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TeeGee
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May 12, 2016, 08:45:26 PM |
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Doing a great job DNotes - these will be handy for posting around.
Could I recommend putting Alan's picture beside his name and book title - rather than below it?
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TeeGee
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May 12, 2016, 09:15:46 PM |
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Student debt crisis is not just an American problem. It is a global problem. I am deeply concerned and look forward to the day when DNotes can provide a positive impact.
Below is an interesting prospective from abroad, England.
Fighting crippling costs
Being a student is a lot harder than it used to be.
Back in the 1980s university was free for most people, and students were even given grants of up to £1,430 to cover their costs of living away from home.
Today most undergraduate students are saddled with debts to the tune of around £51,000 by the end of their courses.
For full-time students who can’t work, like medics or those on postgraduate courses, the cost of living is not matched by what they’re able to borrow.
It's in this dire landscape that short-term lenders like Wonga are making a killing, but Future Finance is trying to build more responsible long-term lending.
“The system is broken. Student financing is in a terrible state right now,” Future Finance CEO Brian Norton told The Memo.
“A decent student credit card will charge you around 20% interest. Short-term loans can rack up 50% or more APR, and Wonga can be over 1000%. It’s scandalous.”
Source:
The Memo, Tuesday 10 May 2016
These figures are truly harrowing - even in New Zealand it is difficult. Here are some thoughts on student loans that I've observed in my own country. The system here is a double edged sword. In the mid 2000s, the government decided to give "interest-free" student loans as an election promise. On one side this is quite helpful because people don't need to pay interest on their loans - it is a direct subsidy to students, and it makes repaying the loan easier. The loan system here operates that once you complete university, you pay an extra 10% tax on all income above 19 thousand dollars per annum that is used to offset your loan - on the condition that you remain in the country. I sit there and consider my sister who claims to be "trapped" in her own words in NZ after 6 or 7 years in academia, six months out of the country would instantly slap her with an interest cost equivalent to 10% of her yearly after tax income. It's even worse when I consider that overseas there is no "interest-free" provision!!! People are paying these exorbitant interest costs regardless. I don't mean to hate on academia, but like IMZ alluded to - many students brains are so "open" these days that they're falling out. Subjects at university that are now primarily used to "justify" and "direct" societal direction (economics, sociology etc) and are full of out-dated ideas that don't match the collected data, and many topics that remain (management, marketing - even sociology) are simple enough that nobody should be spending 50 thousand dollars and three years in academia to get a piece of paper that states you remembered a bunch of simple concepts. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but my personal take is that the sciences are incredibly important (and more difficult) and require degrees - but some of these "more difficult" courses like economics are permeated with questionable theories and models. Some of these models and theories are rather complex and still require good understanding of calculus and critical thinking. On the other hand, there are subjects that students should only need to read a book about, because there is nothing complex about learning "management structures and theory" or "marketing strategies". The other flipside of New Zealand's "interest free" student loans is that it encourages LOTS of students to go to university. It clogged up the system with people who probably shouldn't be at university. This increased demand meant an even wider array of courses are offered like "Feminist theory", "intersex and transgenderism" and "gender studies" - courses that have no "philosophical" or logical rubric to be considered "academia". These topics move definitions and concepts away from what is empirical, and towards "social construct" (arbitrary belief as a result of culture and environment). Students could easily just read books privately for these topics and save 50k. While these courses provide personal value to the people who study them (which I think is great), there is near zero remunerative value in the future for having done so. The students come out with degrees that have saddled them with debt, that do not provide them any skills for employment which could help them pay it off. So it's an interesting double-edged sword. When university is more expensive - only the brightest can afford to go because they will derive the most value from it. When it is cheaper, everybody goes and studies courses that won't provide them employment in future that will enable them to pay the debt off. I don't see any reason for a government to create incentives for less bright people to study subjects that will see them in debt for well over a decade, and no reason for the brightest students to be saddled with debt and have their potential restricted. And again, is the point of university not to aid employers in discerning between "high productivity" workers and "low productivity" workers? Getting a degree costs 3 years of your career (lost wages), and costs perhaps 100k - a very expensive way to tell employers that you have a competitive edge. If everybody is encouraged to go to university, this distinction becomes meaningless and employers can no longer work out who the best candidates for a job are. |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 12, 2016, 09:58:07 PM |
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These are awesome! Are we free to share these now? (I probably should have asked before I posted it on Twitter - lol)  Of course, lol and thanks! |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 12, 2016, 09:58:52 PM |
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Doing a great job DNotes - these will be handy for posting around.
