Engaging Zambia's school drop-outs

Changing the way people engage with education has become the life's work for Zambian teacher and entrepreneur Rozious Siatwambo. He is the founder of the Great North Road Academy, an independent school in Zambia's capital Lusaka. The school encourages "drop-outs" of any age to return to education. Projectors are installed in classrooms to encourage interactive learning and students unable to attend classes can enrol in distance learning at home through DVDs and CDs recorded at the school.

Mr Siatwambo had a fairly conventional start in education - he gained a degree in education from the University of Zambia but after graduating he decided that he was not going to follow his peers.
"I didn't want to join the government. I didn't want to join anywhere. So what I had to do is, I had to now search my heart, search what I'd learnt at the university and then I started using those skills to come up with something," he told the BBC's series African Dream. With his passion for education and determination to be his own boss, he identified a gap in the independent school market.

"If you look at most of these private schools, most of them are not run by teachers, most of them are just business persons, so I wanted to come up with something different which would have an education attached."

'Growing of ideas'

Mr Siatwambo reached out to the public to sell his idea.
"I started printing some flyers and also calling some people and I remember during the initial stages, sometimes I'd leave the office, I'd go on the streets," he told the BBC's Mutuna Chanda.
For Mr Siatwambo it is these early stages and the "growing of ideas" which enabled him to visualise how the school would work and how it would stand out from other independent schools.
"We started looking at where we can come out different from these other schools and we started bringing in new ideas such as modernising our system, ensuring that even those who didn't come here got the best services they could ever get. And this is what has seen rise us to this level," he said.

However, not many people seemed to have much faith in his plans. He says he wrote to about 50 banks and organisations and received only rejections. But he describes this as an important lesson. "I learned that you don't need to depend on others or even other organisations. You can still do it on your own. I find it sometimes cumbersome where I have to do all this paperwork so I would rather stand on my own." He turned to friends who backed him to the tune of $15,000 (£9,700). This plus his own personal funds enabled him to put some money behind his idea.
Within the first month the school had enrolled more than 30 pupils. Today it has around 700 pupils and more than 30 employees.

Hijacked books

So given the large injection of capital he had, what is his response to those who might say they do not have the same financial advantages? Cannot play media. You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version"You don't start a business with money, you start with an idea. And that idea it has to be grown," he says. "So the idea is the one that is going to lead you to where money is. I had to grow that idea. Upon growing that idea, that's when my brain would tell me to say now can you source some money to fill the gaps. "Running a business doesn't actually take money, it is the brain."

Mr Siatwambo has now turned his attentions to producing exam guides. In 2006 he had the idea for Exams Made Easy and went about getting it published. To keep his costs low, he had the book published in China. "After printing quite a number of copies [50,000] let me just say it was quite challenging because locally it was quite expensive to have a book printed," he says. "There was one major challenge I faced when the books were being shipped to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," he remembers.

"The ship that was carrying the books had been hijacked in Somalia and you can imagine there were only two weeks before the launch and I'd invited all the people, ministers and other people, so now what was I going to do? Abandon the launch? I just went ahead with the launch through just a few copies that I'd printed locally." He now has plans to build on the book and to expand his Great North Road Academy. "I have now converted the book into a DVD. My intention is to expand the school into a university in the next three or four years. "I've already acquired some land. We wanted to construct a complex which will house a primary school, a secondary school and also a university. Now we are just looking at financiers to finance the work. Hopefully by 2015 all of the structures will be in place." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16635975

All Eyes on China: Why not, if Not?

If China and the United States had Facebook profiles, their relationship statuses would say "it's complicated."With both a creditor-debtor and seller-buyer relationship, the two world superpowers are strange bedfellows to say the least.

How do you view the economic relationship between the U.S. and China? On one hand, they're business partners with a vested interest in each other's success. On the other, they're fierce competitors with some inherent misunderstandings. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke recently called the connection "perhaps the most important bilateral trading relationship in the world."That's why all eyes are on the meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama, kicking off Wednesday.

China's many roles:

Buyer: China is currently the third top buyer of U.S. exports, lagging only behind neighbors Canada and Mexico. But with the world's largest population -- 1.3 billion people -- and a rapidly emerging middle class buying everything from groceries to cars, it is also the fastest growing export market in the world.In the past 20 years, U.S. exports to China have multiplied 12 times over. That presents American businesses with an alluring opportunity that's hard to pass up, said Erin Ennis, vice president of the US-China Business Council."The biggest lure of China is the elusive goal of one billion consumers," she said. "Many business owners think, 'if I could sell just one product to every person in China, think how well my business would do.'"And more American exports also mean more jobs at home, which is exactly why President Obama is pushing for the U.S. to double its exports in the next five years.

Lender: China also has high stakes in the U.S. economy, as the country's largest lender.Its central bank holds $896 billion in Treasury bonds, accounting for about a quarter of all foreign investment in the U.S. government. American citizens pay interest on that debt, and the stronger the greenback is, the better China's investment pays off.Meanwhile, the U.S. government uses that money to fund its debt, and arguably, needs that loan from China to get itself out of its latest economic hole.Leader: Following the recession, China's rapidly growing economy has been the envy of Western nations, hurling ahead at a speed of 9.6% last year. (The U.S. continues to chug along at a snail's pace of 2.6%).Last year, it surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy. If American businesses were hesitant to invest in China before, they're much less so now, said Thomas Stiebel, a partner with international law firm Quarles and Brady."

There was always some skepticism about China. No one really believed it, that China is developing into this economic powerhouse," he said. "But with China coming through the recession as strong as it did, there was this awakening that China is for real."Hu Jintao visits the White HouseThe U.S. economy is still three times larger than China's, but at its breakneck speed, some economists say China is on a path to surpassing the U.S. as soon as 2025.While that may put American bragging rights at stake, that doesn't mean the U.S. loses ground."Our two economies are so intertwined," Ennis said. "It's in both of our interest, that both countries prosper."Pointing fingers

Despite their connection, China and the U.S. don't always see eye-to-eye, and tensions are particularly high leading up to this week's meeting. Over the last year, American leaders have outright demanded China allow its currency to float freely against the U.S. dollar -- complaining that the artificially low yuan gives Chinese businesses an unfair advantage in international trade.Senators renewed those calls Monday, introducing legislation that would impose harsh penalties on nations that manipulate their currencies.American businesses have also complained, blaming Chinese officials for failing to enforce intellectual property laws and offering large subsidies that give an unfair advantage to Chinese exporters.

