Australia Spending 500 Million Australian Dollars to Protect Great Barrier Reef

Australia announced plans to put great minds together and invest up to 500 Million Australian dollars protecting the Great Barrier Reef. There are also opportunities for others to invest in protecting these natural wonders. The damage by global warming, predator fish and acidity have been extensive already---hundreds of miles died in the past two years alone.

I think this is a great first step. It is important to protect our waters from further human encroachment. Parts of the problem have to do with the coal industry and use of fertilizers in farming. Some of these things are necessary and developed before we knew their potential damage. Some should be reduced while others could be innovated to be cleaner.

There always is this push between making more money in industry and protecting the environment. They seem like they are two polar opposite but some of it is because we have not developed the next level of technology in managing pollution. It is possible to have companies contribute voluntarily to the protection of these environments and create greater social responsibility.

Corporate philanthropy may help in avoiding legislative action down the road.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/29/world/australia/great-barrier-reef-plan.html

How to Handle Toxic Friendships?

Toxic friends are part of most social networks. One could argue that around 20% of the people you meet will have toxic and negative personalities. Because of how they feel about themselves they are willing to cause problems whenever their fragile sense of self feels damaged or they are frustrated in obtaining something they want. It is important to know when you can work these things out and when you can't.

Lets first look at the fragile sense of self. They are toxic because they have deep seated negative images of themselves and learned maladaptive methods of influence their environment. Instead of confidence and being honest with others they seek to use manipulation to gain a feeling of safety and control over their environment.

Because their thought patterns are warped it can be very hard for them to see that their behavior is inappropriate. While they may know this on one level they do not understand how they are counter to them achieving their long-term goals. As new information is presented, they anchor it with the past and the darker pain they feel pushing them to act in certain ways.

The best way to counter toxic people is to not allow yourself to be easily manipulated. Ask questions, be friendly, but make sure you have appropriate boundaries. It is difficult to manipulate someone who is confident and able to think critically about information presented to them. They can put wider information into context.

You may consider giving them a chance to recant and fix the problems they created. This would mean they have the insight into their behavior so there is some "hope" they can actually adjust their behavior for the future. If approached in a empathetic way and they still lash out it is important to start distancing yourself from the person and their behavior.

Start with first letting them know that what they are doing is not conducive to strong friendships. Each time they act inappropriately let them know it isn't appreciated and distance yourself further. If they have a shred of decency in them they will get the picture and make effort to change their behavior or risk loosing a friend. If they do not, eventually the distance will be wide enough that you can simply cut contact.

No one deserves to be treated poorly. That is not something most toxic people think about. They are not concerned with how others feel but more with how they feel and interpret information. Unfortunately, they may be acting opposite to what they want in an effort to convince themselves they don't want it in order to deaden the pain of failure.  Everyone deserves a chance but if they fail in correcting their behavior you deserve a chance to surround yourself by healthy and happy people.

Hiring for Elite Education or Skill? 4 Things I would Look For in a Candidate

Education and skill are oftentimes together but not always. Hiring mangers sometimes face the dillema of determining if they should hire someone with an elite education or someone with a historical track record. While I support and envy those who get an elite education it is important to give skill its full merit.

Elite education has the advantage of drawing in some of the best professors and some of the best theoretical minds. What it fails at is that some of these educators are book intelligent but don't always provide practical knowledge on the topics. Educated practitioners might be better.

A great combination is a solid education mixed with a proven track record in experience. With both you can hedge your bets. Past performance often predicts future performance; at least most of the time. Sometimes a change in the environment and incentives may be damaging to some performers.

A strong educational background can make some people more able to understand the bigger picture of theory and put new information into context. That doesn't necessarily mean that coming from a elite university provides the ability to think better than others. Most of the time it is simply money, connections and family background that determine academic performance.

Some of the most intelligent and creative people in the world don't have an elite education. As a matter of fact, they may not even pass many of the classes because they only regurgitate information and don't allow for enough exploration of possibilities.

If there were four major traits I would hire for it would be:

1.) Track Record: Proven past performance or potential.
2.) Education: The right kind of education that allows theory mixed with practical skills.
3.) Creativity: Not all problems can be solved from a text book. To get ahead means thinking out of the box.
4.) Personality: The personality of someone who is a avid learner, humble, diligent, confident and still able to work with others.

Is Your Business Loosing Money? It Might be in the Metrics!

Businesses can't know where they are going unless they know where they currently are. While it can be beneficial to simply use your gut feeling to run a business there comes a point when your establishment may simply be too large to manage without proper metrics. We are moving into an era where data is important and not having the right kind of data could be a big issue.

Consider a company that doesn't understand the performance of their individual departments. There has always been, and will continue to be, performance metrics but these performance metrics must be updated to create an accurate reflection of performance. Without such metrics it can be difficult to make all types of changes and adjustments.

On one level you don't know how well you are functioning and what the potential of the department is. This means you would have a difficult time making long term strategic decisions that will better align to the market and ensure that your company continues to stay profitable. The metrics will let you know where you can what you currently do well, where you are not doing well, and where you need to improve.

Metrics can also be used to see what problems are coming down the road. For example, if you are falling behind in the ability to process orders you may need to update your processes and technology. Without metrics you wouldn't know which one to invest in and how much it will likely improve your business.

Not all metrics are the same and some won't measure what you actually need them to measure. It is important to have a solid grasp of your strategies and start implementing those metrics that are likely to help you understand how well you are moving toward fulfilling those strategic goals. One of the problems companies face is outdated, useless, time consuming metrics that have nothing to do with their goals.

Del Mar National Dressage Show in Del Mar

Dressage is all about training and showing how well you have trained your horse to maneuver through different movements and master a type of art form. This form is ancient with modern rules coming out of the Renaissance Era. Each horse goes through a series of tests.

Tests often include the Piaffe, Passage, Extended Gait, Collected Gaits, Flying Changes, Pirouette, and Half-Pass.

In this case I attended the Del Mar National Horse Show. Each of the horses made their way around the arena and showed their training style. A western entertainment show was shown during the intermission. Food, clothing and other items were present.

https://delmarnational.com/

I like to watch these shows to see how well they trained their horses. You also get to connect with great people and learn tips and tricks in their training. Being a horse owner myself it is helpful to get connected to a group of horse owners.

Are Morning Work Outs Better?

If you are lucky enough to have some control over your workout schedule you might want to opt for early mornings. Your stomach is empty and you are likely to move into extra energy stores from fat quicker than if you went there processing food all day. As you move into fat stores for energy you also lose weight quickly.

1. Without a lot of food in your stomach you will need to burn fat quicker.

2. Less people in a gym so you can use the equipment you need and want.

3. Sets up your metabolism for the rest of the day.

4. After your work out you can focus on other things.

5. A regular routine that ensures you get it done!

Three Things that Help a Little Business

There are three things that can help a small business succeed. It is hard to compete against larger companies that have a lot of money and resources. So small businesses will need to do something different if they are going to be successful. The three things are:

1.: Find Your Niche: Don't try and compete with the "big boys" in the market. Find markets that are not into large corporations or who are not serviced well by them and cater to that group.

2. Be Unique and Have Best Atmosphere: Offering a great atmosphere that creates something very unique and interesting. Something they are unlikely to find somewhere else.

3. Service and Quality: If you are a small business provide the highest levels of services and specialization you can. Create relationships and be like a consultant.