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Enterpriship – The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Management

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Every individual who starts, owns, or is a member of the management team of an enterprise, should strive to build sustainable advantage. Sustainable advantage is essential to value creation because cash flows become predictable and reliable over long periods of time. As a consequence, it is easier to plan for investments in new endeavors and to maintain contingency reserves for downturns.

Building sustainable advantage requires proficiency in the disciplines of entrepreneurship, leadership, and management. Collectively, these three disciplines embrace “enterpriship.”

Enterpriship is both an art and a science. Art is an occupation that requires both knowledge and skills; science is method for systematizing knowledge. Through both knowledge and skills, enterpriship provides a systematized approach to building sustainable enterprises by employing the techniques of entrepreneurship, leadership, and management.

Entrepreneurship is a competency for starting, developing, and assuming risk for an enterprise. Leadership is a competency for aspiring, inspiring, and motivating others. Management is a competency for directing and controlling events and activities – management as a “team” has the authority and responsibility for the enterprise.

Being proficient in all three competencies requires experience. Entrepreneurs may lack the leadership and management competencies, leaders may lack entrepreneurial and management competencies, and managers may lack the entrepreneurial and leadership competencies to build a sustainable enterprise.

Upwardly mobile entrepreneurs have to demonstrate to investors that they can build large markets. Lifestyle business enterprise owners, such as dry cleaners, hairdressers, professional service providers, restaurateurs, and retailers, are responsible for everything in their businesses. Executives and managers in larger enterprises are under constant pressure from investors to generate quality earnings on an ongoing basis.

The enterprise depends upon the use of all three enterpriship competencies as do the employees, customers, suppliers and investors.

When entrepreneurs start enterprises, they tend to focus on the benefits and features of their products and/or services. Intrapreneurs, who are agents of change in established enterprises, tend to do the same thing. However, focusing on products and/or services alone is insufficient for building sustainable advantage over time.

Without people there is nothing in business. Processes must be effective and efficient at delivering quality products and/or services conveniently. If an enterprise can’t deliver, a competitor will.

Hence, the management team collectively must be proficient in entrepreneurial, leadership, and managerial roles that dictate successful people-oriented, process-oriented, and product and/or service capabilities.

The entrepreneurial role is both process-oriented and product-oriented, through which innovative ideas are transformed into value at every stage of an enterprise’s development.

The leadership role is people-oriented, through which direction is set that others will follow to achieve results – equally applicable to top-level executives, team leaders within functions, or anywhere in between.

The managerial role is process-oriented, through which resources (time, materials, and supplies) are applied to activities to achieve results.

These three roles embrace the planning and policy development, deployment and execution, and performance measurement activities of the enterprise. Deployment means positioning the resources of the enterprise in the best markets for its products and/or services. Execution means getting things done through people and processes effectively and efficiently.

Unless the management team employs these three enterpriship competencies collectively to address people, process, and product and/or service capabilities, the enterprise will be unable to build sustainable advantage over time, and will ultimately decline, and maybe fail.

If the management team can systematize building sustainable advantage through the effective and efficient use of people and processes, then there more time to spend on developing the benefits and features of products and/or services. Enterpriship provides the approach…

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Source by Nigel Brooks

Views: 1

January 31, 2020
Traditional Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture Points and Charts

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What Are the Acupuncture Points?

The English translation of ‘acupuncture points’ is not very accurate. Acupuncture is one of the many healing methods used in traditional Chinese Medicine. It inserts fine needles into the sensitive points on the body to stimulate Jingluos (meridians) to cure diseases. These sensitive points are called ‘Shuxue’ or ‘Xuewei’ in Chinese Medicine, meaning ‘the transmitting points’. However, this name has been so widely used, there is no point to change it now for our discussion.

Acupuncture points are the responsive points or sensitive points on the meridians and other parts of the body. They are the special locations where energy is transmitted between the inner structures and the surface of the body. These spots can reflect disease or unhealthy conditions by giving forth painful sensations when touched or pressed. These points are (but not limited to) where the therapists apply treatments. When the body is deficient of positive energy, negative or harmful energy will be able to invade the body through these spots, causing illness. Stimulating the related points can boost and mobilize the positive energy, balance Yin/Yang energy and cure the disease. There are three types of points:

1. 14-main-meridian points

2. Extraordinary points

3.’Yes’ points.

The 14-main-meridian points are the spots on the 12 main meridians plus the spots on the governor and conception vessels. Each spot has a unique name and a fixed location. They are the main acupuncture points. The extraordinary points are the points that have names and fixed locations. These locations are not on a particular meridian. ‘Yes’ points are also called pain points, but they don’t have names or fixed locations. They are the sensitive points related to the diseases. The ‘yes ‘name came from a story. When treating a patient, the doctor pressed a spot unintentionally, and the patient uttered ‘oh yes’.

