SPEND MORE THAN YOU EARN

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

I am convinced that when dealing with the simple but priceless commodities like kindness, justice, and righteousness, you should spend more than you earn.

In the structure of our present economy people and organizations are allowed to do things they could not otherwise do because of the employment of debt. In our culture many things are too expensive for people to buy out of the cash they have in hand. Debt enables people to make purchases they could not otherwise afford by allowing them to pay off items with small monthly payments that include the price of the item as well as interest.

Not only individuals, but companies can utilize debt to leverage the return on the equity of their assets. That portion of debt to equity is used to determine the riskiness of the investment, i.e. the more debt per equity the riskier the investment. That is where debt becomes dangerous to both individual and corporate borrowers. Although debt can appear helpful, it can also become a burden and a hazard to your personal well-being. Real trouble comes when the cost of servicing the debt grows beyond the ability to repay what is due. Usually, that inability happens because of insufficient income or poor management of resources, coupled with increased interest rates, late fees, and penalties.

Historically, excess in debt accumulation has been blamed for many woes of this world and the tragic breakup of many honorable relationships. I grew up following the Great Depression and the stress of World War II. The accepted advice of that era was, “Who goeth a borrowing, goeth a sorrowing,” or, as Ezra Pound would say, “Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.”

Benjamin Franklin expressed his opinion of debt and advised, “Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.” “Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity,” was the way Samuel Johnson expressed his concern of debt. During that period, most people even saved up enough money under the mattress to pay cash for their automobiles and other major purchases. They believed that home life would cease to be peaceful and beautiful once they needed to depend on borrowing and debt. As kids, we were instructed that we should run from debt as if it were the plague or an addiction. Today, we have grown quite accustomed to words like bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, bubble, meltdown, universal default, “too big to fail,” and spending more than you earn.

The above stated description seems to be the attitude and structure of our economy today. I have, however, discovered a wonderful alternative economy when it comes to earning and spending, and spending more than you earn. I have become convinced that when it comes to commodities such as kindness, justice, and righteousness you should spend exponentially more than you earn. With those commodities it should be the rule of thumb that lavish and exorbitant behavior is the investment rule of the day. You can throw all restraint overboard and be totally thriftless. You can never bankrupt your asset account of kindness, justice, and righteousness no matter how much you spend from the account.

Kindness: People universally long for kindness to be shown to them. In all the traveling I have done around the world, I have concluded that people will be exactly as happy and kind toward you as you are toward them. That was true in North Korea, Pakistan, Congo, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Showing benevolence, courtesy, tact, gentleness, patience, and unselfish consideration sends a signal of hospitality that pays great dividends.

Justice: Everybody carries around a psychological-spiritual scorecard. It is very high tech, and is placed somewhere up front, on the inside of one’s forehead. It has an emotionally activated, electric extension cord that runs down to the heart, and it concerns itself with issues of fairness, due process, equity, integrity, fair treatment, reasonableness, and reparation. You can never go wrong dispensing way more truth and justice than you ever dreamed possible. Spending more justice than you could ever earn will always prove to be a blue chip stock investment.

Righteousness: More than likely, your greatest fulfillment in living will be realized through your giving of goodness, virtue, fairness, respectability, honor, and dignity freely into the lives of others around you. Righteousness is a powerful phenomenon that keeps you alive in the hearts of others long after the action on the stage is over and the audience has gone home. That is because the source of righteousness is from a different economy.

In the structure of our present economy, people and organizations are allowed to do things they would not otherwise do because of such things as the use of debt . . . and there is usually a tragic downside. In this new economy people are allowed to do things they could not otherwise do because you were able to personally transfer into their lives such things as kindness, justice, and righteousness. In our culture we have to employ such things as debt because of the reality of limited resources. But there is no limit to the supply of kindness, justice, and righteousness, because they flow freely from God’s economy and you simply can’t out give God.

Here is the simple challenge: Try it. Freely spend into the lives of those around you the simple riches of kindness, justice, and righteousness. Spend out of your limitless supply. Plant the fertile seeds and watch the astounding harvest as the people around you are able to do things that otherwise they could not have done.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

IS IT NECESSARY?

