Looking for bandwidth? That can be a daunting and frustrating
task even in the best of situations. There’s lots to consider in
order to make the right decision for your needs. Below you’ll
find some help when evaluating Frame Relay vs VPN. Factors
covered include Technology, Speed, Description, Application,
Pros, Cons, and Costs.

~~~~~~~~~

Technology: Frame Relay

Speed: 56 Kbps - 1.544 Mbps

Description: A high-speed, packet based, data transmission
service used in wide area networks (WANs) to connect multiple
locations.

Application: Used to connect multiple locations to a main
location or to each other.

Pros: Cheaper alternative to private line connections. Ability
to burst when needed. Widely available.

Cons: Up-front equipment cost can be prohibitive.

Costs: Frame relay monthly cost starts at around a few $100 per
location for a stable, reliable system. Price climbs as speed
increases. However….the pricing for these connections varies
widely depending on the carrier, location of service and the
application for which the connection is being used.

~~~~~~~~~~

Technology: VPN

Speed: 56 Kbps - 1.544 Mbps

Description: VPN is a software-defined network that runs over a
shared public network and offers the appearance, functionality
and usefulness of a dedicated private network, at a price
savings.

Application: A highly flexible method of communicating between
locations via a secure tunnel on a large public network. Is
becoming an increasingly popular alternative to Frame Relay and
Private Line.

Pros: A user can access the network from any Internet
connection. VPNs often cost less and are more flexible and
scaleable than competing technologies.

Cons: The availability and performance of a company’s WAN is
largely dependant on factors outside of their control.

Costs: VPN prices mirror that of dial-up or dedicated Internet
Access. Cost of the VPN tunneling and encrypting is nominal.
Expect to spend a few $100 at least for a stable, reliable
system.

Vitamins are parts of enzymes you can’t live without, and your body can’t make. We take them for granted today, but vitamin deficiency diseases plagued our ancestors and took a long time to figure out.

Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetables, and Scurvy, caused by lack of vitamin C for many weeks or months, wasn’t identified until people were separated from plants for long periods of time – and that first occurred when they built ships that could go on long voyages.

The crew of Magellan’s voyage around the world in 1519 got scurvy, and in 1600 a British report showed 10,000 sailors had died of scurvy in 20 years. In 1747, James Lind, the ship’s physician aboard the HMS Salisbury, conducted an experiment on 12 sick men. He divided them into six groups and fed them all the same diet, but gave each pair a different supplement: apple juice, sulfuric acid, vinegar, a mix of spices, sea water, or citrus fruits.

The two men given the oranges and lemon recovered immediately and were back at work in six days. The men who had apple juice improved, but not enough to work. None of the others got any better. Lind’s report led to lemon juice rations on long voyages – and sailors called “limeys.”

Without vitamin C you don’t make collagen, essential to connective tissue, so your gums bleed, teeth loosen, joints and muscles ache, and eventually you die. Any reasonable diet that includes fruits and vegetables gives you enough, so scurvy is rarely seen in North America today.

What about the Eskimos? Most animals, except humans, make their own vitamin C and it’s possible to get enough vitamin C to sustain you from fresh meat, especially liver. The word “eskimo” means raw flesh eaters.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

Free weekly newsletter on fitness, health, and nutrition.

You’ve probably heard that chocolate can be good for you, and it’s true. Scientifically speaking, studies have shown that chocolate can reduce blood pressure, help to keep your arteries in shape, give your energy a mild boost, trigger pleasure-inducing endorphins, and may even help to burn fat. The bad new is, not all types of the treat deliver these benefits.

How do you tell? Look for these four signs that a bar of chocolate contains healthful ingredients:

1. High Cocoa Content

Cocoa contains antioxidants that offer the health benefits but not all chocolate contains enough cocoa to be beneficial. Cocoa also gives chocolate its dark color, so white chocolate contains zero cocoa, and the darkest chocolate usually contains the most. However, the color of chocolate can also come from artificial coloring agents, so you have to read the label to know what’s in a package.

To find healthful chocolate, look for a statement of the percentage of cocoa on the wrapper, preferably 70 percent or higher. The same type information can be listed as “cocoa liquor.” The “liquor” is not an alcoholic drink but the name the chocolate industry gives to cocoa-bean ingredients after cocoa butter, the bean’s natural fat, has been removed. Some manufacturers just list something like “70 percent dark chocolate,” or they list “chocolate liquor” as the first ingredient, meaning that it’s the major ingredient in the product (rather than sugar, milk, or something else).

