Archive for September, 2008

A Big, Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke before the United States Congress on “Urgent National Needs.”

Most of what America’s president’s have said have long been forgotten. There is a single sentence in this speech, however, that has been remembered for decades.

The reason it has been remembered is because it was a BHAG for the nation. It had been nearly two decades (December 1941, when the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into WWII) since the country had been challenged and focused on a single goal.

It would be another twenty years before an American president, Ronald Reagan, created and communicated a BHAG (”To Win the Cold War”) that got people focused on something they could understand.

A BHAG was coined in Jim Collin’s best selling book Good to Great. It stands for Big, Hairy Audacious Goal.

Here is a portion of Kennedy’s speech:

Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take.

Since early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President, who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong and where we are not, where we may succeed and where we may not.

Now it is time to take longer strides–time for a great new American enterprise–time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.

Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead-time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own.

For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last. We take an additional risk by making it in full view of the world, but as shown by the feat of astronaut (Alan) Shepard, this very risk enhances our stature when we are successful. But this is not merely a race.

Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

I therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goals:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.

No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight.

But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively; it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Secondly, an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million dollars already available, will accelerate development of the Rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of some day providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself.

Third, an additional 50 million dollars will make the most of our present leadership, by accelerating the use of space satellites for world-wide communications.

Fourth, an additional 75 million dollars–of which 53 million dollars is for the Weather Bureau–will help give us at the earliest possible time a satellite system for world-wide weather observation.

Let it be clear–and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make–let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs: 531 million dollars in fiscal ‘62–an estimated seven to nine billion dollars additional over the next five years. If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all.

Now this is a choice which this country must make, and I am confident that under the leadership of the Space Committees of the Congress, and the Appropriating Committees, that you will consider the matter carefully.

It is a most important decision that we make as a nation. But all of you have lived through the last four years and have seen the significance of space and the adventures in space, and no one can predict with certainty what the ultimate meaning will be of mastery of space.

I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.

This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, materiel and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organization and discipline which have not always characterized our research and development efforts. It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful interagency rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel.

New objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They could in fact, aggravate them further–unless every scientist, every engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor, and civil servant gives his personal pledge that this nation will move forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting adventure of space.

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J&M Entertainment

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

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El dia de su boda es sin duda uno de los dias mas importantes de su vida.

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Conservatorships and Substituted Judgments | Guardianships

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

A conservatorship is a probate court proceeding for a living person who does not have the capacity to manage his or her own affairs. There are two types of conservators. One is a conservator of the estate, who handles financial matters for the conservatee. The other is a conservator of the person, who makes decisions for the conservatee in personal matters, such as medical care, choice of residence and with whom they may associate.

If you want to avoid a conservatorship for yourself
as you get older, and want to save your family
the expense of establishing a conservatorship,
please go to our Estate Planning page
to learn about setting up a living trust.

If you are interested in establishing a conservatorship for a family member who may no longer be able to manage his or her own affairs

Mortensen Law
Tax, Trust & Estate Attorneys, P.C.
24300 Town Center Drive Suite 390
Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 799-8035
(661) 799-8838 fax

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Improve Business Cash Flow

Monday, September 29th, 2008

For many people working in a business, days are filled with activity. At the end of each day, however, it might be difficult to remember what, if anything was actually achieved.

Sure, papers have been pushed around the desk, phone calls made, emails sent and meetings attended. Those are activities, not necessarily accomplishments.

A research study conducted in 1995, prior to the explosion of email and instant messaging suggested that interruptions happened about four times each working hour. Interruptions could be in the form of a telephone call, someone dropping by, or a meeting in a neutral work area such as a break room or hallway. The average duration of an interruption at that time was 2 minutes 11 seconds. Approximately 10 minutes in every hour was being spent dealing with the interruption.

This 1995 study also stated that in just over 55% of the cases the person interrupted returned to their original activity; the rest did not. When they did not return to their original activity it was discovered that the person had most likely been interrupted yet again (!), were working on the previous interruption or had moved to another task.

A 2006 study suggested that office workers in the US get interrupted on the job as often as 11 times an hour with a typical manager being interrupted six times an hour. (Read that sentence again and let it sink in).

A second study conducted during this same time period found the average cubicle worker was interrupted more than 70 times a day. A third study found office distractions take up 2.1 hours of the average day (28 percent of work hours) with each employee taking an average of five minutes to recover from each interruption to return to their original task.

The difference between theses studies shows that workplace interruptions are on the rise and show no signs of slowing down. Is it any wonder that things are not getting done?

What can be done to reduce interruptions and increase productivity? How can people in business people stay on track? And, what does this have to do with improving cash flow?

First, focus on the mission statement. If your business doesn’t have a mission it is time to create one. If a mission statement exists, it is the responsibility and obligation of those leading to publicize it to all internal clients.

The rational is that people need to know what to focus on, as a company, as a department, as individuals. If this guidance and direction is missing, people will not be focused on what the organization wants them to be doing. Make sure that the mission is clear and concise.

