Failure.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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They say that success breeds success and to a great extent that is true. If, for example, you have a successful business it can give you the confidence and the cash to acquire or set up another.

But is the opposite also true? Does failure breed failure?

I think it does. Most people tend to get the confidence knocked out of them when they fail. That’s why most never really succeed after one or two set backs. Some are so afraid of failure that they won’t even try the first time.

But, when they fail, some do get up, dust themselves down, and try again. And they are the ones who prove that failing a few times can, in the long run, actually lead to greater success that would otherwise have been the case.

Most of the world’s greatest serial entrepreneurs have had their failures. Some have even been bankrupt or been close to it. It may have dented their confidence a little and made them more cautious for the next time, but it didn’t stop them trying and that’s the key to real success.

Sure, plan well, be smart, work hard and all those good things, but don’t give up.

Does that mean you are bound to succeed? Well, no it doesn’t. There can always be extenuating circumstances well out of your control that makes things go wrong, but on average you should come out ahead. And you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you did your best and that’s as much as any of us can hope for.

It also helps if you set you sights at a realistic level. Barring a highly unlikely win on the lotto you won’t become a millionaire overnight, no matter how many of those self-help books you buy or how many internet webinars you attend. Nor will you become a Hollywood superstar if you move to L.A. and fill in the time waiting tables in the hope that some famous producer will stop by and ‘discover’ you.

Winston Churchill perhaps summarized it best when he said that success was going from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm. Be sensible and it may be success that waits round the corner for you.

 

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Want A Little Latitude? Okay, It’s Quiz Day!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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You’ll get the title when you read the first question.

And there are nineteen more to test your general knowledge.

As usual if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!

Enjoy and good luck.

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Q  1: Which line of latitude is at 66º33’ N?

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Q 2: What is ‘nacre’ commonly known as?

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Q 3: Which two countries comprise the island of Hispaniola?

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Q 4: What does a ‘spelunker’ explore?

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Q 5: The New Shekel is the currency of which country?

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Q 6: What is the fatty substance found naturally on sheep’s wool and used in ointments and cosmetics called?

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Q 7: This one might make you gasp, which gas makes up approximately 21% of air?

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Q 8: Used in jewellery, what’s the fossilized resin of pine trees called?

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Q 9: What is the world’s largest animal-made structure?

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Q 10: From which country do Proton cars come?

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Q 11: Mosul, Arbil and Basra are among the principal cities in which country?

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Q 12: What is the common name for loss of peripheral sight?

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Q 13: Dry ice is a frozen form of which gas?

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Q 14: Which capital city has a name that means “good airs” in English?

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Q 15: What is the opposite of a ‘Concave’ lens?

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Q 16: On which canal can the Gatun and Miraflores Locks be found?

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Q 17: When would you use VOIP, and what do the letters ‘V – O – I – P’ stand for?

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Q 18: What does a lepidopterist collect?

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Q 19: What is the largest fish in the world?

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Q 20: London born Miss Adkins is better known by which name?

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ANSWERS

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Q 1: Which line of latitude is at 66º33’ N?

A 1: Artic circle

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Q 2: What is ‘nacre’ commonly known as?

A 2: Mother of Pearl

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Q 3: Which two countries comprise the island of Hispaniola?

A 3: Dominican Republic and Haiti

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Q 4: What does a ‘spelunker’ explore?

A 4: Caves

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Q 5: The New Shekel is the currency of which country?

A 5: Israel

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Q 6: What is the fatty substance found naturally on sheep’s wool and used in ointments and cosmetics called?

A 6: Lanolin

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Q 7: This one might make you gasp, which gas makes up approximately 21% of air?

A 7: Oxygen

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Q 8: Used in jewellery, what’s the fossilized resin of pine trees called?

A 8: Amber

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Q 9: What is the world’s largest animal-made structure?

A 9: The Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast.

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Q 10: From which country do Proton cars come?

A 10: Malaysia

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Q 11: Mosul, Arbil and Basra are among the principal cities in which country?

A 11: Iraq

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Q 12: What is the common name for loss of peripheral sight?

A 12: Tunnel vision

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Q 13: Dry ice is a frozen form of which gas?

A 13: Carbon Dioxide

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Q 14: Which capital city has a name that means “good airs” in English?

A 14: Buenos Aires

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Q 15: What is the opposite of a ‘Concave’ lens?

A 15: Convex

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Q 16: On which canal can the Gatun and Miraflores Locks be found?

A 16: The Panama Canal

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Q 17: When would you use VOIP, and what do the letters ‘V – O – I – P’ stand for?

A 17: To make a telephone call on the internet, the letters stand for Voice Over Internet Protocol

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Q 18: What does a lepidopterist collect?

A 18: Butterflies (and moths)

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Q 19: What is the largest fish in the world?

A 19: The whale shark

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Q 20: London born Miss Adkins is better known by which name?

A 20: Adele

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Why Are The Bureaucrats Destroying What Made America Great?

