A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: The Fine Print

The Fine Print

by Adam J. Kovitz

"Education is what you get when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't."

- Pete Seeger

I once was about to do business with an honest business man that I respected.  I had a service that they wanted and they felt comfortable enough buying it from me.  When I asked him about putting together an engagement contract/agreement, he looked me directly and said, "Please just make it simple; expectations of both sides only.  Remember, we can screw each other over in less words than through pages upon pages of fine print."

This has stayed with me through the years...this thought of fine print and how such fine print also justifies many folks jobs.

When we think of the words "fine print", though, there tends to be a certain stigma attached:

1.)  There's a "catch" hidden in them somewhere

2.)  Typically the "catch" is a means of separating fools (hopefully not us) from their money (hopefully not ours)

3.)  Said "catch" is penned by lawyers who are out to get us while helping their clients.

Many of us, when faced with fine print, usually ignore it and move on to where we just sign.  Case in point:  online software licences.  When was the last time you read through the terms and conditions of your Facebook account, auto insurance policy or mortgage contract?

Speaking of mortgage contracts, this past week in the U.S., three major mortgage banks announced that they will be halting foreclosures on homes for a few months.

Why?

The banks admittedly failed to properly fill out their own paperwork properly and furthermore, signed off on such documentation without reading their own fine print!

I've found that there are some businesses that thrive upon keeping things as simple as possible when it comes to such issues but there are other business models that can only succeed through employing such tactics as complexity, confusion and fine print.

During this global economic crisis, do we really need the fine print?  With so many systems that we use that are just broken, isn't it time to challenge and or eradicate the fine print?

Would the world be a better place or more confusing yet?

I welcome your opinions on this manner.

Until next week...all my best,

Adam

www.TNNWC.com
http://adamjkovitz.blogspot.com

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A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: The Fine Print

BECAUSE I CAN: Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, Part 2

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”

- Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) (1904 - 1991)

In Part 1 of Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, I presented the notion that sustainability relies upon two seemingly paradoxical ideas:

1.) Learning to distinguish between elements of reality and fantasy, and

2.) Blurring the lines between the two.

I focused on the first idea of learning to distinguish between the “worlds” of reality and fantasy and presented the following diagram to illustrate a few points:

The first point is that we as individuals serve as a gateway between these two worlds and our minds are where they meet. Secondly, the world of fantasy is limitless and cannot be changed (or like a planet’s gravity it holds too much relative influence for us to change). Thirdly, our minds act as a filter and allow us to perceive reality while “channeling” fantasy. Fourthly, for us to change our reality (which I argue is desperately in need of changing), we must change our minds. Lastly, mistakenly viewing reality as immutable can lead to higher levels of escapism, introspection, distress, depression, defiance and a host of other “flight or fight responses”.

In Part 2, I would like to concentrate upon the many ways we have found to positively blur the lines between reality and fantasy and make them work for us. Why?

Because I can.

Why “Sustainability”?

I think it’s important to first clarify what I mean by “sustainability”, because I think this word is misunderstood and overused. As of late, the word “sustainability” has come to mean having to do with the environment, especially when it comes to the generation of power and/or pollution. Webster’s defines sustainability as “to keep up or keep going, as an action or process”. I look at sustainability in the context of the furtherance in the evolution of the human race.

Before the human race first appeared on this planet, the various flora and fauna evolved using what Darwin called “survival of the fittest”. Early humans lived by these means as well in a competitive environment where every species had to fight for survival. Over time, however, humans developed the ability of higher-brain functionality, allowing us to tap into realms of fantasy to improve our standing in the food chain. It allowed us to innovate and develop tools, weapons, societies, means of transportation, scientific breakthroughs and the arts. Beyond competition, we found that if we agreed to work together, we could accomplish more cooperatively and earn our places at the top of the food chain.

But with our new understanding and dominance of the planet, we have hit a plateau. We have won the contest through cooperative means yet there are still the old signs of competition everywhere; sometimes friendly, sometimes not. The professional sports industry thrives upon “healthy” competition and what we deem to be rules of “sportsmanship”. Our economy also thrives upon what we like to think is “healthy” competition, but in light of our recent global economic crisis, we have seen signs of humanity turning on itself through greed and abuses of power.

If we begin to step back and look at the “unreality” of the “reality” we have created we might see that if we took the sum of all debt in this world in relation to all the potential earnings of the world, our global economies are in the red without any means of ever paying it back. With this in mind, we should realize that the system we created is not sustainable and will only continue to cause humanity to eat itself alive. We even have historical precedence of such a thing happening: the Rapanui people of Easter Island, the Mayans of Central America, the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Mali & Songhai of Western Africa.

