It was hard to argue against Milton Friedman when times were good, but now that the middle class is suffering (not to mention the poor but the poor always were and always will be poor & miserable), many people are starting to take another look at trickle-down economics.

Man is greedy and will always look out for his or her own interest before anyone else’s; Milton Friedman understood this very human trait only too well and developed a theory around it which won him a Nobel Prize for economics. “Greed is good…” Gordon Gekko, the fictional inside trader tycoon from the 1987 film ‘Wall Street’ said, echoing Friedman’s philosophy and it is in fact the driving force of a free market system – greed & competition. I agree with 90% of trickledown, free markets, and competition – oh yes, and even that ugly human thing – greed, which we can use for the benefit of society as a whole. Scenario: I do well, I create jobs, the people I hire do well and they create jobs, ad infinitum and then trickle down (I mean gushing down). This makes sense and it truly works, however not always.
I love the free market system and it works like magic when you are selling lampshades, cars, computers, etc. The problem exists down on Wall street; the successful traders or “Masters of the Universe” are just hoarding, buying yachts, and not creating jobs – not to mention derivatives, insider trading and cheating. Rather than Friedman’s theory, I’ve always liked John Maynard Keynes more.  I agree with the late Mr. Friedman in terms of free enterprise; however you MUST have some form of regulation, which is why I and President Obama put more stock into Keynesian economics.

Trickledown that ought to be gushing down if it were executed properly doesn’t always work in real life. When something catastrophic happens, such as the real estate burst, or the dot.com bubble, etc., the government needs to pump money into certain markets and bail out i.e. banks so we can get the well – oiled and finely tuned economic free market system going again – Keynesian economics. Yes, let the private sector do it’s magic but when there’s a recession, we NEED help from the government, a stimulus plan,which is exactly what this administration is doing as well as trying to trim the deficit.

It’s not only Wall Street that caused this mess e.g. I can get into supply and demand, markdowns, surplus, lack of consumer spending, economic cycles, high unemployment, the miserable poor, and a plethora of other economic variables but I just wanted to here in this blog – drive home the point that government spending is not a bad thing and point out that Mr. Friedman’s theory is almost perfect, but not quite.
So, WhaDaYaThink ? What do you Think? What are your thoughts on Keynesian economics or do you still hold on to the tenets of Milton Friedman?

I have said over and over again, should Romney and Ryan win and turn around this absolutely awful economy, I will change party affiliations (except on social issues). It would require divine intervention to turn the worst recession (if that’s what you want to call it) since 1929 to the heydays of the Clinton years in just 4 years. I know that George W. Bush isn’t the only culprit (he’s not smart enough to ruin this great country single-handedly), it’s a lot more complicated than that, but W. Bush and his GOP administration are certainly not without blame – and the bottom line is “W” was commander-in-chief when the stuff hit the fan.
I am not a trained economist but I am an informed citizen and after speaking with my buddy (a CPA and finance guru) and reading the New York Times every day, here’s what happened in a nutshell: To start, there are 4 institutions with which we ought to be outraged -1. The Federal Reserve 2. The Treasury 3. The W. Bush administration of course and 4. Congress (then and now). When everyone started buying houses back in the early 2000’s, including people who could not afford to maintain a monthly mortgage payment (Walt, the CPA, said when B*** S**** bought a house back then, he knew there was something rotten in Denmark) it was just a matter of time before the real estate bubble would burst and foreclosures would reach epic proportions – 2006. Two years later, in 2008 the stock market crashed, the banks melted down, there was no more credit, and unemployment soared (on paper up to 10%, but the real #, even now is probably 20% e.g. people with lousy, under-paying jobs, etc.)
I feel the pain and everyone I know feels it too (except for Walt the guru – lol). Just as a matter of conversation, I have a habit of asking in a friendly way “how business is”, and there isn’t a single person or establishment such as retailers, banks, and barber shops (are people cutting their own hair?) who doesn’t sadly say, they’re one creditor away from closing shop. However, what shocks me is, there is an incredibly competent and intelligent man who is trying to get us out of this mess. Granted, it’s still bad but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Even the Republican’s hero, Ronald Reagan, had a disastrous first four years. An administration needs, at the very least 8 years to see improvement, so why would we want to start all over with Romney.
I will conclude this essay by touching on a movie I saw recently called ‘Margin Call’ (loosely based on the fall of Lehman Brothers). We all knew that the good times wouldn’t last and the bubble would burst eventually (congress, Bush, Investment bankers who were for years screaming for less regulation, got it, and then ripped us off) but we all thought it would last just a little longer. GREED is part of the human condition and though Gordon Gekko maintained that greed is good and it’s the soul of capitalism, I think the lesson we ought to come away with is that competitiveness is good, but as the ancient Greeks said, moderation, clear-thinking, and the notion that “this is one planet and we’re all in this together” should resonate.
So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? I don’t have a crystal ball, but one thing I do know is that we have a damn good president now and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather see in the oval office over the next 4 years, than Barack Obama.

