Business
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The National Debt and Federal Budget Deficit Deconstructed – Tony Robbins
Markets posted the biggest weekly drop of 2012, as investors weighed steady domestic-labor and jobs market data amid a backdrop of on-going concerns about Europe's economy.Short term, traders may be asking whether the stock market can sustain its gains, or are investors facing a pullback? But, longer-term, there are bigger issues deserving focus and attention.Here is a video from a source many may find unlikely to intelligently deconstruct the National Debt and Federal Budget.Nonetheless, watch as Tony Robbins discusses the $15 trillion U.S. national debt and what can we do about the enormous growing federal budget deficit?It is worth a few few minutes … he is very good at simplifying things and telling stories.via Tony Robbins. -
The National Debt and Federal Budget Deficit Deconstructed – Tony Robbins
Markets posted the biggest weekly drop of 2012, as investors weighed steady domestic-labor and jobs market data amid a backdrop of on-going concerns about Europe's economy.Short term, traders may be asking whether the stock market can sustain its gains, or are investors facing a pullback? But, longer-term, there are bigger issues deserving focus and attention.Here is a video from a source many may find unlikely to intelligently deconstruct the National Debt and Federal Budget.Nonetheless, watch as Tony Robbins discusses the $15 trillion U.S. national debt and what can we do about the enormous growing federal budget deficit?It is worth a few few minutes … he is very good at simplifying things and telling stories.via Tony Robbins. -
Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
As you probably heard, the jobs recovery suffered a setback in March. With the election coming, this promises to be an issue getting lots of scrutiny.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- 10 Proven Strategies of High-Performance Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
- IBM's Quantum Computers Could Change The World. (FastCompany)
- "When Siri Goes Psycho". A Clever Short Film. (Flixxy)
- Ranking the Web's Best 2012 April Fool's Jokes. (Blogs)
- Fruit Flies Use Alcohol to Cope With Sexual Rejection. How evolved do you feel now? (TW)
- Facebook's Value Shoots Above $100 Billion On Its Last Private Trade. (BizInsider)
- Stocks Just Had The Best Quarter Since 1998, So Why Is Wall St. Skeptical? (Insider)
- A Good Sign: Companies May Finally Be Starting to Spend That Cash. (Businessweek)
- U.S. Tax Hackers: Cheating or Beating? (Infographic)
- Groupon's Shares Continue Falling to Close at All-Time Low. Everyone loves a discount, and yet no one seems to be buying. (AllThingsD)
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Attack of the Killer Tornadoes
It's a day after a string of Tornadoes blew through the DFW Metroplex area.
We saw some crazy stuff. Here is a link to 25 unbelievable pictures from the storm.
Also, here is a video of tractors being tossed around like rag dolls by the Tornado.
A lot of that happened right by here. However, we were lucky and suffered relatively little damage.
Today, things are getting back to normal.
You'll be happy to hear that the capitalistic eco-system is at work again. Hordes of salespeople are going door-to-door offering to fix a roof, clean the yard, repair your fence, or suck out the dents left on your car.
Considering the alternative, I'll take that as a good sign – and be grateful for surviving the 2012 Attack of the Killer Tornadoes.
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A Little Monday Morning Motivation – The Power of Pause
I spent part of this week at the First Rate Performance Conference. It was held at the Four Seasons resort in Las Colinas, Texas (which is a pretty nice place for a retreat).In addition to hearing industry experts and company representatives talking about equations, risk management, and regulatory compliance, the conference featured Terry Hershey, who wrote a book called The Power of Pause (Becoming More by Doing Less).
In the book, Terry counters the modern cultural decree of More-Bigger-Faster. His message was simple (and perhaps even easy).
One of the takeaways was that some things are tactical, some things are strategic, and some things are transformational. All of these things can be good … but the quality of your life and the results results you get change as you spend less time with the tactical and move towards the transformational.
Hershey is a story-teller. Here is one of them:
A teacher gave her class an assignment to name the seven wonders of the world.
Each student came up with a list and shared with the class. As you might guess, students called out entries like the Pyramids, the Amazon River, the Grand Canyon, or the Taj Mahal. The teacher cheered them on and told them what a great job they were doing.
But one girl stayed silent. The teacher asked her about her list, and the girl answered, "I don't think I understand the assignment."
"Why?"
"I don't have any of the right answers."
"Well, why don't you tell us which you wrote on your paper, and we'll help you."
"Okay," said the girl, "I think the seven wonders of the world are … to see, to hear, to touch, to smell, to feel, to love, and to belong."
Somewhere along the way, we tend to forget what we used to know.
How much of our daily experience is defined by what we shoot for and what we measure?
Life can be so "daily". That's a problem, isn't it? No wonder we're easily tempted by things that are urgent, rather than important. But it doesn't have to be that way … and the first step is recognizing that it doesn't have to be that way. The second step is figuring out how you want it to be instead.
To see some of his messages in video format, click this link.
