Business and Finance

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Tony recorded a quick message for you Tuesday (August 3rd, 2010), that he feels is very important for you to watch right now. It’s an important note of caution on today’s economy and 7 things to consider as you watch the stock ticker go up and down. Please view and share this timely update with anyone you care about.

How have you taken advantage of the economic season?

According to the classic movie The Shining, if you’re all work and no play you’re not only dull but apparently you’ll also end up completely crazy. Ok, so maybe you won’t end up running through an abandoned hotel with an ax, but focusing ALL your passion and energy on work will eventually start to significantly affect your outside life, family and relationships.

We all want to succeed in our business ventures, but at the same time it is important to remember we must keep up the delicate balance between work and the other aspects of our life. Here are 10 tips from top CEOs on how they successfully manage to maintain a great life/work balance…

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What do you do to maintain a successful life/work balance?

Who would have thought a lecture on sociological factors of business motivation would make a great animated short? The people at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce did – and they were right.

In this amusing (and fascinating) animated short Daniel Pink discuss the results of scientific studies on what motivates people to work hard at their jobs – surprise, it’s not money…

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What have you used to motivate employees (or be motivated yourself) successfully?

As part of his popular MBA Mondays series, Venture Capitalist, Fred Wilson, writes about budgeting within a small company of less than 10 people.

“The first step in budgeting is to review the key business metrics and lock them down based on what is realistic for the next year. Be very realistic. A good budget is a conservative budget.”

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Do you have a specific process you go through when budgeting for the year?

Stanford Professor Robert Sutton has spent years researching what makes a good boss and what all good bosses have in common. He’s boiled his research down to 12 beliefs he feels are key to efficiently and effectively leading and inspiring those who work for you.

“It seems to me that, by adopting the habits of good bosses and shunning the sins of bad bosses, anyone can do a better job overseeing the work of others.” Read full article…

What are a few traits that you, or your best boss, use to effectively motivate employees?

In this economic season you have to think outside the box if you expect to get a great job. By taking action, using a little ingenuity and creativity Alec Brownstein, a New York based copywriter, landed a job at a top advertising agency. Alec used the creative directors own drive for one of the 6 human needs, significance (Googling themselves) to create targeted ads asking for a job that would come up whenever they searched for themselves online. The ploy worked perfectly. Check out the video below to see how he did it.

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What was one creative way you found a job?

The Chess Master and the Computer – The New York Review of Books                                                                                                 Volume 57, Number 2 · February 11, 2010

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23592

I’m wanted to share an article with you – I know you’ve got a lot on your plate like I do, but it’s worth reading – this article was sent to me by a gentleman that I coach – he’s one of the top financial traders in the world, one of the top ten. He hasn’t lost money in the 18 years that I’ve been his coach; he gave me this article and said that it validated everything we’ve done together in the last 2 decades and everything I’ve taught him.

Do you remember the big competition between the greatest chess player in the world and the strongest computer, Deep Blue, and man narrowly defeated machine? And then in 1997, the same great mind was taken down by a doubly-strong Deep Blue machine and it was declared “a symbol of mankind’s submission before the almighty computer?”

Today, no one cares about these contests anymore because for $20 you can buy an application on your iPhone that will take down a grandmaster.

The article’s premise is – knowing the strength of computers today, what if you could take grand masters with the greatest knowledge in the game and you let them have the best computers available and you put them against computer programmers with decent computers?

Read the article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23592 and leave a comment & let me know if you’re surprised by the result.

What do CNN, FedEx and Southwest Airlines have in common?

They were all created in a recession or depression.

Along with other powerhouses like Disney and Microsoft (click here for more examples of companies created in a recession), they all got strong in the most difficult economic times, in what we call the season of winter. Instead of reacting in fear they saw an incredible opportunity when everyone else was scared and pulling back.

It’s no secret that we are facing some tough economic challenges today-unemployment at 10.6%, home foreclosures at unprecedented rates, and an economy slow to fully recover. But the question is will you waver in the face of challenge, or be one of the few that steps us despite the environment and capitalizes on the opportunities available to you?

Joseph Kennedy was worth $4 million in 1929 and in 1935, just six years later, he was worth $180 million. He made it all on the stock market going down. According to Time Magazine, Kennedy survived the crash “because he possessed a passion for facts, a complete lack of sentiment and a marvelous sense of timing.”

Do you have what it takes to thrive, and not just survive, in any economic environment?

Every one of us faces these challenges throughout our lives. We all have experienced the winters of our life where it seems so dark and gloomy and it feels like nothing will ever change. But we also know that what always follows the winter is the spring and a new opportunity where we can grow our businesses like never before.

Are you going to be resourceful enough to be prepared to take advantage of these opportunities?