There are approximately 360 acupuncture points in total on the human body. With so many tiny points to remember, one can easily be intimidated. As a matter of fact, for self -healing and caring purposes, we don’t have to memorize all these points. We only need to remember roughly 20 most used and effective points. If you need to use more points, just look for them using the meridian and acupuncture point charts. Each point has a unique and meaningful name, which gives some key information about this particular point, such as main function, usage, location, or other. In English, the English spelling of the Chinese names are directly used. For people who don’t understand Chinese, it is hard to comprehend the significance of each name and, therefore hard to remember all the foreign sounding names.The format of the international symbols for acupuncture points is fairly easy. Since most of the points belong to one specific meridian (Jing), it only makes sense that their symbols are associated with those meridians. You can take two abbreviation letters of that meridian’s name and number all the points along the way, from the starting point to the end point. For example: the name of the Xue-hai point means ‘the sea of blood’ in Chinese and can be used for blood-related issues. Its English symbol is SP10, because it belongs to the spleen meridian and is the 10thpoint from the start.

How to Find an Acupuncture Point?

When considering an acupuncture point as a tiny point, it might be really difficult to find it. However, if you think of it as a small precise area, it becomes quite easy. To locate a subject on a 2D plane, you need 2 coordinates. To locate an sensitive point, we use a reference point and a distance. The reference point is a known location on the body, such as ‘the tip of the nose’, ‘the highest point of the ankle bone’ etc. The distance is measured by your own hand. The unit is ‘cun’. The width of your thumb at the mid joint is one ‘cun’, the width of middle three fingers at the mid joints is two ‘cun’, the width of the four fingers (without the thumb) at mid joints is three ‘cun’. How do you know if you have found the right point? When you press on it, if you feel kind of sore and sense a little pain (acute pain means you are not well somewhere), then you are on the right spot. Every main meridian has a primary point. That is the point where the primary energy of this meridian originates. Stimulating this point is one of the most effective ways to boost the positive energy found in this meridian.

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Source by Wendy Q Wang

Views: 1

January 31, 2020
Affiliate Marketing 2018 – 3 Points To Consider

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Affiliate marketing is the process of offering products for sale on the Internet, and having your own account remunerated for any sales made.

The beauty of the system is that you don’t have to put any money down for inventory – you’re able to sell someone else’s product for a cut of the sale.

Obviously, like all business opportunities, a number of unscrupulous individuals brought the market into disrepute with nefarious practices… but having said that, the majority of affiliate marketers are legitimate folks looking to share good products.

If you want to know it in 2018, this tutorial should give some insights…

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Role Of Affiliate Marketing 2018

The Internet landscape has changed markedly since the inception of the model back in the late 90’s.

With the rise of Social Media, “influencers” have become the mainstay of most people’s Internet experience – leading a huge number of purchase decisions to be based off their recommendations.

Whilst this has brought its own problems, one of the most important things it’s done is expose the general Internet community to the process of buying products on recommendation.

This recommendation process is what lies at the core of affiliate marketing, and is basically how anyone who does it gets paid.

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The point that needs to be made is that when you “make money” online, what you’re really doing is getting people to buy things online.

This purchase process lies at the core of all earned dollars – be it through the Internet or locally. The way through which it’s facilitated is what determines its profitability etc.

To this end, when the Internet started achieving commercial value in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, product/service owners realized that they could multiply their revenue by simply allowing others to sell their products.

The model was designed to encourage cross-promotions etc – and it worked.

By 2010, the market was teeming with products, services and companies who all offered a variety of affiliate referral programs.

There were even some “networks” who managed the process for everybody involved.

Although this works well, the main problem it had was that it lead to a number of problems – typically with people feeling they had been ripped-off by referrals/vendors.

Thus, by 2018, whilst it’s still effective to have the likes of Google affiliate sites, it’s more effective to carve out an “influencer” role in a market – and let that determine who enjoys what you’re offering.

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1. Remove Necessity

As mentioned, there are a number of reasons why affiliate marketing wasn’t seen in too bright of a light – the main being that “thin affiliates” had jumped on the bandwagon, trying to take advantage of market demand for their own gain.

The best way to make progress with referrals in 2018 is to use your own face.

Creating content around a particular topic that you have expertise/experience with, and actually giving a damn about whether the content is effective, is what constitutes to a successful affiliate strategy in 2018.

If you create your own content, have the relevant social media channels (which you populate with actual content), you’ll want to look at then incorporating referrals into your strategy.

Any referrals you make are NOT “sponsored” content – they need to be presented as you would use them yourself – which typically means the creation of content specifically aimed at the core reason for the product.

For example, if you’re in the software/computer business, you’ll find that people will respond to either your recommendations or industry news. You’ll do very well by not only covering the relevant news, but then linking to “further resources” in the various descriptions you have.

