"Don’t Talk too Much"!

13, April 2016


‘Study to be quiet.’ 1 Thessalonians 4:11 KJV

Dr Joe R. Brown of Rochester, Minnesota, tells of the frustration he encountered while trying to take a physical history on a patient. The man’s wife kept answering every question. Finally, Dr Brown requested that she leave the room. But after she left he discovered that her husband couldn’t speak. Calling the wife back, Dr Brown apologized for not realizing the man had aphasia—loss of speech—and couldn’t speak a word. The wife was even more astonished—because she didn’t know that he couldn't speak either!  Throughout their marriage, she was always the dominate speaker. The Bible says there’s ‘a time to be silent and a time to speak’ (Ecclesiastes 3:7 NIV).  Why? Because communicating too little can destroy a relationship, and so can talking too much. Sometimes we talk because we’re lonely and have few opportunities to speak to others; other times it’s because we love the sound of our own voice. Whatever your motivation, excessive talking can hurt you. That’s why Paul writes, ‘Study to be quiet’.  To ‘study’ implies striving or intense effort.  And if you have a ‘motor mouth’ it’ll take intense effort and discipline to overcome this entrenched habit. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to say less than you know; sometimes your power in a situation comes from silence, not words.  Anxious people tend to blabber on, and when you’re negotiating that can put you at a distinct disadvantage because it tips the other person off that you’re insecure.  When Jesus stood before Pilate to be judged, ‘He opened not His mouth’ (Isaiah 53:7 NKJV).  Why? Because Jesus wasn’t on trial—Pilate was!  And Jesus knew it. Here’s the bottom line: You usually learn more by listening—so don’t talk too much!

Your Anger Is Doing Damage

07, April 2016

Your Anger Is Doing Damage

‘Do not be quickly provoked.’ Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV

Angry outbursts are destructive in all relationships, especially in your home. Children are the most vulnerable to parental anger, and they mirror their parents’ behavior. We shape our children’s destiny by our words, behaviors and attitudes, and if they’re raised in a home that’s consistently high-volume, they’ll react similarly. Your outbursts are training your children to be hysterical and violent.  Soon everyone will be overreacting, flying into fits of rage and attacking one another. When you exhibit tantrum-like behavior, you’re acting out of a selfish need to get what you want, when you want it, in the way you think you ought to have it.  Please—for your family’s sake—start acting like an adult; exhibit self-control.  ‘Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises’ (Hebrews 6:12 NKJV).   Notice, you must have faith and patience. You may not be able to control what happens in life, but you can certainly control your reaction.  Whether it’s the anger a father brings home from the workplace, or a wife’s anger towards her husband, it can bring a curse.  Simeon and Levi harbored anger in their hearts and became vicious and vindictive murderers. Because of this, a curse came upon them, and the anger was passed down from generation to generation (see Genesis 49).  You must break the curse by resisting the temptation to let anger dictate your behavior.  In the words of James: ‘My dear brothers, take note … Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires’ (James 1:19–20 NIV).

Board of Directors

http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/center-for-corporate-governance/Articles/assessing-the-boards-role.html?id=us:2em:3na:boddigest:awa:ccg:040516#

Time Management

"Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life"

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

'Walk in wisdom... redeeming the time.' Colossians 4:5 NKJV

One of your greatest possessions—is your next twenty-four hours. How will you spend them?  Will you allow television, pointless emails, unimportant tasks, your own impulses, the wrong people or other meaningless distractions to consume your day?  Or will you take control of your time and make today count?  Leadership experts say that focusing on the top 20 per cent of your priorities brings an 80 per cent return on your effort. So when you get up each morning, look in the mirror and say, ‘Today I’ll live my life according to God’s will, and give my energies to the things that help me fulfil it’.  The truth is, there’ll always be things vying for your attention. Advertisers want you to spend money on their products ... And have you noticed how people with nothing to do, usually want to spend their time with you?  Even your own desires can be so diverse and your focus so scattered that you aren’t sure what needs your attention first. That’s why you need to focus like a laser on your God-given purpose. Whatever you concentrate on, you give strength and momentum to. Your priorities determine how you spend your time, so set them prayerfully and maintain them carefully. Eliminate non-essentials. Those who tell you, ‘You can have it all’ are misguided. You can’t do everything you want to do, but you can do everything God wants you to do. You’ve got to choose! Success comes from doing the right things right, and letting the rest go. If you’re not sure what the right things are for you, imagine yourself looking back on your life years from now— which things would you regret not doing?