The “Beauty Part”

While we have historical precedent of humanity wiping itself out, we also have precedent of utilizing elements of fantasy, through innovative means to solve real-world problems. Here are just a few examples:

Strategic & Goal Planning

Any successful organization must have an idea of where it’s going and how it’s going to get there. A strategic plan with subsequent supporting goals provides the roadmap by which the organization gets from Point A to Point B. Most experts will tell you that starting out in such a process requires a certain time set aside for visioning and dreaming (fantasy) outside of the normal flow of day-to-day business. Once we determine the direction, we begin identifying all the obstacles and risks (reality) associated with causing our plans to fail. Knowing the obstacles and risks, we can then derive solutions to overcome them (fantasy) and subsequent goals and action steps (reality).

The Internet

There is no doubt that the Internet is one of humankind’s most significant achievements. What started out as a military project has blossomed into a virtual world (fantasy) unto itself that has allowed us to bridge long distances over short periods of time to reconnect with long-lost friends and colleagues (reality), keep in touch with family overseas (reality), develop commerce (reality), promote ourselves (reality), our products and our services (reality), develop new business models (reality) and collaborate (reality). Unlike the real world of real estate which is experiencing its own challenges at the moment, real estate on the internet is relatively cheap. Anyone can establish their own presence and be who they choose (for better or worse). And while most social media organizations have yet to monetize the operations, social media remains the largest draw to the internet today.

Credit

Sure…credit markets are tight now and they, along with other debt-based financing tools are what got us into our global economic crisis to begin with, but there is something extremely useful to getting what we want now (reality) by utilizing a scheme of imaginary credit (backed by real and sometimes, imaginary money) and a repayment scheme (reality) when we lack the real money we need.

CAD/CAE/CAM

When we want to present a new product idea, we must present a proof-of-concept or prototype. In the old days this was costly as one would have to construct the product first to see if it worked as planned, which took time and considerable expense. In today’s world, we can utilize computer-aided drawing/computer-aided engineering and computer-aided manufacturing to create a virtual drawing board (fantasy) to which we apply the known laws of the physical universe (reality) to test and refine it. Once satisfied with the result, we can bring it forth into reality.

Virtualization

To support a virtual world of collaboration, innovation, commerce, etc., we need to support such an ecosystem with real hardware. Unfortunately, real hardware like servers, routers and switches rely upon an increasing a mount of physical space, controlled environments and power consumption, which is all costly (in real money). Current trends in computing show a movement towards virtualization through such products as VMWare’s VSphere and Microsoft’s Hyper-V which allow for the reduction in the number of servers via software tools. Cisco’s relatively recent release of Data Center products focus on ways of not only creating virtual machines, but also virtual disk space as well as virtual memory when needed.

My Conclusion

I believe that we are now standing at the crossroads of humanity, and have only two options: change or die. As a parent of three children, I choose the former.

To do this, I feel that there are several metrics that have not been established into the mainstream that would allow us to better monitor our progress towards sustainability. The first of which I mentioned in Part 1 of this series: hours spend doing escapist activities. This measures an organization’s (company, government, network) ability to truly get buy-in for their various initiatives. A high figure is an indicator that the current direction does not benefit all constituents, the environment for supporting innovation and creativity is lacking or the rules/policies may be to constrictive and controlling. A low figure indicates that most constituents agree with the direction, innovation and creativity is supported and there is less need for controls as all constituents do not need to be forced into compliance. I do believe that this indicator can be too low and that there is an acceptable operating level that would need to be established under empirical studies.

Another metric that I have mentioned in the past is Relationship Capital which is based upon individual perception of all members of a network (see January, 2009’s Relationship Capital in the Workplace for more on this subject). As the saying goes, “perception is reality” therefore I believe this metric can also be used as an indicator.

There are still another missing piece of the puzzle not answered here, such as knowing when an organization (or an individual) is too lopsided in either reality or fantasy to ensure its own sustainability. I have developed another tool called Wingspan^TM which I plan to introduce in a future article which addresses this.

I believe that with such metrics in place as well as fostering an environment of open-mindedness, where we replace the negative connotations of “idealistic”, “pie-in-the-sky”, “not based in reality” and “airy-fairy” to describe ideas and worse yet, people with “visionary”, “innovative” and “creative”, we can all make a positive move towards sustainability. Why?

Because we can, and more importantly, because we must.

Adam J. Kovitz is the Chairman & Founder of The National Networker Group of Companies, which publish The National Networker, provide member services and consulting as well as branding and social media domination.

Hire Adam to speak at your next conference by emailing info@thenationalnetworker.com.

Follow Adam on Twitter!

The Emergence of the Relationship Economy

Relationship Capital is the cornerstone of the Relationship Economy, which RNIA defines as “a measurement assigned to individual and organizational entities based on the relationship interactions between them, and the interactions they have internally.” I am proud to have contributed discussion of the Ten Laws of Relationships Capital to The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, now out as an eBook and in hardcopy. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is being considered a “must read” for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy of The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, please click here.

