Testing

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

“In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test, 

in life you are given a test that teaches you a lesson.” Tom Bodett

It seems to me that life is designed and structured to place me in situations where I am supposed to learn something. It also seems that if I learn something from the situation I end up better off, and I am better able to cope with the next set of circumstances. It also seems that the result of the testing process can be used as somewhat of a predictor of the outcome of the next set of circumstances, as well as a predictor of my suitability for a certain purpose. So, the teaching is the test and the test is the teaching.

I’ve been intrigued by life’s testing process. I have tried to observe how it not only works out in my personal life, but, also, how the process has worked in the living history of Project C.U.R.E. We do a lot of things differently today in collecting, warehousing, and distributing donated medical goods than we did twenty-five years ago when we started. In the beginning, I had some very traumatic and disappointing experiences working with the corrupt customs people in places like Romania and India. Now, we are successfully working in over 125 countries in the world and predict that the future will get even better. 

One predictable component of the testing process is difficulty. Testing was not necessarily designed to be easy, but it is inconveniently effective, and because of its brutal efficiency, it is surprisingly sustainable. Difficulty is not always a bad thing. I have come to embrace difficulty as part of the method of learning and assessing.

There seems to be at least two types of testing. The Greeks made the distinction by using two different words. Dokimazo: Here, the testing has almost an expected outcome of approval. When a doctor sits for his licensing examination he is there expecting that he will pass and receive his plaque of approval to hang on his wall and be able to legally start treating sick patients. Or, you might be testing to see exactly how much gold is in the rock you just discovered in the creek. Peirazo: In this case, the object of the test is to measure the limits. My mental picture is of a classroom of young engineers competing to see who can make the strongest model bridge out of flimsy balsa wood. The winning student is the one who has constructed the bridge that will hold the most weight without breaking. Usually, this kind of testing carries with it some overtones of sinister destruction or evil interference.

But, I have decided regarding my own life adventure, that regardless of the classification, method, or intent of the testing, I will accept it with confidence knowing that the testing encounter has within it the seeds of possibility for helping me become a better and more fulfilled person. I believe that all those circumstances can work to bring about good in my life.

In 2007, I was traveling about two hundred-fifty days a year in some really awful international locations for Project C.U.R.E. While in the country of Togo in West Africa, my body was invaded by some nasty bugs. Later, it was cultured as a highly aggressive mutant strain of African e-coli. When I returned to the U.S., my doctors worked feverishly to save my life. “We hate to inform you of this, but we are running out of time and alternatives, nothing is working and your body systems are shutting down.” Their efforts finally paid off and I began to rally. Presently, the e-coli have not all been discovered and destroyed. The problem occasionally reoccurs and I again get very sick. Of course, it has been difficult. Of course, it has not been fun. I had the opportunity to become caustic and bitter about the situation. But some great things have come out of that episode. 

Now, I am limited in my international travels. If I were to be in Nepal and the sickness were to reoccur, I would not make it home alive. However, that circumstance of testing was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Project C.U.R.E. and ultimately to me. Until that time, I was nearly the only person performing needs assessment studies on the hospitals and clinics we were targeting around the world. Without the needs assessment studies no donated medical goods would have been shipped. In order for Project C.U.R.E. to expand it had to grow beyond me. Now, there are twenty-five or more of our people out doing what I had been doing. Now, Project C.U.R.E. is growing greater in effectiveness every day, and I am experiencing fulfillment and maturation.

I choose to invite growth. I choose to invite times of testing. I choose to embrace difficulties. I am continuing to learn that it is not the set of circumstances in which I find myself, but how I respond to those circumstances that makes all the difference in the world.

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

Soft Power

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

 “Nothing in this world is as strong as kindness, justice, and righteousness.” 

~ J. W. Jackson

I have known Dr. Jim Jackson for over 20 years and served alongside him overseas on a number of occasions. Project C.U.R.E. has an outstanding record of effective and enduring health interventions in austere locations in more than 125 countries. Many of these contribute to US national security by helping to win “hearts and minds” in favor of the American people. Jim’s generous personal example of medical humanitarian outreach shows a kinder and gentler face of the United States, and is exactly complimentary to what we in the US military must do to protect our homeland. 

