Clifford Taylor Fleischbein has been in full-time self-employment since 1975 earning revenue as a entrepreneur consultant, with the most recent passage of twenty years generating income from On-demand services for Information technology consulting, Database Management, Marketing, Change Management, and Customer relationship management job projects.
Silent Circle and Geeksphone have partnered to combine best-of-breed hardware with all the skills and experience necessary to offer BLACKPHONE, the world’s first smartphone which prioritizes the user’s privacy and control.
Blackphone is a fully encrypted smartphone that aims to foil snooping governments, industry rivals and hackers.
Blackphone is also an attractive device which can fit into your pocket with easy, while still being an impression to your friends and colleagues.
Blackphone to be available in February 2014
Blackphone devices are to be made available in February 2014 through the secure communications firm Silent Circle as well as the Spanish-based manufacturer Geeksphone, in response to all the concern over the recent revelation about the great US surveillance of data and telephony.
According to Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke, his company has been working on the Blackphone concept even before the 2013 revelations about the wide-ranging US National Security Agency programs were leaked by Edward Snowden.
“We did this because there was a problem that was not being solved: secure communications,” Janke told AFP in an interview in the Silent Circle offices overlooking the Potomac River just outside Washington.
Silent Circle was formed in 2011 and by 2013 they had developed and launched apps with other services that allow existing smartphone and PC users to send encrypted messages and videos.
The Blackphone is an outgrowth from the previous security effort, says Janke, who is a retired Navy SEAL who co-founded Silent Circle along with several ex-SEALs and Silicon Valley cryptographic experts.
With Blackphone… “We offer completely encrypted, peer-to-peer communications. We have encrypted video, encrypted text and secure VoIP (Voice-over-Internet-Protocol) calls,” Janke said.
The founders include Phil Zimmermann, who created the widely used PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) standard, and former Apple cryptographic expert Jon Callas.
Last year, Silent Circle halted its encrypted email service to avoid becoming a target after the US government subpoenaed the records of a similar service called Lavabit.
“We destroyed all that data,” said Janke, while adding that the company never faced a subpoena.
Silent Circle customers include major global corporations, human rights activists and even the Tibetan government in exile.
Because of its work, he said, “almost all of the major smartphone manufacturers came to us” to collaborate on a more secure smartphone.
Janke said Silent Circle chose to form a joint venture for Blackphone with the small Spanish company which recently began making smartphones using the Firefox operating system.
Silent Circle developed a modified or “forked” version of Android called PrivatOS for the Blackphone, which is set to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 24.
Blackphone.. ‘It’s sexy, it’s thin’
The company declined to release detailed specifications or pricing ahead of the unveiling, but Janke said Blackphone will be sold around the world at prices lower than the iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S4. According to Janke, the new Blackphone is to be comparable in terms of performance to those flagship devices. Blackphone is designed as a user-friendly phone that could be carried by executives, government officials, activists or ordinary people.
“It’s sexy, it’s thin, it’s sleek, but it also solves a problem,” Janke said.
“You can still go to Google and browse the web, but Google doesn’t know who you are. It’s a high-end smartphone. The user doesn’t have to know how to use or how to spell encryption.”
As an added assurance to customers, the Blackphone venture is incorporated in Switzerland with a Swiss data center and has “minimal data retention.”
“All we have is the user name you give us and a 10-digit phone number,” he said.
Even if the company faced a court order in Switzerland, it could only hand over the user name. Authorities seeking more information would need to subpoena a separate payment processing firm “and try to match that to our users,” Janke said.
Janke said there is interest in the device worldwide, and that Blackphone has “verbal pre-orders” from four international telecom carriers and 30 enterprise customers.
Interest in Blackphone, Janke said, suggests “several million” will be sold within 12 months, and some 10 million total over the coming four years.
He did not disclose where the Blackphone would be made, but said there would be “neutral” partners making components and a tightly controlled assembly process to ensure no backdoors are inserted.
Janke said the US State Department wanted to buy some of the phones and distribute them to human rights groups but that the company refused, out of concern that the Blackphone would be associated with the US government.
“We decided to distribute this ourselves,” he said.
Customers worldwide are interested “because it’s not just the NSA — there are 72 countries that have some NSA-like capabilities and they’re all spying on us and on each other. If you’re living in Kenya or Germany or Argentina, you have the same threats.”
Even though some reports suggest the NSA has found ways to intercept encrypted communications, Janke said his systems will be effective.
“We know that encryption works,” he said, adding that “brute force” attacks to break encryption are rare because they are time-consuming, and that spy agencies generally use other means like inserting viruses in emails or hardware that can intercept messages.
Because of this, Janke is careful not to promise too much. He said Blackphone is not a “hardened” device like some designed for military use.
“There is no such thing as a completely secure phone,” he said. “Nothing is going to protect you from your own behavior. But out of the box, this phone does a lot of things to protect your privacy.”
I remember the critics picking on these guys, calling them ‘wimps’. Being, as they were, surrounded by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Janis, and the like, and with much more numbing power from these, people thought they should be more of a hard drum and base band. They were minstrels, they lilted, it’s very light by comparison. I’m really glad they did it just like this. To me, this is the sound of the late sixties’ consciousness when I was in High School.
Side A
1. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes 00:00
2. Marrakesh Express 07:25
3. Guinnevere 10:05
4. You don´t have to cry 14:46
5. Pre-road downs 17:31
Side B
1. Wooden ships 20:33
2. Lady of the island 26:02
3. Helplessly hoping 28:42
4. Long time gone 31:24
5. 49 bye-byes 35:41
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà vu (1970)
Déjà vu is the second album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their first in the quartet configuration of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. It was released in March of 1970 by Atlantic Records. It topped the pop album chart for one week and generated three Top 40 singles: “Teach Your Children,” “Our House,” and “Woodstock.”
Side one :
1. Carry On – 0:00
2. Teach Your Children – 4:27
3. Almost Cut My Hair – 7:26
4. Helpless – 11:57
5. Woodstock – 15:41
Side two :
1. Déjà vu – 19:36
2. Our House – 23:50
3. 4 + 20 – 26:51
4. Country Girl – 29:02
a) Whiskey Boot Hill
b) Down, Down, Down
c) “Country Girl” (I Think You’re Pretty)
5. Everybody I Love You – 34:16
Grand Funk Railroad performing “Inside Looking Out” live from 1969.
This clip was shot at “The Show” WITF-TV in Hershey, Pa. November 1969. Mark & Don were 20 & Mel 18 years old. This clip is timeless. I’ve had hundreds of personal messages from people of 4 generations worldwide that are in awe of this powerful performance. (Folks from 11 to 83 years of age.)