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies
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BECAUSE I CAN: Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, Part 2

BECAUSE I CAN: Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, Part 1

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.”

- Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

In December as the weather gets colder (especially for us in the Northern Hemisphere) and the year winds down, there is the tendency to get somewhat introspective. Aside from the regular balancing act of getting into the “Holiday Spirit” whilst managing year-end business activities, this year many of us in the U.S. and abroad are faced with the harsh economic realities of the “noble experiment” of a U.S. democratic/capitalistic society gone out of control.

Despite efforts of the Obama Administration to curtail this crisis, the U.S. faces the highest unemployment rate in 26 years (over ten percent). This, in turn, is feeding into a major housing crisis with millions loosing their homes. Furthermore, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue and are even escalating. Of course we cannot forget the attempts to reform the multi-billion dollar medical industry, of which debate still continues in the Senate. And of course economic crisis isn’t just happening in the U.S., but the rest of the world – just take a look at recent events in Dubai, as well as changing climate conditions.

So who, in the long term, will be paying for all of this? Taxpayers like you and me and our children, their children, their children…that is, provided we have jobs and homes.

With all of this in mind, it’s hard not to turn inward and/or introspective when those around us wish us “HAPPY HOLIDAYS!” or “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” when many of us are just hoping we don’t give our loved ones the gift of debt this year.

I, myself, wonder at what point do we take a serious look at what aspects of our plans for economic recovery are real and which ones are not? I believe, wholeheartedly, that for the sake of posterity, we must have a serious discussion about reality and fantasy and their impact upon global sustainability.

Why?

Because I can…in fact, I will attempt in this article and in my next to prove two seemingly paradoxical ideas that are key to sustainability:

1. Learning to distinguish between elements of reality and fantasy (this month), and
2. Blurring the lines between the two (next month).

The Distasteful Notion of “Fantasy” in an Adult-oriented World

As adults who deal in important things like running businesses, paying bills and taxes, dealing with contracts, understanding international trade, quantifying risk, overcoming objections, finding alternative sources of energy, swaying public opinion, managing projects, curing contagions, driving through traffic, assessing damages, valuating stocks and financing enterprises we don’t have time for such trifling things like fantasy. Fantasy is usually relegated to either children (where it rightfully belongs), the crunchy granola-types who gather in drum circles around a campfire and sing “Kumba-ya”, “geeks” who read comic books, Walter Mitty-esque folks who don’t have a clue, artists or the red light district world of sex, “marital aids”, fetishes, latex, lace and leather. In short, fantasy is looked down upon and has no basis in real world of business.

In fact, in one of my more recent articles: A World Without Money, Part II, I had the audacity to engage you, our reader in a “flight of fantasy” (I thought I had cleverly disguised it as a hypothetical line of reasoning) and would have gotten away with it if not for a comment from Allan Elder, Instructor at University of California, Irvine and Owner, No Limits Leadership, Inc.:

“This idea is so full of impossibilities it's not worth considering even if we can.”

Thank you, Mr. Elder for setting me straight and proving my point as only the Owner of No Limits Leadership, Inc can.

The Importance of Imagination

For kids, on the other hand, it is perfectly legal (and more importantly, accepted) to discuss such issues as which princess is the prettiest, whether Superman or the Hulk would win in a fight, how many pieces of pizza one can consume at a meal, how much of a jerk the Gym teacher is, which Transformer one wants to be when they grow up and what color should one paint the sky today; green or purple? Kids are even encouraged to use their imagination.

So if we really want to prepare our kids for the real world, shouldn’t we be dissuading such abhorrent behavior?

Not according to WholeFamily.com. According to early childhood specialists and child psychologists, children who are encouraged to use their imagination more are:

1. Better at solving problems
2. Better at dealing with difficult feelings
3. Better at handling stress
4. More creative on average, and
5. More intelligent on average.
   

One of the best examples of this are when, in movies, TV shows or books, when the heroes of the story are struggling to come up with a way out of their toughest dilemma ever and the innocent child archetype comes up with a “so-simple-only-a-child-could-think-of-it” solution.

But what if a child talks about real world issues or offers a real world opinion? Do we write it off as simply “cute”? Do we discount it? Do we consider them too young to have any say?

When Does Childhood End?

At what point, however, does a child graduate into being an adult?

According to some traditions, it’s thirteen. By law in the U.S., it’s eighteen, although gambling and consumption of alcoholic beverages isn’t allowed until twenty-one and renting a car at twenty-five.

Never at any point in my life do I remember any graduation ceremony in which I was told that I could now:

• Be seen and heard
• Talk to strangers
• Bite off more than I can chew
• Stop using my imagination and face reality.

According to popular psychological thought, we have three major elements of our personality that are developed at various stages in our journey through life: the child and the parent are two of them, and often times, at war with each other. The free-thinking, fun-loving “child” loves to explore, emote and imagine in true fantastic form whereas the “parent” is into rules, laws and regulation thrives in the seemingly-real world. The third personality is the “adult” which provides the more rational and logical means of settling the disputes between the other two and provides balance and a truer sense of realism than the parent.

