wHealth

Missing in Action

2016-02-21T20:39:00.000-05:00

Hello....

You probably thought what happened? I have been missing in action,

I have not been blogging for a while 'cos I have been working full time. I will have many things to share about working full time as an employee versus working for myself the past 15 years.

One thing I quickly realized is that time is no longer my own - I am contracted to be on the job from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. My time is not as flexible as when I was my own boss.

Stay tune - I will be sharing my thoughts on work, health and wealth and what it takes to truly be an entrepreneur.

How To Eat For Your Best Skin Ever

2016-02-18T22:06:00.001-05:00

From mindbodygreen >>>

How To Eat For Your Best Skin Ever

by Amelia Freer | February 16, 2016

Growing up, we were told to eat our greens, but this was only partly right. While green vegetables are a powerhouse of healthful properties, having the other colors in our diet is just as important.

Brightly colored foods contain naturally occurring phytochemicals, which are responsible for giving food its color — the ﬁre-engine red of tomatoes; the deep purple hue of blueberries — and also play important roles in protecting our health and staving off chronic disease: mopping up inﬂammation, slowing down premature aging, supporting sight, protecting the brain, and assisting our immune system.

Yet for many of us, the color beige is the mainstay of our plates. Foods like cereal, pasta, rice, pastries, chicken and bread often dominate our meals. These foods, especially when processed or bleached, offer much lower levels and less variety of nutrients than we need to keep healthy.

I’m not saying don’t eat them, but I am saying aim for the rainbow when it comes to your daily food choices.

Research has shown that our diets should be predominantly plant-based, and so ensuring that we include plant foods in each meal is an important habit to embrace. Every cell in our body survives on the nutrients it is fed — plant foods are the richest sources of vitamins, minerals, ﬁber, and those color-giving phytonutrients, which form their own cool little health-defending gang.

When humans were predominantly hunter-gatherers we ate more than 800 different varieties of plant foods. These days, we have a very limited choice, especially when shopping in supermarkets.

But at farmers markets you’ll ﬁnd the more unusual forms of our everyday foods, such as purple carrots, golden beets, yellow zucchini, orange tomatoes, and purple broccoli — there really is a wider variety out there to shake us out of our color comfort zone.

Many experts advise us to eat ﬁve portions of fruits and vegetables per day, but they don’t stipulate that they need to be in a natural, unprocessed form. And I believe that we really need much, much more. I encourage you to eat three portions of fruit per day, one per meal (a portion being a small handful), and two to three portions of vegetables at each meal, reaching as far and wide in color as possible.

As you go through your day, try to mentally tick off the different colors you are eating. And see where you could possibly add in an extra burst.

For example, a salad doesn’t have to be only lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and a dressing. Throw in some other dark leafy greens like spinach, broccoli, brightly colored peppers, red cabbage, carrots, beets, and creamy green avocado, too. If you’re making oatmeal for breakfast, toss in some fresh berries or make a smoothie with one fruit and three or four different vegetables. It’s easy once you start.

Read more from mindbodygreen >>>

Power Profile: David, Stacy and Colton Whited (2016 MAWC)

2016-02-16T21:33:00.001-05:00

David: "...if you understood residual income, you would walk through a brick wall to get it!"

Stacy: " That is so true you know, David and I are living proof of how powerful residual income is. We started our business at the age of 23 in the midst of some really tough times. I've been sick with the pregnancy for months. I was a cosmetologist prior to that and David was going to school and working but when I got sick he had to take on a bunch of part-time jobs....."

Power Profile: Dritan Hodo (2016 MAWC)

2016-02-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

Dritan was an immigrant with his parents from Albania. Like every immigrant, Dritan had
visions of becoming successful after college. Listen to his story.....

A Time for Change: Most Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck

2016-01-31T20:18:00.002-05:00

From BeingJRRidinger.com >>

A Time for Change: Most Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck

JR Ridinger CEO of Market America

No matter what your situation is – everyone can benefit for owning an UnFranchise Business because when you build it right the residual income generated can have a monumental impact on your life! With a volatile stock market and a job market that’s left millions of people overworked and underpaid, it’s easy to see why most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. This fascinating article from MarketWatch really breaks down the issue and helps shed more light on the challenges facing many Americans today.

Anyone who’s ever been in a situation like this knows just how challenging it can be, with even the slightest unexpected expense presenting a huge setback for you and your family. Unfortunately, it seems like our government leaders often spend more time bickering along party lines than they do working together to forge lasting solutions that help empower and improve people’s lives – that’s why I feel so strongly that it’s up to us – the entrepreneurs, to help make a difference and provide people with opportunities that make living paycheck to paycheck a thing of the past.

With the UnFranchise Business and the Shopping Annuity, we are economic alchemists with the power to create our own economy where people power is multiplied and interconnected to translate directly into collective buying power! We are leading the parade and changing the game by giving the power back to the consumers – while helping entrepreneurs build a legacy of global success with residual income.

While many competitors have come and gone, the opportunities we offer are unlike any business in the world. If you know someone who’s tired of living paycheck to paycheck, do them a favor and introduce them to the UnFranchise Business – or better yet – buy them a ticket to World Conference! Being at this event next week is the perfect way to arm yourself with the information and tools you need to build a residual income powerhouse with the UnFranchise!

Be there with your team and you’ll quickly see why World Conference has the propensity to catapult your business to new heights in 2016!

Keep Growing!