I’ve been told it’s early “METAL”, to the original “GRUNGE”, to the real begining of “PUNK”, to the first “GARAGE BAND”, to pure “TRIBAL ROCK”, to “INDUSTIAL STRENGTH ROCK.” One thing’s for sure, it is powerful, passionate, singular, & unique. Mark, Don, & Mel changed music forever with 10 minute Power Songs like this one. This is the ULTIMATE POWER TRIO. Grand Funk Railroad was truly a “Performance Vehicle”. What you heard on the albums could be duplicated 100% on their live performances. Many would say it’s impossible for a 3 piece band to do this live. See the impossible. Once you start watching it, it’s hard not to finish it. This is the most popular GFRxR video on the Web. Click on the link below & sign the online petition to induct Mark Farner & GFRxR into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame now!http://www.petitiononline.com/GFRMDM/…
Here is the FULL first album by Grand Funk Railroad:
Side one :
1. Got Got This Thing on the Move – 0:00
2. Please Don’t Worry – 4:38
3. High Falootin’ Woman – 8:59
4. Mr. Limousine Driver – 12:00
5. In Need – 16:27
Side two :
1. Winter and My Soul – 24:20
2. Paranoid – 30:59
3. Inside Looking Out – 38:49
Grand Funk is Grand Funk Railroad’s second studio album, and was released in December 1969 by Capitol Records. It was produced by Terry Knight and engineered by Ken Hamann. This release (aka “The Red Album”) was certified by RIAA with a gold record award, the first for the group. It includes a cover of The Animals’ “Inside Looking Out” which is still a cornerstone of the band’s live concerts today. Other key tracks include: “Got This Thing On The Move”, “In Need”, and “Paranoid”. The inside spread photograph of the trio, for the original album release, was used for the now infamous, $100,000, block-long and several stories high, New York City’s Times Square billboard ad for the album Closer To Home (1970). The producers sought to achieve a concentration on Mark Farner’s guitar, in response to the imbalance the band achieved in On Time with the prominence of Mel Schacher’s bass. This led to the unofficial name of “The Red Album”, as the guitar track, red in the studio, was turned up. This was reflected on the red cover art.
Im sitting here lonely like a broken man.
I serve my time doin the best I can.
Walls and bars they surround me.
But, I dont want no sympathy.
No baby, no baby,
All I need is some tender lovin.
To keep me sane in this burning oven.
And, when my time is up, youll be my reefer.
Life gets worse on gods green earth.
Be my reefer, got to keep smokin that thing.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I said now baby … baby …, let me smoke it … smoke it …
Makes me feel good … feel good, yes, I feel good … ahhhhh …
Yes, I feel alright … feel alright …, yes, I feel alright … feel alright …
Yes, I feel alright … ahhhhh …
Ohhhhh …
Ice cold water is runnin through my veins.
They try and drag me back to work again.
Pain and blisters on my mind and hands.
I work all day making up NICKEL (burlap) bags.
The oats theyre feeding me are driving me wild.
I feel unhappy like a new born child.
Now, when my time is up, you wait and see.
These walls and bars wont keep that stuff from me.
No, no, baby,
Wont keep that stuff from me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I need you right now mama.
I need you right now baby.
Right by my side, honey.
All night long.
Make me feel alright …
Yes, all …, yes, all …, yes, all … alright.
You better come on up and get down with me.
Ill make you feel real good, just you wait and see.
Make me feel alright …, yes, I feel alright …
Yes, all …, yes, all …, yes, alright.
This album came out while I was still a sophomore at El Dorado High School. I remember that winter, sitting in a neighbor’s warm home listening to it for the first time, while my buddy finished getting ready to walk with me in the snow going to High School.
The Beatles – Red Album Full 1962 – 1966 2 CDS + Bonus track
The Beatles, with their 60’s rock music, compelled me to take up guitar playing.
The Beatles – 1962-1966, known as the Red Album (Red Album) is a compilation of songs from the British rock group The Beatles from 1962 to 1966
Side A
1. 00:00 Love Me Do
2. 02:25 Please Please Me
3. 04:28 From Me To You
4. 06:24 She Loves You
5. 08:48 I Want To Hold Your Hand
6. 11:17 All My Loving
7. 13:26 Can’t Buy Me Love
Side B
1. 15:45 A Hard Day’s Night
2. 18:21 And I Love Her
3. 20:53 Eight Days A Week
4. 23:38 I Feel Fine
5. 26:02 Ticket To Ride
6. 29:12 Yesterday
Side C
1. 31:27 Help!
2. 33:50 You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
3. 36:02 We Can Work It Out
4. 38:20 Day Tripper
5. 41:13 Drive My Car
6. 43:45 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Side D
1. 45:56 Nowhere Man
2. 48:43 Michelle
3. 51:26 In My Life
4. 53:56 Girl
5. 56:29 Paperback Writer
6. 58:49 Eleanor Rigby
7. 01:00:57 Yellow Submarine
Morrison Hotel (sometimes referred to as Hard Rock Café from the title of the first side of the LP, whose second side is titledMorrison Hotel) is The Doors‘ fifth album. It was released in 1970. After their experimental work The Soft Parade was not as well-received as anticipated, the group went back to basics and back to their roots. On this album, there is a slight steer toward blues, which would be fully explored by the band on their next album, L.A. Woman. The strategy worked; even though no major hit singles were drawn from the album, Morrison Hotel reestablished The Doors as favorites of the critics, peaking at #4 on the US album chart, and when they followed with L.A. Woman the next year, they were rewarded with two more US Top 20 hits. The album also became the band’s highest charting studio album in the UK, where it peaked at #12.
Additional musicians include John Sebastian (credited as “G. Puglese,” for contractual reasons)[1] on harmonica and Lonnie Mack on bass and guitar.
The cover photo was taken at the actual Morrison Hotel located at 1246 South Hope Street in Los Angeles. The band asked the owners if they could photograph the hotel and they declined, so the band went inside when nobody was looking and took the photograph.[1]The rear cover features a photograph of the Hard Rock Café on 300 East 5th Street, Los Angeles.[2] The founders of the later and otherwise unrelated Hard Rock Cafe chain used the name, having seen it on the Doors’ album. The original cafe is no longer open for business.
My memory goes back to a time, where I Dream of Jeannie an American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries.
And, in the “real” world we discover some good although not classical belly dancing. However, as seen below, one can find a beautiful woman in superb physical condition with great abdominal muscles, and who is also extremely flexible with a superb sense of balance.
SONIA ~ The Mother of All Belly Dance’s
Sonia has earned a reputation as a highly sought after dancer in the Denver area and beyond. She is regularly hired as a performer for popular venues that feature belly dancing. Sonia offers a very professional experience from her costuming, to musicality, attitude, knowledge of the dance, and of course everything in between.(Beats Antique – EGYPTIC)
Santana plays Black Magic Woman dubbed over a video of Alla Kushnir (Liela) as she dances a beautiful and mesmerizing belly dance. The video was filmed in 2006 at the City festival in Nikolaev, Ukraine where she was named Miss Belly Dance of Europe 2008, winner of Ukranian Belly Dance Championship 2007 and 2008 and runner up in a few others.
