Funny people and vegetarians

It always amuses me when people that live alternative lifestyles find it necessary to make excuses for their preferences. Like Vegetarians and people that do not drink alcohol.  Maybe it is a natural defense mechanism, like in attack before you get attacked.

In most of these cases you will also find that these persons will attack lifestyles that differ from theirs
(that is once they are comfortable with the fact that they have the upper hand by their initial excuses for  not conforming.   Whoever told them they have to explain their preferences?  I do not explain mine.
I have a saying that annoys some of these friends of mine : "I did not get to the top of the food chain by eating grass!"
Please note that I am calling them friends because I have never found it necessary in commenting on their preference of veggies and fruit - hell I even eat some of the stuff myself ! ( sometimes anyway when I run low on the meaty stuff. )

Why am I writing this /  I beg of you to leave my milk, eggs and meat alone - I do not believe the world is going to end because of this ( I do think there is more chemicals and pesticides in veggies than what you will find in good red meat anyway)

Now we can get into the arguments if you wish. I am going to state some beliefs that I will defend to the ends of the earth and because of this stop trying to get me to belief otherwise !

1. Butter is better than margarine.
2. Good red meat is good for you.
3. Red wine is very good for you.
4. When you eat , enjoy it , do not count the calories - It is food not maths you are having
(quote from the bible : Eat your food and drink your wine with gusto)

Oh and by the way - more than 90% of people will agree with me - how do I know ?
This week we had a business breakfast. 34 attendees. 30 chose the farmhouse breakfast - 4 chose the so called health breakfast.   Farmhouse consisted of bacon, eggs, and boerewors.  Health consisted of some fruit and Yogurt (by the way not vegetarian yogurt)

Let us leave the arguments and enjoy what you enjoy and leave the arguments to the scientists who think they know more.  

The Mind block

I am not a Pshycologist or any other shrink. I am just your average thinking human being,
But of late certain insights have hit me and as my friend Wayne would say " you can teach an old dog new tricks"   Actually you cannot. But he can learn it if he wants to.

What is the key here ? Choices - I can make the choice to learn new tricks - you can try as hard as you want to but if I am not interested you will get nowhere !

Ok, so what?   Any good shrink will tell you that more than 80% of your beliefs are governed by you subconscious mind.  So if I decide to try something new and there are hidden beliefs that prevents me from having faith in the venture I am lost.  Now this is in all probability the reason why so many ventures fail. It is because of these beliefs in our subconsious mind that prevents us from achieving success.

Simple isn't it ? Your shrink would have charged you around a thousand bucks to come to this point.

Ok but now I have stated the (shrinkwise) obvious.  How do we change the scenario?
I am again stating this in laymans terms.  I know I am going to get some smart replies, that is ok if it helps someone to understand this better.  See ?  I have made a statement that only Yesterday would not have been made as I believed that I am right and I really don't care what you think and I would have told you so !  What changed?    I will tell you and this is the key to the whole thing:  I made a concerted effort to not see all critisism as destructive which is in my nature.  Now this is going to need effort.  Whatever I decide my subconsious mind is going to block me if it does not fit into my belief system.  This is a universal law.

Again to get to this point a shrink would have cost a you a few bucks. Belief me.

Right ,  now we(I) found out what the problem is and where it is. Now I have to do something about it.
I have been given a little gift yesterday by a gentleman called Conray Labuschagne and I am going to try the
remedy for a month or so. Some of you might have heard of it , some not.  It is an elastic band.

It works something like this :  You put it on your wrist and everytime you conciously know or find out that your idea is being blocked by your subconsious mind you pull this out as far as you can and let go.
"bloody hell, that was sore"  Your subconscious mind will start associating that blocking or negative thought with pain and it will eventually stop its nonsense.   Does it work ?   I don't know, I am going to try it "Eina dammit, that was sore !)   See the unconsious mind does not even like you messing with it.  It is all in your beliefs.

Another few bucks to the Shrink.   To be continued......................

Personal targets

This tedious task of setting targets has always been a difficult one for me.  Let me explain.  I do my planning in my head - most of the time.  I do not like to make notes and when I do I very rarely read it again.  I think it is this bigger picture thing - totally right brainer thing.  Because of this I do not have any written goals or targets and I know it should be there.  Now I have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe I should start looking at this thing.  If I could be as successful as I have been for the past few years without doing any real physical planning, just imagine what I could do if I did start drafting a proper plan.

Now this piece of wisdom above relates to business. I am now on about personal targets.  We (my wife and I) have had such a personal target about 4 years ago when we decided we are going to Scotland for my 60th birthday.  Where were we on the 27th of October 2008 ?  My sixtieth birthday ?  We landed at Edinburgh airport in Sotland that morning !

