“Born Ignorant”-What?!


Remember a few years ago how popular it was to have, “Ainokea” (‘I no care’), emblazoned on a t-shirt, or even on a bumper sticker? In response to that rebellious public tone, some people who felt otherwise fought back by displaying a new retort to the “I do what I like” motto. The new paradigm shift was, ‘I do care’ or “Aikea” or something to that effect.

At any rate, I’m not a bumper sticker kind-of-guy. Some people are, some aren’t. But yes, I do chuckle at many of them. Of course I’ve thought about putting them on my car before–maybe alumni stuff like the image of the proud St. Louis School ‘Crusader’ with it’s “dukes” up ready-to-go, or the UCLA Bruin Bear. Or maybe something even more personal like a bumper sticker representing the place where I’m from originally, like the “Maui Built” sticker with it’s unique tribal pattern. But, as of yet, neither has made it to my bumper.

Like you, I’ve seen my share of the political, humorous, and sports-related types of bumper stickers. But today took the cake. Of all places, or maybe appropriately, I ran across one at the annual McKinley HS book sale. On the back window of a nice looking pickup truck read in huge letters, “Born Ignorant”. While I certainly do realize that we’re all born without any knowledge when we come into this world, I did wonder, “what’s the point of advertising this message?” I actually felt a bit perplexed and a little out of the loop. I know, it’s pointless, but it still bothered me to not know. I guess I just didn’t understand the message. I still don’t. Was it in reference to what Benjamin Franklin said:

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

I suppose it’s the beauty of being an American. We have the protected freedom of speech and expression. However, according to Wikipedia, “People who opt to exhibit their individuality through these decals often take part in more acts of road rage. Colorado State University social psychologist, William Szlemko, found that aggressive driving is linked to the number of markers a person has on his/her car, regardless of the messages portrayed. He says this idea is linked to the idea of territoriality. The more individualized the car, the more the person tends to think of public roads as his/her own.”

What do you think this, “Born Ignorant” stuff means? But really, if unokea, ainokea either…

Five Reasons Why You Should Be Nice to Your Life Insurance Agent

What a title, right? Earlier today on Twitter, the captivating headline of this “Tweet” definitely caught my eye; then it made me smile. Among other things, I’m a licensed life insurance agent here in Hawaii, what can I say? Yes, the catchy title initially lured me to read it, but as I proceeded, I found it’s content to be truly informative, yet humorous. At the same time, it is the type of practical knowledge consumers need to balance out the all the negative. I credit Tim Cestnic for this well-written, explanatory piece that appeared in Global Investor on Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009. I now follow him on Twitter, and you can follow me on Twitter.

Here’s the article:

A good friend of mine, Greg, works in a high-stress job on Bay Street. In the summers, he and his wife like to get out of the city to go camping in their motorhome. He finds it very relaxing, but this summer they have found their peace and quiet disturbed by well-meaning, but unwelcome, visits from other campers. Greg has devised a plan that pretty much guarantees they will have privacy. Now, whenever they set up camp, Greg places a sign on the door of their RV that reads: “Insurance agent. Ask about our new term life package.” That does it – every time. I know that insurance advisers get a bad rap sometimes. But let me say out of the gate that there are some characteristics of life insurance that make it useful as a tax and estate planning tool, namely: Benefits are paid out completely tax free when the insured individual dies. Further, it’s possible to accumulate investments inside an insurance policy on a tax-sheltered basis – not quite like your registered retirement savings plan, but similar.

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What is “Stressed” Spelled Backwards?

y91351Stress. Say no more; we all have it in one form or another and there’s no escaping it, right? I know, it really doesn’t matter what your profession, where you live or how much money you earn. You simply can’t eliminate it altogether due to the real-life demands we all face in our personal and professional lives. But, like all else in life, how we choose to deal with it is the magic variable. As the famous Successories saying goes, “Attitude is Everything!” It’s up to each one of us to manage our stress effectively. Here’s something that helps me.

The other day I found myself listening to a podcast featuring one of my all-time favorite sales trainers, Zig Ziglar. It was Zig who taught me to tune into and attend what he calls, “Auto University”. The clever term comes from the learning that can take place while commuting in your car. Ziglar is such a huge proponent of listening to something that teaches us–instead of just taking in pointless radio commercials and Muzak–that he claims, “It’s the most important university in America.”

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LifeLock® and HonorCard®: Honoring Those Who Serve

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At The Wheeler Group LLC, we’re excited to begin representing LifeLock® here in Hawaii to the military community through our association with the HonorCard®. As a marketing affiliate of HonorCard, TWG will use the power of the HonorCard's negotiated group pricing to offer discounted rates on products and valuable services that military members use every day. Our group packages will help military personnel fill the void between their existing benefits and the other valuable benefits that we make available to you. Through the HonorCard, we can make your military or post military lifestyle less worrisome. We offer a unique selection of benefits designed to protect your identity, enhance your healthcare, provide roadside assistance, and assist you with legal matters. We even help make your recreational time off more fun and less expensive. We also can help you save on things you’re already purchasing on a regular basis. THIS SAVES YOU MONEY!

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How Does Your Bank Rate?

