You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy
out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another
person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to
anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody
else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to
work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the
other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody
else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about
the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."


~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers

Once upon a time

In a beautifully written post, Mark Batterson makes you stop and ponder the realities of a life lived with God.

"It's hard to put into words, but I live my life with a profound sense of destiny. God orders my footsteps. If I believe anything, I believe that. And that fills me with holy anticipation. At any given moment, God can invade the reality of our lives and change everything."

Read it all here:

Evotional.com - Originality, Authenticity, Creativity

Even AP said it

What does it mean when the Associated Press has the following quote in it's story about the Obama budget proposal?

"Denouncing what he called the "dishonest accounting" of recent federal budgets, Obama unveiled his own $3.6 trillion blueprint for next year, a bold proposal that would transfer wealth from rich taxpayers to the middle class and the poor."

Even AP says he's transferring wealth. Wow.

And I'm interested to see the proof of "dishonest accounting."

Make an inventory and clean up your home

Timely suggestion for me and it just might be for you too!

Apartment Therapy Chicago | How To: Make an Inventory of Your Home ... And Use It to Declutter

Pre-World War III, or IV or V?

In this chilling comparison between today's world and that of the run up to World War II, Bret Stephens Says We Can't Allow Barack Obama's Optimism to Lull Us into a Weakened Foreign Policy - WSJ.com.

"As in the 1920s, we have emerged (if only partially), from several years of war -- scarcely anticipated, earnestly begun, bravely fought, often badly waged and, at least in the case of Iraq, ambiguously won. It was an emotionally exhausting war justified first on grounds of national survival, then for spreading democracy. The moral clarity and political unity that went with the war's beginning collapsed into political division and disillusion.

"From this there has emerged under the Obama administration a new kind of moral clarity. It is founded on conciliatory tendencies, a preference for multilateral solutions, a powerful desire to be on the right side of global public opinion, and an instinct for looking away from that which we'd rather not to see. This has put some political stress on our residual post-9/11 commitments, particularly in the case of Afghanistan, while creating an overwhelming aversion to possible confrontations, particularly against revanchist Russia and millenarian Iran."

I hope he's wrong.

My heart on the matter

My thanks to Dr. Neil Nielson, President of Covenant College for this brilliant post on Business for God's Glory.

I am sharing it here because he has captured my heart's deepest passion far better than I can express. It's a long piece, but well worth every word.

Here are my highlights:

"My burden this morning is simply (1) to remind you that business is also a holy and godly calling, fraught with dangers and temptations and slippery slopes like every other calling; and then (2) to encourage those of you who sense God’s call into business to relish that call and pursue it wholeheartedly."

"...I have been convinced beyond any doubt that it’s a worthy and noble calling, and that Christians belong in business. And I’d like you to think so too."

And my absolute FAVORITE:
"This gain in wealth, and the resulting improvement in quality of life, is one important reason why I get so excited about an increasingly globalized marketplace, with information and access getting into places and corners of the globe where they’ve never gotten before."

Exactly. We are living in the most exciting economic, business and technological time in over 400 year!

Read the whole post.
And be excited.

Moving Beyond the Fake Stimulus

Great stuff teaching what's going on:

Understand This Or Perish ... | Brazen Careerist

Government Service?

This isn't the right time in my life, but this post sparked something in that's been brewing for a while: the thought of getting involved in government.

This Is Smyrna, TN: March 3rd deadline

Hmmmm...

Mashable gives us 60+ How To sites

Check out this comprehensive list of the best help sites on the web.

Nice!

Links Feb. 13 (and comments)

• Yahoo News tells us Why This Recession Seems Worse Than '70s and '80s 

It's not of course, as this opening sentence suggests: "If you think this recession is the worst since World War II, chances are you weren't born or working during the downturns of the 1970s and '80s, you're listening to President Obama too much or you're a white-collar worker in financial services." And then there's "The economy is very psychological. There's a herd instinct."