This is an honest blog about how money is earned blogging. If the only reason you started blogging was to make a lot of money quickly and easily I must sadly inform you that blogging is not for you. 99.99% of bloggers do not make money but then again they are not producing very good blogs. I am going to say this now and repeat it because it is the truth and the only thing that works is – content. Content is everything!
I am 6 months into my blogging career and I can now honestly say that no I am not raking in the bucks, however, I am at a point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I will probably never be rich, however one can never tell, and I will make enough money to make a comfortable middle class living. Though I am not The Pioneer woman, (she makes more than a million dollars just blogging and her secret is – Good Content. It is a Suzy Homemaker blog and it is not for me but I admire the aesthetically pleasing site and the quality of the content that is accessible, fun, and rife with information. ) yet, within 2 years I should be making half of what she makes.
This is my first blog about how I make money off blogging but there is a certain percentage of individuals who do nothing but give very often bogus advice, tease you with bits of informational profit-garnering techniques, and then ask you to purchase their secrets to success. Stay away from those people –please do not waste your money on these bogus “secrets”. All the information you need to know to get going is free, the only expenditures will be the products you need to run your blog, marketing and key word search, etc. The beauty of blogging is the start-up cost is minimal and if you do everything correctly your first year investment should be no more than $1,500.00. (I have made all the mistakes an individual can possibly make and already spent around $5,000.00. I will tell you about my mistakes and how to avoid them.) So steer clear of so called “blogging gurus” who take your money and give you nothing you couldn’t find on the internet here or anywhere on the web for nothing. THERE ARE NO SECRETS – only blogs with good content.
I cannot emphasize how important it is that you begin blogging for the right reasons. I started blogging because I love to write. I went to school for journalism and unfortunately spent 25 years of my professional career doing everything but Journalism. I was a recruiter or “headhunter” for many of those years and I loathed it! Now I look back and seeing the success I am having has a professional full time blogger, I regret not having persevered in the field I love so dearly – writing. So if I won the lottery or inherited a large sum of money, I would continue to blog every day. This truly is a dream come true and I consider myself unspeakably fortunate.
Let’s get started – Choose a niche
I made a mistake right from the get-go by one, not picking a niche and secondly which is what one has to do to after a niche is found is pick a domain name. I went 0 for 2. I am managing to eke out a living because the content (there is the only secret word again – content) of this blog is so good, otherwise I probably would not have earned a nickel. I know it is possible to do what I am attempting to do, which is cover everything under the sun, the very successful Huffington Post does just that. However this blog -whadawethink.com is a husband and wife team and Arianna Huffington, the creator of Huffington Post ,had millions of dollars in the beginning to play with and 7000 writers to boot. So yes, in this case Ms. Huffington’s creation is the result of having so much money and the solution to good content and marketing is to simply cut a check and hire great writers and guest writers in addition to 70 + employees to market her blog. The Huffington Post truly is an original online newspaper. This blog is for you and I; the average person who is starting an online business with just a couple of thousand dollars tops to start.
I have at least 3 more blogs that I’m preparing to launch very soon which are yes, one all have very specific niches and two, have a domain name that is apropos. The first is called grammarmarks.com, which covers all aspects of grammar, and style, I will be checking all types of correspondence for grammatical mistakes and corrections, and I will be putting my recruiting business to work by cleaning up people’s resumes. Furthermore, my wife has come up with a niche and great domain herself -teainthetureet.com and just as the name suggests this a very specific niche on tea and one can surmise what the blog is about by the title. The way to get a good niche is just google it and if 100’s of millions of entries pop up, the niche is not tight enough. One would like to get under the 10 million mark and even less for example the number for grammar checking is 2.2 million. You may still say wow, that is a big number, but the reality is the World Wide Web is a sprawling and prodigious entity and over 2 billion people use the internet. The number is simply awesome and staggering.