The best affiliate marketing strategy for influencers is to direct readers to a website (rather than the products directly).

This gives you the ability to present various other offers, coupons and information about any referral links you may create – without the need of being overly careful to not break the rules of the various platforms through which you reach your audience.

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2. Reviews Aren’t Dead; But They Need CONTEXT

It used to be the case that if you created a simple reviews website, bought some traffic, you’d get decent sales.

Those days are all but gone.

The big equalizer is social media — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram have changed consumers’ expectations markedly.

They want to know WHO is making the recommendation and WHY.

This is where “reviews” have headed – they need “context” that can only come from a valid story.

If you want to write any reviews for products, you need to buy the product first – go to lengths to properly review its effectiveness, and then post the RESULTS of what you discovered.

Unless you’re on the first page of Google (which is now a LOT more difficult unless you have actual content on your website), getting referral traffic really needs to have a lot of quality put behind it.

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3. Focus On Providing A Service

The best thing you can do is to focus on “getting paid” by doing something that people will be willing to pay you for.

I’ve tried many different things, but I’ll tell you now that it’s those who continually have “something to do” who are attractive.

The guys who are relying on affiliate marketing to make money are likely going to fail. Even if they do well, it’s typically short lived.

The best recommendation I give to people is they look for ways to “create money” of their own, and then use their downtime at evenings or weekends to create websites/videos on various products they thought were good.

By doing this, you not only give yourself actual income up front, but you also do the magical thing of being non-needy.

Needy businesses are weak businesses. Strong businesses take their time to get their products done properly.

If you consider your referrals as a “business”, think about the investment you might need to make it effective, and then consider how you could improve it. This is where the value of affiliate marketing in 2018 really lies.

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Source by Richard Peck

Views: 0

January 30, 2020
Landmark – The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All

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Book Review: Landmark – The inside story of America’s new health care law and what it means for us all

Landmark is a collection of essays written by various reporters, editors and national staff of ‘Washington Post’ followed by the actual text of the bill. It provides a comprehensible summary of the legislation and examines its impacts on Americans on various categories and on health care system as a whole. In addition to this, it gives a very rich historical background and perspective. Such as how the legislation came together, the events and negotiations, the political challenges and obstacles, etc etc

The book has a systematic structure and is divided into three sections. The first section provides behind the scene reporting about the way the law came up. The second section highlights the effects and impacts of the new law whereas the third section is a summary of the legislation.

For a lot of people, the presence of the historical background makes it a worthwhile read as it also covers a lot about the national healthcare coverage. People also find it a worthwhile read because it gives a proper and detailed coverage as compared to the fragmented and sensational media coverage.

Although the bill seems to be corrupted in a few places, the authors still manage to convince you that the law will change the way doctors make business and also mark a change in the patients experiences.

This book will increase your knowledge on the issues related to this bill and your ability to discuss and debate on the issue will also be enhanced. This book provides a very balanced perspective and should be read by all.

Landmark is a well written analysis of the new health care reform bill, all of the contributors clarify specific areas of the bill, recommended.

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Source by Jami Kiya

Views: 0

January 30, 2020
How To Start Marketing Your Business

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To new business owners, starting a business is often its own reward. They are thrilled to be able to be their own bosses, and to successfully get a business up and running. Often they are happy just to keep the dream alive.

But every business needs to grow. That doesn’t mean you have to reach out to a larger market – it means working toward increasing your share of the one you are targeting. This will keep your business healthy enough to survive obstacles such as tough economic times.

In order to keep moving forward, we need to market our businesses constantly. We need to dedicate a certain percentage of our resources to building our brand and reaching our target market. Here are some simple things you can do to help your business grow.

Have a clear picture of your target market.

Find out what types of people use the products and services you provide and respond to your business philosophies. If you’re not marketing to the right people, all will be lost.

Research, research, research.

Determine how to best reach your target market and what they expect out of your offerings. Study your competition carefully, and make note of what they’re doing right and wrong.

Choose your marketing channels wisely.

If your target market rarely reads, there’s no point in advertising in a magazine. Use what you’ve learned about them to find the best possible outlets for your message, and focus your marketing efforts there.

Give your advertising a chance.

Studies show that consumers require repeated exposure to a product before they will even consider buying. So don’t be surprised if one ad run doesn’t bring spectacular results. If you’ve done your homework and found a viable way to reach your market, run the ad at least two more times before you evaluate the results.

Take advantage of free publicity.

Sending out press releases and finding other ways to attract the media will give you high-quality exposure, and it won’t eat into your budget.

Keep track of the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

If what you’re doing is working, you should be generating more revenue. Use some of that revenue to do more marketing. If it isn’t working, make adjustments and try again.

