Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan 25 2012

“The Jewish Phenomenon,” Economic Success and Fabulous Wealth

Compiled by Kufara Gwenzi

Two percent of the US population, about 6 million of America’s 300 million people, are Jewish (in the world of 6 billion people, there are only 13 million Jews, only one-fifth of 1%).

  •  The banking Medici Dynasty was behind the Renaissance and they were Jewish. 400 hundred years later, the banking Rothschild Dynasty was founded by a German Jew.
  • The American Rockefeller Dynasty was founded by a German Jew.
  • Chicago School of Economics was founded by Austrian Jews.
  • The banking powerhouse JP Morgan founded by a Jew.
  • Various sources of influential ideas around the world were started and are run by Jews.
  • Cecil John Rhodes and his close friend Alfred Beit were Jews.
  • Anglo American Corporation was founded by Ernest Oppenheimer, a Jew.
  • The powerful media houses (Economist magazine, Financial Times newspaper, Forbes magazine, Fortune  magazine, New York Times newspaper, Washington Times newspaper, etc) around the world are owned by Jews.
  • Facebook was started and is owned by a Jew, Mark Zuckerberg (an almuni of “Alpha Epsilon Pi,” a Jewish college fraternity and born to a dentist father and psychiatric mother who later became a business development manager of her husband);
  • Google was started and is owned by Jews Sergey Brin of Russian origin (born to a mathematician father and economist mother) and Larry Page (born to a professor of computer science father and computer programming teacher);
  • Andre Citroen, a French entrepreneur and pioneering car manufacturer;
  • Larry King, former anchorman of CNN.

Some more prominent are:

  • Roman Abramovich, a Russian Jew;
  • George Soros, Wall Street investor and foreign currency speculator;
  • Alan Greenspan, Chairman and president of Townsend-Greenspan, economic consulting firm; former Federal Reserve Chairman;
  • Marcus Goldman, co-founder of Goldman Sachs investment bank;
  • Samuel Sachs, co-founder of Goldman Sachs investment bank;
  • Calvin Klein, Founder and CEO of Calvin Klein;
  • Ralph Lauren, Founder of Polo Ralph Lauren;
  • Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, Inc;
  • Howard Schultz, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee;
  • Julius Rosenwald, President and Chairman of the Board of Sears;
  • Herbert Allen, Jr., CEO of entertainment investment house Allen & Company;
  • Edgar Bronfman Jr., CEO of Seagram, Viacom;
  • Barry Diller, CEO of 20th Century Fox and QVC;
  • Gerald Levin, Time Warner, CEO of HBO; Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney;
  • David Geffen, co-founder of Dreamworks, CEO of Geffen Records;
  • Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of Dreamworks, Disney;
  • Sumner Redstone, chairman of CBS and Viacom;
  • Michael Ovitz, President of Disney, founder of CAA;
  • Isaac Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Entertainment;
  • Steven Spielberg, co-founder of Dreamworks;
  • Harry Cohn, founder of Columbia Pictures;
  • William Fox, founder of Fox Film Corporation;
  • Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures;
  • Louis B. Mayer, founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer;
  • Sidney Sheinberg, executive of MCA;
  • Sam Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers Studios;
  • Lew Wasserman, founder of MCA;
  • Harvey Weinstein, Co-founder of Miramax;
  • Bob Weinstein, Co-founder of Miramax;
  • Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Pictures;
  • Leonard Goldenson, president of ABC;
  • Les Moonves, CBS President;
  • William S. Paley, Founder and CEO of CBS;
  • David Sarnoff, founder of NBC, General Manager of RCA;
  • Laurence Tisch, CEO of CBS;
  • Jeff Zucker, NBC President;
  • Adolph Ochs, executive of New York Times;
  • Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., New York Times executive;
  • Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News and World Report and New York Daily News;
  • Katharine Graham of the Washington Post;
  • Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft;
  • Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell;
  • Lawrence Ellison, Founder of Oracle Corporation.

Jews are no different from anyone else with regards to being human beings and intelligence, yet:

