With its population predicted to grow 100 million by 2050, Joel Kotkin envisions a resurgent U.S., according to an article in the Dallas Morning News written by Dr. Larry Allums.

Between 2000 and 2050, census data suggest, the U.S. 15-to-64 age group is expected to grow 42%.  In contrast, because of falling fertility rates, the number of young and working-age people is expected to decline elsewhere: by 10% in China, 25% in Europe, 30% in South Korea and more than 40 % in Japan.

Immigration will continue to be a major force in U.S. Life.  The United Nations estimates that 2 million people a year will move from poorer to developed nations over the next 40 years, and more than half of those will come to the U.S., the world’s preferred destination for educated, skilled migrants.

The new suburbia will be far more environmentally friendly, what I call “greenurbia.”  The Internet, wireless phones, video conferencing and other communication technologies will allow more people to work from home: at least one in four or five will do so full time or part time, up from roughly one in six or seven today.

Entrepreneurs, small businesses and self-employed workers will become more common.  Between 1980, and 2000 the number of self-employed individuals expanded, to about 15% of the work force.  More workers will live in an economic environment like that of Hollywood or Silicon Valley, with constant job hopping and changes in alliances among companies.

Describing America’s “fundamental strengths,” Kotkin ironically, but perhaps appropriately, employs a non-Anglo word: “These traits provide the United States with what Japanese scholar Fuji Kamiya has described as sokojikara; a reserve power that allows it to overcome both the inadequacies of its leaders and the foibles of its citizens.”

The America of 2050 will likely remain the one truly transcendent superpower in terms of society, technology and culture.  It will rely on what has been called America’s “civil religion” – its ability to forge a unique common national culture amid great diversity of people and place.  We have no reason to lose faith in the possibilities of the future.

Note from Petey: It is a hard book to read so I was delighted to have this article to rely on.  I must confess that I call myself an Edgy Conservative and therefore had a hard time not feeling offended because I still believe in the ethics, standard, ‘can do’ spirit, proud to be an American generation and hate to let that go with only a whimper of, “Oh, well … it’s time to let someone else take over” But, that’s just me. Read the book and see what you think.

The author introduces the book and 21 day challenge by saying, “In your hands you hold the secret to transforming your life.”  Big words?  Yes, but this is a plan that has already proven itself with millions of people around the world.  Pastor Will Bowen developed the life-changing A Complaint Free World plan based on the simple idea that good things will happen for you in abundance if you can just leave your grumbling behind.  In a Sunday-morning sermon, Will told his congregation he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone, and to prove he was serious, he passed out purple bracelets to all the church members and offered them a challenge.  “If you catch yourself complaining, take the bracelet and move it to the other wrist.”

Less than a year later, more than six million people have taken up the challenge, trying to go 21 consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, and in so doing, forming a new, positive habit.

He clarifies and defines the words Complain and Criticize the following way:

Complain: To express grief, pain or discontent.  It’s a complaint if you want the person or situation changed.  If you want it other than how it is, it’s a complaint and not just a statement of fact.  As you cease to complain, you will find yourself less often in fear and anger.  “Anger is fear directed outward.  Complaining is a form of manipulation.” – Gary Zukav

Processing and complaining is not the same thing.  Processing is sharing your feelings about something that has happened and not rehashing the events of what happened.  “Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right.  And to refrain from complaining doesn’t necessarily MEAN PUTTING UP WITH BAD QUALITY OR BEHAVIOR.  There is no ego in telling the waiter you soup is cold and needs to be heated up, if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral.  “How dare you serve me cold soup? That’s complaining” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth.

A complaint may be a cry for attention, but it is also a signal to the Universe that something is wrong.

To criticize means to find fault with someone or something.  When we criticize someone, they feel the need to justify their behavior.  Justification arises when a person feels that an injustice has occurred.  Appreciation inspires a person to excel so as to receive more appreciation.  Criticism tears someone down, and when we debase someone we actually give that person implicit permission to act in similar ways in the future.  Attention drives behavior.  When someone critically lashes out at you, they are doing so from their own fear and insecurities.  They are coming from what they feel is a weak position and amplify their vitriol as a way of making themselves appear big and strong when they actually feel small and weak.  They are projecting their fear and discomfort onto others – they attempt to hurt because they are hurting.

