Shopping on Social Networking Sites?
November 30, 2006

The American Marketing Association released a report that says about half of those consumers they questioned would research holiday gifts from the social networking sites. And about 60% of them (or 29% of those surveyed) said they would make purchases on those sites if direct-purchasing were offered.

That means "there may be billions of dollars being left on the table by the major social-networking websites," says Bruce Horrowitz, writing in USA Today.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:44 AM, ,




Consequences of the New Populists
November 28, 2006

With the Democrats back in power, Clinton's free-trade economic philosophy (called "Rubinomics" after Clinton's Treasury secretary, Robert E. Rubin) is being replaced by a populist approach that favors more government regulation in all economic areas, and less free trade in order to "protect" U.S. workers and more "evenly" distribute wealth. So says Louis Uchitelle, writing in The New York Times.

There is a very big cost in restricting trade (the cost of inefficiency), and all economic costs are paid by the same people: the workers. If the new populists succeed in passing laws and policies that attempt to make things more fair, just about everything will gradually become more expensive ... and every working stiff, rich or poor, will pay his share.

To support the new populist agendas, unions have come together as a group that calls itself Shared Prosperity, while political allies are grouping under something called the Hamilton Project. One policy that I don't think will have much cost is the raising of the minimum wage. It will redistribute money where it can be redistributed and, at worst, it will kill small businesses that are not viable anyway.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:20 AM, ,




For Your Kids' Sake ... Throw Away Your TV!
November 27, 2006

A back-to-nature movement is burgeoning among childhood advocacy groups, USA Today reported. "Programs, public and private, are starting or expanding as research shows kids suffer health problems, including obesity, from too much sedentary time indoors with TV and computers," the paper said.

You read something like this and you think, "Is it possible that people are really that stupid? Is it conceivable that parents might have thought it was okay to let their kids spend six to seven hours a day in front of the boob tube? And how is it possible that they needed researchers to convince them to get the kids outside?"

I don't believe baby boomers are that stupid. It's much easier for me to believe they have been too busy, too lazy, and/or too self-centered to do otherwise. TV has provided them with an opportunity to solve the biggest problem busy parents face: keeping the kids quiet and fixed in one safe place. So long as the little darlings are planted in front of the television set, working moms and dads are able to get some of their own homework done.

The newspaper story listed several of the new programs that are underway, and focused on those that are meant to get children into wilderness locations, like national parks. As if that will do any good.

You don't need scientific research to tell you that your kids need both sun and exercise. So here's what you do. Either throw the TV in the garbage today and keep one out of your house till the kids are off to college ... or take responsibility for limiting your kids' TV watching to a healthy minimum. (My recommendation would be no more than six or seven hours a week.) If the kids have favorite shows, record them and let them watch them only after they have finished all their homework and household chores.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 2:21 PM, ,




Rupert Backs Down
November 26, 2006

I'm sorry Rupert Murdoch backed down on doing the O.J. Simpson book and interview. I wanted to hear his confession.

The family of one of the victims is suing to prevent the story from coming out. That seems like something O.J. should be doing. We don't know whether his story will have any credibility. We just know he could tell us if he wanted to.

Every report on the story I read expressed happiness that News Corp. had nixed the book and interview. USA Today said the public had "drawn the line on bad taste," and Murdoch listened. Other opinions focused on the probability that O.J. would find a way to profit from the story without paying any of it to the victims' families (to whom he owes $30 million+ in civil court penalties).

For everybody who is dying to know if he did the slashing himself or had a friend help, O.J.'s "answers," such as they are, will eventually find their way onto the Internet. The only problem is that now the victims' families have little or no chance of getting any money from them.


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posted by M. Masterson @ 11:05 AM, ,




What Is Canada Watching?
November 24, 2006

In Canada, there is a big black market for U.S. television content. The reason is that certain channels like ESPN, MTV, HBO, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and the Tennis Channel are not available on Canadian TV. Why aren't they available? Because of a Canadian law designed to protect Canadian writers and artists from U.S. competition. The Wall Street Journal estimates that about 700,000 Canadians watch pirated U.S. programming. That is 700,000 out of a population of about 30 million.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 3:43 PM, ,




Policies That Don't Work
November 23, 2006

Recent Latin American elections have put some leftists in power, but almost all of those who got themselves elected did so by promising stability and growth through moderate economic policies, rather than radical reforms. So said John Lyons, writing in The Wall Street Journal. These centrist politicians include Oscar Arias in Costa Rica, Alan Garcia in Peru, and even Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. "Longtime socialist politicians in Brazil and Chile [won by] championing market-friendly policies," he claimed.