  1. The percentage of Jewish households with income greater than US$50,000 is double that of non-Jews.
  2. The percentage of Jewish households with income less than US$20,000 is half that of non-Jews.
  3. The Jewish advantage in economic status is very high among households of similar age, composition and location.
  4. By the 1990s, Jews were hugely over-represented among the very wealthy, when they comprised more than a quarter of the people on the Forbes Magazine list of the richest four hundred Americans, 45% of the top 40 richest Americans, and one-third of all American multimillionaires
  5. 20% of professors at leading universities are Jewish.
  6. 40% of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington are Jewish!
  7. 30% of American Nobel prize winners in science and 25 percent of all American Nobel winners are Jewish. In the period 1901–1962 16% of Nobel prize-winners for science were Jewish.
  8. Jews constitute 2% of the USA population but are the source of over 40% of political funding. Therefore the Jewish political influence is through 3 activities – campaigning, voting and financial contributions.
  9. In many cases, Jews earned their American success in only one or two generations in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
  10. Jews enjoy 75% of the $50 billion worth of foods sold in the United States each year.
  11. In 1890, there were few Jews practicing in law or medicine in New York City. By 1900, there were 400-600 Jewish doctors in the city and several thousand in teaching and other professions.
  12. In the 1930s, 55% of doctors, 64% of dentists, and 65% of lawyers in New York City were Jewish. This was in spite of quotas restricting the admittance of Jews to institutions of higher learning.
  13. They estimated the world population of Jews in 1938 at 18 million and the world population of European non-Jewish whites at 718 million, and calculated that Jews were over-represented by a factor of approximately 6.6.
  14. Jews have been about half of the world’s top rated chess grandmasters between 1851 and 2000 (Rubinstein, 2004) and of the champion American bridge players and theoreticians (Storfer, 1990).
  15. In the 20th century, Jews have been greatly over-represented in a number of countries among intellectual elites and in the higher socio-economic status occupations. In Austria in the years between the two World Wars Jews were approximately 3.5% of the  population but were 27.3% of university professors (Fraenkel, 1967). In Germany between 1918 and 1933, Jews were 0.78% of the population but were      16% of the doctors, 15% of the dentists, 25% of the lawyers, 50% of the theatre directors and occupied 80% of the leading positions in the Berlin Stock Exchange (Gordon, 1984; Slezkine, 2004). In Poland in 1931, Jews were 10.2% of the population but were 56% of the doctors in private practice, 33% of the lawyers, and 24% of the pharmacists (Slezkine, 2004). In Russia during the period 1917–1939 Jews were approximately 1.8% of the population, while Jews were 9% of the officers in military academies, 15%  of the university graduates, 11% of the doctors and 14% of the university professors (Slezkine, 2004).
  16. In Britain, the numbers of Jews  and non-Jewish whites possessing large wealth in the period from 1809– 1939 have been examined from probate returns on death by Rubinstein (2000). He has found 199 such individuals of whom 28 were Jews (14.1%).The average number of Jews in the population during this period was  approximately 0.4%, so Jews were 28.4 times over-represented among the      very wealthy. Prais and Schmool (1975) calculated that 10% of Jews and 4%  of non-Jewish whites were in the higher professions in 1961, and hence      Jews were over-represented by a factor of 2.5. In a later study, Tropp (1991) examined the numbers and proportions of Jews in eleven of the major professions around 1985. He found that the percentage of Jews ranged from 1.3% among chartered surveyors to 7.8 among opthalmic opticians. At this time there were approximately 322,000 Jews in the United Kingdom in the total population of 56,379,000 (the figure in the 1981 census). Thus, in 1985 Jews were approximately 0.6% of the population. Even among chartered surveyors Jews were over-represented by a factor of 2.2, while among opthalmic opticians Jews were over-represented by a factor of 13.0.
  17. As early as 1908 Jews began to outperform non-Jewish whites in the entrance tests for universities that were first constructed by the College Entrance Examination Board in 1899. Increasing numbers were gaining admission to the Ivy League colleges (eight private institutions of higher education often viewed by the public as some of the most prestigious universities worldwide and are often ranked amongst the best universities in the United States and worldwide comprising of Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University). In 1908 the percentages      of Jews in all colleges and at Harvard were 7% and 6%, respectively, and      by 1919 this had increased to 20% of the students at Harvard and about the      same figure at Yale, Brown and Pennsylvania, while at Columbia 40% of the students were Jewish (Slezkine, 2004).
  18. From 1957 through 1990 the  average annual earnings of Jewish men were about 130% of those of non-Jewish whites (in 1990 $36,700 for Jews and $28,080 for non-Jewish whites) (Chiswick, 1985; Kosmin & Lachman, 1993, p. 260).
  19. It has been found that Jews are  considerably over-represented among the eminent in the United States. Weyl(1966) calculated that Jews were over-represented by a factor of 4.48 in seven reference books of the eminent (e.g. Who’s Who in America, American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, etc.). In an  updated analysis of Who’s Who in America for the years 1994–5, McDermott  (2002) has calculated that Jews were over-represented by a factor of 16.62.
  20. According to a report by Will Maslow of the American Jewish Congress, “The percentage of Jews . . . who involve themselves in party affairs as policymakers and fund-raisers, is probably higher than that of any other racial, religious or ethnic group. The result is that Jews play a role in the political life of the country whose significance far transcends their proportion of the total population.”
  21. Jewish writer Lenni Brenner has noted the actual voting power of American Jews is nearly twice their numbers: “They vote in greater proportions than any other ethnic or religious grouping. Ninety-two percent of all Jews vote in national elections compared to only 54 percent of the people as a whole. Jews may only be 10.6 percent of New York State, but they are between 16 percent and 20 percent of the voters.”
  22. Up to 80% of eligible Jewish voters turned out to vote in the 2004 presidential election, compared to 50% of the electorate as a whole. In addition, registered Jews are twice as likely to vote. Combining the two multiplies Jewish voting power by a factor of three. Furthermore, 81 percent of Jews live in only nine states [New York, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, California, Pennsylvania and Illinois] making them a significant political bloc, especially on the national level. In presidential elections, those nine states cast 202 of the 535 votes in the Electoral College. Thus, the Jewish population could provide a swing vote in any close presidential   election.

What is the source of all this Jewish economic success and wealth?

The Jewish Perspective on Wealth

Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People (2009)

Dr. Sowell discovered, “Even when neither education nor age is a factor, Jews earn more.” Among families headed by males with four or more years of college and aged 35 to 45, Jews still earn 75% higher incomes than the national average with the same demographics. If it were as simple as just getting an education or developing verbal confidence, just two of the keys, Jewish success would have been emulated years ago.