In written responses to questions from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post published Monday, Hu was quick to defend the yuan, but also focused on strengthening ties with the U.S."We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation," he wrote.But those tiffs are hardly irreconcilable differences, as both countries admit they need each other. That may be why Americans are more likely to see hand shakes at photo ops this week, rather than pointing fingers. bbc.com

Seven simple ways to help you improve your self-esteem

High self-esteem is very important for success in any field and it is the foundation of personal growth. Before going into details about the seven ways to improve your self-esteem, I would like to share a personal story that relates to this topic. As stated in my biography on this site, I spent my first twelve years in two tiny villages in Ghana. My typical day consisted of going to the farm at dawn, going to school barefoot in the morning, returning to the farm after school, walking distances to get water and doing homework with my grandmother’s lantern. Among the boys, I had a lot of influence because they mostly depended on me for planning soccer games, hunting and other activities. On several occasions, they made me captain because my soccer and volleyball skills were impressive.

I did not know that I had any problem until I arrived in the big city (Accra). The boys in Accra teased me for being skinny. For instance, some of the kids went to the extent of saying that I needed to see a doctor because I had all the features of Kwashiorkor, a form of malnutrition that occurs when there is not enough protein in the diet. Soon I began to believe their taunts and I became extremely frustrated about my image. After a number of years of being extremely self-conscious I began to do things to increase my self-esteem and these are what I’m going to share with you today.

Seven simple ways to help you improve your self-esteem
1. Avoid negative thoughts about yourself: You become what you think about most of the time. This is why it is better for you to think about your strengths and how best you can use them. Don’t dwell on the weaknesses that you have. For instance, while it was highly likely that I would not win a fight with a guy of a bigger frame it was also extremely likely that I would beat him if it came to a battle of intellects. The more I thought about the opportunities and gifts I was blessed with, the better I felt about myself and what I could do. When you think more about what you can do rather than what you can’t do, you position yourself for personal growth.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others: Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer and poet once said “be yourself; everyone else is already taken”. You have to challenge yourself by testing your own limits. Comparing yourself to others for their looks, accomplishments and gifts is one of the quickest ways to lose your sense of worth. This does not mean you should not admire others for their great achievement and learn good lessons from them. You have to look within yourself, appreciate who are and what your passions and unique values are. We all have hidden treasures within but it is our responsibility to find them. Learn to love your personality and be willing to work on your own flaws. Remember that nobody is perfect.

3. Work on what you can change and leave what you can’t: For instance, you can get in shape by working out or controlling what you eat. You can change your academic performance by working extra hard to improve your GPA and you can change your negative habits through constant and never ending improvement. The easiest way to do this is to make a list of the things you want to change and take steps to change them. Remember to cross them out from your list and celebrate when you do it. On the other hand, you cannot do anything about the past so there is no point dwelling over it. If it is beyond changing, leave it and focus on the present and the future.

4. Set goals and work hard to achieve them: Setting goals that are well-defined and time-bound will inspire you to take action. The more you are able to accomplish your short-term goals, the more confident you become. For instance, when I was in high school I did not know that I could run until a housemate criticized me for being too focused on academics and being skinny for nothing. I decided to get more involved in sports and so I joined the track team. There was an inter-houses competition coming up and so I set my eyes on the first to third positions and trained very hard for the five thousand metre race. Indeed, I ran that race with everything in me and I won second position out of fourteen runners. Overall, my house won the trophy in the competition. I was very proud about proving my critic wrong and for achieving the goal I set for myself.

5. Be willing to learn from your mistakes: We all make mistakes in one way or the other. It could be as simple as spilling something, submitting an exam paper and then realizing that you forgot to answer a question or two. The most important thing is to admit that you made a mistake and think of ways not to repeat it. Rather than blaming other people or external circumstances, take responsibility for your mistakes. This will open many doors of learning and self-improvement.

6. Put your talents into action: Be confident with the talents that you are blessed with and be willing to try new things. As I said earlier on, we all have gifts and it is our duty to find them. When you find these gifts, put them in action and keep working hard to improve yourself. You have to accept the fact that everyone excels at different things and failing something does not mean you are a failure. It just means you have not found a better way to do that thing. Also, try new things to see if you could do them with ease. For instance, you could be really good at playing the piano or painting but if you have never tried you will not know.

7. Think of ways to help those around you: I like to ask myself: what will my contributions be? What can I do for one person or one community? What steps can I take to achieve the things I would like to achieve? I strongly believe that life is about giving and we can learn to give our time, energy and knowledge to help make a difference in so many ways. You can help a good cause through your involvement, volunteer for community groups or help a friend having addiction or academic problems.

Improving your self-esteem will help you to develop a positive attitude towards life. People with high self-esteem are happier, make friends easily and believe they can achieve their dreams. Never for once allow the negative views of other people become your own reality. You can improve your self-esteem by avoiding negative thoughts about yourself, not comparing yourself to others, focusing on what you can change, setting goals, learning from mistakes, putting your talents into action and finding ways to contribute to society.

MAKING MONEY: What's wrong with black Zambians?

By Austin Mbozi

The main strengths of the Tonga money-making mentality are (a) physical labor hard work, (b) savings (kaso) and (c) a slight reading culture. The strengths of the Bemba money-making mentality are (a) networking (b) risk-taking and (c) urbanized exposure. I mean averages or majority; not that each and every member of these groups has the same mentality.Between these two opposites lie the business cultural mindsets of virtually all other Zambian ‘tribes’.Neither group has a fully satisfactory productive culture.

They both need to embrace the strengths of each other. An average rural Tonga can do a lot of physical donkey work without exposing (Bemba exposure) it to modern ways! And he can keep thousands of cattle without selling them to buy drugs to prevent denkete cattle disease or modernize his farming. Also an average Bemba can move from place to place looking for exposure, but leaving huge tracks of land in his region and making himself quite vulnerable to urban economic changes such as job loses due to mine closures. The risk taking culture makes him more susceptible to being suspected of being corrupt, since he can take any risk.A Tonga wants to produce where there is no modernity. A Bemba wants to modernize where there is no production.

As a result an average Tonga remains a village peasant producer failing to become a sophisticated, highly mechanized milk processor, miller or canned beef processor like his South African Boer rural counterpart. An average Bemba remains a ghetto urban, street petty trader or loiterer, failing to become a high international commerce manager like his South African English speaking urban counterpart.I learnt a lot from Chibamba Kanyama’s master piece; ‘Business Values of Our Time’. (2010). In fact views that what we do in life and how we do it is determined by our cultural mindset, especially ethnic culture, are in various publications, such as Professor Ali Mazrui’s ‘Cultural Forces in World Politics (1990) and ‘Capitalist Nigger’ , written by a Nigerian economicsguru, though I have not yet read it all. Why discuss this? Because in my article ‘PF: Reaping MMD money without sowing’ I was accused of disrespecting black Zambians when I said they were generally unproductive. The fact is that we are less productive that our fellow Zambians of Asian, European or even East African origins, all because our minds are stagnant with the values of our tribal survival cultures.