Could I recommend putting Alan's picture beside his name and book title - rather than below it?
Thanks, sure, I'm going to create a couple more variations. Probably tomorrow. |
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Chase
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May 12, 2016, 11:37:30 PM |
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Target is advertising a job where bitcoin and blockchain understanding is a "desired trait". It won't be long before most jobs will require this knowledge and experience, but for the time being it is pretty cool to watch this unfold. Target Is Hiring an Expert Who Understands Bitcoinhttps://news.bitcoin.com/target-hiring-expert-understands-bitcoin/ |
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Dyna
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May 13, 2016, 02:17:59 AM |
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How Do You Go About Starting A Great Company?Ideally, your goal is to create the type of company that is almost impossible for your competitors to fully replicate. The thing is, though, that you cannot do that all by yourself. However, it all has to start with you, but at some point you will have to begin to rely on a team to help you achieve your vision. Ultimately, that team will end up being one of the most important factors in determining just how successful your new enterprise will be. While it is clearly important for any team to strive for the ultimate success of a business venture, there are far too many instances where even the best team fails to follow through on the company’s vision. Entrepreneurs routinely start out with great visions and expectations and then find that everything seems to unravel on them within just a few short years, if not earlier. The question is why? Why do even the most visionary entrepreneurs often find their best and brightest ideas failing to gain traction in the marketplace? In some unfortunate cases, successful and established companies took a sudden turn for the worst, and failed. Why do so many businesses fail so early? More importantly, what steps can you take now to ensure that you’re not just another one of those statistics? This book’s purpose is to answer that question and many more, while helping you develop a new way of approaching your own quest for business success. If there is one fact that is crystal clear, it is that your vision will be central to everything you do from this point forward. To succeed, you must start with a clear and coherent vision for your business, and you must be passionate about it. That vision, however, is not your mission. It is instead the ultimate goal that guides the strategic decision-making that you employ to reach your objectives. Do you have that vision yet? It’s fine if you don’t yet have that perfect clarity, as long as you know that you’re not fully there. Problems occur when people think that they have a vision, but later find out that they began without any real sense of the bigger picture. Too often, they discover much too late that what they had were short-term objectives and a sense of a mission, but no overriding vision to help them get to where they needed to be to achieve their ultimate goals. In other words, many entrepreneurs simply start out focusing on the wrong elements of the success equation, and then end up wondering why their plans fail. Start with your vision, and that will provide the destination that you are ultimately trying to reach. From there, you work on establishing initial objectives and goals that you want to achieve. Then you develop the winning strategies that can offer you the best opportunity to reach those goals. Subsequently, you learn to master the art of flawless execution of your winning strategies. Notice, if you will that none of the team members we mentioned earlier are even a consideration at this point in the process. There’s a good reason for that: you have to create the vision, mission, and short-term goals for your company before you even think about recruiting help. Those elements have to be firmly in your mind - or better yet, documented so that you have something to which you hold yourself accountable before you ever make that first critical hire. Only when you are done establishing your vision, mission, goals, and strategies can you actually begin to build a team. At that point, you have to find the type of competent people you believe to be most likely to buy into your business philosophy and mindset. You need people who are capable of being inspired by your exceptional leadership style and strategic vision, as that is the only way to ensure that they are in turn capable of helping you to create the type of business culture that your enterprise needs for success. That culture should motivate everyone in the company to consistently deliver their highest level of commitment and performance, and thereby contribute to the efforts to reach your business goals. Once you reach that point, you will have created a system that basically channels the mindset of its leader even when your attention is elsewhere. You will have designed a system for effectively cloning yourself. The key, though, is to ensure that the “you” that you’re cloning is the best “you” it can be! This book is designed to help you find that best part of you, so that you can begin to build a team with the type of unified vision and purpose needed to achieve true success. 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-alanFor more about the book including chapter summation visit:https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com/
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IMZ
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May 13, 2016, 03:14:38 AM |
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Safecex?
Not all campers happy, but signs of life. May be fully functional within days.
Mark
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Dyna
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May 13, 2016, 03:55:16 AM |
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Safecex?
Not all campers happy, but signs of life. May be fully functional within days.