One of Steven Silbiger’s more compelling theses holds that the outsider mentality common to most Jews, as a minority, not only shapes independent thinkers, it also motivates people to prove themselves and gain acceptance. Fundamentally, according to Silbiger, Jews are rebels with a cause – whether it’s Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity or Ruth Handler and her groundbreaking Barbie doll.

To support his point, Steven Silbiger quotes Sigmund Freud, who, in his “Self Portrait,” wrote that the anti-Semitism he encountered in medical school “produced one important result. At a rather early date, I became aware of my destiny: to belong to the critical minority as opposed to the unquestioning majority. A certain independence of judgment was therefore developed.”

Steven Silbiger contrasts the religious Jewish upbringing with the Christian religious upbringing, noting that in religious classes Jewish children are encouraged to ask questions. Christian children are given answers and are often discouraged from asking questions – often, to question is the near occasion of sin, an indication of lack of faith. This sets a vastly different foundation for the Jewish child versus the Christian child. Steven Silbiger theorizes that the Jewish child will carry this attitude of questioning on into the rest of his life, and this leads to a willingness to look at situations in new ways, to try new things, to be an entrepreneur. (Interestingly, Steven Silbiger claims that Jewish people, in defiance of the usual trend, typically become more liberal as their wealth increases.)

According to the New Testament, the Christian world has, at best, an ambivalent attitude toward money and wealth: “Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24, Luke 18:25, Mark 10:25) “You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:13) “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (Timothy 6:8-9) “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” – (Timothy 6:10).

For Jews, on the other hand, wealth is a good thing, a worthy and respectable goal to strive toward. What’s more, once you earn it, it is tragic to lose it. Judaism has never considered poverty a virtue. The first Jews were not poor. The Jewish founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were blessed with cattle and land in abundance. Asceticism and self-denial are not Jewish ideals. With your financial house in order, it is easier to pursue your spiritual life: “Where there is no flour, there is no Bible.” The Mishna (a collection of books that outline the detailed laws for daily Jewish living) “Poverty causes transgression.” (Hasidic folk saying) “Poverty in a man’s house is worse than fifty plagues.” (The Talmud, a collection of books of rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament).

A person with wealth, stands up. His wealth gives him a sense of confidence that allows him to act, a sense of self-worth that fills him with enthusiasm. He enjoys all that he is and all that he does. He feels important and this promotes his success. Thus his wealth is a key to prosperity – a key that opens the doors to his desires.

  • “The ground under their feet (Devarim 11.6). This verse, taught R Elazar, refers to a person’s wealth – it      stands him on his feet. (Pesachim 119a)
  • Rav Shmuel bar Nachman said: When a man is  wealthy, he shows his friend a happy face. (Breishis Raba 91.5)
  • Greater is the merit of ones own labors, than the merit of the forefathers. (Tanchuma,      VaYeitzei 13)
  • Rebbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Ulla: Greater is one who enjoys the labor of his own hands, than one who regards Hashem with awe (Yiras Shamayim).
  • While he who regards Hashem with awe is fortunate in this world … he who toils, enjoys this world, and also delights in the goodness of the world-to-come. (Brochos 8a)
  • Better is the person who lacks honor, but has a servant, than the refined man who has no bread. (Mishle 12.9)
  • A beautiful home expands a person’s thoughts. (Brochos 57b) Beautiful garments enlarge a person’s thoughts. (R Elazar)
  • The rich man’s wealth is his fortress. (Mishle 10.15)
  • The rich man has many who love him. (Mishle 14.20)
  • Wealth adds many friends. (Mishle 19.4)
  • There is wealth to be had; there is money in the streets. However, a person needs to want this money, to look carefully for it, and gather it up. For the Heavens guide a person in the way he wishes to go (Makkos 10b).

True, there are hardships he must endure; he must learn to toil; he must train himself to wait, patiently. Still, if he wants it, it is there. The question is though, should he want wealth?

The very survival of a Torah life-style depends on a financial backing. To raise whole families, a nation who lives with true values, all requires successful economics. Thus every aspect of the Torah depends on wealth.

  • R Elazar ben Azarya would say: If there is  no flour, there can be no Torah. (Avos 3.21)
  • Food leads to laughter, wine adds joy to life, and money solves all problems. (Koheles 10.19)
  • With the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread.” (Breishis 3.19)
  • Rebbi Avahu taught: While the upper ones, the angels and other celestial beings, are nourished by the sheen of Hashem; lower beings, those who live in this world, must toil – if they don’t, they don’t eat! (Breishis Raba 2.2)
  • To the man who says, “I will eat, drink and enjoy all that’s good without toiling, for I trust that Heaven will take mercy on me,” the Rabbis say, you are wrong!” The verse expressly states that, “You [Hashem] bless the deeds of his hands.” (Iyov 1.10)
  • A person needs first to labor and work with his two hands, only then does Hashem send His blessing. (Tanchuma, VeYeitzei 13)
  • Wealth that comes without toil, diminishes; but he who gathers in gradually, constantly, increases his wealth. (Mishle 13.11)
  • Rebbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Today is for doing, tomorrow is not for doing … Today is for doing, tomorrow is for receiving reward. (Eiruvim 22a)
  • Rava said: Invest a hundred zuz in business, and you eat meat and wine everyday; invest a hundred zuz in ground, and you eat salt and hay; moreover you sleep on the ground. (Yevamos 63a)
  • Rav Yitzchak said: A person should always have ready cash, [that when a bargain comes his way, he may buy it – Rashi]. (Baba Metzia 42a)
  • Rebbi Yehuda taught: Anyone who doesn’t teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a robber. (Kidushin 29a).