Lump gossip in with complaining – OK as long as;

1. What you’re saying about the absent person is complimentary.
2. You would repeat it word for word, what you are saying, if the absent person were present.

Bottom line … if we want to improve the world, it must first come from our healing the discord within our own souls.  Changing our words will ultimately change our thoughts, which will, in turn, change our world.  When we cease complaining, we remove the primary outlet for our negative thoughts, our minds shift, and we become happier.  When your mouth stops expressing negative thoughts, you mind will find other, happier thought to create.

You can learn more by going into  www.AComplaintFreeWorld.org

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on”.  His observation rings true.  Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public health scares circulate effortlessly.  Meanwhile, people with important ideas, businesspeople, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others, struggle to make their ideas “stick”.

The brothers, Chip and Dan Heath, tackle why some ideas stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier by introducing us to six (6) principles spelling out SUCCESS:

1. Simple
   1. Simplicity isn’t about dumbing down.  It’s about prioritizing.
2. Unexpected
   1. To get attention, violate a schema. Use curiosity gaps.
3. Concrete
   1. Use sensory language. Paint a mental picture.
4. Credible
   1. Ideas can get credibility from outside (authorities) or from within, using human-scale statistics or vivid details.
5. Emotional
   1. People care about people, not numbers.
6. Stories
   1. Stories drive action through simulation (what to do) and inspiration (the motivation to do it). Help people see how an existing problem might change.

Here is an example supporting the act of doing the unexpected.  Curiosity comes from gaps in our knowledge.  How do you get people interested in a topic?  You point out a gap in their knowledge and you set context so people care what comes next by sequencing information and not dumping a stack of information on someone at once, but dropping a clue, then another clue, then another.  This method of communication resembles flirting more than lecturing.

Whether you’re a CEO or a full-time mom, you’ve got ideas that you need to communicate, whether it’s a new product coming to market, a strategy you want to sell your boss, or values you are trying to instill in your children.  But it’s hard, fiendishly so, to transform the way people think and act.

This book, STICK, makes it easier.  Buy it, read it and then move on to their next book, SWITCH.

There’s No Such Thing as “BUSINESS” ETHICS … There is only ONE RULE for making decisions – by John C. Maxwell

“In a new era for business, CEO’s face a new mandate, Glamour and glitz are out.  Transparence, in terms of ethics, values, and goals, is in.” –  Executive recruiters Heidrick and Struggles.

Points made by John Maxwell:

• People make unethical choices for one of three reasons. We do what’s most convenient, we do what we must to win, or we rationalize our choices with relativism.
• Companies that are dedicated to doing the right thing have a written commitment to social responsibility, and act on it consistently, are more profitable than those who don’t.
• You will be able to use one guideline to govern all of your ethical decision making.  IT’S BASED ON THE GOLDEN RULE.
• “Ethics is about how we meet the challenge of doing the right thing when that will cost more than we want to pay.” – The Josephson Institute of Ethics
• In the American marketplace today, 70 percent of the people who leave their jobs do so because they do not feel valued.
• Every day, whenever the issue of ethical behavior confronts you, ask this question:  “How would I like to be treated in this situation?”
• “Men are alike in their promises.  It is only in their deeds that they differ.” – Moliere
• You can’t capitalize on an opportunity you receive on the outside until you’ve done the groundwork on the inside.
• Integrity can be described as making your beliefs and your actions line up.
• You can develop a “Midas touch” with people by taking your focus off yourself and what you can gain, and instead focusing on adding value to others.
• “Doing my best at this present moment puts me in the best place for the next moment.” – Oprah Winfrey
• I believe there are two basic paths to achievement a person can choose.  You can go for the gold, or you can go for the Golden Rule. People who go for the gold ask, “What can you do for me?” and base their values on their worth.  People who go for the Golden Rule ask, “What can I do for you?” and base their worth on their values.  People who live by the Golden Rule give themselves a chance to have it all!

“If you mistrust your employees, you’ll be right 3% of the time.  If you trust people until they give you a reason not to, you’ll be right 97% of the time.” – Wolf J. Rinke

Dr. Stephen Covey describes this book, and I agree with him, “A persuasive, inspiring, and greatly needed message!  When ethics, the Golden Rule, is the center; all compartments of life are harmonized and integrated.  The Golden Rule is right.  It also happens to work.”