I will adopt Chibamba’s positive aspects of each ethnic group but include the negative aspects which he carefully left out.Ingombe mbo bwami. The value of Tonga conservatismDuring a paper presentation on UNESCO’s Philosophy Day on 12th December 2005 at Lusaka Civic Centre, Chibamba Kanyama said the most social way to look at the Zambia’s ethnic investment culture is to look into the Zambia National Soccer Team. Tonga players generally play at the back: Look at Goal keeper Kennedy Mweene. Look at defenders; Clive Hachilensa, Louis Shambulo, Happy Sichikolo, Hichani Himoonde, Danny Chulampongo ( Warriors ),Davies Nkausu, Kizito Cheelo ( Green Eagles) , Ian Bakala, Kebby Hachipuka (Choma Eagles captain), the U-20 international captain etc. Only a few like Kennedy Mudenda, Given Singuluma, Lewis Macha, or Funny Hangunyu try forward. Reason? They grow up with a mentality not to go to other peoples homes (adventure, exposure) in the Egyptian territory but to defend their land so that they can keep their cattle.

This must explain why Tongas are generally conservative, and the urbanized Tongas, such as Harry Nkumbula, Baldwin Nkumbuka, Anderson Mazoka, Levy Mwanawasa, Jonas Shakafuwsa Hakainde Hichilema, Costain Chilala etc all kept cattle. If you go 40 km away from towns like Livingstone, Lusaka, Kabwe, Kapiri, Copperbelt, Mpika or Kasama you are likely to find people speaking Tonga in the nearest bush farms.This is good. Tonga speaking people have acquired probably the largest tracks of land in this country. In the near future, as towns expand, Tongas are the likely dominant landlords. It is good if other ethnic groups join the Tonga land stampede and agrarian culture. The positive thing though is that they are intermarrying and in future we will have mixed blend of true, tribal-less Zambians.

However, there is one weakness of the Tonga people. Lack of exposure and networking, a culture they can learn from the Bemba.Ubufumu ni Bantu: The value of Bemba exposure Chibamba Kanyama then reminds us that Bemba players dominate the striking force and attacking midfield. Name them: The Pele of Zambia, Godfrey Chitalu… ( Umgh! Messi, Messi! Can your ka Messi score 107 goals in one season like our great ‘Ucar’ did in 1974?), Kalusha Bwalya, Johnstone Bwalya, Charles Musonda, Jacob Mulenga, Kelvin Mutale (remember that prolific striker who perished with the Gabon disaster?) or new sensational, Under 20 COSAFA top scorer Evans Kangwa.The Bemba culture is led by their proverb ; Ifikala chimbwi efikala nama ikata ( Hyena praises himself as a hunter even if he just eats carcass killed by other animal hunters). Tonga defenders who are trained to defend their territory grab the ball from Egyptian strikers and give it Bemba strikers who are not afraid of other people’s territory to score! Perfect ethnic mutual compliment!Bembas believe in ‘Go into other peoples territory to survive’. Chibamba Kanyama (P.8) describes their culture as follows; ‘Other societies consider (the Bemba ) as greedy and lovers of money… (they have managed) their businesses on the basis of networking and taking risks. Even if they know very little about something, they will apply themselves with energy and confidence..a Bemba can borrow money from a low spending neighbour, buy an expensive car and assist the same neighbor with transport everyday to work’.The Bemba arrived in this country led by warriors Chiti and Nkole in around 1650.

Coming from the tsetse fly region that did not support cattle keeping it meant even cash crop production was also not easy. Thus, they needed to conquer other tribes for survival. The cattle-keeping Namwanga became the main victim of Bemba raids. They also tried to raid the Nsenga-Chewa, but they retreated after Chiti was killed by the local Chief Mwase for sleeping with his wife. Then under the rule of Chitapankwa they teamed up with the Yao Arab gun carrying traders between 1850 and 1870, attacked the Ngoni and shared the looted women and cattle. Excellent Bemba networking!After the colonial white rulers stopped the tribal fighting, the Bemba culture evolved into trading or exposure seeking. Hence, they flocked to Copperbelt mines, then to Lusaka.Many successful Bemba businessmen, the likes of Geoffrey Mwamba, Bwalya Chiti, Sony Mulenga or Ben Mwila are in service businesses rather manufacturing or farming. Their very culture entails interacting and networking with others.

This Bemba exposure culture is good. Tongas generally don’t travel. Guided by their proverb; suntwe moowa nguwoongola ( coward hyena lives longer) they can live in the bush, farming for years. When their produce is ready they bring it to town outskirts and instead of going to sell their maize straight to FRA, their vegetables straight to the Soweto market retailers or their cow straight the mine owner, they sell it to a street middleman who goes to sell it at higher price than the Tonga producer. The Tonga under-utilize their proverb ‘ muzoka ulya kweendeenda’ ( The snake eats by traveling) by travelling only within the shrubs instead of towns!So really both need to change. TheTonga needs more exposure. The Bemba needs a bit more conservativism. The Tonga needs to relax his kaso (over-serving) a bit and buy drugs for dipping his cattle and modernize his farming. But Bemba needs to relax his consumerist speeding spree and save a bit more to buy land and cattle so that his is not too readily vulnerable to urban economic trends, such as mine closures or a job loss.

BREAKING NEWS COMMENTARY

1. Councils must defy Sata’s ‘directive and chase the vendors. Vending is illegal, the councilors were elected to make bye laws, not to serve or obey Sata. Council workers are employed to enforce bye laws. Sata is breaking the law. He cheats himself that he is above the law. Who does Sata think he is compared with the rest of us? He is just a failure, no education, arrested and fired by the colonial police, fired in every Government ministry he headed, and for all his close to 70 years of life, he can only declare owning six guns, a house and a little Kwacha! If he wants he can dissolve the councils. If he continues breaking laws Parliament must impeach him. If he wants let him dissolve parliament today. Which President in the world has ever said such a thing? Roads are becoming impassible for cars, accumulating dirty, urine, human and dog excreta etc are a sorry sight and cholera has already broken out in Lusaka, Chongwe and Southern Province towns, petty thieves etc mainly because of vending. The Keep Zambia Clean Campaign is now off. Councils are losing income because vendors do not pay rates, and those marketers in markets or shops have in the past been forced to form tuntemba in from of their shops so that those places are not taken up by vendors. After a period of decent Presidents, Sata is bringing back that primitive nonsense with which they ruled with Chiluba, where they formed a useless Vendor’s Desk at Statehouse while Freedom Way was nearly closed due to vending.Sata is not our benefactor. He is our tax paper parasite who soon risks becoming a social nuisance.