-JR Ridinger

Human-gut-on-a-chip model offers hope for IBD sufferers

2015-12-21T21:03:00.003-05:00

From Harvard Gagette

Human-gut-on-a-chip model offers hope for IBD sufferers

Wyss Institute replicates gut’s microenvironment in the lab, allowing researchers new access

By Kat J. McAlpine, Wyss Institute Communications | December 15, 2015

It’s estimated that as many as a million Americans suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, which cause mild to severe symptoms that at best can be managed and at worst lead to life-threatening complications.

While abnormal immune responses are largely responsible for these diseases, issues relating to gut microbiome, intestinal epithelial cells, immune components, and the gut’s rhythmic peristalsis motions can also contribute to and exacerbate symptoms. But until now, scientists have been hard pressed to develop new therapies for treating IBDs because they could not replicate the human gut microenvironment in the laboratory.

On Monday, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced that its team had created a model of human intestinal inflammation and bacterial overgrowth in a human-gut-on-a-chip. The team, co-led by Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber and core faculty member James Collins, leveraged the institute’s proprietary human-organs-on-chips technology to microengineer the model.

The advance, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), allows scientists to analyze for the first time how normal gut microbes and pathogenic bacteria contribute to immune responses, and to investigate IBD mechanisms in a controlled model that recapitulates human intestinal physiology.

“Chronic inflammation of the intestine is thought to be caused by abnormal interactions between gut microbes, intestinal epithelial cells, and the immune system, but so far it has been impossible to determine how each of these factors contributes to the development of intestinal bowel disease,” said Hyun Jung Kim, former Wyss Technology Development Fellow and first author of the study, speaking about the limitations of conventional in vitro and animal models of bacterial overgrowth and inflammation of the intestines.

The human-gut-on-a-chip technology, however, provides an ideal microenvironment for mimicking the natural conditions of the human intestines in a small-scale, controllable, in vitro platform. The human-gut-on-a-chip was first invented at the Wyss Institute in 2012. Made of a clear, flexible polymer about the size of a computer memory stick, the hollow-channeled microfluidic device simulates the physical structure, microenvironment, peristalsis-like waves and fluid flow of the human intestine.

Read more from Harvard Gagette >>>

5 Foods That Will Mess With Your Skin + What To Eat Instead

2015-11-22T21:16:00.005-05:00

From mindbodygreen.com

5 Foods That Will Mess With Your Skin + What To Eat Instead

by Tata Harper | November 21, 2015

There’s no question that using high quality, natural skin care is only half of the solution to complexion concerns. The other half is what feeds your skin from the inside, which is, of course, your diet!

Every single thing you put in your mouth, chew up and swallow will make its way through your body and eventually, out onto your skin. That mug of herbal tea you drink every afternoon? You can thank it for playing a part in your dewey skin. The daily candy bar you snack on after lunch? Yup, that'll present on your face too, and probably not in the way you want.

And while there's no standard set of rules that will work for everyone, a good rule of thumb is to focus the majority of your diet on whole, nutrient-dense foods aka superfoods. Things like leafy greens, healthy fats and organic protein will benefit your complexion today and for the rest of your life. (Your insides will benefit too!)

But as much as we focus on what we should be eating for great skin, we sometimes overlook the things that aren't so great for us. If you want healthy, youthful skin, be good to your body and avoid these inflammatory foods.

1. Processed Sugar
According to the British Journal of Dermatology, excess sugar in your diet may contribute to the degradation of collagen and elastin, leading to loss of firmness and elasticity of the skin, which basically means it'll age your skin way faster than nature.

Additionally, spikes in blood sugar cause your insulin levels to spike, which leads to inflammation. In turn, inflammation can make skin conditions like acne and rosacea worse. Cut back on the sweet stuff and try to eliminate packaged foods with added sugar.

Swap: Rely on fruits and a small amount of honey to satisfy your sweet tooth. Personally, I love to snack on a tiny bit of dark chocolate when I’m having a sugar-craving; it satisfies that urge but isn’t too processed.

2. High Glycemic Foods
Processed foods like white bread, pasta, baked goods, cereal and even white rice are all considered high glycemic foods, which means they're high on the glycemic index — a number that indicates a food's effect on someone's blood sugar level. In other words, food that are "high glycemic" convert to sugar quickly in your body and cause spikes in blood sugar.

As discussed above, these spikes lead to inflammation, which attacks skin's collagen and elastin, leading to an acceleration of the skin’s aging process. The result is more fine lines, wrinkles and dullness.

Swap: Go for healthy natural carbohydrates and grains like sweet potatoes, brown rice and quinoa. These foods are much lower on the glycemic index, will keep you full for longer, and will actually improve your skin. For example, sweet potatoes are high in vitamin C, which produces collagen, helping to maintain your skin's elasticity.

3. Non-Organic Dairy
Some dermatologists suspect that all dairy contributes to acne, but there's not much scientific evidence that shows a direct link between dairy consumption and skin health. Either way, it's a good place to start if you're looking to experiment with how what you eat affects your skin.

And if you're not ready to make the switch to almond milk, at least change to organic dairy. Non-organic milk often contains added hormones, and since your body's naturally-produced hormones are already playing tricks on your skin, it's a no brainer that any additional hormones (from dairy or other sources) will also wreak havoc.

Swap: Organic dairy is a good place to start, but you can also go the nut-based route. Try DIY almond milk or if you're feeling really adventurous, you could try your hand at making your own raw cheeses.

4. Fried Foods

Read more from mindbodygreen.com >>

The 50 Most Desirable Employers in North America

2015-10-18T21:42:00.003-04:00

From Yahoo.com

What should we do to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship?