I will mention some products that I do not personally use but I will vouch for them because keep in mind there is not a product here that I have not tried or some successful blogging colleague hasn’t.
Market Samurai (as you can see I don’t use hyperlinks – this is a matter of choice. I don’t want people leaving my site so I am hopeful that you read my blogs and then seek out whatever it may be afterwards.) is the best in terms of assisting you in terms of selecting a niche. This tool will help you out with keyword selection to drive traffic to your site, SEO competition, rank tracker, monetization, can manage your content and so much more. A friend of mine stated that the product doubled his profits.
Purchasing your domain name and choosing a host
There are a number of hosts (mistake #3 for me. I chose 1and1 and they don’t compare to Host Gator, which is the best – trust me on this one.) In addition, I use Host Gator, the platform I use is WordPress; everyone uses it and for good reason it is great, and it is free. There is no other successful person who uses anything else.
The next step is personalizing your blog. No one is going to stay with the generic features wordpress provides so you can invest in some software like Semiologic-Wordpress or invest in a Web Designer – a good one who is ethical. In terms of finding a good Web Designer, referrals are the only way. I have an honest, talented, ethical and affordable Web Designer and perhaps the second reason whadawethink.com is successful is because it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I had done so many things wrong and the site, in my opinion is so attractive, I’m certain there are people who come just for the design alone.
More than one blog
Yes, get out as many blogs as you can handle. I know people who have 20 or more sites.
SEO Optimization
I paid an SEO Optimization company to set me up with all the major search engines. I highly recommend that everyone do this, it’s an additional investment, but it’s necessary. What I would not suggest you do is sign up for the any of their marketing campaigns. I’m in the middle of a campaign that I wasted $800 on and I will not mention the company because who knows, maybe whadawethink.com will pick up dramatically. There was another company I used for marketing and I got hit with nothing but spam. Essentially what they did was throw their clients my way and who had no interest in whadawethink.com but they wanted to use my web-site as a platform for all the links I was getting because the site was so popular. This comes to a product I highly recommend once your blog starts moving along called Askimet, which is a spam blocker and works perfectly.
Content , Content and more Content
Have great content. This blog could literally be those 3 words – provide great content. Writing well, being witty, researching everything you write. Take time to respond to the people who follow you, provide information, but make it fun to read. One could be the greatest writer in the world but if it is dry – well then it may be too scholarly. You really do not want to write scholarly on a blog. If someone is writing a book, blogs are not considered legitimate sources. But if the information is correct every time then many individuals may check your blog first and then proceed from there. That’s what I do with Wikipedia; it’s accurate 99.9% of the time but if I want to be certain I start there and double check at another source. Why? Because I am used to it, it is fun, easy and accessible.
Marketing your Blog
One can pay for it or do it yourself and doing it yourself is a lot of hard work. It is sad but some of the greatest material ever written goes unread because it was not promoted properly. I actually blogged about it. Some of my best blogs have gone unread because the topic was trending and therefore too competitive for the search engines to pick up. My advice is to write what you want. Again, if you are writing just for keywords then your job becomes a drag. Remember content and you will be found.
Use Amazon.com
There are so many ways to make money if you have good Content and you build a following. I only use Amazon .com because it has everything and I do not want my blog to be cluttered. But it’s up to you – Google adsense which has often been called google welfare. No one gets rich on adsense – no one ! Pick an affiliate and go with it – I will stick with Amazon.