Granted, this can be a bit confusing. If you like a particular brand but don’t know what its label means, call the company and ask. Chocolate makers that produce high-quality goodies take pride in carefully selecting their ingredients and will gladly talk to you.

2. Not Milk

Milk interferes with the human body’s absorption of the antioxidants in cocoa. For good health, choose dark chocolate and don’t drink milk while you eat it. If you find the taste too bitter, try it with fruit or choose a chocolate bar that’s already flavored with natural fruit ingredients, such as orange or raspberry, and spices. It’s a different experience from milk chocolate but a very pleasant one.

3. Cocoa Butter

The natural fat in cocoa beans, cocoa butter, is a healthy type of saturated fat that doesn’t raise cholesterol levels. However, many chocolate bars contain unhealthy, partially hydrogenated fat instead, because the hydrogenated fat costs less and has a longer shelf life. Choose chocolate with cocoa butter, not partially hydrogenated fats.

4. No Artificial Ingredients

Good chocolate doesn’t need artificial flavors but fake ingredients cost less, so manufacturers often use them. Fortunately, we can read food labels.

Organic chocolate doesn’t contain artificial flavors, preservatives or colorings so choosing organic is an easy way to avoid these. In addition, organic cocoa-bean farmers use environmentally friendly methods that help to preserve our remaining rainforest.

Whether you choose organic or not, you will pay a little more for chocolate made with true cocoa-bean ingredients, but why not? Aside from the fact that your health is important, you want a good treat, don’t you? In my local supermarkets, a large bar of chocolate costs about a dollar more for the good stuff – not too hard to swallow, or rather, melt in your mouth.

About The Author

Vera Tweed is a veteran health journalist and the editor of http://www.HealthyTricks.com, an online newsletter that makes healthy living more convenient, enjoyable and attainable.

While it may seem like a “quick and easy” task, defining the navigation structure and organization of your intranet site will be one of the most challenging tasks you will face in the course of your project. It is also one of the most critical success factors. The site structure, also referred to as the information architecture or taxonomy, is the foundation of your intranet. Creating an effective taxonomy is as much an art as it is a science. Use the wrong terms and your users won’t be able to navigate by intuition. Make your site too deep and they will never find the content they’re looking for.

One common myth is that if you integrate a search engine with your site you don’t need to focus as much on the taxonomy. This is completely false. All web users can be generalized into one of 2 buckets; “browsers” or “searchers”. Searchers, of course, will first use a search engine to locate content while browsers will manually look for the desired information by navigating the taxonomy. This is not to say that browsers never search, or vice versa, it merely suggests that all users have a preference for one method or the other when attempting to locate content. The most efficient site will have a well-organized taxonomy AS WELL AS a good search engine to satisfy both types of users.

Building your taxonomy

Creating a taxonomy on your own is arguably the best approach. After all, no one knows your organization’s culture and terminology better than you. If you’re short on professional taxonomists here are some tips to keep in mind when defining your taxonomy.

• The overall taxonomy should be wide, not deep
• Use primary terms rather than marketing oriented or slang terms (the goal is to use language that can be understood by a new employee on their first day of work)
• Try to keep some rigidity to the taxonomy, at least at the top levels — this promotes familiarity for the users and enhances usability
• Build two taxonomies; the primary being functional-centric and the secondary being organization-centric underneath the functional-centric
• Try to limit your structure to just 2-7 items under each branch, otherwise consolidate
• Use real content to validate your taxonomy
• Define, validate, re-tool, define, validate, re-tool, and so on –- taxonomy development is an iterative process
• The structure should be very broad on top and narrow at the lowest levels

Remember that the taxonomy is a tool to locate content. The best way to verify you have a model that works is to use focus groups to test the structure. Ask the group where they would expect to find a specific example of content within the structure and see if that maps with what you’ve defined. If they keep missing, you need to go back and re-work the structure based on their feedback.

Bryan A. Mjaanes
Intranet101.com Admin
http://www.Intranet101.com

Psychological Power is the ability people have to disguise what they really want from you when they are attempting to persuade or influence you. Psychological Power is based on the ability to alter an individual’s perception of reality. This power (like most power) can obviously be used dishonestly. However, it is important to understand the various psychological tactics so that you will have a greater ability to detect people who are being dishonest or devious with you. You will be able to tell the difference between the Psychological Power of the salesman and the Legitimate Power of the Master Persuader.

