You Can Start a Business or Have a Success After Age 50

A Couple of Brief History Lessons Lesson 1: People Who Started a Business After Age 50 Joseph Campbell – started Campbell's Soup at age 52 Ray Kroc – started McDonald's at age 52 Arianna Huffington – started the Huffington Post at age 54 Estée Lauder – founded Estée Lauder at age 54 Ferdinand Porsche – founded Porsche at age 56 Kawasaki Shozo – founded Kawasaki Heavy Industries at age 59 Amadeo Giannini – founded Bank of America at age 60 Charles Flint – started IBM at age 61 Wally Blume – started Denali Flavors at age 62 Col. Harlan Sanders…

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Building an Environment for Meaningful Work

Does your work allow you to alternate between tasks that use your hands and body and those that use your mind? Does your work allow you to experience many different jobs, never remaining in one position for too long? Can you alternate between solitary work, where you exercise personal responsibility and group work, where you share work responsibilities? Do you have enough responsibility and authority to effectively execute your work duties? Can you use your imagination and resources to solve your work challenges or are you forced to follow someone else's idea about the "best" way to do things? When…

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Finding Meaningful Work (craft as right livelihood business).

What’s Wrong With the Way We Think About Business?

It's Just Business. It's not Personal. Two sets of wishful thinking have thus far dominated trade and industry: The "free enterprise" practices of "pure" capitalism, including minimal regulation and private ownership of production, distribution, and exchange. The business school tropes of profit maximization, capital accumulation, and "free market" competition. I call these "wishful thinking" because they hide the true costs of unregulated business. These include Poverty. Environmental degradation. Crumbling infrastructure. Declining levels of education. Inadequate or expensive healthcare. Lower than fair compensation to workers. Accumulation of vast wealth into the hands of the few. When the wealth generated by the…

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Grapes of an abundant harvest.

Technology is not the focus.

Technology is not the focus. It's the connection the technology makes possible Human augmentation by technology is now available to everyone, everywhere. We can hold in our hands, immense computing power. We are connected, one to another, through the global network we variously call the Internet, Web, or Interweb. This communication and augmentation means that in today's world, business can be, and increasingly is, much more than "just business." This revolutionary change is an evolutionary shift. The revolution and evolution are of connection, not technology. Technology is not the focus. Technology is the facilitator making it all possible. More each…

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Business team meeting and working at office desk, hands top view, unrecognizable people, blank copy space

Charlie Varon’s Year in Review (5783/2023)

The other day, I was looking at Charlie Varon's website for some inspiration (he frequently inspires me) and I encountered his "The Year Year in Review: 5783." That's 5783 on the Hebrew calendar which just ended on September 15, 2023 of the modern calendar. He and his collaborators created an inspiring review of the 12 months from September 2022 to September 2023. It is worldly and thoughtful and includes both good things and bad. I found it quite inspiring. You can find it at: https://www.charlievaron.com/yearinreview About CharlieSome of you have undoubtedly enjoyed performances by Charlie Varon. Charlie is an author,…

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Charlie Varon

People Don’t Buy Products or Services

That's right! People don't buy products or services. They buy a way to rid themselves of: a pain a problem a challenge Or they buy to fill: a desire a need. They want solutions. They also want Courtesy Friendliness Honesty If you give them these, they'll choose you every time over anyone who gives less. My old mentor Michael Phillips taught his apprentices that the whole transaction of the exchange of goods and services. should be the basic unit of observation. This is contrary to contemporary economic theory’s focus on the basic unit of observation as money (or its equivalent).…

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Mindfulness & Right Livelihood

Meaningful Work Food for Thought "We rush too much with nervous hands and worried minds. We are impatient for results. What we need . . . is reinforcement of the soul by the invisible power waiting to be used." Henry Ford Henry Ford is the ultimate icon of the twins genius and demon. His was a fabulous commercial success and he had a high level of concern for the welfare of his employees. Yet his factories polluted, he conspired to dominate his suppliers and crush his competition, and his people were dumped on the street if they could not adjust…

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Good Work and Your Work Portfolio

There are many ways to organize a work portfolio. Gleanings from planet Briarpatch have revealed a simple portfolio model based on the activities required to become and remain visible to your potential supporters and fans. A majority of these activities involve communications in support of increasing trust, building relationships, and delivering meaningful, value-rich products and/or experiences. A Simple Model of Seven Activities for Creating the Good Work Lifestyle Think About It Write About It Speak About It Teach About It Coach About It Consult About It Productize It These activities generally proceed in the order listed, though there may be…

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