2015-10-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

Trading time for money is what most of us do for a living. In a year, we have at most 2080 hours (40 hours x 52 weeks) of our time to trade for money. Time is more precious as it is limited. We cannot increase time but we can definitely increase money if we work smarter not harder.

Realistically, we are actually slaving away to make our bosses wealthy. To achieve time and financial independence, being an entrepreneur is the only way to go. But if we are entrepreneurs who work alone, we are being delusional. A true entrepreneur is one who knows how to leverage time and the efforts of others. As billionaire J.Paul Getty once said, "I would rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of my own efforts."

From Quora

What should we do to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship?

Charles Tips, Serious student of economics

I was in my fourth year in retail before my partner and I ever had lunch together. Just couldn't leave the store without at least one of us there. We had $7/hour employees (=$17 now), all of them college grads, who simply would not take on more authority. They each saw themselves in a temporary position pending finding their real place in life. They didn't want to know anything or take on any additional responsibility, yet they did frequently want to know why they weren't getting paid more.

We had three direct competitors within blocks of us. When I bought into the company, the store was firmly in fourth place. By the fourth year, when I could finally dine during store hours with my partner, we were doing as much business as the other three put together. We were good, but we were also keenly aware we were not making money. I think our profit in Y4 on $1.4M in sales was $6,000. No raises, no nothing.

We'd lost our window washer. When one didn't come along, I finally pulled out the Yellow Pages. Just then, a funny character walked in my store. I recognized him instantly from his cranberry corduroy bell bottoms, way out of fashion, as a follower of the Rajneesh movement popular then. He was wearing a white disco shirt with strawberry-blond curls for hair, early twenties, about 5'2. He was toting a grocery sack and proudly showed me the several well-worn and thumbed-through books it contained--on the godhead, on mystic enlightenment, Nirvana (before the Seattle grunge scene), what have you.

I waved that aside. "What can I do for you?"

"Can I wash your windows?"

"Sure."

"Can I get paid in advance?"

"Why do you need to get paid in advance?"

"So I can buy the supplies I need."

I looked him over. He was just too naïve to be using guile on me, so I marched him a few blocks away to the janitorial supply store. I got him the tools of the trade, all top-end stuff--bucket, squeegee, extension pole, gallon of glass cleaner... he was set. It came to almost $40, so I told him he owed me two window washings. He was delighted.

He worked at a snail pace, but he was fastidious. Got the job done. I took him to the other three merchants on the block, knowing they were missing our old window guy as well, and vouched for his work. He cleared $60 that afternoon plus a complete set of tools.

A month later he came in for his paid washing, only he was dressed in a suit and had an associate standing outside the door. It was a tacky, suedish suit, but it let me know instantly that his associate would be handling the work. I gave him a twenty from petty cash and he was off.

In the next days and weeks, I began to encounter his associates all over the downtown area, sometimes as many as three. They worked much faster (he must've been a demanding boss), and I ran the numbers through my head. Even at only $40 grossed an hour per worker and after paying his workers and for supplies, the guy had to be taking in $400 a day (=$1,000 now) for himself. That's more--far more--than I was making! And if he had yet other associates working other shopping areas nearby, it could've been a lot more.

Read more from Quora >>

7 Nutrients You Need For Optimal Health + How To Get More Of Them

2015-10-08T22:07:00.002-04:00

From mbg

7 Nutrients You Need For Optimal Health + How To Get More Of Them

by Laura L. Rokosz | October 3, 2015

As a nutritionist, I've noticed that many of my patients overlook the importance of minerals when considering a healthy diet. Of course, they understand that calcium helps with bone health, and they recognize the perils of excess sodium ... but what about the others?

From iodine to zinc, there are a number of essential minerals that are crucial for our overall health. They're found in abundant amounts in whole foods, but are largely depleted from processed foods. Here is a rundown of some of the best natural food sources for seven of these minerals:

1. Magnesium

Like calcium, magnesium is also needed to support bone health and is quite critical for normal muscle function and transmission of nerve impulses. If you're deficient, symptoms include muscle cramps and an irregular heartbeat. People with GI problems (like celiac and Crohn's disease) are more at risk of being deficient in this crucial mineral.

Best sources: Spinach, black beans, nuts, soy milk, yogurt, and seafood.

2. Potassium

Potassium is essential for maintaining a steady heartbeat and helping your muscles contract. It also assists chemical reactions and promotes nerve cell function. A drop in your potassium level can lead to heart palpitations, fatigue, or feeling faint.

Best sources: Orange juice, bananas, potatoes, honeydew melon, and avocados.

3. Iodine

Iodine is a component of the thyroid hormone thyroxine and is crucial for normal function of your thyroid. Profound iodine deficiency is commonly associated with goiter, or an enlarged thyroid gland.

Thyroid hormones are critical regulators of our metabolic rate — which is why a deficiency in iodine is commonly associated with weight gain, fatigue, sensitivity to cold, muscle pain and weakness, and reduced heart rate (among a slew of other symptoms).

Best sources: Iodized table salt, seafood, and sea vegetables like kelp.

4. Iron

Iron is a critical component of hemoglobin, which is found in red blood cells. Hemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. It is also a key component of myoglobin, a protein that holds and stores oxygen in muscles for later use.

Iron deficiency is associated with anemia and symptoms like weakness, fatigue, and headaches.

Best sources: Red meat, poultry, tofu, greens such as spinach and Swiss chard, and shellfish.

