Zane Safrit

Can failure be our greatest strength?

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:10:18 PST

I’m comfortable sharing my failures. I may not be perfect at sharing my failures but when it’s my turn at bat here I’m comfortable in the batter's box.

Practice makes perfect. I have had a lot of practice failing. I have failed at everything I’ve ever tried in every area of life. Some grand and awesome failures. None of them stopped me permanently. Some required long periods of reassessment.

But I learned. Took another at-bat. And added another strike or two to play with when it was my turn at-bat to share my stories.

Sometimes the failures came around behind me when I least expected it. Like a letter lost in the mail only to find me over here.

Postman: Special delivery for a Mr. Zane Safrit.

Me: Whew-w-w-w! This package is big and heavy. Wonder who loves me enough to send such a big package? And special delivery, too?

Me: Oh, it's from Mr. Failure. And here I was thinking I was doing so well.

Failure never forgets to deliver the daily lesson plan even if that plan is last year’s lesson plan. Or the year before. Or who knows. It is always delivered.

That is good. Why? Failure always includes a lesson plan. Trust me on this one. I'm an expert in failure. I'm not alone as an expert. But I qualify as an expert.

In answer to that question in the title...YES. Failure may be my greatest strength.

Some readers may chuckle at this. Some detractors may now thinkYeah. You sure are sporty. ‘bout time you admitted it, too...

I once shared my failures and snafus, gaffes and goofs, as cocktail party fodder. For me the stories were so absurdly funny, filled with the details of a veritable perfect storm...of little moments melding together to create the failure.

I shared these tales almost compulsively.

At the start it was...cathartic. It helped me own the lesson learned.

That helped me see the benefits of failing so awesomely, so regularly. The key benefit here was...perspective.

Ok. Well, that was...different/awkward/painful...but what’s the worst that happened?
Answer: A bruised and battered ego and money lost.

The ego heals. A little man-cave time...some self-assessment and like a broken bone that’s healed stronger for the stress endured, we come out stronger.

The money part...I consider that almost like a school loan. I bought a learning experience. The ROI, the degree, that's earned comes in two parts:

Intangible. That would be the knowledge gained (what could have helped avoid it, what was inevitable, maybe I was right but right with the wrong people) along with the increased self-confidence and lack of fear.
Tangible. The tangible ROI is when that all the intangibles are applied infuture business opportunities.

And I saw the stories as a means to connect with others.

We can quibble on theology and metaphysics for what constitutes the universal elements we all share as humans. (We can... doesn’t mean we have to.) But one element we all share is failure. ( Again, let’s not digress into original sin, karma, purificatory rites. ) We all fail. Throughout our lives. ( Those of you who claim exemption from this need to expand your network to include emotionally healthy adults who care enough to confront you. )

We all keep failing until we stop. We all keep failing until we learn.

But the operative words are we and failing.

I always hoped others would share their stories of failure with me and the group. Everyone would benefit. Most chose to hide their stories.

So, what is there to hide? Yes, discretion is the better part of valor. Discretion in sharing details of our failures is often the better part of accepting and embracing our failures to together. (Seriously, dude. I’m a visual guy and I didn’t need to hear that part of the story.)

Pam Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation, talked about the Beauty of Dirty Laundry. Sharing our failures. She talked about a presentation by Morten Lund, a long-time entrepreneur who had, among other things, made good money investing in Skype.

As he launched into his presentation, he said: “I have founded over 88 startups. And at the moment, I am bankrupt.”

I see many people in that audience squirming. AWKWARD! Awkward moment. They are not sure why either. Is it the baring of his soul (or pocketbook) or the baring of their soul to themselves as they hear his story.

I squirmed when I read it. I wondered why I hadn’t done more.

And you’re wondering what’s my point or even if I have one? I do have a point or two. I hope they will prove worth your time.

We're all experts in failing. We’re all failures. ( We’re all successes too.) Those we identify as ‘successes’, separate from ourselves, are those who have more failures.

Like Mr. Lund, an investor/entrepreneur with 88 startups and he’s broke.