“Black Magic Woman” is a song written by Peter Green that first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1968, subsequently appearing on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose (US) and The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK). It became a classic hit by Santana and sung by Gregg Rolie in 1970, reaching #4 in the U.S. and Canadian charts, after appearing on their Abraxas album. The song became more closely associated with Santana than Fleetwood Mac.
VIDEO CONVERTED IN 3D (Red & Blue – 480P) The video track was recorded on May 27,1968, at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. CD SOUND – BEST VIDEO AND SOUND BY IRON BUTTERFLY ON YOUTUBE – 17:02 Minutes
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey,
don’t you know that I love you?
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby,
don’t you know that I’ll always be true?
Like the Black Eyed Peas…
Choose to make it a GREAT Day 😉
The Black Eyed Peas is an American hip hop group. The Black Eyed Peas consists of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, and singer Fergie. Originally the band was an alternative hip hop group, but the Black Eyed Peas have subsequently added music from R&B, pop, and EDM/dance influences. While the Black Eyed Peas was founded in Los Angeles in 1995, the band was not formally recognized until the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003 that they found widespread acclaim and achieved high record sales. Since that time, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide.[2] Based on the ratings of the Nielsen SoundScan, the Black Eyed Peas were the second-best-selling artist/group of all time for downloaded tracks, with over 42 million sales as of the end of 2011.[3]
The Black Eyed Peas first major hit was made with the 2003 single “Where Is the Love?” from their album Elephunk, which also went over the top charts in 13 countries like the United Kingdom. The Black eyed Peas also spent seven (7) weeks as the number one band and continued to become Great Britain’s largest selling music single of 2003. Another single music hit in Europe came from the Elephunk album was “Shut Up“. Their fourth album, Monkey Business, was an even bigger worldwide success, certified 4× Platinum in the U.S., and spawning four singles, “Don’t Phunk with My Heart“, “Don’t Lie“, “My Humps” and “Pump It“. In 2009, the group became one of only 11 artists to have simultaneously held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, with their singles “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling“, which topped the chart for an unprecedented 26 consecutive weeks. This album The E.N.D. later produced a third Hot 100 number-one placement with “Imma Be“, making the group one of few to ever place three number one singles on the chart from the same album, before being followed with “Rock That Body” and “Meet Me Halfway“, which peaked in the Top 10 of the Hot 100. “I Gotta Feeling” became the first single to sell more than one million downloads in the United Kingdom.[4]
The Black Eyed Peas were ranked 12th on Billboard‘s Decade-End Chart Artist of the Decade, and 7th in the Hot 100 Artists of the Decade. At the 52nd Grammy Awards ceremony, held in January 2010, they won three awards out of six nominations. In November 2010, they released the album The Beginning. In February 2011, the group performed at theSuper Bowl XLVhalftime show. The album’s first two singles, “The Time (Dirty Bit)” and “Just Can’t Get Enough“, became international hits and topped the charts in many countries. The single Don’t Stop The Party became an international hit too.
Goodbye 2013, and Hello and Welcome, 2014! It’s New Year’s week, and the energy is VERY supportive of manifesting for your career. The week starts off on a high note with some unexpected good news regarding your career . . . which is a result of all the good work you have been doing. Watch your thoughts mid-week, though, because you could slip into fear and pessimism about your progress. Remember that the ego is afraid of the light, and may try to drag you back into dark thoughts. Keep your sight on the Light! By the weekend, you’ve recovered from the Stickin’ Thinkin’ roller coaster. You gain valuable life lessons by observing yourself objectively. You decide that you don’t want to bring those pessimistic thoughts into 2014, so you leave them behind in 2013.
“Grounded” is an independent feature film about what many authorities consider “The Greatest Health RE-discovery of all Time”. The concept was tested on the people of Haines, Alaska, population 1,700. The movie makes its premiere to mainstream audiences theatrically in January 2014. The full film CAN be viewed NOW, as a pay per view at the Intuition Physician or Kroschel Films website.
ATTRACTION is a Hungarian shadow dance theater troupe. They do an excellent job of producing a unique dance presentation by creating story pictures by using their bodies in the creation of shadow art. In this presentation to Britian’s Got Talent, you will observe the ATTRACTION dance team performing to ever popular song “Read All About It” by Emeli Sande. You will be inspired and moved by this first week of auditions for Britain’s Got Talent.
ATTRACTION presentation earns four (4) yeses:
In 2004, Zoltan Szűcs founded his dance team called ATTRACTION Black Light Theatre in Hungary. To date, it is the beginning and only Hungarian “Black Theatre” type of dance production in this country. The ATTRACTION dance team only has twelve (12) members covering an assortment of performer styles including contemporary dance artists, modern folk dancers, ballet dancers, hip hop, electric boogie, break dancers and jugglers.
The director and driving force leading this the team is choreographer Zoltan Szűcs. The ATTRACTION dance team perform with remarkable and incredible accuracy. Like most audiences, you will be inspired and dazzled by their complete concentration as well as the unique visual images that synchronize so beautifully with special music.
If I Were The Devil as prophesied in 2 Timothy 3:1-5
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.
If I Were The Devil gets remixed in contemporary terms
And here is a contemporary remix of Paul Harvey’s original. If you have listened to the above “If I Were The Devil” then you’re now part of the more than 3,000,000 people who have heard Paul Harvey’s prophetic manifestation of the devil’s activity originally recorded in 1964. Now, you may very well like the following new remix by TJ Burdick made in November 2012. TJ’s text follows below the video:
If I were the devil, if I was lackluster Lucifer I’d quickly get to work on the natural structure of society: the family.
I’d make it so Mother and Father (if he’s around) are forced to, or obsessed with work. Instead of spending time with their children, I’d fill whatever extra time that remains in their busy schedules with personal hobbies and interests.
In an extra effort to keep the young away from their primary educators, I’d make school mandatory. Which in itself is a good idea, but since I can’t handle good, I’d make religious schools expensive and homeschooling illegal.
While seated at their desks I’d give each child a device that displays every truth the world has known and several means by which one can share it with others, but I would cloud the screen of this device with pornography, listless music and millions of uneducated opinions. I’d probably throw some explicit four letter words in there too for bad measure.
I’d fill classrooms with thousands of unprepared kids and replace educators with a bigger computer than the children have.
If I were the devil, I’d stress the passing of tests and economic longevity as opposed to creativity and morality. I wouldn’t allow them to go outside, either, far too much natural propaganda from the enemy. I’d even go as far as to extend the school day, including summers, so that when the day is done, both parent and child can either collapse in exhaustion or bicker about who has it worse.
I’d make it illegal to punish a mouthy or misbehaving child, but perfectly legal to kill him just as long as the mother commits the homicide prior to his exiting the womb.
To further emphasize my hate for familiar love, I’d make patience paper-thin and paychecks even thinner so that the thought of families having more than 1 or 2 children are both unbearable and unattainable.
If I were the devil, exercise would be an activity for only those who can afford gym memberships and sleep for 8 hours a night.
