Notice that all 5 are technology companies. With the exception of Alphabet (GOOGLE) the rest have been around for about 30 years at the emergency of personal computers. Alphabet has taken only one third of the time to catch up in terms of cash accumulation.


"Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) are sitting on $504 billion, or 30%, of the $1.7 trillion in cash and cash equivalents held by U.S. non-financial companies in 2015"

Amazing it is. This is a giant step forward for DNotes and a big helping hand for those entrepreneurs who have yet to achieve their objectives, including anyone whose business still has room for dramatic improvement. This book should prove thoughtful, insightful, helpful, and invaluable - an amazing entrepreneur handbook and guide to business success. I have given it all I got, in the writing of this book and I rest my case, trusting that I have delivered "the best in class," with the help and devotion of my team, of course. Thank you all for your support and encouragement.   

Thanks for your confidence and support, TeeGee. Indeed, it may be hard for most people to see it that way, but DNotes is outgrowing its first shell. Beginning July 1st we will start focusing on some major developments of the DNotes blockchain, payment system and other technologies. As always, we will be focusing on our next project like a laser beam. Our time will become immensely precious and must be used wisely. We will be making significant adjustment in our communication with our supporters. It will impact this forum.

As you may know, the book has been officially published and available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle on Amazon and other fine retailers worldwide. All indications are that it is very well received. Expect some major book reviews in five to six weeks. Extremely promising so far. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. It is a significant accomplishment to be proud of.

That is a smart move.

Wow. It has taken that many years for the truth to come out.

We made a business decision to end the Kickstarter campaign for a number of reasons. First, we were clearly not getting the level of support that we had hoped. The second was an easy call. The book got published in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle with multiple publishers and worldwide distribution way ahead of our projected schedule. Treat this as a pleasant surprise and not a setback. We have been incredibly well positioned to react at the flip of a switch and adjusted to our best interest and that of our supporters.

We are already deep into our second phase - promoting the book globally and getting major book reviews. We are well on our way but it will take 5 to 8 weeks before we see published results. We trust that in the meantime we will be getting reviews from the consumers. If you are in the position to do so, purchase a copy of the book in any format. Give the book an objective review after you have a chance to read it. As always, your support is very much appreciated. Thank you. 

Always strive to be the Best in Class:

No company ever becomes the best in class by accident. You have to position your business to achieve that status, and that is a mission of such size and scope that you simply cannot accomplish it without implementing winning strategies. All of this represents the type of serious commitment that will require the utmost focus, discipline, patience, persistence, tenacity, and leadership skills if you are to be successful. And yes, those are the principles and traits that Jim Collins identified in his book “Good to Great.” He found them all in abundance among level 5 leaders, and referred to this philosophy of duality as the Stockdale Paradox - a reference to the late Vice Admiral James Stockdale’s coping strategy during his imprisonment in a POW camp during the Vietnam War.

Stockdale had described the mental state that it took to survive the camps as one that recognized the importance of acknowledging your current challenges while still maintaining the focus, discipline, patience, persistence, and tenacity needed to maintain faith in your own vision for success.

That is the essential trait of leadership that is all too often lacking in the business world today. It is a principle that recognizes that leaders choose to accept the blunt and brutal facts of their reality, but never lose sight of their belief that the right team and strategy, skillfully executed, can ensure that they prevail when all is said and done.

In business, many fail to meet their goals because they never build the type of foundation that provides them with the complete package they need for success. The ability and discipline to focus on all of the things that matter, along with the passion to excel in every single department, function, and business activity, is absolutely critical for ensuring that you have the optimum opportunity for business success. You cannot afford to let yourself be blindsided by overconfidence due to a misguided faith in your ability to excel in just one or two skill sets - or hope that superiority in those areas will somehow mask your mediocrity in every other area.

It doesn’t really matter if you believe that you have tried your best, or that you have worked hard to do your part. When others on your team fail to bring their skill sets to bear in a way that helps you to excel in every area of your business, then you leave yourself open to failure. One or two areas of competency are not enough to succeed; the true measure of your competitive superiority can only be found in the total of all of your scores.

Everything is interrelated. It might seem as though poor performance in one area of your business is isolated to that function, but that is simply not the case. Poor performance in one aspect of your business degrades performance everywhere else. It means that when you are weak in certain areas of your company’s operations, your scores are not only lower in those areas but they impact the scores of other areas as well. Ultimately, that causes your overall business performance score to suffer.