Like Michael Jordan who admits to missing game-winning shots 26 times, losing over 300 times and missing thousands of shots. Yet, he’s remembered for, 1 NCAA Championship, 6 NBA Championships and 3 game-winning shots:
- ’82 NCAA championship against Georgetown
- Against Cleveland Cavs/Craig Ehlo, 1989 NBA First Round.
- Against Utah/Bryon Russell, Game 6 of the NBA Finals, 1998. That brought another title. (No, he didn’t push off against Bryon. Yeah. I like basketball.)

Or Thomas Edison, who by his own admission was not a failure. He just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Success is what separates us. The constant effort, the constant learning, the constant reaching out to find more tools and resources, teammates and colleagues...to help us reach our goal is what makes a Morten Lund, Michael Jordan or Thomas Edison.

Ok. You may think at this point: That’s all great. Another blog post about failing and persevering. Standard quotes from Mike and Edison.

Here’s what’s in it for you, why you should care and why you should believe.

We all have to be entrepreneurs now. An anonymous corporation has no interest in our fate. We know that. It is only a matter of time for those in denial. We all have to take ownership of our destinies. Our economy and our communities need the jobs that come from entrepreneurs. There are great opportunities for entrepreneurs in these turbulent times. Some of us will walk towards them. Some of us will be pushed.

And failing is a close friend of entrepreneurs.

Failing more often means finding success sooner. This idea that success is reached sooner by more failures...is an idea we need to embrace. Own it. Make it yours. Claim credit for the idea. Just do it.

Share the stories creates a bigger pool of failures. Share those stories with each other. Our stories shared together create a library. We all can share in that library. We can escalate our failures faster and in more directions with more people adding their story and finding their lessons.

Now. Ask yourself:

Are you willing to share your stories of failure?
Are you willing to celebrate those stories from others?

You may find you need a new community.

You may find a secret society already exists who share their stories.

You may find everyone nurtured a secret longing to learn from each other.

Or you may find a new community needs you and your stories.

All that awaits us is our future that we can create and own, together, now.

3 Flashiest Social Media Tools

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:54:00 PST

I asked the following question from Steven Groves, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist for TheSocialMediaBible.com.

Let’s start with the flashy stuff with social media. What’s the biggest, flashiest trend impacting social media today. Why? What are the factors driving this trend?

Here’s what he answered:

Three things come to mind:

1. Twitter of course is one of the hugest, main stream tools 

2. Video 

3. Social networks

The adoption rate of social networks is just astounding. When we consider there are over 250 million people on Facebook and over 70% of them are outside the US, it really is the technology that is making the planet smaller.

The flashiest thing was earlier this year with the race to one million followers by Ashton Kutcher and CNN. Then the adoption as Twitter as another media channel for stars and celebrities.

I am starting to see a larger push to video content and part of that is probably due to the capacities on increased quality and the expanse of potential applications. It adds another consumption channel to the social media model.

You can listen in streaming on-demand to the rest of Steven Groves’ ideas on social media.

Here is the followup post with excerpted highlights from my conversation with Steve Groves.

You can follow Steven Groves on Twitter.

Highlights from My Conversation with David Zinger, founder of Employee Engagement community

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:31:51 PST

David Zinger, M.Ed., founder of the Employee Engagement community on Ning, shared an hour of his time to talk about a common passion: employee engagement. You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

David is a leading expert on employee engagement and strength based leadership. David founded and hosts the over 1700 members of the employee engagement community on Ning. He is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience. We talked our common passions: how to create employee engagement, increase it, and sustain it. We talked about its costs and its ROI. and how it is the key differentiator for any business, large or small, serving any market.

Where are you and what are you working on?

I am in Winnipeg and working on our new e-book from the Employee Engagement Network. It is comprised of 240 one sentence perspectives on employee engagement that the members of the community shared. It will be out next week.

What has happened over the last 18 months with this community?

It has swelled from just myself wanting to learn more about social media whereas I designed a website to do that and all of a sudden the Ning platform came about and that does everything I need it to do. We now have 1685 people on our community.

In 2010, we are looking to expand and engage more. The secret glue of social networking that I don’t think a lot of people understand is to find meaningful contributions for people to make that aren’t too time consuming. The glue of an online community is to find ways and methods for people to make simple, yet significant contributions. Once you have made a contribution, you get more tied to the community.

It is a big community and I have personally welcomed everyone. You must look at it as though you are hosting a party. Meet and greet!