5. Zinc

Zinc is required for the function of many enzymes, which are the workhorses of all cells. Some of these critical activities include digestion, insulin function, and nutrient metabolism. It also helps boost the body's immune system and is required for normal development in children.

Vegetarians tend to be more at risk of zinc deficiency since meat is high in bioavailable zinc. Find out the signs that may indicate you're not getting enough zinc.

Best sources: Oysters, beef, pork, and yogurt.

Read more from mbg >>

I Gave Up Gluten, Alcohol, Sugar, Coffee, Meat & More For 21 Days. Here's What I Learned

2015-10-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

From mindbodygreen

I Gave Up Gluten, Alcohol, Sugar, Coffee, Meat & More For 21 Days. Here's What I Learned

by Amy Baglan | September 22, 2015

Aside from the days when I was strict vegan, I’d never consciously given up anything. I have friends who are gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, etc. I wondered why that didn’t appeal to me. Was there something I was unaware of in my own body? Do I, too, have sensitivities that should be addressed?

To find out, I decided to do a serious cleanse. I went with Clean Program because they provide daily support from wellness coaches. It’s a lifesaver when motivation ebbs.

For 21 days in the middle of an action-packed summer, I gave up sugar, gluten, dairy, dark meats, nightshade vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants), alcohol, and (the hardest part) coffee.

Here’s what I learned:

1. How to identify real hunger versus emotional hunger.

Real hunger comes on gradually, while emotional hunger seems to strike immediately. During the cleanse, my experience of emotional hunger all but disappeared, making it really easy to differentiate after it ended.

2. Sugar is not my friend.

Even natural sugars, like dried fruit. A few days after the cleanse I had a small bag of organic, all-natural dried mango slices. Shortly after, I went on an evening bike ride. Toward the end of the ride I experienced a sugar crash so extreme I had to ride to the nearest grocery store and ask someone to help me get some food to avoid passing out.

3. Gluten gives me brain fog.

I had a rather lavish gluten-filled dinner one night after the cleanse and experienced what I can only describe as a gluten hangover the next morning. This “brain fog” has happened a few times since and does not bode well for a CEO running morning meetings daily. I notice it more when the gluten is heavily processed — like crackers or cereal.

4. Tequila is truly the best alcohol choice for my body.

Read more from mindbodygreen >>

Wellness Tip: The benefits of friends

2015-10-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

From Cleveland Clinic

Wellness Tip

October 3, 2015

The benefits of friends: Make loads of friends at 20 and close friends at 30 and you’re on your way to a lifetime of health and well-being.

Most parents dropping kids off at college tell their progeny to study hard, limit partying, and wear flip-flops in the shower. Few, we bet, offer this nugget of wisdom: Make as many friends as you can. What many parents don’t know is that the quantity of social interactions at age 20 and the quality of relationships at age 30 may benefit their well-being much later, at age 50 and possibly beyond. So says a new study that was conducted over the course of 30 years. It turns out that frequent social interactions during one’s college years help twentysomethings learn how to meet and mingle with people from diverse backgrounds and, subsequently, to figure out who they are. By age 30, quality trounces quantity, with intimate and satisfying relationships as predictors of future well-being. Even for those whose college years are well behind them (cough, cough), strong friendships and family ties are as important to longevity as exercising, maintaining your weight, quitting smoking, and limiting alcohol. So open up your social calendar and start filling it up!

Read more from Cleveland Clinic >>

10 Anti-Inflammatory & Disease-Fighting Foods

2015-09-20T21:04:00.003-04:00

From mbg

by Dr. Josh Axe | September 19, 2015

10 Anti-Inflammatory & Disease-Fighting Foods

Inflammation gets a bad rap, but it isn’t always bad. As a necessary bodily function for preventing illnesses, treating injuries, and healing wounds, inflammation (at least some degree of it) keeps us strong and healthy.

It’s when the immune system starts overacting and begins attacking healthy body tissue that inflammation can lead to a whole host of problems — from weight gain to autoimmune disease, dementia, and even cancer.

High stress levels, food allergies, smoking, and environmental factors can all increase inflammation, but a poor diet is likely the biggest offender. Luckily, a healthy diet that is free of common digestive triggers can counteract the damage, reduce free-radical damage, flush toxins, and speed healing.

Here are 10 anti-inflammatory foods to include in your diet as often as possible:

1. Leafy green vegetables

Dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach, bok choy, and Swiss chard are rich in flavonoids (powerful, plant-based antioxidants) that restore cellular health, which is essential to stopping inflammation.

In addition, they provide vitamins A, C, and K, which protect your brain against the oxidative stress caused by free-radical damage — the same process that causes aging and disease development.

2. Probiotic foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, yogurt, kefir)

A very large portion of your immune system actually lives within your gut and is run by bacterial organisms — what you can think of as “your gut’s bugs.”

Microbial imbalances (when the bad bacteria outnumber the good) have been associated with heightened inflammation and increased risk of various diseases, but probiotic foods like sauerkraut and kimchi can help rebalance and heal your gut.

Probiotics are also linked to improvements in immune, cognitive, digestive, and endocrine system functions, and taking probiotics can even cheer you up!

3. Bone broth

Bone broth — the rich liquid that results from boiling the bones of organic, grass-fed beef or poultry for hours — comes packed with a number of nutrients, including collagen. Collagen and the amino acids proline and glycine work in unison to heal the lining of an inflamed gut, which quickly stops your immune system from acting on overdrive and attacking the body’s healthy tissues, from the skin to the brain.

Bone broth is also a great natural source of chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine — the same compounds sold as expensive over-the-counter supplements used to limit arthritis and joint pain caused by inflammation.

