How I'm voting on the issues being put before we
voters in this election:
State Questions
No on Amendment 38: Petitions.
No on Amendment 39: School District Spending Requirements.
Yes on Amendment 40: Term Limits for Judges.
No on Amendment 41: New "ethics in government" bureaucracy. Just enforce existing laws.
No on Amendment 42: Colorado Minimum Wage.
Yes on Amendment 43: Marriage.
No on Amendment 44: Marijuana Possession.
Yes on Referendum E: Property Tax Deduction for Disabled Vets.
Yes on Referendum F: Recall Deadlines.
Yes on Referendum G: Obsolete Constitutional Provisions.
Yes on Referendum H: Limiting a State Business Income Tax Deduction.
No on Referendum I: Domestic Partnerships.
No on Referendum J: School District Spending Requirements.
No on Referendum K: Immigration Lawsuit Against Federal Government.
Denver Questions
No on 1A: New Preschool Bureaucracy (just make the Denver School Board P-12.)
No on 2A: New Financial Bureaucracy (only makes sense if we get rid of the City Auditor & all of his staff and office overhead.)
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Whenever guilt is used as a tool to get people to do anything—good, bad, indifferent—it's bullying. And then there's manipulative language—to talk people into programs, to get them involved, usually by promising them something.
I have a friend who is an expert at this sort of thing. He's always saying, "You've got to identify people's felt needs. Then you construct a program to meet the felt needs." It's pretty easy to manipulate people. We're so used to being manipulated by the image industry, the publicity industry, and the politicians that we hardly know we're being manipulated.
This impatience to leave the methods of Jesus in order to get the work of Jesus done is what destroys spirituality, because we're using a non-biblical, non-Jesus way to do what Jesus did. That's why spirituality is in such a mess as it is today...
Something backfires on you when you're impatient. How do we meet the need? Do we do it in Jesus' way or do we do it the Wal-Mart way?
Spirituality is not about ends or benefits or things; it's about means. It's about how you do this. How do you live in reality?
So, how do you help all these people? The needs are huge. Well, you do it the way Jesus did it. You do it one at a time. You can't do gospel work, kingdom work in an impersonal way.
We live in the Trinity. Everything we do has to be in the context of the Trinity, which means personally, relationally. The minute you start doing things impersonally, functionally, mass oriented, you deny the gospel. Yet that's all we do.
Jesus is the Truth and the Life, but first he's the Way. We can't do Jesus' work in the Devil's way.
Eugene H. Peterson in Christianity Today
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/march/26.42.html
The Lord's Prayer in Peterson's The Message-- The Bible in Contemporary Language
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.
http://www.navpress.com/BibleProducts/
I have a friend who is an expert at this sort of thing. He's always saying, "You've got to identify people's felt needs. Then you construct a program to meet the felt needs." It's pretty easy to manipulate people. We're so used to being manipulated by the image industry, the publicity industry, and the politicians that we hardly know we're being manipulated.
This impatience to leave the methods of Jesus in order to get the work of Jesus done is what destroys spirituality, because we're using a non-biblical, non-Jesus way to do what Jesus did. That's why spirituality is in such a mess as it is today...
Something backfires on you when you're impatient. How do we meet the need? Do we do it in Jesus' way or do we do it the Wal-Mart way?
Spirituality is not about ends or benefits or things; it's about means. It's about how you do this. How do you live in reality?
So, how do you help all these people? The needs are huge. Well, you do it the way Jesus did it. You do it one at a time. You can't do gospel work, kingdom work in an impersonal way.
We live in the Trinity. Everything we do has to be in the context of the Trinity, which means personally, relationally. The minute you start doing things impersonally, functionally, mass oriented, you deny the gospel. Yet that's all we do.
Jesus is the Truth and the Life, but first he's the Way. We can't do Jesus' work in the Devil's way.
Eugene H. Peterson in Christianity Today
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/march/26.42.html
The Lord's Prayer in Peterson's The Message-- The Bible in Contemporary Language
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.
http://www.navpress.com/BibleProducts/
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Starting a business: What it takes
Updated 8/1/2006 11:55 AM ET
What attributes suggest someone's a good candidate to start their own business?
A college degree doesn't hurt — though dropping out didn't stop Bill Gates from launching the world's biggest software maker. Being rich would solve the problem of start-up financing — yet Sam Walton got his start in business on not much more than a wing and a prayer.
There are no definitive answers, but the entrepreneurs, private investors and academics USA TODAY's Jim Hopkins talked with suggested these experiences, traits and skills.
