The excuses on both sides of the political divide are simplistic, comical and shameful. They draw solutions from a history, when there was no IPhone, Google, a cure for most disease,  BMW being manufactured in South Carolina or 6 billion people on the planet. So it would seem evident that rummaging through their old bag of tricks and ideologies would not solve the issues of the day. Zachary Karabell post on the “Daily Beast” frames the problem perfectly “The truth, it is becoming clear, is that unemployment is a structural issue, and that the tools being used are based on the wrong analysis and will therefore continue to fall short.” We need to create a radically new model for economic growth in this country and possible for the world. Depending on our government to figure it out for us is risky.

So it is up to us. What is our first step?

There is always something that we didn’t know or  a different culture to understand and diversity provides us with the opportunity to become smarter and wiser. We find that the issues that confront us daily are often resolved outside of our personal comfort zone via communication with people or communities we don’t know well.

Businesses, regardless of their size are seeing the advantages of diversity. Now more than ever, consumers of our products and/or services are coming with a wide range of needs supported by culture, race, gender and geography. We are living in a diverse and global economy and isolation is impossible and unhealthy.

As more and more women join the ranks of executive business leaders, they bring with them their unique understanding of how to build and nourish relationship, the importance of community and their sustainability. Women are leading the way towards a global recovery.

If we are experiencing a global financial crisis, where is the rest of the world?

Maybe what the G7 should do this weekend is to test their ideas on second life, before having a visible conversation with the rest of the world. (China, India, Russia, South Korea, Mexico & Gulf States)

“Something you lost will soon turn up”

Apparently we are in the worst moments of lives, if you are listening to the people attempting to tell us what going on with our economy. There are all kinds of explanations, most contradictory and shaded in innuendo and secrecy . We wonder if they really know what they are talking about. It would help people understand better if they explained that what’s being called “our economy” is no longer ours, it kinda belongs to the rest of the world as well.

“After seven years of nonstop construction, skyrocketing rents and sales prices, and a seemingly endless appetite for luxury housing that transformed gritty and glamorous neighborhoods alike, the credit crisis and the turmoil on Wall Street are bringing New York’s real estate boom to an end.” NY Times by C. Bagli

Based on a recent article in the N.Y. Times, no one is immune. The deal to purchase Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village looked like a no-brain-er at the time, which goes to point out how no ones knows what going to happen. To fund this hopeful growth across the country came via  Sovereign wealth fund our  inflated (dream like) personal wealth.

“You will take a chance in something in the near future”

We don’t have a choice. For once we all agree that we have never been in this situation before. Even with this agreement to purchase 700 billion worth of assets to stave of disaster, we will find ways lay claim to our extremes and will find ourselves bent over a new a different problem some where down the road.

Part of what contributes to this problem is the belief  that there us vs them. There is Wall Street (named after a wall on a street or a prison fence) and Main Street, so generic it can be found anywhere. We divide our selves up into meaningless groups. 

• Liberals vs Conservatives
• Red vs Blue states
• White vs Black
• Young vs Old
• Rich vs Poor
• Democrat vs Republican
• Main Street vs Wall Street
• Legals vs Illegals

These make bitter sound bites but have little or no meaning. If we honestly examine the last 20 year the real division has been about “Work vs No Work”. It’s been “Wall-Main Street” trying to find a ways to survive, manipulating the only product that was available, the imaginable and the invisible. If no one can see it we can make as big as we want.

The first step to better times is to imagine them

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Possibilities .... Source: Hubblesite.org

In Micheal Lewis’ new book “The Big Short”, which is in part about the creation of “Credit Default Swaps” and other Wall Street financial instruments that contributed to the current “World” financial breakdown, there is a quote he uses from Tolstoy which addresses something we talk a lot about in our workshops and trainings.

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already.

But the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already without a shadow of doubt what is laid before him.” Leo Tolstoy

When we are not open to there being an alternative point of view other then the one we are already committed to believing, we then lack the capacity to truly understand what is in front of us.  In Lewis’ book the individuals who knew the least and where not fixed in their thinking on how Wall Street (Historically) worked saw clearly the fallacy of what was occurring. It was like seeing the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. On the other hand the experts, which included senior officials at both the S.E.C. and Federal Reserve, when told of what was happening (that the emperor has no clothes) wouldn’t believe what they were told and allowed the deception to continue for another 4 or 5 years.

In a similar way our beliefs about people or their cultures (race, religion, gender etc.) serves to place a curtain around them, relegating them to the limitation in our minds. Diversity as we teach it, is about our expanding our thinking so that it includes possibilities that we would not see otherwise. The appreciation and understanding of Diversity is not a feel good story, rather is about expanding our vocabulary, our listening so that we can be effective in all aspects of lives,  so that we don’t take on the simplistic view  constructed by our “commitment to being right” about what we think we know.

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How to sell on ebay can be the best thing you ever learned for your business.

Even So, promoting stuff on eBay is becoming harder because of increasing competition, but this kind of auction is still a lucrative business and Profitable Ebay Strategies is a product that will reveal some of the simplest and most gainful methods of making money on eBay. It can’t be denied though, being successful at selling on eBay will require you to roll uo your sleeves.

Your common seller tips will cover lessons on making and submitting listings, using photos, timing, managing your auctions, taking care of payment, transportation, feedback and doing basic customer support. Of prime importance to any merchant is to participate in the self-policing feedback community-building system of Ebay.

Although you can probably have many ideas on what to sell on ebay merely by investigating the online auctions yourself, there are many better ways of finding out what kind of items sell well. Right now, it seems that larger lots of things like toys and childrens clothing sell very well for some reason, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should be selling that as well. You should also be aware that a small insertion fee will be required of you even if your item isn’t actually sold. Likewise there are many other options, like the “Buy it Now” button that cost extra.

You’d be well adviced to get going with an auction with something small for starters. It may be things from your own household, or something you got off at the nearby garage sale. One man’s food is another man’s poison, whatever you deem as useless may be sacred in someone elese’s eyes. Start off with objects that you can sell profitable, otherwise you will repeatedly find yourself asking:”Is it worth it?”.

As the threshold to get started is so low, many people get started with ebay entirely on their own. This is not an impossible task, but you risk wasting a lot of time and money. Regardless of your ambitions for your online auctions, you need to be armed with the right kind of information in order to succeed.

Here are also some thoughts on why Ebay may help you with getting through the economical rough patch ahead.

In watching the events of the last few months it becomes clear that the way we have been looking at the economy, circa 1970-80, is not at all relevant. This is not your “Father’s Stock Market”. Even Ben Stein did not see this coming. In some my earlier posts, I’ve marveled at the speed in which events occur and the pressure put on us to make fast and hopefully, accurate decisions. Like in sports the speed of the game has changed the game. As much as we would like to think the old timers, while good in their day, would not match up real well against our modern day athletes. So why would would think 1970-80 economics would stack up against today’s economic issues?