Emerging Nation Economic Union

Emerging Nations--Alternative to Failure.

You've heard of OPEC and you've heard of the EEC.  Now, I propose an Economic Union of Emerging Nations--EMEC. This is to help emerging nations to both leverage your position with the rest of the world, and to avoid the mistakes of the past Communities.

• The OPEC oil embargo hurt the economies of the OPEC nations.

• The Single European Currency hurt the European Economic Community.

• The success of Germany was the result of the deficit spending of the Southern Nations:  Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

The EMEC--Emerging Nations Economic Community--can join together to increase the potency of its negotiating power, and benefit from size to level the playing field with the rest of the world.  The industrialised nations.

HERE WE GO:

1. Identify those among you who are Emerging Economies.

2. Identify, classify, and inventory your assets: What you have to sell.

3. Identify, classify, and inventory your present and future needs: What you want to get.

4. Calculate the cost of your needs.

5. Price out your assets and the value to your customers.

6. Invite purchasing nations to a Nation to Nation Trade Conference: N2N Conference.

7. Prepare to negotiate CPCI: Cash Payments + Capital Investment.

Example of Assets:  Oil, Minerals, Chemicals, Ports, Stability, Location.

Example of Needs:  Agriculture, Health, Microfinance, Energy.

1st: The Leaders of Emerging nations must identify themselves to each other.

2nd: Leaders must meet to agree to embrace the paradigm of an Economic Union.

3rd:  Proceed as indicated above.

WARNING: DANGERS AHEAD.

As a metaphor, if everyone in the district worked for the Big Company,  the employees would have no place to spend their money.  This abuse was seen in "The Company Store" in the United States a century ago.

Microfinance is crucial to spread the opportunities among all the people in the district to help create a base--a middle class.

China: Rising middle class, rising economy.

India: Rising middle class, rising economy.

Soviet Union: No middle class, no Soviet Union.

United States: Declining middle class. Follow the path of the trajectory.

In the early days of America, the pioneers, built their own homes, farmed their own land, made their own furniture, made their own tools, made their own clothes.  In time, the division of labour resulted in many trades and crafts: potters making pots for cooking, The School Marm, The Preacher, The Blacksmith, The Butcher, The Baker, The Miller, The Barber, and so on.

DO NOT SURRENDER POWER

Old Chinese Saying

"Never underestimate the power of a symbolic gesture."

The Quotations of Slim Fairview

"The power of the symbolic gesture resides with the people making the gesture."

WESTERN TRICKS TO CONTROL EMERGING NATIONS

Invitation to Address a Committee

Committees do not solve problems. Committees create problems.  The first trick is to invited EMEC Leaders to address a committee.  This is a carrot and a stick.  It suggests that if you address the committee, you may receive what you want. If you do not, you won't.  The motive of the committee is to gather information about what you are doing to benefit the members of the committee and their friends--not you.

Creating a List of Activity

This trick is to keep you busy in an effort to impede your efforts to accomplish your goals.  This give the appearance of progress toward your goal, but in fact introduces the need for an inflated bureaucracy to dilute your efforts.

Gathering and Providing Mass Quantities of Data

This gives rise to:

• The appearance of assistance.

• Creating the appearance of the need for assistance.

• Justifying the need for more people to join the efforts.

• Validating the act of forcing people upon you.

• Creating a massive project to keep you obligated to the people exploiting you.

• Making you lose focus and lose site of your goals to infuse their agenda and advance their goals.

Crowding the Project

This trick involves inviting as many people as possible to work on grand plans to dilute the potency of your position.  There will be delays and distractions to benefit the interests of other people--not you--others.

Lies, Propaganda, Disinformation, and More Lies

This trick involves distracting you from your efforts to accomplish your goals by attacking the warnings.  The tricksters will accuse their critics of:

• Showing you disrespect

• Insulting your intelligence

• Marginalising your culture

This is to mitigate the warnings and to advance their schemes to benefit themselves at your expense.

Putting You in Charge to Reduce Your Control

This is a devious trick.  It is a form of divide and conquer.  Different leaders will be separated to take charge of different projects.  The projects will be crowded with people, burdened with excessive data, and cause delays and distractions.  You are in charge, not them.  Caveat: Do not let them put you in charge of what they want you to do. 

Wasting Money by Spending Too Much on Their Agendas.