Power of 2 – How to make the most of your partnerships at work and in life by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, PH.D.

Because it’s been said that important as it is to choose the right partner, it’s probably more important to be the right partner.  We focus on changing the wrong person.  So it was with a great deal of self searching that I agreed to partner with Andy Klausner in our new alliance known as P3 Consulting.  An edgy and innovative approach to inspiring people and organizations to be the best they can be.  As a precursor to our alliance, I bought this book for Andy and found out that I was the side of the partnership needing to read it.

The authors make the point that humans are made for collaborating in a newly do-it-yourself world.  Their research revealed eight elements of a powerful partnership:

1. Complementary Strengths
2. A Common Mission
3. Fairness
4. Trust
5. Acceptance
6. Forgiveness
7. Communicating
8. Unselfishness

In closing, the authors remind us that being a great partner is hard work.  (In business and in your personal life.)  The two of you must always stay on the common ground of a shared mission.  Both of you are apt to overestimate your own contributions, to see the other’s weaknesses clearer than his own strengths, to find the other’s way of doing things odd, to make wrong assumptions and communicate too little, and perhaps to find trust itself elusive.  The most dangerous trap of collaboration is the convenient availability of someone else to blame for its failure.  Collaborating well demands a degree of accommodation and humility rarely needed otherwise.

If you want to have a great partnership, be a great partner.  Get beyond yourself.  Give up the notion that you are well-rounded, and stop expecting your colleagues to be universally proficient.  Incorporate someone else’s motivations into your view of the accomplishment.  Loosen up.  Put aside your competitive nature, your prepackaged view of how the thing should be done, and your desire not to be inconvenienced with the imperfections of a fellow human being.  Focus more on what you do for the partnership than what you get from it.  Demonstrate trust in more people, and see if they don’t surprise you with their trustworthiness.  Be slower to anger and quicker to forgive.  And along the way, communicate continuously.

As you do, incredible things will happen.  You will discover more comrades among your colleagues.  You will find greater strengths in yourself and in your collaborators.  Your happiness will increase.  You will achieve greater heights than you thought attainable.  Most important, you will not stand alone on these summits.

That is the Power of 2

Should you buy this book?  Petey says YES!  Go – run – get it – implement it – and you will have done yourself a major favor.  Start or end by logging on to their website, www.heathbrothers.com to learn even more.

So why am I so excited about this book?  Because it make the “light bulb” come on in your head – it teaches you how to throw the switch on and off between the rational mind wanting to change while the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine.  “For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently.  Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your team,” say the Heath Brothers.  And, most of us respond with, “Yeah, yeah, yeah – easier said than done!”

Dan and Chip give everyday examples of how to use these methods to help you diet, win over a team, get expense reports in, create MAGIC within your organization. The analogy used throughout Switch is to imagine a Rider (person in charge) perched on an Elephant (one expected to follow directions) happily staying on an uncertain path.   There’s a 99% chance of failure UNLESS… you Direct the rider; Motivatethe elephant; and Shape the path.

HOW?  The answer is best described by the authors as follows:

To Direct the Rider:

• Follow the Bright Spots.  Investigate what’s working and clone it.
• Script the Critical Moves.  Don’t think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviors
• Point to the Destination. Change is easier when you know where you’re going and why it’s worth it.

To Motivate the Elephant:

• Find the Feeling. Knowing something isn’t enough to cause change.  Make people feel something.
• Shrink the Change. Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant
• Grow your People. Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mind-set.

To Shape the Path:

• Tweak the environment. When the situation changes, the behavior changes.  So change the situation.
• Build Habits. When behavior is habitual, it’s “free” – it doesn’t tax the Rider.  Look for ways to encourage habits.
• Rally the Herd. Behavior is contagious.  Help it spread!

Too many books out there are TBU –  the Heath Brothers initials for ‘True, But Useless’.  Not Switch!  It’s almost too good to be true, but it is all that and more – it’s easy to implement.

Disclosure: Read this book only if you want to improve the quality of your business and your life.