Mark
Thanks for the update, Mark. |
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qiwoman2
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Oikos.cash | Decentralized Finance on Tron
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May 13, 2016, 06:12:41 AM |
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I know I haven't been on the DNOTES thread for a while now but I am going to try to actually buy the paperback copy, best way to advertise it is to buy and read ti myself and do a video campaign as well. Things have been pretty tough for myself and my family but am trying hard to snap out of it, got the ruddy flu at present lol but am always impressed with DNOTES. |
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batesresearch
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May 13, 2016, 07:35:13 AM |
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Amazing work, shared via Twitter and of course backed on Kickstarter Shame that the hardback only ships to the US!! So grabbed myself the ebook Your website https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com gives a good overview and I wish you the best success! |
Visit Satoshi's Place, a Bitcoin Hub based in Bury, Manchester, UK. Website: https://satoshisplace.co.ukGoals: Educate & Onboard users in to Bitcoin. Lightning network⚡️ |
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Dyna
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May 13, 2016, 12:37:07 PM |
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I know I haven't been on the DNOTES thread for a while now but I am going to try to actually buy the paperback copy, best way to advertise it is to buy and read ti myself and do a video campaign as well. Things have been pretty tough for myself and my family but am trying hard to snap out of it, got the ruddy flu at present lol but am always impressed with DNOTES. Good morning, qiwoman2. It is always good to see you. I have been working on the book for a while but have been devoting most of my time on the book the last eight months. I am glad that I did it and trust that it is the best accomplishment of my life. I often look at things from a different prospective. I believe that the more I can be of help to others, the further that I can reach out to the most people with a positive impact, the more valuable my efforts become. That is where I get my inspiration to keep going. We all will continue to have many good days but they always come with few a few challenging ones. We must always aim for the best that we can do and align ourselves with those who share that same mindset. I hope that there will be a lot more good days on your way. With DNotes and the book, we are now in the best position to be truly purpose driven to positively impact the long struggle of many, perhaps one at a time. Many may not understand what we are doing but if DNotes were to be truly useful to the masses worldwide one day, there must be a medium to reach out to them some how. Having built a trusted brand, the book is our best medium to reach out to millions with consistent, inspiring, and compelling messages. It is a book that not only inspires entrepreneurs and their employees but also anyone who believes that mutual respect, cooperation, and collaboration are what it takes to have many more good days than challenging ones. That is the hallmark of success and happiness. |
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Dyna
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May 13, 2016, 12:45:09 PM |
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Amazing work, shared via Twitter and of course backed on Kickstarter Shame that the hardback only ships to the US!! So grabbed myself the ebook Your website https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com gives a good overview and I wish you the best success! Thank you very much for your support and confidence in us, batesresearch. Perhaps one day, we will see each other at a conference so that you get a signed hardback copy. |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 13, 2016, 02:38:05 PM |
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Bitcoin Weekly Recap 5-13-2016MtGox Bitcoin Addresses Will Not Be Made Public BitBank Group Launches Funding Effort for Bitcoin Mining Facility Malaria-Focused Charity to Accept Donations in Bitcoin TechBureau Raises $6.2 Million in Series A Funding New Brave Browser Offers New Browsing Options… and Controversy http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-5-13-2016/
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DNotes (OP)
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May 13, 2016, 02:46:17 PM |
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I know I haven't been on the DNOTES thread for a while now but I am going to try to actually buy the paperback copy, best way to advertise it is to buy and read ti myself and do a video campaign as well. Things have been pretty tough for myself and my family but am trying hard to snap out of it, got the ruddy flu at present lol but am always impressed with DNOTES. Good morning, qiwoman2. It is always good to see you. I have been working on the book for a while but have been devoting most of my time on the book the last eight months. I am glad that I did it and trust that it is the best accomplishment of my life. I often look at things from a different prospective. I believe that the more I can be of help to others, the further that I can reach out to the most people with a positive impact, the more valuable my efforts become. That is where I get my inspiration to keep going. We all will continue to have many good days but they always come with few a few challenging ones. We must always aim for the best that we can do and align ourselves with those who share that same mindset. I hope that there will be a lot more good days on your way. With DNotes and the book, we are now in the best position to be truly purpose driven to positively impact the long struggle of many, perhaps one at a time. Many may not understand what we are doing but if DNotes were to be truly useful to the masses worldwide one day, there must be a medium to reach out to them some how. Having built a trusted brand, the book is our best medium to reach out to millions with consistent, inspiring, and compelling messages. It is a book that not only inspires entrepreneurs and their employees but also anyone who believes that mutual respect, cooperation, and collaboration are what it takes to have many more good days than challenging ones. That is the hallmark of success and happiness. Good to hear from you QiWoman! Hope you and your family get better soon and thank you for supporting the project. |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 13, 2016, 02:48:44 PM |
