Top GOP Congressman Tells Trump To Release His Taxes

Donald Trump should release his tax returns and full medical records, Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz (Utah) said Wednesday.

“You’re just going to have to do that, it’s too important,” Chaffetz said on CNN. “If you’re going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you’re going to have to open up your kimono and show everything, your tax returns, your medical records.”

Chaffetz said that the standard applies to both candidates. Clinton has released her 2015 tax return and medical history. Trump has only released a cursory, bombastic letter from his doctor.

Trump said in May that he hoped to release his tax returns, but has since refused to, saying he can’t because he’s under audit by the IRS. However, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said that being under audit does not prevent a person from releasing returns. “If you’re being audited, and you want to do something else, share that information with your returns, you can do that,” Koskinen told CSPAN in February. 

In July, Trump’s then-campaign chairman was adamant that the Republican nominee would not release his tax returns. Earlier this week, Eric Trump said it would be “foolish” for his father to release his taxes. “You learn a lot more when you look at a person’s assets,” Eric said. “You know how many hotels we have around the world? You know how many golf courses we have around the world?”

The value of Trump’s assets, however, is not the simple matter Eric Trump implies it is. In his personal financial disclosure detailing those assets, Donald Trump says he is worth $10 billion. Bloomberg and Forbes, however, estimate his wealth at $2.9 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively. And Tim O’Brien wrote in his 2005 biography of Trump that “three people with direct knowledge of Donald’s finances, people who had worked closely with him for years, told me that they thought his net worth was somewhere between $150 million and $250 million.”

The New York Times reported last week that Trump’s debt totaled $650 million, about twice as much as the candidate had disclosed. The discrepancy, the Times said, arises from the fact that the financial disclosure forms for candidates are not designed for a person with business dealings as complex as Trump’s are.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

The 4-Sentence Cover Letter That Gets You The Job Interview

The modern-day cover letter is your introduction—of any kind—to the employer.

A cover letter has three goals, which you can accomplish in four sentences. Check out the video along with the highlights.

Click here to download my free 4 Sentence Cover Letter with the exact format!

There are essentially three (non-verbal) means to introduce yourself to an employer:

1. Cover Letter

2. Email (with attached resume)

3. Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Your “cover letter” has three goals:

1. Explain why you’ve contacted the employer.

2. Provide insight on who you are and what you offer.

3. Show enthusiasm and interest in hearing (back) from the employer.

You can accomplish these three goals in four sentences, which I discuss in the video. Grab this free 4 Sentence Cover Letter to see the exact format!

If you have haven’t seen How To Build the Ultimate Professional Resume, check it out because some of the cover letter content references your resume.

You can also get the Interview Intervention Book Experience FREE, which has much more and includes an eBook, audio, chapter note, guides, and many aids related to job interviewing!

About the Author

Andrew LaCivita is the Founder & Chief Executive of milewalk and the milewalk Academy. As an internationally recognized executive recruiter, award-winning author, speaker, and trainer, Andrew has dedicated his career to helping people and companies realize their potential. He frequently serves as a trusted media resource and is the author of Interview Intervention, Out of Reach but in Sight, and The Hiring Prophecies (the eLit Gold Award Winner for Best Business/Careers/Sales Book for 2016).

Andrew’s passion is serving as a coach and trainer via his top 100 HR and Careers Blog, Tips for Work and Life®, and his online training site, the milewalk Academy. On a daily basis, he circulates his Today’s Line to Live By™, which is a self-developed inspirational quote. You can find these daily dispatches of inspiration on his blog and social media platform.

To learn more about Andrew and get the many free resources, books, and other helpful aids he offers, see his full biography and resources page.

Quote from The 4 Sentence Cover Letter That Gets You the Job Interview. http://bit.ly/2bsiT9R

A photo posted by alacivita (@alacivita) on Aug 23, 2016 at 10:05am PDT

The Scam Of Internet Cable Providers

Last summer I wanted to change Internet providers. I was having bandwidth problems with AT&T, so one afternoon I phoned Time Warner Cable. I gave a representative my address, and he pulled up the package options for my street in Los Angeles:

6 MB             $14.99

50 MB           $34.99

100 MB         $44.99

200 MB         $54.99

300 MB         $64.99

The Time Warner rep said there was no contract, it was a month-to-month basis, and these rates were guaranteed not to increase. It sounded good to me, so I called AT&T and canceled my service.

When I called Time Warner immediately back, I got a different agent, and with her, a completely different set of prices, all because I included my apartment number this time. My new quotes: 

3 MB               $27.94

10 MB             $47.94

50 MB             $52.94

The prices had doubled, even tripled, in under an hour. So much for guaranteed rates.

I asked the agent if there were any promotions. There were not.

I asked the agent if there were any lower rates. There were not.

I asked what the absolute lowest rate or cheapest plan was. Her answer: the one she gave me.

When I complained, the agent apologized and said that was their available price structure. I was getting a non-answer – the typical corporate deflection.

I said that I had spoken to an agent less than an hour ago, and he quoted me a different set of rates. Then I read her the list; I explained that I called back to get the 100 MB plan at $44.95.

Finally, she admitted that since I asked specifically for that rate, she can give it to me for one year.

I asked how that was possible when less than five minutes ago, she told me there were no lower rates. Again, I received a non-answer.

I asked why she didn’t tell me this earlier, and I received another non-answer.

I asked how many different pricing structures there were for my city block, and again I received a non-answer.

I asked why I could not have that rate for more than a year, as the prior rep had said it was guaranteed not to increase. She said she could only give it to me for one year, but that I could call back exactly a year from now to request it again.

I asked her to put that in writing, but she refused.

You don’t have to work in Corporate America to know there’s something shady going on when a company that large refuses to put something in writing.

Flash forward to July of 2016.

I had a note in my calendar to call Time Warner to renew the rate. When I phoned, I spoke to a very friendly agent who looked at my account and said that my rate was not going to expire. He looked at my current bill, then looked at my future billing cycles, and reassured me the rate would remain the same. I thanked him for his time.