I’d make the average human landless and ignorant about how to grow their own food. Instead, I’d charge them more to purchase organic sustenance and when they realize they do not have enough to purchase it, they will opt for preservative-packed, sugar coated pieces of death to feed themselves and their children. Mmmmm, death.
To really put the nail in the coffin, I’d make people throw away billions of pounds of fresh produce on a daily basis while millions of dollars go out to fund wars, weapons and drugs at the expense of those who go without a bite to eat or a dollar to spend.
If I were the devil I’d force simple, humble people to risk their lives crossing deserts in order to dwell in big cities where no one understands them and very few accept them.
I’d downplay the day-by-day conversations on the sidewalk that yield deep-rooted friendships and make people spend hours on end in front of computer screens trying to figure out how to do that in less than 140 characters with complete strangers.
I’d eliminate paper and canvas, pens and colors and holidays. I’d make classical music boring, museums dull. and reading “uncool”. I’d make poetry difficult to understand and stories unreliable and unrelatable. If I couldn’t do that, I’d at the very least make it extremely difficult for anyone to make a living in any of the arts.
If I were the devil, I’d make public opinion the maker of all choices and money, fame and power the influencers of these opinions.
I’d convince the world that a well-formed conscience is a psychological defect and a strong will, a public disturbance,
I’d make Jesus fictional and Mary, His mother, detestable. I’d make religion more of a feeling as opposed to a sacrificial and reputable way by which one seeks truth.
I’d create a new Tower of Babel where divisions occur not only among languages, but religions, politics, races and ideas. This Tower would assure a globalized society based on the lie that truth is subjective. It would glorify simple opinions and incivility.
I’d erase filial fear from the dictionary and replace it with servile fear. While I’m at it, I’d redefine honor as the amount of people who “like” you on whichever social media network is poplar at the time.
Oh, and I’d make silent moments extremely sparse. In their place, I’d have TVs constantly blaring, music as the way to get away from my other pressures and storms to keep everyone up at night. But no silence. No, far too much truth is pondered in silence and I wouldn’t be able to afford that.
Finally, if I were the devil, I’d make love synonymous with physical pleasure. I’d sacrmentalize sodomy. I’d rock the world with natural disasters. I’d even let man create life in a laboratory thereby making true unity between him, woman and my sworn enemy unnecessary.
In short, if I were the devil, I’d go against the natural order of everything and I’d use the only continent created by man as my primary battle ground.
In a free country run by free enterprise, you alone get to decide what kind of business (enterprise) to start and be in. What fees to charge and what hours to work are all decisions you freely get to make. While some public laws will prohibit you from cheating or harming consumers, in a free enterprise system you will generally be left alone by the government in order to run the business as you choose.
Free enterprise: Right to Private Property
In a free country run by free enterprise, an individual, a family, or a group is allowed to own private property such as a piece of land, a home, or an automobile. Private property differs from a public building, or public property, such as the city hall, a park, or a highway, all of which provide a government service for all citizens. In a free country run by a free enterprise economic system, the people’s right to buy and sell private property is guaranteed by law. The law does require people to use their property in safe and reasonable ways.
Free enterprise: Profit Motive
The objective to earn money is the biggest reason that any enterprising person would organize and make the effort to start a business, profitably. To have a profitable business one must earn more money than is spent to run the business. The amount of money remaining after subtracting the cost of business expenses from the total business income collected is the profit, a measure of success. In a free enterprise system, a business owner will work hard at keeping operating costs down while raising efforts to improve and increase money income from sales. Profits become higher as the free enterprise system of cost controls and increased sales become successful. These behavior efforts made by business owners in a free enterprise to earn the greatest profits is called the profit motive..
Free enterprise: Competition
In a free country with a free enterprise system, the dream available to everyone is the opportunity for anyone to become someone. With free enterprise, rivalry between sellers within like industries trying for consumers’ dollars is called competition. As one business proves to be profitable, it is common that other people will discover this and will enter the same business as a competitor with hopes of being successful too. They will be competing with all like businesses for the same customers. To win a share of the market, other sellers will try to offer more and better services, or products and services at reduced prices. A free enterprise system allows pressure of competition between businesses which compels each to constantly improve and deliver the best services with the best products at a price consumers are willing to pay.
Free enterprise: Consumer Sovereignty
Ultimately, with a free enterprise economic system, business customers, or consumers, always determine which businesses will succeed or fail. In a free country with a free enterprise economy, the consumer is said to have sovereignty, i.e. the power, freedom, and final choice. Consumers are free to spend their money for Product X or for Product Y. If they prefer Y over X, then the company making X may lose money, go out of business, or decide to manufacture something else (perhaps Product Z). Therefore, in a free enterprise system, the consumer’s sovereign choice about spending their dollars compels business enterprises of many types to produce specific goods and services the consumer is willing to buy.
Video submitted by Joseph Farris that won second prize in AEI’s 2012 video contest:
Government keeps growing — and freedom keeps shrinking — because we fail to make the moral case for free enterprise. Based on his best-selling book “The Road to Freedom,” AEI President Arthur C. Brooks explains how we can win the fight for free enterprise by articulating what’s written on our hearts.
Arthur says:
We have to see that we’re not in an economic battle for the future of America, we’re in a moral battle.
Imagine six (6) different string instruments connected to a common resonating body chamber, all being played by mechanical fingers. Here it is, the classic Animusic very well done:
Imagine what Animusic would look like to Trans Siberian Orchestra !
So, you may ask what is Animusic?
Animusic is a challenge to to describe since it is not like other forms of music which is what makes it unique. Much like Pixar movies, these audio-video extravaganzas are computer-generated, photo-realistic animations.
Each movie is absent of people, animals, dialogue, and singing, but instead are full of abstract alien instruments that are played robotic fingers or creatures as well as pulsating lasers. For example, in “Resonant Chamber,” delicate bird-like robotic fingers pluck and play a guitar with nine necks. In “Pipe Dream” several string and percussion instruments of different types are struck with impeccable timing by balls that are fired from pipe cannons. And, in “Pogo Sticks,” body-less bass-like instruments each with two strings are seen balancing on one wheel as they cruise and boogie through a 3-Dimensional tunneled landscape.
Animusic Core Characteristics
With Animusic the core concept is entirely new, but elements that make it work are all too familiar from the likes of renown media such as “Metropolis,” “Alien,” digital games, Disneyland, laser shows, Spielberg movies, MTV, Electric Light Orchestra, and even science museums and great church cathedrals. If it were not for the the music, some of the animusic videos might be called creepy weird science fiction. A major characteristic of the music is the digital layers of rhythmic techno rock which goes well with the visual characteristics suggesting space-age, interplanetary, foreign, bizarre species of incredibly talented music machines.
The Passion of Animusic Studio
Wayne Lytle is the programmer, music composer who has followed his passion and made his occupation the creation of Animusic Studio Software. As of November 2007, Wayne says they have been doing well enough to move into some really nice office/studio space after having worked at home and has spent over a decade perfecting the animusic art form. After many years of custom-programming, Wayne’s proprietary software now generates the animation of the objects, automatically. Specifically and using “Resonant Chamber” as an example, Animusic Studio Software manipulates the fingers, hammers and pluckers of the robots based upon a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) file fed to it. When the MIDI music file is altered, the animation is effortlessly regenerated following a production outline given the animusic software.
