The way that I see it, is that we don’t make enough stuff here. Manufacturing was sacrificed on the altar of “Shareholder Value” decades ago. Now, the only left that manufacturing has to sacrifice are it’s skeletal remains.
We chose to focus our cameras on Detroit out of a gut feeling that this city — often heralded as the birthplace of the middle class — may well be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.
Whenever you start a project, you should have a plan for finishing it.
One outcome is to declare victory, to find that moment when you have satisfied your objectives and reached a goal.
The other outcome, which feels like a downer but is almost as good, is to declare failure, to realize that you've run out of useful string and it's time to move on. I think the intentional act of declaring becomes an essential moment of learning, a spot in time where you consider inputs and outputs and adjust your strategy for next time.
If you are unable to declare, then you're going to slog, and instead of starting new projects based on what you've learned, you'll merely end up trapped. I'm not suggesting that you flit. A project might last a decade or a generation, but if it is to be a project, it must have an end.
One of the challenges of an open-ended war or the Occupy movement is that they are projects where failure or victory wasn't understood at the beginning. While you may be tempted to be situational about this, to know it when you see it, to decide as you go, it's far more powerful and effective to define victory or failure in advance.
Declare one or the other, but declare.
We get really excited about the beginnings of a new project – tweaking a website, picking a theme, making it look well and have killer on-page SEO. But then the real work begins – the boring stuff. None of it is hard, but some of it is boring.
When will you know when you’re done? How will you get from today to there?
Effective Pre-Election Prayer
http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2010/09/10/effective-pre-election-prayer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+VoiceOfRevolution+%28Voice+of+Revolution%29
We are called to pray for the social and economic climate in which we find ourselves. We are called to pray for the structure of civil society to be amenable to the manifestation of the Kingdom of God through the church. To pray for the Kingdom’s purposes to advance in our nation we must identify with the King’s heart for those who govern. First, we must renounce wrath, rebellion and resentment.
The article goes through a number of keys how we, as Christians, should be praying for this and any election.
(via Instapaper)
Bruce & Rhonda Grow their eBay Business [The Kabbage Chronicles, Day 15] « The Kabbage Blog
http://blog.kabbage.com/2010/09/06/bruce-rhonda-grow-their-ebay-business-the-kabbage-chronicles-day-15/
Bruce and I sat down and had a business meeting. As wonderful as the returns are they are not meeting our financial needs. After much discussion and frustration over the list of bills and the household day to day needs going unmet. We came to the conclusion that we need to buy and resell bigger ticket items as well as the smaller.
(via Instapaper)
Could A Family Of Four Possibly Live On $50K These Days?
http://www.businessinsider.com/could-a-family-of-four-possibly-live-on-50k-these-days-2010-9?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29
So can a family of four survive on $50,000 in America today? The answer might surprise you. Twenty years ago a middle class American family of four would have been doing quite well on $50,000 per year. But things have changed.
(via Instapaper)