Time-pressure

People are typically slow at making decisions because they’re afraid of making mistakes. The longer someone waits, however, the more likely it becomes that they won’t follow through. The faster you can persuade and influence a person to make their decision, the more likely you will achieve your goals. This is where we get promotions like “one-day sale,” and “This offer won’t last long” (The Law of Scarcity). On the flip side, be sure your aren’t ever pressured into an impulse decision that you’ll regret. I remember once negotiating a contract for the marketing department of a big corporation. I knew the Laws of Persuasion and I knew what I wanted. I had a million other things to get done, and I felt rushed to hammer out the details of the contract that morning. The person I was negotiating with, on the other hand, was in no hurry and had nowhere to go. We bantered back and forth for six hours and still had not reached a resolution on a contract we were both happy with. My urgency to leave affected the terms I was finally able to get.

When we’re in a hurry, we’ll usually pay more to get what we need. When we need something right now, and someone has it, we will pay or do anything to get it. Think of all the convenience services that cost more. The all-night convenience store charges twice as much for a gallon of milk as the grocery store down the street. The 24-hour copy mart charges more than the traditional print service. Think about how much you paid for that book or magazine at the airport before you rushed to catch your plane. Being in a hurry definitely costs money.

Boldness

Acting with boldness will not only give the perception of confidence, but it will actually help you feel more confident. What’s more, you’ll come across as brave and bold, and people will rally behind you. Their lack of esteem or confidence will naturally attract them to someone like you, who is bold and assertive. Boldness can lead to the accomplishment of unimaginable things. Assertive and bold behavior creates confidence and hides our deficiencies. When you assert yourself, people automatically assume you know what you are doing. Boldness and assertiveness create authority and often fear. This sends a clear message on how people should treat us. Assertiveness creates power and the ability to persuade. Shy, timid, weak people cannot persuade others or change their minds.

A great example of being bold and assertive happened in 1925 in Paris, France. The French scrap metal owners were summoned and taken to the nicest hotel in Paris. They were wined and dined and told an incredible story about the Eiffel Tower. They found out the tower was considered an eyesore and that the cost to maintain it was astounding. The tower was only supposed to be a temporary fixture and the City or Paris now wanted it removed. For the next three days, city council would be taking bids for the scrap metal. A bold and assertive salesman flashed a badge at security and took metal owners for a tour. He was so bold and convincing that one company paid over one million U.S. dollars for the tower. Obviously, it was a scam and the sorry bid winner resold the tower to someone else six months later.

Unpredictability

Be unpredictable. Nothing confuses a target more than unpredictability. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes are probably the most frightening events to live through because of their sheer unpredictability. These phenomena don’t fit comfortably in our routines and so they are unnerving to us. Humans are creatures of habit; we love the familiar and predictable. We love a routine and a predictable outcome. When you are predictable, people feel a sense of control over you. Unpredictable and inconsistent behavior keeps people guessing and off balance. We have all had a boss or parent who was unpredictable. You did not know if they were going to yell, reward, or thank you for what you were doing. They spent calculated time trying to understand your next move. This type of power is very intimidating and uncontrollable.

Surprise/Distraction

People who are taken off guard or who are surprised by a request become unsure and will often comply with it. This insecurity and imbalance makes them more persuadable. A study by Milgram and Sabini demonstrated that people riding the New York subway were twice as likely to give up their seats to people who surprised them with the request, “May I have your seat?” as they were when they were told ahead of time of the person’s intention to ask for their seat. Fifty-six percent of surprised passengers gave up their seats compared to 28% of those who had been warned in advance.

Distraction also is a form of Psychological Power. Your prospects minds are elsewhere, so you give them something to think about. This is an unethical form of power you need to be aware of. Sometimes this tactic could end up putting you on the defensive, sidetracking you, or getting you angry. The distraction could be dropping something, screaming, throwing insults to get you off track, or distracting you from their real purpose.

Pity

Every year, Jerry Lewis hosts the muscular dystrophy telethon. Critics hate how he uses pity to raise funds, calling it demeaning and stigmatizing. Others argue, however, that the results outweigh anything that could possibly be bad about it: Reaching more than 100 million viewers through 200 different channels, the telethon raises over one hundred million dollars each year.