4. Walnuts

Read more mbg >>

What are the top 10 economic must-reads that are fun to read, and not academic?

2015-09-12T20:54:00.000-04:00

From Quora

There are many responses to this question, but I find James Altucher's the most intriguing.

What are the top 10 economic must-reads that are fun to read, and not academic?

James Altucher, "I've written ten books.I've sold a couple of companies. I make angel investme..."

When I started a business, by definition, I knew nothing about business.

I had just started! I was the worst.

Here's what I knew. This was the 90s. I knew how to make a website. Nobody else knew.

So American Express came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"

That started my business. HBO came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"

Miramax came to me and said, "Can you build a website?"

I'm going to admit to you what I did not know: I did not know the business world values products (scalable) more than services (unscalable).

The reason I did not know this is because services are profitable (You can always fire people when business is slow)

Here's also what I did not know: how to hire people and fire people. Or how to manage people. I didn't know anything.

Business is like "micro-economics". Supply and demand, etc.

Macro-economics is like: what happens if there's a draught and we grow less corn. What happens?

So here's what I don't know now:

I don't know how to really read a "P&L" sheet. Just tell me your revenues and profits and let me ask some questions and I can figure out what's working and what's not.

And here's also what I don't know now: what happens if there is a draught and there's no corn. Because it seems like that has nothing to do with real prices.

The price of oil has nothing to do with the supply and demand for oil right now, for instance.

So anyone who writes a book on "Macro-economics" is lying to you. Because it's a made up science.

And Micro-economics they are lying to you also. Because what you need to know there is how to sell, how to come up with an idea, how to manage, how to build product, and how to be a leader.

You can't learn that from a teacher. You can learn a tiny bit from books.

What do you do if economics is BS and you are answering a question about "What are the 10 best Economics books?"

I don't want to lie to you. I'm going to give you the 10 best books that inspired me to make more money.

That's, pure and simple, what I hear when I hear the world "economics".

These books won't make you more money. But they will inspire you and point you in the right directions for making money.

I'm not going to give you books I read in college. Those are all BS books.

For me, if I am honest, reading these books has caused me to have more money in my bank account.

A) Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Changed my mind about the nature of competition, monopolies and the role of employees. Also check out my podcast with him.

B) Abundance by Peter Diamandis. If someone ever "dooms and glooms" you, this is the book to read. The rest of the people are trying to scare you.

C) The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Not because he teaches you how to be "powerful". That word means nothing. It's just...he's smart. Read him.

D) Mindset by Carol Dweck. Are you fixed, or growth. When and why?

E) The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson. A book about our current world situation is just a photograph. One moment from now it will change. One moment ago it was different.

This book by Taylor is about this moment. And it's important to read. (Or check out my podcast with him)

F) Tomorrowland by Steven Kotler

Might as well know what trends are happening and the state of where they are now.

G) Are You Fully Charged? This book will make you a better person, leader, businessman. At least...it did for me. Plus I have a man-crush on Tom Rath.

H) Sapiens by Blah Blah Blah. I hate always looking up his name. My wife and I always just call him, "Israeli guy".

This book is the most important economics book ever. If there were such a thing as economics. Who cares. Read it. The 80,000 year overview of where we've been and where we are going.

At the very least you will be smart at cocktail parties after you read this book.

I like reading books where I feel like my IQ is going up while I am reading it.

I) The Rational Optimist. Again an anti-doom and gloom book by the astonishing Matt Ridley. This is another one of those books where your IQ is higher after you read it.

J) History of the World is Six Glasses. My kid had to read this for school. And then I read it.

It's great to take a well-trodden topic (history) and re-formulate it in terms of what we drank and how the answer to that question is totally what changed history.

Practicing having a mindset like that, where you turn the common into the fantastic, is what makes one a good economist.

Again, I can list a lot more. I don't want to limit myself to ten. I have book club where I list many more but you don't need it.

[Oh, I'm editing this post. One more CRITICAL ONE: "Antifragile" by Nassim Taleb. But with a caveat. As you read it, try to determine how it personally can change your life as opposed to reading it as an economics book.]

Do this:
- start with these ten.
- don't listen to anyone who uses the word "economics" (after this post of course)
- make a lot of money using what you learned in these ten books.

The 21-year-old building India's largest hotel network

2015-09-09T21:24:00.002-04:00

From BBC

The 21-year-old building India's largest hotel network

How Ritesh Agarwal built India's biggest chain of branded hotels before his 21st birthday

By Kinjal Pandya-Wagh
Business reporter, BBC News

One night, 18-year-old Ritesh Agarwal was locked out of his apartment in Delhi. It was an unfortunate minor incident that was to change his life.

Forced to check into a hotel he found himself in a situation he had already experienced several times while travelling in India.

"The receptionist was sleeping," he says.

"Sockets did not work in the room, mattresses were torn apart, the bathroom was leaking, and at the end they wouldn't let me pay by card."

"I felt if this was my problem, this had to be a problem for many travellers. Why can't India have a good standard of hotel rooms at a reasonable price?"

Four years later, at the age of 21, Mr Agarwal is now the founder and chief executive of Oyo Rooms - a network of 2,200 hotels operating in 100 cities across India - with monthly revenues of $3.5m (£2.3m) and 1,500 employees.

The firm works with unbranded hotels to improve their facilities and train staff, rebrands them with its own name, and from then on takes a percentage of the hotel's revenues.

The owner of the hotel benefits from a higher occupancy rate, thanks to Oyo's branding.