~Dr. James W. Terbush, Command Surgeon, NORAD/Northcom, Homeland Security

I would probably be classified by a political ornithologist as a military hawk. I love my country and would defend with my life its sacred honor. Furthermore, I believe it to be a cardinal responsibility of the national leadership to protect the nation’s citizenry, its honor, and its assets.

Recently, I have been trying to mentally revisit and re-assess the things I have experienced in order to see if I can draw some conclusions for myself. Let me share some of my gained insights from having visited over the past quarter century the military and political hotspots of the globe. I was born before the United States entered into World War II. We have always had an identifiable, precise, and convenient enemy. It was the Nazis, then China, North Korea, and, for the balance of the century, it was the Soviet Union.

Following the collapse of the Soviet system we were saddled with a dilemma not unlike the puppy dog, who, after spending his life chasing cars, finally caught the car . . . now what does he do? Who now is the grand enemy? Now, a new grand strategy has to be designed. It seems to me that over the years we have spent so much energy and capital legitimately trying to prevent the horror of global war that we have sometimes forgotten the reality of global synthesis and the possibility of peace. It is not so convenient being without a consistent, well-defined enemy.

It is almost impossible with one fell swoop to stop describing horrible futures to be prevented, and to start proclaiming the positive futures to be created. But, in the early 1990s we were offered that chance. While still appearing like a solution looking for a problem, we seemed to try to substitute the slippery war on terror for the well-defined strategies of the cold war. To do that it was necessary to redefine the very word war. We needed to come up with definitive terms like “non-war combatant involvement” as we redefined our engagements.

Over the past thirty years I have observed the challenges and the changes that have been a part of the Pentagon strategies. I have seen their many defensive facets from different angles. I applaud them for their efforts to reassess, redesign, and re-appropriate the capital assets and human assets of the military.

Today, there are some really bad individuals desiring to do some really bad things to their own citizens and to their neighbors. Those charlatans and thugs who wreak evil and peril on their own citizens and close neighbors need to be checked. Equipped with a moral imperative and a well designed strategy, there is opportunity to see to it that everybody becomes better off. The countries are not necessarily bad, the societies are not necessarily bad, and the whole government may not be necessarily bad. Certainly the bad guys can be neutralized using weapons such as smart bombs and nonlethal forms of warfare that target enemy systems without harming the citizens or destroying the country’s capital or infrastructure.

But the thing for which I most applaud the new approach of the Pentagon is their expressed desire to begin winning the hearts and minds of the connected people of the developing world. That strategy of kindness, justice, and righteousness will in the long run be more effective than all the bullets and bombs in the world.

Over the past twenty-five years I have personally witnessed the powerful potential of radical change in the developing countries of the world through the acts of humanitarian kindness by Project C.U.R.E. We do not engage in medical philanthropy in order to get the disadvantaged people to become more and more dependent upon us. As a cultural economist, I believe that a healthy economy cannot be built on sick people. So, help get the people well and give them the medical information, supplies, and pieces of equipment so that they can begin to build their own medical enterprises and become dependent upon themselves. It can happen, and I have seen it happen.

I can excitedly imagine a revolutionary Pentagon strategy of soft power projection, where we expand the good and not simply check the evil. I would like to be a part of that change and would encourage the Pentagon in their efforts. With our sights focused on proactively winning the hearts and minds of the people in lesser developed countries by truly making them better off, we can become the necessary and welcomed force in making a better tomorrow for our world.

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

Group Process

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

TESTING

Dr. James W. Jackson

July 3, 2012

“In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test, in life you are given a test that teaches you a lesson.”  Tom Bodett

 It seems to me that life is designed and structured to place me in situations where I am supposed to learn something.  It also seems that if I learn something from the situation I end up better off, and I am better able to cope with the next set of circumstances. It also seems that the result of the testing process can be used as somewhat of a predictor of the outcome of the next set of circumstances, as well as a predictor of my suitability for a certain purpose. So, the teaching is the test and the test is the teaching.

