I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Click the link below to listen and download the podcast. Leave your comments below, enjoy!
http://epodcastnetwork.com/your-unique-selling-point-with-michael-hamlett-jr/
In the line of consulting work, the pitching process is arguably the most important. Love it or hate it, for a business to survive, you must be good at pitching, pricing and packaging your ideas into an attractive bundle. But even after you spend hours crafting a proposal and researching the most innovative ideas to prove your value to potential clients – this is only half the battle.
Let me get this straight. In 2008, funds trying to squeeze out another basis point or two thought they were being conservative buying insurance on heavily leveraged portfolios of sub prime loans and other debt. Once those loans started to default, it created a cascading deleveraging event which lead to major financial institutions failing and the "smartest" minds on Wall Street being forced to dump everything to raise cash, which in turn lead to a crisis of confidence and deleveraging that created the worst week in the history of the stock markets.
For most people, a job interview is something you have to do only periodically throughout your career. It’s that nerve wracking moment where you’re sized up, asked ambiguous questions about your teamwork and professional skills and then ultimately judged as to whether what you’re offering is worth hiring. Even if you’re fortunate enough to snag the job, there’s yet another challenge of settling in to a new environment, building a relationship with your boss and being seen as the “new guy” on the team for quite a while.
This is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today:
Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn't it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn't afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and…
We, as human beings, are delusional creatures. We think we are logical creatures, when we are actually driven first by our emotions, then use logic to support our emotional decisions. Some people are more delusional than others, and try their absolute best to convince others to agree with their delusions. I call these people “socialist”, and I pity them for being infected with such a horrible and delusional ideology.
It’s not that I don’t want everyone to be prosperous, or that I don’t want people to have access to certain things. The problem is the execution of getting these services, products, etc. to the masses. Also, socialists fail to accept a couple of truths about reality. One is: unfortunately, no matter how much effort and planning and execution, not everyone is going to be wealthy or rich. The reason is, which is something socialists do not wish to accept, is that poverty is a mindset that cannot be improved by throwing money at the problem.
Wealth redistribution will never ever work, because people who do not know how to handle money will never be able to handle money unless you teach them first. Many lottery winners actually end up in an even worse financial state a couple of years after they are given a large sum of money. This is because they don’t know what to do with the money once they get it. Many Robin Hood socialist call for equality of finances and scoff at the “greed” and spending of the rich.
First off all, you have no right to tell people what to do and not do with their money, period. They’ve earned it and can spend it on a gold plated toilet if that makes them happy. Next, if all the money in the world were collected and redistributed evenly to everyone, in a matter of 5-10 years we will be back to where we started. Why is that the case? It is because a real estate investor given $100,000 will have doubled or even tripled his net worth in 2-3 years compared to a person who has no idea how to invest his money and will end up with no money within the first 6 months. One KNOWS what to do with money, the other has no idea how to invest his money so it can grow.
Some people simply do not have the mindset to handle money, so it would actually be detrimental to them to give them something they cannot handle. We don’t put twelve year olds behind the wheels of sports cars for a reason. What needs to happen is a mental shift for those who do not know how to handle money. They should first be taught how to handle and manage money before being given a lump sum. Unfortunately, this kind of money management skills are not taught in schools unless you are a finance major in college. Fortunately, this information is accessible in book and on the Internet, people are just unwilling to read and learn.
Some socialists foolishly preach that everyone isn’t given the opportunity to be prosperous. I live in NYC, and there are so many FREE services provided that teach people about business, seminars for developing websites/graphic design, and non-profit organizations that are interested in teaching people skills that would enable them to support themselves financially. The problem isn’t that people don’t have opportunities, the problem is people are lazy. People don’t take advantage of the opportunities given to them.
On paper, socialism looks like a no brainier when compared to capitalism, but it’s just a fluffy fairy tale. Socialism fails every single time it is put into practice, and it’s because humans naturally do not want to make the effort to progress especially if the government is not giving them an incentive to do so. There are opportunities for everyone, the problem is that people do not want to work to obtain the opportunities, or work after they find an opportunity.
The rich and wealthy got to the positions they are in because they worked, not because they accepted hand outs. They didn’t make excuses, they just did everything they had to do to become successful.
Also, many socialist call for the government to provide goods and services to the poor. Whether we want to accept it or not, governments can be ineffective and inefficient at providing goods and services. The reason why Europe is in such a financial crisis is because of their socialist policies. When you continue to hand out services to people, the people feel as if they deserve the services. After the government foolishly spends money and becomes bankrupt, they can no longer provide those services. That’s when the people who felt as if they “deserved” the services provided start rioting.
Businesses, however, provide products and services people actually want to have, so they don’t go bankrupt. If they do, it’s because they failed to deliver what the people wanted. Businesses, whether for profit or not, are more efficient and effective and providing for the people than the government. If they didn’t, they simply wouldn’t exist anymore.
Socialists also peg the rich as being greedy and selfish people. I don’t know any poor people with a charity or non profit organization that helps other poor people. Whether you want to argue they do these things for tax purposes or not, the fact is that the rich and wealthy give billions and billions of dollars to charity. I can’t say more than their socialist counterparts, but I do know that billions of dollars are given to charities by capitalists, and these charities help those less fortunate.
Socialism is an infection spread by delusional ideologists. It’s time to stop creating theories to help the poor, and instead create businesses that can help them.
3 Important Tips to Eliminate Student Debt
If you are a student and are in debt, you must take necessary measures to become debt free. By nature students are less mature and soft targets for lenders. In order to expand their business rapidly, creditors are issuing credit cards to the students without judging their repayment capacity. In the same way, lenders are also offering loans to the students. The burden of these debts sometimes becomes so heavy that your life becomes miserable and it negatively affects your studies. Given all this, it is recommended that you, as a student, must follow certain financial tips to become debt free.
Calculate how much you owe
First of all, you need to keep your cool, and calculate the total debt that you owe to different creditors. You should also have clear ideas about the types of loans, such as federal and private, that you have taken out. If you are indeed facing problems in paying off the debt, you can think of opting for a special program, such as taking out a consolidation loan.
Behave like an adult
Money that you receive from your parents or through loans should be used in the best possible way so that you can complete your education smoothly. It is not wise to engage in spendthrift activities. Try to share your room with roommates, try to prepare your own food, reduce the number of times you order take-out with your friends. All these will help you a lot to save some money on a regular basis.
Avoid debt
If you have already fallen into debt, make sure that you do not fall into debt again. If you take out a new debt when you are already in debt, the outcome could indeed be very dangerous. You can open a saving account in your name and can set up an automatic transfer of the monthly debt amount from your saving account. This will help you avoid default and finally become debt free.