The one exception, of course, is Venezuela's Chavez, who is using the country's enormous oil wealth to support anti-American policies and radical economic and political change. So far, his policies haven't worked, despite the billions of dollars he's been spending on them.

This is disappointing news for Chavez and his followers, to be sure, but they aren't ready to give up the good fight just yet. That's too bad. The problem with radical socialist policies (well intentioned or not) such as land and money redistributions is that they don't work. And they don't work because they violate the most fundamental rules of human psychology - that, as a rule, people tend to do more of those things that gratify them and less of those things that hurt them.

When you redistribute wealth (of any kind), you can't help but penalize wealth builders and reward wealth consumers. Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador have all seen the damaging psychological effect of these policies within the past 25 years and - so far, at least - they do not want to return to them. But those are the older people. The young kids - the kids who are in high school and college now - have no such experience and are perfect candidates for socialist propaganda. Time will tell if they need to relearn the lessons their parents learned.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:38 AM, ,




Is the Airline Industry Improving?
November 22, 2006

Some airlines are restoring first-class cabin perks (such as silverware and movies), The Wall Street Journal reported this week. American Airlines is handing out hot towels in first-class cabins and Delta is giving away amenity kits. This is, the article said, a sign that the airline industry is improving.

I am in a Delta first-class cabin as I write this. My experience is mixed: Breakfast was served hot but with plastic flatware. I was given a hot towel before the meal and they are showing a movie, but no earphones are available. (It doesn't matter, I have to work.)

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posted by M. Masterson @ 6:19 PM, ,




Women in Business

If you have any doubts that women are well represented in the top echelon of America's biggest companies, check out the November 20th Journal Report for The Wall Street Journal titled "Women to Watch." Among those listed are CEOs for PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Avon, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Lucent Technologies, eBay, Xerox, Morgan Stanley, Pearson, Chanel, Nielsen Media Research, HSBC Holdings, and VPs of Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Western Union, Hewlett-Packard, Bank of America, General Electric, Rite Aid, Dupont, Unilever, Genentch, Gucci, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Verizon Communications, Yahoo, Disney, Cadillac, and Leo Burnett.

The article offered some of these women's thoughts for other women just starting out:

* From Carol Bartz (Autodesk): "Nobody is in charge of your career but yourself. You have to stand out and let it be known the kind of job you are doing and what you want to do in the future and manage yourself."

* From Ursula Burns (Xerox): "I walked into Xerox and there were some guys who were doing a lot of different jobs that seemed like good jobs. And I thought, I want to do one of those good jobs. I never got pushed back from the company. But I also got a lot of reinforcement from my upbringing that made me believe it was possible."

* From Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa (US Trust Co.): "In a very short period of time, the fact that I took a risk and took a smaller job ended up being a much larger opportunity. And that set the stage for what I am doing today. I don't think I would have ever had this opportunity had I not taken that risk."

* From Laura Desmond ( Starcom MediaVest): "I learned that if you are going to inspire people to greatness you have to show them you are one of them and you are willing to get uncomfortable in order to make them comfortable."

* From Andrea Jung (Avon): "I think this is a different world. The cycle times are so much faster. You can't just know how to do growth and you can't just know how to deal with costs. If you're restructuring a business, you have to plan and be able to get out of it quickly and then plan for growth. For me that meant I had to reinvent myself before reinventing the company every year."

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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:54 PM, ,




The Inspiration for Gratitude

Thanksgiving is a very American holiday. It was created, as we all know, in 1621 by the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony after they had enjoyed a good harvest. What many people don't realize is that it replaced a very different ritual that they had been practicing for many years.

Ben Franklin explains:

"There is a tradition that in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is generally the case when a civilized people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country. Being so piously disposed, they sought relief from heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the lord in frequent set days of fasting and prayer."

All that "constant meditation" and fasting made them "gloomy and discontented," Franklin says, and "like the children of Israel there were many disposed to return to the Egypt which persecution had induced them to abandon."