This is another devious trick.  There will be more and more money for fewer and fewer projects, until the focus is on the projects they want to fund and the projects you need go unfunded and your goals are never achieved.

SOME PROTECTION:

• Do not listen to anyone who praises you or flatters you.
• Discuss only business.
• Speak to only those people who have the power to: 

1. Negotiate the deal.
2. Approve the Agreement
3. Sign the Agreement
4. Spend the Money.

Do not accept their invitations to socialize with them. Socialize away from them and discuss--freely and openly--the progress of your efforts.


Further Reading on This Topic

The Unspoken Understanding  More about the tricks of manipulation.

Mr. When's Chicken  to explain to The West why Emerging Nations do not like us.

And President Obama Said...  This explains China's success and offers insight into American Exceptionalism.  In Short:  "China will succeed because China will do as we did and not as we say."  The Quotations of Slim Fairview. (c) 2014.

Solving the Emerging Crisis  This offers some of the mechanics of the project.

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2014 Slim Fairview & Robert Asken

All rights reserved.

Bachelor of Sports--Football Major

How long will it be before Texas A&M or the University of Texas offers a Bachelor of Sports or a Bachelor of Athletics with a major in Football?

There is a valid reason to do so. In fact, many.

Football is a business.  Football is not a game. Football is not a sport. Football is a business. In fact, Football is an Industry—a multi billion-dollar industry that provides many jobs and supports many other industries, which—by extension, supports many more jobs.

In most businesses, sales are goals.  In football, goals are sales.  Fans are revenue generators. Advertising pays the bills. And television speaks for itself.

A Football team bay benefit from Brand Loyalty, however, there is no boutique football. There is no Mass-Market Discount Football.  Football is not L.L. Bean.  Football is not Wal-Mart.  Football is Kohl’s.  Football is Macy’s.  And just as Macy’s becomes The Miracle on 34^th Street every Thanksgiving—complete with a parade—football becomes the miracle on the 50 yard line—complete with bowl games.

Originally, this article was only to underscore the difference between teams and committees.  However, it turned out to be more.

You’ve heard of surgical teams. Have you ever heard of a surgical committee?  You’ve heard of football teams.  Have you ever heard of a football committee?

Proms have decorating committees. Proms are not in competition. Proms are not revenue generators.  Playing football in high school is just as valid as taking Phys. Ed. or Health Class.  However, College Football is a whole new ballgame.

• College Football is very competitive.
• College Football is big business.
• College Football is an industry.
• College Football is a major revenue generator.

Therefore, by extension, College Football should also be a College Major.  In fact, there should be an entire degreed field of study.

Soon there will be, and there should be, a Bachelor of Sports (BS) and a Bachelor of Athletics (BA).

Those graduating with a Bachelor of Sports can go on to become Coaches, Trainers, Recruiters, or enter the fields of sports Advertising, Marketing, or Sales.

They can even go on to play Professional Football.

A Football Major watching a training film is just as valid as a Film Major watching Citizen Kane, or a Theatre Major watching a play.

A Football Major going to a football game is just as valid as a music major going to listen to a symphony, an Art Major going to a gallery opening, or a History Major visiting a Museum.

All are valid activities. Only Football is derided despite the fact that Football is a Multibillion Dollar Industry.

Is there any real difference between a Finance Major studying Economics and Statistics to develop investment portfolio strategies and a Football Major studying Football stats to develop recruitment and training strategies?

There will, of course, be a core curriculum.

• Offensive Analysis I, II, III, IV.
• Defense Analysis I, II, III, IV.
• Pregame Previews
• Post Game Analysis
• Sports Writing
• Broadcasting
• Recruiting
• Training
• Marketing
• Advertising
• Sales.

How long before the University of Texas or Texas A&M or USC or Notre Dame or Penn State offers a Valid Degree in sports with a Football Major?

If you find anything here to be helpful, please do not hesitate to send me a really tricked out MacPro and to tuck a bit of WAM into the envelope along with the Thank You not.

Warmest regards,

Slim.

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2014 Slim Fairview

All rights reserved.

If You Can Label It You Can Sell It

"If you can label it, you can sell it."

"The Alchemists tried turning lead into gold and failed.  The Marketing People succeeded by selling lead to the Alchemists.

