Two themes come up frequently in my conversations with and reading about other entrepreneurs-work/life balance, and ‘the bottom line.’

The first doesn’t exist, and the second is not why you’re in business.

If you’re in business for the right reasons, you love what you do; it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. Of course you love your family; of course you have other interests besides work. No respectable person puts work ahead of family; no reasonable person only has one interest, to the exclusion of all others.

But you’d better love what you’re doing, especially if you’re self-employed. Honestly, why would you hire yourself to do a job you don’t like?

So, let’s assume that your work is just another manifestation of your passion.

Do you really expect to take it off and put it on like a sweater? And what does it have to do with money?

Sometimes I work late into the night, missing some family time because I’m in the zone. Sometimes. But, just as often; more often, actually, I take time in the middle of a ‘business day’ to spend time with my wife, my daughters, my friends. I take time, right in the middle of the week, away from work and the office, to share in spiritual activities with my family. I stop work at 4:00 most days to work on an album of jazz songs I’m writing with my older daughter; then, I go back to what I was doing. Or, I don’t. I keep my goals loose and flexible where possible, so I can decide how to spend my time.

Work/life balance means being balanced in my own head, not balanced on a clock or calendar.

And money? C’mon; I’d do 90% of what I’m doing right now, even if I had enough money to retire. I love writing. I love coaching solo professionals, writers, musicians, helping them communicate with their prospects and fans better to establish trust and build relationships. I love my web business; sorting out what’s needed, designing tools, doing usability studies, helping clients build what they really need instead of what they think they need. (Okay, if I really had money, I’d offload the coding to someone more talented than me.)

I love to barter. If someone has a skill I can benefit from, and they need something I can do, I want to work with them. What I don’t want is to turn our genuine human caring into a commercial enterprise. Fer cryin’ out loud; the whole point of my consulting business and my writing is to do exactly the opposite, to get businesses to be more human, to stop behaving like abstract entities with no soul, and start speaking and trusting and caring like real human beings do.

Work/life balance is how you choose to serve yourself and the ones you love, every minute of every day; choices about the long run, not the moment.

And, in the long run, it’s not about money. Not ever.

I have already written an article about some bizarre funeral practices, but there are so many more that are out there that I just had to write another one. The last article went over the practice of Sati in India, the hanging coffins of the Bo people in Southwest China, the strangling of the deceased’s family in Fiji, cannibalism that is practiced in several places, and skull burials in Kiribati. These next few are just as strange as those in the previous article.

Mummification isn’t just for the ancient Egyptians, but there are still many customs that use this as a way to bury the deceased. One group that practiced mummification was the Sokushinbutsu Buddhists of Japan. The process took them about 2,000 days to prepare. They started the process by eating only nuts and seeds for 1,000 days in order to rid their bodies of fat, the next 1,000 days they ate only bark and roots and drink a poisonous tea made from the Urushi tree sap. The tea caused vomiting which results in a rapid loss of liquid and made their bodies too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. After the 2,000 days of preparation were up they would lock themselves in a tomb or grave only big enough for them to sit in the lotus position. The tomb would be completely sealed except for a tube to allow air in and a bell. They would ring the bell everyday to tell others they were alive, and when the bell stopped, the monks would wait another 1,000 days to dig up the deceased to see if the mummification worked. If it did, they were considered as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing and worship. They were put on display, worshiped, and considered semi-Buddha if it didn’t work. In case you were wondering, the whole process is about 9 years long.

The Zoroastrian people practice a form of sky burial by using a Tower of Silence, or Dakhma. Towers of Silence are stone structures that have a bulls eye on the top and have a space within the tower as well. The deceased is place on top of a stone tower in their corresponding circle of the bulls eye, the outer circle is for men, the middle is for women, and the smallest is for children. They are left out in the open air as bait for the vultures; they eat the flesh of the body only their bones before the corpse demon can take over it. The bones are then left for about a year and then places in a pile inside of the tower. They eventually turn to dust and are washed out to sea. Iran no longer allows this practice, but there are other places in India still allow it and consider it to be the person’s last form of charity.