 I’ve been intrigued by life’s testing process. I have tried to observe how it not only works out in my personal life, but, also, how the process has worked in the living history of Project C.U.R.E. We do a lot of things differently today in collecting, warehousing, and distributing donated medical goods than we did twenty-five years ago when we started. In the beginning, I had some very traumatic and disappointing experiences working with the corrupt customs people in places like Romania and India. Now, we are successfully working in over 125 countries in the world and predict that the future will get even better.

One predictable component of the testing process is difficulty. Testing was not necessarily designed to be easy, but it is inconveniently effective, and because of its brutal efficiency, it is surprisingly sustainable. Difficulty is not always a bad thing. I have come to embrace difficulty as part of the method of learning and assessing.

There seems to be at least two types of testing. The Greeks made the distinction by using two different words.  Dokimazo: Here, the testing has almost an expected outcome of approval. When a doctor sits for his licensing examination he is there expecting that he will pass and receive his plaque of approval to hang on his wall and be able to legally start treating sick patients. Or, you might be testing to see exactly how much gold is in the rock you just discovered in the creek.  Peirazo: In this case, the object of the test is to measure the limits. My mental picture is of a classroom of young engineers competing to see who can make the strongest model bridge out of flimsy balsa wood. The winning student is the one who has constructed the bridge that will hold the most weight without breaking. Usually, this kind of testing carries with it some overtones of sinister destruction or evil interference.

But, I have decided regarding my own life adventure, that regardless of the classification, method, or intent of the testing, I will accept it with confidence knowing that the testing encounter has within it the seeds of possibility for helping me become a better and more fulfilled person. I believe that all those circumstances can work to bring about good in my life.

In 2007, I was traveling about two hundred-fifty days a year in some really awful international locations for Project C.U.R.E.  While in the country of Togo in West Africa, my body was invaded by some nasty bugs. Later, it was cultured as a highly aggressive mutant strain of African e-coli. When I returned to the U.S., my doctors worked feverishly to save my life. “We hate to inform you of this, but we are running out of time and alternatives, nothing is working and your body systems are shutting down.” Their efforts finally paid off and I began to rally. Presently, the e-coli have not all been discovered and destroyed. The problem occasionally reoccurs and I again get very sick. Of course, it has been difficult. Of course, it has not been fun. I had the opportunity to become caustic and bitter about the situation.  But some great things have come out of that episode.

Now, I am limited in my international travels. If I were to be in Nepal and the sickness were to reoccur, I would not make it home alive. However, that circumstance of testing was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Project C.U.R.E. and ultimately to me. Until that time, I was nearly the only person performing needs assessment studies on the hospitals and clinics we were targeting around the world. Without the needs assessment studies no donated medical goods would have been shipped. In order for Project C.U.R.E. to expand it had to grow beyond me. Now, there are twenty-five or more of our people out doing what I had been doing.  Now, Project C.U.R.E. is growing greater in effectiveness every day, and I am experiencing fulfillment and maturation.

I choose to invite growth. I choose to invite times of testing. I choose to embrace difficulties. I am continuing to learn that it is not the set of circumstances in which I find myself, but how I respond to those circumstances that makes all the difference in the world.

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

Regarding Inheritance

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

Here is another bit of cultural folklore I picked up in the market places of this old world that I pass on to you for your consideration.

“If you want your children to love each other forever, don’t leave them any money when you die.”

As one old guy told me, “Happiness is being retired and spending all of my kid’s inheritance before I die.” And, of course, there are the serious admonitions like, “Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.”

Generally speaking, our culture is not bound by strict ethnic traditions, wherein lies part of the problem. Problems seem to arise where the passing on of the inheritance is determined by a type of logic positioned somewhere between a well-thought-out estate plan and a knee-jerk whim. Jewish traditions lean toward the oldest son receiving twice the amount as the other sons. Other eastern cultures have the daughters receiving nothing, or the sons receiving twice the amount as the daughters. In some matrilineal countries I have visited, the inheritance is passed down only from the mother to the daughters.

