I remember a financial advisor (a woman) once said that when the male spouse dies its at least an 80% chance the female spouse didn't know anything about their finances. I asked her was that due to their age set and she said no, she finds about the same split with the younger couples she advises as well.
"A weaker currency 'makes them more competitive and reduces the burden of debt," - makes them more competitive? It makes the pricing lower but not more competitive. China and any other country that is racing to the bottom is playing a losing game in the long term. In short term, there may be some benefit but as with anything that becomes commoditized manufacturing is only as good as your last price.
As far as relief of debt that theory has been shown wrong for a good number of years. Lowering the value of a currency may look good to someone who is in debt but it makes those hold the debt less likely to lend which freezes capital and we all go into recession.
Should the US currency not be tied to world gas/oil and other commodity markets we could be seeing what's happening in Japan (pre-quake) where they were a a neg interest rate and are the most highly in debt country. They tried lowering their debt by devaluing but it hasn't and won't work.
First some facts:
The upper 5% of the population pays 75% of all federal revenue, even though they only account for about 25% of the GDP
Almost 60% pay no income tax
The real US tax rate is already one of the highest in the world
The corporate tax is #2 to Japan
Now the ramifications are that the US is already seeing a capital flight out of the country and that trend will only pickup until the Tax Code is fixed.
That's a good way, IMO. I think a lot of non-tech co-founders should look more at outsourcing the development. When even Jrs at good computer schools already have jobs with the big guys, either a tech co-founder really gets your vision and is totally in synch with you (rare) or they have a lot of their own ideas. Let's face it the track record of companies founded without a tech co-founder is dismal and I think that's because the non-tech co-founder has no appreciation for the tech side.
I happen to be a non-tech with a CS degree (old) but at least I know what's involved having come from development. We need to educate ourselves so at least we can have a cogent conversation with techs. One way to do that is to build something with our own resources.
I think also having a prototype that you can at least test customers with and even maybe make a sale or two will go a long way towards swaying a tech co-founder candidate.
I totally agree. As a non-tech co-founder it is up to me to sell value to the prospective tech co-founder, investor and eventually to the customer. If I can't do that then why work with me. That's my main function.
All that being said, I think there is a call for humility on the tech side of things too (I know I might get flamed for this) but most good BD people I know may not be able to code but they do know the business and what is possible. Any great product will go no where without good sales and marketing and that's a fact. Both sides have to have respect for each other's visions.
Yeah I hear you but the steps you take in building a small business, while perhaps less risky, are the same. Yet you even get cache in trying a big business. I've done 5 startups (2 successful and 3 not) but I can point to that in my next you can't use your small business as an example you can do a big one.
So at a certain point in your life it makes sense to swing for the fences if you are the only bread winner for your family I definitely understand reducing risk.
I still can't understand how to use the iPad. It doesn't do what my Mac Book can and I can do what it does on my iPhone. For eBooks I have my Kindle which is much better to read on. The only use I've seen so far that it excels in is in use in debates. The speaker can have more than one document up at a time. Other than that?????
Why should anyone have to imagine? Why should they have to pay for a whole album when only one song is worth paying for? That's the problem with Bon Jovi, most albums weren't worth crap and he wants us to pay for crap. That's stupid.
The only problem here is that entrepreneurs are humans and as such they tend to swing for the fences. I know I do. Its the come big or go home mentality. Its the American way. Whatever you want to call it, its in our genes to do it that way.
Yeah we could all become the equivalent of craftsmen who had to then organize into guilds/unions to get a decent wage. Why do that when we can go home millionaires with the right idea/right money.
I agree to me the main gist of that post was: "So sell, by all means. But don’t over sell. Don’t promise unrealistic things. Don’t over promise.s this quote:"
Sales of everything including hiring talented people is all about the under promising and over delivering. You do that with your customers and with your potential team mates.
The only problem with your points are they have lead other countries to financial ruin. The one thing keeping this country from being Greece or Ireland or even worse Egypt (all I expect would rank higher on government sponsored entitlements) is that the dollar is the world's backup currency. When that stops and it will, there are already signs such as Russia, China and OPEC have met to discuss getting off of the dollar. Our government will no longer be able to just print money to pay for the growth of our government.
The clear lesson with Europe and now Japan is we cannot continue to over tax the capitalists and raise the entitlements.
Keep on going California and soon there will not be anyone left. This goes on all the time. Why do you think Amazon and Microsoft moved their server farms to Idaho?
Eventually they will all move out of the US there will be no where that will lower the taxes for the companies.