Sometimes you’ll have to take a step back with your marketing plans. But that’s not a sign you’ve failed. It’s a sign that you’re a smart marketer. Sometimes the market changes, and it’s up to us to monitor those changes and adjust our marketing plans accordingly. No successful company markets the same way forever. By evolving with our target market, we can make our marketing work better.

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Source by Jon Allo

Views: 0

January 30, 2020
3 Tips On Becoming A Forex Millionaire in 14 Months Starting With Only $100!

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You must be dreaming of becoming a Forex millionaire. Many new traders dream of becoming a Forex millionaire within one to two years but give up after a few months when they lose their hard earned money. The problem is most of them don’t have a trading plan. Well, if you sincerely follow the following trading plan, you can also become a Forex millionaire.

Becoming A Forex Millionaire Tip#1

First educate yourself about Forex trading. Most of the info is freely available online. Choose a Forex trading system that you think suits your personality and style. This Forex trading system should have a 60 days money back guarantee. This way, you can try that system and if it doesn’t work, you can get a refund. The right choice of your trading system is very important. You don’t need to rush. Read about the different Forex systems that are being sold in the market. Make a list of at least 3 best Forex systems. Make sure the Forex systems are easy to trade and don’t take more than 3-4 hours daily to trade.

Becoming A Forex Millionaire Tip#2

Test the best Forex system in your opinion on your demo account for one month. If you find the system difficult to trade, go for a refund. Choose the second Forex system in your list. After testing or two systems, you will find the system that works for you on the demo account and makes 100% return per month. Once, you have mastered the system on your demo account, it is time to trade live.

Becoming A Forex Millionaire Tip#3

Now, we are not going to trade live on a standard account right away. What we will do is deposit $100 into a micro account and trade micro lots with that system. Your aim should be to achieve a return of 100% or more every month. When you trade on a micro lot, 1 pip is equal to 10 cents. So, losing 10 pips means losing $1. However, if you lose 10 pips on a standard lot, you lost $100 plus you need at least $1000-$2000 to trade with a standard lot.

What we will do is try to double that $100 in one month. This means making a return of at least 100% in one month. Losing 100 pips on a micro account means only losing $10. So, you are safe when you trade on a micro account. Test a system on the micro account and if it doesn’t make 100% return per month, get a refund and try the second best system in your list.

Once, you find the system that makes 100% return on your micro account, it will make your $100 into $200 by the end of second month and that $200 into $400 by the end of the third month.

Now you need to switch to a mini account as you want your trading risk to become more realistic. 1 pip on a mini account is equal to $1. With that same trading system now turn that $400 into $800 by the end of the fourth month and that $800 into $1,600 by the end of the fifth month.

Don’t rush. These five months are going to teach you a lot on how the Forex markets change and how your trading system performs when the market conditions change and you will also know whether your broker is good or not, what leverage to use and how to manage the risk. Now, you got $1,600 in your account, you can switch to your standard account and start making 100% return per month or more. Do the maths, you will be a millionaire within the next 6 months.

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Source by Ahmad A Hassam

Views: 0

January 30, 2020
MLM vs. Consumer Direct Marketing Business Opportunities

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We’ve all seen them before – businesses that promise great wealth and prosperity with a minimal amount of effort. Did you know that only 1 out of every 1,000 home-based businesses last longer than 5 years? So what REALLY sets all these companies apart, and which method has the least risk for everyone?

First, let’s take a look at a way of marketing that has gotten SO popular (and many times out-of-hand) – Multi-Level Marketing. When you think of multi-level marketing, you may think of overbearing sales people who begin by bothering their family and friends, and resort to manipulating others into buying lots of inventory. You might also imagine a get-rich-quick scheme with promises of great wealth through very little work. Finally, you may envision business schemes that lack a compelling product, but hype up the promise of big incomes.

Now, let’s take a look at what a few companies are turning to – Consumer Direct Marketing. What’s the big difference? Well, Consumer Direct Marketing typically redirects the funds that would typically be used for advertising, multiple shipping costs, various middlemen, and several distribution channels into spending for higher quality ingredients, product innovations, and profit sharing with customers. The result of this is a new and interesting method of delivering quality, low-cost products to families around the world – and then SHARING THE INCOME with those families.

The companies that are truly heads and tails above the rest are all turning their attentions to the important aspects of Consumer Direct Marketing. The true result is less risk for the business-builder as well as the consumer, because there are no inventories to buy, no financial risks, and no hype. EVERYONE, people referring the products, and customers alike, only buy what they need each month. And of course, anyone who refers someone else earns a commission from the purchases of the customers they refer.

Maybe the neatest thing about this almost “laid-back” method is that the majority of customers buy each month without any interest in receiving commissions, and when you have customers that really love the products and aren’t pressured from the vast majority of MLM companies out there, that means true residual income – income that you’ll receive the rest of your life – your retirement, or your children’s college education!