To complicate the situation in our culture, our government entities have decided that unless you have a valid will, wherein you have legally expressed how your inheritance will be divided, you are declared to have died “intestate,” and the government will decide where your wealth will end up. Seven out of ten people in the United States die without leaving a legal will. Making sure you have a valid will before you die is a grave responsibility!

The practice of passing on property, money, and rights gets a little knotty when it comes to perceived inequities of the recipients. It seems that the least responsible expect the most, and those who have been the least frugal expect the lion’s share. And we haven’t even mentioned the catch-all accusation, “oh yea, ‘what’s-his-name’ was always the favorite.”

It seems to me that inheritance squabbles center on at least three areas:

• Arithmetic: “The appraisals and evaluations are wrong. It should have been more.”

• Attitude: It is a temptation in emotional situations involving money to let it become a “heart issue” of attitude rather than a “head issue” of logic and common sense. That is when you hear, “It’s just not right . . . it’s just not fair.”

• Affection: “I loved our parents more than any of the other siblings did. I was always there for them; I should have received more.”

I love the old Yiddish bit of advice: “He who comes for the inheritance is often made to pay for the funeral.” Perhaps the inheritance issue that trumps the feelings of ill will when there is money left, is when there is no money left and no provisions made for the expense of those seniors in their last years. Senior expenses and deaths can also mean the inheritance passes on liabilities and debts. Now, that issue will cause some squabbling amongst the siblings.

Isadora Duncan may have captured the issue well when she declared, “The finest inheritance you can give a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet.”

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

Regarding Money

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

It’s fun to stand in the market place of a community far away from your own country and have a translator explain to you the daily conversations between the locals. As an economist, my life is richer for having taken the time to practice the art of intentional listening. I pass on to you, for your consideration, one such bit of local wisdom:

“If you want to teach your children about money

 . . . it’s better if you don’t have any.”

One fact is agreed upon universally: There are more wants than there is available money. Ultimately, we have to choose where we spend our money. That seems to be the hitch. Cultures characteristically try to teach their offspring something about those choices and that very tradition reveals a lot about the teacher as well as the student. In 1758, philosopher David Hume said:

“Money is not, properly speaking, one of the subjects of commerce, but only the instrument which men have agreed upon to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for another. It is the oil which renders the motions of the wheels more smooth and easy.”

You only work in order to trade your labor supply for the supply of some other worker. Money, the common currency, is relied upon simply as a convenience and accepted because of confidence. Money is sort of an interim landing spot. You may want to exchange your labor for some currency in order to postpone a current consumption in anticipation of consuming something in the future. It is more convenient to carry around some currency in your pocket than to try to carry in your pocket a month of your labor! Credit cards are an additional convenience, but not truly money in that they have to be paid off with yet another transaction of money. However, when you stop having confidence in any form of money it ceases to be used as money.

There has nearly always been some type of money in existence, but no one person simply sat down and invented money. And as history reveals, some folks, inside or outside the ruling government, sooner or later start tinkering with the control of the value of the currency for their own express benefit.

So, if it is so important for a culture to pass on to its offspring the wisest and most prudent practices for handling money, why would someone in the marketplace say: “If you want to teach your children about money . . . it’s better if you don’t have any?” Here are some of my observations to add to your own ideas.

• The convenience of money is an addiction and tends to sever the rational connection between the product of your labor and the money itself. Money becomes the issue, not labor. Mom and Dad look to the money as the object and usually one person takes on the role of a human ATM machine. If something is desired, money is used to fulfill the need or impulse, even if the interim convenience step of the credit card is needed. But the link between the fruits of labor and the ATM machine becomes lost, especially for the next generation.

• Convenience for the present generation transforms into entitlement for the next generation. When the connection between the product of your labor and the human ATM machine becomes blurred, the kids are tacitly taught they are entitled to whatever is viewed as necessary.

• Generally speaking, money and credit cards become so convenient that if they are available, the money will be spent.

• Frugality demands discipline. If there is money readily available it is almost impossible to effectively teach frugality. The effort just isn’t convenient.
• When caught up in “ATM thinking,” it is very difficult to teach that over time the value of the money being used almost always shrinks. So, expediency of the present trumps a well planned system for savings and investment for the future. The kids end up without the foggiest idea about savings and investments. “Somebody will always supply an ATM machine.”

