Violence is the darkest side of humanity, which, of course, is nothing new. But what is new, relatively speaking, is that the United States is now steeped in violence. It’s true that we aren’t into car bombings and beheadings, but we do love our daily fix of blood. You need only turn on the news, […]
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As religious fanaticism continues to pester civilized people, one wonders how civilization has managed to advance as far as it has. One would have thought that by this time religious fanaticism and intolerance would have become passé. Religion aside, it would seem that the least everyone could agree on is a single, self-evident point: that […]
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Like most people over sixty, I have a love-hate relationship with computers. I guess I’m lucky to have been able to jump on the caboose of the computer train just in the nick of time, back in 1982. By just in the nick of time, I mean that I was still young enough to become […]
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The “experts” seem to be in agreement on the cancer risk associated with eating farmed salmon. If you eat a thousand pounds of farmed salmon a week, you have a slightly higher risk of contracting cancer than a person who eats only salmon “caught in the wild.” I love salmon, but the word cancer always […]
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When I entered the Internet marketing world back in 2001, I decided to use Bank of America for our credit-card processing, figuring it was a safe bet to go with the biggest player in the field. Result? There is no way to describe what Bank of America put us through. I wasn’t that involved in […]
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When asked what he believed to be the greatest discovery of the 20th century, Albert Einstein is said to have answered, “Compound interest.” And wealthy people — you know, the ones who clip debt-instrument coupons as a pastime — would undoubtedly agree with him. Compound interest, however, can accrue on things other than money. […]
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Perception is a topic that has always fascinated me. When a person is revered, the reverence quickly disappears if something happens that changes the public’s perception of that individual. If, for example, the person on the receiving end of the adulation is exposed as a fraud or falls into disgrace, admiration soon turns to contempt. […]
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Billionaire J. Paul Getty was once asked to write a magazine article about how he became so rich, to which he responded, “Some people find oil. Others don’t.” Talk about playing into the hands of randomness advocates. I acknowledge that there’s a lot of luck involved in the way life turns out. But luck isn’t […]
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As I watch the daily news, I am constantly reminded that an oversized ego can be the biggest obstacle to long-term success. Of course, everyone has an ego, so it’s pointless to delude yourself into believing that you’re an exception. It’s far better to acknowledge the existence of your ego and work on trying to […]
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I often use the phrase “the crux of the issue,” and when I do I’m referring to the point or points upon which success or failure rests. It’s important to resist the temptation to get sidetracked by peripheral issues that cannot yield a payoff no matter what their outcome. For example, I believe that the […]
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