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Of the military-specific organizations that we represent at The Wheeler Group LLC, Trans World Assurance (TWA) was founded by Charles P. Woodbury, a decorated WWII fighter pilot, whose background was in finance. In an April 5, 2009 article that appeared in the Pensacola News Journal, Carlton Proctor (cproctor@pnj.com) asked the question, How does your bank rate?

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The Less Taxing Roth IRA

“A Roth IRA is an Individual Retirement Account that provides tax-free growth. As a result, it’s the simplest – and potentially the most effective – sheltered account imaginable.” –Moneychimp.com

Considering the Roth IRA is a way to totally avoid paying taxes on your retirement savings, it’s puzzling why more of us don’t embrace it.  Here’s some startling statistics from Fidelity: only 19% of working Americans hold Roth IRAs, even though 90% qualify for them. And according to the most recent numbers from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, only 4% of all IRA assets are held in Roth IRAs. Continue reading →

Valuable App for Mac Users-MenuCalendarClock

After working with GTE Directories (PC-operating system), I immediately transferred over to the Apple/Mac system my family was using in our small businesses.  Since then, I have not looked back. Aside from our retail stores that utilized PC-based POS systems, everything we do are on Macs.

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This is one of the first tools I installed on our new Mac because it works. It’s a tool that replaces the “stock” clock in the menu bar, and adds a couple of great features: 1) Displays the full date next to the time; 2) Shows a month calendar once clicked. It’s a lot faster to use than pulling up iCal or Entourage, and truly a valuable timesaver once you get used to it. Looking up the date of a particular day becomes a breeze–quick and easy. There are two versions: the free one and the registered version that adds bells and whistles like adding highlights to the calendar view showing your Entourage or iCal appointments.

Check it out, and get the free app here. -g

How Positive Psychology Can Boost Your Business

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When I came across the following article in the February 13th, 2009, edition of BusinessWeek, I was compelled and intrigued. As a businessowner, the succinct title definitely captured my attention, especially given these challenging economic times in which we find ourselves looking for ways to thrive, and not merely survive. And since it directly relates to one aspect of the consulting services SuccessHawaii provides organizations, I was duty-bound to learn more and read onward.

In essence, it’s about understanding how positive psychology–the so-called science of happiness–is actually being used by entrepreneurs and businesspeople.

According to the article, consultants who specialize in positive psychology are selling a twofold promise:

“One is that optimism and cheerfulness have a measurable effect on the bottom line. The other is that happiness is a muscle you can strengthen.”

In this piece, the author, Jill Hamburg Coplan, cites thirty years worth of surveys at Gallup which, “have found that the most successful companies are ones whose employees believe they get to do what they do best every day. (Only one-third of working people do.)”

After nearly 20 years in the personnel training and HR development business with The Human Connection, Successories and now, SuccessHawaii, tracking results empirically has always remained a challenge for us. We know it works and makes an impact on the bottomline because we utilize tools to measure the results. But the best indicator is the fact that clients tell us of the organizational improvements, and most telling, they ask us to return.

In the BusinessWeek article, Coplan said, “If all this sounds too fuzzy for you, well, just speak with Juan Humberto Young, the founder of seven-person consulting firm Positive Decision Analysis, in Zürich. A positive psychology consultant…Young hears one criticism most: Positive psychology is too soft for numbers-obsessed business owners.”

But it’s not just empirical-minded business owners that this business is a little too soft for. I still remember a Hawaii state government contract that The Human Connection had back in 1993. It required more documentation (“red tape”) and post-analysis than the actual time spent interacting and training personnel. Although it was more “numbers crunching” than I ever experienced in the private sector; it was a state contract that required the ultimate “justification” at our expense.

To read more, check out Coplan’s well-written article for yourself: “How Positive Psychology Can Boost Your Business…In tough times, entrepreneurs try the so-called science of happiness to build thriving companies”

And to learn more about our training and consulting services at SuccessHawaii, visit our website today.

New: Low-cost Term Life Insurance/TRICARE Supplemental Coverage

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Beginning immediately, The Wheeler Group LLC is offering low-cost term life insurance for active duty military personnel, as well as TRICARE Supplemental Coverage. Since 2001, we have worked closely with John Battin and his team at Military Benefit Association (MBA). We are now taking it to the next level in helping our military and federal civilian communities and their families.

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The Armed Forces Enlisted Benefit Association was founded in 1956 as a nonprofit association. The founders were aware that enlisted persons did not have access to the same benefits as military officers and wanted to provide some of these benefits. The Association was organized to promote the welfare of its members, to advance and safeguard their economic interests and to improve their financial conditions through cooperative enterprises. In 1963, the name was changed to Military Benefit Association (MBA). Continue reading →

Six Boys and Thirteen Hands

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My Dad shared this with me in a recent email and I thought it was truly worth sharing…

[Author unknown]

Each year I go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation’s capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall’s trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history — that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II. Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, “Where are you guys from?” I told him that we were from Wisconsin “Hey, I’m a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.”

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)

“My name is James Bradley and I’m from Antigo, Wisconsin. My Dad is on that statue. I just wrote a book called “Flags of Our Fathers”. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.

“Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in t he ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an allstate football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called “War.” But it didn’t turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don’t say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old – and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it. Continue reading →