If you’re interested in a 20-year-old Consumer Direct Marketing company that might be a great opportunity for you and your family, please don’t hesitate to contact me, and I’d be happy to share my experiences with you.

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Source by Hayley Keller

Views: 0

January 30, 2020
Why Not Have A Happy Marriage While Avoiding The Crash Of A Divorce?

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It is very important to find both present moment joy and pleasure about happy and successful married life and your future.

Happiness is of the keys to a successful marriage and is the fuel for a significant life, and without it we can not appear to get the life we want.

Ways to find happiness and to have a successful marriage is not always a simple solution, and yet you have to be conscious of it.

You must concentrate on the things that you have in order to find that you both have a happy married life.

Many folks prefer to dwell on the important things that they do not have and even pine over them.

When people can not find happiness in their own life they do not know the best ways to grow and discover into happy married life.

How to possess the keys to a successful marriage means the aspect that you already have actually found happiness in your own life.

In regular times, individuals understand exactly what they are blessed with.

Others, who just merely crave exactly whatever they see and want it severely and obsessively, are never pleased for their worldly belongings can not fill the empty void inside of them.

The best ways to discover happiness in a marriage starts with everybody finding happiness with God.

When mood swings are in the air and lift you up assisting you to forget concerns, God will help you through your state of mind.

Happiness is the normal state of grace for mankind.

Take a look at a little child taking its first steps with a proud smile and you will realize that state of grace I’m speaking of.

The little child does not want anything in return, it is genuinely pleased.

For the next few days hang around looking for your pure instants of joy.

Each instant in your life kept filled with enjoyment will help you to keep happiness and joy in your marriage.

Please count the moments of joy that you have felt. How to find happiness in a marriage is by your mindset.

Being truly happy is everything!

Previously I discussed free available information on saving the marriage today by staying happy in such an often conflicting world.

True happiness is a mindset of observing the excellence of grace within you constantly flowing your way.

We need to understand how to keep from sinking far too low while we journey through this world.

The trick to finding joy in our own lives and of our marital relationship is to get into the habit of searching for advantages, rather of griping all the time about whatever that has failed.

Pleasure offers us a sensation of power and energy.

Delight means being excited about now and about the future.

I always thought that to discover actually JOY in your life that you need to follow these simple fundamental guidelines.

You need to put your inner divine Self first in your life, something Jesus and so many other masters were here to teach us.

Jesus has channeled to us through the Course in Miracles that, “My holy brother, I would enter into all relationships, and step between you and your fantasies. Let my relationship to you be real to you, and let me bring reality to your perception of your brothers.”

Always put others upfront in your life, and have a caring attitude toward the world in general.

That has always been my mantra, so to speak, for a better more fulfilled happy life and a happy married life.

You must focus on the things that you have within you and learn to reflect that abundance and joy to the material world, in order to find happiness in your marital relationship, too.

Be sure to extend your inner bliss.

Remember, when you have no inner bliss being projected to your life in this world, you can not ever realize how to find happiness in a marriage.

How to discover happiness in a marriage stems from the element that you already have discovered joy in your own life.

On the other hand, a once happy married life for some folks turns into to an ugly matter of the divorce.

(Please also note, I suggest seeking out the web for more helpful material on things like, how coping with divorce may need to be addressed, and if so, learning to redirect the mental power of our errors into positive results.)

To success in love and life!

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Source by James Nussbaumer

Views: 0

January 29, 2020
Terminal Wealth Dispersion, Life Expectancy and Individual Retirement Accounts

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Terminal wealth dispersion is the technical term that describes the variability of the future value of investment portfolios. This inevitable variability means that no one knows what the value of their investment portfolio will be when they reach retirement age or at any time during their retirement. And the uncertainty of individual’s life expectancies compounds this problem.

Hedging against the risks associated with these two factors places an onerous burden on individuals. Although this hedging could result in a very comfortable retirement, if one can afford the hedge and their timing is right, the potential downside risk is so great that it may be deemed unacceptable by many individuals. So one has to ask “Do individuals really prefer to forgo a sure but modest retirement income and play the odds with their retirement savings in hopes of being very well off in retirement?”

With individual accounts, individuals lose the benefit of the pooling of risks. The two risks that force individuals to over-save are investment risk and the risk of living beyond the average life expectancy. In both cases the outcomes, terminal wealth and life span, are highly variable. When the risks are pooled for a large number of individuals over many overlapping life spans, the average outcomes are highly predictable, which is what makes traditional pension plans work so well.