And as part of the business, Mr Agarwal has also developed an app, which guests can use to book rooms, get directions to the hotel, and once they have arrived, to use the hotels amenities, for example to order room service.

Tough journey

Despite such rapid growth, he says the early days were "extremely difficult".

"No one would believe that this could be a technology business in the future," he says.

But some people did believe in him. A similar idea - which eventually evolved into Oyo Rooms - won him a coveted Thiel Fellowship - a programme sponsored by PayPal co-creator and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel - which pays for 20 teenagers each year to stop studying and try to set up a business instead.

He used the funding from the fellowship to start the business.

Read more from BBC >>

Check Out Life Spans Around The World — And Likely Years Of Ill Health

2015-09-08T21:43:00.000-04:00

From wnyc.org

Lancet study: "You're never going to have a disease-free population. Maybe part of it is that medical services can prolong unhealthy lives."

Check Out Life Spans Around The World — And Likely Years Of Ill Health

Sep 5, 2015 · by Susan Brink

From NPR

It's one of those good news/bad news stories. A study in the medical journal The Lancet found that people around the world — in countries rich, poor and in the middle — are living longer. But here's the rub. You can't count on living those extra years in good health.

In the first of what will be an annual look at health along with life span around the world called the Global Burden of Disease Study, researchers found that between 1990 and 2013, life expectancy rose by 6.2 years. The average life span at birth across the globe is now 71.5 years, though rates vary tremendously by region. People live the longest, according to the Lancet study, in Andorra, in southwestern Europe, or an average of 83.9 years. People die the youngest, an average of 48.3 years, in Lesotho, in Africa.

But regardless of socioeconomics, geography or total number of years lived, the study shows what appears to be a universal part of the human condition: people live an average of one-eighth of their lives in a disabled or unhealthy state.

"What's interesting is that wherever you go around the world, about seven-eighths of life expectancy is healthy," says Peter Byass, professor of global health at Umea University in Sweden. "I'm not sure we totally understand why."

"We probably can't do a lot about decreasing this part of life that's not healthy," he adds. "That pretty much appears to be a part of being human."

Healthy life — the measure researchers used, called HALE, or healthy life expectancy years — ranged from a high of 73.4 years in Japan to a low, again in Lesotho, of 42 years.

Not much is known about when those years of ill health occur. "A lot of the unhealthy stuff is around end of life," says Byass.

Spending more money on health care doesn't seem to reduce the proportion of life spent in ill health. The study was based on regional data and showed that in high-income North America, men live an average of 76.64 years, but only 66.17 of those years are healthy; women live an average of 81.62 years, but experience good health in only 68.85 of those years. The United States, which spends more on health care than any other country, is part of that high-income region. "This is seen even in places where there's a high investment in health care," says Byass, who wrote a commentary accompanying the Lancet study. "You're never going to have a disease-free population. Maybe part of it is that medical services can prolong unhealthy lives."

Read more from wnyc.org >>

8 Surprising Facts About Fruits And Veggies Infographic

2015-09-07T15:41:00.001-04:00

From ahealthblog.com

8 Surprising Facts About Fruits And Veggies Infographic

Researchers have shown that the phytochemical sulforaphane in broccoli selectively targets and kills cancer cells and leaves healthy prostate cells untouched. Sulforaphane is found in fairly high levels in broccoli as well as other cruciferous vegetables.

The study results are a significant breakthrough for the potential usage of sulforaphane in broccoli for the prevention as well as treatment of cancer, and clinical trials are in progress.

Sulforaphane in broccoli is an inhibitor of HDAC (histone deacetylase) enzymes. HDACs are a family of enzymes which, amongst other things, influence access to DNA and are involved in whether specific genes, such as tumor suppressing genes, are expressed or not. A number of the mechanisms which help prevent abnormal cell growth are avoided in cancer cells. HDAC inhibitors assist in “switching on” the silenced genes and repair normal cellular function.

It’s important to show that sulforaphane in broccoli is safe if it’s to be used for the prevention of cancer prevention or cancer therapies. Just because a nutrient or phytochemical comes from food doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe consumed in large quantities. But this appears to be a phytochemical which selectively kills cancer cells, and this is important in cancer therapies.

Read more from ahealthblog.com >>

I'm unemployed, broke, balding, living with my parents, about to turn 30, friendless, depressed, and miserable. How can I possibly turn it around?

2015-08-23T20:45:00.002-04:00

From Quora

I'm unemployed, broke, balding, living with my parents, about to turn 30, friendless, depressed, and miserable. How can I possibly turn it around?
Also I have several health problems. My left arm have vein contraction, my right eye is aching and I think my right arm suffers from mild carpal tunnel syndrome. But if I tell my mom about these, she'll complain because she has to spend money for hospital. If I go to hospital when I get a job, my employer will whine that I keep taking day offs. I don't know what should I do.

Evan Asano, CEO & Founder: Mediakix.com

In 2007, I got laid off from my high paying biotech job and backpacked through Central America. I was 32 at the time. I took all the money I had and bought Apple stock on margin. It was a good year to buy Apple stock as this was the year the iPhone came out. I moved to LA with plans to fulfill my dream of starting a company. I'd always been in interested in tech and the Internet so I started on a solid year of wantrepreneurship.

In 2008, the market came unhinged, the economy experienced the worst recession since the Great Depression and I sold my stock at the bottom, taking huge loses. My start up business hadn't panned out. I'd made very little progress on my idea, and eventually partnered with a friend to raise money for a Facebook apps company. Neither of us knew a thing about Facebook apps.