There is a crosswalk in my town where no one likes to stop for pedestrians. I’m always intrigued by what makes people stop at a crosswalk. I’ve noticed at this particular crosswalk that people normally just drive right through, without even noticing the pedestrians waiting to cross. One day, I suddenly noticed all of the cars stopping. I wondered what was happening until I saw an attractive college student with crutches waiting to cross the street. The power of pity pulled at the heartstrings of usually stoic drivers and influenced them to act in her favor.

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Beware of the common mistakes presenters and persuaders commit that cause them to lose the deal. Get your free report 10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands and explode your income today.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life. If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report “10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.” After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!

Many people make the mistake of taking loans for all the financial requirements that they come across in their lives. For some people it is a necessity and some people think that they will be able to pay off their debts easily. But, sometimes it is not possible for every one to pay of their debts as easily as first thought.

If that is the case with any body then debt consolidation is an ideal tool for those borrowers.

Debt consolidation – debt consolidation is a tool where all the accumulated debts of a borrower are all entailed into one single debt from one single creditor. Thus, enabling the borrower to manage his debts properly.

An example of how to use debt consolidation loans for people is when any borrower has taken loans from three or four creditors at different interest credit rates. But now he finds himself in a situation where he is not able to pay his monthly installments regularly and is not able to manage his debts properly. This is leading to harassment by the creditors. Compounding of money due and hence higher rates being paid.

The problem becomes even more severe for people with bad credit history. It includes people like
• CCJ’s
• Arrears
• Defaults
• Late payments, or
• People who have previously filled for bankruptcy

Bad credit history takes into consideration the people who have not payments with the regularity to their borrowers in their previous loan term. On the basis of their regularity they are given a score to estimate the financial credit worthiness of the borrower. A score of below 600 is considered poor and a score of or above 620 is considered good. There are other scores as well like FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) the range of this score is from 300 – 850.

People can get it calculated by different credit rating agencies of the UK namely Transunion, Equifax or Experian. The score is based on the factors such as: amount of previous loan, length of previous loan, credit period and how the repayment was made. The borrower is given three scores and the creditors can either or a combination of these scores.

Debt consolidation to the bad credit people is available in two forms i.e. secured debt consolidation where the borrower has to provide collateral to the lenders. As mortgage it could be any worthwhile asset of the borrower like a car or his home. The advantages of secured debt consolidation are that it facilitates low interest rates, easy and flexible repayment plan for a long period as long as up to 25 years. Else they can go for unsecured debt consolidation where no security is required to avail the loan. This method is relatively easy and available to every borrower. The relative disadvantage is that this is a little expensive compared to secured debt consolidation and can be availed for a lesser time period.

Even with the unsecured debt consolidation the borrowers can now get the best deals with the presence of so many lenders. The competition is intense and the customers get all the benefits.

The benefits of going for bad credit debt consolidation loans are
• It saves the borrower from the humiliation that can be put upon him by the creditors.
• It helps the people with bad credit scores to improve on their credit score and thereby improving their credit worthiness.
• The amount of amount repayable is paid at an interest rate which is less than what it was previously paid. Hence less burden on the borrowers.

Debt consolidation can be very critical in helping people with bad credit and even those who have normal credit. It not only serves the purpose but if need be can be very useful in other ways as well. So all the people who find themselves in a similar condition should consider going for a debt consolidation loan.

Alex Jonnes is associated with Easy Debt Consolidations. He is Masters in Business dministration and writes on various finance related topics. To find Bad Credit Debt Consolidation Loans,debt consolidation loan lowest interest rates visit www.easy-debt-consolidations.co.uk

Many books on time management recommend the practice of thinking of each hour of your time as being worth a specific quantity of money. It’s an extension of the “time is money” concept. First you figure out what your hourly rate is, and then you use that as a guide to determine where you should spend your time. If you want to earn more money, then you must first mentally raise your hourly rate, so you can start doing activities that are worth more. For example, if you currently earn $50/hour and want to earn $75/hour, then you have to do less and less $50/hour work as you shift to doing $75/hour work. Brian Tracy advocates this type of thinking in his time management programs, as do many other time management experts. I’ve used this model myself in the past.

I’ve spent a lot of time considering this paradigm, and at present I have only one problem with it.

It’s stupid!

It’s possibly the stupidest paradigm you can use for income generation.