Traditional pension plans exist, for all intents and purposes, in perpetuity. This being the case, they can build reserves during good times in the financial markets and weather the bad times, thus enabling them to make consistent payouts to retirees regardless of the timing of their retirement. Unfortunately, individuals do not get to choose their holding periods or the years of their retirement and must take whatever comes along, and what comes along might be good or it might be bad. Thus individuals must set savings goals that are sufficiently high to hedge against the risk of the average return of an investment portfolio over its holding period falling well short of that which would be expected very long term.

The relatively short duration of individual’s holding periods leave them very susceptible to the effects of market cycles, which are notoriously unpredictable in amplitude and frequency. Being broadly diversified mitigates this risk but does not eliminate it, as it’s entirely possible for a worldwide bear market to occur during one’s holding period. Then at the end of the holding period for wealth accumulation, a second holding period begins, which will be the term of retirement, and this second holding period carries the same risks as the first, but at a time in life when there is no source of income to make up for portfolio under-performance.

The other component of risk that individuals must hedge is the risk represented by the uncertainty of one’s life span, which means that individuals must aim even higher when setting their savings goals. The managers of large pension plans can depend on retirees living on average for only the average life expectancy of employees who reach retirement age. The average life expectancy for someone who reaches the age of 66 is currently 82 years, and 66 is currently the age when workers are eligible for full Social Security benefits, which makes it a reasonable baseline. Based on those assumptions, the average term of retirement would be 18 years and pension plans should only have to be funded to the extent necessary to cover the cost of this average term of retirement.

Individuals, however, don’t know how long they’re going to live, so they must over-save to ensure that they don’t run out of money before they run out of time. This need to over-save is independent of the first need, thus the need to over-save is compounded, i.e., an individual needs to save enough to cover the cost of living well beyond the average life expectancy and the targeted amount of savings at retirement age must be great enough to ensure with a reasonably high level of certainty that the actual amount on hand at retirement is at least the bare minimum necessary to get by on.

A popular estimate of the term of retirement for which individuals must plan is 30 years. Saving enough to cover the cost of a 30-year retirement is a much greater burden than saving for an 18-year retirement, but planning on a shorter retirement exposes individuals to tremendous risk. It also exposes taxpayers to tremendous risk, as individuals who outlive their savings will undoubtedly require some form of public assistance to make ends meet and are likely to become wards of the state when they become physically incapable of caring for themselves.

An individual who bases their retirement saving on living to the age of 96 but only lives to be 82 will have forgone a lot of pleasures in life, such as travel, fine dining and better vehicles, that they could otherwise have enjoyed. But many individuals just don’t have the level of income required to support the saving rate necessary to amass the wealth required to hedge against the downside of terminal wealth dispersion and the possibility of living well past the average life expectancy. For them it’s not a matter of forgone consumption, it’s a matter of going through life with the knowledge that they are likely to spend their golden years living in abject poverty and that that will be their reward for 40 or 50 years of hard work. And it gets worse!

Some economists now believe that within 15 years or so, given the current rate of health care inflation, 100% of Social Security benefits will be spent on medical expenses: Medicare Parts B and D premiums, copayments, uncovered expenses and medigap insurance premiums. If that becomes the case, anyone without substantial savings or a defined benefit pension will be looking for public assistance the day after they retire. Although this is probably a worse case scenario, there is a general consensus that individuals retiring today will need to set aside approximately $180,000 for medical expenses not covered by basic Medicare.

With the situation already at this state, adding private Social Security accounts to the mix would be like throwing gas on a fire, as individual Social Security accounts carry the same risks as other individual retirement accounts. Those who have tried to kill Social Security since its inception find private accounts very appealing. But, not so coincidentally, most of them seem to be in the enviable position of not needing Social Security to support their retirement. More recently, younger workers, too, have come to oppose Social Security, but not for the same reason as the traditional opponents. Young workers may be crushed by the growing burden of Social Security and may never receive any benefits from the system. Those who oppose Social Security simply because it’s a social program should be expending their efforts on reforming it rather than killing it.

If Social Security had been managed like a pension plan rather than the ilconceived system it is, with today’s workers paying for yesterday’s workers’ retirement, its current situation wouldn’t be so dire. Indeed, it might very well be a fully funded, functional system. CalPERS and other large public employee retirement plans have operated successfully for decades, with success being defined as being able to meet their obligations, not having an adverse effect on the financial markets, no scandalous events attributable to malfeasance by the plans’ sponsors and being free of influence from elected officials. There’s no reason that Social Security can’t also be managed in such a manner. It would literally take an act of Congress to do this, but the hardest part for Congress would be letting the system run without their interfering with its operation.