Childhood experience
You didn't rely on allowances and other handouts from your parents for spending money when you were young. You set up a weekend lawn-mowing business — and hired friends to work for you. Or you franchised your lawn-mowing service idea to other kids in the neighborhood. "It's very common for adult entrepreneurs to be those who started lemonade stands or went house-to-house trying to make money when they were children," says Leann Mischel, a management professor and entrepreneur at Susquehanna University's Sigmund Weis School of Business.
Entrepreneurial genes
SMALL BUSINESS CONECTION: Tips and tricks for the entrepreneurial mind
In the nurture vs. nature debate, there's new research showing that the drive to start companies may be genetic. Researchers compared self-employment among 609 pairs of identical twins and 657 pairs of fraternal twins in the United Kingdom. They found that nearly half — 48% — of an individual's tendency to be self-employed is genetic. For example, genes leading someone to be extroverted are key to salesmanship — a vital trait among entrepreneurs, says Scott Shane, an entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University and one of the study's authors. There's also evidence people with dyslexia are more likely to become entrepreneurs. London's Cass Business School says entrepreneurs in a study of 215 managers were five times as likely as corporate managers to have dyslexia. Why? Dyslexia forces people to hunt for creative ways to steer through life. Famous entrepreneurs with dyslexia include discount stockbroker Charles Schwab and Virgin's Richard Branson.
Family support
Prepare for crazy-long hours, including weekends, during a company's start-up phase — a work load that's also taxing for an entrepreneur's family. And vacations? What are those? About two-thirds of small-business owners said they planned to take a vacation of a week or more this summer, but more than half planned to check in with their companies at least once daily, American Express found in a survey. "Starting a business can require 80-to-100-hour weeks," Mark Ciavarella, an assistant management professor at Bucknell University, said in an e-mail. "Many spouses/partners don't understand this and won't tolerate it." As start-up adviser Ralph Sherman of Createabank near Detroit said, you know you're an entrepreneur when "your family has been looking for your picture on a milk carton."
Money doesn't motivate
Two of the USA's most famous entrepreneurs — Bill Gates at Microsoft and Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway — are also the two richest Americans. But they were driven to create great companies, not just huge fortunes. Indeed, Gates and Buffett are combining their riches to create a $60 billion philanthropic powerhouse in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Entrepreneurs are much more interested in 'wealth' rather than 'riches,' " says Scott Laughlin, director of the University of Maryland's tech entrepreneurship program. Riches are piles of money, he says; wealth is broader, encompassing less-tangible rewards such as respect and independence. So, would-be entrepreneurs need to examine how they expect to be rewarded. "If the compensation is just cash," Laughlin says, "then the practice of entrepreneurship will not be very rewarding."
Passion
You don't just think you've built a better mousetrap — you feel it in your gut, and know the world will be much better if only you can get your idea to market. "When something is important to you, then you know it with your heart as well as your brain," says Bob Barbato, a management and entrepreneurship professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. "You infect others with your passion, and they believe in you."
The flip side of passion is impatience with other people's ideas, says Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, which helps start-ups led by women find investors. The would-be entrepreneur's attitude, Millman says: "I know what I want to do, and I know how to do it." Conventional wisdom 20 years ago said a black woman from rural Mississippi would have a tough time launching a career as a TV host on even the lowest-rated show. But one such woman went to launch her own company, Harpo Productions. And now, Oprah Winfrey is one of TV's biggest stars, ruling over an estimated $1.4 billion fortune.
Pragmatism
As passionate as entrepreneurs must be to drive start-ups forward, they also know when to cut losses. "Know when to give up on an idea," says Lou Marino, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. "Not every idea an entrepreneur has is going to be a home run." Giving up doesn't necessarily mean the business idea was bad. Instead, it might be the right idea at the wrong time — as was the case with thousands of dot-coms launched in the late 1990s before household high-speed Internet access became widespread, making viable all the offerings those dot-coms hoped to sell.
Risk-taking
You know start-up success isn't guaranteed. Still, you don't flinch at the thought of betting your severance pay or retirement savings on self-employment. Would-be entrepreneurs are calculated risk-takers — like world-class mountaineers, says Vineet Buch, a principal at venture-capital firm BlueRun Ventures in Silicon Valley's Menlo Park. "They hammer in protection on the way to the top, but don't let the thought of falling slow their steps as the slope gets steeper and narrower," he says. "True entrepreneurs strive to control risk while still thriving on it." Martha Stewart risked leaving the safety net of publishing giant Time in 1996 to launch her Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She successfully took that company public, becoming one of the world's most famous entrepreneurs.
