Thursday, February 26, 2009

Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox: "Attitude Is Everything"

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something pos itive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it!'

'You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'

He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or...you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood.'
=0 A
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or....I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or...I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.

'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?'

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remember ed that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live..'

'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness? ' I asked.

He continued, '...the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'

'What did you do?' I asked.

'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity''

Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude...I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

JOE WILLIE ON THE SHRIMPBOX: Bob's Monkey Story

Bob From FLETC Cleared up the bail-out mess with this great story:

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest
and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers
stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each!

However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy
on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers:
"Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will
sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to
him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the
WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK !!!!

It doesn't get much clearer than this.
A Thought For America

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.
What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

~~~~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005
~~~~~ Memphis, Tennessee
~~~~~ Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give it to those who would not."
~~~~~ Thomas Jefferson ~~~~~

Monday, February 23, 2009

Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox: The Bull Stops Here!

The Magic is gone. Bull's basics are out the door. Glynn County's School Superintendent Dr. Michael Bull was fired for using his school issued BlackBerry phone to access a dirty chat sight. Wasn't this guy smart enough to use a personal phone or personal computer to do this? It looks like the Magic was more a "sleight-of-hand" and a little "hocus-pocus"! He could of just gone to Arco and got his fix with a working girl. He would probably still have have 160 grand plus job and he would have stimulated the local economy as well. With this kind of poor judgement, I say GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox: Good News

In a recently published report in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Georgia will see about 106,000 jobs created by the recently passed $789 billion stimulus bill, ninth-most among the states, the White House said Tuesday. The 1st Congressional District, which comprises the Golden Isles, is slated to receive 7,500 (or approximately 8%) of the 106,000 jobs projected for the State.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox: The Economy

The Economy:

The stimulus package is now law, so now all we have to do is sit back and watch the economy grow like a beanstalk, right?
Nope. Obama has promised that 2009 will be a difficult year and that only next year will we start to see improvements. Most economists agree that it will take that long, at least, before the biggest problems --mounting layoffs, the housing bust, the banking crisis, and plunging confidence-- start to turn around. How will we know if and when the stimulus package is working? Here are four things to watch:

1) An improvement in the unemployment rate. Of all the economic indicators, this is probably the single most important. But you better hold your breath: It's almost certain that through this summer and into the fall, there will be a net job loss, not a gain. Most economists expect the unemployment rate, now 7.6 percent, to hit at least 9 percent by the end of this year. The first sign of an improvement will be corporate silence, as in no more draconian job-cut announcements. Once that happens, the unemployment rate will plateau. Then, companies might start hiring again, and a couple of months after that, the unemployment rate will start to fall. Probably won't happen until mid-2010. (Maiman)

2) More stable home prices. The real estate boom and bust is what torpedoed the economy in the first place, and the economy won't start to recover until the housing bubble fully deflates. Moody's Economy.com predicts that housing prices should stop falling nationwide by the second half of this year. Once prices stabilize, buyers will stop worrying about buying a costly asset that's falling in value. As they buy, other kinds of consumer activity will follow: Furniture, remodeling upgrades, etc. (Maiman)

3) A consumer confidence rebound. Consumer confidence closely tracks the job market. Feel better about your job? You feel better about spending money on cars, appliances and other goods. Employment isn't expected to rebound until next year, so think 2010. (Maiman)

4) A less volatile stock market. This is toughest to predict since it's deeply dependent on psychology and other intangibles. Every investor hopes that battered stocks will come roaring back in 2009 but a better indicator of economic health would be a steady recovery, without the manic swings that seem to come from every hint of undisclosed trouble at some big bank or rumor of new government intervention. One hopeful sign would be less market sensitivity to events in Washington and more reaction to free market activity like earnings reports, IPO announcements, and mergers and acquisitions. Since the government seems to be the only institution spending money so far in 2009, it could be awhile before Wall Street returns to form.