A Veterans Day Message

In honor of those who served honorably and faithfully to our country.  Thank You!

Each year on November 11, Americans set aside 24 hours to pause, reflect, and honor our nation’s veterans. But to those of us who wore the uniform, every day is Veterans Day. We are constantly flooded with thoughts and memories from places we served and the comrades who stood beside us. Yes, we remember. We remember what we went through. We remember what we were able to accomplish. We remember the good times. We remember the bad times. We remember it all.

But Veterans Day has to be about much more than remembering the past. It is also an opportunity to come together as veterans and decide what kind of future we want to build for ourselves and the nation we risked our lives for.

When we went to war, we went together—we trained together, we fought together. And except for our fallen or severely wounded comrades, we came home together. But now we’re home and we’ve gone our separate ways, and since separating, the billionaire class has been doing everything they can to keep us apart. You see, for as long as there have been wars, young men and women have been asked to leave their jobs, leave their families, pick up arms and go fight. And nearly always those who do the fighting have come from the working class. Yes, the working class and the veteran class are one in the same.

When we are abroad, we’re called heroes. When we came home, we were met with yellow ribbons and assured by politicians of all stripes that our service would not be in vain, that our sacrifices would be honored, and that our country would have our backs.

What has come of those promises? Now that the parades are over, now that war doesn’t warrant a mention on the nightly news, how are we, the veteran class, faring? Well....

Statistics show veterans’ unemployment is going down. But the number of veterans in line at food banks is going up. In other words, many veterans are being forced to live on poverty wages. We fought a war overseas. Now the good jobs we need are potentially going to be shipped overseas by corporations and another unfair trade deal. We have politicians wanting to destroy and privatize our health care system and allow their billionaire friends to profit off the care of veterans.

Simply put: Now that they’re finished with us, we’re under attack. And we should not stand for it.

We should not stand the fact that so many of us fought to ensure our nation had a future and now, in some cases, we’re battling our own government to ensure we have a future of our own. We should not stand the fact that some of our brethren from the recent wars have sold out and use their status to attack fellow veterans. And we should not stand the fact that wages for veterans are being driven down while the fortunes of the billionaire class who have sacrificed nothing continue to grow.

But there’s good news: we can do something about it.

We can organize and again come together as we once did—not divided by the stoked flames of prejudice and bigotry, not quarreling over questions of Democrat and Republican. But together as sisters and brothers and together as the veteran class.

We can organize to fight a new war—our war: a war for our voice, our dignity and our future; a war against greed and against suffering.

That’s exactly what we are doing at the Union Veterans Council. Our job – our purpose – is simply to make the lives of veterans and working people better. To show that the issues facing veterans and those facing working families aren’t independent of each other. To mobilize so that when someone takes off their uniform that they have access to a good job. To advocate so that when someone hangs up their uniform that they are able to access the health care we earned – health care delivered through a strong, fully funded and staffed VA.

We can do this. But only if we organize. And when we do organize, then not only will we fight together, we’ll also win together.

Learn more and join the Union Veterans Council at unionveterans.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Recession Proof Holdings, LLC is proud to be a Certified Veteran Owned Organization.

In Solidarity,

Jeff Murphy, Founder and CEO
Recession Proof Holdings, LLC

THE MEANING OF THE “OUR FATHER” LINE BY LINE

The Lord’s Prayer [the ‘Our Father’] is the most perfect of prayers… In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them” (Thomas Aquinas, cf. CCC 2763).

