What makes business work well? updated: December 2006 | view current episode
	Reflections: Opening & Closings Each episode opens and closes with these words: "Small business is about courage, risk-taking, independence, and we small business owners are survivors. Everybody has an idea for a business, but how do you take that idea from mind to market? This is the place to learn. "It's a new kind of school. Together we'll learn about business from the inside out, from the people who've done it. We'll meet the men and women who are today's pioneers and quiet heroes. Their lives are the textbooks; our classroom is the world. "Small business people are optimistic, the kind of optimism that's rooted in a great idea. We can create jobs, we can create wealth. We can make the world a better place. "I'm convinced that every adult American has an idea for a business. We take the risk, believing that this idea will work. "When you have your own business, you're free to act on those ideas. So we can't just do the ordinary; we have to do the extraordinary." more... Foundations within foundations What makes us human, what makes us ethical, and what gives us hope, depth and perspective? There are three form/functions that define an increasingly perfected state within an experience: The first principle that defines our humanity is our urge to create order and its most basic function, a simple perfection, is continuity. The second principle is relationality and its perfection is symmetry. The third is dynamics and its perfection is harmony. Every scientific and religious assertion, both seeking to understand and define the universal, begins with the same first principle and evolves within its own understanding to the second and third. This is also the basis of the value chain. The more perfect a moment or an experience is, OR the more perfected a thing or system is, the more valuable it becomes. Any assertion that counters life's evolving perfections is not religion (at best, it's a cult); it is also not business (it's exploitation or a bad company); certainly it is not good government; and most often, it is not even good science. There are scientific endeavors that observe, quantify and qualify that which is fundamentally based on discontinuities or chaos, but these studies require the inherent continuities of mathematics and other universal constants to even grasp the nature of that discontinuity. more... Each episode is a search for answers about life "If I don't do this, my life... " In the studio, Hattie sets up each episode in light of our mission and vision statements. " If I don't do this, my life won't be complete." Why do you sacrifice and struggle? Are we working to live or are we living to work? What's the difference between a job and work? Is work good? What work is being done? How is it an engine of the economy? ...any economy? How are these people creating something of value? What is business? When did you know what to do with your life? Why were you so sure? We use the concepts of Business As Calling (book by Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute). How are they doing it better than it has been done before? Every episode focuses on a person who is doing it just a little better, who works hard to make the world a better place. What are the first principles of this business and life? This show is reflects every one's search for answers about the meaning and value of life. more... Hattie's Lightbulb Within Hattie's Lightbulb we are postulating a brighter future. We usually return to the studio (and it is usually about halfway through an episode of a show, yet it can be part of her concluding remarks); and, Hattie reflects on what she has learned from the guests on the show that week. Often her thoughts reflect Bruce's learning experiences as well. Postulating the future » Hattie says, "The only way we can compete with big business is to be faster, smarter and better. We are the engine of the American economy. We create the jobs." » "Small business is about big commitment. It's about sacrifice and struggle. But we do it because we say, `If I don't do this, my life won't be complete.' " So it seems, a very real part of the very nature of life is sacrifice and struggle. Because we have a vision of a better world, if we don't act on it, we truly believe our life will not be complete. » Where People Power Works » You'll Need an Exit Strategy » It's the Power of Knowing Unleashed » Get some help » You are going to become a producer » Sign Up, Get Listed, then Invited ... more...

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