As a founder and community manager, I give you a great deal of credit to do some of the tougher work...what have you learned over the past 18 months about encouraging conversation, communication and collaboration?

There are many things going on there. It is about connections. I do send out a weekly newsletter and there are just a few things in there. I encourage people to come back, I suggest that they make contributions even once a week, I would like more people to connect with one another and visit other’s websites. I am hoping for authentic connections. Just little things make a difference... the smallest contribution can have the greatest impact.

What are your three tips for other online community managers to grow their community by eight to nine fold in 18 months?

1. Love what you do. I think you have to love what you do. I am passionate about employee engagement. I don’t do it to build the network; I do it because I am interested and love learning from people.

2. Act like a host. If you are willing to set up a network, you must act like a host. Welcome people and try to help people to link and be connected.

3. Keep it interesting. Make it visually appealing and keep it changing. Find things that are meaningful and engage.

What was your reasonable aspiration or hoped for goal in starting the Employee Engagement community?

1. One goal was to understand community and focus. The best way to learn about it was to do it.

2. I have the equivalent of a master’s degree in Employee Engagement by reading and following all of the things that people are offering. I am learning so much from the 1600 people that are there.

Have you achieved it? Have you learned about social media and online community?

Yes! I don’t taut myself as an expert but I do know how to do it. I don’t publically offer my services, but people have certainly approached me and I am happy to assist.

What has been the most surprising challenge in growing this community?

I guess I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of people who have joined the community. The majority of the group is in their 40’s and I am happy to see them involved in social media.

It is not just the young people. It is also about trying to find the time and grow the network. I want to shake up the consulting companies and make this an expansive movement.

I do have some pretty strong thoughts about employee engagement. It goes beyond the happy employee. Happiness is there, but it is not the only component. Organizations have to be economically viable for employees to be valuable. There was a Harvard Business Review snippet just yesterday that said that about 31% of leaders, managers and supervisors are financially illiterate and don’t understand the difference between a profit and loss statement and the balance sheet. Now that is a scary thought.

What did you learn as you overcame all of these numbers? For example, 40-50 people wanting to join your community – what did you learn in managing that process?

If you build it, they will come is not valid. There are lots of things you need to keep doing, authentically to keep that growing and vibrant.

The network teaches me as much as I offer something to it.

I see you as a one man giant portal to the employee engagement movement and community. What has been the biggest trend over the past 18 turbulent months in the arena of employee engagement?

It is a blessing and a curse all at once. Employee engagement has caught more attention all of the time...this is the blessing.

The curse is that there is a lot of fluff out there: the feel good, be happy stuff.

People are just taxed to the max lately and things need to be done by the entire corporation to recognize that the staff is “US”, not them.

Conduct more than bi-annual surveys. Do more. Engage them. Engagement needs to be more than once a year measure. It is a fluctuating thing that needs to be seen and worked on everyday. People need to step up and accept the lack of engagement-make it real and recognizable.

Employees are frequently not asked. Why do you think management tends to distance themselves as time goes on? What creates that trend?

Structurally the capacities are so narrow and so small. There is fear. Managers are afraid of looking at the numbers and how that will reflect on them. The failure for executives to recognize that fact that they are still employees. Even the CEO. It is not US vs THEM. They are in it together.

We are starting to transform organizations into companies. For me it, engagement, is not an added task. Employee engagement is a way of leading now.

What is driving this awakening about employee engagement?

It is fear. There is enough financial data out there to show the benefits of engagement but to be honest I see many organizations engaging in it primarily due to fear. They are worried that they will be left behind or forgotten.

What is needed to sustain Employee Engagement?

Community. Conversations. Caring, not in a soft sense, but it means caring for profit, customers, each other, the strategy, career development, happiness, and connections. These are strong variables that need to be integrated with one another.

Employee Engagement is leadership and management.

What is the potential for Employee Engagement?

The potential is for more different ways or robust powerful ways of working and connecting to our work. If you don’t engage at work, you may not engage outside of work. We need to realize and have celebration, an acknowledgement of contributions and what has been done.

So many people in the workplace are invisible and you are not going to be able to engage people if they are not recognized.

How do employees take ownership of their personal engagement?