My take? We're feeling the economical affects of the transition from the industrial to information ages. For those that get on board, things will be fine. Ignore this at your peril.

• In Exactly How Does Stimulus Work? from the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger tells us that "The theory beneath the $800 billion of spending is called the Keynesian multiplier, first posited around 1931." Um. Yeah. 

There's also this quote from CBO director Douglas Elmendorf: ""Even without any stimulus, market forces would eventually bring about a recovery from the recession," albeit with more unemployment and loss of output."

• Finally, as an example of my point about the information age comes Digital Firms for the Net from Bank of America's "Future Banking Blog" - yes, they have a blog.
  

"With the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Law Lab at the Berkman Center at Harvard University is undertaking a project to provide a hosting service for the registration and governance of a digital LLC within Vermont, and to form experimental LLCs to explore new types of operating agreements and models of management and governance. We are actively seeking partners in the form of entrepreneurs, banks, legal scholars and researchers."

In other words, completely net based businesses.
Sweet.

Being a man is a calling

Will Briggs has written a thought provoking post over at The Art of Manliness blog asking if manliness is obsolete. Using "three classes of manly virtues" to explore the subject, he rightfully concludes that manliness is still needed.

Here's his conclusion:
"But the ultimate reason to embrace manly virtues is that they are virtues. Being the best man you can be is a calling. The world may not thank us if we follow it, but thanks isn’t what we’re after. Excellence is, and charity."

Virtues. Calling. Thanks. Excellence.

Being a man is a challenge. It's a much maligned, misunderstood, misused and generally thankless job. And those aren't the reasons it's challenging either.

The primary reason it's a challenge it that it's meant to be. The challenges of manhood are the very things that make us men if we'll allow them to mold, grow and inspire us.

I'm reminded of the story of the man who was told by God to push a large boulder in his yard. Everyday the man pushed and pushed, but to no avail. After a year of efforts he was utterly defeated because he had failed to move the rock at all.

But God told him he was not a failure. He told him to look at how his body had become strong, chiseled and powerful. Then He reminded him that he had not told the man to move the rock, simply to push against it. Because of that effort, and the results it produced, the man was now ready for a task.

And so it is with much of what we encounter in life. What we see as the great challenges are there to push us forward, not defeat us. Don't allow them to defeat you. Understand that manly virtues are worth the work and that being a man is indeed a calling.

Now heed the call.

My Facebook "25 Things"

After multiple requests over on Facebook, I wrote a list of 25 things about me.

Here it is:

1. I shutter to think where I’d be were it not for my captivatingly beautiful and righteous babe of a wife Jill. Likely dead. I’m not kidding.

2. I’m on career number 2 and will likely have at least one more if things go as I hope. Don’t even ask how many jobs I’ve held.

3. I LOVE skiing. I’ve gone once in the last 20+ years. Hope I can change that someday. Soon if possible.

4. My kids amaze me though I wish I could engage with them more. It’s one of several goals for this year.

5. Other goals? Get around friends more - individually and as a family. Date my wife regularly. Write consistently, finish my book and start at least one more.

6. Yes, I’m writing a book that’s taken me way too long to finish. Entitled “Why I Failed in the Music Business (and how to NOT follow in my footsteps), it’s about the business things I’ve learned since
leaving the music industry. Specifically, the critical skills and concepts that are NEVER taught to artists, musicians, dancers and actors. Which explains why most of them will starve.

7. I became a Christian at the age of 22 through playing in a bar band and basically living with a girl - as you can guess, it’s a rather long story.

8. The short version is I ended up in church on Easter Sunday and my life changed - inside. I’m still working on the outside, just like everyone else.

9. Anyone that tells you Christianity is about perfection and not sinning is lying.

10. Same thing if they tell you it’s boring and only for weak, stupid people.

11. I’ve found following Christ to be an unending adventure full of battles, defeats, joys and victories. It’s about war. Literally.