I hope you enjoy the site. Have fun and keep coming back.

Capitalism and the free market system has always been unfair in terms of how much money an entertainer makes compared to i.e. what a neuroscientist  makes. Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin made more money than people who worked at NASA or even the president of the United States back in the 1970s.
Forbes just released their annual top 100 entertainers list ranked in terms of how much money he or she made in 2010 and it is not pretty. Warning: Before reading this, I highly recommend that whether you are an unemployed or a barely- eking- out- a -living Doctor, Surgeon, computer programmer, CPA, Lawyer, scientist, Investment Banker or any other hard working gifted professional in this dreadful economy; please stay away from sharp objects, rope (even a tie), heavy machinery, tall buildings, benzodiazepines or any other object with which one can seriously injure or kill oneself. That includes any other substance which if ingested in large amounts can also result in death.
Lady Gaga passed up Oprah Winfrey and made more money than any entertainer made last year. She made a cool 90 million dollars touring plus tens of millions of dollars associated with advertising on the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In addition to which, Lady Gaga has a whole storage room of gadgetry including personalized make-up products, monster headphones, virgin mobile phones she features in her videos, her platform shoes and on and on and on. Bottom line she has made more than 300 million dollars in 2010.
The list is top 100 but I will just cover the top 10.
#2 – Oprah Winfrey made 290 million bucks, so she was just beat by Lady Gaga by a mere 10 million bucks.
#3- Justin Bieber – again like Lady Gaga he actually made $53 million with his music but it was the other endorsements that put him into the 200 million + category. That youngster with all that money because he sings okay and he’s cute. (But aren’t there another 100 million or so boys that are cute too.)
#4 – U2 – $195 million. I don’t like U2 but I do admire their staying power and drive.
#5 – Elton John –150+ million. Hey he’s better than Liberace ever was and he’s been around forever.
#6 – Tiger Woods – The greatest golfer to ever play the game. He’s making a comeback.
#7 – Taylor Swift – I don’t like her music.
#8 – Bon Jovi – 125 million in 2010. This guy is a no talent if there ever was one. He can’t sing, doesn’t play an instrument and he initially made it because of his extraordinary good looks and he’s still around because he’s still good-looking. Bon-Jovi’s music “sucks” big time.
#9 – Simon Cowell – $90 million dollars for Simon Cowell ???????????????????????? That insipid, unfunny, no-talented English guy from that awful show American Idol. Wow – what a world we live in – only in America – right Don King !!
10. Lebron James – $48 million dollars. He’s the only guy I’m happy for. I mean I certainly think he’s overpaid, I don’t think a basketball player should make more than a college professor but he’s super-talented and I’m happy to see a kid from the projects make some serious money. I remember right before he turned pro, there was all this controversy because he accepted a little bit of money when he was in high school by his people. It was only a few thousand dollars for t-shirts. I remember thinking to myself – ‘Don’t mess it up Lebron – just wait it out and you will be richer than you could ever imagine. “
Well there you go – the world is falling apart and Lady Gaga is making $300 million dollars. In my opinion she’s dumber than a box of rocks, she’s mediocre as a performer and is rich because her handlers marketed her right. ONLY IN AMERICA !!!!!!
Now it’s your turn WHADAWETHINK ? Are you angry or do you think these celebrities deserve this much $$. At least Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin was an awesome guitar player. The Beatles were talented and released some of the greatest songs ever made.