From the US survey known as the General Social Surveys (GSS) analysed for the years 1972–2004, cultural values of the respondents were measured by their responses to a question on the values parents would most like in their children. The survey gave 13 values and asks respondents to identify the one that they would most like their children to have, and also the three they would most like their children to have. These values are as follows:

  1. Success: ‘‘that he tries hard to succeed”;
  2. Studiousness: ‘‘that he is a good student”;
  3. Amicability: ‘‘that he gets along well with other children”;
  4. Cleanliness: ‘‘that he is neat and clean”;
  5. Considerateness: ‘‘that he is considerate of others”;
  6. Control: ‘‘that he has self-control”;
  7. Honesty: ‘‘that he is honest”;
  8. Interest: ‘‘that he is interested in how and why things happen”;
  9. Judgment: ‘‘that he has good sense and sound judgment”;
  10. Manners: ‘‘that he has good manners”;
  11. Obedience: ‘‘that he obeys his parents well”;
  12. Responsibility: ‘‘that he is responsible”
  13. Sex role: ‘‘that he acts like a boy (she acts like a girl)”.

Jews obtained a mean of 7.48, while non-Jewish whites obtained a mean of 6.21 and is equivalent to 9.06 IQ points. There were eight values in which Jews were significantly different from others. Jews attach less importance to cleanliness, honesty, manners and obedience, but they attach more importance to considerateness, interest in how and why things happen, judgment and responsibility.

Steven Silbiger claims that these principles can be learned by anyone, and thus his argument is that these traits are cultural and not genetic.

Seven Keys to Jewish Economic Success and Fabulous Wealth

By Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People (2009)

  1. Understand That Real Wealth is Portable; It’s Knowledge – there has been research evidence showing that Jewish children have higher educational aspirations, do more homework      and watch less TV than non-Jews. Jewish families will highly support      intellectual pursuits and encourage their children to invest in schoolwork.      Jews attach a lot of importance to study and education and this socializes      the children for educational and academic success: ‘‘Jewish youth used to      spend long years bent over their books in an attempt to break out of the      narrow circle of restrictions” (Slezkine, 2004, p. 252). Jews ‘‘were      highly motivated to create a new and more secure life for themselves”      which gave them ‘‘the willingness to work hard” (Rutland, 1988, p. 259).      The idea is built on the paradigm that ‘getting an education requires the      ability to defer gratification for a bigger payoff later’.

2.      Take Care of Your Own and They Will Take Care      of You – to safeguard and enhance the health of      their community, Jews        zealously deploy their wealth for both charity and      social actions. They make money so hard, and they give so generously. In spite of the stereotype that they are miserly, Jews happen to be the most  philanthropic ethnic group in the country. Total Jewish philanthropic giving     totaled about $4.5 billion in 1997. Jewish Free Loan Societies help  immigrants and other Jews in need. Apparently there are about 40 of these      institutions around the country, and they make about $40 million in loans  each year, interest free!

  1. Successful People Are Professional and  Entrepreneurs – specialised people earn from their skills.
  2. Develop Your Verbal Confidence – assertiveness, a willingness to demand what  is due, defy tradition, just to be able to have the balls to dare to be      different. It is from the Hebrew word chutzpah (“gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts,’ presumption plus arrogance”).      Avoid self-pity, let your language prop you and feed your ears with  strength from your mouths.
  3. Be Selectively Extravagant but Prudently      Frugal – do not borrow not more than half what you  earn. Spend what you can make, make more than you need to spend. To be      rich, you need to save!
  4. Celebrate Individuality: Encourage Creativity – Jews resemble some Protestants in  possessing ‘‘individualistic,  competitive patterns of thought and action linked with the middle class and historically associated with the Protestant ethic or its secular      counterpart, the spirit of capitalism”.
  5. Have Something To Prove: A Drive To Succeed – the mind is the most potent of drivers. Feed your mind with the positive psychological drive to succeed. Again define success in a global sense, to another is success to a second person your success is failure. Look outwards, it helps to reach out to see other  strengths and role models. Then ‘tune’ your mind to conquer and deliberately design the success path!

THE MOTIVE FORCES TO JEWISH ECONOMIC SUCCESS AND FABULOUS WEALTH

By Steven Silbiger, The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People (2009)

KEY # 1 EDUCATIONAL

1. Build a child’s self-esteem.

2. Build the ability to defer gratification.

3. Choose the best education possible.

4. Develop and demonstrate informed and literate habits (“Jews celebrate and promote books and reading like no other segment of society, accounting for between 50 and 75% non-institutional book sales in the USA”).

5. Create the education expectation.

6. Keep skills up-to-date even as an adult.

7. Have an educational incentive.

8. Believe that real wealth is portable; it’s knowledge (“The Jewish priorities consists of education, money and then material things. Money is the source of power and to acquire it without education will create a household with many thing, but with little security to maintain and support itself”).

