Have you ever noticed how untrusting people are? What is the cause of all this? Is it the media scaring people into believing that everyone is a scam artist? Is it the government causing mistrust amongst the masses to further propel law enforcement agencies, which in turn make more rules and regulations to control? Is it the Internet where everyone runs around using a false “pen name” as they practice deceit?

Recently, I was discussing some possible ideas for someone who wished to start their own business. They asked me some questions and I asked them some questions as well. Then their wife Esmirelda asked George, why is this guy helping you; what is in it for him? I found this interesting, as since when is it wrong to simply help someone or your fellow man? The gentleman then confronted me with this question and told me his wife wanted to know.

So I thought about it, why was I helping this man and discussing such things with him and giving him my advice that he had asked me for? I guess my goals of helping him and his family were somewhat personal; I think my reason for helping include; to keep your family together, help them start their dream small business, delete the stress of George, save their kids from hardship and for fun or intellectual exercise. The business was to be an education center for the arts.

For me I guess my wanting to help stemmed from some other interesting observations I had previously. It was something I saw a video on Education in the World from TED, as I think the speaker, Ken Robinson is right (see this video)

Of course George and his wife, who questioned my integrity to help them, did not waste a minute in asking me if I would invest in their business? So, I thought isn’t it interesting that they had questioned my good nature and then immediately asked me for money? Of course I told them;

I do not see myself as an investor as you are not where I could monitor my investment and I do not wish the stress, I am retired you see? So, no I am not interested in any stake in the company or anything like that, and would not take any shares for FREE even if you offered them, I would decline.

They asked me then my advice on where to find an investor or if I had any thoughts along those lines and of course I did so I said;

Sure I have lots of thoughts, but without a business plan it is ridiculous to even consider approaching anyone who is a REAL investor for something like this. You need a business plan, proforma, artists conception, compelling reason and a good estimation on ROI (return on investment) for the business.

You know what happened next? They decided it was too much work and they decided that unless they had the money and there was a guarantee they would get it if they wrote a business plan; they decided that it was simply too much work. Of course such a lazy attitude and lack of worth ethic is the number two reason people fail in business, the first of course being lack of capital.

Interesting these people challenged me on my good nature to help them isn’t it? I certainly appreciate you reading all my articles on this subject of Winning. Thanks again and Godspeed. Perhaps this article is of interest to propel thought in 2007?

“Lance Winslow” – Online ThinkTank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Tags: philosophical, ethics, question, moral, law

I walked outside to my car and saw a disturbing sight. Someone had keyed the entire passenger side. It had to get fixed. Fortunately, I was covered.

Of course they always hit the best looking side. And they didn’t key my hood, which needed the most touch-up. Some of you are saying, “Hey stupid. Why don’t you claim the hood as part of the damage? Your insurance wouldn’t know the difference.”

Simple. That would be a lie…

It was just prior to Christmas when I ordered a $500 correspondence course with an expiring $50 coupon for a total of $450. It arrived, but on the final week of the year, it goes on sale for $250. I could have returned the course, reordered it under the sale price, and saved $200—but I didn’t.

Was it because I was doing well and didn’t face money challenges? NO. Just the opposite.

You’re thinking I must really be a sap. I got no money coming in on one end, and I’m throwing it away on the other. Just how gullible is your editor?

Hey I don’t like overpaying for anything, but if something was worth the price, then I’ll make an effort to get it. And in this case, the course was worth more than $500. The information alone was worth more than five thousand dollars.

(It’s funny, but when people buy a five thousand dollar item—they treat it like a five thousand dollar item. If they get the exact item for free, it usually collects dust.)

Which leads to the volatile topic of personal integrity…

Do you lie on your income taxes? Do you plagiarize? Do you cheat on your partner? Do you break your word? Do you falsify information? And even more acceptable—do you try to get even?

I’m sure none of you are of this caliber, but let’s assume the rest of the world made these common practices. They believe it’s no big deal to tell a lie because it’s really harmless and besides, everyone gets away with it. Or maybe they’ve been burned by someone who got away with it, so why not join them and do the same to others?

For one thing—this eviscerates the Golden Rule of doing unto others, as you’d have them do unto you:

You don’t want to be a victim of cheating, so why would you become a participant? You don’t want to be taken advantage of, so why join some plot to abuse your talents? You want to reap the good, so why sow to the bad?