Remember, your business is a complete system. Every subsystem within your company either helps or harms every other subsystem. All of those components or subsystems have an impact on the output and performance of every business function and the business as a whole. When there is weakness in any area, the business is weaker than it should be. Components that fail to perform at peak levels tend to bring down the performance of other components, and the overall impact is magnified in proportion to the total number of interdependent parts at work within the system. Moreover, the more complex the system is, the more impact each individual component has on the entirety of the company.

Complexity increases interdependence, and magnifies the impact any given component has, whether for good or ill. When components operate at peak performance, greater productivity and positive benefits can be enjoyed. When there are weaknesses, the exact opposite is true.

It can sometimes be hard to envision just how important it is to deliver a complete package, but there is an example that can offer some illumination on the subject. Just think about your favorite talent show or sports competition where winners are determined by a panel of judges, with the total scores from eight different criteria used to make that decision. A competitor who scores 10 out of 10 in two categories, but who has mediocre scores of 7 of 10 in the other six categories will ultimately lose out to the competitor who manages to score 8 of 10 across all eight categories.

And so it is with the world of business. Being the best in class in every category is always a winning strategy whenever it is tried. To be the best in class, you have to realize that everything matters, though there are always a few that matter a lot more than others. The most important of them all are the four pillars of business success; you, your great ideas, your employees, and your customers. Focus on them to improve your odds of business success.

Stay tuned for more:
Please join me in my quest to get the word out. The book is now available:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0692718877/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=&sr=

For more about the book including chapter summation visit:https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com/

Sometimes, one has to sell to clear "log jammed" in order to get things moving. We thank you and others for those efforts.

C-Cex is a good exchange. I hope it will eventually get more support from our industry.

The Four Pillars of Business Success is now available worldwide in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle. It is available on Amazon and soon on many other outlets as well. We are also committing to some major book reviews which will take 5 to 8 weeks. This is a significant accomplishment that will open a lot of doors for DNotes. Developing a close working relationship with business owners and their employees is our pathway to mass adoption of DNotes. We are in this for the long term, building DNotes as the trusted global digital currency with a purpose and a clear vision.

We are a trailblazer, not just "me too" followers. It may not always be easy to understand why we are involved in things other than just DNotes the currency. The book explains that in great details in Chapter 15 - The DNotes Story. It also made mention of DNotes Global, Inc., 25% owned by all of DNotes stakeholders at this time. DNotes Global is the major beneficiary of 85% of the revenue from the book. I will personally be paid 15% in royalty distribution. This is the first revenue stream for the company and it could be very significant, allowing us to fund our R & D and further expansion. DNotes is a real life use case (a truly text book case) of the book. I strongly believe that there isn't any other projects of such purpose and vision worthy of mass support and acceptance. We all need to help get the word out.

Our next phase is to focus on some major R & D projects starting the second half of this year. One of the themes of the book is that we do not participate in anything without a full commitment to be equal to or better than the competition. To accomplish that we must use our very precious time wisely. We will be making an important announcement next week after giving serious consideration to various options on how we can make the best use of our time.

Hello everyone. Thank you for your support and encouragement to see me through in one of my most important accomplishments. My book is now available on Amazon. It will very soon be available in hard cover, paperback, and Kindle Select.

Kindle will have exclusive distribution rights for the first 90 days. Accordingly, the e-book version will not be available on our site until later. We are aggressively promoting worldwide distribution of this book and believe that it will go a long way as an invaluable guide to business owners and other entrepreneur.

The actual publication of this book is significantly ahead of our schedule, making it unnecessary to continue the Kickstarter campaign. In view of that, we are ending our Kickstarter campaign. You will not be charged for the amount you have pledged. I am most grateful for your support.

If you have a chance to read the book soon, you will be doing me the biggest favor by being one of the first to leave a book review on Amazon. Again, thank you very much for your kind support.
---------------------
The book will be offered by many retailers worldwide. You will be seeing different price points though our MSRP is the same to everyone.


Improve Your Odds - The Four Pillars of Business Success Hardcover – May 15, 2016

by Yong Alan (Author)

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The Four Pillars of Business Success is a business book written to help entrepreneurs, business leaders, and managers learn to develop the strong foundation every business needs to be the best in its class. The book's author, Alan Yong, utilizes the insights he has gained over the course of four decades in business to offer today's entrepreneurs a roadmap to success. This book is written to help them overcome many of the most common strategic and operational challenges confronting today's companies. In a world where more than two-thirds of all business enterprises fail within their first ten years, The Four Pillars of Business Success calls upon its readers to return to first principles to achieve real and lasting success.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Odds-Pillars-Business/dp/0692718877/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463580632&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Four+Pillars+of+Business+Success+by+Alan+Yong

Thanks, Chase. You are quick.