Strong ethics
Start-ups depend heavily on good first impressions when entrepreneurs hire employees, court investors and line up customers. In a hyper-competitive economy, any whiff of dishonesty can deep-six a new enterprise. Penn State University's Anthony Warren, who advises venture capitalists, says honesty and trustworthiness are high on the list of attributes he looks for when he considers recommending a venture to potential investors. "Who wants to be in business with someone you cannot fully trust, especially in the start-up phase where the stress levels are high?" says Warren, director of the school's Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, famously created a "don't be evil" mantra when they took their online search giant public.
Tech ease
Feeling comfortable with technology is crucial, because computers, software and other gadgets are key to launching a business in the fastest-growing economy, the service sector. Start-up costs there have plummeted as prices fell for powerful computers and software. Those lower prices came as the Internet let entrepreneurs tap global markets for engineering, accounting and other services. Setting up a small office with a laptop, fax machine, cellphone and other gizmos costs as little as $5,000. Add a professional-looking website for $500 or so, and you can compete with bigger, more established companies. But you can't take advantage of those lower costs if you aren't comfortable using popular word-processing, database, spreadsheet and presentation programs.
Tenacity
Sometimes the best business ideas fail to take hold — not because there isn't demand, but because the start-up was undercapitalized, or the entrepreneur lacked management know-how or simply gave up too soon. "If you really believe in it, you keep fighting for it," says Earl "Butch" Graves, president and CEO of Black Enterprise, the magazine founded by his father, Earl Sr. One-third of new small employers fail within two years; and 56% are toast after four years, says the Small Business Administration. About 672,000 small employers launched last year — but 545,000 others closed, the SBA says. A nobody entrepreneur who started a variety store in Arkansas in 1945 eventually lost the business when his landlord wouldn't renew his lease. But he didn't give up. "I've never been one to dwell on reverses," Sam Walton recalled in his autobiography, "and I didn't do so then." The company he fought to start, Wal-Mart, is now the USA's biggest private employer, with more than 1.3 million workers.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2006-07-30-starting-your-business_x.htm
Updated 8/1/2006 11:55 AM ET
What attributes suggest someone's a good candidate to start their own business?
A college degree doesn't hurt — though dropping out didn't stop Bill Gates from launching the world's biggest software maker. Being rich would solve the problem of start-up financing — yet Sam Walton got his start in business on not much more than a wing and a prayer.
There are no definitive answers, but the entrepreneurs, private investors and academics USA TODAY's Jim Hopkins talked with suggested these experiences, traits and skills.
Childhood experience
You didn't rely on allowances and other handouts from your parents for spending money when you were young. You set up a weekend lawn-mowing business — and hired friends to work for you. Or you franchised your lawn-mowing service idea to other kids in the neighborhood. "It's very common for adult entrepreneurs to be those who started lemonade stands or went house-to-house trying to make money when they were children," says Leann Mischel, a management professor and entrepreneur at Susquehanna University's Sigmund Weis School of Business.
Entrepreneurial genes
SMALL BUSINESS CONECTION: Tips and tricks for the entrepreneurial mind
In the nurture vs. nature debate, there's new research showing that the drive to start companies may be genetic. Researchers compared self-employment among 609 pairs of identical twins and 657 pairs of fraternal twins in the United Kingdom. They found that nearly half — 48% — of an individual's tendency to be self-employed is genetic. For example, genes leading someone to be extroverted are key to salesmanship — a vital trait among entrepreneurs, says Scott Shane, an entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University and one of the study's authors. There's also evidence people with dyslexia are more likely to become entrepreneurs. London's Cass Business School says entrepreneurs in a study of 215 managers were five times as likely as corporate managers to have dyslexia. Why? Dyslexia forces people to hunt for creative ways to steer through life. Famous entrepreneurs with dyslexia include discount stockbroker Charles Schwab and Virgin's Richard Branson.
Family support
Prepare for crazy-long hours, including weekends, during a company's start-up phase — a work load that's also taxing for an entrepreneur's family. And vacations? What are those? About two-thirds of small-business owners said they planned to take a vacation of a week or more this summer, but more than half planned to check in with their companies at least once daily, American Express found in a survey. "Starting a business can require 80-to-100-hour weeks," Mark Ciavarella, an assistant management professor at Bucknell University, said in an e-mail. "Many spouses/partners don't understand this and won't tolerate it." As start-up adviser Ralph Sherman of Createabank near Detroit said, you know you're an entrepreneur when "your family has been looking for your picture on a milk carton."