And for another thing—what goes around, comes around:

Some call it karma. Others call it sin. Whatever it’s called in your circle—it seems to haunt you later in life. It bites you in the ass and leaves painful marks.

If you want to be treated right, you should treat others right first. If you gossip about others, others will gossip about you. If you profit from the expense of others, others are forming a line to take a shot at you.

But you reason, “You don’t understand. You haven’t been through what I’ve been through. I’ve kept my word – my end of the deal – and I got burned. I’ve got to teach them a lesson!”

Hey, save it. You’ll waste too much time trying to collect what you’re due. It’s usually more profitable to forgive and move on. You won’t become its slave and you’ll sleep better at night.

Here’s what I mean…

My mentor’s books are illegally published in different languages. When he appeared in one of those countries for a keynote, they treated him like a famous rock star. He got the royal treatment and spin-off deals because he didn’t waste time collecting what he was owed. He leveraged his loss of income to make even more money without lifting a finger.

That’s the same power we’ve been granted. We have the power to choose our actions. Do we pursue our wrongdoers, or forgive them?

Tough choices we must make…

Is your editor applying for sainthood? No, not even. This is the same stuff he struggles with.

I was in Chicago for a company launch. My group leader offered his group a discount to join him. I was at the lobby when I met up with him.

The lady from Atlanta was shocked she had to pay full price for her group. She whined to our leader about the discount. To avoid a scene, he joked about it and quickly gave in.

I was next in line. Would I pay full price or would he offer me the same discount? No dice: I paid full.

Now you’re probably surmising: “You’re not a Super Saint—but a Super Sap.”

I disagree. Because it goes far deeper than just dollars and cents. Allow me to explain…

I sought no favor with my leader. He’s well off and doesn’t need the money. He was probably testing me to see if I would whine also. If I got anything from the incident, I think I won his respect. And that can stretch a very long way.

How about you?

Have you won people’s respect? Do they see you as an Institute of Integrity? Do you have a reputation that’s beyond reproach?

Advertise your answers in your daily walk and until we meet again, you have my best wishes.

About the Author:

Tommy Yan helps business owners and entrepreneurs make more money through direct response marketing. He publishes Tommy’s Tease weekly e-zine to inspire people to succeed in business and personal growth. Get your free subscription today at this site.

If you’re a speaker, trainer, coach, or a consultant—the major challenge you face is connecting with your audience. You talk, shout, or recite your message while they are dreaming about dinner. Their eyes are glossy, their minds’ elsewhere, and their bodies ready to bolt. You don’t have a lot of time, so you’ve got to grab their attention fast. Or else, you’ll die wrestling against audience resistance. But it doesn’t have to be this way..

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Tags:ethnics, moral, essay, philosophical, political

888 the operators of casino on net and pacific poker have been accused of stealing webmasters content in an attempt to increase their search engine positions. The practice known as “scraping” is a spam technique and is condemned by all the major search engines. Furthermore the majority of webmasters consider this practice as underhand and disrespectful to other website operators.

Casino affiliate programs, the leading resource for online gambling affiliate programs yesterday announced that it was revoking its certification of the 888 program stating “These illegal activities are negatively impacting thousands of affiliates and online marketers worldwide. There a number of programming teams operating with the approval of 888 Casino which are flooding search engines like Google and Yahoo with thousands of spurious search results. This angers searchers and makes finding legitimate destinations on the internet difficult if not impossible. These rogues are also robbing bandwidth and corrupting web logs with millions of commercial messages all linked to 888 Casino. This abuse of the system tarnishes the image of the industry as a whole and can not be allowed to continue.”

Casino affiliate programs have an active forum within its site with some of the most powerful promoters of online gambling participating in discussions there. The power that they yield together is demonstrated by the search engine results that they can achieve. A page that was set up less than a week ago at http://www.gamesandcasino.com/888/casino one moderator now occupies the top spot in google for the term “888 rogue casino”. Other search terms such as “rogue casino” and “blacklisted casinos” will also provide detailed information on the 888 saga.