The need for the human mind to sustain itself implies the delicate balance between these two “worlds”. What this implies is that since fantasy is infinite, it cannot be changed as it is limitless, but changing reality through the lens of our mind means changing our mind. This also implies that reality is mutable and perhaps not as real as we think.

One other crucial and applicable point: when “reality” is perceived to be constrained and immutable, the mind changes in ways that lead to introspection, depression, defiance, etc. When these conditions become extreme, the fight or flight response is triggered.

The Upside of Troubling Times

Question: What is the one thing you want to do when you are financially-pressured, stressed and/or depressed?

Answer: Escape

If I had one prediction to make for 2010, it’s that more of the world’s citizens will be looking for ways to escape their current situation. Escapism will be on the rise.

Webster’s Dictionary defines escapism as “the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation, activity, etc.”

Great news for industries specializing in inexpensive entertainment – think of the many ways we escape: sleep, reading, music, games, sports, walking, eating, drinking, hobbies, etc.

According to a study by Deloitte on the entertainment industry in 2009, “the last two times the economy experienced a downturn, movie ticket and DVD sales went up. It is likely that people will continue to indulge themselves in the small pleasures of DVD consumption, interactive game-playing, online entertainment, books, social networking and television while eschewing big-ticket items such as cars, refrigerators and computers.”

Furthermore, a quote found by JP Morgan beverage analyst John Faucher in a 2002 report on DUI.com: Alcohol Consumption and Recession stated that “People are drinking more, because people tend to drink more during tough times,”

My Conclusion

If we truly want to change our collective reality of a global economic crisis, we must ultimately be brave enough to change our collective minds. Ideally, a reset button would be wonderful but would be highly disruptive in ways that might be catastrophic. Of course choosing to do nothing would lead to such a conclusion anyway. One thing is for sure, our current solutions of debt-financing are just ways of prolonging the inevitable.

At what point do we recognize the fantastical elements of our grand designs through diminishing returns, continue to defend them and call them “reality”?

My suggestion is to measure the increase in time (not dollars) spent in escapist activities amongst the population. Certainly, there will always be a “healthy” level as young adults and youthful adults live, but to establish a suitable threshold would be crucial. If more people look to escape as a means of dealing with/avoiding “reality”, then why continue to create it?

Collectively, we have the ability to create a healthy, sustainable reality for ourselves and generations to come. We owe it to ourselves.

Because we can, and more importantly, because we must.

Next month, I will be looking at the ways we have found healthy ways to marry reality and fantasy to achieve sustainability. “See” you then.

Adam J. Kovitz is the Chairman & Founder of The National Networker Group of Companies, which publish The National Networker, provide member services and consulting as well as branding and social media domination.

Hire Adam to speak at your next conference by emailing info@thenationalnetworker.com.

Follow Adam on Twitter!

The Emergence of the Relationship Economy

Relationship Capital is the cornerstone of the Relationship Economy, which RNIA defines as “a measurement assigned to individual and organizational entities based on the relationship interactions between them, and the interactions they have internally.” I am proud to have contributed discussion of the Ten Laws of Relationships Capital to The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, now out as an eBook and in hardcopy. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is being considered a “must read” for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy of The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, please click here.

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies

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BECAUSE I CAN: Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, Part 1

ASIA PACIFIC: Assumptions

by Victor Cattermole

Asia Pacific Bureau Chief

Over the last month I’ve been giving some serious thought to the power and persuasion that a simple assumption has over people. We have all done it, assumed something that turns out to be wrong, chosen not too look closer perhaps because “we know already” or even more likely because we are too busy too care. Three separate incidents have spurred me to question my assumptions though, one small, one big, and one personal.

The small, well perhaps not so small (with over 50 million web views) is the british singer Susan Boyle on Britains got Talent. And in fact many of the performers on shows like that. Ms Boyle is a great example, an amazing voice looked over for so many years because of what, I have no doubt, is a great many assumptions. Because surely no-one with a voice like that simply hides away, and so no-one went to look (until now).

The second is the global crisis we find ourselves in now. Not so much the crisis itself, but the news coming through that we should have seen it coming, that the writing was on the wall and that so many people simple assumed that the world would continue rising. Technically it could be considered ‘business confidence’, which is just a nice way of saying we are willing to assume things are still going to be going well in the future. I have the blessing of living in Hong Kong, where so many markets are assumption based that there were still apartment complex launches, even as the global market turned in on itself.

The third great example is a friend and fellow New Zealander Denyse Saunders. I chose her as an example of what assumptions can do for one simple reason, she blonde, beautiful and was a cat walk and fashion model. So easy to put her in to a category that by many business people would be dismissed. Denyse has built a following and credibility in the business of fashion and beauty based on simple moral principals she holds that is the envy of many.