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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The Sunday Sermon

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Since the government and bureaucrats in the United States abandoned the business-friendly environment that made the country the greatest and wealthiest nation on earth, and replaced that with a legislative and wealth redistributing strategy that is anything but business-friendly, there has been a growing trend for successful companies to leave the US.

It should have been obvious – and indeed it was – to everyone but the morons in Washington. 

 

The latest to try to make a move out of the United States is the pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, currently based outside Chicago, Illinois, but not for much longer if they get their way.

Using a $53 billion acquisition of the Jersey-registered, Irish-headquartered global specialty biopharmaceutical company “Shire”, a deal that will allow Abbvie to reincorporate elsewhere, it plans to leave the high tax US for a more advantageous business environment.

By making this move and escaping United States tax rates, Abbvie will pay lower taxes on its international earnings, get access to overseas cash more cheaply, and be able to acquire other companies without making their earnings subject to United States taxes.

And Abbvie is not alone.

There has been a rush of companies wanting to get out of the United States. Health care companies in particular, such as Medtronic, Mylan, Actavis, Perrigo, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Endo, have pursued these “inversion deals”, as they are called, with particular zeal.

The moral of the story is simply this.

When a country forgets what has made it great and instead turns into something quite the opposite, all the reasons for its greatness disappear. And the United States is doing this at a time when it is heavily in debt – the most indebted nation in the world by a long way.

The short-termism of trying to grab as much money as possible from companies and individuals will end in failure and disaster for all. People like Obama try to put a fancy misleading name on it and call it “wealth redistribution”. What it really is, is a major disincentive for anyone to want to set up and do business in the United States.

And as you would expect, the idiots in Washington aren’t scratching their heads and wondering why more and more companies are opting to leave the US. Instead the bureaucrats are trying to think of ways to make it illegal for companies like Abbvie to adopt this strategy. 

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has already sent letters to senior members of Congress, encouraging them to pass legislation halting inversions. The legislation being considered by some lawmakers would be retroactive, and if passed, could impede AbbVie’s ability to reincorporate overseas.

And proving that stupidity is a cross party phenomenon, on Thursday, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, responded to calls from the Obama administration to crack down on inversions by saying he supported a short-term fix, although he suggested that the administration’s initial proposal went too far.

It seems fairly logical in my mind that the way to stop this growing exodus, which in the longer term will leave the US a lot poorer and a lot more of its citizens out of work, is to legislate to reduce tax bills, not increase them; to give businesses an incentive to invest and expand in the United States, not to drive them away; and to encourage entrepreneurs to relocate TO the US rather than scramble to get out.

Of course, that’s just in my head. All that is in the heads of the idiot bureaucrats in Washington is self-defeating rubbish like increase minimum wages, increase healthcare contributions, increase taxation, introduce capital controls, increase government bureaucracy so more debt is piled up and the USD$ weakens further, and of course start a few more wars to distract the people from the mess that is being made at home.

So, to pose the question in the title of this post again, why are the bureaucrats destroying what made America great?

Your guess is as good as mine, although while some obviously have malicious intent, I wouldn’t entirely rule out plain old stupidity!

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I Just Knew I Was Going To Get Thrown Out Of The Optimism Society.

 “Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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And if you were an optimist who thought there would be no puns in June, then your membership of the society is in doubt too.

Here’s the latest batch.

Enjoy or endure!

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Some people have a way with words,

others not have way.

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My friend received an email yesterday asking him

to send trouser zips to the address provided.

I told him to ignore it,

it sounds like they are fly phishing.

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I thought growing my own lettuce would be difficult

but it was quite easy in the end.

It’s not rocket science.

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A policeman asked me to come down

to the station for an interview.

I haven’t even applied for a job there.

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This linguistics professor was lecturing the class.

“In English,” he explained, “a double negative forms a positive.

In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative.”

“However,” the professor continued, “there is no language wherein

a double positive can form a negative.”

Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up:

“Yeah….. right….”

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I remember when my parents died,

all they left me was a globe.

It meant the world to me….

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If I had a billion pounds

for every time I underestimated…

I would be a millionaire.

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My mate Steven, who shares the same name as me,

thought it was funny to erase the letters ‘St’ from my pencil case.

So, during break, I did the same to his.

Now we’re even.

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My father worked in a steel fabrication plant.

They didn’t produce anything,

they just said they did.

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Jimmy: “Can I ask you a question?”

Ted: “Sure, what is it?”

Jimmy: “It’s an interrogative statement, used to test knowledge.”

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I have no idea what the opposite of imagination is.

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After hearing my son saying,

“I want to be good with acoustic,”

I decided to buy him a guitar.

Turns out he wanted a pool cue.

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The Internet now has the second largest collection of jokes in the world…

The House of Representatives is still hanging on to the top spot.

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I told my mum I was going out for a walk.

She said, “How long will you be gone?”

I said, “Probably the whole time”

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Look, at the end of the day

….. it’s night!

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