Content theft is a serious problem for webmasters. It is essentially the same as somebody duplicating a book that someone else has written and then offering it for half price. The time it takes to scrape a site is minimal. “Content theft is on the rise from countries such as China and the developing world. I spend hours trying to come up with original content only for it to be replicated all over the web weeks later” says Mark Hirst of Bewisebets

Another issue is blog spamming. Blog spamming is where text is written that is of no use to its audience whatsoever. The text often has links inserted into it promoting the spammers site. Examples that have been recorded with regards to 888 are quotes such as

“One would, should he caught a look of terror in her online casino eyes, be a question of waiting for breakfast”

Night and day were 888 the same in this prison room, or daughter, for it was one of the gang. Free betting are you, with sudden glints of gold in it

The highlighted areas are links inserted randomly into blog comments in an attempt to increase the number of links pointing back to a site.

There is some dispute over who is behind this activity. Some say it is affiliates of 888, others claim that it is 888 themselves. Whichever is the case a company the size of the one in question should be taking action against any form of scraping, spamming or copyright theft. At the time of going to press Cassava holdings have declined to enter into a dialogue with Casino affiliate programs stating that they are not interested in a resolution at this time. Casino affiliate programs have requested that 888 introduce the following measures:

“To resolve this issue CAP has been in negotiations with 888 Casino for the last six weeks, but so far they have declined to comply and have stated they are not interested in a resolution at this time.

CAP had been seeking the following action items from 888 Casino on behalf of their affiliate members:

1. Issue a public statement indicating that 888 Casino does not condone nor will they reward content theft or illegal marketing practices by their affiliates or marketing consultants. If affiliates or marketers are discovered to be engaged in these practices their accounts will be closed, they will be banned from the 888 affiliate program and their proceeds or commissions due forfeited.

2. Addition to the Affiliate Program Terms and Conditions a provision stating the above policy.

3. A good faith effort by 888 Casino to adhere to these policies now and in the future.”

Clearly this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated and it is in the interests of all webmasters to make a stand regardless of what industry you are in. If we send a clear message that any webmaster small or large is caught doing these things will be thoroughly hounded by the international web community, then we can stamp this kind of activity out for good.

You can sign a petition that will be sent to google, yahoo and all the other major search engines All you need to do is enter your name and website if you have one. The petition requests that 888 and its partner sites be removed from the search engine indexes until this issue is resolved. Please feel free to sign it even if you are not involved in the industry as theft is theft and together we can make a stand.

Sign the 888 petition here.

For further information on this topic please visit the following links

Casino affiliate programs

Casinomeister

Games and casino

Mark Hirst is an experienced online gambler. You can check out his honest gambling reviews here.

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“”Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.”" ~Spanish Proverb

Watch What You Write or Say. Assume that anything you write or say will be read or heard by everyone in the company. E-mail makes it easy to respond emotionally. Before you respond to an irritating e-mail, take a minute to calm down, then, write the e-mail. If you have a tendency to send harsh messages, save a draft and review it sometime later to ensure the tone is business appropriate.

A corollary to this principle is Happy Hour – don’t go! There is a huge risk of saying something you shouldn’t say, getting out of control, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You should stay out of office politics. Don’t say anything bad about anyone, ever.

Arrive Early and Leave Late, but Not Too Late. You want the reputation of a hard worker, but not one that can’t get their work done. This principle also applies to taking work home. Over the long-term, you want to have a life outside of work. Maintaining a work/life balance will keep you engaged in your job; therefore, more productive.

Find Out What Your Boss Wants and Deliver. Regardless of your personality, relationships, or good looks, you must be productive. For your boss, it means doing what they want, no matter how silly it may seem to you. For example, I had a boss that wanted to know how many Dairy Queens between Dallas and Houston served a particular yogurt.

Always say, “”Yes!”" to a request from leadership. For your boss, there are ways to provide better solutions without damaging the relationship.

“”Always do more than is required of you.”" ~General Patton

Give People Credit. Don’t take credit for yourself. This is important for a variety of reasons. First, you need people to help you get things done. Second, when people recognize people who work for you, you get the credit as well. Third, it’s the right thing to do.

Conclusion

When It Comes to Your Career

1. You’re Responsible

2. Remember Who You Work For

3. Learn the Rules

As Bill Karnes put it, “”Eagles don’t flock; they fly alone. And eagles soar above the rest of their world. So, too, do people who start things, who lead groups or who otherwise set themselves apart from the crowd.”"

