it's most important to play your reunions absolutely right.
It's still about looks, stupid!
Wise, empathetic teachers soothed you with the profound knowledge that when you got older, you'd be valued for who you were, for your many attainments and gifts to civilization; that it wouldn't be all be about looks and clothes and such superficial matters. Rubbish!
In writing this article, I asked several reunion survivors what points they'd like me to make. The first, a sensible Midwestern woman of a certain age, blurted out "weight"; she was immediately followed by another such woman, Canadian, who chimed in with "clothes."
These two items headed the most-agonized-over items in high school... and they still head the list, at least as class reunions go, today. Those soothing lines expertly delivered were just that... soothing lines. The inconvenient truth, irrefutable, is what we always knew: the superficials count as much as ever, maybe even more as time's winged chariot runs over and pulverizes our much prized little vanities.
Work it, baby, or it's not just the eyes of Texas which are upon you
Remember that great ball screen from "War and Peace" where the young countess Natasha Rostova ascends the grand staircase of a St Petersburg palace, certain that every jaundiced, aristocratic eye, particularly of the feminine persuasion, is looking at her, critically assessing? She was right...
This is a truth you cannot forget. Reunions are about assessments raised and lowered. They are about who made it... and who didn't. As such everything about you (and your dearly beloved) can and will be scrutinized and scrutinized again. Prepare accordingly, weeks in advance because the assessments your classmates will make start the very instant you appear. They are inevitable, withering, without mercy or chance of appeal. This is true whether your reunion is stylish and sophisticated, in an opulent hotel's grand ballroom... or at Billy's greasy pizza parlor.
To make the right entrance and start your reunion experience off right, the following features are de rigueur:
1) Weight. Every extra pound (the ones your careful spouse dances around denominating) detracts from the effect you must make. The Duchess of Windsor said, "No one can be too rich or too thin," and her grace ought to know. The weight loss and toning program produces far more than health benefits; it's all about making the killer entrance that the high school in crowd always had down pat.
2) Clothes. The effect you seek, whether man or woman, is unmistakable, immediately visible, always impacting casual chic; that is, clothes classically cut, elegant even when older and even worn. It takes a trained eye to produce the effect... but any eye can see it's there.
My mother, for instance, had a classic little black dress. One day I noticed a tiny moth hole. My mother's resounding response, "But, darling, it's Chanel!". Ah, yes. Of course. That's the perfect effect your ensemble should produce.
One 20-year reunion veteran claimed he didn't understand why the women made such an effort. Then, upon a moment's thought, he had that "aha" moment: "I bet they want to impress all the men!" My, my. Can't pull the wool over his eyes. So, tell me, do you think that's what those indomitable femme fatales are doing as they strut their stuff before the censorious and unyielding eyes of their sex? Every reunion veteran certainly knows.
3) Mandatory, chauffeur-driven limousine. This has many advantages: 1) designated driver already in place; 2) definitely come ups those peons who drive themselves; 3) causes all the necessary heads to turn... and wonder how you (of all people) turned out so well after all. Enough said.
By the way, should you need such a driver and equipage when in the Boston, Massachusetts area, contact me, and I'l refer Mr. Aime Joseph, who has driven me elegantly and always on time for many years.
Quick Reunion Tips
Item: Always come fashionably late. Act as if you are the person people wait for.
Item: Always have business cards. Writing particulars indistinctly on napkins is infra dig.
Item: Don't dance unless it's a tune you can fox trot to with elegant figures. Disarranging your clothes and coiffeur is indefensible, and unnecessary.
Item: Don't drink. As you can tell from this article, you need your wits about you. Don't let the sauce spoil all your plans.
Item: do take pictures. And do remember to write down at the time they are taken (not developed) just who's in them. If you don't, in time you'll forget and fail to note even your first high octane high school flame.
One more thing
If you intend that this reunion be your last, feel free to disregard any or all of these rules. Just go and have a helluva good thing, always remembering that when you do you'll confirm every catty thing your classmates have ever said. Party hardy, however, with the people you care about and have reconnected with, and it will be worth it.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books as well as a well known marketer and consultant.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Push Button Money -> http://silver45b.pbmoney.hop.clickbank.net
Ok, it's time you acknowledged that inconvenient truth you've buried for so long. In high school, in college you were not the most popular kid on the block. And it hurt.
That acne!
That hideous hair!
Those clothes! Yikes!
And the nickname! (One of my room mates was called "The Worm" and for good reason).
The elect called you
dweeb
nerd
loser
They called you everything but on the telephone where the in-crowd disseminated the latest designed-to-exclude patois and invitations to its (unauthorized and therefore highly desirable) parties.
It is not a pretty story.