Because of the high integration of animation and music computer software, the rendering of the video musical instruments are sonically accurate, meaning every time a specific drum is struck, a key pressed, or a string plucked, it always produces the same pitch. (There’s still plenty of hand animation, of course, primarily having to do with the lighting, “camera moves,” set and character movements.)
As each new version of Animusic Studio Software is released, the public simply finds the product richer and more sophisticated, and the people’s response, well most of them simply gape in amazement as to what the Animusic can do.
Video animation industry experts and critics continue to question Mr. Lytle’s motivation for creating the software and what he should do with Animusic. Suggestions for usefulness include “Play it on big plasmas in dance clubs!”; “Music teachers in schools should show this to the kids!”, and the common “Sell Animusic to Pixar!” At conferences for education and technology, the frequent questions are “What’s the target age group?” “What’s your educational philosophy?” “Why isn’t it interactive?” But no matter who is asking the questions, among all viewers of audio and video produced by Animusic Studio Software, the consensus is that it’s just plain cool.
Animusic DVDs For Sale
One can find, see, hear and enjoy Animusic tracks at www.animusic.com. Note, the effect of the audio videos on DVD when played on large screen TV are many times a more powerful experience, particularly played through a big, 5.1 Dolby surround sound system. The Animusic web site is where you can buy the DVD’s at $20 each (or $35 for a pair). As the cult of Animusic fans has grown virally on the internet, Mr. Lytle says sales has grown to 60,000 copies of the first disc over the years.
Wayne Lytle with his team producing Animusic may very well be a prominent example of something special in the way that technology can give a voice and a canvas to otherwise undiscovered talent in an artist. In the case of Animusic, that talent is prodigious, and the resulting works of art are awe-inspiring.
Heidi Taylor Fleischbein on April 1, 2012 played at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion before a large crowd of guests including Dr. Carol Williams and San Diego City District 6 Councilmember, Lorie Zapf.
April 1, 2012
It was an exciting opportunity for Heidi to perform on the Spreckels Organ, the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ donated to the City of San Diego in 1914 for the Panama-California Exposition by John D. and Adolph Spreckels. This unique organ contains 4,530 pipes ranging in length from the size of a pencil to 32 feet and is housed in an ornate vaulted structure with highly embellished gables. Since 1917, San Diego has had a civic organist, who performs free weekly Sunday concerts.
Heidi was invited to perform by Dr. Carol Williams, the current San Diego Civic Organist and Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society in San Diego, California since 2001.
Dr. Carol Williams has been impressed by the many instruments that Heidi plays, and at the request of Dr. Williams was asked to also demonstrate her ability to play the violin.
Heidi performs: “Prelude in C Major” and “Prelude in A Minor” by J.S. Bach.
Jacqueline Marie “Jackie” Evancho was born April 9, 2000 and is an American child singer described as a classical crossover artist. In 2010, at the age of 10, she gained wide popularity with her performances in the fifth season of the America’s Got Talent (AGT) competition, finishing in second place. Evancho impressed composer David Foster who included her in his concerts beginning in 2009. Foster later produced Evancho’s album, Dream With Me, and subsequent PBS special for the television series, Great Performances. Evancho also performed in front of U.S. President Barack Obama at the 2010 National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, D.C.
TO BELIEVE
Before I lay me down to rest
I ask the Lord one small request
I know I have all I could need
But this prayer is not for me
Too many people on this day
Don’t have a peaceful place to stay
Let all fighting cease that your children may see peace
Wipe their tears of sorrow away
(chorus)
To believe in a day
When hunger and war will pass away
To have the hope amidst despair
That every sparrow’s counted
That you hear each cry and listen to each prayer
Let me try always to believe
That we can hear the hearts that grieve
Please help us not ignore
The anguished cries of the poor
Or their pain will never leave
(chorus )
To believe in a day
When hunger and war will pass away
To have the hope amidst despair
That every sparrow’s counted
That you hear each cry and listen to each prayer
(spoken prayer)
Father, as you see, I’m just a child
And there’s so much to understand
But if Your Grace should surround me
Then I’ll do the best I can
I promise, I’ll do the very best I can
(chorus plus)
To believe in a day
When hunger and war will pass away
To have the hope amidst despair
That every sparrow’s counted
That you hear each cry and listen to each Prayer
{Hear each cry and listen to each prayer}
Help us do Your will oh Father
In the name of all that’s true
And we’ll see in one another
The loving image of You
I thank Michael Rhodes (a high school acquaintance) for sharing the photo of the oak tree bark. It reminds me of the BIG oak tree in Grandma Margie’s backyard in Sacramento where we would visit and swing using a tire-on-a-rope hanging down from a large branch. The tree was so BIG that it cast enormous shade out over the lawn on hot summer days. We would play, the noise of children, until the cool of the night. There were acres of fields around the few farm houses where Grandma lived in Sacramento, and part of it was fenced off to keep in a few cattle and a bull. Chickens would scamper around the property, and usually nest to lay eggs in a wall of bamboo grown to block the north winds. Today, that old oak tree still stands, even after the fire of 1967 that burned down Grandma’s home and took out the bamboo. Most of the acres around that tree have succumbed to one form or another of property development, but that tree still stands as a memory of days gone by when kids played in the safety and comfort of its shade. On occasion, every few years, I go visit the old property to look for that tree, to remember how things have changed, and in 2009 it was still there looking as strong and reliable as ever. I pray it will be there next time I drop by to visit, to remember, because it encourages me to stay strong and endure the changes for the sake of those who are watching.
Here is a message for active, professional musicians who know the importance of frequently promoting themselves and their gigs. Consider for a moment, www.SoundCloud.com … it is interesting. But, I’m beginning to think that more musicians should try promoting their song samples using Traffic Geyser www.trafficgeyser.com because the musician can have one central marketing distribution point like www.Reverbnation.com which provides a great assortment of marketing tools, and use the Traffic Geyser to post samples of song clips to many audio / video / ipod / text distribution channels while having all those channel posts point with back-links to the central promotion site. This is a very good way to get high page rank and have one central promotional marketing site from which you can convert interested music consumers into buying customers. Think about it… check it out… give me call and chat it up!
The following speech text may very well be the greatest written presentation ever submitted in support of the free market and capitalism. It has taken me more than 30-years to get around to reading the book that contained this text, and I will not forget reading this laying in bed and not being able to put it down. After reading this I proceeded to lay and rest contemplating the significance of the speech in the context of my own life as a self-employed entrepreneur. Every core value and principle I have worked so hard by in order to have a successful family businesses is described when reading this speech from Atlas Shrugged.
I couldn’t make myself read the book in 1974, but this year in the closing month of 2011, I rented a copy of the DVD “Atlas Shrugged” (part I) and the viewing fully captured my interest by the drama of which the movie only covers the first third of the book. Since the viewing, I have returned to my old 1974 copy of Atlas Shrugged and have not been able to stay away from reading it.