So ?  I know it can be done and that is exactly what I will be doing again - not Scotland - THE BIG PLAN

The biggest problem here is : Starting with the bloody thing............Tomorrow!   Ok definitely next week.

The love of money................

............is the root of all evil.

No matter how you argue the point everything revolves around Money. All sorts of alternative
economic systems have been investigated and implemented. All of them have the exact same
problems that money creates:  One person's perception of value differs from the next.  The bank charges you
15% interest on your loan. They think it is fair, you don't.

The supermarket offers you a bargain at a bargain price .  Both of you think it is fair until you see the same
product somewhere else at a lesser price. Those bastards ! They wanted to screw me! 

In Scotland there is a little town called "Aberfeldy"  Scotlands first fair trade village , I think it said.
I will be doing a bit of research on this and write about it in a new post.

Why I quoted this is that this is exactly what we should be looking for in any trade-off:   Fairness for all involved.  This is a human thing - Governments and institutions will never get this right for the simple reason that there will always be money involved, and money breeds greed!

Unfortunately for now MONEY RULES (OK?)
There is one reason and one reason only why businesses fail :

They run out of money.


There is one reason and one reason only why good business plans do not get implemented:

The lack of money



There is one reason and one reason only why individuals are liquidated / loose their possessions /……………?

They ran out of money.


There is one reason and one reason only why there is greed in this world

Money


As an Entrepreneurial trainer one of the things I advocate is that your vision must be bigger than yourself and it also must not be Money. But going from zero to one unfortunately requires money. If you take money out of any commercial (or charity) equation it will fail. This is (unfortunately) the ultimate fact of life.


Trying to change the way the world thinks is in my opinion a total waste of time. Trying to change peoples views are easy : You do it exactly as you would trying to eat an elephant : Small piece by small piece. One person at a time. . And you must have a very good workable system to replace any existing (not so effective )principle.


People tend to follow a strong leader. Even those with stupid ideas. Hitler and Malema are good examples. So did the British with Winston Churchill who was a charismatic and stunning leader. So where does this leave us ? Work on your ideas and get it practically implementable. Draw charismatic leaders to yourself.

Sell your idea and get them to sell it. And you will find that in your immediate vicinity things might just start changing.


This brings me to the parable of the 12 apostles?

They took the Masters message and multiplied it and no one can challenge the outcome 2000 years later.

Recognition of Prior Learning

These new buzz words :  Recognition of prior learning might just be the key to your future success !

In the South African environment a lot has happened in the past 16 years since the new government came to power.  A lot of it positive and a lot negative. This is not the forum to dwell on that.
What is important is that a lot of knowledge has gone down the drain. People that have been trained
in-house by big corporates or have studied somewhere and did not finish those studies are receiving no recognition for their knowledge and skills.

You might be an industry or subject specialist that can make money from that skill or knowledge.
If only you could get recognition for the skill or knowledge.

Now you can !

Through a process called recognition for prior learning you can now get INTERNATIONAL recognition. 

Through our affiliation with SBM international you can undergo such a program and get international
credits and recognition for your knowledge.  The system looks at every single piece of knowledge you acquired and you might even qualify for a degree.


You might be a subject specialist on something but no-one is interested as there is no official qualification or recognition ?



Send us an email to be invited to a Free presentation- It could change your life forever!
The email address is rpl@brandow.co.za


You might even be invited to be a facilitator on some of our courses - we have major opportunities in the training market !

Let the past be the past

Two emails landed in my inbox simultaneously this morning: the asked the question: Is it time to change your focus ? and the other one had the heading : A new way of thinking.  I will go into a bit of detail about both just now.  My statement in this article is :  The past is exactly that : History.  You can learn from it , you can talk about it , You can have guilty consciences about it etc. etc.  You cannot change it : It is History.  You can change the future though - It is not there yet. You have the choices what to do with it,whether to plan for it or just accept it as it comes.

This brings me to the first email I received : Is it time to change your focus?  What was this guy on about?
The message is clear : If you do what you have always done, how can you expect different results.  These are such true words if only it gets applied.   The keyword is : Change your input , change your focus , look for new ways to do things , new niche markets , new people ,  New ways to run your sales force (Less salary - Lots and Lots of more commission ) Surround yourself with like-minded people.  Do not be afraid to try new things

This brings me to the second: A new way of thinking - this one had a christian undertone but so be it;
It started with this quote :And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine burst the wineskins and the new wine is lost.........

The message is clear : When you change your thinking get rid of the old holder where the old thinking was done and totally renew the mind to the new idea.  Never use the old way of thinking again because you will find that suddenly you have filled the thinking holder with old and new ideas and it suddenly burst and nothing is left !

This is true in personal life and in business.  If you do not change course you will end up where you were headed and that , my friend might not have been where you wanted to be !