Passing off the burden of retirement to individuals was a great deal for corporations but it’s a very poor deal for most individuals, and extending individual accounts to include the Social Security system would only make a bad situation worse. It’s not a poor deal for all individuals because there will be some who can afford to save a substantial portion of their income and whose holding periods will coincide with bull markets, thus putting their wealth in the upper range of their terminal wealth dispersion, and who also live a long, healthy life. They will be the ones who benefit from over-saving and living beyond the average life expectancy, but they may end up forfeiting a portion of their wealth in the form of taxes to support the less fortunate. I don’t believe that is what the public expects from a well-conceived system.

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Source by Mike Kennedy

Views: 0

January 29, 2020
Holistic Healthcare versus Traditional Western Medicine

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The Western medicine community recently asked the question: Will Alternative Healthcare, a.k.a. Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Western Medicine (WM) merge? This question implies there is reason to wonder and/or we need to consider the benefits a merger might create. The consideration of merging Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Western Medicine is analogues to comparing apples to oranges. The only comparison between apples and oranges is that they are both fruit–but the comparison ends there. Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit Healing and Western Medicine is diametrically polar opposites with nothing in common, except the subject (you). I will explain.

In order to understand the ideology of Western Medicine, you need to examine the language used by doctors and researchers. Their choice of words reveals their belief systems and the models they use to understand the way they think healing works. When observing the state of Western Medicine and the unprecedented influence of pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, an interesting paradox arises. The drug companies claim that pharmaceuticals and OTC can do wonders for people: lower cholesterol, end clinical depression, reverse osteoporosis, eliminate allergies, cure cancer, cure MS, calm children and many other similar promises.

If prescription or OTC drugs are so good for people, where are all the healthy medicated customers? The truth is, there aren’t, any. There’s nobody taking twelve prescriptions or OTC drugs with a clean bill of health. In fact, the more prescriptions a person takes, the worse their overall health. And if you approach the healthiest people you can find and ask what prescription drugs or OTC drugs they’re taking in order to be so healthy, they’ll give you a confused look: Healthy people don’t take prescription or OTC drugs!

This sort of language is not uncommon from researchers in Western Medicine. They perceive the human body as a battleground on which wars are waged against invaders (viruses, bacterial infections and tumors). Beginning with the Victorian era, Western society has become addicted to quick fixes and results with no effort. Western Medicine has in some instances provided this result. When Western Medicine doesn’t produce a ‘quick fix’ result the answer is: “Sorry, it couldn’t be helped–the surgery was a success, the patient died.” It is interesting to note the AMA reports a dismal success rate–approximately 250,000 people die each year due to misdiagnosis and/or the treatment does little or nothing to improve the person’s health. In other words these people didn’t die due to an illness they died due to the wrong treatment.

Western Medicine’s theory and doctrines fail to recognize that diseases are not separate from the person. In fact every disease can be more accurately called an expression of the patient’s lifestyle, beliefs, and energies. Cancer is not a tumor, for example: it is a systemic disorder that can only truly be cured by helping to support the body, not by attacking it with chemical bombs or knives. The tumor is merely one physical expression of the systemic disorder, and simply removing the tumor does nothing to cure the disease. The body is designed to heal itself–given it has the proper care–nutrition, herbal supplements, spiritual and emotional well-being.

The body is designed to heal itself provided it has the proper support to do its job. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a concept of balanced qi (pronounced “chee”), or vital energy, that is believed to flow throughout the body. Qi is proposed to regulate a person’s spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance and to be influenced by the opposing forces of yin (negative energy) and yang (positive energy). Disease is proposed to result from the flow of qi being disrupted and yin and yang becoming imbalanced. Among the components of TCM are herbal and nutritional therapy, restorative physical exercises, meditation, acupuncture, and remedial massage.

Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing has existed since the beginning of time amid religious beliefs and practices, along with the mystery, superstition, fear, and misunderstanding. Holistic Healing is now becoming recognized regardless of what anyone chooses to believe or think. Ask almost anyone about their spiritual well-being and they will probably tell you, “Yeah, I am a spiritual person, I go to church frequently.” Therein, the confusion arises out of the association of healing with religion. The majority of people, including religious leaders, do not understand the difference.

Definition: “HEAL” 1. To restore to health or soundness, 2. To set right, repair, 3. To restore a person to spiritual wholeness, 4. To become whole and sound, to return to health.

Definition: “SPIRIT” 1. The vital principle or animating force within living beings, Incorporeal consciousness. There are about twelve more elaborations mostly to do with various religious implications.

Definition: “RELIGION” 1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe, 2. A set of beliefs, values and practices based on the teachings of a religious doctrine.

Thus, based on Western Medicine’s common interpretations of how things ‘ARE’, many paradoxes are created. The resultant effect is confusion and un-wellness. The Truth, as Carl Jung and others have carefully worded in their writing, is this: Every Thing in the universe is Energy and Consciousness. How anyone thinks or feels about that Fact cannot change it. The purpose of All religions is the recognition that humans have a part of themselves that is not physical and there is a need to explore and experience this aspect of themselves. Part of the intent is to discover one’s purpose and to live in the best way possible. Another part of that goal also includes the attainment of Truth and Spiritual Wellness. However, the result of religious teachings with regard to our Spiritual health has been an abysmal failure. If the most important aspect of our being is our Spiritual self, and it has been neglected, it is a miracle we have existed this long.

