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Does Socialism Work?

A friend sent this to me. 

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.  That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, it would be a great equalizer.  The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.   After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.  The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.   The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

 When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.  The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.  It could not be any simpler than that.

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Coincidentally, I see the same phenomenon take place when companies give everyone the same pay increase rather than pay for performance.  It always leads to mediocrity which is the death of any company or business. 

Are you organized?

I consider myself an organized person.  I try to live by the motto, "everything has a place, and everything is in its place."  In fact, Order is one of my 13 personal values.  I work hard to keep my life organized.  My clothes are arranged by color in my closet, my tool box is labeled by the type of tool I'm storing, and I use  labeled plastic containers to store screws, bolts, and many other items I periodically need.  My files are labeled and organized aphabetically in three different file cabinets.  One of the best investments  you can make is to purchase a label maker at an office supply store. When I can't quickly find something I need, I become frustrated and stressed because I feel like I'm wasting valuable time.  In fact, one of my rules is that I can find any file in my office or on my computer within 10 seconds.  Like  everything else, being organized is a choice.  A person decides to be organized or not organized.  Organization is a habit.  Do you want to get more oganized?  Here are some steps that will help you.

1.    Decide that being organized is important to you.  It's something you value.

2.    Read a good book on getting organized and implement the principles you learn.

3.    Have someone who is organized help you to be more organized.

4.    Each week pick only one area of your life that you want to organize - closet, car, garage, desk, office, etc. - and focus on gaining organizational control in that area before moving to the next one.  Start with sometihing easy so you can get a quick win.  It will build your confidence.  Be sure to attack only one area at a time.

5.    Use the "Grab 15" principle.  Every day for the next week, schedule 15 minutes a day and spend that time organizing something.

6.    Reward yourself each time you reach an organizational milestone.

Good luck and start getting organized today.

Art Williams

My daughter Kim texted me this week and asked if I had heard of A. L. Williams.  I texted back saying yes and that I had read his book All You Can Do Is All You Can Do; But All You Can Do Is Enough several years ago.  Art is a former high school football coach who started selling term insurance and eventually started his own hugely insurance company which he sold to Primerica several years ago.  Art is now a retired billionaire who still is encouraging people to go for their dreams.  My daughter responded back saying she was having lunch at Art's house.  This certainly piqued my interest since she doesn't normally circulate among the rich and famous.  After a few more texts I found out the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.  Kim was in the Highlands in North Carolina to be in a wedding (her 8th) of one of her UT sorority sisters whose sister-in-law happens to be Art's granddaughter and who was hosting the bridal luncheon at her grandfather's house and farm.  Art did drop in to the luncheon long enough to say hello and grab a piece of cake.  Several years ago Art made a speech at the National Christian Broadcasters' annual luncheon.  His speech called "Do It" has become quite famous.  When you need a little motivation or you don't have enough fire in the belly to accomplish a goal, take a few minutes to watch the speech, and then DO IT, and Do It, and Do It, and Do It, and Do It ......until the job is done.