12. You may now think I’m nuts. Read the book Wild At Heart.

13. Wild At Heart, by John Eldredge, changed my life as a man. Better said, it revealed my deepest, groaning desires to live as a man by validating those desires. Up until that point, I had said they were wrong and/or I was unable to live them. They are not wrong. I work everyday to live them.

14. I find the more I live these desires - specifically to live as a man full of strength, passion and faith (not just “lofty” spiritual faith, but tangible “life is about changing things for the better” faith) - the more I move mountains. Imagine that.

15. I also find that living this way frees my wife and kids to live fully alive too.

16. My favorite quote is: “The glory of God is man fully alive” written by St. Irenaeus nearly 2000 years ago.

17. There isn’t a finer explanation of the reason I’m here. Or you. God requires something of us and it’s the biggest most exciting challenge ever made. See #11 for more.

18. My second favorite quote is from Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” That’s why I
believe I’ll have yet another career.

19. Career number three? It took me about 40 years to realize that I am an encourager and teacher. I thought I was a drummer. I thought I was provider for my family. A number of other things. Leaving the music business and entering the workforce put me on the fast track of personal and professional development and in the process uncovered a passion for seeing people succeed. Over time I’ve realized that this is what I want to do. All I have to do now is believe I can, and believe I can while providing for my family.

20. I realized two weeks ago that even as a drummer, my passion was always to encourage. Anyone who’s played with me knows how I inevitably throw something in to say “you’re not having enough fun yet!”

21. My wife and I almost divorced around the 7 year mark. For a couple that refused to even speak that word it was a devastating blow. We celebrated 23 years together on Feb. 10th. I never criticize those that are divorced. Never. However, to those considering it I say in no uncertain terms, fight your guts out to fix your marriage.

Marriage is the most difficult work on earth and we shouldn’t be surprised that it is. All life and stability comes out of marriages. Is it right of us to think their supposed to just “be” happy and secure? And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that it involves two people actually living together everyday.

In the same place.

Sharing stuff!

My advice? Get married. Work your guts out to make it a passionate, deeply engaged, “we’ll work through everything and anything in this adventure called life together” relationship. Amaze your friends and family. Give God the glory.

22. If you haven’t guessed by now, I think men should be men and we don’t have nearly enough.

23. Conversely, I think women should be women. Which brings up the fact that I am borderline hopelessly captivated by women. Fortunately the leading person in this category is the aforementioned live saving,
captivatingly beautiful and righteous babe of a wife Jill. That doesn’t, however, mean that I am immune to all the other babes. I wish it did. Thus the borderline.

I’m committed to living on the correct side of the border.

24. I have a Grammy, an Academy of Country Music award and the Highest Achievement Award from the Dale Carnegie course. Of the three, the Carnegie award means the most ’cause I use what I learned every day. I
became a Carnegie Facilitator last year.

25. It deeply hurts me to see people living despondent, “it’s okay”, “I guess this is all there is”, miserable lives.

There’s more!

Easily attained? No. Requiring work? Yes. Hard, personal, sometimes frustratingly discouraging work? Yes again. Guaranteed success work? No, though my experiences would suggest that you’ll gain more than you thought anyway.

So, as an encourager (see #19), I leave you with this. Live fully alive, we need you.

Links Feb 12

• If you're looking for an owner's manual, it just might be here.
• Here's the simplest yet effective todo list I've ever seen suggested.
  

A REAL Stimulus Package

Just in case you've forgotten that people using their creativity is the only solution to problems, I've got two great posts to send you to today.

First, Mark Cuban is offering The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan - Open Source Funding. He's putting his substantial money where his mouth is by offering to fund any and all start-up ideas. If you've been ruminating over a concept and wondering how you'd start, now's your chance.

And if you don't have an idea, then read this post at sixmonthmba.com. Entitled Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas it is, as you might guess, a list of 999 business ideas. Yes, 999. And they were all imagined by nine people in a week.

Posts like this do nothing to encourage my belief in our country and world because I already have 100% belief. We were made in the image of a creative God and these posts prove it.

Your turn.