What little personal savings I had left was drying up as we started talking to investors. I didn't have a job and was hoping to raise money to pay the bills and build a company. Then the financial crisis struck. No investors would talk to us. My friend had a job, I was pretty much out of money. By some miracle, unemployment benefits got extended, and I was eligible from having been laid off a year and half earlier. I don't understand why.

I was now completely broke except for my biweekly unemployment checks which barely covered rent and food. I was 33 year old, hadn't worked in a year and half and was ostensibly changing careers/industries yet had no experience in the new industry. I was looking for a job as the unemployment rate was rising at rate faster than it had in nearly seventy years. It was a historically bad time to be looking for a job, especially in an industry where I had no experience.

At one point, I couldn't pay my cellphone bill. I had no idea, but Verizon has a payment plan when you're back due.

I spent months applying to jobs and writing cover letters. I got coffee and met with anyone and everyone I could. This eventually led to an interview and offer from MySpace (at the time bigger than Facebook and a hot company). I was going to start the following week, then the offer letter got delayed one week. Then another week, then a third. Then MySpace put on a hiring freeze.

I couldn't pay my credit cards, and creditors were calling non stop. At first I tried to answer the calls, then I just stopped. There wasn't anything I could do. The news on the economy got worse and worse.

I kept applying to jobs and tried to keep a positive outlook. That was all I could do. My unemployment benefits were about to end. I didn't know how I was going to pay rent.

A couple weeks before they expired, a friend of friend heard I understood social media and asked me to come in and present to her team. I drafted a strategy for her and presented for a couple hours. I charged $200, a nominal amount but it was a massive boost me for emotionally.

A week or so later, my neighbor on a whim passed on my resume for an open position onto a company where he freelanced. A month later I was head of sales at a top digital Hollywood production company (really the only one of its kind). I felt like I'd won the lottery.

This is just the short version. There were substantially more challenges and adversities I encountered than I've listed or have space to.

What I learned:

You can only fix one problem at a time. Don't go out and try to fix your life. Focus and solve only the biggest problem you have. Once you've fixed that, move onto the next one. So you're not bald, broke, unemployed and friendless. You're just unemployed. Go get a job and you've fixed that problem. Then move onto the next.
Don't create new problems for yourself. It doesn't sound to me like you'd have any problem working in an office job. Are you crippled, maimed or cognitively impaired? No, then you can handle a job. I have to use my left hand for my mouse because of tennis elbow. I don't think twice about it anymore. Don't fortune tell problems or scenarios that don't exist. As Mark Twain said, "I have known a great many troubles, most of which never happened."
Don't define yourself by your problems. No ones life is perfect, far from it. Think of who you'd be if you didn't have your problems. Probably the exact same person. So rediscover who you are and just start over from that point. When I was growing up playing hockey and we were getting whopped by another team, our coach would huddle us together between periods, tell the score was 0-0 and that our job was to win the next period, not the game. The game didn't seem winnable at this point, but the opposing teams were always caught of guard in the next period by a team they'd mostly counted out. I don't know that we ever lost a period after those talks, and we came back to win a surprising number of games from a big deficit.
Create a routine. You don't have a job. You're job now is to get a job. Wake up early, have a morning routine and go somewhere (coffee house etc) where you will work at getting a job for eight hours a day. Now that doesn't mean writing resumes for that long. It can and should include networking, reading, learning, informational interviews, improving job skills, etc. But create a schedule for yourself. You should make exercise and the outdoors part of the schedule. Research shows that exercise helps alleviate depressions and the NY Times just published an article on another study that shows How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain.
Reframe. When I was applying for jobs after being essentially unemployed for 18 months, I listed the 6 months of travel/backpacking I did as "travel sabbatical" on my resume. A director at one of the companies I interviewed at asked about my travels with envy. During my year of wantrepreneurship, I didn't successfully launch the company I envisioned, but I did learn valuable skills such as blogging, social media, SEO and others. In my interviews, I talked about these skills and my successes, not the fact I couldn't ultimately raise money and folded the enterprise. Use your time being unemployed, as a chance to learn new job skills, volunteer, pick up a hobby and/or travel. If you don't think you have the money, a subscription to Lynda runs $25/month. There's more there to learn than you could possibly cover in a lifetime.
Get inspired. You're far from the first or only one in your predicament. Countless others have overcome difficulties far worse than yours. It can help immensely to watch and read their stories. James Altucher writes a great blog about personal development and shares his own ups and downs in his career. Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. That's right, no arms or legs. He was bullied so badly that he contemplated suicide. He's now a hugely successful motivational speaker. Watch his Ted Talk:

JR Ridinger, CEO of Shop.com Performing High Wire Act

2015-08-20T21:26:00.001-04:00

JR Ridinger, after giving a rousing 2.5 hour talk, performed a high wire act over a simulated Niagara Falls to inspire the 20 thousand plus Unfranchise entrepreneurs.

His act was seen in Time Square, New York City !

Power Profiles - Ryan Stack, Olivia Li, Andrew Chee and Benson Li

2015-08-19T22:10:00.001-04:00

Time - are you able to enjoy your time?

JR Ridinger: Believe - The Tightrope Story

2015-08-18T21:01:00.002-04:00

Do you believe?....never, never, never give up! Failure is not an option!

How can I motivate myself to work hard?

2015-08-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

From Quora

How can I motivate myself to work hard?

Nelson Wang, CEO of The Blink App - www.theblinkapp.com
Answer featured in Inc and 1 more.