2. Those Tonga speaking people that were offended by Miles Sampa’s statement that they must marry Bemba women in order to rule the country must go and demonstrate on the streets against him. It’s time to act against Sata’s arrogant tribalism. Why send a man who is still fighting tribal remarks with Tonga speakers? It’s like Sata, because of his complexes, is telling Tonga Speakers,’ Miles Sampa can insult you but we are in charge. Dare him and see. In Lusaka where from where I moved Sampa, I have put another Bemba, Gerry Chanda ’. Well, Miles Sampa is too ‘small’ cow down the Tonga speaking people.Anyhow, Bemba speaking politicians like Nevers Mumba, Felix Mutati or Elias Chipimo must also start attacking Sata’s tribalism. Let’s fight him not as tribes but as a nation. No tribe or race has ever won over another in recent history.——————————————————————————————————————-

The Culture of stealing: Bemba or Tonga?I personally have no statistics to show which tribes steal more than others. Those who have this information are at liberty to give it, with concrete court convictions evidence. They only evidence I have is historical. In pre-colonial Zambia, the Bemba and Lozi tribes, living in less productive regions, survived by raids. But that was the culture of the time. A white trader in Barotseland, George Westbeech was shocked in 1882 as he reported that Lewanika’s impis brought 20,000 cattle to Lealui from just one raid on the Ila and Batoka! (I find it as provocative when the Lozi descendants of this brutal Lisholi, Lewanika, in the name ofchibuya, praise themselves for such senseless and primitive day light robbery of my ancestors’ cows! 20,000 cows! K40 billion at current price! ) Even white tribes raided, stole wealth and colonized peoples in America, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Even among the Ila, as described in Goodwin Mwangilwa’s biography of Harry Nkumbula, raiding other families’ cattle is a sign of manliness.When, once, I took a petty money thief to a police station a police officer asked for the thief’s name. ‘I am Moonga’, the thief replied. The humorous Bemba police officer pulled off the shirt of the thief and hit a big mbama on his back saying; iwe, kansi ndiwe mu Tonga! Manje ukayamba kubba ndalama ise te Ba Bemba tubbe chiyani! Ise ba Bemba tunamulekela ngombe imwe ba Tonga so that naise mutilekele ndalama. Manje ubbwela ku share yatu! ( Nyanja: So you are a Tonga! So if you Tongas start stealing money what shall us the Bemba steal? Did we not agree that we the Bemba will let you the Tonga steal cattle alone on condition that you also leave all the money for us to steal? )Typical Zambia police humor. But it reflects the traditional joke that Tonga steals cattle (because they are farmers) and Bembas steal money (because they are urban traders). But to take it outside the joke is going too far. We cannot conclude from these historical facts that a certain tribe is full of thieves. Collective business failure as ZambiansZambian journalists are failing to run newspapers, only The Post has succeeded, all because of Fred Mr. Mmembe’s personal extraordinary administrative skills. Ex-Post Newspapers journalists fail to run newspapers once they leave Mr. Mmembe. NGO management is not success. It is institutionalized begging.NGO leaders beg money from white people on behalf of their fellow unproductive Zambians, and then use more of it for self-enrichment. Farmers are harvesting an average of 150 kgs per hectare instead of the ideal 220kgs. Yet this is after Government has bought a fertilizer bag for them at K220,000 and sold it to them at K50, 000. Top civil Servants ( the second largest bunch of parasites after politicians) spend more time talking at workshops. Worse, instead of investing their over-paid money in real production, they simply build over-size houses, larger than those owned by Indians or whites. Politicians can’t survive without politics. Our limitations, as I have highlighted above, are what make us poor. Barely a week after I was criticized on ZWD for opposing the manner in which the Citizens Empowerment Commission is managed, the Auditor General’s Report revealed that this organization wasted 13 billion Kwacha ( The Post 14th December 2011). This amount was misused before it was given out. Then the larger chunk of what was given out is not being paid back.Why? Listen to the answer from Mr. Tawanda Nyambirai, the Group Chief Executive Officer for TN Holdings Limited, Zimbabwe:Zimbabwe and South Africa are going through different phases in the pursuit of empowerment or indigenization (black empowerment) policies. The common weakness …is the over emphasis on ownership as opposed to good appreciation of business, business training ….. Consequently, black populations have ventured into businesses they do not understand, and have entered into them with a mindset that everything will just work itself out. Thus, the fall of some of these businesses have been spectacular.’ ( Source: Chibamba Kanyama’s Business Values (2010))Lima Bank and Development Bank of Zambia all failed. Reason. Zambians not paying back. The Farmers Input Support Programme ( FISP) has been going on for several years. No farmer is graduating in three years as was initially planned. K40 billion Youth Fund was given by the Mwanawasa administration in 2007. But youths either showed no serious business plans or are not paying back. Future leaders! Future leaders with empty heads! Meanwhile, our Asian and white Zambians are getting loans from Commercial banks and paying back.So why blame governments? In any case don’t government officials come from among us? And we choose them because we think they are our best brains? Why always blame Government when whites and Asians are prospering under the same Governments?We must mix with the Chinese to improve our business and culture.

Public Relations; an Upturn to any Entity. Youths to Grasp the Profession

Public relations is a complex field, not only because it demands the mastery of a diversity of skills, but also because it requires a considerable amount of brainpower for problem solving, counseling, planning and creativity in approaching situations. Adding to the mental stimulation is the high competition in public relations, which is usually matched by corresponding high paybacks. The profession takes a specific type of person who can campaign, plan or appeal effectively to an organisation’s publics. This is because there is nothing more indivisible in an organisation than its reputation and the cordial climate in which it operates. Therefore, it is imperative that an institution’s public relations is unified as the antenna, the conscience and voice of the whole establishment.


Additionally, public relations helps to develop an outward-looking managerial philosophy which should be translated into actions that prove the organisation’s concern to the public interest. This can be accomplished by listening and responding to the public needs effectively. It entails working to interpret the needs of the public to the organisation and plan responsive actions by the institution in relation to those needs. Listening and responding effectively go together, and when they do, the conscience of management takes a new perspective as inconsistent institutional policies cannot be made effective by any public relations effort.

Based on the above arguments, the core thesis of this essay is to compare and contrast public relations in business, non-profit organisations and in government, bearing in mind the principles and theories of the profession’s practice. Furthermore, the question on which one adheres more to the principles and ethics of the profession will be expounded on. The essay will be logically divided into three parts, the first consisting of definitions of key terms. The second part will be the main body, while the last will be the conclusion. Only few similarities and differences in business, government and non-profit organisations public relations will be expounded on in this essay as they are too numerous to exhaust.

