Does your dead dog smell? Reflections on marketing myths and realities from one who knows.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
In the days when I taught university level marketing, I set my eager-beaver students a task.
Write a classified or space ad… and report on how it draws and what you did to handle any responses  you received. In short, this project, like my teaching in general, was never merely theoretical, detached from reality. It was real! Vital! Truthful… and often, as a result, jolting. In other words, your class project either made money… or it didn’t. Much more than your grade depended on it.
The scene of the crime…
All my students were adult practitioners, that is people who were already employed in professional positions or worked in home-based businesses or on the Internet. These were people who had a strong and pressing interest in mastering marketing. These students came because they needed to learn the ins and outs of marketing… or else. To such people one had an obligation, a sacred responsibility, to speak honestly, speak candidly, and address their real world concerns.
And I did.
On one occasion, a bright professional woman (I had lots of them in my classes) had the task of presenting her classified ad to the class… explaining why she wrote the ad she wrote, where she ran it, what the results were, how she followed up the respondents, and (and it was the all-important and) how much money this ad generated.
In other words, it was all real-life stuff.
She wrote her ad, as instructed, on the chalk board, the better for us to see the words which would shortly be shown as either golden, or dross.  Then I became the Joe Friday (“facts, ma’am, just the facts”) of the marketing drag-net.
“When did you start running this ad?” (Specific date required.)
“Where do you run this ad?” (Specific publication or venue required.)
“How many responses did you get?” (Specific number required.)
And then the kicker…
“How much money did you make… after deducting all actual costs of running the ad and responding to respondents?” (Exact dollar figures required.)
The lady squirms…
Now the moment of high truth and full disclosure had arrived. What had started as merely a class project had become for the person reporting a matter of life and death. The ad copy, you see, would show whether she had mastered the marketing essentials that either produced bucks… and all that those bucks could buy… or not.
Everything was riding on what she reported.  And she knew it…
Bad, bad, tormentingly bad.
I an inveterate reader of body language, and this student’s was typical of those who wish they were in any other place on earth rather than here, the cynosure of every eye in this most unrelenting of classes. Of course I knew she was squirming, mulling over how to disclose and deliver facts which (from that all important body language) were sure to be uncongenial. So… along with every member of the class…. I waited to see what the lady would say and do.
And we waited….
Then, at last, she admitted the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth… and it wasn’t pretty. She had run her classified ad six times… had not had a single response… and, of course, and worst of all, hadn’t made a single penny.
Now, the lady, this aspiring marketer, stood before her classmates…. abashed, humiliated, at rock bottom, a total marketing failure.
Then I told her the first essential truth of marketing: does your dead dog smell? And does it, day by day, smell worse… until the nauseating stench overpowers everything else?
The ad copy you produce is like a dog. Its job is to go out, your servant, finding and bringing home what it captures; the quarry that sustains you and gives you comfort, even excess.
No dead dogs do this…  neither do ads which fail to produce responses.
The student began to get the picture.
Her ad hadn’t pulled and yet she continued to use it, paying good Yankee dollars  to do so.. despite the fact she KNEW the dog was dead, stinking.
Why had she done this?
First, because she was sure, absolutely sure, Her Ad Was Brilliant, the stuff of legend… she was invested in the words… certain that given a chance they would produce the desirable results; aged to perfection, like a fine vintage.
But that is a huge mistake… and now she was willing, and the entire class with her, to find the essential nubbin of truth, that made everything she had done worthwhile.
1) Marketing copy doesn’t improve with age. It either works at once, immediately, or it never works at all. Dead dogs never become quick and agile again… they just stink the more.
2) ALL marketing copy, at  ALL times  must be evaluated, starkly , by results and nothing but results.
3) You must never, ever re-run marketing copy without knowing its previous results.
4) The entire business of marketing is about writing copy, testing copy, evaluating the results produced by this copy, then tweaking the copy to improve it and your overall results.
Marketing is and always be an action sport… it is not for the slothful, lazy, or unassertive.
More tips
** Never, ever become invested in, beguiled by the marketing copy  you create. It either works (producing responses and money), or it doesn’t. Success isn’t everything here… it’s the ONLY thing.
** Never re-run ANY marketing copy until  you are certain it works; that is, until you have money in hand.
**  Trash your erroneous but deeply felt belief that you can find marketing copy which is so good, so responsive that you never have to change it, never have to do anything else with it than run it and reap perpetual rewards.
Such copy doesn’t exist, never existed, and will never exist.
Marketing is the most active sport in the world. Those who win at this sport, and the rewards can be staggering, are, to a person, people who are bold, active, engaged… not sleepy-heads hoping against hope that they will find and eternally profit from a few magic words artfully strung together. Those words have never been written.
Thus, energize yourself for the marketing you must do today, for if you want the rewards of marketing you must master and remain focused on and dedicated to the unrelenting truths of marketing.
Otherwise you are hunting with a dead dog… a dog that will never produce results. It will simply stink to high heaven. And that will never do.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. He is happy to give all readers, 50,000 free guaranteed visitors for attending his live webcast today.  Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Commission Crusher ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=fe2JEfUO

An appreciation for the life of Paul Baran, dead at 84; helped create Internet’s precursor Arpanet.

It is always great to pay tribute to a contributor that one has never heard of.  In my case, Paul Baran was one of those people. The ARPANET was his baby.  Who knew?
An appreciation for the life of Paul Baran, dead at 84; helped create Internet’s precursor Arpanet.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Paul Baran

Fellow citizens of the Internet, one of our Founding Fathers, Paul Baran, has died, at 84,  in Palo Alto, California.
Pray, take a moment from your busy day online and have a kind thought for a man, a brilliant man, so far in advance of his times that he was written off as little more than a kook, his idea science fiction, not practical technology.
This is a story about people who see visions that others cannot see. So often spurned, they must instead be cherished.
This is a story about people who should have known better, whose ignorance and  unwillingness to listen nearly cost the world one of its greatest and most important assets. Thankfully wiser heads prevailed.
This is the story of a man who persisted in the face of rejection, wondering why authorities didn’t “get it”  but determined to persist until they did. He triumphed and we all won.
This is the story of Paul Baran, and it is a fascinating look at how one man’s persistence and unwavering belief can lead to dramatic change and benefits for all.
Born in Poland, April 29,1926.
Paul Baran’s first piece of good luck happened when his Jewish parents emigrated from Grodno, Poland (now in Belarus) May 11, 1928. Had his family stayed in Poland, they would almost certainly have gone to a concentration camp and horrible death. But Paul, his two siblings and parents landed in Boston, then moved to Philadelphia where his father opened a grocery store.
Baran graduated from Drexel University in 1949 (then called Drexel Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company where he did technical work on UNIVAC models. Baran was lucky again, for these models were the first brand of commercial computers in the USA. He had a heady glimpse of the future, a computer-based future.
In 1955, he moved to Los Angeles and worked for Hughes Aircraft on radar systems. He obtained a Master’s degree from UCLA. His thesis was on character recognition.
Baran then went to work at the RAND Corporation (1955).  There he took on the task of designing a “survivable” communications system that could maintain communications between end points in the face of damage from nuclear weapons. This was the height of the Cold War and America was vulnerable. Most American military communications used High Frequency connections which could be put out of action for many hours by nuclear attack.
Baran decided to automate RAND director Franklin B. Collbohm’s previous work with emergency communication over conventional AM radio networks and showed that a distributed relay mode architecture could be survivable. Moreover, the Rome Air Development Center soon showed that the idea was practical. Paul Baran had a foot on the path that would, in due course, become the Internet we all rely upon and cannot imagine life without.
“Message blocks”.
Still at RAND Corp. Baran next outlined the fundamentals for packaging data into discrete bundles, which he called “message blocks”. The bundles are then sent on various paths around a network and reassembled at their destination. Such a plan is known as packet switching.
Baran’s key idea was to build a distributed communications network, less vulnerable to attack or disruption than conventional networks. In a series of technical papers published in the 1960s, he suggested that networks be designed with redundant routes so that if a particular path failed or was destroyed, messages could still he delivered. He approached AT&T with  the idea to build his proposed network.
AT&/T’s response? “Baloney, your idea won’t work”, and so resoundingly refused.
Had the luck of Paul Baran, the lucky man, run out at last?
Certainly not because Baran had the necessary trait for this unpromising situation: he was dogged, persistent, indefatigable about explaining just what his futuristic invention could do. He never quit.
He needed it all in the face of AT&T’s rooted opposition to Baran’s idea. What they particularly disliked was this:
Baran’s design flew in the face of telephony design of the time, placing inexpensive and unreliable nodes at the center of the network, and more intelligent terminating “multiplexer” devices at the endpoints. In Baran’s words, unlike the telephony company’s equipment, his design didn’t require expensive “gold plated” components to be reliable.
AT&T engineers said over and over that Baran just plain didn’t understand the science and technology. But he did…  far more than the AT&T people who couldn’t see the bonanza in front of them and so threw away the chance to develop — and possibly own — the  Internet, a situation with immense consequences for all of us, not least AT&T which painfully discovered that “big” isn’t always right.
“Paul wasn’t afraid to go in directions counter to what everyone else thought was the right or only thing to do,” said Vinton Cerf, a vice president at Google who was a  colleague and long-time friend of Baran. “AT&T repeatedly said his idea wouldn’t work and wouldn’t participate  in the Arpanet project.”
Arpanet… and vindication.
In 1969, the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency built a network that used Baran’s ideas along with those of other communications pioneers, the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the ‘net.
In due course, Arpanet was replaced by the Internet we know. Paul Baran’s crucial invention packet switching still lies at the heart of the network’s internal workings, an insight so valuable that President George Bush gave him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
One of the nicest things to report is that Baran always said, forthrightly, that credit for development of Arpanet and the Internet should always be distributed as widely as possible. Founding People all needed recognition, not just a few. It was a gesture from the heart.
Now one of the great inventors of the age, a man of intelligence and insight is gone. However Paul Baran’s chief invention (amongst his many) lives on, spectacularly so. Lucky himself, we are yet the luckier… for we had him, an avatar for the new, connected world in which we all must make our way. Paul Baran, we have good reason to remember you and rejoice.
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About The Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling books and conducts daily webinars. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Commission Crusher -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=fe2JEfUO