Because of the times in which we live with the obvious radio and TV news that demonstrates the pending conflict between industrialist entreprenuers and world wide governments whose full intent is to social engineer a global economy, it is highly recommened that everyone read Atlas Shrugged. With no regard to what your world view point may be, Ayn Rand was an incredible writer and philosopher who has masterfully prepared a text of political fiction drama that comes close to describing the events we read and hear about in today’s news. After watching the movie, reading Atlas Shrugged became one of my 2011 goals before the year end.
This is now my favorite response to the question / statement: “[is] money [is] the root of all evil..”
“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?
“Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
“But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’
“To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss–the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery–that you must offer them values, not wounds–that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade–with reason, not force, as their final arbiter–it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability–and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?
“But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality–the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.
“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
“Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
“Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?
“Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?
“Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It’s the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money–and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.
“Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.
“But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.
“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.
“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’
“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.
“You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it’s crumbling around you, while you’re damning its life-blood–money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves–slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody’s mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers–as industrialists.
“To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money–and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being–the self-made man–the American industrialist.
“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.
“Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents. Now the looters’ credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide– as, I think, he will.
“Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.”
Russian born American novelist Ayn Rand is author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and is originator of the philosophy of Objectivism. You can learn more about her life and philosophy at the website of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Thought Provoking Comments
The real quote from the New Testament,1 Timothy 6:10, is “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” It is often misquoted, apparently by Ayn Rand, as well. Although her points about money are well taken, the real quote does not require the same moral defense. It refers to the preoccupation with obtaining wealth for wealth’s sake.
There is absolutely no way that the product of hard work can be evil. That’s an incomprehensible lie taught by those who want to condition the masses to accept being fleeced as a virtue. This lie is obviously many, MANY centuries old. The idea that you must sacrifice the fruits of your labors to another party without your consent is slavery. It’s also very suspicious that the most highly revered religious books demand these types of sacrifices and threatens the worst punishment imaginable to those who refuse to submit. Charity is not charity when it is forced physically or emotionally through undeserved guilt. A person must be free NOT to give away the fruits of their labors – without guilt – otherwise they become a victim.
The REAL evil is the scheming of those who wish to steal the product of your labors without consensually trading something that they also worked to produce. The invention of paper money was undoubtedly the greatest fraud in history. It can be (and is) created in massive quantities – unearned – by the banking cartel and then given to a government in exchange for a mortgage on the future labor of entire countries of people.
Paper “money” is definitely evil, but real money (gold, silver or other commodities) is the best tool ever created by man for fair and honest trade between honorable individuals.
Prospective customers will go through a sales funnel process with those vendors who keep a relationship active.
Today’s internet marketplace is flooded with web site marketing products and services! You can click here if you want to learn more! And as the producers of these products and services aggressively compete for consumers on the internet, the noise from all the advertising makes it nearly impossible to discern one product’s benefit from another’s. We are an over communicated society! The authors of the book Positions (Al Ries and Jack Trout) state that in 2001, the per capita consumption of advertising is equal to $376.62 per year. “If you spend $1 million a year on advertising, you are bombarding the average consumer with less than a half cent of advertising, spread out over 365 days; a consumer already exposed to $376.61 & ½ worth of other advertising!”
And as the internet marketing noise has gotten louder over the last decade, we find ourselves asking, how can one be noticed and heard in the overcrowded internet marketplace? You can check out here Legal Marketing Strategy Pros specialize in Facebook Ads for lawyers . Since communication is the problem, we need to take more time to communicate while distinguishing ourselves from the other advertisers. The leading digital marketing company Freshlinks does this by differentiating ourselves as someone courteous, truthful, reliable, stable, and into the relationship for the long haul. We need to develop and habitually use a means of building relationships in a frequently changing marketplace.
Not Markets, But Customers
In previous years, Tom Peters and Nancy Austin told us their research discovered a sustainable strategic advantage observed in some organizations which was the group’s obsession with customers. It was not markets, not marketing, not strategic positioning, just customers. A market has never been observed paying a bill. Customers do that!
Ultimately, it all boils down to a perceived, appreciated, and consistently delivered follow-up, service, and quality to customers. Sales is the outcome of talking with customers in a marketplace based upon good communication principles and relationship building, whereby you eventually sell your product or service.
The Apathetic Salesperson
I am going to share with you a little story I once heard. This is a story about four salespeople. Their names were Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important sale to be made and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. So, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Many salespeople are playing a numbers game and attempt to increase their odds of “winning” by picking only the “cherry” accounts, the immediate decision purchases. However, they are not producing “double win” situations with long-term stability.
Sales research has shown that, when considering all possible salespeople, 48 percent of them will give up after the first call and 25 percent more will quit after the second call. The salespeople are simply apathetic to the buyer’s need for a long-term relationship.
The Center for Marketing Communications in Princeton, New Jerseyhas determined the typical flow of 1000 leads. Of the leads studied, it was determined that only 266 of the prospects are going to purchase in the next twelve months, 114 of these leads will get requested literature late or not at all, and 192 of the leads will receive no salesperson contact.
After a careful inspection of many businesses and their sales practices, the following general observations can be made:
people who say they are interested in your product or service are interested
companies have trouble getting their request literature fulfillment out on time
salespeople treat leads apathetically
sales costs and intense competition continue to rise
profit margins are continuing to diminish
Choosing a System for Building Your Relationships
So, what do we need? What is successful today? How can we excite and attract people? How can we increase business through more sales?
First, we want to build a positive relationship. While being truthful and sincere in our representations, we want to make commitments and be able to fulfill them. Instead of short-term relationships marked with interruptions, broken promises, deception, and discourteous treatment, we want to be recognized for longevity, stability, truthfulness, courteous treatment, and fulfilled commitments. More importantly, we should design a system so that if we don’t fulfill a commitment, the computer will for us! This is just a matter of structure and a clearly defined sales sequence.
There are at least three basic models by which we establish relationships and design our structured sales pattern: 1) Passive Systems, 2) Offensive Systems, and 3) Assertive Systems.
Passive Systems are what most people use to build relationships. For example, they do some advertising and then wait for a response such as a phone call. Sometimes they do a long letter which typically makes up most of the junk mail and email we are accustomed to receiving. A long letter attempts to tell you nearly everything you could possibly want to know about the product or service, and frequently closes with “Please call if you have any questions or interest.” In this respect, a Passive System is much like a retail environment in which we sit back and wait for somebody to walk through the door.
Offensive Systems are very much dependent upon face-to-face meetings. This method uses repeat visits to obtain attention. The visits eventually become interpreted as interruptions. Sometimes the Offensive System needs the use of a trick to get past the receptionist or the use of foods, giveaways, etc., to get attention. For example, a title insurance company might require its sales staff to make sixteen sales calls each per day. The complete strategy might be visit-visit-visit, going from one real estate office to the next, and buying donuts to get attention. However, this eventually becomes interpreted as a constant interruption.
