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“Observation that any price (no matter how unrealistic) can be justified if a buyer believes that there is another buyer who will pay an even-higher price for the same item.” ~ businessdictionary.com
What does all the noise about a "financial crisis" really mean? Well, it's hard to understand sometimes, but the nub of the whole situation is this: you cannot lend money to people who cannot pay it back. Period. End of story.
Here is how the system works, simplified for brevity. Money is a tool that works by earning interest. A saver puts money in a bank or S&L and earns interest. The bank or S&L loans the money to someone who pays a higher rate. Both parties make money. If the loan is a real estate loan and the bank or S&L keeps the loan, known as a portfolio lender, the circulation of the money is small; from the depositor to the lender to the borrower.
Most of us associate stress with a lack of success. "Lack of success" is generic for almost anything: lack of money, lack of profitability, lack of skill, lack of opportunity, lack of (you fill in the blank).
During this current political season we have all heard ample reminders about how widespread this type of stress happens to be both nationally and globally. Large masses of people are eating dirt, wading through storm water and dying in the sun for lack of food and water. There are 148 million orphans on earth. Poverty, starvation, famine, drought, storms, ethnic cleansing, war, genocide and lawlessness stalk the earth.
There is another kind of stress: getting what we pray for. This type of stress is common to those CEOs on their way to jail for crimes related to greed. Too much success, too much efficiency and being too good at achieving can turn us into monsters - if we allow that to happen. Whether it be power or wealth, the danger of
I continue on the road doing book signing sessions, teaching in more traditional classroom settings and conducting seminars integrating the three above-mentioned approaches into all of my work. From my viewpoint, these three philosophies and theories best explain the economic, political, legal and cultural milieu in which we find ourselves.
They tend to bring a spiritual optimism to my audiences, particularly the under "30" crowd. Am working on what will likely be my last book for a while,
"Beyond Ideology- The Genesis of An Existential Libertarian,"
Those who are leaders in their businesses and organizations can learn a great deal from this election season. With the whole country talking about the qualifications of the candidates, we are all presented with reminders about what it takes to lead. Here is my list.
Character
I do not hear supporters of any candidate describing their nominee as dishonest, lazy, indifferent, incompetent or hateful. A leader of anything at any level should have good character. We all learned about character from the time we were children listening to stories about George Washington. A person of good character is honest, prizes integrity, works hard, is responsible and values each person. Good character includes being loyal, courageous, and trustworthy in deeds, not just in words.
Vision
Leaders, presumably, are leading us to somewhere or something. The vision of the leader needs to be from the heart and it needs to be worthy of the effort needed
Imagine that as we turned on the evening news the lead story was interrupted by a special bulletin: we will all be dead by this time tomorrow! The panic would be uncontrollable and the anguish indescribable.
And yet the fact is that we will all be dead someday. So why is there no panic or anguish across the world? Because we all manage the stress of knowing we will someday die. It is referred to as the denial of death: we live at any given moment and on any given day as though we were never going to die.
A closer look, however, reveals that there is more to it than simply denial. We focus on the day at hand with its activities and challenges. We compartmentalize our thoughts to center on what we are doing at any given time by concentrating. We live in the present moment, recognizing that yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet arrived.
Sometimes we think about death and dying. Sometimes we talk about our death with ou
As we grow up, and we want to improve ourselves, we look at who we are and what our weaknesses are. We tend to focus on that and try to improve those. However, in most cases, we are already strong enough to overcome any obstacle by working on improving what is already strong. It is easier and more fun to become better at something you are already good at doing. If you wake up in the morning dreading what your weaknesses are and working on improving that, you tend to not work as hard. If you wake up in the morning and know you are already good at something and you just want to get better, you tend to do it with more enthusiasm.
Recently, a client of mine realized she had strength for meeting one-on-one, in person. She felt a weakness was her phone calling conversations. She said that she was working on getting better at feeling comfortable talking on the phone. I suggested she work on getting in front of more people face to face, have many appointments at one location like a co
Good professional football coaches know when it is time to change the game plan and great coaches make the right changes. How do they know which changes are the right changes? This writer thinks it is because they are very good listeners. They hear their players and their assistant coaches.
How can they hear anything in the midst of all the noise and commotion going on at a professional football game? Listening is more than hearing words. It has to do with "hearing the whole picture".
How do leaders hear pictures? They simply allow the views of everyone involved to "sink in" while trusting their own internal computer to put all the pieces together. That is exactly what today's business leader must do to make the right changes in the game plan: allow the views of everyone involved to sink in. Trust your own internal computer to make sense of it all. Trust that changes in the business plan will come clear.
Some people believe that business is about the bottom line ... money. But the real purpose, goal and pursuit of business is the creation of ongoing relationships with ideal customers, clients who continue to pay for the services you provide, for weeks, months, years and even for life.
How do you, as a business developer, locate such ideal clients and convince them to choose your services, over and over again, despite any attractive offers from your competitors?
The answer is quite simple. Provide the best service. Give more than what is asked for and more than what is expected. Maintain an honest, professional and ethical standard that cannot be tampered with. Let go of the clients who do not truly value what you have to offer. Focus your attention on those who appreciate your services. Encourage them to recommend you to others through testimonials and word of mouth. Keep your business in the f
Leverage, as used in real estate, refers to one's ability to control a large amount of asset value (money) with a small amount of asset (money). To simplify, consider that you can purchase a home for $100,000 using $20,000 of your own dollars. (The dollar amounts are a bit dated, but the idea is easier to follow using these numbers.) The other 80% is OPM, otherwise known as "Other Peoples Money."
Liquidity is the probability that an asset can be converted into an expected amount of value within an expected amount of time. If you know that you can sell your wristwatch for $100 within an hour, you could claim that your wristwatch is a liquid asset. If you are uncertain how much your watch is worth, or how long it might take to sell, where and to whom, then it is rather "illiquid."
Why is this important?
Because in today's market, questions abound. Where is the real estate market going? Is now a good t
"Don't worry" is one of our most frequently spoken phrases. Not that it does any good, of course! Western culture is strongly committed to the notion that worry is a bad thing and, therefore, should be avoided. But since it is impossible to be alive and not worry, the prevailing culture simply encourages us to act and speak as though we have no worries. We put a very high premium on those who can make us laugh and on those who can remain calm and act cool in any situation. The truth is that only fools and dead people do not worry.
This author and trainer has long contended that there is such a thing as "good worry", and that learning to worry well is a far more productive and useful approach than learning to suppress , deny or ignore matters that we ought to worry about.
Executive business leaders are, in fact, paid good money to worry. We are told that two thirds of our worries are wasted because they are about the past or the future. There