In China, some people invite strippers to the funeral, not to be nice to the stripper or to have a date, but for them to actually strip. The custom is that the more people who show up to the funeral, the more luck your family has. So, the families invite anyone and everyone to the funerals whether or not they knew the deceased. One of the ways they do this is by inviting strippers and exotic dancers to the funeral processions in hopes of drawing a large crowd. This practice is actually illegal in China, but it hasn’t stopped anyone from attempting to get a crowd at a loved one’s funeral.

Is Lockerz another scam site?

Absolutely not! This site 100% legitimate and does send you prizes. You can search all over the internet and find videos of people worldwide unboxing prizes they have received form Lockerz. You also have to be wondering… how do they afford to send out that many prizes? And are they just using the world wide web right now to gather everyone’s information so that they can sell it to advertisers?

Well first off Lockerz is run by high reputable people. The current CEO is Kathy Savitt. She used to be the Vice President at Amazon.com and the CMO at American Eagle. Also this site is funded by Liberty Media, which owns a major part of Time Warner Videos. As you can see, this site isn’t playing around, they want to be big. All of this information ties into the question, how do they afford to send out so many prizes? Lockerz was launched in March of 2009 and started off with 50 users throughout the US. They wanted to establish a reputation that this site isn’t a scam so they made the prizes on their online store very cheap. I am talking 10x less than other similar prize sites. So members are accumulating enough points, which is their currency, to buy a $300 item in about month or less. In result to these low prices, thousands joined everyday. Now they have over 2 million members within several months after launch, which is simply amazing. As I said before, their funding is Liberty Media so they can afford to ship out thousands and thousands of prizes ranging from about $5-$2000 each. So the answer to the question, they are building a reputation and they are sending out tons of prizes to people worldwide showing that their company is 100% legit.

Now to answer the easiest question. Are they going to be selling their members’ information? Absolutely not, If they did do that they would completely lose their reputation and all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into their site will be gone to waste. Just to prove that Lockerz is not scam even more, they have sponsored many fashion shows, and have become partners with the clothing line Ruffian.

To sum it all up, this site is most definitely not a scam.

I get a lot of emails from women whose husbands have left. One of the more common reasons behind this is the existence of another woman. Sometimes, the husband is clearly leaving to be with the other person. And other times, he’s denies that her existence is really the deciding factor in his walking away. Wives very rarely believe this. Most of them feel that if they can figure out a way to get the husband to break things off with the other person, then they will have a chance to repair their marriage.

This is probably oversimplifying the issue a bit. Because there really are three potential issues here. The first is what in the marriage contributed to the husband meeting and forming a relationship with someone else. The second is the fact that the husband has checked out of the marriage and has left. And, the third issue is only going to come into play if the husband decides to return home or at least wants to try to repair the marriage. The third issue would be reestablishing the trust and the connection after his betrayal.

It’s important to understand though, that you aren’t going to be able to address any of these three issues without your husband’s cooperation. This process takes two willing people. With that said though, there are ways that you can set it up to hopefully contribute to his wanting to return. I will discuss this more in the following article.

Him Ending The Relationship With The Other Woman Needs To Be His Choice, But You Can Nudge Him Toward This: First off, it’s very tempting to think that you need to come up with a way to destroy their relationship. If that doesn’t work, the next step that many people will take is to try to bombard the husband will so many pleas for attention that he realizes that you’re superior to the other woman and decides that he’s making a mistake.

You do want for him to realize that he’s making a huge mistake, but it truly is in your best interest to allow him to come to this decision himself. When you try to force your hand or act in a desperate way, you run the risk of making a pest of yourself, contributing to him seeing you negatively, and making your job harder.