So, that is NYTimes November, 2013 prediction of Bitcoin doomed to fail.

It is apparent that the high level of interest to use blockchain technology will continue. Although, I am skeptical if a lot of blockchain projects are justifiable business models, investment in this space will not likely to slow down. The urge to be “me too’ is just too tempting when there is so much press about the subject. From our prospective, sometimes, it’s better to wait a little and let the dust settles so that we can see more clearly. Our R & D will kick into high gears the 2nd half of this year.

Quote from: Chase on May 15, 2016, 06:52:35 PM

Great article on government investment in innovation:


America’s Secret Weapon

This presidential election has the country captivated. As many commentators have pointed out, the primaries are more focused on personalities than policy. While the parties focus on who is going to represent them in the fall, I want to make the case for something that I hope every candidate will agree on in November: America’s unparalleled capacity for innovation. When the United States invests in innovation, it creates companies and jobs at home, makes Americans healthier and safer, and saves lives and fights poverty in the world’s poorest countries. It offers the next president a tremendous opportunity to help people in America and around the world.

Of course, America’s capacity for innovation is nothing new. We have been inventing for more than two centuries: think of Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Knight, Thomas Edison. By the end of World War II, the United States led the world in automobiles, aerospace, electronics, medicine, and other areas. Nor is the formula for success complicated: Government funding for our world-class research institutions produces the new technologies that American entrepreneurs take to market.

full article: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/American-Innovation?WT.mc_id=20160424143200_Innovation-Op-ed_BG-TW&WT.tsrc=BGTW&linkId=23776358

Quote From Shepherd Today:

The author of the article, Bill Gates is a true visionary, with immense capabilities to see the big picture clearly. America is the best place in the world to make big bold ideas happened. That is why after considering various options, DNotes Global, Inc. is incorporated in the state of Delaware, USA. We believe that after everything is said and done we are doing the right things, at the right place, and at the right time.

Nice post, Chase. Thanks.

The following has been added to:


 Chapter 13 - Conclusion


Continuing Education:

Whether you are a young entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, you should never stop working to improve your unique leadership skills. Knowledge is a powerful competitive edge for any entrepreneur, but one that must remain sharp at all times. An inspired and focused effort on continued self-improvement is the best investment of your time and money that you will ever make. That is why we are developing a membership site that will serve as a forum for those interested in further enhancement of their entrepreneurial skill sets.

Membership at The Four Pillars of Business Success site gives you exclusive access to information and materials that will expand on the concepts presented in this book. It will also provide you with access to Alan and his team - as well as a variety of useful and innovative tools designed to help your business succeed.

Chase, you are correct. Hiring in person business consultant is not cheap. I used to bill at $180 per hour for a minimum of 10 hour day plus travel expenses. That was 10 years ago. Today's rate is in the range of $250 to $400 per hour plus travel expenses. Frankly, the book with some e-mentorship is even more effective at a small fraction of the cost. I am very passionate about helping entrepreneurs with the trust that millions of people can benefit from my work one day. It will take some time for the word to get out, though.

Is that a default classification for some kind of registration?, Just curious. I like E-mentorship for business, or E-mentorship for entrepreneurs.

I am working on final touches before the book is released for formatting and other steps in preparation for publication.

Don’t just gamble with your business - Improve Your Odds of Success

In many ways, a lot of new entrepreneurs take the same approach to business startups that they would take in a casino. Many just assume that the inherent risk associated with starting a new company makes such a venture little better than gambling. That belief is often strengthened when they take note of the statistically high rate of new business failures.

The fact is, though, that there are some key differences between business ownership and a few hours spent in a casino. In the gambling world, the outcomes are truly random and thus outside of your control. And while there are certainly games where you at least have some input into how you choose to play a certain hand or wheel, the fact is that all of the primary components of each game are designed to be beyond your ability to influence. It means that any betting victories you may have are entirely the result of chance. That’s why we refer to gamblers who win as having been “lucky.”