Many churches are in a state of extreme confusion in an attempt to avoid accepting the “Truth.” The greatest struggle is how to incorporate all the now known knowledge and assimilate it into the religious dogma and theology. The problem is the impossibility of reconciling the obvious flaws in most theology and doctrine. The obvious shortcomings and how political and nationalistic and other special interests and agendas have resulted in a history filled with disappointment, tragedy, confusion and religious wars.

In many cultures it has always been thought and/or known that we are spiritual beings, the biggest exception is in western industrialized cultures that we believe we are people who happen to have a soul. Eastern philosophy believes we are a soul first, housed in this thing called a ‘body.’ The most beautiful and simple interpretation of how everything ‘IS’ can be found in the Native American tradition. “Everything in the universe is Spirit, each thing in it is of the same Spirit and it is all Connected.” This is exactly what we are beginning to understand in science and quantum physics, that everything in the universe is made of the same thing and has a consciousness about it. The two things that frustrate scientists the most is the fact that all these

things operate across time, space and dimensions they do not yet understand, and the ability of things to operate on inter-dimensional and multi-dimensional levels. A high degree of new understanding about the science and physics of what spiritual really means is now mostly coming from independent researchers. High-tech and aerospace research physicists and scientists, all seem to have a more concise and accurate understanding of Spirit and the Spiritual than those from a theological background.

The Reality and The Truth of Spirit–In plain language, there is only One God or Universal Energy that Is Everything. There is only One Consciousness. We are only one individuated expression of The One. All the dogma, theology and religious beliefs anyone chooses to pile on this truth is commonly referred to as Bunk. It is the lack of true knowledge and the application of these distortions, which have been the source of all emotional, physical and spiritual problems. Spirit is alive, it is something that is lived and experienced, the surest way to destroy or suppress it is to organize it and institutionalize it.

Spiritual Experiences teach us: Everything we think or feel affects oneself and others. We need to realize every feeling–anger, fear, hate, sadness, judgment–are mind generated emotions and need to be modified or eliminated. Left to fester–anger, fear, hate, sadness, judgment, creates physical reactions. For every physical reaction, a.k.a. symptoms–i.e. colds, cancer, MS, and everything from A to Z, there is a direct link to mind generated emotions. When these mind generated emotions are eliminated and the wounds created from long term and dysfunctional expressions are healed, the physical manifestation labeled as illness by Western Medicine is eliminated.

The bottom line is Health and Well-Being is affected by two factions–Doctors and Ministers. Doctors are trained as mechanics who work on the physical mechanism. They are in the Business of “Treatment.” They are Not Trained in the “Art of Healing”. Most doctors do not even understand the most rudimentary concepts of Healing. Most do not realize how they can produce damage and even induce death sentences on their patients.

There is little difference in the effects produced by an intentional damaging curse or a prayer prayed improperly, bad advice or simply some random negative thought. Ministers are trained in traditional theosophical dogmatic perceptions specific to the cultural religious views they ascribe to. Most people have little concept about True Spirituality or how the universe really operates. As a consequence they convey misinformation, half-truths, superstitions and fears along with a multitude of associated damaging information into a person’s consciousness. The result of which is Confusion and Paradox–which leads to distress, disease and un-wellness.

Both the good in our lives and the dis-eases we have are the results of our experiences, conditioning and beliefs. It is the experiences, conditioning and beliefs that are counter to our true nature that causes the damage. No matter how dire a client’s predicament seems to be, I Know if they are ‘Willing’ to do the emotional and spiritual work of releasing old habits, beliefs and forgiving, everything can be healed. The word ‘incurable’ used by Western Medicine really only means that the person can not be ‘cured’ by ‘outer’ methods and that they must Go Within to effect their healing. The condition was created as a way to cope–it came from within and can be healed from within. Reference: Heal Your Body, Louise L. Hay

Since Holistic/Metaphysical Healthcare focuses on supporting the Mind, Body, Spirit to heal itself as it is designed to do and Western Medicine perceives the human body as a battleground on which wars are waged with chemical bombs and scalpels against invaders, how can these divergent ideologies be merged?

The answer: They can’t be–i.e. water and vinegar doesn’t mix–it is metaphysically impossible. Likewise, it is metaphysically impossible to merge Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Western Medicine. Anyone who would consider such a merger does not understand the laws of Holistic, Metaphysical, Energy or Mind, Body, Spirit healing.

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Source by Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD

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January 28, 2020