Although this strategy can initially feel scary and risky, I firmly believe that you’re generally better off conducting yourself with personal integrity and making your strength clear. It’s best to tell him that although you’re not sure that you’re ready to end the marriage, you can’t address the marriage unless he’s focused solely on you and your relationship. Since this isn’t happening right now, he can contact you when he’s decided that he’s committed only to you and to the marriage. If you feel the need to, you can tell him that you’ll be there for him if he needs support or needs to talk, but the marriage has to come off the table while there are three people in this relationship.

I know that this is a lot to ask, but it accomplishes several things. You’ve made it clear that his having someone else is not acceptable. You’ve presented yourself as someone with strength and standards and these things will make you appear to be much more attractive and in control. And, you’ve made it clear that you aren’t ready to end the marriage, but that some things will need to be eliminated before you will consider fixing this.

Sure, your husband may not let the other woman go immediately. But, you have set yourself up so that when he tires of her or realizes just how stupid this whole thing is, you’ve not given your strength away or reduced your own actions down to her level. Throwing yourself at your husband or acting in a way that is beneath you is horrible for your self esteem and over all situation. This kind of behavior is usually the beginning of a slippery slope that you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

Portraying Your Best Self While He’s Away: It’s very tempting to never leave the house and to sink into a deep depression but these are additional things that you must avoid. You want for him to know that there isn’t any grass growing under your feet. Don’t make the very common mistake, though, of finding someone else. You are still married. You don’t want to conduct yourself in the way that he is. It’s OK to go out with friends and make sure that he knows about this. He will usually wonder if you are seeing other people. And, he can wonder this, but don’t make it a reality.

Again, you want to portray yourself in an attractive way. He needs to know that you’re the fun loving, exciting woman that he fell in love with. This is who you want to show him. Ultimately, you want to winds of power to begin to shift. You want to lure him back to you and you want for him to be the one who is doing the chasing. It’s human nature for people to want what they perceive might be tricky to actually have. So, always remember that you want to move slowly and that ultimately you want to be in the situation where he’s the pursuer, not vice verse.

Once He Decides To Give Up The Other Woman: If you play this correctly and have a little bit of luck and timing on your side, often he will eventually realize that the other woman and his relationship with her isn’t all that he hoped it would be. When this happens, it’s common to feel so much relief that you let your guard down and are willing to take him back immediately. This is not always in your best interest either.

You’ll need to take a hard look at the marriage and figure out what needs to be fixed to ensure the relationship is a solid one from this point forward. That’s why taking it slowly is always a great idea. There’s bound to be a lot of water under the proverbial bridge so don’t try to gain too much ground too soon. You have plenty of time and in order to restore the trust and connection, many things need to happen. But, if you put too much pressure on the process, you run the risk of compromising the results.

At this point, you would’ve worked hard to maintain your dignity and strength, so don’t blow the whole thing by letting down your guard. There’s still work to be done, but if you take it day by day and work at at together (because he’s now fully on board) you will have a greater chance of success.

At first glance, looking at the sales page for Russell Brunson’s latest Internet product, Underachiever Secrets, one can be struck by the amount of hype and other dubious tactics used to promote this program. It’s enough to turn most people off in the beginning. But if you dig beneath this superficial surface, you will find that the information being offered is based on sound business practices that have stood the test of time while helping other aspiring entrepreneurs make their mark in online marketing and business.

To answer the question posed in the title to this review, no, the core information presented in Underachiever Secrets is not just marketing hyperbole. Nor is it a lie. Those who take the time to actually research and prepare their product for Internet marketing and who implement the information presented in this program can discover first hand the power of what is being taught. If you are a “take charge” type of person who enjoys thinking for himself, it’s likely you may find plenty of profitable ideas and strategies to choose from in this material.

That said, there are some drawbacks to the Underachiever Secrets material and software which may cross the line on marketing hyperbole, especially for the beginning student of Internet marketing. For one thing, this program has been criticized for being light on the actual specifics of putting together an effective promotion in terms of website creation and such.