Public relations is a multidimensional concept without a universally agreed definition to it. William (1963: 987) for example, defines it as activities and policies devoted to build public interest in an idea, person, product, institution or business establishment, with the ultimate goal of creating an advantageous “image” for any kind of an establishment in order to enhance good public will in the most favourable light. The focal point of the profession is to help entities develop a mutually satisfactory two-way communication system which helps them win the cooperation of the groups of people they are dealing with at different levels by taking their interests on board. This can be accomplished by listening and responding to those interests effectively.

Principally, public relations is a public service oriented profession, with public interest (not personal remunerations), as the primary consideration in its practice. This principal is supposed to be universal to the profession, in whatever atmosphere it is being practiced, be it in business, government or non-profit institution. This also can be a truism under democratic governments, where those who govern are chosen by the people as their representatives in decision making and formulation of laws that protect electorates’ interests and needs. According to www.wadsworth.com, “governments today, (unlike dictatorships and monarchs) are generally expected to provide various welfare services to the public, which give the public relations personnel very challenging duties of explaining new policies, conducting campaigns for set goals, attend to gender issues, human rights, youth empowerment, sensitisation of the public on safety, interpretation of national public opinion to assist in domestic policy formulation, defending controversial expenditures of tax payers’ money, among others.” This means governments take on board interests of different publics they deal with, like the ordinary people, tax payers’ who contribute to governance financially, opposition political parties, and even interest of the governors, among others.

This is because government touches every aspect of society and virtually every part of government is closely tied to and reliant upon public relations. The purpose of democracy itself closely matches the purpose of public relations as the philosophy promotes public service or rule of the people, by the people or representative leadership. Therefore, government public relations personnel commonly known as public information officers must help government officials undertake programmes that address public needs with the urgency they require in order to gain public good will and confidence. All institutions strive to attain this. They employ different public relations techniques that they aim to get credit for. They all communicate their policies and acts to people’s needs so that people understand and appreciate what an institution is doing for their welfare.

Businesses have collapsed, governments have fallen and non-profit organisations have folded, because of poor or lack of public support. Thus, all institutions have realised the role of public relations for their survival. They therefore explain and justify their actions in the best way possible to the public so that the public knows what the entities are doing to satisfy their (people) interest.

Image building is another aspect that public relations has struggled to accomplish either in business, government or non-profit organisations. This involves presenting and building good will for the establishment by demonstrating to the public that the firm is an effective provider of goods or services, an equitable employer and or\ responsible community neighbour. The responsibility of the public relations people here is to tell the entity’s story well when controversy arises. According to Day (2000: 231), “public relations personnel have the duty to design policies and help management in administering various responsive programmes to public needs in relation to those needs’ scope and complexity in all spheres of their operations.” In short, they must initiate programmes that explain their establishment’s goals and objectives towards the welfare of all the publics the establishment is dealing with at different levels.

The most prominent ways in which public relations people accomplish image building or enhancement are through research, communication, publicity, planning and counseling. Research is used to increase understanding of the audience attitudes towards an organisation so that it can structure appropriate messages to address pertinent issues that can enhance relationships between the institution and its publics. It provides feedback since two-way communication is inevitable for the institution to make necessary adjustments to its policies and practices. For example, the government of Zambia wanted to put in place legislation that would regulate non-governmental organisations due to some observations from certain quarters of society on the organisations’ active participation in national matters, which was seen as one way of trying to control government. But after a strong resistance and criticisms from various publics, the decision was rescinded. Government tried to fine tune messages to the public to sugar coat the reasons for such a move, but the public never bent down.

Research generally helps in determining attitudes and behaviours of the public for ease planning of public relations strategies for persuading publics and influences them in order to generate mutual understanding. Non-profit organisations often use research to ascertain acceptability of their programmes or services by the public. Different methods are used in ascertaining people’s attitude towards an establishment’s policies or practices. They can be formal or informal. Many of them use suggestion boxes or open letters to the organisation by the public.

According to Young (1996: 124), “there can be no public relations without communication because surveillance of the ‘market’ and what it offers through feedback will not be accomplished as ascertaining public attitude will be impossible.” Every public relations person looks at the best way of reaching their organisation’s publics with information well tailored to meet their concerns. These professions seek to gain public acceptance of their institutions. As information managers, public relations people use communication to inform, persuade, and building mutual relations between an establishment and is publics. The messages are thus designed in a way that they appeal to people’s tastes and needs in the best way possible.

It is further argued that in government-as in any other organisation-public relations is a management function that helps to define objectives and philosophies while also helps the organisation adapt to the demand of its constituencies and environment. Public relations practitioners whether referred to as public information officers, press secretaries or just plain administrative aides, still communicate with all relevant internal and external publics to make organisational goals and societal expectations consistent. Public relations people in all sectors develop, execute and evaluate programmes that promote the exchange of influential ideas and understanding an organisation’s constituent parts and publics.

In addition, planning in any kind of public relations is said to be essential not only to know where the message or campaign is headed, but also to win top management support. For example, as governments become more complex and everywhere, the challenge of maintaining citizen involvement in national matters and ensuring that governments are responsive to societal needs become more difficult. In such instances, there is need to employ public relations techniques in convincing citizens to have confident in their leaders and understand that government is committed to meet their concerns. In the process of planning, the organisation’s objectives and goals, among other aspects are considered. The broad environment in which an establishment operates dictates its overall objectives, which in turn dictate specific public relations objectives and strategies. This requires quick thinking and creativity to achieve recognition by the public that the institution is doing something concerning their welfare.

Planning is cardinal for the success of any programme. Therefore, public relations people in any setting should specify a series of things to be done and how they will be done. Planning starts with acquiring background information to the problem or issue, and then make an outline of strategies to tackle it. For instance, in ascertaining economic activities in Zambia, especially the level of local people’s participation in these activities, the problems they face among other concerns, the country embarked on an economic census. It is expected that a plan of action will thus be taken to empower local people in one way or the other after identifying how they are fairing. This gives people the view that their government cares about their well being, and they are likely to support it in different ways when need arises.

The plan is implemented after doing all the house work. Public relations tactics are often used here to convince the public that the plan of action is meant to benefit them. Organisations often claim credit for their public welfare concern and for their ability to keep a finger on the pulse of what they promise to do for their community neighbour, (ibid: 126). Success of the plan is known by evaluation.