What we would really like to establish is an Assertive System: a proactive way to maintain relationships by means of a well-defined sales sequence of events that each new prospective and existing customer must pass through.
The strategy of the Assertive System is to build sales systematically, which provides longevity. Our intent here is to remove the peaks and valleys of sales contracts and subsequently cash flow. Our strategy should also develop a relationship with each new prospect and continuing customer through multiple contacts and communications.
We intend to keep the salespeople focused on the long-term relationship through a well-defined selling sequence. In this way, the sales managers can assist their selling staffs’ efforts in attaining superstar sales levels.
The Assertive System builds a professional image in the mind’s eye of the prospect and the customer. The Assertive System ensures that literature and other requests are attended to in a timely manner, which demonstrates your ability to fulfill your commitments. Most importantly, the Assertive System makes sure that each prospect and customer is processed with the selling sequence so that no lead falls through the cracks!
In general, most of us would prefer to buy from our friends and close acquaintances. We sometimes use our friends as consultants. We trust their recommendations because we have a relationship with them. We build relationships with clients in the same manner that we start relationships with our friends. It usually starts with a commitment we make together, and then we keep our commitment; we follow through. In other words, we don’t usually go out of our way to make friends with people who don’t keep their commitments with us. And it is no different in sales!
Therefore, we want to structure a system that will not allow people to fall through the cracks. If we don’t follow through by delivering that brochure that customer asked for last week, then we begin to tear down the relationship. The customer will begin to feel that he or she cannot depend on or trust in you.
How to Start an Assertive Sales System
The Assertive System is relatively easy to implement because most of us intuitively know how we would like to treat and tend to our customers, as well as how we like to be tended to. The sales sequence cannot be open-ended in that we cannot be all things to all people. So margins and limits must be defined and set so that the structure takes a form that is perceivable and obtainable. You can begin by concentrating on your most favorite customer. Take the time and actions to do all the steps necessary to properly, attentively, and assertively manage your customer’s needs.
You have five stages of development that must be controlled and attended to. Picture yourself putting your customer on a conveyor belt at the beginning when he or she raises a hand and says “I’m interested in something you can do for me.” Your job is to keep this person from falling of the conveyor belt as it passes through the stages of:
introduction to a new service or product
obtaining an appointment to review the product or service
post-appointment comparisons and decisions
obtaining products or services, with post-purchase depression
customer satisfaction, with requests for other products and services, and
referrals to their friends
In short, you must take your customer from “I’m interested…” to “How many…” and this means impeccable follow-up with an eye for detail.
Concentrate on each stage of development as a mutually exclusive task and write down all the things you would do for this favorite customer. Do this for each of the five stages of development. Be sensitive, too, and aware of opportunities where an action on your part will reinforce and improve your relationship with the customer. Your list of things to do in each stage should include letters of communication for staying in touch as well as cover letters for special requests and literature requests. Your list of things to do will also include status checks and phone calls to the customer to confirm or note changes of status and decision making.
This is the premise of an Assertive System and will help you define your sequence of events in the course of a sale. There is much more to the implementation of your structured selling method, which includes time management techniques, the use of a personal planner, production procedures, and most importantly a personal commitment to develop and stay with new habits.
Depending on the volume of people you attempt to pour through your sales sequence, the use of simple Personal Information Manager (PIM) computer software similar to Rolodex® card files can effectively be superseded by real Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that provides for automated sales-track processes. However, a computer-assisted Assertive System requires an eye for detail and past experience in preparation so as not to come across to the customer as a computer-contrived relationship! Also, a computer sales system should automate the communication process, not just be a tickler and reminder that it is your turn to do something. An automated system takes actions for you!
If all you want is a tickler and reminder, then save your investment in a good computer information system (possibly put on the internet cloud for global access) with focused customer relationship management software that automates many tasks. Save on the cost of time to learn and master a good CRM system and the additional monthly recurring expense to have it automate important processes. Instead, buy and learn a good personal resource system (time planner) or use your smart phone apps to constantly remind you to do something and habitually live by it!
The Big Close
Whatever your company’s vision, you know it is effective when the salespeople take personal responsibility for achieving it. And nothing makes more of an impression on your customers than the appearance that the salesperson is taking personal responsibility for the success of whatever enterprise he or she is affiliated with. Think about that. People know. People want to make a commitment. Americans are aching to make a commitment as long as they feel free and comfortable in the environment you build in which to do so. And the word gets around fast about which companies are nourishing their relationships with their customers.
Remember that the individuals who live by the existing sales system are within their comfort zone, and your new ideas will cause them to change this environment. But during times of change we have extraordinary opportunities, leverage and influence – individually, professionally, and company-wide – when we have a clear sense, a clear conception, a clear vision of our sales intent and the road ahead.
Thank you, Robert Michael, for sharing this with me.
About the Song
While at the mall a couple of years ago, my then four year old nephew, Spencer, saw kids lined up to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, he asked his mom, “where’s the line to see Jesus”
My sister mentioned this to my dad, who immediately became inspired and jotted words down to a song in just a few minutes. After putting music to the words, and doing a quick recording at home, he received a great response from friends. He sent the song off to Nashville without much response, except for a Christian song writer who suggested adding a bridge at the end of the first chorus. My dad then asked if I wanted to record the song to see what we could do with it. I listened to the song, made a few changes to the words to make it flow better, and we headed to Shock City Studios.
It was at the studio where Chris, owner and producer, rewrote the 2nd verse and part of the chorus…with goose bumps and emotions high, we were all hopeful and felt like we had something special. The demo was recorded in just under 2 hours and sent off again to Nashville …still no response.
Then 2 weeks before Christmas last year, my cousins Greg and Robbie decided to do a video to see what we could accomplish on YouTube. The first day we had 3000 hits and it soared from there. We received e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages from people all over asking for the music, CD’s, iTunes, anything…we had nothing. After a couple of meetings with Chris following the amazing response, we got serious. We headed back into the studio this past spring…this time with guitars, drums, bass, pianos, choirs… the real deal…. and here we are today.
Getting iTunes set up, a website put together, and loving that thousands upon thousands of Christians have come together… remembering the true meaning of Christmas. Out of the mouths of babes come profound truths that many adults can not understand. Hopefully Spencer’s observation will cause people all over to reflect on the love of Jesus, and that one day we will all stand in line to see Him. We are most thankful to our Heavenly Father to have this chance to share our music with you.
Some of the finest music comes from performers who have developed their technique using a soft touch. Developing the soft touch musical technique in your daily music practice should help produce a broad range of dynamics in your song. Here is a good and astonishing example:
Since 2004, Chris Botti (pronounced boat-tee) has become the largest selling American jazz instrumental artist. His trumpet playing has crossed over successfully to audiences usually reserved for pop music and his continued association with PBS has produced four #1 Jazz Albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum & Grammy Awards.