9. Believe in being prudently frugal.

KEY # 2 ECONOMIC

10.Have an economic incentive.

11. Wealth is a good thing and a worthy and respectable goal for which to strive (“Poverty causes transgression”).

12. Wealth is a tool for survival.

KEY # 3 ENTREPRENEURIAL

13. Have a strong, burning entrepreneurial spirit.

14. Believe financially successful people are professional and entrepreneurs.

15. Encourage Creativity (“Ignore killer phrases and senseless rules; challenge widely held assumptions; be a good copycat; keep current: know the trends; create an idea-friendly home”)

KEY # 4 EMPOWERMENT

16. Have the ability to create, organize and utilize economic strength.

17. Firmly believe in “take care of your own and they will take care of you”.

18. The idea of individual empowerment should be deeply rooted in society.

KEY # 5 ENDURANCE

19. Be psychologically driven to prove something: A Drive To Succeed (“Make long-range goals; work harder at tasks requiring mental manipulation; take prudent risks; work for tangible and intangible rewards; take personal responsibility for decisions and create results; accept other entrepreneurs as role models; believe in own self-determination”)

20. Develop Verbal Confidence and Boldness (“Encourage children to ask questions; proactively explain new ideas to children and encourage public speaking and confident conversation. As verbally confident people, Jews ask questions, seek second opinions and do their own research”)

KEY # 6 “ENJOY LIFE”

21. Celebrate Your Individuality (“Be a member of a critical minority than a questioning majority”)

22. Be Selectively Extravagant

Resources:

* The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People by Steven Silbiger (2000),

* How to explain high Jewish achievement: The role of intelligence and values by Richard Lynn and Satoshi Kanazawa (2007)

* The Jewish Secret of Wealth: According to the Torah, Talmud & Zohar by Avraham Tzvi Schwartz (2006);



*           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_American_businesspeople

Jan 19 2012

Lindi Zulu Writes for Us: Money Matters

Lindi Zulu is a communications, business and psychology student, a poet, story-teller and worshiper who is passionate about empowering young people to live purposefully and instilling Godly character from a very real and honest Lindi perspective.

Absolutely Godgeous is about inner beauty making its way out.  Its about the everyday ups and downs of a 20 something year old Christian woman. It’s about random revelations, careers, trends and entertainment, relationships, about finding the humor in it all, getting helpful hints and answering life’s question marks with wisdom and grace.

http://lindiwezulu.wordpress.com/

Money Matters

So we’re in the last stretch of 2011 and the bottom line is that the majority of the human population spent most of this year trying to earn a living and maybe squeezed in some time with family and friends here and there, but mostly we were trying to improve our financial situation in some way or the other. Be it through education, our jobs, businesses, whatever.

The logic behind the whole rat race system is that everything costs money and we get that money by working for it. The harder you work or the more hours you put in, the more money you make. If we excel at what we do, we get promoted, gain an impressive title and earn respect by being someone important.

It sounds simple enough, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people think that’s what its all about and that if they start earning truckloads of money all their problems will be solved; when hardly a week goes by without us reading about rich celebrities getting a divorce, getting admitted into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse, while we’re trying to look like them, they’re getting surgery because they have issues with every part of their body, seeing a shrink on the regular or getting caught up in some criminal case.

The truth is, despite all their money, many rich people feel empty. After catching all the riches they’ve been chasing all their lives, they start running around desperately searching for meaning. Some surround themselves with a dozen hangers-on who follow them everywhere so they’re never left alone to deal with themselves. Others get pulled in by New Age beliefs and religious cults searching in vain for something that will make sense of their lives.

Way before I had even caught wind of the “prosperity gospel” all I had grown up knowing was that money is the root of all evil and you cannot serve God and mammon (money). Things really got interesting when I discovered that “money is the root of all evil” is a line from a song by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer, recorded by the Andrews Sisters in 1946, but it is NOT a line from the bible, as so many people seem to think.

The bible quotation that is found in the book of 1 Timothy 6:10 says “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil”. Its not the money you have to keep in check, its your own lust for it.

“You cannot serve God and mammon (money)”is indeed a quotation from the bible though in Matthew 6:24 and in order to understand what Jesus meant in this verse, we need to understand what it means to serve God and what it means to serve mammon.

The business of serving mammon is putting the pursuit of money first in your life, and by serving God, we put God first in our lives. What this verse means then is that you cannot/ it is impossible to serve God whilst you are putting the pursuit of money first in your life.

As a Christian, you should never separate God from your source of provision, because it gives your job an eternal context- a purpose other than to pay the bills.

If you make your employer a billion dollars by having to go against everything you stand for in the process, then you have just joined the not so exclusive club of financially successful people in the world who have just declared spiritual bankruptcy.

Gaining all the riches of the world and losing your soul is never worth it. He wants you to prosper as your soul prospers. To prosper from the inside out.

So yes, I’m definitely planning on having an Absolutely Godgeous career and prosper and rule and reign with the dominion He has given me as co-heir with His son, but I’d rather maintain a better relationship with Him than with my accountant any day.

What about you?