Counseling is the other pertinent aspect of public relations in any institution. It is argued that public relations is the ear and conscious of any institution, with one foot in the institution and the other outside. Its practitioners therefore dart ahead of other professionals, survey the public attitudes, tastes, needs and the like, and then provide advice to management concerning an entity’s policies, relationships with the publics and effective communication (op.city: 127-8). Through counseling, public relations people advise management and other key publics on the importance of maintaining a good relationship for mutual benefits of co-existing.

The other aspect of public relations in all organisations or establishments is achieving visibility through publicity. Although it is argued that performance should precede publicity, many institutions use a lot of marketing strategies to present a positive image of their entity before the public in order to gain good will. Good publicity can be earned by doing right things to the community the institution serves. It also involves using appropriate medium and having positive media relations to gain it. Planned messages should therefore be disseminated through the right selected media in order to further an entity’s interests. Good public relations is vital in the achievement of good publicity.

However, regardless of many similarities which exist in public relations in business, non-profit organisations and government, the way the profession is practiced differs in one or the other. According to Cutlip at el (2000: 457), “the main objective of employing public relations in profit making organisations is to gain public acceptance which might reciprocate in increased profitability of the organisation’s activities as people tend to buy more of a company’s product when they accept its policies and practices.” This is slightly different from the core objective of engaging public relations strategies in government and non-profit organisations. Under the auspices of government and non-profit organisations, the main motive of employing public relations in whatever form is to gain public acceptance of their public service missions and objectives. A variety of challenges face these institutions in public service, such as high demand for the services (like medical or education services), high costs and even access to these services by the least advantaged members of society; some of which providers face surmounting criticism and pressure. Therefore, public relations is often called upon to provide positioning statements and respond to critics. In short, government and non-profit organisations are mainly in public service, while the businesses are after increasing their profitability.

The other difference between businesses and government and non-profit organisations is on what happens to monies that are not spent on overhead and operating expenses. In a business, this money is called ‘profit,’ and it is distributed on a proportional basis to those who own the company. Thus, someone who owns more shares of the company gets more from that profit than those with less. However, when it comes to a non-profit organisation or government, the excess monies are called ‘surplus’ and they are often re-invested in the organisation or government sectors to strengthen and expand the scope of their objectives and goals. Governments strive to attain equity on the provision of services to the public regardless of how much they contributed to the country’s tax base. Non-profit organisations equally aim at supplementing governments in the provision of the much needed services by the public on an equitable basis. But this is not the case when it comes to businesses. Therefore, the kind of public relations employed by these institutions should reciprocate into the achievement of the mission of the entity’s establishment.

Additionally, businesses employ public relations strategies for the ultimate benefit of increasing returns for the owners of the money that have been injected in the running of such businesses. According to Lucas (2001: 89), “business organisations use public relations to create a favourable image that would in return result in increased buying of their products or services in order to make more money for the owners of the businesses, as a way of financially rewarding them for their investment in the company or organisation.” On the other hand, a non-profit organisation focuses on fulfilling an educational or charitable mission, with recognition that all organisations must maintain positive bottom lines to exist. The same philosophy applies in governments as they aim at meeting their ordained functions vested on them by the public. Governments that have failed to live to the public’s expectations have fallen, as the people rose against them. The best example is the assignation of President Mobutu Tsetseko of Zaire (by then) due to the failure of his administration to provide basic needs to the public. It lost public trust.

Furthermore, non-profit organisations especially social welfare agencies and governments often rely on inexperienced public relations practitioners or even unprofessional volunteers or appointees to conduct their public relations programmes. They often argue that they do not have resources to engage the depth of public relations expertise necessary to mount sophisticated public relations or marketing efforts. But when it comes to business, public relations practitioners are employed and maintained in the organisation on the basis on their performance. The practitioners are research based strategic planners with considerably higher funding and support from management.

Government public relations is said to be coupled with propaganda in different faces as a way of winning public support especially during crises rather than performance. The public is sometimes given misleading information as a way of cushion hostility. For example, church leaders are sometimes used as a device to achieve credibility on policies or decisions that society does not promote. Other strategies which present the decision or idea as having “overwhelming support” are used to gain public support. The public often does not get the concealed truth in whichever way because governments use laws like State Security laws as a way of shutting the media and the public up on issues that may need urgent attention. For example, President Mwanawasa once warned those who were daring the National Constitution Conference (NCC) that they risked committing a treasonable case whose penalty was either death or life imprisonment. Many people thus conceded with the NCC idea as a mode of enacting the new constitution in fear of the ‘law.’ Bribery of opinion leaders is also used sometimes to win public support.

But when it comes to businesses and non-profit organisations, state inquiries through state agencies are in most cases used to get the truth, and when organisations are found faulting, they are penalized in one way or the other. In turn, customers may shun such institutions’ products or services. That means those who entrusted their capital in such ventures lose their money. As a result, open communication to a large extent characterises the business fraternity and non-profit organisations.

Government public relations professionals also face more hostility and suspicion than do other practitioners, which stem from the continuing struggle between the press fighting for the ‘right of the people to know’ and officials of government who insist upon discretion of certain sensitive areas of the public sphere. In addition, the hostility also stems from protests by industries, institutions and other vested interests when threatened by proposed legislation or government regulation. According to Bjornland (1993: 234), “government public relations is the most frustrating profession as practitioners are often dealing with an apathetic and poorly educated citizenry who do not understand the issue, the problem or the reasons behinds unpopular decision.” Worse still, this is often coupled with the popular perception of government as a gridlock, a maze of red tape, full of special interests, corruption, ineptitude and partisan politics. This is not the case to practitioners in non-profit organisations and business fraternity where the administration is considerably small and less bureaucratic.

Taking the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) code of conduct as a measure of levels of adherence to the public relations principles and ethics by business, government and non-profit organisation public relations, the business fraternity to a large extent adheres more to the public relations principles and ethics than the rest. According to the PRSA code of conduct, public relations practitioners should base their professional principles and ethics on the fundamental value and dignity of an individual and serving the interests of the clients, employers and other publics. They must be dedicated to the goals of better communication, understanding and cooperation among the diverse individual groups and institutions of society and conduct themselves professionally with the truth, accuracy, fairness and responsibility to their publics.

In line with the guidelines above among others, the efforts of public relations in business are often designed to improve public attitude towards the business. According to Hayden (1975: 14-18), “to operate effectively in business, public relations professionals must be aware of the principles and practices in the profession thoroughly, understand the communication process, importance of research, instincts of planning and implementation of the plan, and even the profession’s publics.” To accomplish this, public relations in business has been characterised by a high professional management level in an organisation which follows a research based strategic planning system with considerable funding and management support and outside consultancy when need arises. Such result oriented public relations does not take root in most non-profit organisations and governments for various reasons among them lack of funds.

