Tired

I have just started Ultimate Bootcamp, and I am tired. I was reading two other blog posts today that talked about tired in a slightly different light and I think they are both relevant and pretty illustrative of where we are headed as a country and a culture.

The first, by Seth Godin, who I read at least three times a week. He is a straight shooter the way our politicians dream they could be. He calls it like it is and most of the time has some really interesting insight about how you can make your business better. Today, his post was titled, "Is Effort a Myth?" He talked about how people tend to cling to being lucky and just talented and claim that's the reason they haven't gotten ahead. He challenges that theory by suggesting that it's up to each of us to do something new everyday in order to learn and grow, actually put some effort in. We can't do that if we are tired.

In another blog that I follow: Dave Taylor from the Business Blog at Intuitive writes about sloppy PR pitches. He wrote about one from Bloomingdales and another from Disney most recently. PR gets a bad wrap because I know some really great PR people out there that develop relationships with journalists and clients and are able to clearly communicate stories that are relevant. They don't blast pitch every journalist in New England when only one of those journalists cares about the story. They search and search for that one person and read what they have been writing and make sure that the journalist knows about their story. They pitch it to the one most relevant person. It's not a job for the weak or tired.

Basically, the way I see it, it's coming down to work. I feel like our country was super excited about the computer because it allowed them to do things so much faster. Then came Email, the Internet, Web Conferencing, iPhones, etc. Now it's easy, but it requires more work. We have to be more diligent. We have to find what we love and do it well and completely and that's the only way we will make it. As the politicians said in the debate tonight, our country is full of smart inventive people, now we need to actually work at it. It's no longer about luck but about hard work. A little Protestant Ethic that hopefully will remind us it's not about being at the right place at the right time, but about making your own right place and right time with hard work, there is no place for tired here.

A logical response to all that is the " crazy state of the economy"

Uncle Tom is a huge Dave Ramsey fan. And after reading his book I am a fan as well, I don't know why I didn't look for Dave's perspective earlier, but Uncle Tom came through again! Here is a link to what Dave thinks we should do, and below you will find the text from his assessment!

The Common Sense Fix

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country,
but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three stepCommon Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE
a. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance.
Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.
b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:
1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.
2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.
c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET
a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.
b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX
a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock
market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.
b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down.

This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.