Jan 18 2012

Featured Guest Artist: Tha DQC

Tha DQC (real name Clarence Kasinganeti), short for ‘Tha Desiring and Questing for Christ’ is a Zimbabwean Christian beatmaker and rapper/songwriter currently residing in London, UK. Being of African origin, but having been exposed to western music all his life, has contributed to developing an ear for a musical blend that incorporates different types of music. He uses music in his quest to share the message of the kingdom of God.

As expressed in his name, the greatest desire he has is to instil a desire and purpose to have a closer walk with God in himself and the listeners in spite of the hardships, tribulations and mishaps that life throws at people. Whilst music has always been a joy to the man now known as Tha DQC, it was really not until he was born again that he really decided to take the issue seriously.

Currently Tha DQC has recently just finished his first ever mixtape and is preparing to hit the studio to work on an album entatively titled ‘Ultimate Desire-Christ Himself’. Other current projects on the horizon are the launching of the ‘Bezalel Initiative’ which is aimed at encouraging the artistic people to explore their creativity in glorifying God, the Kingdom Beneficiary Movement which is aimed to be a collection of many other elements that Tha DQC is passionate about.

Apart from making beats and writing rhyhmes, Tha DQC is an ordinary man who is hoping to break into the minds of the masses and itching to reason with the people in the business about the point of life and the goal of life who is Christ Himself. Selah pause and think about that!!!

Check out my music videos here:

http://www.dq4christ.com/page6/index.html

Jan 17 2012

Recovering Lost Time III: Examples

I can’t think of a better way to illustrate that lost time can be recovered than to give a few examples of people who succeeded in achieving their dreams, some of them quite scary, despite having been written off as too old, past their sell by date or having lost too much time to recover let alone catch up and overtake.

These achievers are found in virtually every field you can think of. For one reason or the other, they lost time early in their careers but went on to achieve far greater things than most of their peers later in life. So, here goes!

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is one of my favourite actors. Honestly, the earliest image of Freeman that I have in my mind is not of a young man at all! That’s because he only found his major breakthrough in showbiz late but went on to eclipse virtually every actor you can think of. He has become a favourite where fatherly characters exuding authority and wisdom are required.

Who can forget Invictus (in which he plays Mandela), Shawshank Redemption (which has become a cult classic), Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, the Dark Knight(which grossed over $1 billon worldwide, becoming one of the best selling movies of all time), Million Dollar Baby (for which he won an Oscar at 65 years of age); the list goes on and on. Not only is he an actor; he is also a film director, aviator and narrator. Morgan Freeman is 74.

According to Wikipedia, “Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in many feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters.[5] As he gained fame, he went on to bigger roles in films such as the chauffeur Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, and Sergeant Major Rawlins in Glory (both in 1989).”

By the time Freeman began to test real success, he was almost fifty!

Raymond Kroc (McDonald’s)

Born in 1902, Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s outlet at the age of 53 and went on to grow the franchise into the most recognisable fast food outlet in the world. Before he moved into the hamburger business he was a milk shake mixer sales person. Wow!

According to the McDonald’s website, “In 1954 he was surprised by a huge order for 8 multi-mixers from a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation. They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items—burgers, fries and beverages—which allowed them to focus on quality at every step.
Kroc pitched his vision of creating McDonald’s restaurants all over the U.S. to the brothers. In 1955 he founded the McDonald’s Corporation, and 5 years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger.”

I am sure everyone had consigned this old chap to a life of obscurity but he proved them wrong!

Strive Masiyiwa (Econet)

Strive Masiyiwa’s story is every Zimbabwean’s pride and joy. He is known as the Bill Gates of Africa due to his advances in the telecommunications sector in Africa and beyond. In 2011, Forbes estimated his net worth at $285 million (R1,74 billion).

According to Forbes.com, “Zimbabwe’s telecom magnate Strive Masiyiwa founded mobile phone company Econet in 1993, though because of objections from the Zimbabwe government the cell phone network did not go live until 1998. It soon became the largest mobile telecom operator in the country. Today he serves as its chairman. Publicly traded Econet controls Mascom, which has 70% market share in neighboring Botswana. It also operates in Kenya and Burundi, and is the only African-based company with a telecom license in the UK (Econet Satellite Services). It has won a 3G license in New Zealand and will roll out a network there once the market is fully liberalized.”

Born in 1961, Strive was 32 when he founded Econet but by the time Econet went live, he was 37. Even though he was ready to go live in 1993, he was forced by circumstances beyond his control to delay the launching of the networking for a further 5 years but still managed to capture the largest market share within weeks of launching.

Talk about recovering lost time!

Nelson Mandela

Mandela spent 27 years in prison (he was jailed in 1963 at the age of 45) and became president of a free South Africa in 1994 at 76 years old. Imagine this; 27 years in jail, incapacitated by an ocean on all sides with virtually no contact with the outside world. Talk about losing time. I am sure more than anything else the one thing that must have eaten at Madiba’s heart was the loss of time. However today Mandela is celebrated as a legend and an icon of reconciliation. In fact we now have world Mandela Day!

I could go on and on but I believe it’s all too clear that no matter what stage of your career you are and how much time you have lost, you can still redeem time. The important thing is not to lose heart, remain focused on high value objectives and outcomes, and see your vision through trials and tribulations. Indeed you will achieve your goal.

Just for good measure, I site a few more examples adapted from an article by Kristen Houghton, Author of ‘And Then I’ll Be Happy! Stop Sabotaging Your Happiness’ posted on the Huffington Post website.