Hover over the widget, click, and shop away. Make me as rich as Lady Gaga (only kidding). I get such a small percentage that you would have to buy out Anazon from my widget hahaaahah. Buy what you can. It’s all about having fun.

How would you like to put in 20 years of service, retire at the age of forty and afterwards enjoy a comfortable middle –class lifestyle. Sounds wonderful to me – how about you?
Well if you are interested in becoming a police officer or perhaps choosing to be a firefighter as an occupation, the aforementioned is a reality.
This is not an Op-ed blog about how cops and firemen have it “made” (they put their life on the line day in and day out), it is rather about the fact that we must take a closer look at to whom and when the government administers pensions and how much.
This country, the United States of America, is a debtor nation, has a 14.2 trillion deficit, and is still in the midst of a crippling economy nationwide. Moreover, to elaborate just a bit, there is not a single industry that is not struggling except for perhaps the medical bad debt collection business.
The private sector has always been a little envious of people who retire early and enjoy perhaps 40 years of fishing and golfing as opposed to 15 years (that’s if at the age of 65 one is healthy enough to enjoy these activities – sorry for the cynicism) but now more than ever it is time to look at this prodigiously unjust public pension system. The question is what to do and how?  Obviously, it would not be fair to eliminate payment to those of whom who are already collecting a pension.  Additionally, slashing into the amount of money paid out to existing recipients is not equitable either.
Firstly, if everyone is expected to work until at least to the age of 65, why should government employees be exempt from this? I understand occupations, which require one to be agile and physically fit (like cops and firefighters) but certainly it is conceivable for an individual to be transferred to another area – perhaps administrative.  Keep in mind we are also living longer, so these public pension recipients are on the government dole for a longer period.
Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I am certainly not a republican. (Anyone who even mentions the thought of touching pensions or going after unions is immediately thought of as a right wing conservative) I am merely suggesting that we take a closer look at the public pension system and perhaps we can tighten it up a bit. We are in a position in which China is going to surpass us as the #1 superpower at least economically. We all have to sacrifice.
Now it’s your turn WHADAWETHINK ? Do you have a pension? It would be nice if we could all retire at 40 but we obviously can’t.  We are all living longer and 65 is more like 55 a half century ago. Just think – Ronald Reagan was 69 years old when he took the oath and agreed to take on easily the hardest and the most important job in the world.
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It is impossible to fathom such a number but it is in fact the real number – our deficit is 14.2 trillion dollars. I have been reading in the papers about a possible shutdown of the Federal government if republicans and democrats do not agree on this 38 billion dollar budget, which in reality for this year should be 3.5 trillion. We are fighting and clawing away about a budget that does not even come close to what we ought to cut. Are we in serious trouble? Can we go on and on being a debtor nation?

Well for one thing, most individuals are in debt – 80% of us in fact. We are talking about mortgages, car loans, student loans, new business startups , credit card debt everything. We are a nation not of individuals working hard and pursuing the American dream but rather a country of individuals who are seriously in debt because we feel entitled to everything NOW without, I would not say not working for it but rather people unwilling to wait and work for it over many years. Moreover, credit card debt is not very far from borrowing from a lending institution whose employees have last names ending in a vowel. ( every other loan or debt is understandable) I am part of this debtor nation and I am no angel; I want that flat screen TV and I want it now. My personal reason is that I could be dead tomorrow so live for today – memento mori! If I had a crystal ball and knew I would live another decade or two for sure, I would handle my finances differently.

I know what happens to us individuals if we continually go into debt and end up losing what used to be a more stable thing called our job and cannot find another real soon. We end up on skid row – if you are lucky perhaps you can move in with a friend or loved one until you land on your feet or you end up homeless. However, what happens to our country?

Cicero 106-43 B.C. said “The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.” You do not need a degree in finance to know that the country is spending more than it has and just like individuals we are working just to pay off the interest on debt and so is the country. The national debt is increasing at an alarmingly fast rate of 75 million dollars an hour – wow!