You are not ‘self made’. No one is. Reflections on the need to admit, to acknowledge, and, above all, to thank.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I am, amongst other things, a professional speaker of many years experience. Such people are trained to read audiences; see what works… and run with it… while eschewing and abandoning any line that doesn’t arouse the audience and fails to seize their hearts and minds.
The other day I was delivering a lecture on the need, the absolute and unshakable necessity, to work as part of a team on the ‘net; to stop believing that you can succeed alone, all by yourself.
In an instant, I felt the connection with my audience strengthen; it was just as if I had grabbed the hand of my beloved and felt, in prompt but unmistakable way, the slightest pressure in return; slight perhaps but there, there! It is an unforgettable moment, highly charged with rapture, bliss, and possibilities such is the deep- seated power of connection. I now had that power at my command….
The noxious phrase: “self-made”.
It is time to take aim at one of the most inaccurate phrases in the English language, the one that allows (usually men) to preen and brag about the fact that are “self-made.”
When they say that you know you’re in for a reverie composed of the achievements, great and small, of this fellow traveler, fueled by pomposity, egotism, brash self-congratulation. One needs to be well fortified indeed to abide it… for the cascade is likely to be long, fulsome, and right from the start, excessive.
“Devotions upon Emergent Occasions”, John Donne, 1624.
John Donne was an English poet preparing, as he wrote this work, to die. With eternity in mind, he was engaged in a sober, fully engaging business; nothing was more important than to get it right. Out of this frame of mind came these words of profound insight:
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
The pressing task now, before the bell tolls.
One day, ready or not, the bell will toll for thee. Before that occurs you need a moment like John Donne’s, a moment of pure insight into who you are, where you are, and how you got to be that way and here.
This is a process that calls for honesty, sincerity, integrity and the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. For now is the time to see your life as a process aided and facilitated every step of the way by people who gave of themselves so that you might advance.
Too often you have been forgetful of these people; yet they are the engines who have vitally assisted in your development and prosperity.
John Dunne is right. You are not the continent; you are but a part of the continent. You have surely worked hard and long for your success…. but you have not been the sole reason for your success. You are not “self-made”; you are “team made”, a part, but never the whole reason for advancement.
Now, therefore, resolve to thank, thank often, thank lavishly, the greater your prosperity, the more to thank. They have all made you who you are.
Thank your parents.
It is easy, in fact the easiest of all, to take your parents for granted. I have myself been remiss here and am relieved to acknowledge it and commence correction.
Now that I am far, far older than my parents were when I was conceived, I am clear on what they did for me… and what I owe them. They were not only young and in love when I arrived; they had undertaken on my behalf a responsibility of unparalleled magnitude and life-changing, life challenging importance. My very life and well being depended on them getting it right from the very first thing they did… as well as everything thereafter.
Such people, and the claims are even greater if you had but one parent or were raised by people other than your parents, such people I say desire and must have more than a card on Mother’s or Father’s Day. They deserve and must have more than a bouquet belatedly thought of and hastily delivered. They need to know that you remember them, what they did… they need to be reassured, whatever your age, that you remember…. and are grateful; that you will never forget them as the tolling of their bell comes ever closer…
Today is the day for your parents.
Thank your teachers, too
We are all the product of the teachers who gave of themselves, not just for a pay check either, to mold, craft, transform and enhance us… day after day. We have, too often, taken them and their generosity of action and spirit for granted… and we must not do so.
First, understand and acknowledge there was nothing in what they did for us which justifies us taking them for granted. It must be our first task to expunge that dereliction … to see what they did as a blessing, daily given, good people working on the never-ending work in progress who was you. You are the result of dozens of people and their continual attention.
First, remember them by name. You are older now… you are able to see what they did as a great responsibility, taken in seriousness, given beyond expectations… a true gift.
Remember them… and, whenever possible, contact the special teachers who went far beyond whatever could have been expected for you… for you. Send them the most memorable letter any teacher can receive: the one that thanks them, that remembers them, that renews their pride in their profession and what they did, its value and its importance. Remember the many others, too.
Remember, too, the counselors… the clergy… the coaches. They, too, gave generously… and deserve your remembrance and acknowledgement. It is too easy to forget… and overlook. But they deserve much more than that from you. Will you take the necessary action, the generous action and connect with them, yet again, and deliver the pure bliss of gratitude? Take this action with joy in your heart, for it is the right thing to do.
Start today. Rejoice at the happiness you will bring the people who have helped make you… and the contentment you will give yourself and deserve, for such sentiments come from the heart, the very best and most important thing created by all, given by you.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant’s live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Commission Crusher -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=fe2JEfUO