The Quotations of Slim Fairview. (c) 2017

Remember the pet rock?  Adopt a Cabbage Patch Kid?  Here we go.

LABELS

When I was young, a label spoke to the quality of the merchandise. Dunhill tobacco pouch, Florsheim shoes.

Today, a label speaks to the price of the merchandise. Everything does come with a price.  But many times the price is more than dollars and cents.  Every label has a price.

If you carry a Birkin Bag, you'd better be a celebrity.  If not, you will be viewed with contempt for parading around with a $60,000 pocketbook.  On the other hand, if you wear Birkenstock Sandals, don’t you also pay a price; a price for marketing yourself?  You are marketing yourself, aren't you?  Really?  Aren't you?

Florsheim Shoes, Gucci Loafers, Birkenstock Sandals are all quality products. Different price ranges, but all quality products. And each sends a different message.  Who are you labeling your product for?

Label v. Logo.

You're logo is not the little picture you hired that graphics designer to create for you.  Your logo is, in fact, how your customer feels when buying, wearing, or using your product.  Your label is what your customer tells other people he paid for your product--not in dollars only.  To understand logos, read my article "YOUR LOGO".

There is, of course the cynical approach.  Two outstanding examples of that are:

P.T. Barnum:  “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

H.L. Mencken:  “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
 

Now, we move onto serious marketing people.  For this we have the Four Marketeers.

• Redesign

• Reconfigure

• Relabel

• Repackage

These are the four cavaliers of successful marketing.

There is an old saying on Madison Avenue.  “Half of all advertising works.  But nobody knows which half.”

The issue, of course, is not advertising.  The issue is marketing. And, I've said this repeatedly.  Marketing:  “Find a need and fill it.”  

Don’t get T-Boned at the intersection of Marketing & Madison.  Marketing Trumps Advertising

Relabel

WHY THE BUY IN?  Is that the hard question?  No.

If you'd read my article "MARKETING 1959" you will already know that wearing leggings (snow pants) made you a target of derision and teasing.  I remember the "consumer pushback" as my Mom tried getting me into my leggings. 

Then, one day, my buddy had to wear them.  And someone began, "Ha, ha, you had to wear leggings."  But he was ready. 

"They're not leggings, they're ski pants".

 

Suddenly they became an icon of cool.  Okay, why the buy in?  Why did the other boys in the class suddenly buy into the premise?

Two reasons: 

In part, to be a part of it all if they had to wear them.

In part for protection from derision if they had to wear them. 

Call it relabeling, not rebranding.   You’re not switching from the discount store brand to the designer brand. The product was renamed.

  

For example:  My Dad wore a robe.  Noel Coward wore a dressing gown.

However, one of the most brilliant relabeling strategies was employed by Japanese Automakers. 

When US car manufacturers wanted to enhance revenue, they outsourced their work off-shore.  This was an effort to cut costs.  However, you don’t sell a lot of Oldsmobiles in a country where people earn $5. A day.

When Japanese auto makers wanted to enhance revenue, they opened plants in the US and hired American auto workers.  What happened? 

Japanese automakers began selling cars that were made in America by American workers. 

There will be more to come.

If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out Mac Book and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note. 

Sincerely,

Slim

Box 33
Pen Argyl, PA 18072

slimfairview@yahoo.com 

Copyright (c) 2013 Bob Asken

All Rights Reserved.

Teamwork is for Teams

"A team is not a committee.  A committee is not a team.  Teamwork is for teams.  

Committees do not solve problems, they create them." ~ Slim Fairview

I do not like sports analogies. However, as we are discussing teams, we must use them.  Also, I do not like long introductions.  Therefore:

Here is the metaphor:

The Giants have 11 men on the field. For the purposes of  this discussion they are:

One Center

Two Guards,

Two Tackles

Two Ends

One Quarterback

Two Halfbacks

One Fullback

Each player plays a position. (A Job Title)

Each position has a job description.

Each player has some degree of discretion within the parameters of his assignment which he may exercise as different situations present themselves, at the time they present themselves, and in the way that they present themselves.

If a defensive lineman decides not to break through the line, the tackle must decide whether and how to change his approach--to handle his assignment.  Others must make adjustments accordingly.

"The joke is in the way I say it, not in what I say." ~ Slim Fairview.

The Tackle does not call a time out, walk across the field and say to the Receiver, "Listen, you missed that last pass, how about I run down field with you in case there is another problem?"