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Amazing work, shared via Twitter and of course backed on Kickstarter Shame that the hardback only ships to the US!! So grabbed myself the ebook Your website https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com gives a good overview and I wish you the best success! Thank you very much for your support and confidence in us, batesresearch. Perhaps one day, we will see each other at a conference so that you get a signed hardback copy. Thanks batesresearch! The support for our project is greatly appreciated and as always, keep us in the loop with your latest projects. |
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neleonele
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May 13, 2016, 09:40:53 PM |
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How Do You Go About Starting A Great Company?Ideally, your goal is to create the type of company that is almost impossible for your competitors to fully replicate. The thing is, though, that you cannot do that all by yourself. However, it all has to start with you, but at some point you will have to begin to rely on a team to help you achieve your vision. Ultimately, that team will end up being one of the most important factors in determining just how successful your new enterprise will be. While it is clearly important for any team to strive for the ultimate success of a business venture, there are far too many instances where even the best team fails to follow through on the company’s vision. Entrepreneurs routinely start out with great visions and expectations and then find that everything seems to unravel on them within just a few short years, if not earlier. The question is why? Why do even the most visionary entrepreneurs often find their best and brightest ideas failing to gain traction in the marketplace? In some unfortunate cases, successful and established companies took a sudden turn for the worst, and failed. Why do so many businesses fail so early? More importantly, what steps can you take now to ensure that you’re not just another one of those statistics? This book’s purpose is to answer that question and many more, while helping you develop a new way of approaching your own quest for business success. If there is one fact that is crystal clear, it is that your vision will be central to everything you do from this point forward. To succeed, you must start with a clear and coherent vision for your business, and you must be passionate about it. That vision, however, is not your mission. It is instead the ultimate goal that guides the strategic decision-making that you employ to reach your objectives. Do you have that vision yet? It’s fine if you don’t yet have that perfect clarity, as long as you know that you’re not fully there. Problems occur when people think that they have a vision, but later find out that they began without any real sense of the bigger picture. Too often, they discover much too late that what they had were short-term objectives and a sense of a mission, but no overriding vision to help them get to where they needed to be to achieve their ultimate goals. In other words, many entrepreneurs simply start out focusing on the wrong elements of the success equation, and then end up wondering why their plans fail. Start with your vision, and that will provide the destination that you are ultimately trying to reach. From there, you work on establishing initial objectives and goals that you want to achieve. Then you develop the winning strategies that can offer you the best opportunity to reach those goals. Subsequently, you learn to master the art of flawless execution of your winning strategies. Notice, if you will that none of the team members we mentioned earlier are even a consideration at this point in the process. There’s a good reason for that: you have to create the vision, mission, and short-term goals for your company before you even think about recruiting help. Those elements have to be firmly in your mind - or better yet, documented so that you have something to which you hold yourself accountable before you ever make that first critical hire. Only when you are done establishing your vision, mission, goals, and strategies can you actually begin to build a team. At that point, you have to find the type of competent people you believe to be most likely to buy into your business philosophy and mindset. You need people who are capable of being inspired by your exceptional leadership style and strategic vision, as that is the only way to ensure that they are in turn capable of helping you to create the type of business culture that your enterprise needs for success. That culture should motivate everyone in the company to consistently deliver their highest level of commitment and performance, and thereby contribute to the efforts to reach your business goals. Once you reach that point, you will have created a system that basically channels the mindset of its leader even when your attention is elsewhere. You will have designed a system for effectively cloning yourself. The key, though, is to ensure that the “you” that you’re cloning is the best “you” it can be! This book is designed to help you find that best part of you, so that you can begin to build a team with the type of unified vision and purpose needed to achieve true success. 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-alanFor more about the book including chapter summation visit:https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com/ All these years I am with Dnotes and this team,must say that I am proud to have Alan,Cindy,Joe like friends. At least what we all can do is to help kickstarter campaign succeed! Just do it. Best regards Nele |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 13, 2016, 11:07:27 PM |