While it seems enticing on the surface, in the long run it will hurt you more than help you. Let’s take a look under the hood…

The Good

On the positive side, if you tell yourself that your time is worth $50/hour, then that can help you focus. It can make you aware of those activities that clearly aren’t worth $50/hour that you might still be doing, especially if you track your time usage with a time log. Once you become aware that you’re wasting time on low payoff activities, then you can begin reducing, eliminating, or outsourcing those low payoff tasks. For example, you could recruit a part-time personal assistant to offload much of the $10/hour and $20/hour work. My wife runs an online vegetarian magazine, and she has a staff of people working for her including an assistant, editors, and writers to offload much of the work that can be done at a lower hourly rate than her own. It works great.

This seems like good common sense if you want to improve your productivity. If you can earn $50/hour, then you should spend as much as your work time as possible doing $50+/hour work, shouldn’t you? Recruit others to do any work that pays less. The benefits of this particular optimization may be hidden in a large corporate environment where personal productivity isn’t strongly linked to pay, but it’s very noticeable if you’re self-employed.

The Bad

The big problem is that when you tell yourself your time is worth $50/hour, you’re simultaneously telling yourself that it isn’t worth $75/hour or $200/hour or $10,000/hour. You’re programming your subconscious mind to limit the range of opportunities you will notice. Because you won’t be on the lookout for $10,000/hour ideas, you’ll overlook them completely. If you tell yourself you earn $50/hour, you’ll think in terms of $50/hour opportunities.

Thinking in terms of an hourly rate may help limit your downside, but it also severely limits your upside. And that’s a really bad trade-off, bad enough that it requires me to dismiss this whole paradigm as utterly stupid. There’s no way the upside of turning some $20 hours into $50 hours can compensate for missing those $10,000 hours. That’s penny-wise, pound-foolish.

One $10,000 hour is worth 200 $50 hours. That’s more than a month of full-time work! You don’t need too many of those huge payoff hours to pick up the slack of some of those less productive $0-20 hours, but if you miss out on even one of those $10,000 hours, it’s a crippling blow that overwhelms all other thoughts about financial productivity.

In the long run, your greatest financial risk isn’t whether you made the mistake of succumbing to doing $20/hour work when you could have done $50/hour work. Your greatest risk is missing those $10,000 hours. And most people miss out on them completely. It’s ironic that people think of being a salaried employee as being low-risk and being an entrepreneur as high-risk. The reality is just the opposite. One of the reasons I chose the entrepreneurial path is that it’s just way too damn risky to be an employee. I’m not kidding. It’s easy to hit a good number of those $10,000 hours as an entrepreneur, but it’s a lot harder to do so as an employee.

How many $10,000 hours did you enjoy this year?

How rare is it for a $50/hour salaried employee to experience even one of those $10,000 hours in the entire course of their career? Pretty rare I would say. Certainly not a normal, expected occurrance. But this isn’t because such opportunities don’t exist — it’s because your limiting beliefs about how much your time is worth prevent you from noticing them. Simply choosing to believe that it is possible will open the door to allowing it to manifest. You don’t need anyone’s permission to believe you can come up with an idea that you can implement in less than an hour that will earn you an extra $10,000. Such ideas are naturally plentiful, but you won’t notice them until you adopt the right mindset. Right now as you’re reading this, such an opportunity is practically staring you in the face, and you’re completely oblivious to it. It’s just like how my colorblindness prevents me from ever seeing the color red as other people can; it’s beyond my ability to perceive.

Once you release the brakes and embrace the idea that a single hour of your time could be worth $10,000 or more, you’ll almost immediately begin to notice such opportunities. I suspect you’ll uncover the first one in less than 48 hours.

The Ugly

What the heck is $50/hour work anyway? Who determines what an hour of your time is worth?

If you’re self-employed, then you set your own hourly rate. And that’s fine if your work requires hourly billing. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all of your working time is worth that same hourly rate. If you do that, you’ll begin to tune out much more lucrative opportunities.

If you’re an employee in a corporate environment, then your salary sets your hourly rate, depending on how many hours you typically work each week. And in this high-risk situation you have a double problem. First, you have the previously mentioned challenge of getting yourself to think outside the hourly rate box. But secondly, in corporate environments it’s rare to find fair incentives for employees to have such breakthroughs. If you have one of those $10,000 hours on the job, you probably won’t share in the rewards. You’ll just enjoy your usual $50 pay for that hour, while the company keeps the other $9950 you’ve created. At least entrepreneurs and self-employed people get to keep the whole $10,000.