It takes two to tango. That’s the point.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s Note: To get the most out of this article, go to any search engine. Search for arguably the most popular tango ever written, “La cumparsita” (1916) by Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodriguez. You will be in the mood at once, right from its famous opening lyric, “The masked parade of endless miseries….”
A dance for men and women.
When a boy insists upon dressing up in coat and tie to dance with a girl, his girl by holding her firmly and gazing intensely into her eyes. When he is ready to lead, to command, he is no longer a boy but a man, and he’s ready for tango.
When a girl insists upon wearing a provocative dress that’s starkly cut and skin tight, slashed to her waist. When she wants to be held by a man, her man and relish the power of submission, she is no longer a girl but a woman, and she’s ready for tango. . This is an article for adult men and women. No “hanging out”, texting adolescents with wild gyrations need apply. What follows here is not for you…. yet. When you read it you will want to grow up too fast and grasp your fate, whatever it is. That is your first sharp longing for tango. There will be many others, right up to the last day you tango which will be the last day of your life.
The waltz is a dance… the fox trot is a dance… the samba is a dance. But tango is destiny; your most intimate, revealing, convulsive feelings set to a music that seizes you and never lets you go.
Call tango a dance at your peril, for it is so much more. It is the most important moment in the lives of those who walk its steps, expecting to reveal nothing to their partner, then swept away unaccountably revealing everything, however abashing, destructive.
Tango is life itself. It is never just about its various positions; those are the least important things. Tango is about passion… power… the control of a woman by a man who discovers too late that woman controls him.
Tango is endless variations and manifestations of jealousy, betrayal, revenge. And always variations of love, in all its aspects, from its soaring prospects to its squalid conclusions. Tango, you see, is not danced; it is lived. And when you are dancing it… you are, perhaps for the first time, alive… You can hardly believe that once upon a time you attempted life without it. Now it haunts you… and you would never have it any other way.
Some history.
Tango originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. There life was cheap, short, glorious for an instant, ending abruptly, a legacy of sorrow, pain, regret, remorse. The word itself can be dated to the 1890s when it was applied to a fusion of music from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples mixed with European dances. It was always, right from the start, a combustible, volatile sound, with violence and mayhem lingering just below the surface, always ready to erupt.
Tango burst like a grenade upon the blase sophisticates of pre-World War I Europe; sheltered, pampered, rich they craved the unpredictability and eroticism of tango. It was liberating… dangerous… exciting. They couldn’t get enough.
In the middle of that great war (1916 or 1917, authorities differ), tango’s most famous music was born. It seemed oddly fitting. In a world now maddened by unimaginable destruction and early death, tango’s dancers craved release… and at the cafe “La Giralda” in Montevideo Gerardo Matos Rodriquez gave it to them (albeit anonymously).
The orchestra of Roberto Firpo was the first to present the composition, then without words, to a world which grabbed at it as if to a lifeline out of the inferno of the “war to end all wars”. People danced with abandon; their total focus on the dance, its steps, and the partner they held tight, eyes locked together… as if that night, that dance might be their last on earth. For many it was. Tango was the music of the doomed…
The lyrics.
The first lyrics to “La cumparsita” were written in 1924 by Argentine Pascual Contursi. There have been many other lyrics since but Contursi’s are the most apt. They signify a group of people that attends the carnival festivals dressed in a similar fashion (usually but not exclusively, wearing masks.)
Here are his words:
The masked parade of endless miseries promenades around that sick being that soon will die of sorrow.
That’s why in its bed cries mournfully remembering the past that makes it suffer.
These were words of death, of pain, of a haunted, fretful past and a future of despair, alienation, loneliness.
Immortality for sale, 20 pesos.
No history of tango and its most famous song would be complete without a few more words about Matos Rodriquez. He was just 18 when he wrote “La cumparsita”… young, educated, well mannered, naive. He sold his rights for the pittance of 20 pesos to the Breyer publishing house. It would hardly be a tango tale if he didn’t live to profoundly regret his rash, ill-considered act. Of course he did — deeply, bitterly, never endingly…. a legacy of draining, expensive law suits shadowed his life. At last a legal loophole gave him vindication, solace, and cash. The court ruled that as a minor he was unable to sell the rights. They were his again.
There were, in the best tradition of tango, other lawsuits, too. Who had the right to sing it? Who was entitled to the lyric royalties? It was all hashed out in court, in one hard-fought action after another.
In the end legendary tango composer and band leader Francisco Canaro (president of the Argentine Society of Authors and Composers) was asked to arbitrate. He ruled that tango lyricists Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi were entitled to royalties, too. They had given “La cumparsita” its first lyrics and a new name, too, “Si Supieras” — if you knew. It didn’t stick.
Through the endless series of charges, countercharges, claims, lies and law suits people worldwide danced tango… unconcerned about rights and wrongs. They had something more important on their minds. It was the compelling, entrancing, primitive, rough and graceful dance…
… the dance of one man and one woman.
The dance where total strangers, through the mad alchemy of tango, become intimate, enraptured, engrossed in each other, no one else in their world, and none wanted.
These two people, tormented by the intoxicating proximity, exist for each other only, body to body, eyes to eyes, walking rhythmically to a destination where anything might happen. They fear it. They want it. They tango.
Now it is time for you to tango, too, for you have waited far too long. It beckons. It knows you cannot resist, for you are but human… and tango is divine.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=gp8DkYOO

For royal wedding guests of Prince William and his Kate, April 29, 2011 a list of does and don’ts, especially the latter.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
By now I am sure you are aware that April 29, 2011 is a very special day in the prodigious annals of the British monarchy. H.R.H. Prince William, white hope of the dynasty, marries his Kate… and his grandmama The Sovereign is adamant that all be done just so — or else.
Sadly, you have not been invited. Admittedly it is abashing, even humiliating. But you will be glad to know that the lot of the those precious few invited is not a bed of roses. The empire on which the sun never set is history, but protocol, the right thing done in the right way, is very much alive chez Windsor.
Let’s take a look.
The Windsors are nothing if not keen on pageants that are meticulously planned and flawlessly carried out. They know that it was not always thus in royal ceremonial. One way they know this was by careful scrutiny of my first book “Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and Confusion at Queen Victoria’s Court”. (1979). I was the first American ever granted access to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle… and it was part of the deal that The Queen and Prince Charles get advance copies to increase their knowledge of the hopeless mismanagement of ceremonies by their regal ancestors.
Confusions, muddles, and disorganizations were the order of the day. It was supremely frustrating, irritating, and inexcusable that the English made so many mistakes, even lethal, in presenting the monarchy to the nation. Ceremonies of the highest significance and importance — coronations even — were so lamentably organized and delivered that the English monarchy became a byword for ineptitude.
We owe improvement to Prince Albert.
Queen Victoria, only 18 when she ascended the throne in 1837 had far better things to do than worry about ceremonial derelictions. For openers she was free of the heavy thrall of the Duchess of Kent, her mother; perhaps the ultimate controlling Stage Mother of all time. The first thing the new queen did was order her bed to be taken out of the bedroom she had shared all her life with her mother… then order dinner to be served to her alone, the first time that had ever happened. She was free, free at last! She was queen, her every wish a command instantly carried out. A few glaring mistakes in court ceremonial counted for nothing.
But the German princeling she married, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was very, very different. The insidious culture of royal errors and tolerance for same made him nervous, dyspeptic, and determined to apply Teutonic efficiency to the problem. He fumed, he fretted, he even wept at the minuscule progress. But there was progress. Just not enough of it.
As the grasping English built the largest empire ever assembled on this planet, their royal pageants continued to be notable for all the wrong reasons: they were lackadaisical about the protocol that consumed other royal houses; thereby causing endless hurt feelings. Their planning was always of the too little, too late variety. And like clockwork, security arrangements were so lax that every ceremony produced a bumper crop of dead, the victims of English inability to get it right… and without fatalities.
All this is no doubt known to Elizabeth II and the princes of her house and their constant motto is “Never again!” Thus, they are fastidious in the business of Getting It Right. When the English were a great nation, the sovereigns themselves were scarcely punctilious about such matters; but with only the shadow of empire remaining, they are all adamant that the royal ceremonies, in which they so prominently feature, be the very essence of polished perfection.
Hence the list of do’s and don’ts now circulating amongst the honored guests, be they princes of the blood royal or (that democratic touch the royals are close to perfecting) personnel from the various charities patronized by the bride and groom. In Windsor eyes there is really no difference between them. For them there are, after all, only two ranks: Sovereign… and the rest.
Now to the various admonitions, politely phrased of course as suggestions, recommendations. But they are in fact royal commands and must be treated as such.
1) Don’t give the queen a friendly hug. Michelle Obama, First Lady of these United States did something akin to that and the royal reaction was a tad below frosty.
2) Don’t tweet. You are attending an historic event. Curtail all distractions.
3) Be on time. On this of all days, there is no such thing as fashionably late, even by a minute. The Queen is the last person to take her place; to upstage her is lese majeste, intolerable.
4) Ladies, select an outfit that blends in. You should wear a dress — not too short, not too skimpy, and certainly not white. Most British women will complete the unmistakable (rather frumpy) look that screams “We’re English!” with a hat or a fascinator — a small feathered or jewelled hairpiece attached to a clip or a comb.
More politely disguised commands.
5) Leave your cellphone in the car. No one wants your ring tone to the tune of “The Stripper” to be part of the record.
6) Make sure you have all necessary medications with you. You need to know that no one, absolutely no one, will facilitate your egress to get them… and you will not be allowed to return either.
7) Visit the facilities as often as necessary to ensure bladder control. This means limiting liquids, just as you’d do for a colonoscopy, a not inapt comparison. (Avoid the solution adopted by one ceremony attending gent. He brought a soft drink bottle and used it like a chamber pot. The name of the perpetrator and the incident itself was immediately classified.)
“I didn’t really want to go anyway.”
Upon reading these guidelines and rules, you may say, and actually believe, that you didn’t really want to go to this critical event of “Rule Britannia.”
But we’re kidding ourselves, aren’t we? For the chance to see Prince William and be able to tell your non-invited neighbor that he’s taller than he looks on telly is just too good to pass up. Not to mention the bride, and wasn’t she lovely?
Indeed, to secure lifetime bragging rights because we were well and truly invited, we’d all, if ordered, go naked with a full body search to boot. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also an authority expert on the royal family and author of 18 best-selling books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=gp8DkYOO