Clint Eastwood directed his first movie at 41.

Andrea Bocelli didn’t start singing opera seriously until the age of 34. Some ‘experts’ told him it was too late to begin.

Phyliss Diller became a comedian at the age of 37. She was told by many club owners that she was “too old” to become a success.

Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, was 43 when he began drawing his legendary superheroes and his partner Jack Kirby was 44 when he created The Fantastic Four.

Julia Child didn’t even learn to cook until she was almost 40 and didn’t launch her popular show until she was 50.

Mary Wesley was 71 when her first novel was published.

Ricardo Montalban had his dream house built at the age of 68.

Harlan Sanders, the Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, was 66 when he began to promote his style of cooking and create an empire.

And one more.

Jesus Christ, at age 30, finally stopped doing carpentry and started performing miracles!

Jan 9 2012

Recovering Lost Time II: Fix This

Time is of utmost importance. There is a reason why they say time is money. Even though you can never reverse time itself in the pure sense of the word, you can salvage the kind of progress you could have made during the lost period provided you apply a few principles stemming from an understanding of the immense value of time.

And just what are those principles? How do you recover lost time? Are there any examples of people who have successfully recovered lost time and have gone on to do far above what even they expected?

Let’s answer these questions.

Retrace your footsteps to the point where you lost your time

“The first thing you need to do when you realize you are lost is to go back to the starting point.”Anon

It is important to know where and how you lost time. There are two reasons for this namely, you will be able to get a more comprehensive understanding of why you are where you are and secondly, you will be able to know exactly what you should stop doing to avoid wasting more time in the present.

Put another way, can you imagine waking up in the middle of nowhere and not knowing how you ever got there in the first place? That has to be the most nerve wrecking experience ever. But if you know how you got there in the first place, you will have an idea of how to find you way back home.

There is also a psychological aspect to this exercise. It is possible to blame yourself for something you did not entirely bring upon yourself, leading to feelings of self defeat, hopelessness and inadequacy. It’s very likely that you are where you are due to choices you have made in the millions day by day but it may not entirely be your fault and it’s important to know what is and what is not your fault so that you avoid developing a self defeating attitude.

Once you have identified where you lost your way or started to lose time, make an effort to quantify the time period. It’s very important to be specific about what you have lost so that you can understand what you are trying to recover.

Take time to analyse the situation and how the time you lost has contributed to where you are but whatever you do, quantify the time you lost and get an understanding of where and why you lost the time. Were you fired from your job? If yes then why? Underperformance? Suppose it is, then how much time do you estimate you lost before you resumed your career? 1 year? If so, in time terms you have to catch up by working an extra 2 hours every week day for the next two years.

Can you see the benefit of knowing exactly how much time you lost?

Stop doing the things that are costing you time!

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is to stop digging.” Anon

This is a very obvious and logical next step in recovering lost time. Because you have taken time to reflect, analyse and find out where, why and when you lost time, you will know exactly what factors contributed to that loss of time in the first place. Therefore stop doing those things immediately.

For example, if you realize that you have a tendency of doing business with partners that constantly let you down or swindle you, then you need to stop dealing with them at some point. They will just cost you more time.

Start doing the right things

This too, is self explanatory and logical. Once you determine what you need to stop doing, you then need to determine what you need to start doing. Continuing from our example above, you would need to be more thorough with your due diligence regarding deals presented to you before you jump into partnerships with anyone, no matter how appealing.

Maybe you have invested ten years of your life into a career you are unhappy with. The fact that you are unhappy with where you are and feel like you have wasted 10 years of your life would probably mean that was never your true passion or is no longer your true passion. In the former case you need to recover lost time and in the latter, you need to stop the process of losing time before it even starts by making a rapid career change!

Emphasize diligence, efficiency, effectiveness and impact over hard work and time related organic growth

The road does not always have to be long and winding. For example, the highways are always the most popular when travelling but sometimes they are not always the shortest route between two points because they can be congested or just winding for no reason other than to satisfy a wider market.

It is not necessary to work for twenty years before you can start your own business. It is also not necessary to work 30 years before you become the CEO of your company. Length of time only guarantees old age. For rapid progress in your career, you need high level impact strategies and tactics. Those are the ones you need to seek out and concentrate on.

Don’t wait to be promoted by virtue of longitude in company service but by reason of exceptional skills and attributes that stand you above the rest within the company. Seek out these high value attributes and work on them day and night and you will realize that something that you would have achieved in two decades can take you only five years.

The key word is not hard labour but diligence. You still work very hard. Oh yes, you still put in those extra two hours but you won’t need to go for two years, and in my case, 22 years before you can recoup your lost time. This is what we call employing a tactical approach.

If it had to take me ten years to get to where I want to be in my career and I have lost eight of those, it’s not necessary for me to recoup the full eight years through the strategy discussed in part I, which would equate to 22 years. I can focus my efforts on high value targets, skills, attributes, contacts and business deals that can catapult me to my goal in just the two remaining years.

When I was fresh from university, I stumbled upon information that opened my eyes to the importance of pursuing high value projects, outcomes, skills, objectives and targets. We calculated that college graduates have  roughly a ten to fifteen year headstart compared to their peers who for one reason or the other did not get a tertiary qualification. And the reason? College education is a high value target, skill and attribute. Of course this applies especially to the initial years but other factors will begin to increasingly play a prominent role as our careers progress.