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A Little Monday Morning Motivation – The Power of Pause
I spent part of this week at the First Rate Performance Conference. It was held at the Four Seasons resort in Las Colinas, Texas (which is a pretty nice place for a retreat).In addition to hearing industry experts and company representatives talking about equations, risk management, and regulatory compliance, the conference featured Terry Hershey, who wrote a book called The Power of Pause (Becoming More by Doing Less).
In the book, Terry counters the modern cultural decree of More-Bigger-Faster. His message was simple (and perhaps even easy).
One of the takeaways was that some things are tactical, some things are strategic, and some things are transformational. All of these things can be good … but the quality of your life and the results results you get change as you spend less time with the tactical and move towards the transformational.
Hershey is a story-teller. Here is one of them:
A teacher gave her class an assignment to name the seven wonders of the world.
Each student came up with a list and shared with the class. As you might guess, students called out entries like the Pyramids, the Amazon River, the Grand Canyon, or the Taj Mahal. The teacher cheered them on and told them what a great job they were doing.
But one girl stayed silent. The teacher asked her about her list, and the girl answered, "I don't think I understand the assignment."
"Why?"
"I don't have any of the right answers."
"Well, why don't you tell us which you wrote on your paper, and we'll help you."
"Okay," said the girl, "I think the seven wonders of the world are … to see, to hear, to touch, to smell, to feel, to love, and to belong."
Somewhere along the way, we tend to forget what we used to know.
How much of our daily experience is defined by what we shoot for and what we measure?
Life can be so "daily". That's a problem, isn't it? No wonder we're easily tempted by things that are urgent, rather than important. But it doesn't have to be that way … and the first step is recognizing that it doesn't have to be that way. The second step is figuring out how you want it to be instead.
To see some of his messages in video format, click this link.
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Here's a bumper sticker slogan that rings true more often than you might want.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Seven Truths about Change to Lead & Live By. by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (HBR)
- Good List of 100+ Useful Infographic Tools & Resources. (DailyTekk)
- A Blast from the Past: The New Use for Dormant Fiber from the Dot-Com Boom. (TD)
- ‘Ender’s Game’ Launches Production Blog. A Great Book for a Movie. (MoviesBlog)
- Five Leadership Lessons from Captain Kirk. Knowledge from the heavens … or at least from the Starfleet. (Forbes)
- How 9 Tech Giants Traded Just After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
- Tech IPO Pipeline: 65 + Startups with $100 Million+ Valuations Since 1/11. (CBI)
- New Kinds of Funds for Commodities. (WSJ)
- Why Do Investors Sometimes Make Bad Investment Choices? (KnowWPCarey)
- Billionaire: "All I Know About Investing In Startups I Learned Playing Poker". (Insider)
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Here's a bumper sticker slogan that rings true more often than you might want.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Seven Truths about Change to Lead & Live By. by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (HBR)
- Good List of 100+ Useful Infographic Tools & Resources. (DailyTekk)
- A Blast from the Past: The New Use for Dormant Fiber from the Dot-Com Boom. (TD)
- ‘Ender’s Game’ Launches Production Blog. A Great Book for a Movie. (MoviesBlog)
- Five Leadership Lessons from Captain Kirk. Knowledge from the heavens … or at least from the Starfleet. (Forbes)
- How 9 Tech Giants Traded Just After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
- Tech IPO Pipeline: 65 + Startups with $100 Million+ Valuations Since 1/11. (CBI)
- New Kinds of Funds for Commodities. (WSJ)
- Why Do Investors Sometimes Make Bad Investment Choices? (KnowWPCarey)
- Billionaire: "All I Know About Investing In Startups I Learned Playing Poker". (Insider)
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Party Like It’s 1999 – If You’ve Been in the Right Tech Stocks
Sure the S&P 500 Index has done well this year.
But those results pale compared to how some select tech stocks have done.
Here is a chart comparing the performance of LinkedIn, Salesforce, Apple, Priceline.
There will be a lot of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" after a run like that ….
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Here Are Links for Your Weekend Reading
Energy Policy and Green Energy have been in the news recently. Here is a cartoon poking fun at the situation. It's called "Feeding the Federal Furnace."
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- The Five Stages of Strategic Grief. (HBR)
- Reid Hoffman's 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success. (Entrepreneur)
- 6 Surprising Things Social Media Can Predict. Why to mine social media. (TheWeek)
- Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France. (WashingtonPost)
- DataViz Tool Shows You Gaping Holes In Your Password Security. Scary Cool. (FastCo)
- Everything That's Wrong With the Economy in 1 PowerPoint Slide. (TheStreet)
- Central Banks' $9 Trillion Is Global Economic Lifeline. (USAToday)
- Bye-Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution. (RobertReich)
- School for Quants: Learning to Calculate Our Future. (FT)
- Amazon Faces Taxing Times. After losing the battle to avoid collecting sales taxes, investors may learn why it fought so hard for so long. (WSJ)