Happily, Franklin tells us, a farmer "of plain sense" suggested to the Pilgrim Assembly that instead of continuing to bother the Lord with their complaints and requests, they for once thank Him for the blessings they had been given. For although times were still hard, things were getting better:

"... their seas and rivers were full of fish, the air sweet, the climate healthy, and above all, they were in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious."

Instead of a fast, the farmer suggested, it would be more fitting to proclaim a day of thanksgiving. His advice was heeded, and "from that day to this," as Franklin said, we have "every year observed [these] circumstances of public felicity."

Since Early to Rise is named after a gem of Franklinian wisdom, it's fitting that we should be reminded of the purpose of this holiday by the man himself. And the point he was making - in case his slightly old-fashioned English baffles you - is that the Pilgrims didn't wait till everything was perfect before they gave thanks. They looked at the good and the bad of their situation and made a conscious choice to spend the holiday being thankful for what they had rather than wishing for things they lacked.

Franklin was taking a moral position in describing the first thanksgiving the way he did, but he was also making a very useful observation: By focusing on their problems and asking for help, the Pilgrims had gradually turned themselves into grumpy, unhappy campers. If you want to feel better about your life, Franklin was implying, the first thing you need to do is be grateful for what you have.

And we all have plenty.

That's the point Robert Ringer was making when, in 2004, he wrote this in ETR:

"Since every negative has an offsetting positive built into it, and vice versa, you always have a choice as to whether to focus on the abundance or the scarcity in your life. My firsthand experience has convinced me beyond all doubt that if you want more negatives in your life, all you need to do is think about the negatives that already exist.

"Likewise, if you want more positives in your life, focus on the positives that you already have. You'll be amazed at the number of new positives that will almost magically make their way into your life as the result of focusing on the positive side of the equation."

Think positive, Ringer is saying. You will not only feel better (the benefit Franklin promises), you will actually enjoy more positive events in your life. Ringer says there's a scientific basis for this.

"What makes it possible is the fact that (1) all atoms are connected and (2) atoms vibrate at tremendous rates of speed. This is why when your thoughts are positive, science works its wonders and causes those vibrating atoms in your brain to draw positive forces into your life."

For Ringer, science is an extension of what he calls the Conscious Universal Power Source, "or what people variously refer to as God, Yahweh, Allah, Supreme Being, etc." He also believes that since we are all always connected to this Conscious Universal Power Source, we all have infinite power at our disposal.

I have two thoughts on that. I do think that we are all connected to a universal power source, but I don't know whether that power source is conscious. And even if there is such a thing as a universal mind or collective unconscious (Who could deny it?), I haven't seen any evidence that any one of us can use it to create unlimited power. Except in comic books, I haven't seen people fly. And despite everything science has been able to accomplish in terms of battling disease, we all still grow old and die.

No, we are not masters of the universe. However hard we try to tap into outside sources, we never will be omnipotent. But being limited in our powers doesn't make us impotent. There is so much that we can do - especially if we are confident in our potential, persistent in our efforts, and intelligent in our choices.

In short, we should be wise enough to accept our limitations but bold enough to believe in what we can do ... which is a great deal.

For example, I think it would be wise for you to accept the fact that:

1. You won't live forever.
2. You won't ever be able to fly under your own power, travel through time, etc.
3. You won't be able to lose weight without eating better and exercising more.
4. You won't be able to "attract success" unless you take action.

On the other hand, think about the things you can do:

1. You can deepen and improve your relationships with everyone you meet.
2. You can eat well and exercise vigorously to maximize your health.
3. You can learn something useful every day.
4. You can write good books, paint good paintings, and learn new languages.
5. You can start your own business next year.
6. You can become wealthy within seven years.
7. You can become kinder and more generous and enjoy the benefits of being so.

Most of us aspire to better, richer, happier lives. Be thankful that, whatever handicaps you have and obstacles you face, you still have the means to improve yourself. You may not be able to get a paralyzed limb to move (although that may one day be possible), but you can strengthen the rest of your body and you can endlessly improve your mind.

And you can be thankful.

At Thanksgiving, many people talk about being thankful, but I wonder how many actually practice that virtue?

It is a very powerful behavior - one that can transform your life.

Read more!

posted by M. Masterson @ 9:02 AM, ,




What We Learned Today
November 20, 2006

After spending more than a million dollars on a slew of professional fees, my partner and I were told today by our lawyers that the document our multimillion-dollar project was based on has been completely misinterpreted.

