So far, I have joined the board of No Time For Poverty, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that is building a pediatric clinic in Haiti. I traveled to Haiti in July to view the remote site of Port Salut where the clinic is currently being built. Haiti is where I lived from 1971 to 1973 at the beginning of my primary career in the agribusiness and commodity investment industries. It was exciting to go back, but sad to see all the work that still needs to be done to help lift these wonderful people out of poverty.
During my visit to Haiti, I met Nixon Fleurissaint who had a most fascinating story of surviving poverty in an economy where the average wage is $1.00 per day. His is an inspirational story about picking oneself up and finding a way to improve his lot in life.
I was so touched by his story and his incredible effort to succeed that my wife Judy and I decided to help Nixon achieve his dream of going to school in the U.S. His true benefactors are Michele and Jeff Boston, the founders of the No Time For Poverty foundation, who are paying for his schooling. Judy and I, along with several of our friends, are helping Nixon with his room and board expenses while he attends Century College in St. Paul Minnesota to obtain his nursing degree. When he graduates he will return to Haiti to be one of the nurses at the clinic in Port Salut.
For several years now, I have been investigating finding solutions for infrastructure problems in the areas of clean water, sanitation, green power, and nutrition for third world countries. This is an area of great interest to me and I am looking into several projects ideas that I will share with you as they develop.
I have also started gathering thoughts and developing an outline for a book I want to write. The book will be an anecdotal self-help response to the wonderful little book written by my good friend Joachim De Posada called - Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!
Joachim’s book is a fun read. It is based on a study done by Michael Mischel of Stanford University in the 1960s. The enclosed link gives a summary of the study and its findings. After you read this you will understand the title of his book. http://www.sybervision.com/Discipline/marshmallow.htm
I’m thinking of calling my book, Confessions of a Marshmallow Eater (How to Survive the Instant Gratification Itch). I’ll keep you posted when the rough draft is finished.
I am doing some personal trading in the S&P futures index and I’m managing my own retirement portfolio. Since I was one of the few who were able to manage around the collapse of the stock market last year, without suffering a decline in portfolio value, and have since caught a good chunk of the rally from last spring, a number of my friends and former clients want to know what my next move will be. I’ll use this blog to keep you and they informed.
Since I stopped writing my nightly economic and commodity newsletter there have been times when I’ve seen some news item that I wanted to write about to my friends and former clients but no longer had the forum to do so. This blog will allow me to offer my thoughts, from time to time, on the economy and what I think will be happening in the future. For those of you who followed my former newsletter, The Daily Trade Blaster, you will recognize the similarity of my research and commentary style.
The goal of this blog is to share ideas about how we can continue to be productive, prosperous, happy, and fulfilled people in the years after we finish our primary career. Some of you may so enjoy the work you do that you may never retire. There is nothing wrong with doing what you love to do.
Whatever your choice, I would like to see us begin a back and forth dialogue about what gives us fun and fulfillment. You don’t have to be retired to share your ideas. I hope this blog also becomes a forum for finding answers to some of the problems of the world, even if our solutions are only small incremental steps. I also want to know what you are doing to help the world become a better place to live. Your ideas may help guide me in my own pursuits.
What will guide me in my search to serve humanity in a meaningful way is my belief that what goes around comes around and that you get what you give. If we give love, tolerance, kindness, fairness and laughter, then that is what we get in return. If we give hate, criticism, hurtfulness, and violence, then that is what will come back to us. It is how I have lived my life. I want to be more of the former and will always strive to push the later from my life.
While this blog is about my journey, I hope it will quickly become our journey and that the give and take from your comments to my postings will help us all find a true sense of shared achievement for the good of humankind.
During my visit to Haiti, I met Nixon Fleurissaint who had a most fascinating story of surviving poverty in an economy where the average wage is $1.00 per day. His is an inspirational story about picking oneself up and finding a way to improve his lot in life.
I was so touched by his story and his incredible effort to succeed that my wife Judy and I decided to help Nixon achieve his dream of going to school in the U.S. His true benefactors are Michele and Jeff Boston, the founders of the No Time For Poverty foundation, who are paying for his schooling. Judy and I, along with several of our friends, are helping Nixon with his room and board expenses while he attends Century College in St. Paul Minnesota to obtain his nursing degree. When he graduates he will return to Haiti to be one of the nurses at the clinic in Port Salut.
For several years now, I have been investigating finding solutions for infrastructure problems in the areas of clean water, sanitation, green power, and nutrition for third world countries. This is an area of great interest to me and I am looking into several projects ideas that I will share with you as they develop.
I have also started gathering thoughts and developing an outline for a book I want to write. The book will be an anecdotal self-help response to the wonderful little book written by my good friend Joachim De Posada called - Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!
Joachim’s book is a fun read. It is based on a study done by Michael Mischel of Stanford University in the 1960s. The enclosed link gives a summary of the study and its findings. After you read this you will understand the title of his book. http://www.sybervision.com/Discipline/marshmallow.htm
I’m thinking of calling my book, Confessions of a Marshmallow Eater (How to Survive the Instant Gratification Itch). I’ll keep you posted when the rough draft is finished.
I am doing some personal trading in the S&P futures index and I’m managing my own retirement portfolio. Since I was one of the few who were able to manage around the collapse of the stock market last year, without suffering a decline in portfolio value, and have since caught a good chunk of the rally from last spring, a number of my friends and former clients want to know what my next move will be. I’ll use this blog to keep you and they informed.
Since I stopped writing my nightly economic and commodity newsletter there have been times when I’ve seen some news item that I wanted to write about to my friends and former clients but no longer had the forum to do so. This blog will allow me to offer my thoughts, from time to time, on the economy and what I think will be happening in the future. For those of you who followed my former newsletter, The Daily Trade Blaster, you will recognize the similarity of my research and commentary style.
The goal of this blog is to share ideas about how we can continue to be productive, prosperous, happy, and fulfilled people in the years after we finish our primary career. Some of you may so enjoy the work you do that you may never retire. There is nothing wrong with doing what you love to do.
Whatever your choice, I would like to see us begin a back and forth dialogue about what gives us fun and fulfillment. You don’t have to be retired to share your ideas. I hope this blog also becomes a forum for finding answers to some of the problems of the world, even if our solutions are only small incremental steps. I also want to know what you are doing to help the world become a better place to live. Your ideas may help guide me in my own pursuits.
What will guide me in my search to serve humanity in a meaningful way is my belief that what goes around comes around and that you get what you give. If we give love, tolerance, kindness, fairness and laughter, then that is what we get in return. If we give hate, criticism, hurtfulness, and violence, then that is what will come back to us. It is how I have lived my life. I want to be more of the former and will always strive to push the later from my life.
While this blog is about my journey, I hope it will quickly become our journey and that the give and take from your comments to my postings will help us all find a true sense of shared achievement for the good of humankind.
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