A WhyIFailed Announcement

I'm moving me again! Well, part of me.

For the past several months I've been experimenting with using this blog for any and all thoughts I had on any number of subjects. And while there have been advantages to this approach, I've come to realize that I'm serving neither myself nor my readers well. So, I'm moving part of me back to my other blog: The
Advantaged.

WhyIFailed.com
My writing and linking on Why I Failed.com will focus exclusively on the artistic community - or as a friend likes to call them: "creatives."

And I know you know who you are.

It continues to be my passion to see you succeed as you are meant to succeed. And it continues to be my belief that most of you have no clue what it takes to succeed in business - and the entertainment industry is indeed a business. And this blog is all about business and success principles you can apply in your quest to reach your goals. You do have goals, don't you?

Um, that's lesson number one.

The Advantaged
My passion extends beyond the arts community and that's what I'll write about at The Advantaged. More specifically, I'll write about business in general, manhood, marriage, Christ, technology, social networking and the society in which we live.

Why The Advantaged? Because we are, at least those of us who follow Christ. It's my belief that we live in a fallen world, but we follow the One who created it. The One who knows its design, its workings and methods. And this One wants a personal relationship with us. Daily. In everything.

Seems like an advantage to me.

Visit me at The Advantaged for more.

Online Me
None of this changes my ongoing facination with all things online and I'll continue to experiment and build on the offerings scattered around our 2.0/3.0 Web. In fact, expect that this new year will bring a move of The Advantaged from blogspot to its own domain and possibly moving both blogs to another host (any suggestions?). Perhaps even a server of my own - but I know close to NOTHING about that (again, suggestions?).

I hope you'll subscribe to one or both of my blogs 'cause I'd like to encourage you in any way I can.

Thanks for reading.

Developing Manly Courage

It's my view that the cause for much of the world's ills is the lack of men. Not males mind you, but men.

This terrific post from The Art of Manliness blog supports my view and offers solutions as well.

Links Feb. 5

Seth Godin on Solving a different problem.

Reminds me of a Henry Ford quote I keep on my monitor at work:
"If I'd listened to customers, I'd have given them a faster horse."

It's your turn.

Pay Attention Please to the "Stimulus" Package

Brad Hilderbrand nails it in this cutting post about business as usual on Capital Hill.

We are on the verge of bankrupting our nation and moving to socialism all in the matter of months. Please get involved and write your Representatives and Senator. IF there's a package needed at all - I'm not convinced - we certainly do not need one full of hundreds of BILLIONS of spending on unrelated pet projects.

Links for Feb 2

http://www.allthingsworkplace.com/2009/02/right-wrong-and-who-will-go-first.html

- An indepth exploration of the things that keep us from being happy. Namely, or attachment to being right.

http://www.bestuniversities.com/blog/2009/top-100-leadership-blogs/

- As the title suggests, check out this list of 100 Leadership blogs. They're segmented into useful categories too: Development, Youth and Student, Community, Managing Others, Female, Religious, Workplace and Team.

I can vouch for #'s 3, 7, 39, 78, 79, 82 (if you read just one regularly...) and 90.

Thoughts on Business

Read this today in a book summary of How We Lead Matters by Marilyn Carlson Nelson:

"Business in one of the most powerful forces on the planet - for good or for ill. Its domain is far-reaching and pervasive. Those of us who are "called to business" as our life pursuit must learn how best to leverage our influence and work across sectors on complex problems for the common good. We must be what is called "integrative leaders."

"In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, business leaders must pause and contemplate the way businesses can best interact with the non-profit and public sectors. It's not unlike the way the ancients looked at the skies: some just saw stars, but others saw the patterns of dogs, bears, goddesses, and hunters. They connected the dots, and we'll never again see the sky in the same way."

If you - like me and most people - are called to the world of business, whether ditch-digger or CEO, you are a man or woman of influence. Be sure you are using it for good and not ill. Be sure you treasure and nurture not only your calling, but the skills, abilities and knowledge that will impact your company. Your family.

Our world.