If they are right about this, it invalidates a huge business deal that we've struggled for more than a year to complete.

It may also mean that this project is worth just a fraction of what we think it is.

"It all depends," the lawyers told us, "on who reads the original document and how they interpret it."

We're in shock. How could it be that five separate law firms could have spent so much time drafting so many contracts that are all dependent on a four-page document that - from a cursory review by two amateurs - looks to be indisputably problematic?

How come nobody told us?

Why have we been having all these meetings, executing all these strategies, and paying all these professional fees for work that might not make any economic sense?

How is it that two of the most prestigious firms in Miami missed this crucial issue? How is it that attorneys who have been emphatically assuring us that everything was under control could so suddenly change their tune?

When you are paying top dollar for professional help, you should be able to trust the advice you are given. Unfortunately, as I've learned, that's not always the case.

Things I can take away from this experience:

1. In multimillion-dollar transactions, find the time to read key legal documents yourself.

2. Don't assume that highly paid professionals are any better than others.

3. When things go bad, don't let your mind stay in a bad place. Think forward to possible resolutions. Make peace with worst-possible outcomes. Then put one foot in front of the other.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 2:16 PM, ,




Nielsen Research and the Future of General Advertising
November 17, 2006

A colleague of mine, writing about the Internet, defended broadcast advertising as legitimate in "certain circumstances." He cited his own experience with a retail clothing store in Manhattan. He said the TV ads he bought were the primary reason his store became a big hit.

As a longtime denigrator of broadcast advertising, I am curious about his experience. I have no doubt that he is telling the truth - and the truth may be that his TV spots more than paid for themselves in increased sales. But I'd like to know how carefully he measured the response to those ads.

When you are launching a retail business, you generally do so with a multi-media, multi-marketing approach. You do direct mail, circulars, posters, local print advertising, local radio and television. Without measuring the response to those efforts, how can you be sure which are working for you?

You can't.

But since television has always offered such a broad-brush approach to advertising, allowing a business to reach an entire market in a matter of seconds, it's been hard not to be attracted to it. If you had the money to spend, you almost certainly allocated some of it to that kind of image advertising.

In the 21st century, that is changing.

As Chris Anderson explains in The Long Tail, the combination of the computer and the Internet have completely reversed the traditional way consumers use the media. In the old days, a handful of TV channels, advertising a handful of commercials, would routinely reach millions of people. Nowadays, anyone with a computer can access thousands of products and programming that is individually tailored for him.

This is hastening the demise of broadcast advertising and increasing the pace at which direct marketing is growing.

A case in point: the Nielsen rating service.

Nielsen Media Research will soon be reporting on how many TV viewers watch commercials.

As advertisers become increasingly aware of the limitations of broadcast advertising and the advantages of direct response (particularly on the Internet), they are becoming increasingly insistent that their media buys produce results.

Results could never be directly measured, but so long as Nielsen was measuring TV shows, advertisers were somewhat satisfied. Nowadays, with TV programming being available online and with the popularity of digital video recorders (like TiVo), it's not clear that consumers are watching commercials at all.

According to USA Today, Forrester Research predicts that almost half of American households will have a DVR by 2009. It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that in another few years the entire country will be fast-forwarding through commercials.)

But Nielsen is having trouble launching the new program, because their clients have mixed feelings about how a commercial's popularity should be measured. Broadcast and cable companies have different ideas about how Nielsen should measure viewing - and Nielsen's main clients, the television networks themselves, aren't sure they want this information published ... for obvious reasons.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:14 PM, ,




Adding Women to the Mix
November 16, 2006

Last night, I went to my book club, where we discussed The Old Man and the Sea. Everybody agreed it is a great book and has great prose style. We talked more than usual - probably because there were three women there. And that created a different atmosphere. Until now, the club has been exclusively male.

Afterward, the group leader told me he thought we should keep it all male - and he's probably right. Given an audience of XX chromosomes, we are still doing what we have done since we hit puberty: showing off for girls.