Violin
Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide for better than two decades with his breathtaking virtuosity and beautify rare tone. At the age of 14 years, he came to national attention in high acclaim by an orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Now, Joshua is comfortable playing violin as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader. His restless curiosity and multifaceted musical interests have taken him in exciting new directions that have earned him the rare title of “classical music superstar.” “Bell,” Gramophone stated simply, “is dazzling.”
Chris Botti and Joshua Bell.. they blend perfectly together! Peaceful with grace.
“The Song is a gift to the composer inspired by God the Creator.
The song performance and show is a gift to the artist.
The finished show is a gift to the listener.
The listener’s response is her or his truth-about-God!”
Clifford Taylor Fleischbein, composer and band leader.
www.gocliff.com
www.facebook.gocliff.com
Stevie Wonder is renown for his writing a plethora of great tunes. And Jeff Beck is a master as taking ownership of other people’s songs by shaping and sculpturing the musical notes into a sound piece that causes the listener to want more.
Jeff Beck and Tal Wilkenfeld playing "Cause We've Ended As Lovers"
Wonder’s songs are renowned for being quite difficult to sing. He has a very developed sense of harmony and uses many extended chords utilizing extensions such as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, b5s, etc. in his compositions. Many of his melodies make abrupt, unpredictable changes. Many of his vocal melodies are also melismatic, meaning that a syllable is sung over several notes. Some of his best known and most frequently covered songs are played in keys which are more often found in jazz than in pop and rock. For example, “Superstition”, “Higher Ground” and “I Wish” are in the key of E flat minor, and feature distinctive riffs in the E flat minor pentatonic scale (i.e. largely on the black notes of the keyboard).
Jeff Beck began working with Stevie Wonder and created the original drum beat for “Superstition” while in the studio with Wonder. After writing the song Wonder offered it to Beck to record, but at the insistence of his own manager Wonder himself recorded it first.Beck was instead offered “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers,” which he recorded on Blow by Blow in 1975. Jeff Beck would later record his own version of “Superstition” as a part of the album Beck, Bogert & Appice.
But here, you will hear and see Jeff Beck play the song given him by Stevie Wonder “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” and observe the incredible musical talent of Tal Wilkenfeld as she plays a solo on her bass.
Tal Wilkenfeld
She also has her own band where she demonstrates her musicality using a fusion of writing styles as heard in this song: “The River
Tal Wilkenfeld - if a young woman is going to play bass like this.. couldn't she be fat, or ugly, or smelly, or something ? L.O.L. Tal is an awesome bass player!
of Life” from her first album “Transformation.” Like many songs of this type, the chord arrangement is not complex, the elements of the song have lots of drama played with dynamic expression. The melody is estab
lished early with Tal on her bass, and then the song grows with inclusion of a saxophone solo that is laced with complex drum and bass playing dynamics. The piano lays down nice jazz chords to give the soloist space to play through. What starts as a calm song turns into a rambunctious, energetic tune.
Tal Wilkenfeld – bass
Wayne Krantz – guitar
Seamus Blake – tenor sax
Geoff Keezer .- piano
Keith Carlock – drums
Guest appearances by percussionist Samuel Torres and Bassist Oteil Burbridge
In 1972, the Brooklyn Tabernacle could barely draw twenty people to a Sunday service. Today it is six thousand strong, a testament of what God can do when men and women begin to pour out their hearts to God.
This is a very popular song because of its catchy chord combination:
Pretty good, unique arrangement, and a big sound.
But, then I desired to remember what really attracted me to the song when it came out on August 16, 1972 – also played IN JAPAN by Deep Purple. So, I went looking for the song and found STEVE MORRIS is now playing this song with Deep Purple.
Roger Glover and Steve Morse of Deep Purple jamming
Smoke on the Water tells the true story about December 4, 1971 when the Deep Purple band was set up in Montreux, Switzerland preparing to record an album. The Montreux Casino (referred to as “the gambling house” in the song) was hosting Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (another favorite group of mine) with a concert held in the casino’s theater. During the show, in the middle of Don Preston’s synthesizer solo on “King Kong”, the casino caught fire when someone in the audience fired a flare gun into the rattan covered ceiling, which is mentioned in the song as “some stupid with a flare gun.” The fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers’ equipment. The “smoke on the water” that became the title of the song (credited to bass guitarist Roger Glover, who related how the title occurred to him when he suddenly woke from a dream a few days later) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel across the lake.
Now you know the rest of the story!
Steve Morris is a hard-rock guitar player’s envy! Watch what this young man can do with left-handed hammer-ons (no picking).
So, what say you? Do you like Deep Purple and this song? How about that story in the song?
Share your comment and click on the LIKE and SHARE buttons!
After reviewing the other videos submitted for the fellowship award of $100,000.00, we think Keil has a good chance of getting selected.
What say you? What do you think?
Please set aside 20-minutes to view these videos submitted for Thiel Foundation’s award: 20 under 20. If you agree with our review, then click on the YouTube LIKE button for Keil’s video response. Also, leave some comments.. here and at YouTube.
Go to Youtube.com and search on these keywords: Thiel foundation fellowship 20 under 20
We look forward to reading your comments. Please share this with your friends, too. The more people viewing Keil’s video, the better. Having a large number of views at YouTube will only help Keil’s rank in getting the fellowship award.
The Thiel Foundation has offered $100,000.00 to be paid out over two years as a fellowship award to 20 students, ages 15 to 20 years. To be clear, that is $100K per student, and 20 students under the age of 20 years, 20 under 20. Keil Taylor Fleischbein submitted to their request for proposal by answering their two questions:
Tell us one thing about the world that you strongly believe is true, but that most people think is not true.
How do you want to change the world?
The following is Keil’s response transcript, and here is his YouTube video submission for the Thiel Foundation Fellowship:
That has been a major theme in my adventure finding happiness being a journey, not a destination.
Along the way, in 1969 I discovered the Sons of Champlin (the Sons) a seven piece band with drums, guitars, keyboards, trumpet, alto sax, and vibraphone. They had been together since 1967, and by 1969 the San Francisco music scene included the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms for music performance, and as the Sons joined that music venue, they earned a reputation as a group of R&B and jazz musicians far above the caliber of the electrified folk-rockers who made up most of that scene.
The horn section puts fire into songs and brings them to life. Celebrate Life!
Pickpocket RFID data from credit cards at a distance with new technology
Thieves able to steal your credit card information without laying a hand on your wallet
Brand new technology that is putting 140 million people at risk from electronic pick pocketing.
Radio Frequency Identification technology found in the most recently released credit cards from banks allows this to happen. RFID is now found in your passport, debit and credit cards for the benefit of doing things faster, but now it can be used at your loss.
I remember the critics picking on these guys, calling them ‘wimps’. Being, as they were, surrounded by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Janis, and the like, and with much more numbing power from these, people thought they should be more of a hard drum and base band. They were minstrels, they lilted, it’s very light by comparison. I’m really glad they did it just like this. To me, this is the sound of the late sixties’ consciousness when I was in High School.
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