Public relations practitioners in business are compelled to follow prescribed professional codes of conduct as businesses often operate under the surveillance of government agencies and other organisations concerned with consumer interests. These regulations are somehow relaxed when it comes to non-profit organisations as they are considered ‘good guys of society’ because they are perceived to be more concerned with the welfare of the people. For example, there are those non-profit organisations that supplement government efforts in areas of education or health, which many governments are striving to address due to the high demand by the public for those services. People exalt such organisations, for example, community schools run by churches and other organisations in Zambia, which target low income populations.

Contrary, business public relations practitioners must aim at enhancing their organisation’s credibility by building a firm foundation of honest performance, open communication, remove inconsistencies between performance and communication, commitment to problem solving and avoidance of creating expectations that cannot be met. According to www.wadsworth.com, “many non-profit organisations have taken advantage of relaxed government regulations on their operations in essence of ‘supplementing’ government efforts in improving standards of living of the people; and have ventured into buying debts on the secondary global market at a discount in line with Debt Swaps arrangements and later demand high pay from debtors without repercussions.” A recent example could be the case of Zambia over the voucher fund, where Donegal International bought Zambia’s US$2.3 million debt in the 1970s at US$200 thousand in pretence that the organisation had citizen empowerment programmes to carry out in the country using the price differential, but later demanded for US$15 million from the Zambian government. The organisation was not scrunitised or monitored to ensure that its claims were met. But when it comes to businesses, they are always under the ‘camera’ thus the public relations practiced under them is more sensitive to the environments the entities operate under.

Although there are no universally agreed upon principles or ethical codes of conduct in public relations being that what could be ethically right to someone may not be with the other, there is need to strike a considerable balance of interests of an organisation’s publics. This is because every profession must operate under some professional codes of conduct which separate it from other occupations. To this effect, the PRSA have clauses that oblige public relations practitioners to conduct their professional life in accordance to public interest and should exercise high standards of honesty and integrity and to deal fairly with the public. (But the practice differs due to certain advantages other entities enjoy.) To businesses, all publics counts as money for their sustenance comes from people, whom without they cannot survive. This is slightly different in case of non-profit organisations or governments whose funding is often from abroad or from tax payers’ who are obliged to pay tax by law.

Equally, when it comes to government, there are a lot of laws that are used to protect the leadership from being ousted for failure to meet public demands. For example, in Zambia, no one can sue the state for failure to meet their social and economic rights like education. The state is protected by law. It is on this basis that some scholars have argued that government public relations is more of propaganda and waste of public funds. For instances, in the United States, there is a law which allows certain things to remain secrets for twenty years even when what has happened is worthy the removal of the government in power. Governments are in such cases painted in the favourable light they do not deserve merely to hold on to power.

In conclusion, public relations’ major responsibility in all institutions is to present those institutions in the most favourable light that ‘meets’ diverse publics’ interests. But due to variations in environments of operation, there have been differences in carrying out these responsibilities. This has been worsened by the fact that there are no universally agreed upon principles or ethics under which all public relations practitioners should operate under. What could be ethically right to one practitioner may be wrong to the other based on the differences in ideological alignments, beliefs, attitudes and or\ commitment to professional code of conduct and personal values among other elicits of human or professional preferences. This indicates that the complex aspects of institutions public relations practitioners work for and intellectual honesty and integrity in all features of public relations requires proper understanding of the professional principles and ethics and how an individual practitioner is expected to conduct oneself by the public they serve in order to improve on the professional efficacy. It is therefore the duty of public relations practitioners to safeguard diligently their profession, the image of their institutions and interests of their publics on a balanced scale.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bjornland L. (1993), PR Case Studies Book: 100 PR Case Studies. Gale Research Centre. New York.

Cutlip at el (2000), Effective PR (8th Ed). Delhi: Pearson Education Inc.

Day A. (2000), Ethics in Media Communication: Cases and Controversies (3rd Ed). Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.

Hayden R. (1975), The Reality of PR. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Inc.

Lucas S.E. (2001), The Art of Public Speaking (7th Ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Young D. (1996), Building your Company’s Good Will. New York: AMA Press.

William B. (1963), The Columbia Encyclopedia (3rd Ed). New York: Columbia University Press.

www.wadswrth.com

The Ugly Truth Washington Does not want you to know! What Young People can Grasp

US$14.6 trillion. That is how much the US government currently owes! The number is so big, it’s hard to wrap your mind around it. But look at it this way:

That’s $46,800 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. Or $2,100 for every person on the face of the Earth. If you had $14.6 trillion in your pocket, you could buy more than 918 million Toyota Corollas or 292,000 Gulfstream G550 private jets. Heck, you could buy almost six $300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantoms for every one of New York City’s 8.2 million people! Puts our national debt load into perspective, doesn’t it? Worse, that debt load is going to keep ballooning — to a stunning $20.8 trillion in 2021, according to the CBO’s April analysis. It’s shocking. Appalling. Revolting. Pick your adjective. Uncle Sam is now routinely selling tens of billions of dollars in longer-term Treasuries every few weeks. Just in one week in August alone, we dumped $32 billion in 3-year Notes ... $24 billion in 10-year Notes ... and $16 billion in 30-year Bonds on the market. It’s nuts! Indeed, just since the middle of the last decade, our debt load has exploded by 92 percent. And thanks to our legislators in Congress and the Obama administration, Uncle Sam now has the authority to go up to another $2.8 trillion in hock!

The Endgame
What’s the endgame here? Why is this so dangerous? How is this second step down the road to perdition so perilous? Again, look at Europe. Greece was allowed to run up its national credit card for years. It owed 195.4 billion euros in 2005. That ballooned to 328.6 billion euros last year. Ireland’s outstanding debt surged from 44.4 billion euros to 148 billion. And Portugal’s soared from 96.5 billion to 160 billion. As a result, their debt-to-GDP ratios exploded to 143 percent, 96 percent, and 92 percent as of 2010. For a while, those countries got away with it. But then, out of nowhere, their creditors started turning off the spigot. They cut up those nations’ credit cards. And the result is the carnage we’re seeing now.

Now, with Europe’s economy slowing, the tax revenues needed to service all of that debt are disappearing. The economies of Greece and Portugal have been in recession for some time now. Growth in Spain and Italy is virtually non-existent. And the carnage is spreading far beyond those ravaged nations.

Britain’s economy grew only 0.2 percent in April, May and June. Disposable income fell 2.7 percent in the 12 months prior to March of 2011. Retailers are going bankrupt right and left. And to make matters worse, Britain’s austerity program is expected to eliminate 300,000 government jobs. Now, Germany — the most vibrant economy in the EU — is flagging. Daimler, Deutsche Bank and Siemens are suffering. Germany’s largest utility is cutting thousands of jobs.