Sadly, most lessons about money are caught rather than taught. The next generation, unless there is some form of intervention and transformation, will usually follow an increased trend of expediency and convenience rather than frugality and discipline. It takes real focus and discipline to teach the next generation about issues of money. The good news . . . it can be 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

Connect the Dots

The way to connect the two big dots called “Goals” and

 “Achievements” is by a straight line called “Discipline.” 

~Dr. James W. Jackson

The Mission Statement of Project C.U.R.E. is to identify, collect, sort, and distribute donated medical supplies, equipment and services, based on imperative need. That is the objective. That is the big dot labeled Goal. But how do you connect that big dot to the other big dot labeled Achievement?

When noodling the mental model of Project C.U.R.E. in 1986, it all seemed very simple. I saw overwhelming need for medical supplies and pieces of medical equipment everywhere. Good people were dying for lack of the simplest and most basic medical items. Surgeries were not being performed for lack of sterile latex gloves in the operating rooms. Dehydrated children were dying for lack of IV starting kits. Strep and staph infections attacked otherwise healthy people when they went to a hospital because of the unsanitary conditions. The need was gigantic! 

On this side of the ocean, medical warehouses and hospitals were full of overstocked medical goods. To my simplistic mind, it seemed like a pretty straightforward assignment: take the things not being utilized here and transfer them to people desperately in need of the goods over there. Then everyone concerned would be better off. 

It all seemed so simple, even when diagramed out on a piece of paper. But, connecting those two dots of Goals and Achievements was not, and still is not, simple. I used to wonder why someone had not made it work before. Now I know. It costs millions of dollars to freely give away the miracle of life and hope. I began to understand the liability factors faced by the medical manufacturers once their products left their control. 

Hard costs involved in collecting and warehousing the donated goods seemed prohibitive. Sorting, inventorying, and preparing the medical goods for shipment demanded computers, telephones, trucks, forklifts, pallet jacks, boxes, and shipping supplies. Insurance policies had to be purchased to cover people, loads, equipment, and buildings. Fuel and maintenance costs had to be met for the trucks and pieces of equipment, as well as payments for necessary utilities. Those expenses multiplied when we began to open up operations in other cities. 

An additional factor interfered with our connecting the dots of Goals and Achievements. It was the nightmarish task of shipping through corrupt customs departments found in foreign countries. And we were not just shipping into one port but, eventually, thousands of recipient facilities in one hundred twenty-eight countries. So, how do the dots get connected? Discipline is the key. 

As Project C.U.R.E. grew, and we were trying to connect the dots, at least four disciplines were involved: 

1. The discipline of believing: We had to believe so tenaciously that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that we could actually see by faith that the project could and would be done.

2. The discipline of focus: Without laser focus, chaos, confusion, and failure will result. Focus is remembering what you want so vividly that all your energies move you toward accomplishment.

3. The discipline of perseverance: Nothing can dissuade you. You will make one more phone call and absorb more “no” responses than anyone else has in history. But it will come to pass.  

4. The discipline of sharing the accomplishment: No great thing is achieved by oneself. You are not that smart, clever, good-looking or strong. We need God, loyal friends, team members, and collaboration to make a difference for good in this world. We must utilize discipline to share in that goodness with others around us.

The way to connect the two big dots called Goals and Achievements is by a straight line called Discipline. 

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

Stepping Stones

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

"Every act of kindness defines your character 

and becomes a stepping stone toward heaven." 

-Dr. James W. Jackson

We become the sum total of every moment and every event of our lives on earth. Each episode forms our story and writes in time the adventure of our life. The enjoyable experiences, as well as the tough spots we encounter, set up the occasions that demand our responses. Our responses, then, set into motion the consequences of our intentions. And lo, and behold . . . we then have what we call character. That character becomes our temporal as well as our eternal identity. But, character is built one episode at a time.

One of the great privileges afforded me as I traveled to nearly every corner of the world, was being able to quietly observe the countries, the cultures, and the character of the people. Though the mores and folkways were vastly varied, the core similarities of the people were astounding. Many times I was overwhelmed at the responses of the individuals to the opportunities of goodness presented to them.