OUR FATHER:

We can invoke God as “Father” because he is revealed to us by his Son. When we pray the Our Father we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; we recognise that all his promises of love are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in Jesus Christ. We have become his people and he is henceforth our God (cf CCC 2780, 2787, 2789).

WHO ART IN HEAVEN:

Heaven does not refer to a place but to God’s majesty and his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, the Father’s house, is the true homeland towards which we are heading and to which we already belong (cf. CCC 2802, 1 Jn 5:1).

HALLOWED BE THY NAME:

When we say “hallowed be thy name”, we ask that his Name should be sanctified by us and in us, and also in every nation and person (cf. CCC 2814, 2858; Ezek 20:9, 14, 22, 39; 1 Cor 6:11; Lev 20:26; Jn 17:11).

THY KINGDOM COME:

Refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ’s return. The Kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father. We also pray for the growth of the Kingdom of God in our own lives today (cf. 2816, 2818, 2859; Rom 14:17; Tit 2:13).

THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN:

We ask insistently for the will of God (fulfilled in Christ) to be fully realised on earth as it is already in Heaven. Jesus teaches us that one enters the Kingdom of Heaven not by speaking words but by doing the “will of my Father in Heaven” (Mt 7:21). By prayer we can discern “what is the will of God” and obtain the endurance to do it (Rom 12:2; cf. CCC 2823, 2824, 2826; 2 Pet 3:9; Mt 18:14; Heb 10:17).

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD:

“Bread” refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence and also to the ‘bread of life’ that is, the Word of God and the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist (material and spiritual food). “This day” not only refers to that of our mortal time but also the ‘today’ of God. Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father. (CCC 2830, Jn 6:26-58).

AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US:

Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of humans with one another: “so also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Mt 18:23-35). With the example and help of Christ every Christian can forgive even his/her enemies (CCC 2842, 2844).

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION:

We ask God not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle between flesh and spirit. This petition implores the spirit of discernment and strength (cf. CCC 2846; Gal 5:21, Mt 6:21, 24; 1 Cor 10:13).

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL:

The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus’ prayer: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one” (Jn 17:15). When we ask to be delivered from the evil one, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world (cf. CCC 2850, 2854; Jn 8:44; Rev. 12:9; Jn 5:18-19).

Dynamics and Challenges of Business Growth

Growth has traditionally been regarded by academics as the stage of the business lifecycle that follows market entry. Many small companies that were founded during the recent "age of the entrepreneur" have never made it to this next stage, usually due to stagnation or failure. To advance to the growth stage and stay there, all the challenges and changes caused by sustained growth must be well managed, which is no easy task.

Business growth is truly a two-edged sword. When it's controlled and well managed it has the potential of providing tremendous rewards to the managers and shareholders of your company. But when growth is poorly planned and uncontrolled, it often leads to financial distress and failure. Rapid growth for many companies is the only way to survive in highly competitive industries, such as technology, telecommunications, and E-commerce. These companies are faced with a choice of either acting quickly to capture additional market share and build brand recognition or sitting on the sidelines and watching others play the game. But do these competitive conditions justify unplanned and unbridled growth, where sound management, legal and accounting principles are disregarded? Certainly not.

Your business's need to grow must be tempered by the need to understand that meaningful, long-term, profitable growth is the by-product of effective management and planning. A strategy that focuses on sensible and logical growth dictates that a balance be created. You must achieve the organizational flexibility to quickly seize on market opportunities, adapt to changes in the marketplace and develop creative solutions for problems that arise within the context of a controlled and well-managed expansion plan. Failure to create this balance will result in a vulnerability to attack by competitors, creditors, hostile employees, and creative takeover specialists.

A commitment to properly grow your company will invariably trigger the need for management to undertake greater risks. These risks must be managed from a legal perspective. So, too, must the changes that your emerging-growth business is likely to experience in its structure, products and services, markets and capital requirements. Growth means that you'll be hiring employees, and they'll be looking to your company's top management for leadership.