This week, I noticed my bill for July was actually $12 higher than the previous month. 

I phoned Time Warner again. This time, the agent explained that the special I had is part of a “three part plan,” and it was entering its next phase, which was $10 higher, and it would go up another $10 in 6 months. (The modem rental went up $2.)

I explained that I’d just called a few weeks ago to ensure this would not happen. He laughed and explained that he’s not sure why representatives don’t explain the three-part pricing system up front.

I suggested because maybe it didn’t previously exist? How much of this script of pseudo-explanations was knowingly false?

I explained my history, including how convenient it was that no agents would put anything in writing, at any point, and how three weeks earlier, my pricing structure was not scheduled to change.

I called out the scam for what it was - and it is indeed a scam. And I refused to be part of it. I demanded that he credit my account $12 and cancel my service.

Suddenly, he could renew my previous rate, but only for another year, at which time I’d have to call and choose another plan. Time Warner had just been acquired by Charter, which means less and less competition for consumers.

Like me, you too may have noticed there are only two cable providers in your area. This is no accident.

Comcast doesn’t compete with Cox who doesn’t compete with Time Warner. 

Why is this? Isn’t the point of capitalism to encourage competition? 

Apparently, this is what happens when we allow so many mergers and acquisitions - there is less competition. 

It’s expensive to wire cable into homes. If a company wants to compete, that’s a hell of a lot of set up costs, even for existing companies, and the product is little different.

Thus, it’s a lot cheaper to strike up a gentleman’s agreement with the competition not to encroach on one another’s established territories.

As journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston explains in The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use Plain English to Rob You Blind:

Each [cable company] stuck to its existing territory and raised prices. As with the twin railroad duopolies in the West and East, there’s an unspoken understanding that, so long as none of the monopolies tries to poach customers from another by cutting prices, everyone gets to earn fat profits, all thanks to Congress.

The hoodwinking doesn’t stop there.

You may have noticed your cable bill slowly creeps up from month to month, as mine did with Comcast when I lived in the Bay Area. 

Cable prices have been rising more than 2.5 times faster than the cost of living since the mid-90s.

David Cay Johnston explains:

In 2008, the worst economic year since the Great Depression, when the national economy shrank and millions lost their jobs, cable prices rose. What is astounding is that, for the first time in decades, there was no inflation that year. A dollar was actually worth 3.6% more in 2009 than in 2008. But the cable companies raised prices 5.9% that year.

You can thank Congress for this too, as they forbade localities from regulating telecommunication prices in the early 90s.

Despite the proliferation of cell phones, don’t expect cell phone companies to provide much-needed competition to the swindling cable companies.

I’ll let Johnston explain that illusion too:

AT&T and Verizon also own traditional landline systems that are legal monopolies. Through one technology or another, the AT&T-Verizon duopoly controls more than 60% of the telephone business in America… Verizon announced in 2008 that it would stop building out its…fiber-optic system… Instead, it has made deals with Comcast to sell its services using Comcast cables.

This is not competition, but a cartel.

But that’s what capitalism looks like when companies get to make the rules.

Thanks, Congress.

A Call For Mylan CEO Heather Bresch To Reduce EpiPen Price And Resign

It was one year ago, August 25, 2015, when my one-year-old daughter Cecelia almost died of anaphylaxis. She had asked for a banana but we wanted her to eat more than just fruit. My wife served her a peanut butter substitute and jam on bread. We were cooking dinner for ourselves when we first saw the tell-tale red blotches and hives.

In thirty seconds, a rash of angry red hives had covered her body. She was uncomfortable but unaware of what was happening. There was a look of extreme fear in her eyes. Another minute passed and her airway began to close as her body fought the allergic reaction. I quickly laid my daughter down and plunged an EpiPen into her left thigh as my wife called 911. The symptoms continued to get worse as she struggled to breathe in my arms, before the epinephrine kicked in and she finally was able to open her throat enough to draw in air. Within ten minutes of the first signs of anaphylaxis, she was shaken but excited to see the emergency vehicles and the firemen who had come to save her.

A trip to the hospital confirmed that she had a near-fatal anaphylactic reaction. To what? We suspect it might have been sesame or sunflower ingredients in either the bread or the “safe” peanut butter substitute. We’ll never know for sure what almost took our daughter’s life.

This is the reality for the fifteen million people living with food allergies and their families. Cecelia has life threatening food allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, garlic, sesame, sunflower, coconut, and kiwi. She is two years old.

Mylan’s EpiPen saved her life just one year ago. I will forever be grateful for the people who have developed the life-saving drug and accompanying technology that are the reason that my daughter is alive and well today.

The EpiPen’s only legitimate U.S. competitor, Sanofi’s Auvi-Q, was voluntarily recalled nationwide in October 2015 after dangerous issues of inaccurate dosage delivery arose that could include a failure to administer the life-saving epinephrine. Immediately, millions of families with life threatening allergies turned to Mylan to secure EpiPens.

The result was a de facto monopoly for Mylan. Since Mylan secured the rights to the EpiPen in 2007, they have steadily raised prices over 460 percent (from an average wholesale of $56.64 to $317.82). CEO Heather Bresch – daughter of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia – increased her own compensation by more than 670 percent from $2.5M to $18.9M during the same time.

With no other competitors in the United States, families are forced to pay extortionate rates for what amounts to $1.00 worth of epinephrine per EpiPen.

I cringe every time I go to pick up Cecelia’s EpiPens at the pharmacy. To say this medicine is expensive is an understatement. Yet, we are lucky to have great insurance and have never had to think twice about paying whatever it costs to keep our daughter safe. This is our privilege.

Jim Bourg / Reuters

EpiPen auto-injection epinephrine pens manufactured by Mylan NV pharmaceutical company for use by severe allergy sufferers are seen in Washington, U.S. August 24, 2016.