Eating with history. The story of the newest acquisition to my collection, quondam property of the dukes of Devonshire.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This is a story of unimaginable wealth, the highest social position in the land. It is a story of palaces and prime ministers and master craftsmen. It is the story of another Kennedy tragedy you don’t know about and of monumental taxes and forced sales. It is the story of murder.
And it is the story of me, who now has en route from New York, two massive silver dishes, captivating, their “wow factor” apparent to even the most obtuse and least perceptive. Even such people can feel that these are something very special…and so they are.
First, the man who commissioned them.
In 1811, a young man named William George Spencer Cavendish succeeded to the title and fortune of the Dukes of Devonshire. Born in 1790, he thus became at a stroke the richest peer in England. He was already a master in the art of burning through money quickly. His father’s man of business, Mr. Heaton, warned the 5th duke, his father, thus:
“My Lord Duke, I am sorry to inform your Grace that your son appears disposed to spend a great deal of money.”
The 5th duke’s laconic reply was “So much the better, Mr. Heaton, he will have a great deal to spend.” We could all wish for a father so sensible and so rich.
Now master of the largest fortune in England, the young man… spent it. On everything you could think of… and then on things, very expensive, eccentric things, which only the very, very rich can even imagine. One of those things was the grandest fountain in Europe, which shoots its spray up to 300 feet. It was built for the intended visit of Tsar Nicholas I to Chatsworth, the duke’s country place. But the Tsar didn’t come after all and never saw it. It didn’t matter… the money kept rolling in…. and out.
In the mid 1820s, this prince of purchasers got around to silver. And like everything this seasoned connoisseur touched, it had to be not merely grand but opulent, excessive, in your face, and of course “unique, Your Grace, quite unique.” So he went to the master silversmith Robert Garrard.
When Robert Garrard took over the firm in 1802 it already had a long history with sovereigns and princes. It had started in 1722 with George Wickes. Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of King George III was a major patron. Where princes buy, trendy lesser folk will buy, too. And so it proved with the family Garrard. They knew the secret of entrancing fickle potentates. Such grandees wanted things unique, finely crafted, and excessive. Garrard was an expert in satisfying even the most difficult… and so he and his master craftsmen set to work on a silver service that was, quite simply, the finest in Europe, which meant the finest in the world. Both the 6th duke and Robert Garrard knew what they were about… and of course cost was never, ever a factor.
The duke wanted one thing and one thing only: perfection…
… and he got it!
In due course, pieces from this lavish service began to arrive at Chatsworth, the focus of the Cavendish empire. Each piece was hallmarked. Each piece featured the splendid ducal coat of arms… and all the serving dishes featured the ducal coronet with the strawberry leaves meant for dukes and dukes only. The most discriminating aristocrat in Europe was satisfied… or as satisfied as a restless man with a connoisseur’s eye and the means to gratify could ever be.
And so the story might have ended here, with a splendid silver service doing its bit to create an ambiance fit for a duke and his suitably impressed guests. But the story does not end here because humans do end. We die… and our possessions… migrate to others, all of whom have stories, too. Fast forward, then, to Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire.
Born in 1895, succeeded to the dukedom — and of course the still complete silver service designed by Robert Garrard in 1825 — in 1938.
Still rich, still powerful, still owning and living with an overabundance of things rich, famous, astonishing, Cavendish and every other aristocrat now had a very potent enemy: taxes, especially death duties. These could be circumvented but only by establishing trusts. These could pass properties largely intact to eager heirs… but only if the strict requirements were met. But things went wrong, disastrously wrong. The Cavendishes and their world were vulnerable.
First the heir, Lord Hartington along with his wife “Kick”" Kennedy, JFK’s favorite sister, was killed in a plane crash (1944). Both families, a la “Romeo and Juliet”, had bitterly opposed the marriage; like “Romeo and Juliet” the lovers married anyway… and died together tragically.
Then the duke died, amidst a background of murder and scandal. The duke’s sister, Lady Dorothy, wife of Harold Macmillan (my distant cousin) and future British Prime Minister (1957-1963) was having a notorious affair with another Tory politician Robert Boothby, enfant terrible and practised bi-sexual seducer.
Conspiracy theories abound about the 10th duke’s death. Why was the death certificate fudged; why had the coroner not been contacted as by law he should have been? What had the freemasons to do with the matter… and, most of all, was he murdered… or die naturally?
Whatever the facts (and they are suggestive and controversial to this day), the duke was dead (1950), a few months before his asset-saving trust became operational. Mourning, devastated, the House of Cavendish now needed mountains of cash. The result was Christie’s auction of “Highly Important Old English and French Silver from the Chatsworth Collection” (June 5, 1958) A large part (but not all) of the 6thh duke’s magnificent silver service went on the block, including two over-the-top meat dishes, 5,038 grams of silver, hallmarked by Robert Garrad, with the resplendent ducal coat of arms, the finial with ducal coronet and strawberry leaves.
These are now wending their way to me, and the next part of their destiny, the next part of the story, but only the next. For these glorious items have a life long beyond mine. The saddest thing of all is I will not be here to know it.
But for now, for now, they are mine all mine. I shall enjoy them immensely and tell all those who dine from them the story I have just shared with you, for now I am part of their story, gladly so, forever more.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also an avid art collector and author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=gp8DkYOO

Highly desirable (White) House for sale. Price tag: one billion, or more. Obama says, ‘I’ll take it!’

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
To absolutely no one’s surprise President  Obama officially kicked off his re-election bid April 4, 2011. The real story is not that he’s running (since the day he was elected in the first place, he’s been running for the second term whose function is to validate what he’s done and his place in history).
No, the story is on that most American of subjects: money, specifically the money it’s going to take him to ensure his re-election.
Yup, it’s all about the money.
In 2008, Obama set the spending record, $760 million for the primary and general elections. Obama, to the astonishment of many, was unstoppable in the fund raising department. Democrats were conflicted on the matter.
For one thing, they wanted to win… and here was a  man dedicated to raising the money to make them competitive and give them victory on a sterling silver platter.
But that unnerved many Democrats at the same time, for such people have a knee jerk tendency to regulate campaign  funds and limit them; Obama was always about victory, not limits. And victory, sweet victory, historic victory they got. Such victory papers over  a lot of cracks.
The president opens his campaign.
Because this is 2011 and the world is wired President Obama launched his re-election campaign by e-mail. He said his campaign will be about “coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year’s fight.” The man of soaring rhetoric commenced his campaign with business sobriety, without a memorable word. What did that mean?
It meant, above all else, that Obama realizes he’ll be the issue; that what people want is not rhetoric, not to run on hope. Been there, done that. What the people want now is demonstrated results and sensible, realistic talk about the next four years of the U.S.S. United States of America.
Where does this captain want to take us…. and how does he intend to get us there? High blown rhetoric which was the centerpiece of the 2008 campaign will be used, of course, but carefully, sparingly. The country, after all, is still seething with rages… and Obama needs to be seen as a man of deeds, not words, however thrilling.
His re-election message signifies his understanding that the “first black president” card is not going to cut it. The high flying speeches about opening doors, too, are old hat, beside the point.
What America wants is a strong chief executive (white, brown or black) whose sole function is to tackle our grab-bag of problems and use the power of the presidency, which includes marshalling the people, to deliver results, results, results. Nothing less will satisfy the nation… and the president surely knows that even results, great results, will fail to satisfy many. That is the nature of our times.
Obama knows better than anyone that keeping the White House as his house is going to take a breathtaking amount of money. And Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission came at just the right time for him to raise it, in the historic amounts needed to make his case.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
On January 21, 2010 the United States Supreme Court made a decision of historic proportions. By the thinnest of margins, 5-4, the Court struck down a provision of the McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations, both for- profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications”. These were defined in McCain-Feingold as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary. The decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).
The Honorable the Justices of the Supreme Court had just made history, striking a hammer blow (albeit barely) on behalf of the First Amendment, which means, so the majority said, exactly what it says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Liberal outrage.
Most every liberal in the land was enraged by this decision. Liberals, you see, specialize in telling folks like you and me, just what we can do, just when we can do it, just how we can do it. In  this case, that means doing everything they can to limit your right to uninhibited election communications, including spending your money freely to influence these elections.
Freedom means being able to squander your money on elections if you want to.
Personally, I have never understood the thrill of throwing money away on presidential candidates. I’m of the firm opinion that spending the hundred or two I might donate to candidates, say, on dinner with winsome partner would be better spent. However, I am equally clear that people, by the Bill of Rights, should have the right to waste their money, be they private citizen, union, or corporation on the candidates they fancy.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission reaffirmed that right, and strongly so.
President Obama, chief beneficiary, the strongest attacker.
The president is a past master in the art of having one’s cake while eating it, too. This decision he said “gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington — while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates.” Obama later elaborated in his weekly radio address saying, “this ruling strikes at our democracy itself,” and  “I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest.”
Having stated, for the record, the standard liberal line… Obama set out to make the Court’s ruling work for — him.
Every time he lamented the realities of politics and fund raising and predicted the end of democracy… he was busily raising money, unparalleled amounts of money from… private citizens, corporations, and unions. If a billion will do the trick, fine; if not, he’ll up the ante. For you see, he is determined to prove, through his re-election that America made no mistake in electing him in the first place.
Millions of American who voted for Obama have come to the conclusion they bought a pig in a poke; they’ve having second thoughts. But the president knows what money can buy.  He’ll raise whatever he needs so they’ll buy — him, secretly thanking Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for the favor, while criticizing it every step of the way. The White House is worth it.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=gp8DkYOO