If you don’t take ownership, no one else will do it for you. You engage for the benefit of the organization, but you also do it for yourself. That is one thing that I see that is deficient, from the CEO to the brand new hire. It is important to do it for yourself. We must create conditions of safety and respect for one another. We are moving in this direction.

Can you share with us a case study of a company who has created better engagement with their employees?

There are pockets more than companies. Sometimes I am called in by the President or CEO and they want a three hour program. I like to be called in and examine strategy and engage the employees, helping everyone see the benefits. It is not just a quick motivational speech or a happy feeling for a few hours.

What are three characteristics of companies who do promote EE?

The bigger you become, the more challenging it becomes.

I think companies are realizing it is more than being an organization, it is being a community. It is not just relying on command and control.

There is a level of authenticity.

Leaders and managers need to know it is something that will make a difference with them.

I am sure you have measured the ROI of EE. What are some metrics companies can use to see the results in encouraging genuine employee engagement?

I think there is enough data out there, but you can get so locked into your data that you lose the connection with your people and the things that matter. If you have your financial objectives for the year, then Employee Engagement is about achieving that.

You must include people on every level of the organization and keep them involved. It can be just 45 seconds of conversation to get the ball rolling and start the dialog. It blossoms from there. One conversation at a time! Bring things out in to the open – don’t keep anyone invisible.

What is the cost of creating invisible employees?

It is a terrible cost to the individual employee not to be seen or heard. If they are not seen, why would they be engaged? It needs to be authentic gratitude and leveraging your strengths in the service of others.

Are you a fan of Marcus Buckingham and the whole strengths movement?

Yeah, I think Marcus has done a good job. His message is very sound: your strength is what engages you.

What is the Zinger Model for creating engage employees?

It has a few different components and is based upon the last two years of my work in this field.

It begins with what results are you trying to achieve.

Go back to your engagement to see if it is there.

Craft your strategy.

At the core of it is CARE: Connect, being Authentic, Recognition and Engage.

There is a focus on “other” and a focus on “self.”

48:03

When did you come up with the model and what are some of the results?

I think it was September. I think I would like it to become open source. I would like to create a simple survey and teaching elements and make it available to the public.

What are your favorite three eclectic workplaces from the 14 listed on your website?

The first one, Jerry of Positive Influence blog is brilliant. He has brought behavior analysis into the workplace.

The 76 videos on the Employee Engagement site.

RAOKA: Random Acts of Kick Arse Kindness

Being an avid reader, what are your three favorite books for the topic of engagement?

Peter Block’s book on Community.

Henry Mintzberg just wrote a new book about Managing

I am not if we should be reading just engagement books. I do tend to take sources from very different elements and take them to engagement.

What will be the trend in the Employee Engagement community we discuss in one year from now?

I think the network will be 3-4000 people by then. I am hoping the network will have transformed into a deeper community. Bringing coherence to the field as well as increased academia. I don’t want it to be a fancy buzzword with a short shelf life as a term for motivation in the workplace. I want it perceived as the way of working and leadership.

Three reasons our listeners should join the EE.

1. To make a contribution

2. To make a contribution

3. To make a contribution

To that I'd add there are three benefits from joining the Employee Engagement community:

1. Learn

2. Learn

3. Learn.

You can connect with David Zinger here:

* Employee Engagement community

* Website

* Twitter

Radio Show Guests: Ben Ridler, CRO, and Stephen Lynch, COO, from Results.com

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:01:17 PST

Ben Ridler, CRO (Chief Results Officer) and Stephen Lynch, COO, from Results.com join the show tomorrow. The show starts at 9:30 AM, Central.

Results.com is a global consulting firm with offices in New Zealand and Canada that promises to transform your business potential into extraordinary results.

They have worked for 15 years with thousands of clients delivering these transformative results. And they'll share their story: how they got started, what areas of any business have the greatest potential to generate extraordinary results, how they work to generate those clients and what things businesses can do now to begin their own transformational journey.

I have known Stephen Lynch for 2-3 years, now. We met at a Growth Conference hosted by Verne Harnish of Gazelle's. We stayed in touch over the years and finally, finally, with the power of Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and now BlogTalk Radio we get to talk again.

