Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Greed and Having-It-All

I just read the fabulously biting response to my post ‘...and hello’.

Yes, it is true I did not study finance nor do I understand the intricacies of the financial world. But then again who does these days? Spoken to someone from the financial world lately? I bet you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who has witnessed such a spectacle throughout his or her financial career. Am I not a financial specialist but I am an investor and I do participate in this economy and my Blog represents my opinion.

The responder 'anonymous' is right. We got into this mess inch by inch over a prolonged period of time. We know that. I doubt that by now there is anyone who doesn’t understand what the steps were that got us there. What I referred to was the panic and hysteria that we have seen in the last two months. For crying out loud, people are buying a safe and putting their cash under their mattresses. The banks stopped lending to each other and are hording cash. Credit limits on credit cards are slashed and it has become a difficult thing to get a loan period. It looks like a panic and acts like a panic – it probably is a panic. Remember oil – that went through the roof up to $147 per barrel in June and today it is $62.73. Before that the housing market went nuts and before that the .com boom, we keep doing the same thing.

The question that mattered to me most in 'anonymous' posts is this: How much does my topic of wanting and getting it all contributes to the overall 'greed?' Fabulous question and I am delighted to answer that.

You have to read the upcoming bestselling book to see how it plays out in detail. But greed and having it all are two different things.

In my book that is titled "Women Who Want It All and Get It, Too" I speak to women. I am guessing 'anonymous' is a man. Men don't think about having it all, it comes embedded in their genetic make-up. My book addresses the dilemma that women face, as we want to have (all) love, family, careers and money, too.

Our role models, our mothers did not live the have-it-all model. We were left to fend for ourselves. What we are looking at today is the best-case scenario of what we have figured out so far. Perhaps the model is slightly flawed, as we are still struggling to say the least. I state that the evolution for women is therefore greater then the evolution of men as by the example of the last 50 years. Women have conquered more ground and changed more during this time period then men. Wanting and having it all are very personal, individualized criteria's and each of us has to define what that means for ourself. Most everyone I know, including myself earn his or her own money. Most are happy to make ends meet and have a little left over. We participate in what 'anonymous' calls greed through our 401K's and the mutual funds of our children but that is probably not so clear to us. We are in a free economy and it will regulate itself, it always has. Do we and will we learn from it is the more important question. Sh@* happens, what comes after it is what counts.

Having it all and getting it too is a non-judgmental idea. You have the right to define it for yourself. My having it all includes other then the cash to live the life I want to live also happiness and family and health.

Here is an exert from the chapter of Creating Your Want-It-All list:

Be careful what you ask for ... because you might get it. Make sure you remain positive and ask for things that truly are for your best and the greater good for everyone. Do not ask for things like revenge or, even worse, wish an accident or death upon anyone. If you put this kind of effort in creating your future, then you might as well ask for the right things so you end up happy. Only good things come from good things. When you ask for money, make sure you include fulfillment and happiness as well to round it up. Only wish for things that will help you to become the person you want to be.

If money is all you love, then that’s what you’ll receive! Princess Leia Organa to Han Solo, “Star Wars: A New Hope”

Some of my ideas, no matter how absurd they may sound (as in can we not just rent out the oversupply of the current housing market?) may not be based on anything other then a pragmatic look at a 'why not'? Could there be a company that could manage something like that and could that make sense to some extend – you answer that.

In my book I write that if no new ideas would be born then we would have never seen progress. All progress and all change always starts with one thing - the idea of one person.

And ‘anonymous’ I invite you to join my test reader group to evaluate the concept of ego-RHYTHM and the method of KARL. I need critical voices that will take it apart and really test it. And thank you for your post.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Inspire Me Today - published today

http://www.inspiremetoday.com

The interview is out, take a look.
Beate

Monday, October 13, 2008

https://www.inspiremetoday.com


October 14th

My interview as luminary will be published on www.inspiremetoday.com on Oct 14th.

Please read Gail's wonderful story about how she came about to launch her service here:
http://www.inspiremetoday.com/gail/

I hope to see you there.
Beate

Thursday, October 9, 2008

and hello

I look around in wonder. We are all grown ups and yet we have managed in only one month to run this country into depression. We keep this attitude up we will loose in much larger ways then anyone can even imagine today. It is all connected.

Repeat after me: I am a person who wants it all and my time is now. I will not be affected by the negativity nor will I fuel the panic with my thoughts and actions.

Fine, we knew that someone who makes $50,000 a year should not be in a $500,000 home. It had to come down crashing eventually. Just like now back THEN everyone ran to buy a house and money practically grew on trees. Got to take advantage of the low mortgage rates. Then reality sank in and interest rates reset and tada there are a lot of empty houses all over the place. Why don't we rent the darn things as now rents are going through the roof! Just a practical thought.