But before you move to another country, bear in mind, the United States has had debt since its inception – of course, we needed funding for the Revolutionary war and the last time the national debt was at zero was when Andrew Jackson was president. We subsequently had several surpluses and deficits (during war for obvious reason deficit increases) then came the Great Depression of 1929. World War II and F.D.R.’s New Deal caused a sixteen-fold increase in debt but we survived, won the war, and enjoyed great economic prosperity afterwards. F.D.R.‘s legacy stands as one of the greatest presidents ever for democrats and the absolute worst president for republicans. (The GOP thinks the Federal government is inept, inefficient, prone to fraud, wasteful and a whole bunch of other derogatory invective.)The biggest jump in terms of dollars came from the Republican George W. Bush who increased the gap by 6 Trillion dollars. With the two wars still going on and the Middle East fiasco and again all that interest, Obama, unless we seriously try to cut spending, will be neck and neck with Bush.

I’ve spilled enough ink and now it’s your turn. I was going to have a part 2 and talk about the repercussions of such a prodigious deficit but I think I will open this up now. All of you economic and financial wizards please contribute and let us know what is going to happen to our nation if we don’t stop spending and cutting programs ? Our economy is worse than I have ever seen it, do you think the deficit problem is one of the multitude of reasons we are in this bind ? WHADAWETHINK ?

I hate “selling soap” but obviously it takes money to create quality websites and we hate Ads – so we don’t use Adsense. We currently use one Advertiser – Amazon (thanks to my very talented Web Designer – the Amazon ads are very unobtrusive), so instead of blatantly asking for contributions like Wikipedia does, we ask that you click on the widget shown here and make a purchase from Amazon. You don’t have to buy what is displayed in the ad, but you do have to click onto the Amazon widget here and buy whatever you want. We get a small commission from each sale. And if things  are tight in terms of money that’s OK too. We’re not interested in making money – so  just visit and comment – it’s fun and educational

Donald Trump is in the business of promoting entertainment, Trump entertainment that is. The only redeeming characteristic about Trump is that I believe whatever he does (I do not even know what he does half the time, he has his hands in everything) is just an act. He is privileged with a capital P, knows it, and will admit it. Donald Trump claims he is contemplating running for president. I think it is obvious that he just wants to promote himself and his silly show – the reality show ‘The Apprentice’. Incidentally I have never watched the show and never will so his marketing ploys will not work on me but the ratings are there so people apparently like it.

I spent many hours researching Donald Trump and I must admit there was so much about him I did not know. Let me say this first – he and Paris Hilton are the luckiest human beings on the planet except the former is smart and actually works (it’s not back-breaking blue collar work or the stressful mental exertion on the floor on Wall Street) but his job is marketing. Donald has a magical last name and he is a genius at selling it – Trump.

The real businessman and real estate developer was Donald’s father – Fred Trump. The record shows that Fred Trump was a builder who made hundreds of millions of dollars and anyone who knew Fred would tell you that he was a visionary and real state genius. Therefore, despite attacks and criticism about his son, Donald’s building acumen is not fair. Donald was taught by the best in his very own father. Being the son of a very prosperous man of course afforded Donald to get the finest education a person can get as well – he earned a B.S. in economics and finance from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. I’m sure Donald is a real estate guru and he demonstrated it early on in his professional career but we’re talking about a man who literally feels entitled to everything and refuses to stick with just building.

This is not a bio piece on Donald Trump so I won’t elaborate on his accomplishments and failures but let me just give you a laundry list of what Mr. Trump has ventured into, it is simply unbelievable: Real estate, Beauty Pageants (he’s a grown-up kid in a candy store), Golf courses, Football (he was the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the laughable USFL), hotel and casino, airline, television, publishing, vitamins and nutrition, World Wrestling Entertainment and more.

“The Donald “has by far failed more than he has succeeded and in fact was in debt, in 1994, $900 million personally and $3.5 billion in business. This would have destroyed any other man but Donald because the banks are only too willing to give as much money as he wants because they think he as the Midas touch but it’s his name – Trump.