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How Do You Go About Starting A Great Company?Ideally, your goal is to create the type of company that is almost impossible for your competitors to fully replicate. The thing is, though, that you cannot do that all by yourself. However, it all has to start with you, but at some point you will have to begin to rely on a team to help you achieve your vision. Ultimately, that team will end up being one of the most important factors in determining just how successful your new enterprise will be. While it is clearly important for any team to strive for the ultimate success of a business venture, there are far too many instances where even the best team fails to follow through on the company’s vision. Entrepreneurs routinely start out with great visions and expectations and then find that everything seems to unravel on them within just a few short years, if not earlier. The question is why? Why do even the most visionary entrepreneurs often find their best and brightest ideas failing to gain traction in the marketplace? In some unfortunate cases, successful and established companies took a sudden turn for the worst, and failed. Why do so many businesses fail so early? More importantly, what steps can you take now to ensure that you’re not just another one of those statistics? This book’s purpose is to answer that question and many more, while helping you develop a new way of approaching your own quest for business success. If there is one fact that is crystal clear, it is that your vision will be central to everything you do from this point forward. To succeed, you must start with a clear and coherent vision for your business, and you must be passionate about it. That vision, however, is not your mission. It is instead the ultimate goal that guides the strategic decision-making that you employ to reach your objectives. Do you have that vision yet? It’s fine if you don’t yet have that perfect clarity, as long as you know that you’re not fully there. Problems occur when people think that they have a vision, but later find out that they began without any real sense of the bigger picture. Too often, they discover much too late that what they had were short-term objectives and a sense of a mission, but no overriding vision to help them get to where they needed to be to achieve their ultimate goals. In other words, many entrepreneurs simply start out focusing on the wrong elements of the success equation, and then end up wondering why their plans fail. Start with your vision, and that will provide the destination that you are ultimately trying to reach. From there, you work on establishing initial objectives and goals that you want to achieve. Then you develop the winning strategies that can offer you the best opportunity to reach those goals. Subsequently, you learn to master the art of flawless execution of your winning strategies. Notice, if you will that none of the team members we mentioned earlier are even a consideration at this point in the process. There’s a good reason for that: you have to create the vision, mission, and short-term goals for your company before you even think about recruiting help. Those elements have to be firmly in your mind - or better yet, documented so that you have something to which you hold yourself accountable before you ever make that first critical hire. Only when you are done establishing your vision, mission, goals, and strategies can you actually begin to build a team. At that point, you have to find the type of competent people you believe to be most likely to buy into your business philosophy and mindset. You need people who are capable of being inspired by your exceptional leadership style and strategic vision, as that is the only way to ensure that they are in turn capable of helping you to create the type of business culture that your enterprise needs for success. That culture should motivate everyone in the company to consistently deliver their highest level of commitment and performance, and thereby contribute to the efforts to reach your business goals. Once you reach that point, you will have created a system that basically channels the mindset of its leader even when your attention is elsewhere. You will have designed a system for effectively cloning yourself. The key, though, is to ensure that the “you” that you’re cloning is the best “you” it can be! This book is designed to help you find that best part of you, so that you can begin to build a team with the type of unified vision and purpose needed to achieve true success. 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-alanFor more about the book including chapter summation visit:https://fourpillarsofbusinesssuccess.com/ All these years I am with Dnotes and this team,must say that I am proud to have Alan,Cindy,Joe like friends. At least what we all can do is to help kickstarter campaign succeed! Just do it. Best regards Nele Hi Nele, thank you for popping over and thank you for the kind words! Glad to see GMC holding well, you guys are doing a great job. |
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DNotes (OP)
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May 13, 2016, 11:08:38 PM |
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Aha, looks like they are starting to see the light. Bitcoin is not a good option for criminal activity, it may even be one of the worst options. |
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CryptoBroker79
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May 14, 2016, 01:39:57 AM |
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I finally found time to finish reading The Four Pillars of Business Success. This is one of the best books I've ever read, Alan and team you've really outdone yourselves. Something to be very proud of. Every new entrepreneur should read this book immediately, especially those in cryptocurrency, because a better part our industry is making textbook mistakes which Alan's advice could have helped them avoid. I have made many of those mistakes myself, but thankfully it's not too late to correct them. The Four Pillars of Business Success has shown me what it will take to be best in class! Alan has provided us with wisdom and knowledge that only 40 years of business experience could render. Buy this book right now if you have any intention of ever being best in class: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/124571891/the-four-pillars-of-business-success-book-by-alan |
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