The Halfback does not stroll over to find out what is going on.

If there appears to be a dispute, the QB does not go over to implement some conflict resolution.

The Coach does not come out onto the field to suggest that the tackle head up a committee of back fielders and receivers to look into the problem.

Human Resources doesn't not go out onto the field to suggest bringing in a consultant who might hold a training session where everyone will have the opportunity to play different positions in order to become more sensitive to the other players feelings.

A fan does not come out onto the field to represent stakeholder interests and suggest we need a field 200 yards long to expand the market and six downs per play for revenue enhancement.

A second stringer does not go out onto the field to suggest increasing the number of players on the field to 15 or 20 so more people get to play.

There are a few things to consider though.

The team already has a shared vision

The team already has a defined goal

The team members already have their assignments

The team members already have their job descriptions.

Also there are other similarities

The opposing team presents a set of  knowns and a set of unknowns.

The offensive team knows the strengths and weaknesses of the defensive team. They do not, however, know which members of the defensive team will present the problem--or where.

If that defensive lineman decides to go around the offensive line rather than through it, then the Tackle must made a decision--on his own--"do I pull back or not?"  That decision will influence the action of, say, the Fullback. He may now be forced to move to protect the QB from being sacked.

In the same manner, the defensive line must also respond to situations and changing situations as a team.  That means each player has a degree of autonomy to make decisions within the parameters of his assigned position.

"As a team" means each individual doing his own job--not someone else's job.

A defensive lineman must decide where to go, depending on which offensive player is carrying the ball and in which direction he is heading.

You won't win many football games if you tell your defensive linemen, "Don't worry about where the ball is going.  Let me worry about that. That's my job.  If you want to be helpful, just do what I tell you to do.  If I want you to do something else, I will tell you." (Right in the middle of the play, eh?  That comment is pretty much what I was told on at least two occasions by a boss who made a serious error in judgement.  That according to many bosses.) 

Back to Congress

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  True!

Everyone is entitled to express that opinion.  True!

The right to an opinion does not confer value upon that opinion.

"Opinions are like hemorrhoids.  Sooner or later almost every Congressman has one."  ~ The Quotations of Slim Fairview.

Case in Point:

Congress has 535 members.

Congress has a 5% approval rating.

You can't put 535 Congressmen into a 5% bag.

Back to football

Credentials:

Each football player has credentials.  Each team has a record.

Players have training, ability, experience and a track record.  Teams have a record of wins and losses, over and against which teams, and the analysis of the reasons why.

For example: Both Quarterbacks have a record of passes, pass completions, yards gained and lost, runs, yards, gained, sacks, and wins and losses.

Still, one QB wins and one loses.  Obviously, no one wins or loses on his own. Each has 10 other players on his team.  Each player doing his job. And only his job. Each team has a coach who writes plays (strategic planning) and a coach who replaces players who get tired, makes too many mistakes, or fails to perform to the (measurables) standards of the team.

When was the last time you replaced someone on your team? As they say across the pond--"Dropped for not scoring."

GET THE MESSAGE?

Teamwork is for teams.  A team is not a committee.  A committee is not a team. Committees do not solve problems, they cause them. 

Replace your committee with a team.  

Be sure your team is in compliance with the paradigm of a team.

There are those who believe that a committee is the best way to deal with a problem.  I will now refute, repudiate, disparage, and debunk their delusions with one word--Congress.

Einstein (The Physicists) said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I assume he meant better results. 

"I am no Einstein.  I know nothing about physics." ~ Slim Fairview.

"Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting better results." ~ Slim Fairview

From, The Quotations of Slim Fairview (c) 2013

Einstein also said, "You don't measure the intelligence of a fish  by its ability to climb a tree."

Slim Fairview said, "If you want someone to climb a tree, you hire a cat."

"If you want to know something, Google it.  If you want to understand something, ask an old person." ~ Slim Fairview.

If anything herein has helped guide you toward clear thinking and solid action, please do not hesitate to send me a really tricked out Mac Book and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.

or

GoFundMe

Warmest regards,



Slim.


Robert Asken Box 33 
Pen Argyl, PA  18072

LinkedIn Profile 


slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2013 Robert Asken 

All Rights Reserved.