Short selling is another one of those great ideas. Let me make profit speculating on someone’s downfall! From a spiritual perspective you might as well buy your ticket to go to hell. What are we thinking? We need to offset losses, yes I get that, but to bet on the system crashing is like taking ten loaded guns to bed and hoping you will wake up alive. Remind me again why we are allowing that? That's right, you don't even have to buy the stock and own it, you can only 'pretend' you have it and still make the money. Slap left; slap right, bad, bad, bad.

Oil is great, right. So let us ALL buy Oil. Oh geez it gets more expensive. Oh no, $4 a gallon, what should we do after we drove the price through the roof because we wanted to bet money that we don't have on that? Then someone says, let's overprice a Hybrid so it will take you four years to offset the extra green premium of $5000 to break even. (Well, let me tell you it'll be a Mercedes for me while you may all cramp into that ugly car. By the time my lease is up we will be even and I will have had more fun driving.) But wait, now the Oil is going down. Let us bet that the demand will shrink because people need to save money and they will stay home. Look, the prices are going down more and more. Exxon is not making a record profit. Someone give me a tissue to wipe my tear.

Within one month, we have stopped our lives midair. We are mesmerized by the bad messages and the media and the government should be put over my knee for a big spanking. What are you thinking? We KNOW people are worried and we know people are not buying anything. Do you really have to keep talking about it and contemplate that the rest of the world can fall into a man made crisis as well?
Remember back in the days when they handed out motion sickness bags in planes? One person threw up and then everyone did. Know where I am going with this? You are right they are all throwing up worldwide. Thank God I see some humor in this.
Let me sum it up. You decide if you are part of the contraction or part of the solution. You keep worrying, that is what you get back. Focus on what you can do. Go out and BUY something today, keep it going. We must change the energy around us, which is admittedly a little hard when Mercury is in retrograde. Only one more week and the gloom will lift, the gloom will lift, the gloom will lift….

Friday, October 3, 2008

Sarah

So here it goes. I am the same age as SHE. I know probably a little less about politics but I will say that what Palin did is exactly the strategy I would have taken.

When you don't really know the topics inside out but you learn fast then you use that as your strength and are disarmingly honest about it. It served me well as a woman and Sarah made that point loud and clear. She is what she is, she stepped up to the plate and she made a pretty compelling argument about herself. The no nonsense smart Mommy from Alaska with her share of problems, a strong set of beliefs and a burning desire to make a difference. In addition she got the once in a lifetime opportunity to demonstrate that. Then she takes her sleeping baby and rubs the back of the little munchkin like only Mom's can rocking back and forth and scored big by that alone.

Remember there are a lot of Republican Mom's and die hard Hillary fans like me. The Obama-Biden campaign isn't paying much attention to us, unfortunately.

From the woman who wants it all perspective I must respectfully bow to Sarah Palin and the Republican campaign. She looked great and feminine, she flirted with America and was likable. I liked her. Job well done and women that have not had much to say in household politics in middle America will gladly go and vote for her as she gives them a voice. Very clever and McCain demonstrates a new strategy which is much different then the good-old-boys Texas stuff. And I am not a Republican.

On the other side I wished that Joe would not do that grandfatherly thing, that is a little OLD. But, he did not correct her or attack her personally and I liked that, too. He knows way more then she does and he comes across as well rounded, calm (which I hear he is not) and he understands the workings of politics. Do I believe he will have a better idea what can and cannot be done - you bet.

Biden does not appeal to Hillary fans. Only to those with a father complex (sorry) will want to lean on his shoulder. I see leather chairs and dark paneling and a fire place. Honestly, Obama does not appeal to me that much either, perhaps by my bias opinion and the fact alone that he is a mulatto, just like my daughter and with what I think an identity problem. He has a white mother and black father. How he identifies himself primarily as black and not overall as "brown" (like my daughter when she was little) or "multi-ethnic" is a mystery to me and it feels dishonest. I just don't trust him, period. Smug smile and all those great lines of all the things he want to change in four years – sure... Pick five that I know you can do and stop the change the world overnight thing, I don’t buy it, it’s so, so teenager like.

Who is the better choice? That depends entirely on the next two debates. We are all clear that we cannot take more of the same. America's International appeal and our economy has all but been thrust in the toilet by Bush. He did help me personally though (I might be the only one you can find), so I will be nice enough to say it was probably the best he knew how to do.

McCain or Obama? Obama most definitely runs a sexier campaign and acts like he is the winner already. Talk about manifesting your destiny.

We will all need to ponder over this some more and hope that in the next few weeks the issues will become clearer defined so we can make a choice that is best for this country that I happen to really like a lot. But they are not making it easy on me to figure out what the right thing is.