{"id":287,"date":"2015-02-04T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/?p=287"},"modified":"2015-02-03T14:55:55","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T19:55:55","slug":"football-the-american-dream-a-playground-for-the-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/football-the-american-dream-a-playground-for-the-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Football, The American Dream & A Playground for the Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was privileged to take a trip to a wealthy golf haven back in January – a playground for the rich. But first I want to rant about something related\u2026
\nOur American foundation is under attack. Make no mistake. Powerful forces are trying to pull America toward the left. I\u2019m not talking about social issues. I\u2019m talking about economic policy, incorrect thinking about \u201cjobs\u201d, and the rampant disease of \u201centitlement\u201d. Since its founding, America became great because of hard work, persistence, and personal responsibility.
\nUnfortunately, too many people now feel \u201centitled\u201d. Entitled to a job even if they have no skills or don\u2019t work hard. Entitled to high speed internet, cable, smart phones, and 2 nice cars (not one but two). America became great because you did \u201cthe work\u201d before you got \u201cthe rewards\u201d.
\nDo you have employees that constantly show up late for work? Constantly check their Facebook and Twitter during the work day? Do they get grumpy when you ask them to actually do \u201csome work\u201d? If so, then you need to DO something about it. Let the firings begin if need be, until the situation improves.
\nThere\u2019s also an ugly rash of attacking those that are wealthy and successful \u2013 the evil 1-percenters. America grew exponentially because of the \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d. From as far back as when people \u201cwent West\u201d to start their homesteads in the face of great danger, people in America have the \u201cseek a better life\u201d mantra bred into their genes \u2013 at least until recently. Shouldn\u2019t people in America still aspire to be successful? Many times wealth is accompanying that success. And I don\u2019t think anyone should be ashamed of the wealth that comes with their success. After all they are the ones that worked hard for it!
\nI had the privilege of visiting the Marriott Palm Desert Resort in Palm Springs back in January. This place just screams \u201cluxury\u201d from the moment you pull into the palm tree lined approach. This is the type of place that the wealthy and successful get to enjoy\u2026 not because they were \u201centitled\u201d but because they \u201cworked really hard\u201d.
\nI didn\u2019t get much if any time to enjoy the golf, the pool, or the amenities. I was there for an NPH Broker\/Dealer conference \u2013 both as an exhibiter and also to be on a financial planning software \u201cpanel\u201d. Even being in such a beautiful place, there were many of us there \u201cworking\u201d and \u201cselling\u201d to try to make our businesses more successful. That is a statement in and of itself. The breakfast time in the exhibit room started at 7am each day. The all day schedule went until 8pm and 9pm each night. Not much time to even catch up on email.
\nI\u2019m not writing this to \u201cwhine\u201d but just to tell you about my recent trip and show off these gorgeous photos. And also to share a few things that I learned. There were two \u201cfamous\u201d people that spoke at the conference \u2013 Daymond John from Shark Tank and Brian Billick, NFL Coach and now TV commentator. Both \u201cworked really hard\u201d to achieve their success.
\nDaymond John was broke and overextended for years as he tried to get his clothing business off the ground. Hard work, long hours, and focused strategy eventually helped his business to take off. He never felt \u201centitled\u201d while he was building his business. He didn\u2019t sit around on the couch \u201choping\u201d it might work. He acted. He persevered. He would fail and then find another way.
\nBrian Billick gave his thoughts on how to build a successful sports team or business. His 3 main keys for success are the Personnel, Structure and Chemistry. First, you have to hire the right players and employees. \u201cThose who won\u2019t are no better than those who can\u2019t\u201d said Brian.
\nYou then give those people the \u201cStructure\u201d to be successful. Empower them to excel at their jobs by not micromanaging them. His last big key was to foster the right \u201cChemistry\u201d. Fear might motivate in the short term, but in the long term you can\u2019t sustain any success because fear does not build chemistry. Brian\u2019s big key here was that \u201cthey don\u2019t care what you know until they know that you care\u201d. This applies to employees and clients. Once they know that you care, then they will care what you do, what you know, and how you can help them.
\nHopefully over the years we have shown you, our customers, that we do care. May the American Dream never die. Go after it and don\u2019t ever be ashamed of that pursuit.<\/p>\n

\"marriott-palmsprings-sm\"<\/a> \"Tim-Billick\"<\/a> \"Flamingo\"<\/a> \"NPH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was privileged to take a trip to a wealthy golf haven back in January – a playground for the rich. But first I want to rant about something related\u2026 Our American foundation is under attack. Make no mistake. Powerful forces are trying to pull America toward the left. I\u2019m not talking about social issues. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}