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Winston Churchill was such a hero of ours that we named our second son after him. Jay Winston Jackson and I even traveled together to London on Jay’s twenty-first birthday to spend some time at Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s home outside London. At Chartwell we enjoyed the pastoral setting of verdant green rolling hills and the peaceful grazing sheep. Churchill was the first person ever to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

Of special interest to me, however, were the rooms inside the stately residence where the famous world traveler-Prime Minister-author wrote his many volumes of the history of Britain, India, Africa, and the world. He even wrote biographies and a novel. He had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. Churchill did not have just one desk where he sat and wrote at Chartwell. Rather, he had built writing desks around the perimeter of the room where he could stand and research and write while moving from one location to another in the room.

I took several “take-aways” with me as I left Chartwell. Some were quotes I gathered from Winston Churchill’s writings on display. Over the years the words have changed my personal world view. He is the one who said, “It is of no use saying ‘we are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

At first read through, that quote seems about as cute and innocuous as Yogi Berra saying, “I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.” But, when studied, you find the innocent looking word package filled with explosive dynamite.

The poignancy of the statement is developed at the intersection of four interesting issues: Your perception of what is your best, your evaluation determining having done your best, your idea of success, and your perception of necessary. Success is only another name for failure if you don’t have your priorities figured out.

I recall the incident at the basketball game where, in the heat of excitement, the basketball gets loose on the floor. The excited team member shoulders his way into the players, grabs the basketball, and shouts aloud, “I’m goal oriented,” and heads toward the basket. He dribbles expertly, he runs fast, and his footwork and balance are something to behold. The crowd screams and the closer he gets to the basket the more the fans go crazy with excitement.

Little did the player realize that he was heading toward the wrong goal! But amid all the noise and clamor, the player with the ball hears the voice of his coach. He is not just calmly saying, “Oh, my, he’s going the wrong way.” But, with a thunderous voice and emotion that would spark a coronary meltdown, the coach hollers to the player, “Damn you, Jimmy! You are going the wrong way!” The player hears in time, drops to the floor and mutters, “I’ll be damned.”

Steven Covey says, “It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall.” And the things that are so necessary should never be held hostage by the things we have, until now, perceived to be important.

There are three things that might help as we deal with the issue of “doing what is necessary.”

PASSION: There has to be a lot of dedicated passion involved in order to say, “We are doing our best.” A person who is serious enough to plan and carry out a strategy that would result in her doing her best has already encountered the cost involved in doing her best. That passion dare not be lost but transferred now to the achievement of the necessary.

PERCEPTION: How sad it is when we spend our passionate energies to climb the ladder of success only to discover that it was leaning against the wrong wall. How sad to run perfectly to the wrong end of the gymnasium floor and score a magnificent shot in the wrong basket. Our perception of the important, the crucial, the fundamental, the imperative, and the quintessential is worthy of the time it takes to determine against which wall our ladder is leaning

PRIORITIES: It is not a bad thing to go back and reevaluate what you had previously held as priority. Albert Einstein used to say, “What counts can't always be counted; what can be counted doesn't always count.” We need to make certain that the things we ultimately consider as our priorities are really the things that represent our heart’s desires and the goals for which we are willing to give our lives.

The things that are necessary should become our true heart’s desires, and they should dictate our priorities. Our priorities will then shape our choices, our choices will display our character, and our character will be reflected in our actions. So, the main thing is not just to prioritize the things on our schedule, but to overhaul the schedule of our priorities in order to accomplish what is truly necessary.

That clear thinking and resolve was what allowed Sir Winston Churchill, in the moments of crucial leadership, to courageously stand before the people of a ravaged Britain and say,

            “. . . we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing           confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost       may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
           . . . You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs — Victory in  spite of all terror — Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”

Winston Churchill certainly had it figured correctly when he said, “It is of no use saying ‘we are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

STUCK ON YESTERDAY

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

“If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven’t done much today.” 

                                                                                                         Mikhail Gorbachev

Trying to drive forward while looking through the rear view mirror can get you killed. Someone once told me that you can tell when people are getting old: their eyes start to move around to the back of their head . . . they keep looking back and they get stuck on yesterday.

What you have accomplished in the past is a very strong indication of what you are capable of doing in the future. Through your past accomplishments, your actions have indeed spoken louder than even your words. Your past accomplishments should be recognized and applauded. You were able to dream and visualize and bring your energies to bear on what you valued and what you perceived would fill a specific need and make other people better off. At your time and place in history you were able to FANTASIZE: you dared to dream. You asked yourself, “what if . . . ?”