That said, the meeting was successful. Ideas were exchanged. Points debated. "Girls" impressed. And, most important, several passages of Hemingway's prose were read out loud. He really was the greatest prose stylist of the 20th century. To not like Hemingway is to have a dead ear for language.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:20 PM, ,




Ortega's Election

You are probably aware that Daniel Ortega was recently elected president of Nicaragua. Since I have real estate interests in that country, many people have been writing me and asking what I think is going to happen there as a result of the election. There are several good reasons why I believe everything in Nicaragua will be just fine. Ortega's administration this time will be much different from the one he had when he was forced out of power 16 years ago. Here's my take on it ...

1. This is a different Nicaragua in a different world. There is no Soviet Union providing money and arms. Even if he wanted to, Ortega doesn't have the power to resurrect controversial policies like military conscription, private property confiscation, and censorship of the press. Nicaragua is now a democracy, and its Liberal and Conservative parties (ALN, PLC, and MRS) have secured a controlling number of seats in its National Assembly (Congress).

2. Ortega's platform clearly indicated a respect for private property. In fact, over the last 15 years , the Sandinistas abandoned that "Soviet era" rhetoric and have in their actions clearly accepted private property as a basic principle of life in Nicaragua. Throughout his campaign, Ortega said that he plans to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement and to maintain good relations with Washington.

3. The acceptance of the Ortega-led government by the U.S. government had been one of my main concerns. But there have been many indications that the Bush administration is willing to work with the new Nicaraguan president. Here's one example. The U.S. State Department recently stated that the United States has made a commitment to the Nicaraguan people. They also stated "We, the United States, have made it very clear that we want to have a good relationship with the Nicaraguan people and we've acted on that and we've shown that."

4. The election itself proved that Nicaragua is a working democracy. The election was peaceful and well attended, with nearly 70 percent of the voters casting ballots. The election was completed without trouble or accusations of manipulation. Despite earning only 38 percent of the popular vote, Ortega won and no one is contesting that. An engaged electorate is a good thing.

5. The Sandinistas have been a political fact of life in Nicaragua and, as a party, have evolved with the free market forces that have elevated the Nicaraguan way of life. The Sandinistas of today, unlike those during Ortega's last presidency, are very involved in the tourist industry and land development. They are aware that it is to the benefit to everyone in the country for the economic policy to remain pro foreign investment and non- interventionist. No one wants to put at risk the economic gains of recent years.

Beyond those considerations, there is another reason I feel confident about the future of our real estate holdings (and those in the surrounding area) under Ortega's administration. Ortega's first priority is to fight poverty. We have been helping to do just that since we first broke ground on Rancho Santana, our private development stretching along Nicaragua's Pacific Coast.

Rancho Santana is and always has been a responsible, community-oriented development. Since its inception, the developers have been committed to hiring local people, gradually increasing their wages and providing them with benefits.

Our sponsorship of the Roberto Clemente Clinic, where the community can get free or low-cost medical care, is just one example of that. Rancho Santana is the largest single employer in the municipality of Tola. More than 300 people work here.

For several years now, we have been working closely with the local Sandinista mayor of Tola, Loyda Garcia. Because of our financial, technical, and social commitment to the well being and development of the Tola region, the mayor's office has extended to us reciprocal support and consideration.

Rancho Santana is and has been the biggest tax payer in the Tola area. For a poor locality like Tola, the hundreds of thousands of dollars we have been contributing to the local government has been a great help. We have also, along with the Tola's Developers Association, been assisting with the maintenance of the road between Tola and Astillero.

I believe the future of Nicaragua is very bright. Here at Rancho Santana, and in the local community, life goes on just as it has before. All our employees come to work, on time as usual. Residents and guests are riding horses and walking along the beach. The surfers are still riding the waves. People meet every night on the terraces by the sea and enjoy the colorful Pacific sunsets. Rancho Santana is just as beautiful and peaceful as always.

I hope you get the chance to come down soon and see it for yourself.

Contact:
Tom Gordon
Rancho Santana Sales
Tomg@ranchosantana.com

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:52 AM, ,




Working with Matt Furey
November 15, 2006

I recently sat in on a conference call between AWAI and Matt Furey, Inc. The two groups are talking about doing a product together - a seminar or program that teaches what Matt has learned about e-mail marketing.

Matt told us he sold a program like this a few years ago for $10,000. The attendees came feeling nervous and unsure if they were doing the right thing, but left charged up and confident. "I had them take out a pen and paper first thing," he said. "And then I had them writing little letters, one after another, each time making improvements based on my criticisms."