Money doesn't motivate
Two of the USA's most famous entrepreneurs — Bill Gates at Microsoft and Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway — are also the two richest Americans. But they were driven to create great companies, not just huge fortunes. Indeed, Gates and Buffett are combining their riches to create a $60 billion philanthropic powerhouse in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Entrepreneurs are much more interested in 'wealth' rather than 'riches,' " says Scott Laughlin, director of the University of Maryland's tech entrepreneurship program. Riches are piles of money, he says; wealth is broader, encompassing less-tangible rewards such as respect and independence. So, would-be entrepreneurs need to examine how they expect to be rewarded. "If the compensation is just cash," Laughlin says, "then the practice of entrepreneurship will not be very rewarding."
Passion
You don't just think you've built a better mousetrap — you feel it in your gut, and know the world will be much better if only you can get your idea to market. "When something is important to you, then you know it with your heart as well as your brain," says Bob Barbato, a management and entrepreneurship professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. "You infect others with your passion, and they believe in you."
The flip side of passion is impatience with other people's ideas, says Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, which helps start-ups led by women find investors. The would-be entrepreneur's attitude, Millman says: "I know what I want to do, and I know how to do it." Conventional wisdom 20 years ago said a black woman from rural Mississippi would have a tough time launching a career as a TV host on even the lowest-rated show. But one such woman went to launch her own company, Harpo Productions. And now, Oprah Winfrey is one of TV's biggest stars, ruling over an estimated $1.4 billion fortune.
Pragmatism
As passionate as entrepreneurs must be to drive start-ups forward, they also know when to cut losses. "Know when to give up on an idea," says Lou Marino, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. "Not every idea an entrepreneur has is going to be a home run." Giving up doesn't necessarily mean the business idea was bad. Instead, it might be the right idea at the wrong time — as was the case with thousands of dot-coms launched in the late 1990s before household high-speed Internet access became widespread, making viable all the offerings those dot-coms hoped to sell.
Risk-taking
You know start-up success isn't guaranteed. Still, you don't flinch at the thought of betting your severance pay or retirement savings on self-employment. Would-be entrepreneurs are calculated risk-takers — like world-class mountaineers, says Vineet Buch, a principal at venture-capital firm BlueRun Ventures in Silicon Valley's Menlo Park. "They hammer in protection on the way to the top, but don't let the thought of falling slow their steps as the slope gets steeper and narrower," he says. "True entrepreneurs strive to control risk while still thriving on it." Martha Stewart risked leaving the safety net of publishing giant Time in 1996 to launch her Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She successfully took that company public, becoming one of the world's most famous entrepreneurs.
Strong ethics
Start-ups depend heavily on good first impressions when entrepreneurs hire employees, court investors and line up customers. In a hyper-competitive economy, any whiff of dishonesty can deep-six a new enterprise. Penn State University's Anthony Warren, who advises venture capitalists, says honesty and trustworthiness are high on the list of attributes he looks for when he considers recommending a venture to potential investors. "Who wants to be in business with someone you cannot fully trust, especially in the start-up phase where the stress levels are high?" says Warren, director of the school's Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, famously created a "don't be evil" mantra when they took their online search giant public.
Tech ease
Feeling comfortable with technology is crucial, because computers, software and other gadgets are key to launching a business in the fastest-growing economy, the service sector. Start-up costs there have plummeted as prices fell for powerful computers and software. Those lower prices came as the Internet let entrepreneurs tap global markets for engineering, accounting and other services. Setting up a small office with a laptop, fax machine, cellphone and other gizmos costs as little as $5,000. Add a professional-looking website for $500 or so, and you can compete with bigger, more established companies. But you can't take advantage of those lower costs if you aren't comfortable using popular word-processing, database, spreadsheet and presentation programs.
Tenacity
Sometimes the best business ideas fail to take hold — not because there isn't demand, but because the start-up was undercapitalized, or the entrepreneur lacked management know-how or simply gave up too soon. "If you really believe in it, you keep fighting for it," says Earl "Butch" Graves, president and CEO of Black Enterprise, the magazine founded by his father, Earl Sr. One-third of new small employers fail within two years; and 56% are toast after four years, says the Small Business Administration. About 672,000 small employers launched last year — but 545,000 others closed, the SBA says. A nobody entrepreneur who started a variety store in Arkansas in 1945 eventually lost the business when his landlord wouldn't renew his lease. But he didn't give up. "I've never been one to dwell on reverses," Sam Walton recalled in his autobiography, "and I didn't do so then." The company he fought to start, Wal-Mart, is now the USA's biggest private employer, with more than 1.3 million workers.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2006-07-30-starting-your-business_x.htm
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