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Thoughts on storage: needed, frustrating, a treasure trove… but not for the kids.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Over the course of the last several months, I have been engaged in one of life’s unappealing necessities, sorting through dozens and dozens of boxes packed (often years and years ago) with an array of things dubbed too valuable to be thrown away, or at the very least items which deserved another look, later.
Well, “later” has now arrived, and I am engaged in the business of well and truly sorting through each and every one of these stored items, deciding which can now be thrown away, which will be donated to places like Goodwill Industries and The Salvation Army, which ones will be kept… and (here we go again)… which ones will remain in storage,
Today I intend to share with you all my thoughts on this inevitability of life… partly because no one I know will listen to what I have to say on the matter. My friends are tired of providing a willing ear. They are polite but firm: say no more on this matter, or we shall bore you, too, with the ups and downs of our own storage problems… and the garage sales we’ve had to organize. This threat is sufficient. I shut up.
But you, I hope, will indulge me; at least this once. There is that about sorting things in storage which craves a congenial ear. May I have yours for a bit?
What went into storage.
The plain fact of the matter is that we all, every last one of us, has far too many things. What’s worse, since we all have elements of the pack rat about us, not only do we acquire things; we are loathe to sacrifice anything on the off chance that we will need it one day. That’s the first problem; we’re deluding ourselves. We should all be tougher with ourselves on the matter of what we save. But we cannot. You see, things are evidence that we have passed this way, and we want as many tell-tale markers as possible. Still, the sorting process should begin the day you first think that you require storage.
In my case, I had the usual “good” reasons for resorting to commercial storage facilities. There was, first of all, my mother’s possessions. Some of these had a substantial value; others, the sentimental ones, were even more important. These things have been stored for years in California; three thousand miles away from me.
A good friend, probably a saint, helped me pack these items. I was depressed that day; my mother was failing and I just couldn’t deal right then with the thought of losing her. Packing boxes was something necessary; it was also therapeutic. But it only postponed the inevitable problem of sorting the items and making irrevocable decisions.
My friend offered to keep these boxes, each one filled with memories, until I decided what to do with all the items. I told my brother and sister what I had and that we should early decide who gets what. But they have mountains of their own things. It wasn’t that they didn’t want maternal mementoes; they just didn’t want them then and trusted me to share when they were ready. I mentioned the matter to my sister the other day and she said, “Not yet”.
In the way of these things, the favor my dear friend gave me went from a few weeks…. to years. It was scandalous, I know, to take advantage of her that way; even the frequent presents I sent were inadequate. But she said she didn’t mind; she had them in her attic.
Finally I ran out of excuses and said the many boxes could be shipped to me. And so they were. My assistant Aime Joseph and I opened the boxes; he with care, I with trepidation soon confirmed. There was so much… all “important”… every piece needing attention and clarity. The books were the most difficult of all. My mother was an avid reader as I am. Often we read the same book at the same time, a continent between us which meant nothing when we discussed our findings.
I found her volumes of Robert Browning the hardest to deal with. She loved him so… “That’s my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive.” I put this book and many others amongst my working library. I can see the cherished Browning from here.
Unpacked, too, was all her jewelry. I had given much of it, one Christmas, one birthday after another. These items are being kept for my niece Chelsea and nephew Kyle and his wife, when he has one. Chelsea asked if she could take one of the pieces, a jewelled dragonfly, to college. My official reason for declining was the number of light fingered folk in the dormitory and her tendency to be over trusting. But in truth, I wasn’t ready to let even that go — yet.
In fact, as each box was opened, Mr. Joseph would cluck and ask me just where I would put what was in it. Miraculously, we found a home for everything… until the others want some for themselves.
The other, bigger storage project.
The second storage project was arguably even more difficult, for it involved 4 large rooms packed to the ceiling with stuff which I had obviously found significant enough to pay thousands of dollars each year to keep. But enough was enough…
Mr. Joseph and I have been working on this project for months now. There are, after all, thousands of objects to be sorted, including items from every epoch of my life. Each week Mr. Joseph goes to the storage facility and, with his cell phone, he lets me know what’s left in the first room, now nearly emptied. Then he brings me the boxes… each one filled with one conundrum after another.
What does one do with one’s first suit, worn at age 3, well over half a century again? I can’t get rid of it… I just can’t. It’s hanging in my closet, safe for now.
And the teddy bear that soothed me 6 decades ago? No one, including me I am ashamed to admit, remembers his name; I call him now “The Old Gentleman” and he seems content. Some people no doubt think it odd to see him here, but he and I go back a lifetime, and such bonds must be respected and ensured.
I am more ruthless with my things than with my mother’s. Mr. Joseph makes regular deliveries of my books; ten thousand books, perhaps more, given away without a pang.
In the middle of this unceasing project, it occurs to me that, even with great disposals, there is far too much remaining. And if the point of keeping them seems clear to me, it will surely perplex and baffle the folks getting all this. What can “The Old Gentleman” mean to them? I have advised them, in my will, to be ruthless, but I know my flesh and blood. They will be unable to do so, try though they might.
“I can’t give away the chairs Uncle Jeffrey wrote his books in… or the typewriter… or the pewter mug his friends engraved for him on his 21 birthday, in Scotland. I just can’t.”
And so, in due course, I, with the best intentions, will become a puzzle for them… a puzzle which they will defer, postponing resolution, by storing. Thus one generation succeeds another, overwhelmed by things, too much stored, grand resolutions for dispersal, but guilty whatever we do. You know what I mean.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. As well as a speaker and consultant, Dr. Lant is the author of 18-best selling books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Affilorama ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sf2aGWtY