Whom does the hourly rate mindset benefit? It benefits those who get to keep the extra value above and beyond that rate. But because this paradigm suffers an imbalance between value creation and reward, I think it also cripples the will to generate those $10,000 ideas. If you aren’t going to benefit from the extra value you create, then why bother to create it?

The solution is to think like an entrepreneur, even if you’re an employee. If you can devise and implement an idea in one hour that ends up saving your company $25,000 a year, I’d say you damn well deserve to be paid $10,000 for that hour of your time.

But too often employees don’t bother to negotiate such terms with their employers. They willingly submit themselves to the tyranny of the hourly rate. Having been an employer myself though, I’ll tell you that if an employee came to me and said she had a low-risk idea that would put $25,000 in my pocket and which could be implemented independently by her in an hour, and she asked to be paid $10,000 only if and when the idea proved itself, I’d be pulling out my checkbook. In fact, I’d ask her if she had a twin I could hire too. But if you don’t negotiate such deals in advance, then by default the employer receives all the value above and beyond your normal hourly rate.

If I ever found myself an employee (which I can’t imagine happening), I’d be on the constant lookout for those $10,000 ideas. I’d befriend someone who had the authority to pay bonuses in the manner described above, even if I had to work my way up the chain of command a bit. Then I’d look for simple ways to increase the company’s revenue or cut its costs that would produce tangible, measurable results. And I’d negotiate the ability to either be paid a fixed sum if the value can be determined in advance or to share in a certain percentage of whatever value was created.

If I found that my boss didn’t have the necessary authority or the will to authorize this sort of thing, then I’d keep going up the chain of command until I found someone who did. It’s simply a matter of finding someone who will directly benefit from my extra value creation. It could be a stock-owning VP, the CEO, or even an investor. People who have a direct financial stake in the enterprise will not want to see profit-creating or cost-cutting ideas being squashed unreasonably, but beneath this level, you might run into a lot more closed-mindedness. But fortunately those who share in the profits of your ideas will normally have the authority to overrule those who don’t. So don’t let your boss get in your way. If you develop the habit of implementing $10,000 ideas, you’ll soon be the boss anyway.

If I found myself working for a company or organization where this level of flexibility was impossible, I’d quit and go work in a less draconian environment. There are enough progressive companies around now that it isn’t necessary to work for one of the unenlightened ones.

All Hours Are Not Created Equal

My income isn’t based on how much time I spend working. It’s a function of the value I create. I can work a whole month and produce less monetary value than I do in one breakthrough hour. Every hour is unique.

I stopped thinking in terms of a fixed hourly rate many years ago. In practical terms an hour of my time could be worth $0, or it could be worth $10,000 or more, depending on what I do with that particular hour. Much of the time I pursue activities that don’t generate any income at all, even though I still consider it to be productive work. Answering email doesn’t seem to pay too well, and I don’t get paid an hourly rate for writing blog entries and articles. But sometimes I’ll get an idea which I can implement in just 30-60 minutes that will earn me an extra $10,000 over the course of a year, often continuing for many years thereafter. So the concept of an hourly rate, even an average hourly rate, is meaningless to me.

A recent specific example was adding those Chitika eMiniMalls ads to this site. As I previously reported, this took very little time to implement (less than an hour), but it should ultimately generate thousands of dollars a year in extra revenue. And it takes me virtually no work at all to maintain this income aside from depositing checks.

In the normal course of my work, those $10,000 hours are becoming more common. I normally have several a year, along with some $1000 hours, $5000 hours, and so on. Usually the money doesn’t come right away, but it still blows away the concept of an hourly rate. It wouldn’t even be accurate to say that it’s those other hours that make the $10,000 hour possible. Sometimes the $10,000 is just a random idea from out of the blue, or maybe it’s something that comes to me from a book or another person.

Almost always the $10,000 hour is the result of a great idea. And great ideas can strike at any time. When I get one of those $10,000 candidate ideas, I’ll normally drop everything and implement it right away. If it flops (and usually it does), I’ve lost an hour, but I still learned something. Most of the time it isn’t a total loss. I end up with a lot of $10, $50, and $250 ideas too. But I can afford to endure dozens of those relative flops for the chance to hit just one more $10,000 idea. And when it works, I must say it’s pretty darn nice.