While working in Lilongwe, Malawi, in eastern Africa, I encountered a delightful twenty-two year old man named Fletcher Mutandika. I listened carefully as he verbally un-wrapped his story for me:

One night an old, shriveled woman came gently, but insistently, knocking at the apartment door of the boarding school Fletcher was attending. She was holding an emaciated baby between her two hands. She began pleading for enough milk to help the baby stop crying. Fletcher looked at the starving baby and quizzed the old grandmother. He found that her daughter and husband both had HIV/ AIDS and had died recently. She could not care for yet another orphaned child. This was the grandmother's desperate attempt to keep the live baby from being buried with the dead mother. Fletcher was faced with a defining moment. How he would respond would set into motion far-reaching consequences.

Fletcher's own mother had been orphaned when she was just ten years old. As Fletcher was growing up his mother had told him of what it was like to grow up alone, with no family. But, God's love had eventually allowed Fletcher's mother to go to school and marry a young man, who later became a Presbyterian preacher in his native country of Malawi.

While Fletcher was standing in the doorway something happened inside of him. He not only came up with some milk for the baby, but he also took the starving baby to receive medical attention. Sadly, it was too late to save the child and she was buried with her mother three days later. Fletcher decided in his heart that from that point on he would get involved in trying to help with the orphan situation in Malawi.

A census had been taken about five years earlier showing there to be over a million orphans in Malawi alone. Old grandparents who should have been having someone look after them were still trying to take care of fifteen or twenty little kids. Many of the grandparents' children had died of HIV/ AIDS related illnesses, leaving all their living offspring to be raised by someone else. It was not uncommon for a child to be orphaned two or three times. Their parents would both die, and they would be taken in by an aunt or uncle, who would also subsequently die and would leave all the kids to go somewhere else. Nor was it uncommon for young children to be heads of households trying to raise their brothers, sisters, and cousins after the death of their parents. But with no adults around, who would teach the children how to cook, plant, tend the goats, or even fetch water?

By age twenty-five, Fletcher was operating his own Day Care Center for orphaned kids in Lilongwe, Malawi. He was caring for 750 orphans in his program. But his care concept had an interesting twist to it. He didn't want to break up the extended family if it could be prevented. Instead, he wanted to make it possible for the families to retain some of their original identity. He would not take the kids on a full-time basis, but gave them a place to go before school and after school, and even helped finance the purchasing of school uniforms, and helped pay the fees for the orphans. After school the kids would flock to Fletcher's pavilion where all would receive a good, hot meal. Then, he sent them off to a relative's hut to sleep for the night.

Every act of kindness bestowed on those 750 orphans continued to define Fletcher's character. Every episode was forming the story of his life. Even to this day, Fletcher continues to build stepping stones to heaven not only for himself, but for countless others in the country of Malawi.

(This story is an excerpt from Dr. Jackson's Field Journals soon to be available on a subscription-only basis.)

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

Giving From an Empty Bucket

by Dr. James W. Jackson

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

Before giving away something from your bucket, make sure there is something in your bucket. 

Compassion in a culture is an extremely valuable commodity. In many cases it is priceless. Compassionate people who are involved in humanitarian endeavors are usually pretty tough on the outside, and can function well in undesirable circumstances. But, many times on the inside they are way over on the thin side of the bell curve when it comes to fragility and vulnerability. Sometimes their hearts are even bigger than their heads. 

Lately, I have been made aware of the tragedy that occurs when compassionate people continue to give and give out of their buckets to meet the needs of others around them, but neglect to take care of their own physical, spiritual, and emotional well being. They keep reaching into their buckets and dispensing to others what is needed to help and heal. Then one day they reach into the bucket fully expecting to perform their compassionate actions as usual. As they reach deep into the bucket they discover that it is empty. The only sound from the bucket is the sound of their knuckles coarsely rubbing on the metal of the bottom of their own bucket. Then the trauma and tragedy of the situation becomes observable. 