There is only one thing worse than not achieving a goal and that is achieving it.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Are you a goal-driven individual?
First, do you regularly set goals for yourself?
Do you then plan just how you’ll achieve them… and once having planned your work you work your plan?
If this is you, congratulate yourself. You are literally one in a million and the world is your oyster.
In theory.
People who set goals… people who achieve goals are a precious minority of any community, for-profit, or not-for- profit organization.
They are the people who live the celebrated epigram, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” When they lead, they perform the leader’s task with efficiency, organization, and, yes, joy.
When they follow, they listen to the designated leaders, making sure they know their task, then doing it.
It is a thrill and a privilege to know such people, not least because they create an environment conducive to success.
Why then have I said that there is only one thing worse than not achieving a goal… and that is achieving it?
In this article I shall make clear the problems that afflict the special people, the performance oriented people, the movers and shakers. Keeping successes coming, greater successes, important successes, more magnificent successes is never inevitable. And here’s the rub, just because you were successful today, by no means ensures you will be successful tomorrow.
Indeed, the world is awash in one-time successes who once were the center of attention, the golden boy or girl. They had what everyone else wanted… but having didn’t mean keeping. That proved to be not only elusive… but, after a time, impossible.
There is nothing sadder than listening to an individual once undeniably successful… now talk and live exclusively in that past; the success they had was fleeting and its continuing absence noticeable and glaring.
I am here to ensure that you do not become that sad individual, the person for whom the calendar always says yesterday.
1) Successful people aim for a sequence of successes, not just successful episodes and incidents.
Review the history of the prevalent “once-upon-a-time” successes and you will see that their success was limited to a particular time, place, and thing. It was isolated, unique in their experience, non-recurring. The situations of successful people are radically different.
They do not succeed one or twice and live off their decaying laurels forever; instead, they aim to have success after success after success, until the very idea of failure is unthinkable.
2) Successful people see life as a gigantic planning opportunity; an unequalled opportunity to bring home the bacon time after time after time.
The successful lead lives where what they do and how they do it is always linked to the master plan that they have worked on for their entire lives. No incident can be viewed in isolation, because every incident is a step towards larger goals and greater successes. For such people any success is nothing more than a step to ever greater success.
3) Successful people analyze what went right and what went wrong in each success they attain. Every success is not a conclusion, but a necessary learning opportunity.
By definition successful people place each and every success under a microscope giving it a full and complete scrutiny. Successful people study success; it is in fact their constant endeavor to turn each success into a learning laboratory.
4) Successful people have a succession of goals. Moreover these sequential goals are written down, regularly reviewed and updated… and always represent more challenge and responsibility. For the successful, life is a step ladder, never a sofa and easy chair.
Do you have such goals? Are they written down? Do you constantly consider just what goals achieved today mean in terms of more substantial goals and achievements tomorrow? As successful people grow and mature they become masters of such questions and answers.
More things successful people do.
5) Successful people are all about the future. They focus is on now, of course, because it is in this now they must learn the essentials of success and achieve each individual success.
But successful people always keep an eye on the future. They focus on what they want in that future, vividly aware that what they do today and how well they do guarantees the future of their desire.
6) Successful people make mistakes.
There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t make errors of commission and omission. Successful people know that reviewing today’s errors ensures tomorrow’s victories. And as it is victory they want and insist upon above all, each error is analyzed, understood, turned into part of the primer on success.
7) Successful people are not defensive.
The characteristic response of the unsuccessful to areas where they have erred and need a different, improved response is defensive. Such responses will be of the “no one told me. I’m innocent. It’s her fault, it’s her fault” variety. These responses are a clear indication that the person in question has little or no idea what successful people say in such circumstances.
“Thank you for pointing this out to me. I have made written notation of what you want.”
Bingo, with such a response you are no longer defending the indefensible, you are instead turning an error, a misunderstanding, a questionable act into a valuable learning experience. Successful people keep journals, diaries, etc.
So long as you live you can become a success story all your own. One thing you need is the most detailed and thorough notes about yourself. Remember, every single thing you do either assists success… or retards, even destroys it. That is where detailed personal journals are mandatory.
In such documents, you put yourself under a keen scrutiny which never ends and which must be both complete and honest.
The extent to which you fail to have and keep such personal information is the extent to which you are prepared to jettison intensely valuable information… and all the successes which might have hinged on their existence and use.
9) Successful people thank the people who helped them.
Successful people are people who are beneficiaries of constant assistance from parents, other family members, teachers, clergy, coaches, etc., a process that only ends with death.
Successful people feel privileged to acknowledge and recognize the hard work and sincere assistance provided by many, many others. Unsuccessful people feel diminished by such help; not enhanced by it.
The avoidable tragedy of The Void where there are no new goals to take the place of old goals achieved.
The worst thing that can happen to a person who wants true, continual success is to finish a goal… and not know what he/she should be doing next. As indicated above you must always have goals that go beyond even the most major goals you are working on now. There must never, ever be a gap… for that is an opportunity for losing track of your objectives and becoming directionless.
Now that you have read this article with its admonitions and recommendations, you will never have this problem. With clockwork regularity you will always conclude a goal, knowing just what major goal follows.
Your job is to turn the achievement of success into an unrelenting, never ending system. And now you know how to do it.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Affilorama -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sf2aGWtY

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate breaks ground as the Kennedys build their legacy in bricks and mortar.

Dr. Lant, living in Cambridge, right across from Harvard, writes frequently about the Kennedys. I guess when you live in that part of the world, you can’t turn a corner without seeing something “Kennedy”. Great article, check it out, and when done, read a couple of his others about the family. And…some music of course.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
You will never understand the Kennedys until you understand their obsession with controlling their legacy, making absolutely sure they have the last word on every aspect of their lives, particularly the public services on which they base their utility and credibility.
This is why they are so keen on building… because in the long run building and controlling the edifices and complexes they create about themselves enables them to control their legacy. Whatever anyone says or writes about them, the Kennedys themselves will have the chance to rebut, to shape, and to control to the furthest extent what people know and think about them.
In short, like the Caesars of Rome, their focus is on eternity… that is why they write in marble and why the faithful gathered in Dorchester, Massachusetts April 8, 2011 for the ground breaking of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Not the institution they wanted, not the place they wanted.
To begin with, the Kennedys wanted President John F. Kennedy’s presidential library to be in Cambridge, as snug as possible to Harvard. There was a site they wanted, and it is easy to see why they wanted it. It was a splendid site right across from the Harvard Business School, on the river Charles on the street named in 1805 for Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin. Traditionalists (and people who were not enamored of the family Kennedy) opposed the change. But changing the name of that street had a precedent. Bowdoin Street had originally been called Middlecott Street from as early as 1750; now it was changed to John F. Kennedy Street, and so for the moment it remains.
In the process,  Harvard’s officials got a glaring indication of what the Kennedys wanted… a Kennedy theme park that would overshadow the world’s greatest university.
This is not what Harvard wanted from anyone, and it is certainly not what they wanted from the Kennedys, a family with which Harvard had always had, shall we say, an equivocal relationship. The negotiations went on for years and were “frank” as they say in diplomatic parlance; in other words, behind closed doors the discussions were blunt, candid, revealing.
In the end, a compromise came about. The Kennedy name went on an institute for the study of politics. The beautiful site on the Charles is now a quiet park, where several of JFK’s signature remarks and observations are chiseled in stone and under a fountain where it is a pleasure to sit on a hot summer day.
The Kennedy Institute itself is a refuge  for retired (often defeated) politicians who come, after clobbering their way into office, to tell us that comity, amity, togetherness and brotherly love are the way to go; that rancor, negativity and distortion have no place in the American way of life and government..
Then, if they get the chance, they go back into the fray, raising funds to clobber their opponents better and more effectively than these opponents clobber them. It is very much the American way, the hypocrisy so ingrained in our national way of politics and governance we never see it at all. It is just the way things are.
The greatest irony.
As for JFK’s presidential library and museum it went to Dorchester, Massachusetts, an event of great irony. The Kennedys, like every upwardly mobile Irish family, left Dorchester the minute they could; always wanting to be from Dorchester, not in it. Now they were linked to the place forever. In such ways do the gods of great Olympus amuse themselves.

Edward Kennedy

Now they add another level of irony in the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. First because this is hardly the institution the Kennedys really wanted. Had there been justice in American politics, Edward M. Kennedy would have his own presidential library.
But EMK muffed his chance to be president, losing at the hands of Jimmy Carter, of all people, a man who never connected with the American people, losing big to Ronald Reagan, a man who did.
Kennedy kept his Senate seat for his entire life… but for him it was always a destination, never a launching pad to the bigger office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It must have rankled once upon a time, but he got used to it. Still, he wanted something that was as close to presidential as you could get. And his Institute for the United States Senate was the result.
First off, like JFK’s library it is located in the wrong place. If it was necessary at all, it should have been in Washington DC. Moreover, it shouldn’t  have particularly focused on EMK but clearly on the institution of the Senate itself, with Kennedy and his famous brothers a part but only a minor part of the story. Again, the Kennedys have seized an institution and linked themselves forever with it. Harvard officials could tell you what that is all about.
The institute and its ground breaking.
As its prospectus says, “The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is dedicated to educating the public about our government, invigorating public discourse, encouraging participatory democracy, and inspiring the next generation of citizens and leaders to engage in the public square. The Institute will be a dynamic center of non-partisan learning and engagement that takes advantage of cutting-edge technology to provide each visitor and other participants with a unique and information rich, personalized experience that will bring history alive.”
Perhaps.
But the very ground breaking showed something quite different. At the place where the new 40,000 square foot institute will stand, the shards of Camelot gathered, to inaugurate, for probably the last time, a named Kennedy monument. The usual suspects were there, lead by Kennedy’s widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy, always decent, well-spoken, likable.
But two figures were particularly notable for very different reasons.
As they toasted non-partisanship and all the rest, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, Democrat, decided to take this of all moments to chide the Tea Party movement, then engaged in taking charge of the national budget crisis. His excellency wouldn’t bite his tongue, saying
“Decades of poisonous rhetoric about how government is bad, taxes are bad, and greed is good has begun to jeopardize the can-do spirit of this country. My greatest disappointment with the conservative movement, so-called, is that it is sapping the optimism out of our country.”  And so right from the get-go, to the astonishment of the audience, the bitterness that is American politics was present, prominent, ingrained, intractable.
But the real winner of the day was Senator Scott Brown, the Republican who, to the consternation of the Democratic establishment, turned the”Kennedy seat”  into the People’s Seat by a magic all his own. “I told you I’d come,” he said. “A little surprise to everybody, isn’t it?” In those few words, he showed just why he’s such a strong contender for re-election next year in this overwhelmingly Democratic state… and why there  was such a feeling of pathos and the past about this event, yet another indication the Kennedys are about yesterday, not tomorrow.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Six Figure RENEGADE -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=gp8DkYOO