I cannot stop thinking about the families of other children with food allergies – who love their children just as much as we love Cecelia – who are forced to go without this life-saving drug. Putting aside Mylan’s massive price hikes, there are families that go hungry and skip monthly bills just so they can provide safe food for their children with food allergies. These families cannot begin to consider paying for an EpiPen. Their children deserve to be just as safe as my children. They deserve to live healthy lives just as much as Heather Bresch’s four children do.

Heather Bresch has cut corners before. She received her first job at Mylan when her father, a West Virginia state senator at the time, personally reached out to Mylan’s then-CEO in 1992.  In 2008, West Virginia University’s president – a family friend and former business associate of Bresch – resigned in disgrace after granting the Mylan CEO an MBA, despite the fact that she had only achieved half of the required credits. 

I know that the world is not fair. I understand that rich children with powerful politicians for parents will continue to be born on second base thinking that they hit a double. I hold no illusions that large pharmaceutical companies will shift their primary focus from profits to public good. While all of this is true, Mylan’s reckless and selfish price hikes under CEO Heather Bresch have crossed a line that she cannot return from. 

Heather Bresch has enriched herself and her fellow Mylan executives at the risk of hard-working American families who are already saddled with great economic and health concerns. They don’t need or deserve a rich narcissist kicking them while they are down.

On behalf of these families and all families living with life-threatening allergies, I ask that Mylan CEO Heather Bresch immediately reduce the price of Mylan’s EpiPen and then resign as CEO. While Bresch may not worry about my family or the millions of others like us in this country, I hope she will consider her own family and the example that she is setting for her children. 

A Letter To Job Seekers From A Small Business Owner

Recently, a company of which I am a director, advertised to fill two positions. The advertisements were only posted on Facebook – on local community Facebook pages. 

As expected, the applicants started to flood in almost immediately. The positions advertised were in an area that has been hit very hard by the downturn in the Australian resources industry, and a chronic shortage of people to do any job at all has turned into an unemployment problem. 

The quality of many of the applications was breathtaking – breathtakingly bad. 

All of which, unfortunately for the applicants, fell at the first hurdle. The positions are with a science company, where accuracy is of paramount importance. So, all the applications that screamed “I don’t pay attention to detail and I don’t care how sloppy my work is” went straight out. 

I’m sure that there are approximately a billion articles and posts on the internet about how to do a decent job at an employment application. I’m also reasonably sure that all the people who applied are computer and internet users – I know because I Googled them. I was so taken aback by the quality of so many of the applications, I thought I would add my voice to all those existing articles – the point of view of a small business owner who is looking to recruit a new team member. 

Here are 12 things to double-check before submitting your application: 

1. Remember that the small business owner is not just the owner, but will also be the HR Manager, the Finance Manager, the Administration Manager …. This person does not have a dedicated HR department to sift through thousands of job applications, so those that are not immediately of interest just won’t even get a second look. 
2. If you can’t spell – find someone who can. The list of misspelled words was impressive, and far too long for me to put them all here. Of particular note was one person who could “wok safely at heights”. This must be a new Asian cooking technique with which I am not yet familiar.  
3. If you can’t use capital letters correctly – find someone who can. The name of every Australian town and city is capitalised. There is no Mount eliza or port fairy. 
4. If you cannot use the correct grammar to construct a sentence, find someone who can. “I seen your job advertisement…” is not an impressive way to start an application. 
5. Check the name of the company you are applying to, and spell it correctly. 
6. Check the name of the companies you have worked for previously, and spell them correctly. Wesfarmers is a well-known Australian company that operates a coal mine. West farmers is not. 
7. If you are telling me that you have a great eye for detail, check your application for really, really obvious errors – like “… i have a great eye for detail.” 
8. Include a Cover Letter. Always include a Cover Letter. An attachment entitled “My Latest Resume” won’t get your potential employer’s attention. 
9. Don’t tell me your life story. The fact that you are doing up a 2006 car is of no interest to me. I want you to do some science work. 
10. If you are including the names of Referees (I accept that there are different schools of thought on this), please do them the courtesy of spelling their names correctly. 
11. Know that your Facebook profile is the first place your potential new boss will look. Even those small business owners who aren’t “Facebook savvy” have a daughter, son or employee who is. Discretion prevents me from repeating some of the Facebook posts we encountered. 
12. Use an appropriate email address. hotandsexy69@yahoo.com does not send the right signals. 

I have to point out that, in addition to the shockers, we also received some excellent applications.

Here are the things that will make a busy small business owner want to put a resume in the “second look” pile.

1. Absence of the above indiscretions.
2. A Cover Letter and application that show the applicant has read through the job description, understood what their role would be in the company, and how their previous experience would help them to fulfill that role.
3. The applicant has taken the time to actually look at their potential employer’s website and/or social media profiles.
4. The potential employee has taken the trouble to have a resume professionally presented. These stand out like a shining beacon in a sea of appalling mediocrity. To the small business owner, someone who has taken the care to present themselves well, will have a better chance of taking care with the company’s image as well.

Use the internet for something other than cat videos and rants on Facebook and Instagram. Use it to look up how to present a job application that won’t be one of the first into the trash. 

Your potential employer, as a small business owner, is already immersed in crocodiles up to their nether regions. If you want them to notice you in a nice way and give you a job, do all that you can to help your application float to the top.

Related...

• Mindy Kaling on Her First Job, Worst Job and Being the Boss
• I graduated. Where's my job?
• What To Do If You Lose Your Dream Job

Top Branding and Marketing Strategies for New Businesses

Image Source
Marketing and branding are not always cheap for small businesses. While it is very essential given the very early stage of a business, branding and marketing a new business is an effort that has to compete with several other efforts in the startup. Nonetheless, there's no other way around running an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Whatever says a new business cannot take advantage of the exceptional possibilities that effective branding and marketing can attract to business? While you do not have to go overboard with your spending like an already established business would, there are strategies that you can implement with effective results.

Let's look at the top branding and marketing strategies you can use to stimulate the growth of your new business.