Now, Europe’s banking sector is being pushed to the brink. This month, the European Central Bank had to expand cheap loans to banks to make sure none of them run short of cash. The clock is ticking, folks. Here in the States, our debt-to-GDP ratio already surged to 62 percent at year end 2010, and it’s projected to hit 72 percent this year. Meanwhile last Friday, the University of Michigan reported that Consumer Confidence just hit the lowest level since 1980 — 31 long years ago!

In short, we’re buried in debt and our economy is slumping back toward recession! With no changes forthcoming to get us off this pitiful path, a mammoth crisis is all but inevitable! And still — neither the spending crisis we looked at yesterday or the debt crisis we’ve just examined are the ultimate crisis — only giant steps toward it that virtually guarantee the historic, world-changing event that will soon alter all of our lives forever.

Sourced from Money and Markets... by Mike Larson.

Entrepreneurship: Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain

Complied by Clive Siachiyako

I recently caught up with Ryan Blair, who is a serial entrepreneur and author of the new book "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain." Ryan established his first company, 24-7 Tech when he was only twenty-one years old. Since then, he has created and actively invested in multiple start-ups and has become a self-made multimillionaire. After he sold his company ViSalus Sciences to Blyth in early 2008, the global recession took the company to the brink of failure resulting in a complete write off of the stock and near bankruptcy. Ryan as CEO went "all in" betting his last million dollars on its potential and turned the company around from the edge of failure to more than $150,000,000 a year in revenue in only 16 months winning the coveted DSN Global Turn Around Award in 2010. In this interview, Ryan talks about how he re-branded himself after being in a gang, the issues with the education system, and more.

How did you shake your criminal record and re-brand yourself?

I remember when I was working my way up in the first company that employed me, I used to have nightmares that one day they'd find out about that I had been in a gang, call me into the office, and fire me. In the beginning I didn't talk much about what I'd been through. But eventually when I got to a point where I had established myself as a professional entrepreneur, I embraced my past, used it as part of my branding, and crossed over.

In this day and age people want authenticity. Now that the world is social, people know all about you. Assuming you decided to join humanity, that is. It turned out that as I started showing my true identity, so did the rest of the world. One of the reasons my company ViSalus is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry today is because we share our good, bad, and ugly. Like sharing a video of me playing a practical joke on one of my employees, for instance. As a result of embracing authenticity, I turned the company around from near bankruptcy to over $15 million a month today. Unlike our competitors, our distributors and customers know exactly who we are, and I'd say that corporate America has a lot of catching up to do.

What's your take on the educational system? Will a college degree help or hurt your chances at starting a successful business?

As a product of Los Angeles's public school system, in a state with the highest dropout rate in the nation (about 20 percent), I can tell you from personal experience that some of our brightest minds are being misidentified because of a one-size-fits-all learning environment. Because I had ADD and dyslexia I never got past the 9th grade.

I recall sitting with a career counselor in continuation high school, being told that I didn't have the intellect or aptitude to become a doctor or a lawyer. They suggested a trade school, construction, something where I'd be working with my hands.

The irony is that today I employ plenty of doctors and lawyers. Would you rather be a doctor or a lawyer, or a guy who writes a check to doctors and lawyers?

If President Obama phoned me today and told me he was appointing me Educational Czar, I'd turn education into a business, a capitalistic, revenue driven system, creating a competitive environment where each school is trying to attract customers, based on quality of customer experience.

As an entrepreneur, having a college degree or getting classroom training won't hurt your chances for starting a successful business, but it's ultimately not necessary. In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers," he makes a point that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master a skill set at a professional level. That means experience, over traditional education.

What three business lessons did you learn from juvenile detention?

I learned a lot about business and life from my time spent incarcerated. I like to call these pieces of wisdom my Philosophies from the Jail Cell to the Boardroom. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that in Juvenile Hall, new guys always get tested. When I went in the first time, I was just a skinny little white kid and I had to learn fast. People will be bumping into you on the basketball court, or asking you for things, testing to see if you're tough.

And everyone knew that if a guy let someone take their milk during lunchtime, they weren't as tough as they looked. Soon you'd be taking their milk everyday, and so would everyone else. It's the same for business, if you give people the impression that you can be taken, you will be.

Also, adaptation is the key to survival. In jail the guy who rises to power isn't always the strongest or the smartest. As prisoners come and go, he's the one that adapts to the changing environment, while influencing the right people. You can use this in business, staying abreast of market trends, changing your game plan as technology shifts, and adapting our strategy around your company's strongest competitive advantages. Darwin was absolutely right — survival is a matter of how you respond to change.

The last lesson I got from jail is that you have to learn how to read people. You don't know who to trust. It's the same for business because a lot of people come into my office with a front. I have to figure out quickly who is the real deal and who isn't. Based on that fact, I developed an HR system that I use when interviewing potential new hires that I call the Connect Four Technique. Yep, you guessed it. I make my future employees — and I have hundreds of them — play me in Connect Four.

Can everyone be an entrepreneur? Can it be learned or do you have to be born with a special gene?

No. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. There are two types of people in the world, domesticated and undomesticated. Some people are so domesticated through their social programming and belief system, so employee minded, that they could never be entrepreneurs. And they shouldn't even bother trying. The irony is that this is coming from a guy who teaches millions of people how to become entrepreneurs. I'm literally selling a book about becoming an entrepreneur, telling you that not everyone should read it.

To be an entrepreneur, you have to have fighting instincts. Are instincts genetic? I don't think so, but you 'inherit' them from your upbringing. Now, if you're smart you can reprogram your beliefs. But there are still some people that would rather watch other people be entrepreneurs, like the people in the Forbes "richest celebrity list" than take the time to reprogram themselves, and live their lives like rock stars, too.

Is there a need for business plans these days?

When you've really got the entrepreneurial bug, the last thing you want to do is sit down and write a business plan. It's the equivalent of writing a book about playing the guitar before actually knowing how to play the guitar. You don't know what your new business is going to be like. And just like a guitar, a business will have to be tweaked and tuned multiple times, and you'll need long practice sessions and repetition, before you can get even one successful song out of it.

In my book "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain," I actually included a chapter called "I Hate Business Plans" where I talk about this. Most business plans that get sent to me, I close within seconds of opening them up because they are full of fluff and hype. A business plan should be simple, something you could scribble on a scratch pad. No more than three pages of your business objectives, expected results, and the strategy to get there. But the best business plan is one built from a business that is already up and running and that matches the business's actual results.

The point is that you should be so obsessed with your business that you can't sleep at night because that's all you can think about. And that's your ultimate "business plan."

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/power-your-future/entrepreneurship-nothing-lose-everything-gain-183145165.html