Her achievements are too many to list, they can be found on her website http://www.denysesaunders.com/index.html Some of the great ones for me include:

· Being a 50 year old grandmother and looking 30 something with no surgery

· Over a decade of successful involvement in Miss World contestants

· Numerous celebrity involvement including people like Elle McPherson and Julio Iglesias, the list goes on.

· Her own weekly TV show on SKY TV

When it comes to event design, marketing and production Denyse has an extensive network of contacts at all levels and is unquestionably the Australasian provider of quality. A real gem in the Pacific.

Through her life she has built herself up to be a great businesswomen, a great networker and a great person. I can only wonder as I talk with her and listen to some of her wisdom, how many people may have written this woman off in her life as “just some blonde” or “just that model”. How many of the business men that ogled her on the cat walk assumed so much about her that they failed to see the amazing and gifted person behind the glitz and glamour.

It is a lesson all business people should take, especially in these tougher economic times, that sometimes taking a second look, giving just a moment of your time and pushing aside any preconceived ideas can uncover things you may have never thought possible.

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ASIA PACIFIC: Assumptions

HEADLINE: In Paper We Trust(ed)

by Adam J. Kovitz

CEO, Founder & Publisher

Adam's section is brought to you by Salesconx.com

There are many “socially-accepted norms” when it comes to conversation that all effective networkers should keep in mind – subjects that one might deem appropriate when making conversation, of which religion and politics are classically considered “taboo”…

…so it is with fair warning that I’m going to be talking about BOTH RELIGION AND POLITICS in this article.

If you feel that you are easily offended by such talk, feel free to peruse the other TNNW articles this month. Actually, I would never have broached such “formidable” topics, but was lured (perhaps “tempted” might be more appropriate a term) into such dark waters, if not for one individual…

Along Came Mr. Rowland

It all started when I published last month’s article, A World Without Money in this very publication. In this article I suggested that our current monetary system is broken, perhaps beyond repair and posed a hypothetical world where money didn’t exist yet run on effective valuation of Relationship Capital (RC) and Intellectual Capital (IC). Okay…I may have had some political undertones to my discussion, but never once did I mention religion or the G-word: “G-d” (yes…many of us Bar/Bat Mitzvahed types spell it this way).

My friend, (and TNNW member) Jay Rowland, Founder of The Referral Marketing Association (a.k.a., ChapterTracker.com), made the following comments on my post:

“As with your State of the Industry address, I feel you’re really talking about the issue of morality, not economic systems.”

And

“…you can’t love both God and money.”

As well as

“God’s economy is one of relationship.”

I was shocked, in a sense, by Mr. Rowland’s comments. Aside from sharing a few political beliefs in my column and publication about networking, had I inadvertently breeched the religion/spiritual barrier with a few offhand remarks or was I making a stronger underlying statement by design? Either way, I was called out, albeit in a friendly manner and felt it a good idea to do one of the things I do best…write about it!

Morality and Economic Systems/G-d and Money

Mr. Rowland suggests that morality/G-d and economic systems/money are mutually exclusive, and unfortunately, he is right…to a degree. It is because of this that I feel we are experiencing our current global economic crisis.

Our current economic system is one of paradox. On one hand, the Founding Fathers of the United States, many of whom were members of one of the oldest running networking organizations in the world, the Freemasons, built the U.S.’s political and financial systems believing and imbuing into them the symbolism of Freemasonry. To be a member of the Freemasons, one must have a belief in that of a higher power – G-d. Therefore, all U.S. currency shares the common quote, “In God we Trust”.

To Mr. Rowland’s point, unfortunately, there is the saying that “money is the root of all evil”, and we’ve recently seen the classic “seven deadly sins” rear their ugly head to a head, resulting in economic meltdown. What took coinage and script imbued with the power and trust of G-d inscribed upon them and reduced them to almost meaningless hunks of metal and paper upon which now our trust is questionable?

Diverging Economies

From my perspective, here’s what has happened – we have abdicated our own personal power and externalized our trust into a situation where we have given power to an economic and political system that has diverged from G-d’s economic and political system of Karma and morality.

Some may argue that it is difficult to base such a tangible system of our current economy on such an intangible concept. To this I respond, our tangible economic system, once backed by such tangible “assets” as salt, gold, oil and even chocolate has "evolved" into something much more intangible.

For a while basing our economic system on tangibles worked quite effectively…it even curtailed our needs for more spending because we could not spend beyond our means. The downside to this was that the profit one could make in business was relatively flat.

But human needs, desires and ambitions work on abundance…our success is never an endpoint, just a milestone on one’s journey through life. Tangible assets, on the other hand, are limited. When we, as a human race, had the opportunity to graduate ourselves to the next level, we kept the same classroom, same teacher and the same curriculum. We just created new rules as we began to head into the new school year.