Watermelon man. First watermelon of the year, 2011 and some stories.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s note: To get in the right, sultry mood for this article, go to any search engine to find Herbie Hancock’s original recording (1962) of “Watermelon Man”, with or without words.
Get and play the variation with music alone; then play the one with the lyrics. Then you’re ready for the combined effect.
Let these melodic sounds and liquid words roll over you like the sweet watermelon juice itself, so sticky, so good, the very essence of summer.
First watermelon of the year.
Yesterday April 9  was the first day this year I saw watermelons in the Shaw’s  Market in Porter Square. I didn’t hesitate for an instant, popping half a  melon into my cart. It weighed 8.480 pounds and set me back (at 64 cents a pound) $5.43.
It wasn’t enough either. Later in the day, I had  to go back for more.
Eating watermelons is like that.
Cuidado!
The watermelons in the market at this time of year are neither local nor in season. They come from places far, far away; places you never heard of and will never visit. They are, let’s be blunt, mere facsimiles of the watermelons you’ve enjoyed before and which will come again with the days of high summer. But, for now, they are all there  is… and even a hint of their flavor… of the real thing is better than going without.
Red,  red, luscious, all semblance of good manners gone.
Watermelons are always about the never-ending days of youth and summer; they are about shirts off, dig in, spit the seeds at your brother days. They are about adults snoozing in the shade and paper plates dripping juice while the flies and wasps circle round the richness and imbibe, becoming like the rest of us fat, drowsy, indulged, contented.
Thus, when I get home, I rip the bag to get the watermelon out and, knife in hand, rip out large red chunks. So anxious am I to have it that I forget my own admonition to the uninitiated: do not dig so deep that you get the white part next to the rind; that is never good. The more you are a connoisseur, the less  you want knowledge of that.
All such folk wisdom flies in the presence of this first watermelon, eaten standing up in the kitchen, juice all over my face. I am 10 years old again… and no one here to say “Mind your manners,” laughing, because they know just how you feel and that you cannot help yourself. Neither can they.
It seems when I think of watermelons, as I yearly do, they are never alone; watermelons are a family fruit. Easily available they are always as welcome as our dearest friends and relations and we are glad to share with them. No fruit is as American as watermelon; no images more quintessential and of the people. Watermelon memories stick to us just like the juice.
Stronghurst, Illinois.
My first memories of watermelon take place in Stronghurst, Illinois. It’s a village in Henderson County. The population was 896 in the 2000 census. It was less fifty years ago when I as a boy used to visit. People there, it seems, knew of me before they ever saw me, for my family was related to or known by everyone. That’s a feeling you never lose and are surprised others have never had. Stronghurst meant family, community, and knowing all your neighbors who knew everything about you, too.
Stronghurst is just a few miles from the grandest river on earth, the Mississippi. It is prime ground for growing watermelons, the rich earth composed of nutrients washed  down river from the north, which would in due course and season be washed down river again on their journey to La Novelle Orleans where the good times roll. Henderson County knew nothing of those…. its good times were not of that raucous ilk.
The summer temperature in Stronghurst averages 83 degrees and can climb to an unbearable 113 degrees. On one such day when I was 10 or so, my father and I went in search of watermelons and found them ripe, ready and in abundance. Instead of going straight home, we sat (the memory is insistent) on a hill overlooking the great river and honored it with seeds spit out with laughter and “men’s talk”.
You should not lightly recall such experiences with him, an octogenarian now, for he is likely to mist and softly say, “I didn’t think you remembered…”, but I do, I do; such memories are sweet.
Herbie Hancock’s memories.
Musician Herbie Hancock has his own version of such memories. He remembers the women of his community gathered on the back porch, the temperature oppressive. There they fanned, gossiped, complained of the heat, and whispered scandals and shared secrets.
In due course, the watermelon man appeared, his cargo rich, red, delicious. And the women would call to him… “Hey, watermelon man,” each word a caress… and an invitation to dally. Sometimes he did…
Several different lyricists took Hancock’s memories and turned them into jazz poetry, as sinuous as the music. Here are the lyrics used by the Dave Matthews band:
southern man better keep your head don’t forget what your good lord said summer chains going to come at last now your crosses are burning fast southern man.
see that watermelon smiling through the fence i wish that watermelon it was mine sometimes i think that old folks ain’t got a little sense when they leave that watermelon on the vine well apples are sweet and peaches are good rabbits so very very fine but give me oh give me oh how i wish you would some of that watermelon smiling on the vine.
The viagra-effect of watermelon.
Images of watermelon are rife with sensuality, eroticism. That is no accident. Scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido.
“The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body,” said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A& M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station.
Beneficial ingredients in watermelon are known as  phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions.
In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients — citruline — whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.
Ironically, citruline is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh. But the rind is not commonly eaten. That is why 2 of Dr. Patil’s fellow scientists, drs. Steve King and Hae Jeen Bang, are working to breed new varieties with higher concentrations in the flesh.
To that I say, God speed, may it come soon.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Ultimate Cash Blueprint ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=yx7Qooyl

It’s time for your bonfire of excuses. Reflections on gettingout of your own way, seizing success today