Marketing Trumps Advertising

Of all the isms in the world, the worst is credentialism.  Credentials are ubiquitous.  Everyone has at least one or two.  Whether in economics, or in engineering, or in management, or in just experts in general, everyone has credentials.

As Glinda said to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, “Are you a good consultant or a bad consultant?”

To which Dorothy replied, “I’m not a consultant at all….”

Here is the metaphor:

You have two experts. One works for a store that sells red paint. One works for a store that sells blue paint.

The red paint expert says, “Paint the walls of your company red. Your employers will get all gingered up and make more widgets.”

The blue paint expert says, “Paint the walls of your company blue. Your employees will be more relaxed and make better widgets.” 

Ostensibly true…or half true.  However, half the truth is a whole lie.

What the red paint experts don’t tell you is that the red paint employees will make more widgets, but more mistakes.  What the blue paint experts don’t tell you is that the blue paint employees will make better widgets, but fewer widgets.  But wait. There’s more! 

To stay in business, Mr. Widget must make a choice:  produce more widgets for the discount widget market, or make better widgets for the upscale widget market. 

While that sounds simple enough, there is a lot more to it.

If he goes with discount widgets, he will need to adjust his "supply chain": cheaper steel, cheaper nuts and bolts, cheaper paint or powder coat.  Also, he must adjust his distribution: more trucks or bigger trucks?  He must also change his marketing, advertising, and warehousing allocations.  If he signs a deal with Mr. Wal-Mart, he’s reached the discount widget market—almost.  He will still have competition from those with more experience and facility with selling discount widgets.

If Mr. Widget goes upscale, he will dial back the quantity of steel, but must ramp up the quality of the steel, the nuts and bolts, and the powder coat.  He must also change his marketing, sales, and advertising strategies.  How will he sell widgets, where, and to whom? Coach? Macy’s? Neiman Marcus?

Each market strategy has its own challenges.

Ron Johnson did a bang up job at Apple Stores.  At JCP?  Not so much. 

Ron Johnson wanted to sell, “Every Day Low Pricing.”  The Customers wanted to buy, “Discounts and Coupons.”  Ron Johnson tried to convince the customers to buy what he wanted to sell instead of selling what the customers wanted to buy.

MARKETING TRUMPS ADVERTISING

Forty years ago, my marketing professor scolded me on (at the very least) one occasion, “That’s advertising. That’s not marketing.”

Advertising: Convince the customer to buy what you want to sell.

Marketing:  Find a need and fill it.

Now the hard part.  In addition to the above, in order to protect himself from being T-Boned at the intersection of Marketing and Madison, he must consider the following:

Technology:  Will his competitor buy the new Widgetmaster 5000?  Should he?  What are the opportunity costs?

Innovation: Will his competitors make aluminum widgets, or titanium widgets, to either cut costs or improve quality?

R&D:  Will small entrepreneurs nibble away at his profits?  Two kids with a 3-D printer may begin making plastic widgets.  However, 2 kids with a 3-D printer + Crowdfunding = 2 kids with 20 3-D printers producing plastic widgets.

Before you spend your money on paint (and consultants) remember:

“There are no unintended consequences, only unwanted consequences.” ~ Slim Fairview. From The Quotations of Slim Fairview © 2010 – 2013

If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out Mac Book and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note. 
Thank you Slim.

Bob Asken
Box 33 
Pen Argyl, PA 18072

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2013 Slim Fairview

All rights reserved.

Einstein's Fish

Einstein said, "You can't judge the intelligence of a fish by its ability to climb a tree."  By extension, "You can't judge the intelligence of a cat by its ability to swim under water."  

Why bring up what appears to be the same statement?  

Because, If you want someone to climb a tree, you hire a cat. If you want someone to swim under water, you hire a fish.  Simple enough?

By extension, Einstein (A theoretical Physicist) also said, If you prepare for war, you get war.  If you want peace, you prepare for peace.

George Washington (A General) said, If you want to insure the peace, you prepare for war.

If I want to hire a General, I will hire George Washington.

If I want to hire a physicist, I will hire Albert Einstein.

If I want someone to climb a tree, I will hire a cat.

If I want someone to swim under water, I will hire a fish.


I understand that Einstein worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton.  After some research, I found that they don't always entertain mathematicians and physicists.  They also entertain people like historians.  I began dropping hints.  I thought it was like the MacArthur Foundation.  They find you.  They don't. You have to apply.  If I have to ask....I lost interest.

