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Thursday, December 8, 2011

When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great.


An economics professor made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class "... All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work and sit around protesting because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Planning for 2012

It's that time of year when I begin contemplating about how my year turned out and what I need to do, or plan to do for next year. Because of that, I created a checklist of questions for my contractor friends to help you plan for the new year. This is simply a list of things to get you thinking on some possible improvements in your life and business.
What are the obvious issues and challenges that have propped up over and over again that need resolution so that it doesn't repeat in 2012? (make a plan of action for resolution)
What are the training needs of your employees and what could be done to fulfill those needs? Include yourself in this group.
Take time to evaluate new technologies and software that will enhance and improve your business objectives and personal productivity.
What kind of things do you need to stop doing that really add no value to your career or business?
What kind of things do you need to start doing that adds value to your career and business?
Take some time to evaluate all of your financials and determine what part of your business may need some attention, change, updating etc. to reduce overhead, and increase net profit margin.
Make it a point to solicit ideas and recommendations from your team members. Believe me, I've got some of the best ideas from the folks on the front lines. Unfortunately in most cases they are never listened to. So try listening and if it pays off, they should be rewarded accordingly.