Practical business advice.

To save time is to lengthen life.  Every businessman, every accountant, and every student who employs the shortest and best methods to arrive at results, is doing his work with satisfaction and profit.

The power of empowering the other. An excerpt from Gerry Spence.

Here's an excerpt from Gerry Spence's How to Argue and Win Every Time.  Throughout his book his reference to the "Other" is the person "against whom our failing arguments are made."

The key to opening the Other to our arguments is to empower the Other to reject us.  The key is putting our power in the Other's hands.  By relinquishing power to the Other, we avoid the Other's fear of us or our argument.  If the Other retains the power, the clear, acknowledged power, to accept or reject our argument, there remains nothing against which the Other need defend.

Best,
Bryan

Actuaries on "rethinking retirement"

Retirement is becoming a big part of conversation in the United States.  People of all ages are wondering how they will live in retirement - or if they will be able to retire at all.

Check out "Rethinking Retirement," an article published in the June 2013 edition of Contingencies, a trade magazine focused on actuarial science.

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Rethinking Retirement

What's actuarial science, you may ask?  It's what actuaries do, of course!  :)

Actuaries, according to the USDOL's Bureau of Labor and Statistics,   "analyze the financial costs of risk and uncertainty.  They use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to assess the risk that an event will occur and to help businesses and clients develop policies that minimize the cost of that risk."

If you like math and want to learn more about actuarial science as a career, check out the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries.

Best,
Bryan

Insured Victim Effect (a.k.a., no harm, no foul)

Sometimes bad things happen.

• A dead tree falls on a neighbor's fence from an adjacent property.
• An arsonist burns a home to the ground.
• A valuable diamond necklace is stolen.

When we first hear of things like these, our first reaction is often to the event itself and the well-being of the person - we want to make sure the person is okay.  But before we launch into a diatribe about how awful the person or entity is that caused this to happen, it's quite common to interject one quick question:  "was it insured?"

Failure and success

"If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough.  And that means you're not taking enough risks.  You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve."
- John Maxwell, Failing Forward

Leadership without leverage

In his book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," John C. Maxwell shares that influence is the key to great leadership.

Dan Gilbert on YouTube: Why We Make Bad Decisions

Thought you might enjoy Dan Gilbert's 2008 TED Talk on why we make bad decisions.  The full video is about 34 minutes long.  If you're short on time, jump in at about the 18:20 mark.




Best,
Bryan