Bubble UP! is dedicated to helping you make better choices. We believe choices are the currency that converts the present to the future. Since the Information Age is filled with a blizzard of requests for your attention, traditional time management tools are no longer adequate. That’s why Bubble UP! creates tools that Think Like You Do!

Life Doesn’t Give You One Thing at a Time, Why Does Your Planner?

Visit us here – Organize at the Speed of Thought!

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In a village, there was a slaughterhouse, its owner, butchers and many goats. As time passed the number of goats increased in the slaughterhouse but number of butchers was same.

The owner thought instead of looking for new butchers, lets make one of the goat a butcher. He had a doubt in his mind that a goat might not fit into butchers role, but then he thought “”Lets take a chance and see how it goes. If this experiment succeeds I can make other goats a butcher.”"

The owner picked one wise goat and told him, “”I want to make you a butcher, are you ready for this?”".
Wise goat thought this is a good opportunity and said, “”Yes.”"

Next day the Wise goat came dressed like a butcher. As per rotation policy, it was turn of a goat who was the best friend of the wise goat to get slaughtered. The wise goat grabbed his best friend with a knife in hand.

All other goats cried, “”Wise goat, you are one of us, how can you do this. Don’t you have any ethics?”"

“”I am a butcher now, and to slaughter goats is my role. When I have a role to play I don’t care about ethics and emotions.”", wise goat replied and slaughtered his friend.

I believe if you are a faint hearted goat, don’t become a butcher. Once you become butcher be ready to slaughter any goat.

If you were in place of the wise goat what would have you done?

About Author -

A Simple Person trying to understand this complex world.
Open this Blogs and Read Slaughterhouse Ethics with comments.

I see this world with eyes of a curious child, In my mind questions gallore, All why’s and how’s I want to explore , My Blog is about my endless curiosity, The way I see the world, I am not an expert, neither wise nor gifted, I am The Ignorant, a curious child.

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“Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.” ~Elmer G. Letterman

“The best job goes to the person who can get the job done without coming up with excuses or passing the buck” ~Napolean Hill

What About Politics?

Political Astuteness is something that you may not learn in school; however, it plays a significant role in success in business.

“Man is by nature a political animal.” ~Aristotle

Take Control
It’s important to keep in mind that you are responsible for your own career. Don’t Expect the Human Resources Department to plan your career. In fact, don’t expect anyone else to be concerned about it either.

There have been times in my career when someone has taken an interest in my promotion; however, it has always been in their own best interests to do so. Remember, companies are in business primarily to make money.

Dress for success
There is a clear distinction between how a President, a Senior Vice-President, a Vice-President, and District Manager dress. You should dress just a cut above your current level.

Above Everything, Have Integrity

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” ~Alan Simpson

You will find that the concentration of integrity increases the higher you go in an organization.

Remember Who You Work For

Always Support the Company
It’s true that where your treasure is, your heart will be also. There will be ample opportunities on a daily basis to bash your employer. Resist those opportunities. Keep in mind that (1) you chose this company, (2) they pay you, and (3) you can leave if you want. The leaders of the company will not be impressed by your ability to complain.

Make Your Boss and Your Boss’s Boss Look Good
As a practical matter, you are most likely working to take your boss’s job. Hopefully, your boss will be promoted, which will leave a vacancy. If your boss is not going anywhere, then the next level will have a major impact on your next position.

Who are the Leaders of the Company?
Find out the background of the company executives. What career path did they take? Chances are, they will value those credentials above others. Take note of great people in the company and get connected to them. If possible, find a way to work for them. If not, establish a network with as many of them as possible. The best possibility is to ask one of them be your mentor. You will be surprised how many people will be interested in helping in this regard.

Bubble UP! is dedicated to helping you make better choices. We believe choices are the currency that converts the present to the future. Since the Information Age is filled with a blizzard of requests for your attention, traditional time management tools are no longer adequate. That’s why Bubble UP! creates tools that Think Like You Do!

Life Doesn’t Give You One Thing at a Time, Why Does Your Planner?

Visit us on the web at here – Organize at the Speed of Thought!

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Tags: ethics, quotes, business, professionalism , philosophical