I'm looking forward to talking with and getting to know Ben Ridler. Judging from his testimonials at LinkedIn, this will be a delight.

You have two listening options:

LIVE:

1. Listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

2. Call-in live during the show: 646-915-9212

Leadership, Love and Caring

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:07:11 PST

Steve Farber tweeted a link to this video last night. It’s a powerful, compact, discussion of leadership, love, execution and caring.

Here’s a few excerpts that wowed me:

Execution in its purest form is about people, relationships and love.

Love’s 3 distinctions for leaders:

Love at the professional level for ourselves. That’s faith in who we are and confidence as we approach our life.

Love for each other: That’s trust and mutual respect for each other.

Love for our work: That’s passion for what we do.

The 2nd one is not an unconditional love, without responsibilities. It’s conditional love with consequences attached to it.

Unconditional love is love for our children and the foundation for our marriage.

But unconditional love is the same thing that gets in the way when we need to provide honest feedback to others to let them live their God-given abilities.

Transformative leaders are demanding and caring.

I had heard something similar. Steve MacGill and Jim Norris generously shared their time as guests on my radio show. (Listen here.) They have a successful partnership. We talked about that successful partnership. I asked them what were their 3 tips for building and maintaining a successful partnership.

Their response was:

1. Time: face to face or on the phone. Frequent contact is very important. 

2. Extreme openness .

3. Care enough to confront.

I see love and caring throughout their answers.

Frequent contact is only possible if you love, trust and respect, each other equally.

Extreme openness. You’re not going to be open, transparent, if you first lack confidence in ourselves and what we do. That lack of faith in ourselves means we cannot have trust in others. Impossible.

Care enough to confront. This rung home. Caring about someone means it matters what they do. Caring about someone means you see their potential, their God-given potential. Caring about someone means you are willing to...confront them on their behaviors that fail to respect their God-given abilities. Caring about someone means you are obligated to provide honest feedback.

Peter Luongo, the speaker in this video said, to the effect, that sometimes leaders are forced to provide honest feedback by saying “I love you. But you can’t work here.”

The great leaders are able to communicate this in a way that shows they trust the recipient to receive this feedback on the basis of mutual respect. The message is heard. The recipient is able to leave as a whole person, free now to pursue another opportunity where their God-given talent can thrive. And, btw, no longer interfere with others who do live their potential.

I’m writing out loud here. Do you see a bell-curve of possible recipients for this message? At one extreme end will be those able to understand that a demanding leader, is a caring leader. They receive any and all feedback with that understanding. At the other end are those who lack the self-respect to first trust themselves and then trust others with open communication. No amount of communication skills and opportunities to bring out their God-given talents matter. In fact, it threatens them. And in the middle, is the vast group where caring, demanding, leader can lead them to reaching their own personal stars, or at least their own personal moons. That’s where caring leaders have their impact.

Steve Farber once asked his followers this question: what’s your favorite leadership quote? I thought it about it, never answered. Sorry, Steve. I will answer now. Speak the truth, speak the truth sweetly, speak the sweet truth. And when you can no longer speak the truth sweetly, caring leaders are forced to provide honest feedback by saying “I love you. But you can’t work here.” That is the sweet truth. I love you. But you can't work here.

Healthcare Reform: Is it worth it for small business?

zanesafrit@lisco.com (Zane Safrit and Guests) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:56:40 PST

Sometime this weekend, I lost track, our House of Representatives, approved a landmark health care reform bill Saturday night by a 220-215 vote.

Many provisions in this bill are landmark. The one we’re talking about today is the provision that mandates all employees, with any and every business, receive health insurance benefits.

What does that add to the costs of doing business?
Are these costs, investments in a company’s number one asset: their employees, worth it?

Let’s look.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employee healthcare benefits comprised 10.9% of employee compensation costs per hour. This percentage is compiled as an aggregated percentage from all employers, regardless if they offer healthcare benefits or not.

The bill passed this weekend would mandate employers either provide coverage or pay a tax of 8% of these same employee compensation costs.

Maybe, my math is off. But 8% of employee labor costs sounds less expensive than 10.9% of labor costs.

Now, those companies who do not offer health insurance benefits will now face an increase in employee compensation costs. They will be required to either offer healthcare benefits themselves (for on average a 10.9% increase in employee compensation costs) or pay 8% of their employee compensation costs to a government run pool to provide insurance.