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
One way and another I have been in business for, what, over 40 years.
I have created and run businesses, right up to the present.
Taught  thousands of business students of every age.
Written 18 business books and thousands of business articles.
Had a nationally syndicated radio program on business.
But you get the point. Having now established, I trust, my bone fides, I am going to have my say about why so many people who say they want to be entrepreneurs will never, ever succeed in business.
Hint: it’s something millions of entrepreneurs do daily that keeps them firmly amongst the also-rans.
It’s the matter of excuses. The better you are at making them, the less good you are at making money and the less success overall.
Thus, today I want to propose a new and absolutely essential project for yourself…  retiring your characteristic excuses, one at a time, and then burning them in the most important fire of your life, the bonfire of excuses.
First, hear what you say and perceive how deeply ingrained excuses are in your conversation.
Language is made up of building blocks, starting from letters of the alphabet, through words, phrases, etc. By the  time we’re adults most of us have long since stopped paying attention to the building blocks of communication; we talk, we hope others listen to what we say because we’re not listening to it ourselves. Why should we? We know what we mean, right?
Your first task today is to put yourself and your daily attempts to communicate under a microscope. To root out excuses you must first know you make them. Are you aware, for instance, how often you blame lack of time to invest in your business for your failure get ahead?
This is a classic excuse, with innumerable variations.
Here excuse means to cite as a cause for failure or inaction an event, person, or thing which in point of fact has absolutely nothing to do with the matter; to excuse yourself from responsibility and provide a spurious reason for lack of progress, growth, success. In the process you deceive all and sundry; most importantly you deceive yourself.
Let’s look at one crucial area where your facility with making excuses is killing your profits and growth: ad copy. When was the last time you reviewed each and every ad you’re paying good money to run? I bet it’s been a long, long time (if at all). Instead of reviewing  your ads, keeping track of all your responses and profits, knowing how much these ads cost, and then retiring the losers, you instead say “I would have done it, but I was too busy.”
This is, of course, rubbish.
The long and short of the matter is that you
1) didn’t budget time;
2) let lesser activities take precedence, in part because you were slothful and they were easier;
3) therefore let unresponsive, unremunerative ad copy continue without a plan for reviewing, removing, re-doing.
If you are to stop and permanently eradicate from your business life the crippling excuses which are so damaging to your success, you must be willing to see yourself as the clear problem… and do what it takes to radically change your ways.
As regards the above matter of reviewing ad copy, you need to scrutinize your current daily activities (how many hours did you say you took for “breaks”?) and ruthlessly drop the activities which aren’t paying and rigorously substitute those that either save you money, make you money, or both.
“I don’t have the money.”
Think of the machines, the personnel, the training, the marketing and advertising, the research and development your business requires. It can be, and for many is, daunting.
Thus when asked why you have an outmoded computer or Internet services, etc. you offer without thinking that you “don’t have the money”. More rubbish.
The truth is you most likely have not reviewed each and every dollar you spend, to determine (with the most severe scrutiny) just where it all goes… and, taking the matter one step further, to where it ought to go.
Thus, your knee-jerk response, offered over and over again, is that you lack the funds.
“My computer is old, but I just don’t have the money…”
“My delivery van needs to be traded  in for a new one and the correct, updated advertising information painted on it, but I just don’t have the money…”
“I know I look like a homeless person, but I just don’t have the money for suitable clothes…”
Each and every one of these commonly-used excuses spurns the truth in favor of this very popular excuse. And so, daily, you hobble  your business… by your own failure to review  your situation, see things as they are, and make the necessary decisions accordingly. You don’t need an excuse… you need a psychiatrist.
Why do you do it? Whatever your reasons, excuses are anathema… the bane of business success… the root of diminished expectations and realities.
Fortunately, you can start the necessary changes…. today!
You now have a choice: to continue making excuses, passing them off as facts when they are anything but… or ruthlessly eradicating them, from this moment. Some of you, through inaction, will keep your current situation; making excuses, not money.
But if you’re determined to grasp maximum success, you’ll thank me for this necessary wake-up call and follow these steps to the letter:
1) As stated, review what you say and how you say it.
2) Don’t create excuses which attempt to pass off as facts your faulty suppositions, unproven deductions, and general inaccuracies.
3) Put the harshest light on what you do and say; determine whether it makes you money, or not, and reform accordingly.
4) Beginning today, now, keep a pad with you at all times, and as you hear yourself making an excuse, any excuse, write it on  your pad as a configuration of  words due to be expunged.
5) Try to remove at least one excuse from your speech every day. As you do so, write the inhibiting phrase on a page. Then take it out to your barbecue and burn it…. burn it completely, thoroughly, until absolutely nothing is left. This marks your transition from excuse maker to problem solver. You are already on the heady road to… MORE of what you want, rather than excuses for what you didn’t have and could never get under your old regime. Happily, you are about to be a better and a richer person. Let me be the first to congratulate you.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Ultimate Cash Blueprint ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=yx7Qooyl

The eagle has landed! Raptor Resource Project Decorah, Iowa Eagle Cam.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
You’ve heard of  “The Eagle Has Landed”  before. It was a best-selling novel by Jack Higgins in 1975; then, in 1976, a big budget film starring Michael Caine et al, with a soaring score by Lalo Schifrin. The plot centered on the Nazi attempt to capture Winston Churchill and bring him to Germany. It had swash and buckle and derring-do to beat the band.
But you know what? This article on a family of Bald Eagles in America’s heartland is far more exciting, indeed mesmerizing — and I say it who is not known for nature lore or for climbing every mountain.
See for  yourself.

Before you dig into this article, go to any search engine and search for the Raptor Resource Project Decorah (Iowa) Eagle Cam. Once you’ve found it (easy), you’ll have trouble shutting it off (hard). I went to have a look; stayed for a couple of hours; went back later and was captivated watching an adult feed the chicks; then (in the middle of the night) back again to make sure all was well. The late afternoon winds had died down; the night was serene and the adult had the chicks under belly, snug and well fed.
My fascination is shared by hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children worldwide, many of whom get so involved in this fascinating story that they pack up the kids and head to Decorah to see the reality show live. So many people visited the Eagle Cam Saturday, April 2, 2011 (over 100,000 that day) that the Raptor Project’s website crashed… it was the only thing that went down that day. Everything else about the eagles and their enthusiastic following was up, up, up.
First hatch 4/1/2011.
What the world and its brother has been paying attention to is this:
First egg laid 2/23/2011
First hatch 4/1/2011… Second hatch 4/3/2011… Third hatch 4/6/2011

This information is posted as it happens on the RRP blog, which under the guiding hand of Amy Ries, one of the dedicated band that runs this show, provides maximum access and information without jeopardizing what makes the project enthralling: ready, close-range access to the eagles… without spooking the raptors and making them anxious.
Amy’s blog entry for Friday, April 1, 2011 was characteristic:” Eagles incubate for roughly 34-37 days, according to a number of online sources. Last year, the Decorah eagles laid three eggs: one on February 5, one on February 28, and one on March 5. The first eaglet hatched on April 3. This year, the eagles starting laying eggs a little earlier, but had the exact same spread: February 23, February 26, and March 2nd.” Then follows a clear, well-written post on eagle incubation, including a detailed answer to the questions inquiring minds want to know: who takes care of the eggs better, male or female?
The answer: “The female eagle incubates more, but the male shares incubation duties as well.”
Blog comments left by the faithful are numerous, enthusiastic, heartfelt, and revealing. Many queries are left about just what the eagles are eating for themselves and feeding the chicks… about how the chicks are faring… about whether the eagles and their eaglets are all doing well. The Raptor Project turns humans of any age into concerned friends, god parents and adopted relations. These parent eagles and their adorable (and they are) chicks touch us, each and every one. We want them to do well and our concern is palpable, sincere, highly credible to us and good to know, since we humans are the greatest menace to the eagles. After all, it was only the other day that eagles were almost gone.
Bob Anderson to the rescue, doing more than his bit for raptor preservation.
Though many have helped in the development of RRP, one person above all deserves the kudos. That person is Bob Anderson, the executive director, Founding Father, with a distinct resemblance to Bob Keeshan, Captain Kangaroo. He first provided his first public feed of bird cams in 1991. That was from a falcon’s nest mounted halfway up an 800-foot-tall electric plant smokestack in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota.
He launched his first eagle camera in 2003 at another power plant in Colorado. He pointedly set up an osprey cam on Earth Day 1993, to remind folks that important as RRP and its work is, it is but a part of a global problem we ignore at our peril. He has never done so.
As for his beloved eagles, they have perched in a tree behind Anderson’s “mission control” operation; (a garage lent by Willard and Mary Ellen Holthaus) for 5 years. He knows their fascinating habits well. The male eagle, for instance, is markedly smaller than the female; the gal he’s with now is his second mate. They seem contented and are certainly prolific.
Too much of a good thing?
For years, many years, Bob Anderson and a few friends and supporters labored tirelessly, hardly known, the work hard, exhausting, and obscure. The Internet and streaming video changed all that forever. The raptors Anderson wanted to save and preserve now became, as they are now, the acknowledged stars of a production with mind-boggling visibility, popularity, and renown. At any given time, over 100,000 people are viewing the raptors at home. There have been, so far, more than 30 million views…
Founding Father Anderson is pleased of course. These majestic creatures, the very symbol of our great republic (since 1782) should be seen and appreciated by all. Above all birds the eagle must thrive and soar. But here there are dangers, too.
The website crashes too often; well-meaning visitors cut through the yards and lawns of the good, so-far uncomplaining citizens of Decorah and vicinity, turning Anderson into a diplomat. New equipment is needed… and new conservation projects need funds. And all this must be accomplished without disturbing, frightening, or threatening the eagles themselves. That above all.
A couple of bucks would help. Like so many of our essential non- profit organizations, crucial to our entire way of life, RRP has done wonders with very little. This can only work so long. Frankly, sending them a few bucks would cost you little and ensure the continuing success not only of Raptor Research Project but the eagles at its center.
As for me, today I shall check in at Raptor Cam. I was worried yesterday that the littlest chick, perhaps the newest born, was somewhat neglected during feeding time, and I want to see for myself that all is well.
Note: Send your tax-deductible contributions to
Raptor Research Project ATTN Bob Anderson, Executive Director 2325 Siewers Spring Road Decorah, Iowa 52101-7501
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.  Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Ultimate Cash Blueprint ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=yx7Qooyl