Design with Your Audience in Mind

Your first step in branding, and indeed marketing your business is to create a logo. This is where you have the first opportunity to captivate the minds of your audience and quickly win your way into their hearts. A good looking logo that is able to captivate your audience will earn the trust of your customers better.

While larger companies with bigger branding budgets can afford to create different reiterations of their logo and not worry about the cost, for a small business it's very important that you get it right on the very first attempt.

A good way to make this happen without having to break the bank is to partner with a designer who has great work portfolio. Another alternative is to use cheap freelance service like Fiverr to outsource your design tasks to highly talented graphic designers who are ready to work on the cheap.
To highlight the methods that will be most effective in helping you get a well-branded company logo that won't cost you a fortune, try the following:

•Partner with a designer: the idea is to offer them your services in exchange for theirs. And if the deal is huge such that it involves the total branding of your business, including your website design -- then offering them part of your business in exchange might be considered.
•Run a Contest: Running a contest is still one of the most effective ways to attract high-quality talents without having to spend so much.

Win on Social Media

The ultimate aim of branding and marketing your business is to attract customers. With social media expanding every day and users increasingly interacting with businesses and brands via various social media channels, there's never a better time to take advantage of this huge opportunity than now.
An effective social media strategy can help to optimize almost every other aspects of your marketing efforts. According to Jeff King, founder of a digital marketing company, having an effective social media strategy will bridge the successful customer acquisition barrier that many small businesses face. "Not only does the inclusiveness that social media cultivates encourage small business growth, it's also very cost effective to acquire customers," he says.
While social media may be cost effective, it may require some form of expertise which you can achieve through study and practice.

Own Your Online Presence

The power of using the internet to reach new customers cannot be overlooked.
Many business owners only consider an internet marketing strategy as an afterthought and do not put much consideration into developing their marketing skills. This is why so many small businesses begin and end their internet marketing strategy with owning a website.

The following strategies should be considered in owning your online presence:

•Get on Google places: Google places and local listings makes it easy for your business to be found on the internet through local listings. This is free advertisement for small business owners.
•Get a blog: Business blogging is now an effective customer retention and acquisition strategy. Does your new business have a blog? If not, you should reconsider your strategy.
•Search Engine Optimization: Ranking high on the top pages of Google for your best selling keywords can help you attract ready-to-buy customers for almost free. All that may be required is your effort. There are many ways to fail with a SEO campaign but with a consistent approach, your business can be wildly successful.

What Being Kidnapped Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

On May 20th of 2004, I was kidnapped and held hostage by gang members. One of the "captains" was angry with me because I was working to help his girlfriend find a safe haven from his extreme abuse. For years my mother worked as a gang violence interventionist, mediating closely with the Latin Kings, the Bloods, and the Crips. She provided safe havens to people looking to escape violence. I grew up listening at the dinner table to my mom's tales, accumulated from the 20 years of conflict management and violence prevention work. Before her, my grandparents went toe-to-toe with both the mafia and the government in their quest to create better conditions in factories for hard working Americans like themselves, during the 40s, 50s and early 60s. They were no strangers to dangerous situations and their bravery inspires me to this day.

In a way, I was born to be a crisis worker. My life was the training ground. I knew there were risks, but some things you just don't see coming. After being chased across an open field for sport, forced into a car at gunpoint, and questioned for hours, I was left in the pitch black to wonder how many more minutes I had left to live. Much to my surprise, I survived. After being threatened with death, castration, and exposed to violent force, the time I spent with those men influenced the past 12 years of my life. Training from the Alternatives to Violence Project (originally developed in prisons by inmates serving life sentences) that I received at the age of 13 helped me to be set free. I convinced the people holding me that I was no threat, and to let me go. I would walk away from that experience as a different man, and in some ways, a much better person. From then on, I wanted to help others survive life-threatening situations, and to rebound from extreme stress. When I was 22, I helped found a company for that purpose.

Traumatic Stress, PTSD, and professional trauma exposure are said to often leave its survivors with what is known as the 4 F's (fight, flight, freeze, and fold.) These four F's describe the common automatic responses that people fall into when they are triggered or feel threatened. The brain releases these survival chemicals that are designed to keep us alive when we are overwhelmed.

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle that can be overwhelming, traumatizing, scary, and also wonderful and joyous. Learning to manage extreme stress, to understand how to respond to feelings of overwhelm and march forward in the face of uncertainty are attributes that helped me become successful as a small business owner. That's why I am thankful for May 20th, the 48 hours with those men, and every day that came after it.

Bruce Lee had a famous quote, "Be like water." These words were the key to my survival. In business, following that mantra can also help you thrive. When it comes to the integrity of our company, Red Kite Project, we are like stone. However, one must know when to adapt and flow rather than stand still or become rigid. Your business will not survive if you can't learn to pivot and flow with sudden changes or threats from the market, internally from your own team, or even yourself.

Today, I find many parallels between the two experiences:

1. People who aren't in your shoes will question your choices, motivations, and your sanity. It's always good to reflect and there is nothing wrong with entertaining wise counsel. However, unless they live the life of an entrepreneur, many are ill-equipped to guide you or second-guess your decisions. That does not mean that we should ignore them! Only recognize that they may not understand our vision and the sacrifices it requires to actualize it.
2. According to research from Gallup, as well as articles from Inc and Business Insider, up to 50 percent of entrepreneurs deal with depression and mood swings. There are many ways that entrepreneurs can learn to cope with stress, anxiety, and fear, but don't underestimate its impact. Practicing martial arts helped me to overcome the anxiety I experienced after my situation. It wiped away my anxiety and fear and helped me to develop strong emotional and mental control. Fear can be helpful to warn us; worry is generally useless. Those who have achieved true greatness pushed past their fear and risked everything to do what they felt was right. They used ritual, regimens, exercise, healthy eating, and strong resiliency to thrive.
3. "Don't let the bastards grind you down." This was a saying that adorned a plaque on my grandfather's desk and I saw it every day as a kid. It stays stuck in my mind during the toughest moments of my life. You will hear "No" a lot. You may even face ridicule for having a new way of doing things. For years, people said that the RKP team was crazy to do "resiliency building." People laughed at us for taking a non-traditional, outside the box approach to workforce development. Now we assist some of the top hospitals, transit companies, and government organizations in the world, and we get results. If we gave up because people ridiculed us, if we let them grind us down, we wouldn't be making the impact that we do. You will look like a mad person until you succeed - then they will tell you that they believed all along.
4. Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. An adage borrowed from the soldiers and veterans with whom we have worked, which speaks to the true nature of what a successful entrepreneur needs to do. In order to survive my ordeal, and to survive making our small family-owned venture into a successful consulting firm, I needed to constantly be able to shift my approach. If you only have one style of communicating, one way of managing, one tool for handling crises, you will most likely fail. Rigidity is the death of innovation. Be ready to pivot!
5. Use your scars, failings, mistakes as armor. If you see life as a classroom, you will never be disappointed. Life is hard. Helping to run a business is one of the hardest things I have ever done, and I have made many mistakes. There is no failure in making an error. It is the refusal to learn from that mistake, that makes it a failure. Each wrong turn can be used to make you stronger. Many of the most resilient and successful CEOs had extremely hard lives, or failed many times before they hit "success." We've heard the stories of Oprah Winfrey growing up in poverty, J.K. Rowling writing Harry Potter on napkins while on government assistance, and John Paul DeJoria, the creator of a hair-care empire and founder of Patron Tequila, living in a foster home and in his car. From the outside we see an overnight success, but for those who spent years dreaming and sweating for their vision, it's anything but. They would not have made it without extremely thick skin developed from scars accumulated over many years.

I am thankful every day for the things I have endured, as much as I am thankful for my joyful experiences. Without struggle, I never would have been prepared to be an entrepreneur and navigate the emotional, mental, and physical battlefield that is called "small business ownership." As a professional resiliency builder, I know that the obstacles that I have faced help me to be more authentic with the soldiers, nurses, crisis workers, EMTs, doctors, bus drivers, and law enforcement workers with whom I facilitate. I wear my scars proudly and this is the first time I have publicly told this story. I hope that it serves as a beacon of light to those who have endured so much, but dream even more.

This blogger graduated from Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses program. Goldman Sachs is a partner of the What Is Working: Small Businesses section.

Selling Golf To Millennials

This week, a story ran in Advertising Age about Callaway Golf that really got me thinking. The premise was simple: golf amongst younger generations is not as popular as it once was, and major equipment manufacturers like Callaway are searching for new ways to connect with these audiences. Of course, this makes perfect sense. It's almost amazing that it took them so long to come to this conclusion.

It's highly likely, though, that Callaway had been planning some sort of change in approach to reaching a Millennial audience for some time now -- things like this don't happen overnight. But if you were to take a quick scan of their tactics in approaching this audience, you'd be forgiven for thinking they did in fact cobble this strategy together in no more than a meeting or two.

Hip hop, Vice, Red Bull and Snapchat all factor in to Callaway's efforts to connect with Millennials. It's basically a who's who of platforms and brands commonly thought to be favorites among Millennials. So what is the plan exactly? Callaway recruited the rapper Scarface, an avid golfer, to feature in a 10-minute video by Vice Sports that will go online in September. In the video, Scarface will take to the course and play with and show off new Callaway products. Additionally, Callaway is partnering with Red Bull Media House to produce a series of web shorts featuring Hank Heaney, a famous golf coach, working with various Red Bull athletes -- including a skateboarder, wakeboarder and a BMX rider -- to improve their swing. (As for Snapchat, Callaway has an active presence, often using celebrities to vaunt their gear.)

It's outside-the-box thinking, no doubt, especially for an established golf brand. Callaway is going through nontraditional channels, using nontraditional spokespeople, in an effort to make inroads with a segment of the population many think they've already missed the boat on. While you have to admire the effort, it all just seems a little forced.

This approach feels like a shortcut. It uses varied buzzwords we hear about so often in reference to Millennials -- hip hop! Snapchat! Red Bull! Vice! -- but doesn't ground them in the proper research and strategy needed for a successful long-term campaign. This is the type of approach that might briefly work because of its novelty, providing a one-time bump in sales, but it lacks the sort of long-term planning that is critical to creating loyal customers. Hats off to Callaway for recognizing a problem area and being aggressive and proactive in addressing it. But there's no hole-in-one approach to creating lifelong brand advocates. Instead, it's better to take a look at your swing and try to improve your game stroke by stroke.

The Dreaded Annual Review -- 5 Ways To Fix Them

While reviews come and go, all too often behaviors, and performance, don't change. So it makes sense that companies are now asking, why continue this painful and often pointless exercise? Companies of all sizes, but certainly noticeably industry-leaders like Gap, Adobe and Deloitte are eliminating them altogether.

SAP recently made its own headlines on this as we pilot using our SAP SuccessFactors continuous performance management capabilities. The headlines have been pretty provocative, but what I've written here is our reality. It's less about "ditching" an annual process completely and more about ongoing and in the moment feedback. I like to think of it as similar to taking golf lessons. The point is to keep making the adjustments you need to improve, and not having your instructor wait six months to tell you your swing is all wrong.

The answer to effective performance management in my view is not doing away with reviews altogether. It's institutionalizing effective, actionable feedback - something managers and colleagues should contribute to throughout the entire year. Here are five ways to make it work.

Understand the motivation
Before you start to appraise an employee's performance, you need to understand both their behaviors and your role in shaping them. People don't always do things just because you ask. Most people do things because they have the capabilities and confidence to be successful at them. So your job as a manager, and even more so as a leader, is less about developing people and more about creating an environment where they can develop themselves. Head into the review process with the knowledge that being a great leader is not about what you do, but rather what you inspire and enable others to achieve.