Still time for damage control
You can't erase those grotesque memories of yore (and your own psychological damages)... but you can significantly modify them IF (and it's a crucial if) you ace your class reunion(s). This primer of must-follow advice is just in the nick of time to do so. Kool.
You see, class reunions give you the opportunity to put unsettling ghosts to rest. They both help reshape your personal history while updating you on the have-to-know histories of your classmates, particularly the ones you didn't like.
The 18th century sage Voltaire wrote that "history is a pack of tricks the living play on the dead." If he'd had class reunions to attend, he might have added that such events are occasions where the olds play tricks on the young. As such, it's most important to play your reunions absolutely right.
It's still about looks, stupid!
Wise, empathetic teachers soothed you with the profound knowledge that when you got older, you'd be valued for who you were, for your many attainments and gifts to civilization; that it wouldn't be all be about looks and clothes and such superficial matters. Rubbish!
In writing this article, I asked several reunion survivors what points they'd like me to make. The first, a sensible Midwestern woman of a certain age, blurted out "weight"; she was immediately followed by another such woman, Canadian, who chimed in with "clothes."
These two items headed the most-agonized-over items in high school... and they still head the list, at least as class reunions go, today. Those soothing lines expertly delivered were just that... soothing lines. The inconvenient truth, irrefutable, is what we always knew: the superficials count as much as ever, maybe even more as time's winged chariot runs over and pulverizes our much prized little vanities.
Work it, baby, or it's not just the eyes of Texas which are upon you
Remember that great ball screen from "War and Peace" where the young countess Natasha Rostova ascends the grand staircase of a St Petersburg palace, certain that every jaundiced, aristocratic eye, particularly of the feminine persuasion, is looking at her, critically assessing? She was right...
This is a truth you cannot forget. Reunions are about assessments raised and lowered. They are about who made it... and who didn't. As such everything about you (and your dearly beloved) can and will be scrutinized and scrutinized again. Prepare accordingly, weeks in advance because the assessments your classmates will make start the very instant you appear. They are inevitable, withering, without mercy or chance of appeal. This is true whether your reunion is stylish and sophisticated, in an opulent hotel's grand ballroom... or at Billy's greasy pizza parlor.
To make the right entrance and start your reunion experience off right, the following features are de rigueur:
1) Weight. Every extra pound (the ones your careful spouse dances around denominating) detracts from the effect you must make. The Duchess of Windsor said, "No one can be too rich or too thin," and her grace ought to know. The weight loss and toning program produces far more than health benefits; it's all about making the killer entrance that the high school in crowd always had down pat.
2) Clothes. The effect you seek, whether man or woman, is unmistakable, immediately visible, always impacting casual chic; that is, clothes classically cut, elegant even when older and even worn. It takes a trained eye to produce the effect... but any eye can see it's there.
My mother, for instance, had a classic little black dress. One day I noticed a tiny moth hole. My mother's resounding response, "But, darling, it's Chanel!". Ah, yes. Of course. That's the perfect effect your ensemble should produce.
One 20-year reunion veteran claimed he didn't understand why the women made such an effort. Then, upon a moment's thought, he had that "aha" moment: "I bet they want to impress all the men!" My, my. Can't pull the wool over his eyes. So, tell me, do you think that's what those indomitable femme fatales are doing as they strut their stuff before the censorious and unyielding eyes of their sex? Every reunion veteran certainly knows.
3) Mandatory, chauffeur-driven limousine. This has many advantages: 1) designated driver already in place; 2) definitely come ups those peons who drive themselves; 3) causes all the necessary heads to turn... and wonder how you (of all people) turned out so well after all. Enough said.
By the way, should you need such a driver and equipage when in the Boston, Massachusetts area, contact me, and I'l refer Mr. Aime Joseph, who has driven me elegantly and always on time for many years.
Quick Reunion Tips
Item: Always come fashionably late. Act as if you are the person people wait for.
Item: Always have business cards. Writing particulars indistinctly on napkins is infra dig.
Item: Don't dance unless it's a tune you can fox trot to with elegant figures. Disarranging your clothes and coiffeur is indefensible, and unnecessary.
Item: Don't drink. As you can tell from this article, you need your wits about you. Don't let the sauce spoil all your plans.
Item: do take pictures. And do remember to write down at the time they are taken (not developed) just who's in them. If you don't, in time you'll forget and fail to note even your first high octane high school flame.
One more thing
If you intend that this reunion be your last, feel free to disregard any or all of these rules. Just go and have a helluva good thing, always remembering that when you do you'll confirm every catty thing your classmates have ever said. Party hardy, however, with the people you care about and have reconnected with, and it will be worth it.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books as well as a well known marketer and consultant.
Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Push Button Money -> http://silver45b.pbmoney.hop.clickbank.net
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