The Richwood Report

Thoughts on the roots of the Thanksgiving holiday from Henry Hazlitt, (1894-1993). Hazlitt was a writer for the New York Times. For an excellent summary of basic economics written so all of us can understand it, read his Economics in One Lesson, published in 1946. Looks like there are bargains to be had on Amazon.com.

With our good wishes for all on the Thanksgiving holiday, The Richwood Report points to this photoessay on thanksgiving.

While you were looking at allmeasures.com, the web-based converter for engineering units, I hope you didn't miss the money converter. Click on the box marked "Money (currencies and inflation)' and then the button marked "Converter". You will be taken to a large spreadsheet where you can enter values for money and convert them to the same amount in another year adjusted for inflation. The converter works both forward and backward and you will see values for all years simultaneously. For fun, the Richwood Reporter checked out the wages for his first manufacturing job in 1970. He was a tack-welder in a plant making railroad cars and made $2.83/hour. This was better than common labor which paid $2.60 and not as good as a production welder who made $3.27. The converter said that to make money for the same standard of living today, these rates would be about $12.50, $11.49, and $14.45, respectively. The converter also references all values to the year1914 which marked the beginning of WWI and the effective end of the gold standard. The $2.83 figure amounted to just $0.75/hour then!
The Consumer Price Index is based on the price of common consumer items and is an effort to show a standard value for a given standard of living in any given year. You may read more about it here. Money is only worth what you can buy with it and while a suit of clothes or a steak dinner is the same as in 1970, their prices have certainly changed.

While you're on the Jim Rohn site, check out Lydia's List, Nine Things More Important than Capital. It's simple material, but valuable and practical help with the personal capital you need for success.

Lots of people want to conquer procrastination tomorrow. There are ways to get things done today. Jim Rohn, sales trainer, gives us some practical help with procrastination, the thief of time. I liked this part:

Remember, the basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That's what
perfectionism really is, once you take a hard look at it. What's the difference whether you're afraid of being less than perfect or afraid of anything else? You're still paralyzed by fear. What's the difference whether you never start or never finish? You're still stuck. You're still going nowhere. You're still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You´re still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision of the future in which you see yourself being criticized, laughed at, punished, or ridden out of town on a rail. Of course, this negative vision of the future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It's a very convenient mental tool.

Early in the Twentieth Century, an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto studied the economic makeup of Italian society. He found that eighty percent of the wealth in Italy belonged to twenty percent of the people. Later, his name was applied to a larger principle: In any group, eighty percent of the samples are trivial and twenty percent are vital. You probably already know that most companies get eighty percent of their sales dollar volume from twenty percent of their customers and eighty percent of their problems from twenty percent of their customers and it's not the same twenty percent! If you look for them, examples are everywhere and there are some very practical ways you can use this principle to get more results for your effort. If you think about it, this principle may explain how some people accomplish amazing results apparently with the same effort as others who accomplish much less. Here is an article about how the Pareto Principle can make you more productive. Here's another and another.

Here's an interesting question. Could you tell a prospect why they should buy from you in a 25-floor elevator ride? This site helps you develop a short and effective presentation by filling in the blanks in a form. You may never sell on an elevator but there are lots of brief opportunities where you will either be ready or not.