Get on the same page
The foundation of effective feedback is establishing clear goals and expectations. It may seem obvious that people need to understand expectations in order to meet them, but it's easier than you might think to cross signals on what someone's job goals are. Discussing goals and progress should be a regular event or you'll likely find you're nowhere near on the same page. A good way to measure whether you are aligned is to ask people on your team what their top five priorities are and compare that to what you think they should be. Is it a match? Make this exercise a jumping-off point to discuss where your expectations align and where there may be inconsistencies - and then agree on what to do about it. 

Look ahead, not just back
Resistance to feedback is natural when we don't believe it comes from someone who has our best interests at heart. Make knowing what people on your team want, what they are good at and where they want to go in their careers a priority when assessing performance. Look for ways to tie your assessment not just to performance, but to future development.

No surprises
As a manager, you are failing your employees if you hold out until an annual review to level-set on things that are detrimental to their career. If an employee is on the wrong path, don't wait weeks or months to let them know. Most of us don't see our own shortcomings. Don't only focus on the negative though, or you'll lose your audience right away. Talk about what is working, and encourage employees to focus on those areas. I think we've moved away from worrying about how to improve what people aren't good at; instead, focus on having them spend time on what they do well so they'll get even better.
 
Support success
I talked about development being an individual responsibility with leaders owning the creation of a culture that supports learning and growth. Make sure people on your teams have access to resources, training, coaching or other things you can provide to help them improve their performance and develop in their careers. Today we are all lifetime learners and teachers. Connect people to each other and to resources.

Today we have the technology to support effective, "always on" feedback loops. Think about how much more successful you are when you have a chance to course correct along the way and not have to wait until an entire year is behind you to find out if you were doing the right things and doing them successfully. Ultimately though, it's about the old adage that says "people don't leave companies, people leave managers." Those of us who lead have the responsibility to enable all-in - committed, motivated and inspired - people. If we fail, it's our own performance review we should dread.
 

B Corp Row: The Sesame Street of Business

I work on B Corp Row.

That's what we affectionately call a five-block stretch of North Ravenswood Avenue in Chicago.

The street was once home to factories and there are still several small industrial companies. But these days, these large gorgeous buildings have been repurposed for small businesses of every stripe.

StoryStudio Chicago is in one of these rehabbed loft buildings (ours fittingly was once a printing company) that connects to almost every other building on the block. In fact, if you walk north on Ravenswood, the blocks are reminiscent of streets of row houses--each one is connected to the next.

When I walk to work and pass by these buildings and these businesses, I can't help but imagine I'm on a new version of Sesame Street, one filled with businesses using business as a force for good.

B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

We may not be quite as cute as the Muppets, but we do have a lot in common:

1. Sesame Street is a great educator, opening minds and teaching the basics.
B Corps think of themselves first as businesses, but second as educators. We can't help ourselves; at networking events we talk about greening our supply chains, we write blog posts describing our experiments in building great company cultures, and at cocktail parties we talk about the weather....and how it affects wind turbines.

When I introduce StoryStudio as a B Corp I am often met with blank faces. I grab this chance to explain that StoryStudio is part of the solution, that we are using the power of business to solve environmental and social issues. That you should hire us because we are amazing at what we do, but also because we are a part of something bigger.

2. If you make a mistake on Sesame Street, no one gets mad at you and everyone wants to help.
Mistakes? Oh, where do I begin.

It's not uncommon for me to burst in on my B Corp neighbors for an impromptu venting session. I know I'll get great advice, or sometimes, just the reassurance that they have been in similar positions too.

Like many entrepreneurs, I started StoryStudio because I knew a lot about writing and stories, not because I knew how to read a balance sheet. Let's just say, I had a bit of a learning curve.

Every entrepreneur makes mistakes. It's what we learn from those mistakes that matters. Using the B Corp framework makes this process faster and provides what I call, "a lens of opportunity."

3. Sesame Street has some great quirky characters.
Okay, I stuck this one in just because I wanted you to know I really identify with Oscar the Grouch.

4. Bert and Ernie are the best BFFs ever.
Stop me if I get too emotional here but I have to admit that my very favorite part of being a B Corp in Chicago, is my group of BFF's on B Corp Row. These are the people I call when something goes right at work, or when something goes wrong.

Owning a business can sometimes feel lonely, but as a B Corp, I am part of a local, national, and international community to learn from, collaborate with, or just hang out together.

5. Sesame Street never shies away from addressing difficult topics.
Our neighborhood has changed a great deal in the decade that StoryStudio Chicago has been located on this street. We have benefited from economic development spurred by this small business growth.

But in other parts of Chicago, this kind of growth isn't happening.

Each B Corp views their social impact in a different way. For StoryStudio, our focus is on helping our students find and tell their stories, and to reach a deeper understanding of those stories.

But for me personally, being a B has given me the network and the tools to work toward true change in Chicago. Several of us on B Corp Row have been working to bring a B Lab-created, citywide program to Chicago encouraging businesses in every corner of the city to measure their impact, grow their businesses, and celebrate their achievements. This growth means more local jobs and opportunity for the communities in which they are located.

6. Sesame Street is more than a place; it's a state of mind.
Being a B Corp is more than a credential for me. It's a joyful reminder that I am a part of something much bigger than StoryStudio or even our Ravenswood neighborhood. I am part of new way of conducting business. One focused on growing my own business while helping to build a world in which we all benefit from a shared prosperity.

So, the next time you hear someone talking about The Street, think of B Corp Row and the impact you can have on your own street.

(Some of the B Corps on B Corp Row include: StoryStudio Chicago; Mightybytes, CompassX Strategy, LimeRed Studio, Orbit Media Studios, and Lightspan Digital.)

The B Corp Life is a new blog series geared towards exploring what it's like to work at a benefit corporation. Why do b corps matter, and what does the future hold for them? Let us know at PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #TheBCorpLife.

How Becoming A B Corp Helped Us Find Purpose In Marketing

I’ve always struggled with the ethics of my chosen profession. Even while poring over copies of Advertising Age in college, my attraction to brilliant campaigns was tempered by the nagging sense that marketers’ influence on our thoughts and values isn’t always good. After all, a marketer’s job is to creatively convince people to do or consume things that they sometimes don’t even want or need.