If we do not have a plan of action for refilling and maintaining our own bucket of physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being, we are already in trouble. You just can’t give out of an empty bucket. When that happens our entire culture suffers the loss. 

While traveling throughout the world delivering health and hope through Project C.U.R.E., I would be in as many as twenty-seven countries in one year. I would see more filth and cockroach-infested hospitals, and experience more pain and misery and death and dying in thirty days than most people would see in a lifetime. A thousand times my heart would be broken. Many times in my hospital tours I would have to hide around a corner just to cry. I had to judiciously guard against an empty bucket. 

I realize this is personal, but I’m going to share with you from my own action plan just one of the things that helped me keep my bucket full. It became God, my family, my wife and my home that served to protect my bucket. The following is an unedited entry from my travel journal for November 4, 1998: 

I breathed in deeply until my lungs were filled to absolute capacity. I slowly exhaled and then filled my lungs again with the crisp Colorado mountain air. Someone in the glacier-torn canyon was burning logs in their fireplace and the slight scent of wood smoke mixed with the rain drenched smell of pine needles quietly, but emphatically, announced to my senses that I was home. I was home, safe within the locked iron gates that blocked the rest of the crazy world from trespassing across the bridge into the sanctuary we had called home for over 29 years.  

I listened with new ears to the creek in front of the house as the water noisily splashed over rocks deposited there thousands of years earlier. I gazed again in wonder at the majesty of the stately blue spruce, ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees pointing their spires up and out from my yard into the misty heavens. I was home. Home was where, inside the old stone and log walls of the house, we had raised our sons and enjoyed the warmth and thrills of nearly a third of a century of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Home was where I kept returning at every opportunity possible to rejoin the embrace of my childhood sweetheart and very best friend, Anna Marie . . . the girl who had turned my head and heart in high school, and through the ensuing years had totally captivated my respect, passion, and admiration. I had realized that if I could spend time with any girl in the world, I would certainly run home as fast as possible and spend that time with Anna Marie. I was home.  

At that moment I experienced absolutely no fear at all about some airport predator in Lagos, Nigeria, about whom the security people would warn me, “Don’t deal or even talk to any people at this airport . . . you have what they all want and they will kill you to get it.” No fear within my sanctuary about drinking parasite infested water that would make me deathly ill, or about inadvertently eating food contaminated with the hepatitis virus. No fear there of being involved in an automobile or airplane accident in some remote third world country, or contacting some strange and incurable disease, or getting robbed as I walked along some strange street in some desperate neighborhood halfway around the world. I breathed in deeply once again and refilled my lungs to capacity with the crisp autumn air of my Colorado haven. I was home.  

I didn’t used to realize how important it was to be grounded somewhere specifically when I would spend a large percentage of my life spinning and flying at the end of an unpredictable tether. But, now I was observing what was taking place in my life. I was keenly realizing that when God had directed and expected me to go and function in a very insecure environment, he had already overly compensated me with objects and situations of immeasurable security in order to keep me adequately stabilized on my journey. Not just a few times had I laid in some unfamiliar bed in a foreign country and had my mind return to my home. At that point I had been allowed to regain peace of mind and heart as I mentally walked along the babbling creek and listened to the singing of the rare songbirds of the Rocky Mountains. Many had been the times when I would fall asleep feeling the warm comforting arms of Anna Marie wrapped around me, giving me the security and confidence of her love, even though we were miles apart. God had prepared for me to go long before I was ever expected to go. And upon my return home from the latest thirty-day trip throughout Africa, I was reminded once again of God’s extremely generous expression of faithfulness and provision in my life. I was home.  

(Dr. JWJ’s Travel Journal; November 4, 1998) 

Before giving away something from your bucket, make sure there is something in your bucket. 

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

Counter Trade and Barter

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 want to post this important concept in your subconscious mailbox now so that it gets stored in the inbox of your brain before the hectic days of the coming election and 2013. In the meantime, over your hot cup of coffee or while you are commuting to work, consider this for a moment. Almost overnight we have injected over thirteen trillion “dollars” of new money into our present system. The U.S. Treasury prints paper money and mints coins, but the Federal Reserve System alone is authorized to place them into circulation. All the newly created money will be “monetized” into the system. The most dramatic method for altering the money supply is through the monetizing of the Government’s deficit spending by the Federal Reserve System’s buying and selling notes and securities of the U.S. Treasury. [Another way to say it is that the government spends and spends on credit, and the FED prints up new paper money to cover all the debt.] The method somewhat delays the damaging impact of inflation, but can’t stop it.