Those in the class who were ahead of the learning curve decided to make rules to make things more “interesting”. Unfortunately, they were weighted in their favor and refused to notice that by favoring themselves, they would be hurting others while ignoring the classic golden rule “do unto others as they would have done unto you”. They made the rule of credit, whereby we could spend beyond our means in return for speculating that we could pay back the difference in time. Thus began the downward spiral.

In time, words like “extortion”, “blackmail” and “highway robbery” would lose their significance as they were minimized or “spun” positively by those in power who networked and then eventually hijacked the political/economic system. At times, under the guise of being “G-dly” or “religious” they made their points known and got their agendas passed as more of the “regular people” (some called them “middle class”) got too busy playing by the new rules which didn’t at first effect them. The middle class became complacent and trusting into a system that was being perverted and compromised.

In time, the economic system changed to being backed by intangible means. A central authority of “oversight” based upon so-called tangible economic models, once backed by tangible assets would now be based upon nothing more than an “IOU”. Still the middle class trusted in the system…until slowly but surely, the system that “worked” for them at one time, began sorting them into two classes: upper and lower. Due to the nature of the system that was created, the 20% of the population that controlled 80% of the wealth began shifting to 10% controlling 90% of the wealth.

90+% of the people in this world have been taking the same class for years, passing it each time, yet never graduating to the point where it is becoming seemingly harder and harder to do so each year. The problem is that through faith in G-d to save them, they STILL GO TO THE SAME CLASS, EXPECT DIFFERENT RESULTS AND WONDER WHY NOTHING’S CHANGED.

How long must the insanity continue? How soon can we come to our senses and resolve this issue seriously and peaceably before things get worse?

Getting Back to “the Garden”

The question that I pose to Mr. Rowland, TNNW readers and the rest of the world is, how might things have been different if the “winners” of the economic game that has been created, maintained their ethical/spiritual integrity and worked to make everyone a winner. What if they networked to build and earn trust in a viable sustainability model that would support generations to come?

The key lies in understanding that an economic system based upon scarcity and hampered by the self-limiting beliefs of its creators and stewards does not take into account the abundant creativity and power as well as the sovereignty and stewardship of humanity. What if there was a way of merging the two economic systems: the Karma/G-d-based relationship economy steeped in “morality” and the economic system we use to feed our families?

Since we are already basing our currency (Financial Capital, or “FC”) on the valuation of intangibles, shouldn’t we utilize the who we know (RC) and the what we know (IC) that got us all the FC we’ve ever earned and leverage it into something of true value…a currency that we can really trust?

I believe that with proper valuation of RC and IC, we can create a realistically, spiritually and morally-balanced economic system that is scalable for the human condition and optimized for sustainability. Our technical knowledge of the internet and the populism of social media would allow enough oversight by which the playing field will once again be leveled and a one class system can be created. In this way, we would determine and have full control over our own “earning potential”.

I believe that creating such an economy would cater to the majority of the people in the world, despite race, color, nationality, political leanings, religious beliefs or sexual preferences. As one of my fellow TNNW writers and friends, Terry Bean, this month writes about the concept that we are all one, let’s take G-d off of our currency, put G-d back within ourselves and fly our flag under one world nation, one balanced and morally-blessed economic system, and one fully-networked "meritocrity".

This is not capitalism, this is not communism, this is not socialism. This is not JudeoChristianity, this is not Buddhism, this is not Islam. This is not American, this is not Russian, this is not Chinese. This is humanism. In this, we are all powerful and all meek at the same time. Why don’t we all inherit the earth together? And as for Mr. Rowland’s statement, “God’s economy is one of relationship”, I say AMEN, BROTHER…AMEN.

Adam J. Kovitz is the CEO, Founder & Publisher of The National Networker (TNNW).

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The Emergence of the Relationship Economy

Relationship Capital is the cornerstone of the Relationship Economy, which RNIA defines as “a measurement assigned to individual and organizational entities based on the relationship interactions between them, and the interactions they have internally.” I am proud to have contributed discussion of the Ten Laws of Relationships Capital to the upcoming book The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, now out as an eBook and in hardcopy. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is being considered a “must read” for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy of The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, please click here.

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Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER.



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For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free, continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com.


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HEADLINE: In Paper We Trust(ed)

TNNW BULLETIN, MARCH, 2009, Week 3

Major Developments, Forward Motion, Events and Actionable Items.

March 16, 2009

Bulletin # 8

"PUTTING THE 'BULL' BACK INTO BULLETIN"

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I. LEFT JUSTIFICATION

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Greetings Friends, Colleagues, Featured Columnists, Bureau Chiefs (and their Bureau Indians), Subscribers, Members, Advertiser, Affiliates, Sponsors and Networkers.