"The first letters were mostly terrible," he said. "But by the end of the day, they were putting out some amazing stuff."

This should be a very good product. There is nobody better than Matt when it comes to writing e-mail promotions. His messages are short and compelling and full of his personality.

Matt writes like he talks. Direct. Honest. For a guy who's been in this industry fewer than 10 years, he has built a great business. I am happy for his success.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 10:07 AM, ,




A Quick Trip to Japan, Part 2
November 14, 2006

Waiting for M's fight seems like an eternity. We are all huddled in a dumpy waiting room underneath this big arena that will be holding 20,000 adoring fans in just a few hours. Most of the waiting time is spent staring at the walls. As time draws close, the fighters take their pre-fight tests, stretch, box a little. Then, finally, we move to a second waiting area, just beside the stage.

D wins his first fight and must fight again for the tournament title. He is assured a second prize - a trophy and $30,000. M will fight in the penultimate match and will win that much if he loses and more than twice that if he wins. The odds are against him, even though he's beaten his opponent before.

M's fight is strategic and difficult. He fights his opponent's game and loses a narrow decision. It is heartbreaking. D too loses a split decision and comes in second.

These guys are both, arguably, the second-best fighters in their weight divisions in the world. But second place, at this time and in this place, doesn't feel good.

All the hard work they have put forward for this fight ... the months of six-hour workouts, injuries, physical trauma, dieting, taking supplements, physical therapy, worry, anguish, fear, anticipation, etc. All that, and it comes down to winning or losing.

Success in business is so much easier. So much easier.

Why? Because it is not winner take all.

I should write about this for ETR - how much easier it is to become wealthy or to become successful in business than it is to be a professional competitive athlete at this level.

It has something to do with competition ... the bad side of competition.

I have to think about this. Competition, cooperation ... sports and playing. They are all related.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 10:54 AM, ,




A Quick Trip to Japan, Part 1
November 13, 2006

Sitting on the Plane: It's three in the afternoon. I've read two papers, done two crossword puzzles, written for three or four hours, and am not yet ready to sleep. Yet everybody else on the plane seems to be bedding down. The flight is 14 hours. We've been flying for four hours. Why would they be sleeping now? Hmm.

LP picked me up at 5:30 this morning. I took a seven o'clock flight from WPB to Newark. Then, at 11:00, I got on this flight that will travel north and west over Canada and directly on to Tokyo.

I'll be staying at the Four Seasons in Tokyo, which might be the best hotel I've ever stayed at. I'm looking forward to testing it against my previous impression. After I check in, I'll take a taxi over to M's hotel and see what he's up to. He will probably be lying around doing nothing ... if the weigh-in hasn't occurred. If it has, he'll probably be eating.

He'll be nervous. This will be the biggest fight of his life. If he wins, he'll be a Pride world champion. He'll be famous and reasonably well paid (at about a hundred grand per fight) so long as he can maintain his belt. But the chances of that happening for any length of time are not great, because the Pride ownership doesn't want him as their champion.

Everybody thinks I'm crazy to take this trip - to fly from Florida to Japan just to watch M fight. I don't think it's crazy at all. He's my friend. My Jiu Jitsu instructor. He has gotten me backstage passes to the event. How many chances will I ever have to do something like this?

In Tokyo Again: I'm on a bus, on my way to my hotel. I'm very tired. I'm lucky if I've had three hours of sleep all together. I couldn't sleep much on the plane, so I watched videos and did puzzles.

I am reminded of how civilized the Japanese are by the service people at the airport:

* The information girls who are extremely knowledgeable and helpful

* The money changer who apologized for having to tell me to fill out a form before I could give him my dollars

* The uniformed valets standing like soldiers at their stations

* The luggage handlers who got on the bus after the bags had been stowed, said something in Japanese, and bowed

And, of course, everything runs smoothly here. The buses are clean and on time. The lines move quickly. The directional signs are clear and plentiful.

A Good Travel Tip: I get to the hotel and it's the wrong Four Seasons, not the one that's downtown. I asked my assistants to make sure they booked me into the same one I was in last time, this summer. But they made a mistake.