Then, you were able to CRYSTALIZE: you engaged in dream screening, where you determined what it would cost you to accomplish your dream. You became determined and specific. You then began to actually VISUALIZE that dream: you began to see yourself as having already achieved your dream. It became such a reality to you that your subconscious mind began to work out the details of accomplishment.

But that future accomplishment needed to be reinforced, so you began to VERBALIZE the dream to yourself and to others. You had to become vulnerable and accountable in order to see your precious dream come to fruition. You depended on that verbal affirmation to maintain your focus and strengthen your confidence. You may have even quoted King Solomon’s observation: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) The dream was working!

All that was left now was to actually see your dream MATERIALIZE: you saw your plans for the accomplishment of your desired goal become reality. The pathway for your accomplishment had gone over, under, and around all the obstacles and the impediments that could have become your tombstone. Now, they have wonderfully become your touchstone. As your goal was attained, a feeling of fulfillment and worthiness developed. “Wow! Just look at what was accomplished!”

You are to be congratulated and recognized for you success! However, you now stand at one of the scariest and most fragile points in your life. Accomplishments should prove to be not a destination, but a journey. Nothing can fail like success, and nothing can be as miserably defeated as yesterday’s spectacular accomplishment, if your success makes you lose your focus.

We all must learn from yesterday’s accomplishments, gain from the confidence acquired, and press on to the opportunities of tomorrow. But we must not stop. The temptation will always be to allow yesterday’s triumphs to use up too much of today’s opportunity and creativity.

George Herman Ruth was best known as “Babe Ruth.” As an American League baseball player for twenty-two seasons, he helped the New York Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles (his World Series championship total was seven). He became one of the first five players to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He set the record for home runs (714) and runs batted in (2,217). He was home run champion for twelve years of his career.

But Babe Ruth was never disillusioned regarding his incredible successes as home run champion. To his greatest credit he was able to maintain his focus on the game that was being played that day, and with true perception remind the world that, “Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games.” It is nearly impossible to have a better tomorrow if you are stuck on yesterday.

I vividly recall the euphoric feeling I got as Project C.U.R.E. shipped its first million dollars’ worth of donated medical goods into the needy country of Brazil in the late 1980s. There was an overwhelming temptation to just settle into Brazil and rejoice in the success. That would have been undeniably good . . . but that would not have been best, and that would not have been smart. We could have gotten stuck on yesterday, and been stuck on stupid.

It wasn’t long before other Latin American and South American countries came asking for our help. They wanted desperately needed medical goods, also. I remember considering the choices: we could sit and enjoy the beauty of yesterday’s mighty oak tree—the life-changing contribution to the nation of Brazil—or we could take the newly gained knowledge and confidence and help create a mighty forest for the future by getting busy and planting the precious acorns of today. I chose to plant for the future, and today Project C.U.R.E. is shipping into 128 different countries, and taking help and hope to thousands of needy people around the world. Even to this day, we are striving to never get stuck on yesterday.

 We want to fulfill today and embrace tomorrow, remembering that if what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven’t done much today.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

GRATEFULNESS

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

There is a certain excitement and energy that gusts down through our Colorado mountain canyon as October morphs into November. The golden aspen leaves of autumn skip along the surface of our high altitude stream in lively funnels of brilliance. The late afternoon air takes on a crisp and moist characteristic as the nighttime dustings of snow begin to cover the highest mountain peaks. The gorgeous summer flowers are but pleasant memories now, the picnic umbrellas have been put away, and the bright yellow snowplow blade has been methodically re-attached to the ATV. It’s fall in Colorado!

I love the fall, and I love November, because I am still the kid who loves Thanksgiving. I have adopted, and throughout my life I have embraced, the idea that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. Gratefulness is the thankful recognition and acknowledgement of having received something good from another. When we receive something and express our appreciation for it something happens in our very soul.

It has been my observation that people who are more grateful are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives. It seems that grateful people also have higher levels of harmony with their environments, and more control over their own personal growth. Additionally, it seems they have clearer purposes in life, and enjoy a broader spirit of self-acceptance. I’ve even heard grateful people claim that they sleep better, because they practice thinking thankful and positive thoughts just before going to sleep, instead of allowing their minds to be filled with bothersome thoughts.