For example, it’s uncertain how much users are taught about SEO (search engine optimization) and how to set up their websites for maximum exposure to capture free traffic from the search engines. While SEO procedures are not all that difficult to understand, it would be beneficial for novices to the business to be given some in-depth direction in this highly important area. There’s more to SEO than just choosing the right keywords and placing them in your article or on your website. You also have to know HOW to make that effective.

In many areas it’s almost as though Brunson assumes the reader already understands a great deal about online marketing, so he doesn’t go into the nuts-and-bolts details. As well, it often explains things using generalities. If you’re a beginner in the I.M. industry, you may wish to check out another of Brunson’s products (20 Minute Payday) which addresses these matters more fully.

Additionally, the software included in Underachiever Secrets has left some reviewers laughing in the aisles. It’s rather amateurish in appearance, and according to one reviewer who published his critique on the program debut date of March 1, 2011, not every software module was working properly. Hopefully, Russell’s coders have worked out the kinks since that time.

As far as delivering the goods about how to go about building a viable online business through the development of in-demand products delivered through simple yet focused websites, this information delivers the goods. All the important areas are covered. Users are given some instruction about product development, copywriting, building a back-end income stream, affiliate marketing, SEO, and paid media in an effort to teach them how to publish numerous small, but highly focused product related web sites. Once these sites are set up in money niches (where demand is high), the main duty of the marketer then becomes driving qualified traffic toward them. And that’s a winning combination in anyone’s book. Period.

However, in order to make all these areas work up to their maximum efficiency, users may need to step outside the instruction given in this program to find additional material (more detailed instruction) to help refine the effectiveness of their website properties. Yet this is not a bad problem to have. It’s something that every marketer faces on the road to success: keeping up with the ongoing changes that take place in this dynamic arena of Internet marketing. You never stop learning about what works.

Thanks for checking out this Visalus review! Since you’re here, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about this MLM mainstay and might be looking into joining them!

In this Visalus review, I’m going to explain if I believe Visalus to be a good company. I’ll go over the compensation plan, products, and their overall business. Plus, make sure to read to the end of this Visalus review because I’ll give you a simple formula to place yourself ahead of virtually every other rep out there!

Visalus was founded a little over a decade ago, and has since grown into a very successful MLM company. Their corporate board carries decades and decades of network marketing experience, which always bodes well for the future. Furthermore, their CEO, Ryan Blair, has helped engineer a 1,200% growth in just 3 years. It seems they are definitely on the right track, and appears that they are poised for their huge growth curve.

Visalus Review: Worthwhile Products?

After doing a bit of research, I must say that I’m impressed by the genius of their flagship product, the Body By Vi 90 Day Challenge. It is basically a 90 day plan to getting people in shape. It is one of the most marketable products I’ve ever seen for an MLM, and helps them stand out in a crowded health and wellness genre.

People want to lose weight, and they love having a specific step-by-step way to get there, along with a timeline for when it will happen. This product is very popular in the marketplace.

Also, throw into the mix their other various lines, such as weight loss, energy, and anti-aging products, and you have a well-rounded and diverse series of products you can market.

Visalus Review: Compensation Plan Broken Down

In simple terms, their compensation plan pays out up front bonuses, long term residual, as well as advancement bonuses.

When I’m looking at a compensation plan, those are the exact three things I look for. You get rewarded up front for immediate recruiting, plus building a large and growing team creates wealth down the road.

Overall, Visalus is a fantastic company for anyone to be a part of. They’ve already been around long enough to ensure that they’re a mainstay. Their compensation plan is very fair, and they have marketable products.

However, those points alone aren’t enough to guarantee that you’ll be a successful member of their company. In reality, the majority of their sales reps won’t ever make a dime in their company and will quit within a few months.

There are two ways that you can overcome these obstacles and position yourself in a position to do very well. First, you must join a team that will be there to help you. Your upline should be available for you to talk and consult with them. Plus, they should hold regular trainings and also be able to teach you how to recruit.