It should also be noted that I was passed up again for the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

Which begs the question:  

How will I ever become a Genius if no one gives be a Genius Grant?


Warmest regards, 

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com 


On the topic of the Empirical Method of Analysis.

Eggheads and Cracked Eggs.


On the application of analysis over credentialism.

Will the Facebook Revolution Spread to China? Probably Not.

Will the Facebook Revolution Spread to China, Part 2--Credentialism




Copyright 2013 Slim Fairview
All Rights Reserved.

Twittergram?

"Twittergram for Phil Boins."  Lieutenant Abrams. Return of the Thin Man.

Is Twitter the new Western Union?

Yes.

Twitter is Western Union.  The Tweet is the telegram.  Instead of opening up the envelope, you click the link to open the file.

LinkedIn is your company.  Your network connections are your colleagues.

Your Blog is your Customer Tech Manual.

Facebook is your Information Supply Chain.

Your Website is your Sales Department.

"Social Media is the Medium.  Greater than the Sum of its Parts." ~ Slim Fairview. From The Quotations of Slim Fairview.

It's not your grandchildren's Social Media anymore.  Social Media is Business Media.

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2013 Slim Fairview
All Rights Reserved.

Failure? Success? Why! How!

People create obstacles between themselves and their goals.

Then, they pretend that the problems are not problems because they

• They have the solution to the problem

• They can solve the problem

Then, they work on the solution to the problem that they themselves have created.

This time wasting technique--this impediment--is a self-created, self-perpetuating, self-defeating process.

The most important part of the process of failure is the energy expended, the time wasted, the techniques employed, in solving the problem.  The process:

• Research
• Reading
• Self-Help Books
• Writing a Journal
• Watching programmes about the problem
• Talking to People in Support Groups who serve as enablers
• Irritating the people around them (who have problems of their own) causing people to avoid them thus creating the self-fulfilling prophesy.

I can also add the energy expended and the time wasted defending the above self-defeating behaviour.

If this problem is not personal but institutional, the problem may be external, but the process of failure is the same--the elaborate process that avoids dealing with the problem and perpetuates it from there.

Let's define the problem.

Let's involve as many departments as we can to avoid solving the problem.

Let's explore as many aspects of the problem as we can pretend really do exist.

(The result of 3 & 4)

1. Sales
2. Marketing
3. R&D
4. Production
5. QC
6. Engineering
7. Finance
8. Advertising
9. HR
10. Accounting
11. Shipping
12. Receiving
13. The Outside Consultant & of course
14. Carl the Pretzel Man

Right now we are witnessing the EuroCrats embracing this process.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Einstein, a scientist, understood the empirical method of analysis.

You do something (the experiment) and document the results.
You repeat the experiment. If you duplicate the results, you form the conclusion.

To create change, you either change the variable (V) or you change the constant (K).

Let's use the metaphor of baking a cake.

If you have only medium eggs, you can change the amount of flour using one egg to make the batter work.

If you need a bigger cake and you can't change the size of the eggs, you increase the number of eggs from one to two.  If you fail to create a cake, you keep the number of eggs (2) constant (K) and adjust the amount of flour.

Why use this metaphor?

When I was a youngster, I was at my girlfriend's house. Her sister was trying to bake a cake. She failed.  Her Mom encouraged her not to give up. To keep trying.  She tried again.  She failed.  Her Mom encouraged her not to give up. To keep trying.

I went over to help.  I read the recipe.

A recipe has three parts:

Ingredients
Quantities
Process

"Did you separate the eggs?"
"What's that?"

I showed her how to separate the eggs, beat the yolks, beat the whites, add the yolks, fold in the whites.

She baked the cake.  Success!

Ingredients?  Yes!
Quantity?  Yes!
Encouragement? Yes!

The missing element?  The Process!

All our failures: Personal, Institutional, Governmental do not routinely, but ultimately, arise from a failure in the process.

When Congress, European Leaders, and Business Leaders--the leaders who fail, not the leaders who succeed--recognise that there must be a change in the process, they will begin to succeed.

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2013  Slim Fairview
All Rights Reserved.

If anything herein is helpful, please do not hesitate to send me a really tricked out MacPro and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.  Thank you. Slim