We are delighted to announce that the Bulletin has been re-formatted to avoid centering headings, opting instead to put them on the left, where people are more likely to read and remember them. Interestingly, people also tend to prefer to see pictures and photos on the upper right-hand side of an article. This has to do with how our brains physically process and store certain types of information.

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No inference should be drawn about our politics, which are all across the board. We are all members of the International Networking Community, and our goal is to help each other to increase our financial and professional success.

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II. SPAM FILTER WARNING

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Our new Newsletter format will be featuring a greater number of illustrations, photographs, and hyperlinks, PLEASE...be certain to clear our mailing address with your spam filter so that we don't wind up in your spam box! I am constantly going through my spam box to retrieve important correspondence that people have sent to me -- but because of pictures and hyperlinks, these wind up in my spam filter. Even though I receive enough spam hourly to cater a VFW picnic, I comb through the filter to find these lost gems. Be certain that your spam filter settings allow us into your IN Box.

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III. CRUCIAL REMINDERS

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If you are have gotten a forwarded copy of this Newletter, please get your very own FREE subscription by 1) going to http://subscribetothenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/, and clicking a subscribe button, and 2) going to http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/ and clicking on your choice of delivery by either RSS feed or dail EMAIL. You must choose one (or both) in order to get all of the news, opportunities, invitations and other communications between published weekly editions of the TNNW Newsletter.

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If you are already a Subscriber or a Member, PLEASE -- go to http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/, and choose your delivery method immediately...RSS, EMAIL or both.

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IV. ADVERTISERS AND AFFILIATES

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Click on http://tnnw10.blogspot.com/ and have a look at what some of our advertisers and affiliates are offering. Their ads are posted here (with special terms and benefits for TNNW Subscribers), but will also be featured on every Newsletter, and on the revamped TNNW Website.

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These offerings are not to be confused with the services which we offer exclusively to our Members (see Site Index, which follows). It is worth upgrading from Subscriber to Membership just to take advantage of these amazing services...webcasts, broadcasts, podcasts, mini-interviews, press releases, publicity, text-messaging, and a host of others!

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V. ORIENTATION (SITES TO SEE!)

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TNNW now has in excess of a dozen (which is almost twelve!) blogpages and websites for you to be able to explore. Please save a copy of this BULLETIN on your heard drive, and explore each and all of our sites as soon as you have a moment. They are loaded with valuable information, newsfeeds (especially on http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/), and service offerings to ensure your success. Don't miss out on a single one. The OMNIGADGET TOOL appears on many pages, and will help you to navigate about, in the event you get lost in the TNNW web. Here's a convenient site index tool:

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TNNW SITES: TITLES AND LINKS --

*INDEX/ SITEMAP http://tnnwindex.blogspot.com/
*ARTICLES, RSS FEEDS AND RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL TOOLKIT http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com/
*PRESS RELEASE, PUBLICITY AND PR SERVICES http://tnnw1.blogspot.com/
*TNNW MINI-INTERVIEWS SERVICE http://tnnw8.blogspot.com/
*ADVERTISEMENT AND ANNOUNCEMENT SERVICES http://tnnw9.blogspot.com/
*WEBINAR AND BROADCAST SERVICES http://tnnw3.blogspot.com/
*MEET OUR ADVERTISERS AND AFFILIATES http://tnnw10.blogspot.com/
*INTERNATIONAL AGENT/ DISTRIBUTOR SERVICES http://tnnw7.blogspot.com/
*MEMBERSHIP PAGE/ MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS http://tnnw2.blogspot.com/
*CUSTOM TEXT-MESSAGING SERVICES http://tnnw4.blogspot.com/
*CALENDAR OF EVENTS http://tnnw5.blogspot.com/
*TNNW IN THE NEWS! http://tnnw6.blogspot.com/
*TNNW SURVEYS http://thenationalnetworkersurveys.blogspot.com/
*WEBSITE http://www.thenationalnetworker.com
*WEBSITE/ INTERNAL BLOG http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/
*THE TNNW OMNIGADGET http://thetnnwomnigadget.blogspot.com/
*LINK TO THE NATIONAL NETWORKER http://linktothenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/
*SUBSCRIBE TO THE NATIONAL NETWORKER http://subscribetothenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/

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Now go out and visit! Make yourself at home.

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VI. EXPANDING SUBSCRIBERSHIP - IT'S IN EVERYONE'S INTEREST

A copy of some recent correspondence follows. The part that seems to grab everyone's attention is the one that refers to "If you put a link to TNNW on your site, we'll put a link to your site on ours." That gets savvy ecommerce folks very excited. Here it is:

TNNW INVITATION TO MONETIZATION
This letter was sent to groups with collective membership in excess of 300,000.

THE NATIONAL NETWORKER WANTS TO WORK WITH YOU TO MONETIZE YOUR NETWORKING EFFORTS AND INVESTMENT.

Dear Colleagues:

We are aggressively in the process of building our Subscribership to 100,000 by the end of 2009. Please help us accelerate this process -- we'll make it worth your while!