Second, you must have a marketing plan to find 20-30 leads per day, or you’ll never be able to recruit enough new reps to make any significant money. Many Visalus reps use online marketing systems to help brand themselves as leaders, and attract dozens of prospects to them ever day. To learn how to do this yourself, check out the resource box below!

Hope you enjoyed this Visalus Review!

I found out my boyfriend kissed another girl and he admitted his mistakes. The problem is I do not know if I should trust him again though he assured me that he will not do it again. This scene of my boyfriend kissing another girl somehow will always flash in the back of my mind. This kind of problem is common in a relationship and what should you do if your boyfriend kissed another girl?

Firstly, there are a few questions that you have to ask yourself. How long have both of you been together? Is this the first time that such thing happened? Do you find him sincere and apologetic? If you are quite clear that both of you are serious about this relationship and because of his mistake that changed the situation, take some time to be away from him. Make sure he respects your decision in giving you some quiet time to think through this relationship.

When you have some time to be alone, you are able to gauge if this relationship is worth saving. If he is really sincere and serious in making up for his mistake, learning how to forgive your boyfriend may not be a bad thing after all.

One sure thing is he definitely needs some serious making up and you have to make sure that he is not going to betray you in any ways. Of course, he can’t get away so easily with the mistake he done. Your boyfriend will put in a lot of effort to improve the relationship if he is serious to keep this relationship. Observe how he is going to do it for a period of time.

It takes time to forgive a person totally and there are many proven ways to build a successful relationship. You can ensure your boyfriend love you strongly when you are following the right rules to win his heart completely. Fix your problems with Relationship Tips Given.

Travelling around the world has been much simpler in this age with the help of A380s and the monorails. Barriers of communication, traditions, cultures, ethnicity and a lot of those borders that had been stereotyped to several tribes and people have been seen to disappear with the passage of time. We now enjoy the diversity in the thinking, the lifestyles and one aspect that we really adore is the increasing taste and variety in food.

Long before the advent of innovation we did not think beyond baked bread, sausages and vine but now things have changed with advancement in time. We enjoy several cuisines like, Italian, Chinese and yes the Japanese. Like always the Japanese have made sure that they take their products and make an identity of its own. Their efforts have not been feeble even in the farms they have put up especially to add to their produce of the world famous Kobe beef.

Kobe beef as in Japanese is the name given to the meat produced by breeding a black range of Wagyu cattle especially in Tajima according to some of the most strict traditions and practices of their own ancestors that have been preserved to give the same quality to date. Kobe beef is also referred to as Kobe niku (niku meaning meat) that comes from the Kobe cows. Kobe beef is the world famous Japanese beef, known to make some of the finest Kobe steaks, patties and burgers and ground hamburgers.

Kobe beef can be easily distinguished among any other types of meat or beef due their wonderful flavor, soft and tender feeling, and a really thin fat covering that gives it a marble like texture. This variety of meat is available in most well reputed marts and shops as it is a bit costly compared to the local meat that we have access to. The only reason adding to such high prices is that it is extracted from some of the world’s finest breeds of cattle that are raised like kings and fed with delicacies. The expenses that add up to the cost of the Kobe beef include proper dietary food and beer so as to stimulate the appetite of the Wagyu cattle of Tajima. And other expenditure includes the services in keeping them physically fit and active by giving daily massages which help in relieving muscle stiffness and therefore seem to be the major reasons for such tender meat.

The original Kobe beef is said to have some quality standards which the Japanese cattle breeders have to fulfill. Some of them are as follows:

» The cattle should be born in Tajima, Hyogo Prefecture only

» Be fed by the same farms from where they originate

» The beef should be of a virgin or bullocks to ensure purity

» Processed in slaughter houses in Hyogo Prefecture only

» The BMS (marble texture) ratio is to be at least level 6

» Meat should of high quality cattle weighing less than 470 kg

Anything they can do, we can do better, but anything we do they copy before we are completed. Over the years I’ve been personally conflicted with the notion of sharing our University research with the general public.