We need to start thinking about new ideas in business - New partnerships , new products , new marketing methods and ways , new ways to connect and new ways to learn

to be continued .........


JOHN BRANDOW

So you want to leave this country ?

Quick STATS for those who want to leave and those who have (sorry to hear) already left

• "South Africa is probably the leading economy in the world." (CNBC Europe)
• South Africa’s Rand is the second best-performing emerging market currency of the 26 monitored by Bloomberg in 2009
• South Africa sold $1.8 billion worth of cars to the US last year, putting us ahead of Sweden and Italy as suppliers to the US market.
• In 2009, the Springboks become the first international team to be World Champions in both 15-a-side and Sevens rugby.
• The International Monetary Forum's World Economic Outlook ranks us in the top 10% of counties in respect of Real GDP Growth Projections for 2010.
• In the Economist Intelligence Unit's Survey of Democratic Freedom we rank 31st of of 184 countries.
• South Africa ranks second worldwide in terms of the transparency surrounding its budgets - just behind the United Kingdom, tie with France, and ahead of New Zealand and the United States - according to the Open Budget Index.
• The number of 'dollar millionaires' in South Africa has increased from less than 25,000 in 2004 to over 55,000 in 2007, according to the World Wealth Report
• According to the World Pay Report, South African managers are earning disposable incomes that are higher than those in many developed countries.
• Johannesburg ranks 2nd among countries from Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa in dealing with urbanisation and environmental challenges, in the MasterCard Insights Report on Urbanisation and Environmental Challenges.
• South Africa ranked 44th out of 131 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2007/8.
• South Africa was ranked as the 18th most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment by global strategic management consulting firm AT Kearney. 
• Three South African cities were voted amongst the world's top 100 Most Liveable Cities in a study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Cape Town was ranked in 85th place, Johannesburg 90th and Port Elizabeth 97th.
• Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
• South Africa has been ranked 28th among 108 countries measured for responsible competitiveness, according to the global think tank AccountAbility.
• Johannesburg has been ranked as the eighth cheapest city in the world for expatriates, according to the most recent Cost of Living Standards Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
• South Africa is ranked 20th out of a total of 128 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2007, ahead of many developed nations, including, the United States (31), Switzerland (40), Austria (27) and France (51).
• South Africa ranks 57th out of 157 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom, ahead of Italy (64), Brazil (101), the United Arab Emirates (63), Greece (94th), India (104th) and China (126), according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007
• South Africa is ranked 35th out of 178 countries for ease of doing business - ahead of Spain, Brazil and India - according to Doing Business 2008, a joint publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
• Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory
• South African media ranks 26th out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle East or South America, and ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States.
• The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was the 7th best performing stock market in 2005, according to the World Federation of Exchanges
• Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, D.C.
• In 2005, interest rates were at a 25-year low
• South Africa accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest (Egypt)
• Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
• The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students
• In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to provide full protection status for the Great White shark within its jurisidictional waters. Countries including USA, Australia, Malta and Namibia follwed suit later.
• Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
• According to the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report, South Africa ranks 38th out of 127 countries in terms of ecomomic freedom, tied with France and ahead of Israel, India, Italy, China, Brazil and Russia.
• The rand, the world's most actively traded emerging market currency, has joined an elite club of 16 currencies - the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) - where forex transactions are settled immediately, lowering the risks of transacting across time zones. Standard Bank is the only African bank to be a shareholder partner of CLS.
• The Singita Private Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of travel publication, Conde Nast Traveller
• The South African Rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg's Currency Scorecard
• South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
• Worldaudit.org ranks South Africa as the 40th most democratic country out of 150 nations
• Stellenbosch University was the first university in the world to design and launch a microsatellite
• South Africa is the 35th best place in the world to do e-business, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 E-Readiness Report.
• South Africa is the best-ranked country in terms of price stability, our fiscal policy is ranked 11th, our international trade competitiveness 21st, and we are the 28th most-attractive destination for foreign direct investment, according to the World Competiveness Yearbook 2005
• South African business owners of mid-size companies are the second most optimistic worldwide about their economic prospects of the year ahead, according to the annual Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey for 2005.
• South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
• The value of South African real estate improved by 30% over the past 5 years
• Tax revenue in SA has increased by 220% over the past 10 years
• In 2005, 10 million South Africans benefited from access to social grants
• The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 116% since 1994
• Over the past 5 years, Consumer Confidence in SA has improved by 43%.
• In the global measure of women in Parliament, South Africa ranks 8th in the world.
• Of the 10 LSM levels ( LSM1=poorest; LSM10 wealthiest ), the average SA family located in LSM6
•  Source  :     South Africa: The Good News www.sagoodnews.co.za  Full list available on their website