At our weekly sales meeting yesterday we got some very interesting news. One of our sales people and his wife bougt Delice Bakery. Delice had been in the Old Market for what seemed like forever but recently closed. The bakery will open soon hopefully in midtown omaha. This is interesting for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that it is so motivating to have peole around you taking big risks. John Maxwell said that the person you become in five years is most influenced by the books you you read and the people you associate with. I have mentioned several times in this blog– be very carfull with the people you spend time with. Only have people around you that push you spiritually, professional and physically
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I am not sure what it is all going to mean, but it seems that everyone that I know that is in their late 20’s is either pregnant, wants to get pregnant or just had a baby. At some point there have got to be some huge economic bubble going on. Another interesting fact is that the income class as Millard west is the largest it has ever been as well as the incoming class as UNO is either the largest of one of its largest. Not sure what this all means but I am sure someone will tell us soon. In the mean time there are incredible opportunities for people that can take advantage of these trends. One of my favorite quotes is that their is no present or future just the past repeating itself over and over again.
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As some of you know I went to Norfolk Catholic which is a small prep school in my home town. I had a whopping 28 kids in my graduating class. One of the many things Norfolk Catholic is known for is its football dynasty. One of my few athletic claims to fame is being part of this dynasty. I joke with my friends I reached the pinnacle of my athletic career when I was in high school. I call myself a real world version of All Bundy from the TV show Married with Children. I often talk about what I learned while playing on a football power house. I have been thinking about this a lot lately because last night Norfolk Catholic beat Boys town in the Semi finals for Nebraska’s C-1 football playoffs. I am reminded of the pride that comes to be part of something that is known for excellence. Check out the Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Catholic_High_Schoolinfo on the school.
I was not only one of the state champion football team. I was also on the state champion one act team. Norfolk Catholic is known for producing top performers over a long period of time. I encourage everyone that reads this blog to strive for excellence in everything we do and build an incredible team around you. Do not associate with any one that does not want the best out of themselves. It’s difficult to describe the feeling of being on a team that is always winning. But once you become part of this, it has an amazing impact on your life. Both personal and professional
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Here is a link to Ernie Goss’ most recent post. It looks like when the govt raise the tax rate we become less likely work hard. The next few years are going to get interesting
Check the last line of his post out. I quess we know waht ernie will be doing next summer
http://economictrends.blogspot.com/2009/11/liberals-economic-war-on-productive.html
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A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new
Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
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I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.
If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.
The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit… a reputation, character.
The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
Competition is a sin.
I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living.
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I was reading a book by James Dobson recently and he said the following.
“The only way to keep yourself from borrowing to much money is to have needs and wants unfulfilled’
He went on to say that the reasons that people end up borrowing to much money is that try to fulfill every want that they have and this just gets them in more debt.
Put simply you cannot have everything you want in life.
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For the last week, I hear or read very little English. the business language in Mali is French, All. I am finally greeting people in French and starting to use short phrases in French. We did something really cool today. I taught today and my class was on how to use basic functions in Microsoft excel. Then this afternoon we went to the owner of a print shop and helped him work on his financial statements. Keep in mind he knew how to use excel but none of his functions (how is that possible). I taught him one of the most basic functions and he was like a kid in the candy store. I don’t remember the last time I saw someone that excited. He stood up and yelled Wa la. In one fast moment the light came on and excel made sense to him, we all get complacent in our business everyday. I encourage each one of you to go out and learn something new today.
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There are very few similarities between Mali and America.. The reason that I bring this up is that Jim Nichols one of my co instructors and a professor from Grace University brought up a starling difference. One of the biggest differences between Mali and Americans is that Americans live in isolation and Malians live in community. Think about it we in America live in our air conditioned houses all day, when we get off work we go home and stay in our homes. Our houses no longer have huge porches like they did in the past. Air conditioning In Mali is for the upper middle class and not very common for vast Malians. Keep in mind that the weather here is like Phoenix. When they watch a soccer game they watch it outside on TV and one of the missionaries here said that when the Mali national teams scores you can here other people cheering all over Bamako because everyone is watching TV outside. I am not sure what this all means, but I am sure the fact that Americans live in Isolation is possibly not good for our us. Malians are not the only ones that live in community; many other countries are this way. I think that it is better to live in community. You know that you are not the only one going through something. I meet and work for many investors. And I can tell you right now if you are experience some difficulty in your business, there are many others in the same situation. The problem is that since American live in Isolation we have no way to know this. Challenge of the day, stop living in isolation both personally and professionally
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Here are my predictions for 2010
1. Politics will matter to you (and me)
I do not care which side of the fence you are on. You will find that our elected officials with dictate what we do everyday. The health care thing alone is enough to scare the daylights out of me
2. Defaults on mortgage debt will bring about Credit Crunch that has never been seen before
We are now just seeing banks tighten down the lending standards for investment property. Basically if you do not have lots of reserves and a great track record with the kind of investment you are trying to refinance you will not get a loan. Expect to see LTV in the 60- 70% range and DCR in the 1.30 to 1.4 range. And another thing. Forget getting a loan unless you have a relationship with the bank. If you don’t play golf with him/her on a regular basis, you are not going to get a loan. See my previous post
3. Consumers will become incredibly educated about everything.
See the thrift paradox below. As part of this consumers will use the internet to study every decision they make
4. The Thrift Paradox will take hold
Americans used to be the sky is the limit. See Walmart and dollar general doing better. Heck even garage sales will become more popular I would expect luxury goods to be harder hit. Staying at the Marriott is out, camping and staying at super 8 is in.
5. People will begin to act their wage. If you make $15 an hour you will start living the lifestyle of someone making $15.
6. Banks appraisers and investors will come to a meeting of minds of what things are worth
7. Increased taxation will reduce the desire to spend and earn
Americans will be less and less likely to want to earn more. The capital gains tax is sure to go up. Meaning that it may be better to take the tax hit now vs. later. With the advent of Craig’s list there is little or no reason to by a new vehicle unless it is for work purposes.
8. People will move in together, with tough times you will see multiple generations of families living together. You already see this on the east coast you will see that more in Omaha. People will pile into apartments and houses to make ends meet
9. High inflation will occur or at least there will be mounting pressure on inflation
This is a hard prediction because there is so many things that the fed will and can do to control inflation. But it will be nearly impossible to stop inflation if consumers are the ones driving it.
10. House prices will fall considerably. I am going to start short of saying that will bottom out. But there price curve will start to flatten. See #1, the government will do a lot to keep the prices of homes up
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