This reminds me of a lesson I learned a long time ago: When it comes to travel plans, it pays to review all the details before you leave. Take time to make sure you know all the flight and hotel information and have copies of everything. Double-check (against a list you keep for travel) that you have packed everything. Make sure you confirm all appointments, in advance. In traveling overseas or to new destinations domestically, mistakes are especially frustrating because it is sometimes difficult to fix them.

Return to this issue of Early to Rise.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:13 AM, ,




Hospital Stories
November 10, 2006

I saw a documentary last night about safety in hospitals. It was about a new movement to put a stop to preventable deaths due to hospital errors.

The movement was initiated by a woman whose baby girl died as the result of neglectful treatment at Johns Hopkins University. Instead of clamming up and defending itself against her lawsuit, the hospital opened its files and worked with her to figure out how to prevent such tragedies in the future.

This woman's efforts - along with others - has become a nationwide initiative to reform hospital culture and, thus, increase safety. The biggest culprit, the documentary suggested, was the traditional, vertical power structure that exists in hospitals. Orders come from the top down. The nurses, who are the caretakers, are trained to blindly follow doctors' orders, even when they don't make sense.

This film tied into something I read in Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion in his chapter on the power of authority.

Cialdini cited two studies indicating that the rate of mistaken medication dispersal at hospitals was 10 percent and 12 percent over a 10-year period. The reason, researchers discovered, was the nurses' over-reliance on the doctors' authority.

In many cases, for example, the nurses believed a doctor's recommended treatment was wrong, but said nothing because "he's the boss."

A particularly memorable example: One nurse administered eardrops to a patient's anus, because the doctor's note said "R ear" (meaning right ear).

The new program developed at Johns Hopkins (and replicated in a growing number of other hospitals around the country) includes:

* A swat team of doctors and nurses who converge to examine a patient as soon as something seems "wrong"

* The right of a patient's friends or family members - or, in some cases, the patient himself - to call for those swat-team visits (as opposed to the traditional protocol, which involves going through the attending physician)

* An open policy toward disclosing information about mistakes with patients and families of patients

Watching the documentary had me remembering some of my own hospital experiences:

* Before surgery, asking common-sense questions, only to have the doctor brush them off as "nothing you need to worry about"

* Being unable to get good answers from doctors at hospitals when my mother was ill

* Getting the same treatment (and having the same humiliating feeling of powerlessness) when my father was dying

All this has me thinking. I wonder which of the hospitals where I live have initiated the Johns Hopkins program? I think I'll find out.

Return to this issue of Early to Rise

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posted by M. Masterson @ 10:05 AM, ,




Getting Ready for the Bootcamps
November 8, 2006

I worked nonstop to prepare my presentations for last week's big events: ETR's Info-Marketing Bootcamp and AWAI's Fast Track to Copywriting/Graphic Design Success Bootcamp. I didn't even leave the house.

I usually try to put too much information in my presentations, and I wind up having to rush through them at the end. Not this year. I spent a lot of time beforehand planning ahead so I wouldn't run over - and, at the same time, making sure my speeches included plenty of very good content that I hope the attendees benefited from.

One of my speeches for ETR was about what I think is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century. It's the result of a conversion of three very big trends - the growth of the info-tainment industry, the rising importance of direct marketing, and the globe-covering reach of the Internet. I dubbed this new opportunity the Info-Net Marketing Revolution.

My second speech for ETR was about starting from scratch - everything you need to know to start any business and become successful before your money runs out. I packed this speech to the brim with lots of great ideas, tips, and advice. I think it was worth the admission price times 10.

My AWAI speech was about "master moves" in copywriting - eight fundamental marketing techniques that copywriters should know and use if they want to write masterful copy.

People who didn't attend the Bootcamps will soon be able to hear my speeches, along with those of the other presenters. Recordings will be available at a special discount starting Saturday.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 1:57 PM, ,




Not So Many Fish in the Sea ...

More bad news on the environmental front. According to an article in The New York Times, the oceans will be pretty much depleted of food fish by 2048. We all knew that over-fishing was a problem, but who knew it was that big?

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:18 AM, ,




Skilling's Jail Term
November 6, 2006

Twenty-four years for Skilling. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it seems a fair punishment for the calculated and pervasive swindling Enron was engaged in. On the other hand, I can understand how he probably feels like a sacrificial lamb (or perhaps a sacrificial wolf) since so few of the many other corporate honchos out there swindling the public have been prosecuted.