It’s not that $10,000 is a lot of money per se. The idea isn’t to make just $10,000 here and there. It’s to make $10,000 for only one hour’s worth of work. That’s what makes the entrepreneurial game so much fun. You never know when one of those $10,000 ideas will strike. Imagine working each day with the very real possibility that you could earn an extra $10,000 that day, completely out of the blue. If your normal hourly rate for a full-time job was $10,000, you’d be earning $20 million per year, and in that case $10,000/hour would be no big deal. But if you earn something closer to $50/hour, then one of those $10,000 hours is a major breakthrough. And the truth is that those $10,000 hours are a lot more accessible than you might think.

Regardless of whether you’re an employee, self-employed, or otherwise entrepreneurial, don’t cap your income by thinking in terms of an hourly rate. Once you free yourself from this punishing paradigm, you’ll invite the opportunity to enjoy some of those $10,000 hours. It’s really just a matter of giving yourself permission to experience them.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

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York for the past 6 years and absolutely swear by the Dry Foam
Extraction cleaning system. Experience has taught me that it is
far superior to the steam cleaning method. It is a very
effective low moisture and rapid drying carpet cleaning method.
The Von Schrader Company in Racine, Wisconsin manufactures the
equipment. They’ve been in business since 1935.

How does it work?

The portable machine generates an even layer of dry foam just
ahead of the brush. The dry foam emulsifies (separates) the dirt
from the rug fibers. A soft cylindrical brush combs and lifts
the pile all the way to the base of the carpet. The emulsified
soil is then immediately extracted with a powerful built-in
vacuum–all in one forward pass.

Some Advantages of the Dry Foam Extraction System:

· The carpet is cleaned right down to the base .The full bristle
- brush lifts the dirt in an upward motion to the surface. This
loosens any deeply embedded soil. The carpet is “Deep Cleaned”
and the pile looks revived.

· There is a simultaneous dry foam cleaning and vacuum pick-up
all in one easy step. There is no need for separate machines.

· The low moisture-cleaning agent uses only a 10 % water
mixture. This prevents the over wetting of the carpet and
backing. No need to worry about carpet damage such as browning,
shrinkage, buckling, delaminating, and mildew.

· Carpets dry quickly due to low moisture retention.

· Dry Foam cleaning systems usually clean faster than hot water
cleaning systems.

· The detergent is environmentally safe and leaves carpets
feeling soft to the touch. It has a popular fragrance.

· The equipment is very gentle on rugs.

Some observations I have made regarding Hot Water or Steam
Cleaning systems:

· Excessive amounts of water are applied by steam cleaning
systems. Rugs become soaked.

· Hot water can damage some carpet fibers. It could also cause
color bleeding, shrinkage, and browning. Stain resist carpets
can lose their resistance.

· The detergent used in hot water cleaning systems seems to
leave a residue that can attract dirt.

· Carpets require more time to dry.

Conclusion:

I have cleaned carpets professionally for several years using
the Dry Foam Cleaning System. I have received hundreds of
compliments from many satisfied customers. Everyone loves it.
It’s simply the best!

For more detailed information on Dry Foam Extraction cleaning,
you are invited to visit www.cozycarpets.com Please direct any
questions or comments to the following email address:
dyacono1@rochester.rr.com

Donald Yacono Rochester, New York

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A summary of different concerns that young adults share
Amidst a myriad of political conferences, lobbying, fundraising and campaigning, our country’s leaders are engaged in a daily struggle to improve the lives of Americans. True, each Congressman, Senator, etc., has his/her own goals and opinions of how best to carry out these goals. For young adults, what are the issues most important to their personal future?

Education

According to a report published by the National Center For Education Statistics, 19.5% of Americans over the age of 18 enter college. For those who have the financial resources and discipline to finish their degrees, they must face the decreasing employment opportunities in many career fields.