Gambling is a fickle thing, though. For every person who sees Lady Luck smiles their way when they hit the jackpot, there are an untold number of players who lose everything they have. And while professional gamblers can certainly develop elaborate strategies and spread their play out over a larger number of games in an attempt to create more favorable odds by taking advantage of the laws of probability, in the end they remain as vulnerable to the whims of chance as any amateur first-time player. Even the best gamblers can go bankrupt if they experience a long enough series of losses.

Business is only a gamble to the extent that life itself is a gamble. After all, no one can control every outcome in life, and the same is true in the business world as well; unpredictability is one of life’s surest constants. Still, there are clear differences between an activity like gambling that is almost entirely random in nature, and something like business ownership that has no greater randomness to it than most other areas of life. More to the point, in business there are ways to effectively manage and exercise a large measure of control over the odds you face each day. That is, if you have aspirations of achieving something more than mediocrity. On the other hand, if you create a new startup without a clear plan for taking your rightful place among the top thirty percent in your industry, then you really are engaged in a huge gamble and should consider yourself lucky if you manage to remain in business for even five years.

Unfortunately, that is the reality for the vast majority of new entrepreneurs. Most never make it. In fact, the odds are so stacked against the unprepared new business owner, and the outcomes are so incredibly uncertain, that it is actually easy to understand why so many people consider the launch of any new business enterprise as little more than a gamble - and a rather large one at that. That’s also one of the reasons why it is often so difficult to convince others to bet on your great ideas and business concepts. The risks are high, and the potential for loss in such an investment is simply too great for most people to bear.

Just consider the data. While estimates vary, the consensus seems to be that somewhere between 67% to 80% of all new businesses fail within the first 10 years, though the exact numbers are often dependent on the industries involved and other factors in the economy during any given time period. My own studies and observations have revealed that approximately 60% of all new enterprises fail within the first five years, with a minimum of 70% failing before the end of their first decade of existence. Then there’s the fact that many businesses that manage to make it past that first decade do so in a state of intermittent profitability, never achieving either success or stability.

If that sounds like a steep mountain to climb, then you’re obviously paying attention. Still, there are reasons why all of those businesses fail, and there are methods and strategies that you can use to help you avoid many of the pitfalls that serve to trap the lion’s share of would-be entrepreneurs. Regardless of whether you are considering the launch of a startup, a restart, or a start-over, you cannot allow yourself to be deterred by the odds. You should, however, recognize how daunting they are, and do all that you can to ensure that you’re prepared to overcome them.

Let’s be clear: I’m talking about reversing the odds so that they are actually in your favor! Better yet, my goal is to help you become the engineer of your own success so that you can reduce as much uncertainty as possible and stack the odds in your favor. And what would that mean for your chance of business success?

Well, if we can agree that at least seventy percent of all businesses currently fail within ten years, reversing those odds would mean that your business would have a seventy percent chance of success. And I’m not talking about the kind of success where you just keep the doors open and manage to scrape by week after week. It’s my mission to show you how you can increase your odds of realizing the type of success that will have competing among the upper echelons of your chosen industry.

It can be done, and in the post I will explain exactly how you can accomplish this seemingly impossible feat.

Just consider what it would mean to you to know that your business has a 70% chance of achieving true success:

•   That increased chance of survival will make it easier for you to obtain seed money from investors.

•   If you know that the odds of success are in your favor, you will feel less guilty about receiving investments from friends and family members who might otherwise be placing their college funds or retirement accounts at risk.

•   The knowledge that you’ve done all you can do to stack the odds of success in your favor can serve to motivate you and unleash the true power of your business passion.
Before you make up your mind about whether or not this is even possible, remember the words of Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t. You’re right”

I would only add to that one thing: if you want your new company to be the best in class, then you’ve come to the right place. This is the book for you. Of course, if you think that being best in class does not matter, then it does not matter.

Stay tuned for more:
Meanwhile, support my Kickstarter campaign and pledge as little as $5. Many small business owners are struggling and need help. Please join me in my quest to get the word out.

Visit:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/124571891/the-four-pillars-of-business-success-book-by-alan

For more about the book including chapter summation visit:https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com/

That is excellent, Brandon. I am glad that you like what you learned from reading the book. Less than a dozen of people have the opportunity to read the whole book. The feedback has been very consistent. It is a must read book for any entrepreneur. If I had the guidance of this book when I started my first business forty years ago, I would have saved millions and be operating at a very different level today. Trials and errors are very expensive and stressful in any business. I strongly recommend that everyone reads the book when you have a chance. We are committed to make it widely available.