When I was in 20 years old and studying at UCLA, I flunked an Economics class. I was devastated. Guess what happened? I bounced back. I got an A when I retook the course.

When I was 22, I interviewed with 4 different managers at a Fortune 100 company and was ranked pretty much last in every interview. I didn't get a single job offer. I was frustrated. Guess what happened? I bounced back. I have my dream job now.

When I was 25, I created 9 iPhone apps, all of which failed miserably. I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money building them and felt really bummed. Guess what happened? Since then, I've built another 4 iPhone apps and all 4 of them hit the top 100 in the Business, Lifestyle and Entertainment section.

When I was 28, I found out my mentor and friend Erik, who was like a brother to me, passed away from cancer. That was one of the toughest times in my life. Guess what happened? I bounced back. Because that's what Erik would have wanted.

What I've noticed over the last 30 years of my life is that there is a recurring pattern to successfully motivating myself. This pattern helped me get back on track, even during times that felt like rock bottom. I've also asked numerous executives from Cisco, MTV, Bank of America, VMware, Box and Optimizely what their secrets to motivation are. In addition to that, I've also read numerous books on motivation from authors like Tony Robbins to Daniel Pink (Author of "Drive").

I've put together a list of the 10 things successful people do to motivate themselves.

I've never shared this list - until now.

Here are the top 10:

1. Understand your why:

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." - Mark Twain

Understand your purpose and it will fuel your drive.

If I told you that it was your job to sort through a box of potatoes and to throw away the rotten ones, would you feel a strong sense of purpose? Or would you feel like a cog in a machine? Now – what if I told you that by sorting out the bad potatoes you were helping out the local food bank in supplying fresh food to needy families in the area – would that change your perspective and your sense of purpose in the work?

Now that you understand the purpose of the work – does it potentially change your attitude or perhaps even your choice of work?

I’m not here to dictate what purpose is. Everyone’s got a different definition based on their experiences in life and their own set of values.

But what I do want to ask you is:

What does purpose mean to you?

Find your why. If you don't know what it is, create it. That will motivate you to make a difference.

Millennials COMING OF AGE

2015-08-16T21:24:00.002-04:00

From Goldman Sachs

Millennials
COMING OF AGE

One of the largest generations in history is about to move into its prime spending years. Millennials are poised to reshape the economy; their unique experiences will change the ways we buy and sell, forcing companies to examine how they do business for decades to come.

WHO ARE THEY?
A different world, a different worldview. Millennials have grown up in a time of rapid change, giving them a set of priorities and expectations sharply different from previous generations.

HOUSING
As Millennials enter their peak home-buying years, their reluctance to enter the housing market could change. The cohort’s sheer size, plus its desire to settle down in the future, could lead to a surge in home sales.

PEAK HOME-BUYING YEARS
25 y/o Peak Home-Buying Years 45 y/o

Source: Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research

Read more from Goldman Sachs >>

9 Reasons You’re Exhausted All The Time + What To Do About It

2015-08-15T22:02:00.002-04:00

From mindbodygreen.com

9 Reasons You’re Exhausted All The Time + What To Do About It

by Dr. Holly Phillips August 7, 2015

Fatigue is one of the most common complaints people bring to their doctors’ attention. And sure, it can simply be a natural response to a busy life.

But feeling exhausted all the time isn’t normal or acceptable. In fact, it's actually your body's cry for help, letting you know that poor lifestyle habits or a hidden medical condition are sabotaging your energy.

After struggling with my own fatigue for nearing twenty years before finding a cure, I wrote my new book The Exhaustion Breakthrough to help others recover their vitality, too. Here, I'm sharing the most common reasons for exhaustion — and how you can remedy your fatigue.

1. You’re sleeping erratically.

If you’re not getting the hours of shut-eye your body needs, or your bedtime and awakening times are wildly different from day to day, you’re depriving yourself of the restorative powers of sleep. Without steady zzz's, you won’t have the opportunity to recover sufficiently from the previous day — or prepare well for the next one.

What to do: Carve out 7 to 9 hours for slumber each night, and follow a consistent sleep schedule every day. Even on weekends, only vary it by an hour at most.

2. You're eating the wrong food.

If your diet consists of lots of simple carbs — think chips, crackers and white bread — or sugary and processed foods, you may experience rapid spikes in blood sugar and insulin. This is usually followed by a major drop and then cravings for more carbs.

Similarly, if you're the type to frequently skip meals, you’re sending your blood sugar on a roller-coaster ride and depriving your body of the steady flow of nutrients it needs to thrive.

What to do: Plan your meals and snacks so that you're eating something every three to five hours. Ideally, your diet should be made up of a combination of protein (eggs, legumes, beans, seafood and fish, skinless poultry), healthy carbs (whole grains, vegetables, fruits) and healthy fats (nuts, seeds, avocados, olive and canola oils).

3. You’re sitting still too long.

Spending long hours at your desk or on the couch at home can make you tired, because your body equates stillness with sleep. Plus, when you’re sitting still, your breathing and heart rates slow down, along with your circulation — bringing less oxygen and fewer nutrients to your brain and body tissues.

What to do: Get up! Make it a habit to move around for at least five minutes every hour, whether you stretch, pay a visit to a colleague, or take a short walk. And try to exercise for at least 30 minutes most days of the week.

Read more from mindbodygreen.com >>

Excess sodium can increase your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and stroke.

2015-07-19T20:45:00.000-04:00

Sodium adds up fast. Excess sodium can increase your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and stroke. Know how to track and reduce your #sodium intake → http://1.usa.gov/YgD0tI