That nagging feeling led me to spend the first 15 years of my career in health behavior change and nonprofit marketing. Later, my business partner and I founded RoundPeg to create brands and campaigns for organizations committed to social good. But I always had a sense that marketing’s potential for good wasn’t fully realized.

Ultimately it was RoundPeg’s joining the B Corp community that revealed a new approach to marketing that realizes that potential – and solves my professional ethical dilemma – for good.

Our Chance to B Better
It was a no-brainer for RoundPeg to become a certified B Corp in 2012 and incorporate as a Benefit Corporation in 2013. We already operated responsibly and helped clients promote social causes and sustainable behaviors. We figured certification would strengthen our commitment to people, planet and community and we could learn from other good businesses. It did all of those things. But we never anticipated how significantly being part of the B Corp community would influence and inspire us.

Conversations with colleagues at other B Corps told us that the number of companies pledging to use business as a force for good is growing more rapidly than consumer attitudes and knowledge are changing. For this movement to survive and thrive, we need to make buying responsibly the norm.

It became clear that marketing – the practice that has encouraged society’s excess – is the exact tool needed to make the good choice the easy choice for mainstream consumers.

Marketing’s Opportunity
While marketing isn’t the only force to blame for wasteful consumption, its significant contribution can’t be ignored.

Most consumers don’t test the marketing claims of every company, so when a company says they’re doing good, we assume they’re telling the truth. While scandals of goodwashing and worse increase skepticism, consumers are often at the mercy of marketers and remain powerless to distinguish between genuinely good and apparently good companies and products.

As consumers, we’re so far removed from where and how our stuff is made that we're often blind to the effects of our choices. For decades marketers have exploited that. Tapping into our values, they’ve positioned superfluities as necessities, made the case for shoddy products and convinced consumers that obtaining the latest version of everything is essential to creating the best version of oneself.

But time is revealing the negative consequences of decades of conspicuous consumption and consumers are generally paying more attention to what they buy, who makes it, where it’s from and what’s it’s made of. Sometimes they even question whether it’s needed at all.

The rise of socially responsible business like B Corps and Benefit Corporations presents an opportunity for marketers to reverse the damage done by our predecessors by using marketing as a force for good.

Purposeful Marketing: A New Approach
Through Purposeful marketing, we can show consumers that every purchasing decision they make is a chance to be the change the world needs. We can equip them with the information they need to make better choices and invite them to be our partners in change.

While B Corp and other certifications provide context and ensure accountability, mainstream consumers with busy lives aren’t likely to take the time to distinguish the good, the bad and the ugly. Many don’t know that what these certifications mean or even that they exist.

Purposeful marketing champions the companies that are truly doing good to help consumers cut through the fray of false claims. Inspired by our fellow B Corps, RoundPeg applies Purposeful marketing principles to help good brands:

· engage customers by connecting their company Purpose with customer values,
· cultivate long-term, meaningful customer relationships that amplify social impact and profitability
· create meaningful customer experiences
· build loyal communities of influence
· empower customers to be brand ambassadors for social impact

Time for Change
Until the majority of the marketplace demands change, conscious consumerism is at risk of becoming a fad. As marketers and as B Corps, we must encourage consumers to demand that brands act as part of the solution to social problems and invite our customers to be part of the solution.

Our experience as a B Corp taught us that businesses with good built-in do everything else differently, so it’s natural that we should rethink marketing as well. We can’t expect consumers to change the way they think, act and purchase without making changes ourselves. That’s why RoundPeg’s sole focus now is using marketing to help Purposeful brands make buying responsibly the norm.

We urge the visionaries behind purposeful companies – and our marketing agency colleagues – to join us in seizing the opportunity to use marketing for good. When we lead with Purpose, we don’t have to manufacture justifications to win customer loyalty because the shared Purpose itself creates the bond. The more consumers insist on purchasing with Purpose, the closer we’ll get to a world where companies that don’t do good don’t stand a chance.

The B Corp Life is a new blog series geared towards exploring what it’s like to work at a benefit corporation. Why do b corps matter, and what does the future hold for them? Let us know at PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #TheBCorpLife.

Target To Install Gender-Neutral Bathrooms In All Of Its Stores

Retail giant Target committed on Wednesday to installing single-stall bathrooms in all of its stores, in what appears to be an attempt to address objections to its policy of accommodating transgender customers.

While many Target locations already have single-stall bathrooms, the Washington Post reported that Cathy Smith, chief financial officer of the Minneapolis-based superstore, told reporters on a conference call that it would be investing $20 million to install them in the stores that don’t have them.

All but 20 of Target’s 1,800 locations will have the single-stall bathrooms by November and the remaining stores will have them installed in early 2017, Katie Boylan, a Target spokeswoman, told The Huffington Post.

Target CEO Brian Cornell announced the company’s intention to ensure that all its stores had the bathrooms as far back as May, but it revealed its $20 million investment on Wednesday.

Target drew praise from LGBT rights advocates in April when it announced it would allow customers to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. The new single-stall bathrooms, which are by definition gender-neutral, seem meant to assuage the concerns of customers uncomfortable with this policy and will provide a third option for all customers.

But Boylan confirmed that Target continues to welcome transgender individuals to use a bathroom of their choosing.

As a result, the new move can be seen as a deft effort to calm critics without fundamentally altering its policy. In fact, it may even be seen as an expansion of the policy, given that customers who identify as genderqueer may feel most comfortable in a bathroom that allows them to eschew identification with either gender.

After Target announced its policy change in April, other major food and retail chains, such as Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, followed suit.

But social conservatives soon launched a campaign to boycott Target over the policy. More than 700,000 people signed a pledge sponsored by the American Family Association, a hardline Christian group, to boycott the store.

These critics argue that, among other things, the policy would enable transgender women to assault young girls in women’s bathrooms. There is no evidence to support this claim, which echoes antigay fear-mongering from several decades ago.