Donald doesn’t seem to get too upset about his setbacks because to him it seems the world is a big monopoly game. I laughed hardily when Trump said that the rest of the world thinks of the U.S as a joke. What would they think of this country if the silly socialite, “business magnate” became president? Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a serious man, a hugely successful businessman who is most definitely a viable presidential candidate. Donald Trump is a joke but there is nothing to worry about when the appropriate time comes he will drop out of the race and go on being “The Donald.”

We currently use one Advertiser – Amazon , so instead of blatantly asking for contributions like Wikipedia does, we ask that you click on the widget shown here and make a purchase from Amazon. You don’t have to buy what is displayed in the ad, but you do have to click onto the Amazon widget here and buy whatever you want. We get a small commission from each sale. And if things are tight in terms of money that’s OK too. We’re not interested in making money – so just visit and comment – it’s fun and educational

Thank you and we hope you have as much fun with this site, as we do.

‘Working for a Living’ – Huey Lewis

You know what one of the worst things about being an employee for any given company is that you have to work for someone else. (Bob Dylan said it best when he nasally sang – ‘Everybodys’ gotta serve someone’ because the truth of the matter is even entrepreneurs have to be servile and obsequious with one’s customers if he or she is going to be successful; although you are your own boss.) How often do you hear people scream I hate my boss and I wish I had my own business? Ahhh the luxury of no one to report to and of being able to work whenever you please and logging in how many hours your heart desires; furthermore all the hard work and energy that result in profits is for you and your company and no one else. (But you and your company have to pay all the bills keep in mind.)

I have always had an entrepreneurial bone inside of me and always knew that I would ultimately end up someday with a thriving business sooner or later (This is my 3^rd business venture and so far I’ve had my own businesses but I’m still waiting for the success part; I’ve also had numerous other business exploits such as trying to be an inventor to being a sports agent, promoter and many other pursuits which need no further mention.) despite the overwhelming odds at actually being successful (I know success is relative; I don’t need to be Mark Zuckerberg mind you to consider a business enterprise of mine as being a prosperous undertaking.) and the prodigious risk one takes when earnestly pursuing one’s own business.

Some individuals just can’t start a business simply because they have no money to invest. Every business venture requires an investment (even blogging) and enough money to live on until one sees the fruits of one’s labor come to fruition. The rule of thumb is different for every undertaking but your first year one wants to see that money can be had and you really want to just break even. Year two is where you may see some profits (minimal but nevertheless something) and after that it’s just anyone’s guess how big you may get; preserving no matter what, working 7 days a week and then eventually growing big enough to hire staff.

What amazes me is how few people are willing to take the risk; even people who have money;(which the sad truth reveals is really the single most important factor in determining whether or not your business will succeed. Note: see my ‘Rich get Richer and the Poor get Poorer blog’) don’t people want to stand out and set their own mark? Not that I am interested in the following so much, but the reality is unless you have your own business, own law practice, own medical practice, etc. you may reach that upper middle class tier; you may be the  top litigator in a firm but unless you’re a partner , you’re not and will never be wealthy. (I’m happy with middle class, not even upper middle class holds much appeal.) Exceptions to this rule are working for really good companies with stock options. And of course any CEO of a big company earns more money than he or she deserves.

Just to follow up on the last two sentences of my last paragraphs; those great jobs with great companies are not available. Those jobs are taken before they’re even posted. These sexy high paying jobs are held for rich people’s sons, nephews, nieces, daughters and are given to friends of people who have favors to be carried out. (There are exceptions I know that – ‘there are no absolute rules except that there are exceptions to every rule.’ But they are few and far between.

So that’s why I say if you can start your own business? Take a chance; so what if you fail, pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes and try again.  I find the biggest reason people don’t take the plunge is fear. People have no idea about how to begin, most people don’t even know to get incorporated. And the terrible irony is they don’t teach these things at business school; I think that instead of writing a thesis, the universities should require the student to start up a successful business. Throw them to the wolves – the real world. How often do you hear people say ‘I don’t use any of the stuff I learned in school, I learned everything on the job.