However, in order to reach the education level necessary to attend college, and therefore obtain employment in higher paying positions, children must have a firm educational foundation. With the decrease of qualified teachers entering the education field, and the higher costs of private school, this foundation is difficult to obtain. For many children in urban schools, the opportunity to attend college is just a far-fetched dream. One example of this is the unfortunate fact that 20% of American adults read at or below a fifth grade level. Some educational bills that many politicians are campaigning for include: · School vouchers · Increase of funding for public schools · Stringent certification testing for teachers · Standardized testing for all students

Health

One of the top health concerns for young adults is the increasing threat of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. Since the 60’s, also known as the “sexual revolution,” we have seen an increase of unexpected pregnancies and the introduction of AIDS into mainstream society. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 118,000 young people between the ages of 13 and 29 are living with AIDS. This is not an issue to be ignored, since 2/3 of STD’s occur in people 25 years old and younger, 1 in 10 teenage women become pregnant every year, and 1 in 4 teens are infected with an STD every year. Many politicians look to an increase of sex education in the schools to help solve this crisis, while others set their trust in abstinence till marriage education.

Another health issue gaining a large amount of media attention, is mental illness left untreated among teenagers. One particular mental illness, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating), affects millions of young adults every year. With children younger and younger considering their weight and ability to attract the opposite sex, eating disorders are increasingly prevalent in America.

Politics

Not many of us will soon forget the many political scandals of the past five years - Clinton/Lewinsky, Kennedy, or Condit/Levy. In all the money, power, and fame, are there actually politicians paying attention to the needs of the country and our concerns?

46% of young adults never volunteer for a political campaign because they do not feel that the candidates running address their concerns, or are trustworthy. Only 53% feel that our country’s leaders and institutions address their concerns.

Crime

Turn on the TV or radio and you’ll here about murder, robberies, and the occasional hostage situation. Yes, crime is an issue on the minds of many young adults today. Some of us may not live in high crime areas, but many live in areas where drive-by shootings are a fact of life. According to the FBI, every 19 seconds a violent crime is committed. An Associated Press report comments that children in the United States are nine times more likely to be killed by gunfire than all of the next 25 top industrial nations. Why?

Another increasing concern is the rise in hate crimes among young adults. One in three hate crimes are committed by people under the age of 18, with 75% under the age of 30. Another statistic by the FBI states: Of the hate crimes reported to the FBI in 1999, 1,411 incidents were attributed to prejudice against the victim’s religion; 1,317, against his or her sexual orientation; 829 against ethnic or national origin; and 19 against disabilities.

Economics

With the bombardment of commercials, sales flyers, telemarketers, and Internet ads, more and more Americans are falling into the cavern of debt. Millions of families have thousands of dollars in credit card debt far exceeding what they can possibly afford. Though most of us start out with good intentions of living by a budget, getting good jobs, and saving money, statistics show that few of us carry out our plans. The point…start now with a budget, save a percentage of every paycheck, and live within your means.

Environment/Overpopulation

The stereotypical environmentalist, with the “tree-hugger” mentality is slowing giving way to a mainstream concern for protecting our natural resources. Recently, a woman in our area was diagnosed with cancer. The cause - a pesticide used on their farm. In fact, according to The Sierra Club, 80% of all cancer is caused by environmental contaminants. It appears that our very existence depends on cleaning the chemicals and toxins seeping into our communities.

For example, take a look at the following statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency: · 3 out of 10 Americans breathe unhealthy air even though the Clean Air Act was passed more than 20 years ago. · 20% of community drinking water systems get their drinking water from facilities that violate public health safety requirements. · 10 million children under the age of 12 live within 4 miles of a toxic waste dumpsite. Another concern that flows in and out of the media is overpopulation. The United Nations spends millions of dollars every year in providing birth control and abortions to women in third world countries. However, statistically, we are not in a situation of overpopulation but poor use of resources and land. “Human beings inhabit no more than 3 percent of the land surface of the earth. What’s more, the amount of habitable land is not limited. Singapore was once marshland. Much of Holland was once under water…. “To put the matter in perspective, if the world’s 5.4 billion people were put in Jacksonville, Florida, each person would have four square feet to stand in. In Texas each person would have at least fourteen hundred square feet, the area of a good-sized two-bedroom apartment.” Sheldon L. Richman, “Much Ado About Nothing: Population Growth as Promise, Not Problem,” The World & I, vol. 8, no. 6 (1993): 374-75.

In Closing…

There are so many issues that form our belief systems and guide our professional and personal lives. It is impossible to give a synopsis of each in one article. However, it is imperative that we search for the answers to our questions and understand both sides of the issues in order to find the truth hiding amidst the rhetoric.

About the Author

Tenille is currently a freelance writer and editor. She is a former professional ballet dancer and actress.

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