Billionaire Warren Buffett will say “Right on!” every time.  Why?  

“You’re not entitled to a free ride in life,” ”Money or life?  I chose life.” “Life is what you make it .”

Do you know of a family or two who no longer speak to one another after fighting over their inheritance?  If parents leave nothing, children may resent mom and dad.  So what?!  They’re already at a much better place.  Resent all you want.

More importantly, families who continue to inhabit the land of the living will have an ongoing relationship — birthday parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and all that jazz!

“Give enough [to your children] but not enough to do nothing.”

Mr. Buffet, you are brilliant!

Did you know we can vote in the primary as well as the midterm election without changing our “Independent” status (to Democrat or Republican)?  For more information, Arizona’s Pima County residents, click here.  Call 520-740-4330, listen to the brief recording, press 1, then 7.  Early ballots will be mailed out on July 29 — plenty of time for August 24′s Primary Election.

Americans, contact your local election center.  Every voice counts.  Vote!  Vote!  Vote!

If you can relate, welcome aboard.  Check out Kahn Academy, where YouTube’s ‘professor’ Sal Khan make both basic and seemingly difficult concepts — from addition to calculus, chemistry to physics – a walk in the park!

Khan’s lessons are free, 10 minutes or less, simple, visual, and self-paced — start and pause as we please!  If I can learn, you can, too!

These testimonials say it all:

• “I learned more about calculus in the last few hours than in the whole of the last semester at university.  I was almost ready to change majors because I wasn’t understanding much of the content but am now up to speed.” (Derek Hoy/ Geophysics Major at University of Queensland, Australia)
• “I think he rocks.  I’m studying pre-algebra and I love it!”  (Felix Thibodeau, 11, Wilmington, N.C.) (Full Story)

Happy learning!

Dan, a bright young man, considered following his father’s passion and profession.  Becoming an engineer seemed safe, the path least likely to lead to mistakes.

Dan earned his engineering degree but didn’t want to use it.  He flirted with the idea of becoming a chef, but came to feel that, although he was fascinated by the inner workings of restaurants, food itself didn’t hold his interest.  Great — now he had a degree he wasn’t using and some work experience he didn’t care to follow up on.  Mistakes and more mistakes!

Meanwhile, working in restaurant kitchens, Dan found himself thinking like an engineer.  He saw each kitchen as a kind of factory, each appliance and tool as a cog in a production process.  How could the factory be made to work most efficiently?  How could time and energy be saved?  How could safety be improved, how could kitchen staff be best protected against burned fingers and sore backs?

Dan came to realize his false starts and meanderings had given him a fairly rare and useful skill set.  He could make schematic drawings; he understood the science of heat and materials.  He knew firsthand how heavy commercial saucepans were, how crucial the spacing of a kitchen line.

Dan became an industrial designer, specializing in commercial kitchens.  He had blundered his way to exactly where he was meant to be. (Full Story)

I’m still searching … a cause which I can immerse myself in with every inch of my being.  My passion and my heart, I know, will guide me.

How about you?  What do you want to be when you grow up?

So true, so simple, yet equally profound — spoken with conviction by Peter Buffet, an Emmy Award-winning composer and producer, cochairman of the NoVo Foundation, and the son of a billionaire investor, Warren Buffet.

Peter Buffet continues, “Secular advantages [and gifts] such as loving, nurturing parents and economic security become meaningful — truly our own — only by virtue of what we do with it, by how we return it to the world.”

Which do we truly appreciate — what we’ve earned through hard work or a gift?  Gratitude or entitlement? 

“Self-respect comes only from earning one’s own reward … My father’s plan was to give [all of his] wealth back to the world that had produced it in the first place.” (Full Story)

Work ethic or wealth ethic?  Self respect of status?  Process or payoff?  Passion or monotony?  Adventure or security?

We have one life to live.  The choice is ours.

But if we were blessed (or cursed) with large amounts of money, what will we do?  Give the money to our kids or to favorite charities?  What about accountability?  How would we make sure our hard-earned dough (or mad money) will be used wisely?

Billionaire, Warren Buffet, shares his wisdom:

“Give enough [to your children] but not enough to do nothing,” “You’re not entitled to a free ride in life,” ”Money or life?  I chose life.” “Life is what you make it .”

Son, Peter Buffett reminds us, it’s not enough to know what you want to do; that the pain of action is a challenge we must take on. And that we must open our arms to the mysteries of vocation as much as the well-delineated parts; that work is not all about following a predictable path but also about doubts, mistakes, uncertainties and embracing opportunities.(Full Story)

Great lessons!  Empower, not enable!

One 36-year-veteran disagrees.   ”Teaching a first-grade class is similar to hosting a birthday party from 8 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. What would you do to engage and inform a group of 25 or more six and seven-year-olds for over six hours, day after day, 180 days out of the year?”

Do teachers simply show up for work everyday — no lesson plans, no materials, no tests, no home/school communication letters – walk in and out with their students?

What would we do?  How would we engage a classroom full of students for more than six hours each day? 

Dream!  Aspire!  Humanity at its best!

Dear Friends and Arizona Citizens,

Here’s a link to yesterday’s front page article Book it: We’ll pay more to keep inmates in jail.

“County officials say it’s inevitable: either vote to approve the temporary state sales-tax increase May 18 – and raise your taxes – or turn down the measure and your property tax will go up to pay for things the state can’t afford, including keeping prisoners locked away.” (Andrea Kelly, Arizona Daily Star)

One cent sales tax or property tax hike.  The choice is ours.