This therefore means that whatever you do in your career must be characterised by the pursuit of high value targets, skills, attributes and endeavours. Oh yes you will sweat. Oh yes you will burn the mid night oil. And yes you will have to forsake social time sometimes and travel when you would rather be on holiday but in due time the results will show.

That is what makes the difference between overachievers and underachievers.

To sum it all, here is a question for you. What do you spend much of your effort on at work and in your business? Is it a high value endeavour or just one that keeps you very busy but is sending you on a long winding road to a dream that you might never reach?

Set a clear goal within a specific time period

You need to know where you are going and by what time you will get there. Wandering in life believing that you will miraculous get wealthy or rise to the top of your career will definitely get you somewhere. It’s called nowhere, not Norway!

One of the things I have learnt about accumulating wealth is that it is not as exciting as the end product. It involves planning in detail and mundane calculations that will bring tears to your eyes but for the reward at the end.

It involves doing business plans and personally I find the thought of doing business plans as repulsive as any other but I have learnt the value and so have forced myself to master that high value skill. A business plan will set specific business and financial goals for your company and at the same time put all those in a specific time period together with what needs to be done to get there.

Plan, plan, plan. Set specific goals. Set specific times. Go through your goal so frequently that you will recite it in your dream. Believe in your dream the way you believe in the rising of the sun tomorrow. Why do you know the sun will rise tomorrow? Because you have seen it rise since the day you were born. If you see your goal and obsess over it, you will start believing in its fulfilment the way you believe in the rising of the sun.

There are many other principles that can help you recover lost time but I believe the ones I have discussed so far are very crucial and will go a long way toward kick-starting your recovery of lost time.

Jan 9 2012

Recovering Lost Time I: Zeit bist der Geld

Here is the thing about time; it is finite. Time is a perishable product. Once you lose a second, there is nothing you can do to recover it because then you would have to reverse time. And time is important; very important. As the Germans say, “Zeit bist der Geld”. Time is money.

So what do I mean by ‘recovering lost time’? I am talking strategy; big hairy and absolutely focused strategy.

You can’t recover time in the absolute sense of the word but you can definitely recover the kind of progress you could have made during that time by starting to do things right. Of course this doesn’t apply to everything. There are things, moments in time if you please that are just lost forever once you miss the opportunity. If you miss the birth of your child, there is nothing you can do to ever get that moment back. I am talking about recovering time and progress in realistic situations.

In this article I want to focus more on career, whether it be professional or entrepreneurial because that is what I write about.

So let’s do a little bit of math.

But first things first.

Losing time is a part of life

Every one of us has lost precious time in our careers, some more than others. I have lost time. According to my calculations, I am eight years behind in my career in terms of where I should be. I further analysed to see whose fault it was and realised that partly it was circumstances outside my control like decisions by my parents, national events, global events, political decisions and so on. The largest proportion however was of my own making. I am talking about a lack of clear understanding of the value of time and therefore not planning for it in proportion to its importance. By the time I woke up to the importance of time, I had already lost those eight years I am talking about!

How long does it take to recoup lost time?

Think with me for a moment. Suppose you lose one year of your career due to retrenchment, getting fired, failure of a business, sickness, etc. What is the true cost to you of this one year? Assuming that we hold all other factors constant and just concentrate on absolute time terms, we can arrive at a value for that time lost. We are going to calculate how long it will take you to catch up if you were to resume your career exactly where you left it, doing things the same way you were doing them and accomplishing exactly what you were accomplishing before you lost your career a year earlier.

I believe you get what we are trying to do. So how long would it take you to recover one year of your career which you lost?

For answers, let’s analyse the table below.

One year has 52 weeks and each week has 5 working days. That translates into 260 days before we factor in leave and holidays. Putting aside 45 days for both leave and public holidays, actual working days that you would have lost in that one year come to 215. Now we know that we work an average day of 8 hours between Monday and Friday. 215 days therefore translates to 1720 hours of lost productivity! That, I find to be scary.

Suppose after that one year you resume your career and decide to put an extra 2 hours from Monday to Friday without fail. Those extra 2 hours are obviously an average including what you might work during weekends and public holidays playing catch up.
Just how long would it take you to catch up, had you not lost your career initially? According to my calculation, 860 days! That translates to about 2 years of working for 2 hours extra everyday between Monday and Friday without fail!

So let’s extrapolate. If you lose 2 years, you are looking at about 5 years. If you lose 3 years then you are looking at 8 years of hard labour my friend. What about for me who’s lost 8 years? I am looking at 22 years of hard labour!

Years Lost 1
Weeks 52
Working Days/Week 5
Total Working Days 260

Less Leave Days 15
Less Public Holidays 30
Total Leave 45

Actual Working Days 215

Working hours/day 8
Total Working Hours 1720

Recovering the lost time 1720

Extra hours to be worked per day 2
Days to recoup 860
Years 2.4

Based on these very basic calculations and assumptions, one thing becomes very clear; time is of more importance in our careers than most of us presently realise. Now that I have your attention, I will turn my focus onto practical principles of how to recover lost time and most importantly, how to utilize your time to maximum productivity going forward.