MEMORIAL DAY – Remember and Honor the Fallen

Congratulation Graduates!

THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING YOUR BED. Its that time of year, when parents and graduates endure interminable ceremonies with boring speakers as the right of passage to the next part of their lives.

Here is one of my favorite and definitely not boring and very memorable commencement addresses. Then Navy Seal and Commander of U.S. Special Forces Command, Admiral William McRaven offered 2014 grads at the University of Texas at Austin some advice on changing the world, including not underestimating the number of people whose lives will be affected by theirs …. and the importance of starting every day by making your bed properly (no kidding).  

Click here for the video and transcript of the Admiral’s talk which was featured on the WSJ editorial page as well.  This one went viral!

Admiral (retired) McRaven is currently Chancellor of the University of Texas System.

Floating or Swimming?

That’s the question that the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson once mused about in a letter to a friend who was asking Thompson’s advice about what goal to purse in life. Thompson, only 22 when he penned this letter in 1958, offered some advice worthy of a commencement speech itself in considering the ordering of one’s life; in particular that “a man who procrastinates in this choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” 

168 is Enough

Someone once said that we are all created equal in only one way: We all have 24 hours in the day;168 hours in the week.

Vistage Speaker and sales and sales management expert Jack Daly offers some simple but compelling ways to get more out of the one resource you can’t more of. Check out his blog posting “168”, and get a new lease on the hours that constitute your life.Like Jack, you’ll find that 168s hour each week is enough to accomplish your goals, if we’re smart about managing them.

Econ Recon:

Stagnation NOT: Several economists have written books and articles bemoaning the apparent slowing growth of productivity in recent years, despite the seemingly endless introduction of new technology. Many feel this is causing a permanent stagnation. Economist Brian Wesbury disagrees, holding that business productivity is fine, but one of the other major sectors of the economy is holding the overall productivity number down (can you guess which one it is?).

Take five minutes for his latest Wesbury 101 Video in which he explains why “There is NO Great Stagnation.” 

When the Slowdown Comes: Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics continues to forecast a growing economy for the near term; but every expansion at some point turns around.  Spend a few minutes with Dr. Beaulieu as he explains what will cause the next inevitable slowdown