On one hand I want all the information I can wrap my brain around, and I know my taxpayer dollar partly funded it so, give it to me. On the other hand, I realize that these researchers want to publish right away and give talks at symposiums around the world for their notoriety and to keep their academic institution at the top of the heap. Unfortunately, this immediately publish and perish world of high-tech science often has research that lends itself well to military technologies, meaning the Russians, Chinese, or other nations building competing war toys, get it for free – again I realize that my tax dollar paid for it, so why is the taxpayer paying for the competition to have our military technologies?

There was an interesting piece in Sino Defense News online on August 21, 2013 titled; “Type 022 (Houbei Class) Fast Attack Missile Craft,” which told of their newly unveiled catamaran “Hobie Cat” style naval warship. Interestingly enough, it sure looks like several designs borrowed from the Australians and one which was featured in a James Bond movie back in the late 80s.

The blue camouflage was puzzling to me, because if they use it off their own coastline where there is 460 square miles of dead zone (void of oxygen) and pollution, then it is the wrong color with that bright dazzling display of art on the side and top. They should have painted it a murky gray color if they wanted to blend into all of their ocean pollution there, but I digress, because I am certain it will make the emperor (Communist Chinese Chairman) proud in a Naval parade of boats along the river?

Indeed, I recently read a GAO report which recommended that the US Navy, which has ordered several of these platforms with modular mission ready components, stop ordering anymore until they know what they are going to do with them. But if they tell the GAO, the GAO will publish that and the enemy (too harsh) military competitors will also know. Do you see that point? Please consider all this and think on it.

Cite: Breaking Defense News Online – article – “Navy Can’t Calculate Littoral Combat Ship’s Operating Costs, GAO Draft,” by Sydney J. Freeberg Jr. May 7, 2013.

If your guy has broken up with you and moved on, but you still want him back, you will have to figure out how to get your guy back from his new girl.

Even if it has been awhile since the break up, this is not impossible!

Simply follow these tips and the new girl will become another page in his history!

Tip 1:Let the new fling run its course

If you can stand it, just let things with the new girl run its course.

There are three different stages in relationships; new romance, reality of romance and lifelong love.

Most relationships do not get to the third phase and some never even make it to the second one.

When it comes to rebound relationships, phase one is the only one that is reached before things are over.

So, let him and the newbie get through phase one and then be his shoulder to lean on once it is over.

Tip 2: Look good

Do not become a stalker but just happen to show up in the places where you know him and the new girl will be.

The key here though is not to just let him see you. You have to let him see you looking good.

Do a total makeover on yourself from head to toe. New hair, new nails and new clothes are what you need now.

Make sure when you do see him that you are swinging those hips and being flirty with every man who comes your way.

He will soon figure out the grass is greener on your side and come running back to you, leaving her in the dust!

Tip 3: Just happen to be there

Just happen to run into him while he is with her.

Instead of getting uncomfortable and avoiding him, strut right on over to where they are.

Say hello in the happiest way you can.

Make sure that when you ask how he is, you lean in and touch his hand or arm playfully.

Make reference to some private joke you two used to share. He will laugh with you and she will be standing there unnoticed.

Once his focus is on you and something happy from the past, he will forget his new girl is even there.

Tip 4: Act cool

Seeing your ex boyfriend with a new girl will obviously make you feel mad! But you can’t show this in front of them.

Just act cool. Do not show that you are jealous. Do not be mad. Don’t just ignore them or put them down in any way.

I know it’s hard but you really need to act cheerful and happy to see them.

Tell the new girl it was lovely to meet her and that they look awesome together.

Do this with a big smile on your face. The new girl will feel threatened by your calm and confident demeanor.

If you really want to get your guy back from another girl, follow these tips and do not give up!