Yes, there have been some significant jail terms. Bernard Ebbers got 25 years in the can for his role as head crook in the WorldCom scam. And John Rigas, ex-CEO of Adelphia Communications, was given 15 years. Martin Grass (Rite Aid) received eight years, Samuel Waksai (ImClone Systems) got seven years, and Sanjay Kumar (Computer Associates) got seven years.

But those six are just the tip of the iceberg. Corruption and fraud has been rampant ever since the Internet boom began. Like most booms, growth breeds opportunity and opportunity breeds greed.

Since Skilling is 52, his 24-year term is pretty much a life sentence. Judge Lake, in issuing the sentence, noted that Skilling's crimes had, in effect, imposed "life sentences of poverty" on thousands of employees and shareholders.

Skilling was part of a group that almost certainly defrauded thousands of shareholders and employees of billions of dollars. He was a thief - a very big-time thief. Because Enron went bankrupt, those people will probably never see a nickel of their losses restored to them. That's not good.

I'm sure Skilling believed that in promoting his company's stock (fraudulently or otherwise) he was acting "in the shareholders' best interests." Isn't that what they say? And I'm sure he believes Enron's bankruptcy was not the result of all the lies he was promoting but the loss of investor confidence that followed the media scrutiny and government actions. He probably believes that he and his cronies could have made the company solvent if they had just been allowed to continue doing what they were doing.

But what they were doing was cheating and lying and falsifying information - doing anything they had to do to keep Enron's stock price high while company sales were sinking and profits were nonexistent.

You wonder how people could have invested in Enron in the first place. (I know a very smart investment expert who recommended Enron early on.) The company's method of creating profits was never anything more than a black box. For years, everybody believed the preposterous stories Enron's PR people were telling. It took the courage of a young woman, early in her writing career, to look at the emperor and ask why he had no clothes on.

Then everyone suddenly knew. Then. But what about before? There was the same evidence. The same indecipherable black box. Why hadn't all the more experienced analysts and investigative reporters noticed something was askew?

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posted by M. Masterson @ 2:25 PM, ,




The Cost of Dying
November 1, 2006

The cost of dying in Miami, according to a new study, is $23,000. That money is spent over a six-month period - the last six months. It pays for an average of 46 doctor visits and six days in the ICU. (And there is a 27 percent chance you'll die in the ICU.)

It's better in Portland, Oregon, where the cost is only $14,000. It's less expensive in Oregon, because there are fewer trips to the doctor (only 18 compared to 46) and an average of one day in the ICU. Chances of dying in the ICU in Oregon are less too - at 13 percent, less than half what they are in Miami.

The question, as Julie Appleby writing in USA Today points out, is how much if any of those extra expenses resulted in better medical care. Did they improve the quality of life during treatment? Did they extend life? And if so, did those extra days have any quality?
The study - the Dartmouth Atlas Project (a program at Dartmouth Medical School) - didn't get answers to those questions.

But when we are planning our own care in old age or taking care of our aging parents, they are questions that must be asked and answered.

I don't have the numbers in reach, but I remember reading that some very large percentage of the money Americans spend on health care is spent for care that takes place in the final two years of life. Judging from the Dartmouth study and from what I've seen personally, most of that money is spent on all the wrong things: wasteful visits to family doctors who offer no help and expensive visits to specialists who charge more money for very expensive, very noxious clinical procedures that reduce the quality of life but seldom extend it.

We don't need lots of data to convince us of what we know from experience - that all that expensive chemical and surgical intervention at the end of life improves only the lives of those collecting the bills, not those paying them.

Another interesting bit of data I read somewhere: If you remove infant mortality from the equation, what is the average difference between the lifespan of someone from Burkina Faso (a desperately poor landlocked country in western Africa) and someone from the United States?

Would you be surprised to learn it is only one year?

When you get sick in Burkina Faso, you may see a local doctor or witch doctor who will give you some natural herbs. Then you spend your final year surrounded by family and loved ones. The entire cost of medical care during that critical last year of life is almost certainly less than $100.

So, apart from infant mortality, the huge cost of Western medicine is providing only a single year of additional life ... and that year is one spent miserably, shuffling between doctors' offices, hospitals, and clinics. Instead of dying with dignity, as people can still do in the world's poorest countries.

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posted by M. Masterson @ 9:50 AM, ,