Having a mission statement means that people will get focused. Focus means efficiency, productivity, less talking and fooling around and more work getting done.

By the way, mission statements should be developed for each individual, each department, each division and the organization as a whole. These mission statements should all be in alignment with one another.

If you are reading this and don’t know how to get started on a mission statement, either for yourself, your department or your company, and order her book The Path. The book has a formula for developing a mission statement that is easy to use and very effective.

Second, make sure that every employee has enough to do. While work is a friendly environment and some socializing is to be expected, some people don’t have enough to do or they procrastinate getting their work done.

The easiest way for anyone in a supervisory position to deal with this is to have a “Daily Goal” meeting at the start of the work day with every employee present. At this meeting each employee can state what they accomplished the day before and what their goals are for that day.

Holding people accountable can be a very quick way to improve cash flow because once management is focused on results and not activity, things start happening.

This allows the supervisor to gauge who is working on meaningful tasks, who is not and whether workloads need to be adjusted. Plus, everyone feels better when they know what’s going on.

However, the supervisor cannot make the assumption that everyone is going to do what they say and follow through. It becomes the job of the supervisor, regardless of their title or level, to monitor what their subordinates are doing and take corrective action accordingly.

This is a key point. The manager should not be doing anything but managing the people that work for him or her. Let’s put the math to it, shall we?

If there is a manager making $80,000 with 10 people reporting to him, and those subordinates have a combined payroll (with taxes, benefits, overhead and profit of $1,000,000) doesn’t it make sense that the manager should try to improve the productivity of those people by ten percent ($100,000) instead of working his butt of and trying to improve his own productivity by that same ten percent ($8,000)?

Too many supervisors get caught up doing their own technical work. What they are being paid to do is achieve results through the people that report to them. If a person is not capable or willing to do this, they should not be in a supervisory position.

Third, remove the reasons for the interruptions. Consider where people are located; are they near the people they are working with; is there a distance or barrier that encourages interruptions to happen? Do people have the tools and resources to get the job done with interrupting others? Why not?

Fourth, put a pencil to the cost of interruptions. Total the organization’s payroll, payroll taxes, benefits, overhead and profit and then multiply that amount by the percentage of interruptions, and distractions that all the employees undergo on a daily basis. As an example, if the payroll, taxes, benefits, overhead and profit of a company is $4 million, and the lost efficiency percentage is 15%, the organization is losing $600,000 a year in lost productivity.

Taking just five minutes to calculate the number should be enough incentive to take positive action to reduce the distractions. Business Sales Information

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Writing Jobs Advantages III

Friday, September 26th, 2008

E-books

E-books are not here to replace print books. They’re here to provide an alternative resource for distribution. However, as opposed to print books, e-books are short, contain lots of web links and usually provide answers to a customer’s immediate needs. They can be downloaded off the Internet in seconds, and you can profit from a single e-book long after you’ve written it. Don’t get fooled though– writing e-books takes just as much time and dedication as writing print ones. It’s only the mode of delivery that’s different.

E-zines

Online newsletters, or e-zines as they are frequently called, are becoming the rage of the publishing industry. Many of these e-zines are paying markets and run regular features and columns. Many of them have associated website,s too. While the pay in this market is less, you’ll be writing shorter articles in much less time.

Newspapers

Generally, when we think of newspapers, we think news. But newspapers hold a lot more information than that. With regular columns, reviews and updates, latest findings, and point-of-view articles, newspapers are the writer’s best bet. And if you’ve gained entry into one section of the newspaper, the other sections of writing open up to you automatically. Though slow on the income, getting published in your local daily is still a major ego-booster!

Newsletters

There are many households and small companies that publish newsletters. And all the more are springing up each day. These newsletters are a great way to break into freelancing and gather clips. Their requirements are not as tough to meet as those of magazines and most editors are quite quick in their response times. To add to that, some newsletters also pay quite well, sometimes almost as much as small magazines.

Ghostwriting

If it’s the fame you’re after, you won’t get it here. But you can earn a decent amount of money ghostwriting memoirs, books or even articles for people who don’t want to or can’t write themselves. Ghostwriters are quite in demand today with more and more people trying to preserve their family history by getting memoirs or biographies written. However, apart from the money, there’s nothing else. You don’t get the credit, the fame or sometimes, even the byline.

The prospects for people who write for a job today are immense provided you’re ready to experiment in different areas. The Internet has made it easier than ever to find writing assignments not only in your own country, but around the world. A simple e-mail is all it takes to apply for a job and send in the assignment.

It’s easy for a freelance writer to get stuck doing the same old thing over and over. It’s not only fun, but sometimes necessary to introduce a little spice into your writing routine. If you’ve been writing articles all your life, try doing some greeting card writing instead. If the money is slow, and you could really use some extra money, apply for a resume writer job. If the book manuscripts are lying unsold, try selling short stories for a change. Aluminum Castings

With a little variation now and then, you’ll not only find your income shooting up, but also your inspiration. So next time you find yourself waiting for word on that manuscript, send out a few short pieces instead. It’ll definitely be worth the effort.

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