But, I don’t want to fill this space with a discussion about inflation. I have, however, observed in my work around the world over the past thirty years scores of countries that radically abused their currency systems. Perhaps chief among those experiences was my working directly with President Jose Sarney of Brazil, when the inflation rate in that country was running over three thousand percent.

Instead, I want to talk here about coping. I want to talk about considering ideas and a mindset now that can sustain you in tough financial times, and foster confidence and peace of mind. No, I have nothing to sell, but I will offer some ideas that are free.

Utilizing counter trade and barter is simply trading what’cha have for what’cha want. You have been doing it since you were born and already you are good at it. You used it exclusively until you got addicted to using a money system that you presumed was more convenient. When you were a baby you had it figured out that two whimpers, four cries and two screams would get you one clean diaper. You were bartering peace and quiet for your basic needs! Later, you learned that you could barter good behavior for acceptance, approval, and commendation. You became a pro. You took what you had and made it into what you needed.

Historically, during times of economic depression, inflation, or abusive taxation, the barter system has always revived, outweighing the convenience of the regular money system. The more worthless money becomes, the more likely it is that commodities will become “money.” What’s new is that we are once again entering an economic period where bartering will be necessary because of the abuse and manipulation of the money system.

Once you begin kicking the money habit and start thinking in terms of value instead of price tags, you will discover that you can trade for about anything. My point is very simple: If you can barter for things that you would regularly pay cash for during the month, then you will not have spent the cash that you regularly would have spent. Unspent cash left over at the end of the month is the equivalent of a raise . . . and that is even better than having to earn more money!

It is not unreasonable to believe that you could trade for dry cleaning and laundry, a car or truck lease, tires, batteries, car pooling, fresh produce, dairy products, butchered beef, frozen foods, clothing for you and the kids, baby-sitting, landscaping, painting, house repairs, school uniforms, sports equipment, dance lessons, guitar lessons, piano lessons, etc. In other words all that you otherwise would have paid for during the month with cash, or worse, a credit card. If you have what the other person needs, and he has what you need, then the deal can be made and each ends up better off. Usually, it is a case where “ye barter not because ye attempt not.” You are probably already doing something like shoveling the neighbor’s sidewalks in exchange for baby-sitting.

There are three basic steps to take that will get you started: 1) make a comprehensive list of what you want or need; 2) make another creative list of what you have available for trade; 3) Discover someone with whom to trade — from grocery store bulletin boards, internet “want ad” lists, church groups, school groups, swap meets, etc. You don’t even need to discuss “price.” Just stick with your idea of value and what works for each party. You will really be disadvantaged in the future if you remain addicted to a manipulated currency system.

This short discussion has dealt with only counter trade and barter as it relates to personal needs. But, there is a whole exciting world out there that includes business, real estate, commodities and services. Additionally, international counter trade and barter deals are fully utilized every day of the year. It is estimated that between forty and fifty percent of all East-West trade utilizes counter trade and barter. As countries become choked by debt and experience international “credit unworthiness,” (such as we are currently experiencing) it is to their benefit to become experts in counter trade and barter.

Over the past thirty years I have spent my life in over one-hundred fifty countries where I witnessed some significant trade deals. For example, Mexico sent oil and sulfur to Brazil in exchange for petrochemicals, soybeans, steel mill and oil-industry equipment in transactions valued in billions of dollars. I was personally involved in “debt for equity swaps” with sovereign countries when I founded Project C.U.R.E. The principles are all the same. And I am so grateful that one day it dawned on me that those principles could be utilized for more transactions than just making a fortune. I found that we could take commodities of the health care industry and actually exchange them for the health and lives of thousands and thousands of beautiful people all over this world. That’s the power of counter trade and barter.

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