1. Become a Subscriber, if you aren't one already. Free signup: http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emailermailer%2Ecom%2Fx%3Foid%3D22760i&urlhash=k6Z8&_t=disc_detail_link . If you have a blog, a website, a newsletter or an opt-in subscriber list -- then:

2. Place our subscription button on your website: Choose a button from http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2FSubscribetoTheNationalNetworker%2Eblogspot%2Ecom&urlhash=RDY7&_t=disc_detail_link . We'll link back to you.

3. Place our button, blidget, OMNIGADGET, RSS feed or other link on your website, blog and on your newsletters. Choose them from http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2FTheNationalNetworkerWeblog%2Eblogspot%2Ecom&urlhash=L11S&_t=disc_detail_link . We'll link back to you.

4. Comment on our articles, and place a backlink to your blog or website. Build some traffic on us!

The greater our readership, the greater the benefits to every individual reader! As always, thank you.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

DOUGLAS CASTLE ( http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2FaboutDouglasCastle%2Eblogspot%2Ecom&urlhash=FDZS&_t=disc_detail_link )

p.s. We are always in search of new writers with fresh ideas, too.

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VII. THE AGE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR/ NETWORKER

Networkers -- this is your time! This is our time! Read what follows, if you haven't already read it!

THE NEW AGE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR/ NETWORKER
Monday, March 09, 2009, 3:12:07 PM douglas.castle@yahoo.com (DOUGLAS CASTLE)
THE NEW AGE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR/ NETWORKER. Originally published by Douglas Castle in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST (3/09/09)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Friends:

There is no avoiding the cloud that hangs over us. We are in a deepening global economic recession -- a condition that touches all of us financially and emotionally. It forces us to change our plans, to conserve limited resources, to become increasingly introspective...to feel the twinge of our own smallness in the confines of a giant universe, and to re-examine our values and our very mortality. We become more internalized, less robotic and more frantic, if paralysis doesn't seize us first.

The bulk of the world's non-agricultural workforce is dependent upon either conventional private sector (corporate, institutional or professional) employment, or government work. During the course of the last ten years, an increasing percentage of the G-8 workforce has been absorbed into the conventional or governmental works. This is not surprising, as healthcare and other costs continue to rise, retirement becomes an increasingly expensive proposition and the economies associated with larger employers make it possible for them to cover the needs of these individuals far more economically than through individual arrangements. Employee benefits constitute an increasing percentage of employee compensation, as well as motivation. It is increasingly the perception of the masses that entrepreneurship is too fraught with uncertainty, long hours, and very hard work to be a sensible calling. As commoners, we flock to the time-honored protection of the "conventional career path."

The conventional career path, by definition, creates apathy in the crucial areas of entrepreneurial skills and disciplines. As I write these words, an indolent, dependent, uncultivated layer of "middle management" and labor is being displaced as their former protectors scramble for the protections afforded them by bankruptcy or government aid (I think that this is a swell euphemism for other terms such as "bailout," "welfare," "subsidy," or "bridge loan," which last term has actually come to mean a unilateral capital infusion without requirement of guarantees, collateral, constraints on application of proceeds, accountability, a plan for repayment, or an incentive for change in the status quo.").

When I recently discussed the notions of "companies that are too big to fail," and "the government's systematic and expected rewarding of poor corporate conduct with 'free' money," with a friend, she explained to me (in a kind, but slightly condescending manner), "but Douglas, we have no options!" I disagree.

I believe that as long as we are alive we have options. The very perception of "no options" is either paralytic, or is apt to cause very poor, short-term decision making.

A world of displaced, emotionally devastated and fiscally insolvent "worker bees" have been let down by a system that had to fail. They do not know how to promote, to build, to innovate, to re-invent themselves, to run businesses and to network beyond their cronies at the office. These brothers and sisters are in deep trouble -- and no one can just bail them out. They must be re-tooled to be entrepreneurial, networking vital people.

As entrepreneurs and networkers, as globalists and futurists, we must help them to find new ways to survive...to restore their finances, to develop a sense of purpose and a successful attitude, and to rediscover and activate their skills.This is now the AGE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR/NETWORKER. We need to re-dedicate ourselves to be more entrepreneurial, more imaginative, more innovative and more efficient networkers and socializers than ever before.

Now is our time. And if we are kind, we are ethically obligated to help create hopes and opportunities for those less fortunate persons who fell under the thrall of the conventional career path. I am recommending (strongly), that we, each of us, forward this article to everyone whom we know.

Now is the time to spread the word, build membership, circle our wagons, and to come out fighting! As stated previously: THE FUTURE WILL NOT MAKE US -- WE WILL MAKE THE FUTURE.

Respectfully, and with best regards to all,

Douglas Castle

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TNNW BULLETIN, MARCH, 2009, Week 3