Smith, the Target CFO, mentioned the discontent of customers on the conference call, without explicitly admitting that it was the motive for the company’s new investment, according to The Washington Post.

“Some of our guests clearly are uncomfortable with our policy, and some are really supportive,” she said.

Target also announced disappointing sales figures for the second quarter of 2016 on Thursday. Sales are down 11.6 percent relative to what they were in the second quarter of 2015.

Smith denied that customer dissatisfaction was a contributing factor in the company’s lackluster performance, claiming on the conference call that it has “really not been material,” according to the Washington Post.

This story has been updated to include comment from a Target spokesperson.

What Donald Trump Could Learn From Apple’s CEO

Donald Trump never asked the chief executive of Apple for leadership advice.

Still, Tim Cook could certainly teach the Republican presidential nominee about the art of the apology, telling the Washington Post in an interview published over the weekend that it is important for a leader to admit mistakes and move on.

“The classic big-company mistake is to not admit their mistake. They double down on them,” Cook said. “Their pride or ego is so large that they can’t say we did something wrong. And I think the faster you do that, the better — change gears to something else.”

Cook wasn’t asked about Trump, but it doesn’t take much deep analysis to find the parallels here.

In recent months, Trump has failed to apologize for a raft of offensive comments ― for example, lashing out at Gold Star parents Ghazala and Khizr Khan after the Democratic National Convention and for days afterward. Then he was criticized for incendiary language that seemed to suggest gun rights activists could “do something” if Hillary Clinton were elected.

Michelle McLoughlin / Reuters

Last week, Trump refused to back away from his statement that President Barack Obama founded ISIS. Instead he later said he was just being sarcastic.

“It’s the douchebag’s apology,” John Oliver said of the sarcasm explanation Sunday night on HBO’s Last Week tonight. 

Douchiness aside, it’s certainly not what Cook was talking about. The Washington Post asked the 55-year-old whether he’s made any mistakes and learned from them. Cook mentioned the disastrous 2012 launch of Apple Maps ―  the app was terrible, giving people the wrong directions, sending drivers to places that did not exist in reality. At the time Cook was fairly quick to apologize and the company changed the way it releases new software.

He tells the Post: “We had the self-honesty to admit this wasn’t our finest hour and the courage to choose another way of doing it. That’s important. It’s the only way an organization learns.”

You’ll never learn if you don’t first understand what you’ve done wrong. Not apologizing can be a sign that you don’t actually think you’ve made an error.

Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has also been criticized for taking too long to own her mistakes: not apologizing for her vote to approve the invasion of Iraq until 2014, for example. She also was called out for waiting too long to admit that her private email server was a mistake ― and then for diminishing that decision.

Of course, CEOs are operating in a different world than politicians, who are beholden to the more fluid meter of public opinion. An apology could be construed as a sign of weakness. In the business world, that sign could well be eclipsed by bottom line financial results.

Apple, after all, is the most valuable company in the world and the most profitable public company in the U.S. Politicians running for office don’t have the same kind of hard numbers to back them up ― particularly candidates like Trump, who has no political track record to bolster his credentials.

Cook’s comments are in line with his reputation as a more humble leader ― his predecessor Steve Jobs was less quick to say sorry. Cook’s style is also emblematic of an emerging trend in the corporate world toward more openness, replacing the more autocratic leadership style embodied by Trump in his role on his reality show “The Apprentice.” 

“You’re fired,” is not the kind of tagline that works in this more modest universe.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

Rio 2016: The Brand Legacy

Nick Fuller, Founder & CEO, EdComs

With Rio 2016 now well under way, sponsors are enjoying the global euphoria generated by the Games, and understandably so. The Olympics represents one of the most effective international marketing platforms in the world, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries and territories.

But what can we learn from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games about the value of sponsorship, and how sponsor brands can make the most of Rio?

Four years ago today, we were enjoying an eruption of creative advertising from sponsors demonstrating their support of London 2012, the athletes and the teams. Great campaigns were seen from domestic partners such as British Airways and Lloyds TSB, and new creative precedents were set by global brand partners such as Coca Cola and GE. One of the greatest innovations of the London Games, however, creating a fascinating legacy for the Olympic and Paralympic movements, was the landmark contribution that London made in delivering an altogether new kind of brand value for sponsors – by working with them to engage and benefit  the next generation of supporters and consumers.

From the day the Olympic and Paralympic Games were awarded to London in 2005, to the Games themselves in 2012, the Chairman of the London Organizing Committee, Lord Coe, made a promise that they would be used to inspire a generation of young people. The extent to which brand sponsors played a key part in delivering this vision marked a turning point in Olympic and Paralympic marketing history.  

Alongside an outstanding above-the-line campaign, British Airways memorably launched a £500k fund to help talented young people to fulfill their potential. Adidas launched ‘adizones’ – innovative community multipart facilities.  A whole range of sponsors, including EDF Energy and BP, took up the torch of community engagement by working with schools to activate educational programs that created positive change at grassroots level.

The extent to which brand sponsors worked with young people across the UK was a world first for the Games and a key part of the great success London had in engaging people across Great Britain with the Games. And by having an impact on an entire generation, these programs delivered something invaluable for brands; a lasting legacy reaching far beyond the summer of 2012.

Undoubtedly, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games marked a shift in attitude towards sponsorship and what activation can mean for both brands and consumers. Brands have continued to align themselves with Team GB and Paralympics GB in the run up to Rio 2016 and are again activating their sponsorship by working with young people and communities.

Aldi, for example, has used star athletes to inspire its Get Set to Eat Fresh program, offering free, classroom-based resources for young people to build their understanding of healthy eating, cooking and fresh food. This also aligns with the brand’s focus on fresh British produce.

Sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic Games can build brand value through awareness and association beyond new creative advertising campaigns. Marketers should understand that through-the-line engagement with schools and communities will create rich relationships with the next generation and their families. As Games fever reaches its peak over the coming weeks, this year’s Olympic and Paralympic brand winners will be those that create a truly lasting impact.

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