Lots of ink spilled on this so now it’s your turn. WHADAWETHINK? Would you want to have your own business? Those of you out there who do have your own business, what are the pros and cons? Do you have more free time running a business or less? Maybe you’re very conservative and love perhaps having the freedom of making a salary, working 9-5, and not having to suffer sleepless nights worrying about whether or not the business will make profit this quarter.

If you like this site and you want to support WHADAWETHINK – click onto the widget shown here and shop at Amazon. Note: Any purchase at all will help WHADAWETHINK, so you don’t have to purchase the exact product displayed in the ad. Thanks and keep coming back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkhX5W7JoWI

‘Money by Pink Floyd’

As anyone can clearly see I have just begun my blogging career. This is my 11^th blog and everything seems to be going smoothly thus far. Within a month my blog will look completely different from a design perspective, with the aid of my Web designer. I had procrastinated for quite some time, despite the urging of those who were aware of my writing talents (I also majored in Journalism but instead of writing I spent my whole professional career as a recruiter or “headhunter”) because I knew before making the great leap, how difficult, risky and challenging the task would be abandoning my career and forging ahead with the slow, snaillike pace of blogging my way to fame or fortune. (Really I just want to earn a living)

I will get to the gist of the blog shortly, but I just want to mention how incredibly difficult, time – consuming and frightening this whole blogging affair is. Firstly, the learning curve is monumental. I thought I would just write and let everything else take care of itself. I’m pretty good at writing but not so good at Marketing and IT. Secondly, I thought that having published some decent blogs, I thought I might just start making some cash by now. (Boy I have a long way to go) Lastly, I wanted to take a look at my competition. I Googled the top blog in terms of traffic and saw that Huffington Post was #1 and to my great surprise I was taken aback at how prodigious and imposing the site is. She must have a staff of hundreds and here I am all by my lonesome doing everything from the actual writing (she has a plethora of writers), marketing and IT.

From there I did some research on Ms. Huffington and discovered that – now brace yourself here’s a shocking revelation – she married someone who had MONEY and a lot of it to boot. Michael Huffington, oil tycoon, exchanged vows with Arianna in 1986 and though admittedly she was a solid, legitimate journalist writing for the National Review and other conservative publications before she met “rich hubby”, her career really didn’t start to take off until she became financially secure. Allow me to interject some gossip – Michael and Arianna remained married for a decade and then divorced. Apparently there were some infidelities especially had by Mr. Harrington (not all affairs were with individuals of the opposite sex), shortly after the divorce he revealed that he was bisexual. (I have some thoughts about bisexuality; either you’re heterosexual or gay, – another blog).

Here is the point of the whole blog. The single best way to get rich and richer is to be rich. I am poor and life, as other financially challenged people will declare, is a ceaselessly upward struggle. (I am very rich in other ways – good friends, family, knowledge, etc) Wouldn’t it be nice to begin my blogging career with a whole staff of writers, Marketing professionals and IT Specialists and bundles of coinage, ensuring I get the best and the brightest. Quality and quantity. Now I am fortunate enough to be not so destitute that I can’t afford a computer & have the financial wherewithal to absorb the minimal expense to start blogging. But ……

Now there are of course exceptions to the rule – there are no absolute rules; the only absolute rule is that there are exceptions to every rule. I will add a 2^nd. Which is The Rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

Now it’s your turn people. WHADAWETHINK ?     I think this is another no-brainer.

P.S. – 2 ways to get rich: 1. come out of the right womb and 2. Marry rich.

If you like this site and you want to support WHADAWETHINK – click onto the widget shown above and shop at Amazon. Note: Any purchase at all will help WHADAWETHINK, so you don’t have to purchase the exact product displayed in the ad. Thanks and keep coming back.