Because of my travels into so many venues, I have been able to observe that the major religions encourage the practice of appreciativeness and giving of thanks in their religious practices. According to the Greek philosopher, Cicero, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues but the parent of all others."

Judaism is grounded in a Hebrew worldview that all things come from God and that the worshiper must be continuously involved in the practice of being grateful for that goodness: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart” (Ps. 9:1). Faithful Jewish worshipers recite more than one hundred blessings, called berachot, throughout the day.

In Christianity, gratitude is regarded as a virtue that shapes not only emotions and thoughts but actions and deeds as well. Gratitude could be called "the basic Christian attitude," and is referred to as "the heart of the gospel." One of the most sacred rites is called the Eucharist, that is translated thanksgiving.

The Islamic Quran is filled with the idea of gratitude. Islam encourages its followers to be grateful and express thanks to God in all circumstances. Islamic teaching emphasizes the idea that those who are grateful will be rewarded with more. A traditional Islamic saying states, "The first who will be summoned to paradise are those who have praised God in every circumstance."

Dr. Casio Amoral and his wife, Vera, ran the best cranial/reconstructive and plastic surgery hospital in Brazil, and it was there I learned a most unforgettable lesson about the inner need to express gratefulness. Anna Marie and I were ushered into a conference room where Dr. Amoral and Vera shared the story of their lifelong work and the establishment of the hospital in1972. We were escorted through the hospital as I performed the customary needs assessment study. At 11:00a.m. , we returned to the conference room and joined a team of twenty staff members and the Drs. Amoral for a pre-operative session with all the surgical patients for the following week. One at a time the cases were reviewed, and the doctors handling each case reported to Dr. Amoral and made recommendations regarding the upcoming operation and status of the case.

There was really no way to prepare ourselves for such an experience. I was invited to sit right next to Dr. Amoral during the examination and consultation. Viewing each of the nearly twenty patients was enough to make me cry out. It was very traumatic. The patients ranged from just a few weeks old to some being in their teens. Most of the mothers and patients had traveled perhaps hundreds of miles to get to the hospital that day. They were poor mothers who were typically single, unemployed, indigent, and very frightened.

The first little girl, age eight, had already undergone ten operations. She still had many, many operations to go. Her hands were completely grown together as one clump per arm. Many surgeries had already been done on her hands to separate the clumps into fingers and thumbs. Her feet were the same way. But it was her head that was most severely deformed. The present operation was to include a complete cranial restructuring to relieve the constriction on the brain that was causing behavioral and motor problems.

But one mother, who appeared very poor, brought in her daughter, Sylvia, who was wearing a large hat, jeans and a T-shirt. I would guess the daughter to be in her early teens. She had many congenital deformities of the face, head, and thorax area. She had received several earlier surgeries, and only recently had Dr. Amoral been able to complete a major operation.

The girl’s mother, an older lady, was sitting next to me. As the doctors began discussing Sylvia’s case, she turned to me, gripped my forearm, and began speaking directly to me. Her eyes were like sparkling fires and her words flowed in a steady stream of white-hot emotion. I could literally feel the intensity of emotion build as her speech rose to a crescendo and her grip on my arm tightened. Neither her emotion nor her flow of talk slowed down a bit when they informed her that I could not understand any of the Portuguese she was talking. She just kept on.

They said she was telling me that her daughter had been so deformed and so ugly, but now Dr. Amoral had made her pretty. She just couldn't stop praising the doctor and thanking him. No one could quiet her. I took her by the hand and just smiled. She needed to express her feelings and her praise, and she was not concerned whether I spoke English, French, Chinese, or Pig Latin. She needed someone to listen as she expressed her gratefulness, appreciation, and thanksgiving. Her precious daughter was now so beautiful! And with every word of recognition and tribute came an uncontrollable flood of happiness and deep joy washing over her.

I learned a spiritual lesson from that sweet Brazilian lady. Many in the room were embarrassed for the woman and tried to quiet her. I simply stood up as she left and kissed her, first on one cheek, then on the other. I had just experienced the unstoppable power of praise and the satisfying gift of gratefulness. 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com