Growth means that your management will become increasingly decentralized, which may create greater levels of internal politics, protectionism, and dissension over the goals and projects that your company should pursue. Growth means that market share will expand, calling for new strategies for dealing with larger competitors. Growth also means that you'll require additional capital, creating new responsibilities to shareholders, investors and institutional lenders Accelerated growth will mean that the risks and changes will occur with greater frequency and with more serious implications.

The requirements and restrictions imposed by the law that affect most business objectives and transactions will typically retard the rate at which your company can grow. The delays caused by legal drafting and negotiation of documents, filings with regulators and meeting statutory requirements, however, are unavoidable and a cost of doing business. Since the law is not likely to go away, take the time to learn the fundamental legal issues that govern your plans and strategies. The specific legal requirements will depend on:  the market segments and industry sectors in which your business operates;  the exact stage of your company's development;  your business's the current and projected capital needs; and  the types of barriers that your company must overcome to achieve its objectives.

Why Do You Want to Grow? A key question to ask is, "What is motivating my desire to grow?" For most entrepreneurs, it comes down to fear, greed or ego, as set forth below. Fear. This may be fear of the competition, technological innovation, becoming obsolete, becoming (or staying) unprofitable, losing key employees, rapidly changing marketing conditions, or just be a general fear of being left out or left behind as a company. These fears become the motivator to grow and remain competitive and viable.

These fears may also manifest themselves into specific growth strategies or influence what paths or new markets the company chooses to penetrate. Greed. The desire to be the biggest, the best, the market leader, the most profitable, the fastest growing, or the highest in profile within the industry can be a strong motivator. The focus is on increasing revenues and profits, maximizing shareholder value and maintaining very aggressive rates of growth.

Companies in this mindset are more likely to choose the capital markets or acquisitions as their preferred method of growth. Ego. This is a more dangerous strategy than being motivated by fear or greed. This type of company has a strong need and desire to be loved by its customers and its employees, even at the potential cost to its shareholders. It is very focused on building brand loyalty, long-term customer relationships, and strong vendor and distribution channels. It may have a larger marketing and public relations budget than its competitors and is more likely to be a media favorite and household name, even if it is not the darling of Wall Street.

These companies typically enjoy entering into strategic relationships with others and helping to build wealth and are more likely to grow through franchising, licensing, joint ventures or even multi-level marketing. The Challenges of Growing Too Quickly It's natural for a successful business to grow, but some small companies, flushed with early successes, try to grow too quickly. They launch new lines of business, expand into unfamiliar regions, hire layers of employees and sign expensive leases.

When growth is not based on careful planning and efficient use of resources, expansion can rapidly spin out of control. These signs of impending trouble can show up early or late in the process: The decision to expand is based more on instinct than on sound financial analysis, market studies or economic conditions. Servicing the debt, you assume to expand begins to consume the added cash flow. You find yourself becoming a stranger to key employees, who have been hired by someone else in the firm. Mounting overhead is squeezing other vital expenditures.

The expansion is generating more media attention or vanity satisfaction for the owner than net profit. Bureaucracy mushrooms: more memos, meetings, manuals, and buck-passing. Less business, service and decision-making. How to Evaluate Your Expansion Plans To protect your company from the dangers of unwise or poorly planned growth, run your plans through these checks. Consider the possibility that your company is expanding in too many directions at once, seeking too large a geographical market, too much market share and too many groups or types of customers with too many different products. Sticking to what you do best is often the surest route to growth.

Federal Express doesn't make hamburgers and McDonald's doesn't deliver packages. Carefully assess your motivations. Growth motivated by ego (you "must have" the target company), an excess of cash or an assumption that the company can carry a lot of debts rarely succeeds. Be sure your financial systems can handle the demands of the expansion. That means cash flow, receivables and payables, inventory management, benefits and pension plans, compensation and shareholders' plans. Be sure your current management structure is capable of handling the expansion. For instance, a hierarchical company in which managers have limited autonomy or decision-making responsibility may not be flexible enough.

RPH