What percentage of a company’s revenues is comprised of the combined wages and benefits paid to their employees? It depends on the industry, according to BizStats. Let’s benchmark employee compensation costs (wages and benefits) at 20% of a company’ revenues.

Healthcare benefits increase total employee compensation costs (wages and benefits) by 10.9%.

So, what percentage of total revenues would these possible mandated benefits equal?

Let’s look:

Mandated costs: 8% (mandated health insurance pool contribution) of employee compensation costs

Employee compensation costs as percentage of revenues: 20% (average employee compensation costs as percentage of total revenues)

Mandated healthcare costs as percentage of revenues: = 1.6% of total revenues.( .08 x .20 = .016)

For 1.6% of total revenues for those employers who now do not provide healthcare benefits for their employees, we will receive:

Job-lock elimination. Job-lock is that phenomena where talented employees remain at large companies, underutilitized and unmotivated, because healthcare benefits are not available at small businesses.

Now small business can compete on a more level playing-field against large companies for the number one asset it needs to grow: human asset.

50% of personal bankruptcies eliminated. Over 50% of personal bankruptcies are attributable to catastrophic healthcare costs. The majority of these costs arise from the lack of health insurance. By providing health insurance to all employees we eliminate the source of 50% or more of personal bankruptcies and the costs passed on to business and their customers.

Lower health insurance premiums. As much as 10% of our current health insurance premiums are due to the healthcare costs incurred from those not insured.

Lower healthcare costs. Costs for standard hospital treatments for the uninsured are often as much as three times higher as compared to the cost of the same treatments for those with health insurance. Why? Because the uninsured have a three times greater rate of non-payment. It is reasonable to assume, though I doubt it will ever be discussed in polite company, that the standard costs for hospital treatments even for those with insurance reflect the debt incurred by the hospital from non-payment.

Greater productivity. Fewer days lost from employee illness. Now, with health insurance they can receive the care they need, when they need it and before it blossoms into a major healthcare crisis.

Imagine their greater focus when they’re not worrying about their child’s healthcare needs because those healthcare needs are affordable?

Added revenues. Remember those personal bankruptcy costs? You know those are the costs passed on to your business from the debts to you left unpaid in your customers’ personal bankruptcy. 50% of those costs would disappear. That would be reflected on your P&L statements as either increased revenues and cash-flows.

Employees. Remember that cool startup or small business? That’s the one you met with 5-6 times. They had a great culture. You believe in their purpose. They have so few meetings you could accomplish more and have more time for your family. Well, now they would have the healthcare benefits you can afford. Maybe, there would be some out-of-pocket expense for you. But the return on that would be a meaningful career again, a company where you love the people, and more time for your family. Think you’ll be more productive? Yeah, so do I.

Granted, there are nuances. Some are favorable, some are not. If a company's total employee compensation expense is lower than 20% of total revenue then the costs from mandated health insurance will be less than 1.6%.

Granted, the benefits of some of these health insurance plans may not equal the benefits of the gold-plated plans of years past. But, those benefits are not affordable to the majority of those who can enjoy private or employee-sponsored health insurance. And for those previously without health insurance, any health insurance is a step in the right direction.

But the biggest benefit I can see is that first one: elimination of job-lock. Health insurance not tied to your employer frees each of us to pursue the opportunities where we can contribute the most. And it frees smaller companies to compete for the talent they need to grow their business.

That is critical. Why? Small business is the driver for job creation. We have a jobless recovery right now. Job-lock plays a large role in the inability of small business to create the jobs we need to grow our economy out of this recession. Eliminate it (and make credit available to small business) and we have a job-generating small business segment, again.

So, for 1.6% of total revenues...on average for small business I see positive ROI from a variety of sources. Here's a few more.

And for no increase or even a savings for businesses now able to offer health insurance, I see I see mandated health insurance as a cost-saver.

That's a pretty good days work for Congress.

Granted, it is not a perfect bill. The NFIB or National Federation of Independent Business, has some very good points about how to improve this bill. But, we didn't create our healthcare system in a day or even in 10 months. And like any journey out of swamp, it begins with the first step and the same amount of time is required to get out.